This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
That’s right folks, I have a book deal! I’m delighted to announce that
I’ve accepted a three book deal with Quercus. Don’t Tell the Groom will
be published in paperback in December, with two others in the series to
follow.
It all started back in April – remember when I got my agent? Well things happened pretty quickly after that. My agent sent Don’t Tell the Groom out to publishers and then the waiting game started. I think once I saw the list of the publishers that she’d sent it out to, that’s when it hit me; my book was going to be read by all the big publishers. All those publishers that I’d always dreamt of getting published at – the ones that I never thought would read something that I had written. That’s when the nerves started.
Luckily, as I’d had interest from a publisher before I got my agent, I didn’t have to wait long. I had an email from my agent asking me if I had time for a quick chat. That’s when I got my first offer, for a three book deal. It was an amazing feeling. Someone actually loved my book enough to want to put it on a shelf.
My agent then let the other publishers know of the first offer, and a few days later I had a second offer, from Quercus. I was blown away at the speed at first at how quickly everything was happening. Negotiations were taking place over details of world rights vs English rights and it was exciting and daunting. But then the London Book Fair happened, and everything slowed down.
I always imagined that when you got rejected by publishers that it would sting like it did when I got rejected by agents. But it didn’t instead the feedback was actually nice. There was a publisher that really liked the book but didn’t have room on their list until late 2014. There were others who liked my book but thought that I was too similar to existing authors on their list. Then there were those that didn’t like the book or didn’t like it enough to publish it. But the best bit was the feedback that they wrote said nice things about my writing. I guess I expected them to laugh or tell me that I wasn’t good enough to be published, but they didn’t. So for once even the no’s made me happy.
Once everything calmed down after the LBF, we had three publishers left in the running. Two had made offers and a third was still considering it. That’s when the nerves really started. Everyday was agonising as I was waiting patiently for any news. And then finally we heard back from the third publisher, they didn’t make an offer, but they outlined their plan for Don’t Tell the Groom, which they wanted to keep as an ebook only, and then the second book would be my first print book. At that point, my agent and I thought that would be the wrong direction to go in.
I was then left with two offers, but really my mind was made up. My editor at Quercus would be Joanne Dickinson, who’s worked with authors such as Dorothy Koomson, Jenny Colgan and Nora Roberts. And I’d be published alongside authors Abby Clements, Hillary Boyd and Alice Peterson.
I still can’t quite believe it. My book is going to be on bookshelves in December. As you can imagine, I’m pretty much over the moon!