Like many people, having a novel published had always been a dream for me but in the past I’d always stumbled after the first few thousand words at most. Then, early in 2006, I decided to persevere. As a barrister, I’d figured on doing a legal thriller, John Grisham style. But as I started writing, I discovered for the first time characters and voices which were more comedy than conspiracy and found that rather than drying up the writing was actually gathering momentum. I wrote it as a blog and once I’d hit a few thousand words I put it online and back-dated the posts to make it seem like the blog had been going for months. With the story flowing and the characters taking form, I’d overcome the first obstacle. But this immediately brought to the fore an even bigger one: finding a publisher.
The only message I got from the big publishers’ websites was that they didn’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. ‘Go get a literary agent and don’t even waste our time’ was the message. But before I went down that very long road, I decided to persevere with the idea of going direct, at least with a few smaller publishers. After this I was given an email for one or two larger publishers and a few google searches brought up the email addresses for many others. So I took a deep breath and spammed a bunch of them with an email entitled ‘Book by a barrister’ and quoting The Lawyer magazine which had said that if my blog was fiction, it was, er, ‘genius’. To my surprise, rather than getting snotty replies, or worse still, silence, I started receiving very polite responses wanting to know more. One of these came from Bloomsbury and eventually led to the book deal I’d been seeking.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know full well that this was a rare bit of luck and that the usual advice of getting an agent still holds true. But what it does show is that publishers are very much awake to the need to be flexible in their approach and above all are always on the look out for new opportunities. Two things at least, which might give heart to other writers facing that same brick wall.
In the next post I’ll cover the question as to why I decided to take on a literary agent even after I’d hooked a big fish and how we eventually came to close the deal.
Tim
Tim Kevan’s second novel, ‘Law and Disorder’ is published on 3rd May by Bloomsbury and is availably at www.amazon.co.uk
It is encouraging to know that I'm not the only one struggling to find a publisher. if I may share my difficulties: I finished a 77,000-word psychological fiction and am fairly happy with the manuscript as it is. This is the third novel I write, the first one is too stupid to publish, the second a bit less stupid but still stupid to go for publication. This third one seems to be it. Problem is I am not from UK, I live on a small island and I have to do everything by email, that is, try and find an agent. This, I find, is the biggest obstacle. I cannot seem to find one, not that I've tried hard enough. Someone suggested that I try an Indian publisher. Any thoughts on that? Mind you, Bloomsbury would be ideal, but I don't play the lottery! lol
Thanks for your comments.
My novel is almost ready to start showing people; around 100,000 words, just finished 2nd draft, time for another rewrite.
Made my shortlist of agents but now I'm confused. There are some great reasons why my work could be attractive to a publisher right now. Its a thriller set in London and Paris (via Bradford) and terrorism is central to the plot so with the recent death of Bin Laden, the 7/7 inquest, and the fact that it's nearly time for the summer holidays and everybody loves an exciting thriller to spice up 2 weeks in the sun. Combine that with believable characters that the reader will care about right up to the last page; surely somebody will want to make some money out of it ... won't they?
Tim,
That is a fairytale ending if I ever heard one, very similar to a strategy I've thought of. Good to see I wasn't not the only one. To actually succeed, you're either a very good communicator or have exceptional luck; probably both. I have written well over a thousand words, but my dilemma is gaining interest for my work. Unlike you, at my age my only point of reference is that I'm a poet, which even that is impossible to firmly set, as I've not been able to publish a single piece of poetry, despite numerous tries; no one being interested in them so far, I guess (frankly, I have no idea what they think of it). The same holds true for my writing. Therefore, the dilemma remains how to grip a publisher's interest when an ordinary guy like myself has virtually no known accomplishments. I'm not without ideas however. One of them involves doing other things besides writing. Succeeding in another field for example, might be be a good stepping stone to literary success. What do you think?
Xean