Victoria Walters's Blog, page 36

The Second Love Of My Life extract

To celebrate just TWO weeks until my debut novel The Second Love Of My Life is published in the UK, I have made a video of me reading an exclusive extract! I hope you all enjoy!

Victoria

xoxo

It’s not mine, it’s yours

The journey of a book is an interesting one. It begins with just a writer and an idea. The start is a solitary one. You write your story alone never really knowing how it will end, whatever stage of your career you’re at.

But as time moves on, other people join the journey. Your critique partners or beta readers, your agent, your editor, your publishers … the book shifts its shape on every step of the journey. As you edit based on feedback, the book grows and develops, and hopefully improves.

And then your draw closer to publication day, the final part of your book’s journey, and there are no more changes to be made. Your book is ready to be unleashed into the world.

The book no longer belongs to you, the writer. It now belongs to the reader.

You can’t do anything now. People will read it and each of them will gain something different from it. When I read a book, I rarely think about the author (unless I know them I suppose) – I just think about the story and what it means to me.

  

And so I’m saying goodbye to my book The Second Love Of My Life and passing it on to you all.  

I hope the two of you will be great friends.

Victoria

xoxo 

Journey to Publication (part 6)

There is just THREE weeks until the official publication date of 7 April. The Second Love Of My Life is almost here!!!

I received a box of author copies last week. Look how gorgeous they are:

To mark the countdown to release day, I have set up a YouTube channel. I’ve often been asked on here whether I was going to ever do a vlog so I thought this was the perfect time to try one. I’m talking about the pre-publication nerves I have. Long time followers on here will know how much of a worrier I am so I need some advice on how I can just enjoy this time.

Please do share and subscribe if you enjoyed watching!

There are lots of exciting things coming up as we draw ever closer to publication day and I will be sharing them on here as they happen.

In the meantime, don’t forget to pre-order the novel – all the links on the The Second Love Of My Life page and the short sotry prequel is out already if you’d like a taste of the world of novel – links on the The Summer I Met You page!

 Thanks for all your support so far!!

Victoria

xoxo

Unearthing gems in London

I am lucky enough to live a short train journey from London but I must admit I don’t often take the time to explore new areas. Perhaps I’m not alone in missing things that are on my doorstep but as with most things in life if you take the time to look around you, you can unearth some wonderful gems.

The lovely Rachel Small (http://rachelsmallediting.com), who I met through blogging on here, and I explored Bloomsbury and discovered the wonderful Persephone Books.

  

  

They reprint neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century (mostly) women writers. The shop is just a lovely place to be and I can’t wait to read some of their books!

After browsing, we went to Bea’s Of Bloomsbury – a cake shop that was the perfect place to recharge.

I had a red velvet cupcake to celebrate four weeks to my novel’s offical publication date!

  

Strolling around the area, we were both struck by this street. It felt like you could step back in time into another century (without the cars!!) ,and it just seemed so perfectly London. 

  

What gems have you unearthed recently?

Victoria

xoxo

Meet the editor: Interview with Emily Griffin

To celebrate the fact that one month today The Second Love Of My Life will be published, I have invited my editor Headline’s Emily Griffin to talk to us about what being an editor is all about!

You are Commissioning Editor at Headline – can you tell us a bit about what this role entails and how you came into the role?

In its purest sense: my role is to acquire, edit and publish projects for the commercial fiction list at Headline Publishing Group. The list of titles I am publishing this year encompasses a wide range, from Victoria Walters’ stunning debut, The Second Love of my Life, to gritty crime fiction, fast-paced action thrillers and laugh-out-loud romantic women’s fiction.

I started working at Headline a number of years ago as editorial assistant to three commissioning editors. It was a bit like doing an apprenticeship – you learn so much from the editors you assist – and now I’m lucky enough to work with my own list of brilliant authors.

What does a typical day in your role look like?

No day is ever the same! I could be doing anything, from immersing myself in a structural edit, to writing copy for book covers, to working with designers on the cover visuals for forthcoming titles, and liaising with our sales, publicity and marketing teams over our plans for getting titles into the hands of readers.

I also spend a huge amount of time reading the manuscripts that are submitted to me by literary agents, though this rarely happens at my desk!

How do you find the books you take on at Headline?

Almost all of the projects I acquire come to me from literary agents. There are a wide range of agents who specialise in everything from commercial to literary adult fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. A big part of my job is getting to know the agents who represent the sorts of books I like, so that when they have an exciting new project on their hands, they think of sending it to me to consider for the Headline list.

