Writers Workshop: How I Landed Two Publishing Deals in One Month
& The Incredibly Personal Journey of Writing My Second Novel
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I was at work when I found out Audible wanted to buy my first novel. Given we’d parked it in favour of pouring our resources into my second, I couldn’t have been more surprised when I got the WhatsApp message from my agent.
My first book Another Life, is very cross-genre and full of social commentary. We knew some readers would hate it and not every publisher would understand its ambition. Even if they did, how would they market it?
One character, a woman, navigates a love triangle and concerns about motherhood against a backdrop of simmering socio-political tension. The other character is a man living 40 years into the future, where the world issues explored in the woman’s timeline have boiled over entirely, with massive consequences for him and his loved ones.
Is it women’s fiction? Sci-fi? Both? Which shelf would it sit on in a bookstore?
Audible swooping in and scooping the rights for Another Life proved that those things didn’t matter. They really believed in the story and were keen to not only take a chance on it, but throw a huge amount of weight behind it.
Less than a month later, I found myself sat in the penthouse canteen at Hachette, chatting away to the Head of Fiction at Headline Books. They’d already shown interest in my second novel False Idols and, a week later, they put in an offer.
False Idols was a clearer pitch in terms of genre and much less controversial in its themes. The response from publishers when we sent it out was wonderful but I certainly wasn’t expecting to sell both books so close together.
But how did all this happen? And how did I manage working on my two novels when I had so many other plates spinning?
In this Writers Workshop, I’m sharing excerpts from my journals throughout the creative process, from juggling life and work responsibilities, to battling burn out and self-doubt. I’m hoping the highs and lows of my journey into the publishing world will serve to demystify and inspire. However, it is an extremely personal story so this one is reserved for my little community of paid subscribers.
It might surprise you to learn how False Idols came into being in the first place. It’s an unconventional way to start writing a book, admittedly, but it might be a technique I’ll use for future novels. I’m convinced it’s a huge part of the reason it got picked up by a publisher so quickly.