Meeting the Book Trade and getting an unwelcome Bonus

I’m afraid this post has been delayed, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

I went to Dublin for two days of meetings with experts in the book trade at the Irish Writers’ Centre. The joy of winning the debut novel competition was now tempered by the fear that no-one might actually want to take my novel on. I met twelve agents and publishers in total. They had my bio, the genre of my novel and the title. I had just fifteen minutes to pitch my novel to each of them. I’d worked very hard on my pitch for the previous week. I started with an overview of the novel, introduced my two protagonists and went through their character arcs. I proposed that my novel would make a good book-group publication and outlined comparator titles. Then came their questions and the verdict.

Seven were interested in seeing more of my novel, and three of these wanted to read the full manuscript. Even the ones that weren’t interested told me I’d done a good pitch. I was overjoyed. I’d taken another big step closer to publication. Coming back on the crowded train I felt completely drained. I got off at Newry and drove home. It was a dark and rainy night, I was so tired I had difficulty seeing the road. I almost collapsed when I got in. A day later I went down with the flu. So the past two weeks have been spent coughing up gunge from my lungs and trying to update my manuscript ready to be sent out. I hope I perk up for Christmas.