What do you look for in a submission? How do you decide what books to take on? For example, what was it about The Second Love Of My Life that caught your eye?

Reading submissions – just like reading purely for pleasure – is such a subjective experience, and one editor may love a project that another just doesn’t connect with. Personally, I’m always looking for a book with a distinctive, memorable and intriguing premise at its heart, and characters who I really care about. There need to be a number of elements that keep the pages turning: good plotting, engaging characters and a good twist or two to boot. The Second Love of my Life has all these things in spades, and it made me cry several times. That was the clincher!

When you get sent a book how quickly do you know that it’s one you want to bring to Headline?

I can decide quite quickly whether a novel feels right for me. It’s then my job to convince the company of why we should publish it on our list. This means I need to have a very clear sense of not just why I love it, but who the readership for it will be, which other authors those readers are likely to enjoy, and how we will ensure that they discover the book.

I think every author is curious about how the acquisition process woks. Can you tell us what happens when you decide that you want to make an offer on a book?

At Headline we have a weekly acquisitions meeting where editors pitch the books they would like to acquire for the list. There will be a range of people from across the company present – from the MD to the Publishing, Sales, Marketing and Publicity directors – and this is where a book and our plan for publishing it is discussed and honed to ensure that everyone is on board. Then, all being well, an editor will be authorised to make an offer to the agent, and hopefully they will accept it!

If an author wants to be published by Headline do you have any advice for them?

It’s important that you have a clear sense of what you are writing and who it is for (as well as you!). Most importantly, though, persevere and enjoy it! If you are enjoying the writing process, hopefully others will enjoy the reading process just as much.

Headline doesn’t accept unsolicited manuscripts (that is: manuscripts which don’t come from an agent) so it’s also important to research the agents who feel right for your work specifically (having a look in the acknowledgements pages to find the agents for the books you love is a great starting point) and approach them once you have a full draft of your novel ready to send.

After an author has signed with Headline what does the editorial process look like? How do you work with an author to edit their book ready for publication?

The editing process is crucial, and it can take time to get a book ready.

I’ll usually go through at least two rounds of edits with the authors I work with. At the structural editing stage we are focussing primarily on ways of tightening up the story, and this can involve everything from elements of the timeline, to making sure that each character feels fully rounded and believable, to ensuring that the pacing works, and that the plot feels clear and well tied together.

Once this process is complete, the manuscript will go to a copy editor, who tightens up spelling and punctuation, and also looks out for inconsistencies and minor editorial points which may have slipped through at structural-edit stage.

The final manuscript will then go to the typesetter to be set, and those pages will then be checked by a proofreader for any final errors.

The process is time consuming – but worth it!

Thank you so much for joining us today Emily! You can follow Emily on Twitter here: @EmGriffs

Victoria

xoxo

 

 

The Books That Made Me

For World Book Day I thought it would be fun to look back at the books of my childhood that stand out to me all these years later. I’ve always loved books. I was a bookworm when I was young and reading has always been a joy. 

As an only child I always had an overactive imagination so it’s no surprise books have shaped so much of my life and that I’m a writer now!

  

The first books that really stand out as ones I loved reading for myself are Roald Dahl’s and my favourite was unsurprisingly the one about a girl bookworm Matilda.

  

When I was growing up, I didn’t have Harry Potter but I did have the Worst Witch! A fun series about a witch school and Mildred who was always getting things wrong.

  

I remember my cousin handing down books to me from her childhood including the Famous Five series. Although already old-fashioned their adventures were captivating and I always wanted tohave a  midnight feast like they did although I was confused as to what ginger beer was that they were always drinking! 

  

It wasn’t only British classics that stood on my bookshelf though, I also loved Anne Of Green Gables and all the Noel Streafield “shoe” books this one being my favourite closely followed by White Boots probably because skating is the only sport I can actually do:

  

And my favourite was Little Women. I would still count it as one of my all-time favourite reads now. Naturally I was drawn to Jo the bookworm. A true classic read.

  

And then there were the boarding school stories! I loved reading these. Although I think I would have hated to actually attend one, the books made them seem full of fun antics and they were books I devoured. My favourite series were:

  

And this one:

  

When I was slightly older I moved onto the Point Horror and Sweet Valley High books. Point Horror was a series of creepy stories that really did scare me at times but probably made me feel really grown up reading them.

