Contact has been made

The agent called!

You wait for ages and then two come at once...I finally got an email back from the ABC about the manuscript of my next children’s book, the Lab Rats  sequel, Lab Rat Liberation (submitted early March) and I was reading through that when the phone rang and it was the agent! She called but seemed to have no idea why she was calling.

I explained the situation and she sounded suitably pessimistic, but thought we should have a talk after I’d had the feedback from the editor in July to see where we could take thing from there. Obviously she was confident enough to let me have her phone number. The conversation was very much focussed on placing this book rather than representing me as a writer, but it was only a preliminary chat, I can hardly expect the full representing philosophy in five minutes. She thought she might have met me a few years ago at some lavish Hachette ‘Harlequin’ theme party. She didn’t, I never got invited to that one. I did get taken to see the State of Origin one year. The seats were great but it was generally agreed to have been the dullest match in Origin history. She wasn’t at that.

Lab Rat Termination?

The ABC feedback was more challenging. The editor there while loving Lab Rats 1, really doesn’t like Lab Rats 2. While he would be happy to work on it with me, he thinks the better option would be to work on something else. As much as I was surprised about his feedback (other views I got had been v positive) there have been so many delays and set back on this, it feels a bit terminal. My poor little Lab Rats, I do love them.  The day after this email I got another message from a mother in UK saying her children were now ‘playing lab rats’. What a joy!

I guess I’ll just add this onto the pile of things to think about while I’m away. Actually I won’t be thinking about them at all, I’ll be absorbed in other things and hoping clarity will simply emerge without trying.

A new name for Crash Tactic

Ploughing the manuscript of Crash Tactic and everyday is a different story. Yesterday it was all utter drivel. Today it wasn’t too bad. At the weekend someone read out a few lines over my shoulder and it sounded like such hackneyed rubbish I completely rewrote those lines. It’s always like that and the more you go over it, the crapper it sounds.

In this edit a possible new title is emerging, It could also be called Die for the Deal. Without knowing anything about the contents which is better?  Die for the Deal or Crash Tactic 

Let me know by posting a comment.

SITTING BY THE PHONE

An agent has been alerted - will she call?

After the terrifying ordeal of simply visiting literary agent websites, I asked Belinda, the lovely children’s publisher at the ABC if she could recommend an agent. I knew generally she was no fan so if there was one she liked, it might be OK. She came up with one she had really enjoyed working with, “she’s so supportive of her authors and I find her a dream to work with”. Her name was Selwa Anthony.

Refreshing Change

I took a look at her website and really liked what I saw. It was immediately all about her authors and their books. The home page was all their latest releases. Then there was information about the acheivement awards for her authors. Right at the bottom was a line saying unfortunately she couldn’t receive unsolicited manuscripts and couldn’t give out contact details. That’s all you need, not pages of rules about strict submissions and what not to do.

Have a look for yourself.

Belinda said she’d call her and make an introduction. Surely, I thought it would help being introduced by a publishers who is actually publishing my work. Got an email after a couple of days saying Selwa would contact me in ‘about a week’s time’. Such agony in such a short phrase. How much can I read into that???

Possible ways  Selwa  responded to Belinda that we can eliminate right now:

• ‘OMG Bruno Bouchet, he’s one of my favourite authors, I’d LOVE to represent him!’
  
• ‘Piss off Belinda, you’ve already fobbed off enough losers onto me, I’m not taking on any more.
  
• ‘I’ll get onto when I get back from the Bahamas in July.’
  
• ‘Give me a week to stitch up some film deals for his existing books so I can really impress him.’
  

Responses that might have actually happened:

• ‘Look I can’t take anyone else on now, but I’m happy to have a chat with him.’
  
• ‘Mmm, sounds interesting, I can’t see him this week, but next week’s a possibility.’
  
• ‘If I call him will you finally send me the contract for [insert Selwa author name here]. Fine I’ll do it’
  

I’m hoping for option 2 and so sitting by the phone. However I am holding no hope out. I’m into zero expectations mode on this one and anything other than getting a call in three weeks saying ‘I’m really too busy is a bonus’.

Nervous Nelly

In the emails with Belinda I totally betrayed my ridiculous nervous nelly current condition. The manuscript for Lab Rats 2 is with her (submitted on time in March). It’s about 3000 words more than verbally agreed, but I was hoping she might say not to hack back further. The contract was also supposed to be somewhere in the ABC system.  In emails above, Belinda mentioned she was handing it over to an editor, Mark McLeod ‘so you’ll get an answer soon’.

I slammed on the panic button and screamed. ‘An answer’ what does she mean by that? I emailed back and she said she meant in terms of ‘how’ we go ahead, meaning the length, the title.

Good grief I know words are important to me, but I need to learn not to throw myself out of the nearest window on just two words, ‘an answer’.

Agent Agony

SHOULD I GET AN AGENT FOR MY BOOK?

I’d always thought I didn’t need an agent. I could negotiate directly with publishers myself and get as good a deal as they would AND then not lose 15% to them. However now that it’s not easy I’m beginning to wonder if I should revise my opinion. It would be nice to hand the manuscript over, say ‘here you deal with it, get me something fat and juicy.’ It would also be nice to have a bit of a champion, someone who might encourage me, tell me I’m fabulous, doing important work, making a difference to world. Every writer needs that and frankly I don’t think I hear it nearly enough. It would also be lovely to have someone standing by the queue of people at writers’ festivals as you are signing books putting post it notes with the correct spelling of the person’s name on each book. Some agents even do that.

HOWEVER, looking at the website of the two big literary agent companies in Australia it doesn’t seem like you’d get that. Have look and let me me know which you’d go with.

They’re all pretty scary and dictatorial in what they are NOT accepting.

Australian Literary Management (this one I imagine people crawling on their hands and knees. Sample pages burst into flame as they approach with anything even vaguely resembling a forbidden submission

Curtis Brown: their website isn’t too unfriendly. I think you’d get the ‘we loved it, but we didn’t love it enough’ approach.

Cameron Creswell - clearly thousands upon thousands of manuscripts have blocked the hallway they have been trapped in inside for 6 months and have to have food tossed in a first storey window. Poor things.

My chances?

I’m current writer with three well received adult novels with a ready audience of around 8 or 9000 and 4 children’s books under my belt with another kids book in production. Surely someone will take me on? I think I’m more scared of these agents than the publishers.

What now

I’ll be phoning Andy the ex-publicist at Hachette who’s a friend and pretty fantastic, for his opinion and recommendation. Also the wonderful, if horribly overworked, publishing editor at ABC Kids, Belinda for her advice.