Most new published authors' profiles these day's seem to read along these lines.
"After doing a degree in Creative Writing I went to work as a Milk Maid and spent twelve years working on a farm in Devon during which time I fell in love with a farmer and we had two beautiful children. It was then that I wrote my novel which is about a Milk Maid who'd spent twelve years working on a farm in Devon during which time she fell in love with a farmer and they had two beautiful children."
And therefore it's not really surprising that books on the shelves these days are all so insanely boring!
I think at some stage between 1980 and 2015 people lost the ability to use their imagination and book agents lost their ability to take a f*cking risk!
Dammit, I did it the wrong way round - no wonder I'm struggling! Worked for 25 years as an osteopath then did an MA in creative and critical writing...
The only useful thing about Twitter is that agents do occasionally tweet what they want to see, and if you're quick enough (and you've got what they want) you can rush in. But what is depressing in when you hear an agent is open to submissions, so you submit, and then never hear another thing... dashed bad form.
Because people read the back cover and think, "Gosh, the writer has a degree in Creative Writing, then she worked as a Milk Maid, then she spent twelve years working on a farm in Devon, then she fell in love with a farmer and then she had two beautiful children. And now she's written this book about a Milk Maid who spent twelve years working on a farm in Devon during which time she fell in love with a farmer and they had two beautiful children!"
"STAND BACK ALFRED, I'M BUYING THIS BOOK"
?
Or maybe my question should be, why do they all get published????