Monster big fat congratulations
David Essex and the Union Jack Cake
(or: what happened after Authonomy Live)
On the first night of the York Writing Festival in April, I climbed shakily onto the stage for Authonomy Live, clutching a short extract from my unpublished novel about events at a Silver Jubilee street party. Last week I achieved a lifelong ambition and landed a two-book deal. This is the story of how the one led to the other.
Harry’s festival turned out to be my ‘big break’, enabling me to read my work to an audience of festival-goers and agents. For those of you who weren’t there, Authonomy Live was a sort of literary X Factor, complete with barbed comments from an expert panel, and a no-holds-barred public vote. Some of the agents wanted to read more, and a few weeks later I was lucky enough to sign with Jo Unwin of Conville and Walsh. Jo’s brilliant – and she’s hit the trade headlines recently, with her sure touch in the selling of debuts.
Like all good agents, she’s also an insightful reader, and she identified some areas where I could tighten up the story. I spent a few weeks making changes, after which we re-titled the novel (it now rejoices in the name of Jubilee), and sent it out to editors.
For an author, this is a very good time to take up macramé (or baking, or Crown Green Bowling – anything, in fact, to take your mind off what might be happening in those publishing houses). For what it’s worth, I chose to spend my time being distracted and obsessively checking my email.
Then the responses started to come in: so-and-so was halfway through, and enjoying it; X felt it was too commercial; Y thought it didn’t quite fit their list. But in the end – hallelujah! – four publishers decided, like Goldilocks, that it was just right. This was the fun part.
You know those fantasies you sometimes have? No, not those. Or those! (Blimey – should you see someone about that?) I’m talking about those publishing fantasies. The ones where you go to a publishing house and security actually let you in. Where you meet an editor, and they don’t say ‘I’m sorry, Ms. Harris. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’ Well, it happened!
One editor put up Jubilee bunting. Another served me cake with a sparkly Union Jack on top. Best of all, they were friendly, and great company, and we got to talk about books a lot. There were other surprises, too: in my meeting with Weidenfeld and Nicolson they told me, thrillingly, that they also publish David Essex – my childhood heart-throb, mentioned in Jubilee and still able to raise the blood pressure (that gypsy soul!). This is the man who told Jackie magazine he’d celebrate the Jubilee ‘down on the beach at my secret holiday hideaway’. It glows with promise, doesn’t it?
Then the bidding began. It took place in two rounds (more distraction, more obsessive email-checking). At the end of the first round, Jo let everyone know the highest bid, and then they bid again with that in mind. And while all this was going on I did some research, discovering that even without fabulous ‘connections’ in the book world, there’s a lot you can learn; possibly my most revealing discussion was with a member of staff in a bookshop, twenty years in the business, with very clear ideas about which publishers sell best. I looked at the websites, the current titles, the marketing and publicity, and started to feel that Weidenfeld and Nicolson was the place for me.
Then – this still seems unreal – the deal was concluded, and suddenly I’d done it. My book was going to be published. The novel did go to W&N, and to their excellent editor, Kirsty Dunseath. After all those years working alone, I finally have a home for Jubilee.
And that’s the whole story of my book deal.
Well – almost.
There’s just one tiny detail I haven’t mentioned.
You see, there was another reason – just a teensy one – why I chose W&N. In the small print of their offer, underneath the advance and percentages and foreign rights, there was a final clause, and it was this: they’ve said they’ll try to arrange a meeting between me and David Essex.
Me. And David Essex.
Do you think he still has that secret holiday hideaway?
[Jubilee will be published in December 2011]
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14 Comments
for organising a really intelligently constructed auction.
And also, congrats to the publishing industry itself. Let's recognise this: THAT IT CAN RECOGNISE QUALITY. We did, when we selected Shelley's work for the Authonomy Live comp, because it was clearly among the best submitted. Agents did, because the first couple of them approached Shelley before she had even won the comp. Publishers did, because they bid aggressively for her book.
Which goes to show what we all knew already. That it's not about the odds of success. It's about the book. Get the book good enough, and you'll get cakes & bunting from publishers. It can be hard to believe that sometimes, but it's true. So congtratulations to all. Oh - and including teh York Festival itself for throwing up its very first star. You go for it, Shelley! We'll be cheering you on.
It did?
Wow!
Congratulations! (and Celebrations - my legs are going all Cliff Richard!)
Actually, I don't think I will because there's no such thing as too much celebration.
Oh - and Kirsty was my editor at W&N and she's lovely to work with.
I hope everyone here will be inspired by your success to carry on writing in the sure and certain knowledge that if you're good enough, dreams can indeed come true.
Great too that you were able to dodge the slushpile through the Festival. I'm convinced you would still have got there in the end but there's no doubt that you avoided all that angst and delay.
I wouldn't have dared get up there in front of all those people, but it just goes to show what happens when you stick your neck out and go for it!
I wish you all the best for your book.
Steph
What I feel now, is that my first duty is to make the book as good as I possibly can; Harry is right - 'it's about the book'. Having said that, the final push definitely came at York, where Harry provided some absolutely brilliant opportunities for us unpublished writers - I'm very grateful.
I used to twitch at the very concept of networking, feeling it to be hard-nosed and pushy, requiring very different skills from those required for writing. But y'know, it's actually what we're all doing here and now. Once you get going and start to 'meet' people online and elsewhere it's all about the relationships and the people themselves, just as in any other area of life.
The Word Cloud successes are piling up, Wahay! I'm so glad I picked this site as opposed to the other writing sites I looked at. I picked this one, because it was the only one where people welcomed me. So now, we have a great site with successful authors. I'm hoping some of this success will rub off on me. Let's not forget to thank Harry and the WW for this. So many people to say well done to this week, Congratulations to you all.
I first met David when he was in Godspell. He was the first 'pop star' that I knew of to hold a helicopter pilot's licence.
That beach hidaway a stone's throw from the Southwold helipad . . .
OHdammandblast !!
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