Yeah!

And I'm going to quote my favourite motto again: Always act out of faith, not fear.

Adele, I suspect you have faith in this, really.

And another one: Opinions are like arseholes - everybody has one. This woman's was just one opinion. Big deal that she's worked in publishing! Her feedback seems to have affected you a lot, though. I'd maybe think about why a bit more, it's probably to do with some issues you have about your work, and if you realise them, it could help you progress. Just a thought.

Cath

Dav, thanks for the motivational rant. I know where you're coming from and I appreciate it, but are you sure you wouldn't like fries with that?

JB, I'm not sick of my book per se, just sick of some other related issues, which I'll keep under my Maccy D's hat.

Cath, I like your motto and normally try to follow it, despite never having heard it before.

All, I have a plan, which may not be very cunning, but may make a difference. I'll let you know if it does.

Ok, gotta run and practise my flipping burger flipping.

Adele.

PS Cath, the feedback affected me more because of the means by which it came, rather than simply its content. But I guess that was intended.

Cath,

It'll be Helen shocking out and grinding her booty next....

Funny you should say that. Old HC drops the ice maiden act for a half-Colombian Yank i-banker who offers to teach her to Lambada like a Latina.
But as I'm sure you know, no fun deed goes unpunished...

Adele.

Hi Adele,

What do you mean because the feedback came as a list of dislikes? That is shitty, I have to say! At least it shows Helen is a well-rounded character if this woman found so much to object to!

Looking forward to reading the lambada scene! Is that based on personal experience?!

Cath

Cath, on the feedback, that pretty much sums it up.

As for dancing, I'm a pretty useless (as one of my exes so kindly pointed out ). However, once upon a time, I was whisked around a dancefloor by an Austrian business contact who made me feel like Cinders at the ball. He'd been telling me for months that he was a very good dancer (and so modest too ) and he was right. I guess all it takes is the right partner...

Adele.

So am I. I may be a former raver but give me anything that involves choreography and I'm totally stuck! I can't even coordinate my arms and legs in a step class.

Maybe I'm still waiting for the right partner....

One of my exes was a really embarrassing dancer. He used to turn into a mass of flying arms, legs and sweat at clubs. I'd go and hide in the toilets intil it was time to go home.

Cath

Ha ha! Bloke who makes you want to hide in the bogs: nul points!

Adele.

Haha. That was in my uni days. Now of course I make all potential dates do an audition. I may add the lambada to my list of requests now.

Adele

You are far too talented to be flipping burgers - perhaps you should buy a McD franchise...?

But seriously... A story from a friend of mine who is a published author might be useful.

She wrote her first (now published) book and sent it off to The Literary Consultancy, where it was read by an editor/reader who works a lot with a very well-known author (so well-known I can't remember his name). The reader liked the book but said it needed a lot of work and compiled a whole list of suggested changes. My friend made all the changes, sent it back to TLC where it was read by a different reader who hated everything she had changed and more besides. The second reading was very negative for her.

She picked through the bones of this and did draft number zillion - eventually through hard work and determination she got an agent who got her a publisher who put her with an editor who called for more changes. She has now published three books, all of which have been difficult at various times for different reasons, but she has survived.

In fact, her publisher wanted her to develop a series of books based around a character in her last two novels, but as she was not happy to do this - it was moving away from the kind of writing she wanted to do - she killed the third in this series stone dead and moved on to something she is happy writing. There was a lot of interest in the series from the US, and now she has no contract, but she has to remain true to herself.

So the points I am trying to make are a) this most recent reader doesn't know EVERYTHING about literature or what sells, but as you quite rightly say, you must at least respect what they say and take it on board; b) there will be somebody out there that will like your stuff and will support you (the world is littered with people who "turned down the Beatles") and c) you must stick to your guns and write what you think is best.

It is a painful process and you may never get any further than this - but ultimately it is what you want to do, so don't give in - would Helen give in?

Personally, the word in your reader's quote that to me was the most telling was "marketable". Ultimately I think she is looking at you and your book as a commodity. And her gut feeling is - this isn't quite there to sell bucketloads yet, and she has given you her reasons why she thinks it won't sell.

Shit stinks and all that, but it also means that she thinks that you could strike gold and produce something that will sell hugely. You could take that as a real positive and rip you book apart, analyse what makes a bestseller and tick all the boxes in your book to fit that format.

