First publishing deal

I wanted to talk here about what it was like to actually get a book traditionally published. It seems like a dream sometimes, but I haven’t woken from it yet, so I think it must be real.

It takes a long time to write a book and longer still to get it published.

In my naivety, when I began the hunt for an agent, I thought my masterpiece was already a finished novel – complete at 90,000 words.  It would only be a matter of weeks before I would see it in print.

Here’s what actually happened:

I was offered representation in June 2016 and the first round of edits came back from my agent after six months.

You learn very quickly when you join an agent’s list, that you must take your place – quite rightly – behind established writers who are churning out the bestsellers, year on year. You sit on your hands and learn the true meaning of patience.

First impressions were favourable but there was still work to be done.  After six months, my agent had read the manuscript, giving feedback and suggestions for improvement. I needed to work on my transitions; some sections needed to be reordered; I needed to show the reader how my heroine reacted to certain situations. Spell it out, I was told.

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That didn’t seem too bad so I set to, spending a month working dawn to dusk on a new draft and emailed back the new version.

This was better, I was told yet – behind the scenes – this iteration was sent to a reader and one of the agency’s editor’s for further scrutiny.

Another few months went by, the manuscript improving with each round of edits. After a year of working closely with my agent, to turn my “rough draft” into a form she deemed worthy, we were ready, she said, to send the book out on submission. She compiled a lengthy list of publishers she thought would be interested.

To my surprise, a mini auction ensued and she secured for me a two-book publishing deal with Penguin Random House (Australia) and a one-book deal with Harper Impulse in the UK.

I was very clear I didn’t want two different versions of the same book so the two publishers worked collaboratively, providing a chapter by chapter analysis of the manuscript and gave brilliant and perceptive suggestions to further improve the book.

There were two or three more rounds of edits, revisions, tweaks and amendments, until they said we were done.

It took twenty months to get The Pearler’s Wife on a bookshelf.

 It was published in February 2018 in Australia and March 2018 in UK.

Thanks for reading. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. Just leave them in the comments below.