Getting a debut novel published is difficult. Agents and publishing houses are overwhelmed with manuscripts. I tried for the better part of 2019 to sell my novel to them without success. I must have contacted over 30 agents in the UK and the USA. I looked at the entries in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2018 and selected the agents who professed an interest in debutants and fantasy novels. I wrote a cover letter and a synopsis, bundled them with the first 50 pages or so of my novel, and hoped for the best.  I got quite a few replies, but they all boiled down to the same thing: ‘No thanks, interesting but not for me, don’t be discouraged, keep trying,’ and even, ‘Could we interest you in one of our writing courses?’ When my outreach to agents got me exactly nowhere, I started looking at publishers specialised in fantasy that explicitly mentioned on their websites they’d be willing to look at manuscript submissions without representation by an agent. So I tried that too and contacted maybe a dozen publishers. The feedback was minimal. Most of them didn’t even care enough to reply, and those who did were all in the vein of ‘There’s a lot to love in what you sent us, but…’

I can’t say it was much of a blow to my ego. I’d never expected it to be easy. There are so many talented hopefuls trying to get their work published for the first time. And I was aware my profile wasn’t all that attractive for an agent. Why would they represent a sixty-year-old who has maybe three or four books in him when they have a choice of young and promising talents who can have long and fruitful careers?

I was convinced I’d written a decent novel, though. I’d let family members read it, and they were all suitably supportive and praised the book. But family is family. They’re not objective critics. I value their opinion but always bear in mind they might be far too kind. So I wanted a second opinion before going ahead and self-publish. I contacted Kirkus Reviews and paid them to read my novel and write a review. Kirkus Reviews’ policy is simple. Even though you pay them, their reviews are 100% objective. They either like what you’ve written or they don’t. If they trash your novel, you can ask them not to publish the review, and that’s it. When the review came back, I was over the moon. They liked it, and their recommendation was ‘GET IT’. That was the final push I needed to get my novel out there.

You can find the full review on the Kirkus Reviews website here:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/daniel-draym/dream-whisperer

Kirkus Reviews also decided to publish the review in the Indie section of their paper magazine’s 1 May 2020-issue. That’s quite an honour because only 10% of reviews of indie authors on their website make it to the magazine. That means Kirkus Reviews considers Dream Whisperer one of the top indie titles of the moment. It blew me away. If you want a look at the magazine, here’s the link to the online PDF-version. The Dream Whisperer review is on page 151.

https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/files/Kirkus_Reviews_050120_online.pdf