This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
By Anna Bell
I recently got the chance to visit my publisher’s offices for the first time since signing a book contact. For me, it felt like a shift to being a proper author.
As an aspiring author, publishers’ offices were like hallowed ground to me. A mysterious place where magic happened. A place that I would have done anything to get a legitimate invitation to. When you’re desperate to be published, you daydream about getting that first foot in the door, don’t you? Once you’re there, you think, you could make an outstanding pitch and convince them to take your novel on.
The fact that the really big publishers don’t allow unsolicited submissions only adds to this air of mystery. The only people you can make contact with are usually in the PR team and you can’t send your novel to them. You have to submit through an agent, and we all know how hard it is to nab one of those.
When my agent first sent Don’t Tell the Groom out to publishers, I kept staring at the list of editors she’d submitted to. There they were – those elusive major publishing houses. I couldn’t believe they were going to be given my manuscript and when editors actually started coming back with offers, it was all the more unbelievable. Yet, with me being based in France, all negotiations were done remotely.The first time I spoke to my editor on the phone, I was so nervous. I kept thinking I’d say something stupid that would make her rescind her offer. A few months later, I then met her and my now new editor over lunch. The nerves were still there, but it was all very informal and almost like a getting to know one another exercise. It didn’t feel too businesslike and I could almost forget they were ‘scary’ representatives of the publisher.
On a recent trip to the UK, I finally got to visit my publisher for a meeting. I couldn’t help but be a little intimidated as I walked into the Quercus headquarters on Baker Street. Having to swish my guest pass on the turnstile to enter and travelling up in a lift that played the news all added to the butterflies. Yet something happened when I got to my meeting – it felt like the tables had turned.
I met with my editor as well as members of the PR and marketing team. They presented their thoughts on the launch of my upcoming books in June and October and we threw around some ideas about promotions. My editor and I had a nice chat about the book I’m currently working on and I was interviewed on camera.
No longer was I the aspiring author on the back foot trying desperately to be noticed by a publisher. Now I felt like I was the ‘talent’. I know, I hate that description too, but it’s the only way I can accurately portray what it felt like. I felt my publishers were trying to keep me happy. And it’s only then that it hit me – we’re working together in partnership. It’s not just me trying to please them all the time – they’re trying to please me too.
No longer are publisher’s offices places of nerves for me. I feel, for the first time, like I’ve crossed that bridge from aspiring to an actual real-life author.
Are you an aspiring author who is a little intimidated by publishers? Or are you an author who gets scared visiting your publishing house?
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