This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
When I was in the querying trenches, I was very sure I’d never get published. Not necessarily because I was a terrible writer, although after the 25th rejection that thought did cross my mind. It was because of the vast number of things that have to go right at the same time for a ‘yes’. Never mind actually writing a good book, you also have to find agents that are looking to add to their list who might like it. Some of them might already have someone too much like you on their books, or ‘like’ your book but not ‘love’ it – a common comment on my rejection letters…it was like being dumped by my high school boyfriend all over again.
For six months I’d queried almost everyone I thought I wanted to work with and had some positive responses from agents, but never that coveted ‘yes’. Except, I never actually queried the person on the top of my list because I was scared she’d say no and that would really be it. Stupid move because –spoiler alert – she actually ended up being my agent.
In July 2013, I wanted to quit. It’s really hard being rejected for six months straight. So, I met with my friend Kim who is a lawyer and we talked about steps I could take to self publish. In the meantime, my ever-encouraging boyfriend asked how many times JK Rowling got rejected. I told him the fabled 26 times story (I thought it was 26, turns out it was 12, would have quit ages ago if I had known) and he was like, ok, she wrote Harry Potter and that’s really successful, so I think you should wait until you’ve been rejected more times than her.
I took his advice and entered a competition through Twitter. Just like a movie, on my last ditch effort; I ended up with 4 requests…from PUBLISHERS. I was just looking for an agent. Cue panic.In November 2012 I’d taken Curtis Brown Creative’s Writing for Children course, which was where I met super-agent Stephanie Thwaites. In my freak out and after a further three rejections from agents even though I’d told them I’d been offered a deal, I cheekily emailed Stephanie and asked for some advice. You shouldn’t do this if someone isn’t your agent but at the end of the course she was like, ‘any questions, please email me’ so I did, although I’m pretty sure she was talking about questions to do with the course.
Stephanie liked the book! So much so that she found me a co-agent: Lyndsay Hemphill at ICM (Lyndsay has since left ICM and I’m now with Tina Wexler). Together they worked on the offers I’d had from US publishers.
After the North American deal was done, Stephanie went on a mission to get me a UK deal and that happened surprisingly fast. She said Piatkus Entice, an imprint of Little, Brown, was interested (I hyperventilated) and that they wanted to meet me (full on panic attack).
I walked into the Little, Brown office, sweating profusely even though it was a chilly-ish October day and shook all the way up the elevator. They – Editor, Assistant Editor, PR, Marketing, Agent – were all in a room waiting for me and when I came in, my editor Anna Boatman popped a bottle of Champagne. These women were my kindred spirits! After talking with them, my nerves calmed down. It was so strange/amazing to talk to people I didn’t know who had read the book…and liked it! I’m still wearing the smile on my face!
Stephanie's first novel, The Accidental Socialite, is out now.