“Who could have imagined this” we say, as we realise we won’t be hugging our fathers on Father’s Day. But isn’t it striking how badly we failed to imagine everything about the world of Covid-19? Even in February, as the news was filled with reports that thousands of people were falling sick and dying in…
A couple of weeks ago at the Association of Authors’ Agents AGM, I stepped down from AAA Committee after six years, the latter two in the role of President. I am proud to have worked for a trade association whose value for its members is unquestionable. I am not referring to our informative or social…
I met with an editor of commercial fiction recently who had plenty of ideas for novels she wanted to commission. They were okay set-ups; each one had a decent premise, or character idea at their heart. The ideas all took inspiration from something that had already been successful, in books or on TV, and then combined that plot or…
We were walking in lush green fields, alongside a river that maybe used to be deep and mysterious and now tumbled lazily over rocks – or maybe on a dry day was just a muddy ditch but that day tumbled lazily over rocks for us; and we were with our children, inhabiting the world with…
Most of us walk the same streets every day; catch the same train; buy coffee from the same shop; sit at the same desk; choose the same spot on the sofa; look out at the same view. And we learn to take the familiar features of our daily landscape for granted, so that we hardly…
Where were you last night? At the pub with friends? Reading a fantastic new book by the fire? Watching some enjoyably trashy TV? At the theatre or cinema? I was home. I spent last night drinking really nice ale and writing a memo to a publisher about royalty statements, and how they could be improved.…
I once made the mistake of thinking that the middle aged mum standing next to me was ordinary. We first met as we cheered madly for our sons to win a race, one school Sports Day. I lumped all of us together, women whooping in unison, all living in the same few streets. Ordinary mums.…
One of the most common reasons given by editors for turning a prospective book down is that they find the main protagonist unsympathetic or the characters in general not 'likeable' enough. Writers find this reasoning absolutely maddening of course (all rejections are maddening, but this one especially so), because firstly they rather liked their characters; and secondly…
One of my responsibilities as an agent is to try to predict the future. A career as an author is an insecure one: however hard we try to get everything right, my clients don't know how many copies they will sell of their next novel; whether it will find critical acclaim; what they will be…
Even though publishers work hard and effectively to create success, if you ask any debut author to explain how their fantastic book became a hit they will always list "luck" alongside "my publishers did a great job". Why do these authors feel they were dependent on luck? I think perhaps they realise that they have…