So, it’s been another few weeks and as I still hadn’t heard back from my editor I thought it’d be OK to email her, just to see where things were at. She normally responds very promptly, so when I didn’t hear back after a couple of days, I began to think that maybe something had happened. I’m a fiction writer after all, so I was imagining all sorts of weird and wonderful scenarios. At this stage, I thought I’d forward the email directly to my agent. She replied almost straight away, apologising and informing me that the editor was in fact away on holiday and had forgotten to set her out-of-office notification on her email. With regard to the manuscript, which I was waiting to hear back about to find out if it needed any further amends and tweaks, she told me that she had in fact already sent it out on submission to publishers! The news was a complete surprise! I’d had no idea what they thought of the most recent draft I’d sent them and here I was finding out that it had already gone out on submission. I guess they must have been happy with it. There I was, totally unaware of the fact that my novel was now in the process of being read by crime fiction editors at a number of publishing houses. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. With the London Book Fair having just taken place and the launch of the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Festival, as well as loads of other things going on in the publishing world, it’s a very busy time. Which basically means I’m back to waiting again – only this time it’s to find out if anyone likes my book enough to make an offer on it. I’m trying to stay calm about it at this stage. There’s no guarantee it’ll be bought, so there’s no point getting too excited. I haven’t told anyone yet. It’s a nerve wracking time but all I can do is wait to hear from my agent – with either good news or bad. Gulp!