  

I was a huge Sweet Valley fan! I had every book in this series and its many spin-offs. I just loved reading about a workd so different from mine – this sunny Californian life and two such different sisters. I preferred Elizabeth as she was more like me! I actually wish I’d kept these books as I’d love to re-read them. They inspired the first book I ever wrote when I was a teenager too.

  

And then as a graduated into more grown up books, I found the book that is still my favourite today.

  

What were your favourite books growing up?

Victoria 

xoxo 

Cover Refresh

I’m so excited to share the refreshed cover for The Second Love Of My Life! The cover is so gorgeous and is now topped off with a wonderful recommendation from author Giovanna Fletcher.

  

There is just over a month to go until the official publication date of 7th April! 

  

You can pre-order already from Waterstones, WH Smith, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Book Depository and if you can’t wait the short story prequel The Summer I Met You is available to download right now.

Victoria

xoxo 

Journey to publication (part 5)

  

It’s all starting to get rather exciting! The short story prequel to the novel The Summer I Met You was released two weeks ago and I’ve been thrilled with the response it’s had! There have been some lovely reviews already (I’ve linked to a few on the TSIMY page so please have a read) and I can’t tell you how relieved that has made me.

  

So this Facebook post was a flippant one but I stand by the sentiment. I love knowing people are reading something I have written but I get incredibly nervous too. So that’s why am so grateful when someone messages to me to say they’ve enjoyed my stories – seriously it will never get old!

  

We are rapidly heading toward April and The Second Love Of My Life’s release date. This means early readers are tucking in to review copies and I was delighted to see this Instagram post from lovely author (read her books guys!!) Giovanna Fletcher calling my book “a beautiful story”! 

Giovanna has an amazing online following and this post doubled my Instagram followers (are you following me?!!! @vickyjwalters) and pushed both my short story and novel well into the top 1,000 of the Kindle chart.

Just look!!!!

  

I was stunned to see my books so high on the charts especially as the novel isn’t out yet. Fingers crossed we can get them even higher once April arrives – what do you think? 

A massive thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of my stories and I really hope you enjoy reading them! (Links are on the book pages of you need them)

  

And finally the BEST part of the journey so far! I got to hold a finished copy of my book yay. The cover is so gorgeous and bright I think it will really stand out on the shelves. It’s kind of surreal seeing it finally. 

And so special.

   

 

Of course I had to get one of me holding it. Warning it is cheesy and Harry had to get involved too (the diva) …

  

So, it’s March next week which means we are down to just ONE month to go. 

HOLD ME.

Victoria

xoxo

Books that make you cry

  

So I read this review of my novel (from this list of the ten most romantic books: http://bit.ly/246MFqP) and it got me thinking about books that have made me cry. 

Here are my five favourite weepies:

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

  

The love story that will leave you a weeping wreck at the end is soon to be a film and I don’t think anyone will be leaving the cinema with dry eyes.

One Day – David Nicholls

  

A couple you rooted for from the first page and THAT ending … *wipes eyes*

The Last First Kiss – Ali Harris

  

I loved this book – again an epic tale of young lovers through their life together and I was not prepared for the ugly tears that came at the end. 

The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks 

  

The classic weepie! Both the book and the film will have even the most cold hearted person reaching for the tissues! 

The Fault In Our Stars – John Green 

  

I am still traumatised by this book. I think it made me cry the most out of any books yet is so life-affirming. I just love Hazel and Gus and want to hug them both *slinks away crying*

And if you’re still in the mood for more tears after reading this you can pre-order The Second Love Of My Life now! 

  

  

What are your favourite books to make you cry? 

Victoria

Xoxo

The Summer I Met You release day!!

I’m so excited that today my eBook short story THE SUMMER I MET YOU is now available to download hurrah!! This story is a prequel to my forthcoming novel THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE (Out April 7th) and follows two characters from the novel Emma and John and their summer romance.

Can a summer romance last a lifetime?

The story introduces you to the fictional Cornish town of Talting and some of the characters you’ll meet in the novel but it is also a standalone story that hopefully you’ll enjoy in its own right!

As you read the story, you can also listen to the soundtrack I made. I love making playlists for books and I really love the playlist for this story – it makes me feel as if we’re bang in the middle of the summer despite the February chill.

I’m so excited to hear what people think of the story. There are already some fab early reviews:

 THE SUMMER I MET YOU can be downloaded for 99p from Amazon, iBooks and Kobo. I would love to hear what you thought of it if you have read it. You can leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads and please do tweet me your thoughts: @Vicky_Walters.

Thank you for all your support!

Victoria

xoxo