The contract

It came through my letterbox. The envelope which inside held the contract from the publishers.

What can you say about any contract? Not much, they are always written in favour of the person or company that's had made it, and most are so full of complicated english that it's almost impossible to understand what they say unless you pay for expensive legal advice.

I read through it and then signed.

There I was, coming up to to nearly a year and half into my two year quest to become a published author, and I had a signed contract. True, I was taking on the risk, but if you believe in your work, or claim too, but will not take all the steps required, no matter how risky, then you don't have the belief you think you do.

I posted back the signed contract, and at the same time sent off more requests to various trust funds looking for financial help.

I had a gut feeling that the replies from the funds would be negative, but had got so use to being turned down that I wasn't too botherd if they did. I had also got fed up with always-hanging-around for other people so I had decided that if I did get any help it would be a bonus, if I didn't then it wouldn't matter.

For now the next three weeks was going to be a busy time for me, because I needed to make any changes to the final draft of my manuscript before Bookguild could start process of editing.