Or you could continue and toil away at something that you genuinely want to write and believe that people will read. And as you say, there is a lot of support from people who believe in you. So chances are one day you'll get there.

I tend to think that we are all enthusiastic amateurs at whatever we do, even most of the professionals - think Branson, Roddick, even Sugar. They've all done very well but made some huge cock-ups along the way. There are very few people that can look at something and say "that's gonna sell", and those that can are usually bloodless moneymen and asset strippers.

So I think it must be hugely difficult to pick up a draft of a book and go - bestseller. However, I guess your reader has more experience than most of us on this site?

You're probably feeling bruised at the moment, so picking at the scab (sorry, mixed medical metaphore), let the bruise come out and give yourself some space. Forget about your book for a while, enjoy the sun(?) and get your shit together in time for the next run at your book.

Go girlfriend!

Beadle

PS Personally, I don't dislike HC but I think she has a sarky tone. I know that's her defence mechanism, but I think more vulnerability in the start would counter the smart-arse tendeancies.

I also don't really like the name Helen - makes me think of librarians in tweed, which I don't think your character is. But that's just me - I think Girlfriend in a coma is a love song.

Hi Beadle, thanks for the story and for your encouragement - much appreciated. I'm using the report to edit the book, but do not intend to create a completely different protagonist. She'll still be a banker, so it will still not be a book for people whose Pavlovian reaction to the word banker is "die, yuppie scum". However, it is clear from the outset that she is not a pampered princess.

Also, I do show Helen's vulnerablity, not least in chapter two, which deals with her crappy childhood. But I also present her as a survivor. Personally, I love to read stories of triumph over adversity.

As for McDonald's, ironically one part of the book that the reader did like was a courtroom exchange about Big Macs. Another bit she liked was a discussion of lap-dancing. Do you think she is trying to tell me something? Careers advice, perhaps?

Thanks again for your support.

Adele.

<Added>

PS Helen was the name of one of my great-grandmothers. I can assure you there was nothing tweedy about her. She was a miner's wife who liked Guiness and gambling.

<Added>

PPS - I see that John Mack has returned to Morgan Stanley as CEO, several years after being squeezed out. Moral of that story: life is a long game and Helen's time will come.

<Added>

Go, Johnny! http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e224de2a-e8bd-11d9-87ea-00000e2511c8,dwp_uuid=2539ce58-a5ea-11d9-b67b-00000e2511c8.html

Uuurrrrggghhh, suggested changes!

I've had to make a couple of changes in my novel at the request of my publisher. One of them I fought tooth and nail over, until I caved in. The problem is, my publisher doesn't like loose ends, whereas I tend to think that not everything in a novel needs to be explained.

If the word 'sequel' is mentioned anywhere near me, I'll likely come out in a rash.

I guess the point is that once and editor gets into your work, it's going to change anyway. Not dramatically, and in most cases to the novel's benefit. My publisher pointed out a massive plot hole, which I wouldn't have noticed. Stuff like that matters.

JB

Ah, nice - the comeback kid. It's so lovely how they look after their own, not unlike poor African villagers.

Reading that report made me think of Bonfire of the Vanities, the only book I've read by your friend Tommy. I throughly enjoyed and, going back to your previous question, I can't think of any of the main characters that could be considered 'likeable'. The Old Master of the Universe (Sherman?) was ultimately pitched as deserving of our sympathies, and I quite liked the drunk Brit journalist in a sad way, but they were all quite repulsive, but realistic.

JB, if I ever find a publisher, I will be open to any of their suggestions. I am in the market for good advice. However, the report I referred did not suggest changes as such. What it did was to highlight what the reader liked and disliked about the book, starting with her antipathy towards the MC.

I suspect that if I wrote it in the way that she would like, it would be very well reviewed in the Guardian and might win the Orange Prize (not to be sniffed at). However, I also think that a book like that would probably not appeal to the kind of professional readership I'm aiming at.

As for good ol' Sherman McCoy, Master of the Universe, I loved that book, although, as with Wolfe's other novels, I would have preferred it to have been at least 100 pages shorter. However, my MC Helen Cassidy has much more in common with Charlotte Simmons than Sherman McCoy. What I love about Wolfe's writing, and what I find lacking in many contemporary literary novels, is the energy - Go, go Jojo!

Adele.

I am open to suggestions Adele, it's just that sometimes it feels like someone is messing with your baby.