Friday 22 April 2016

London Writer's Club Live with Hattie Grunewald of Blake Friedmann



On Tuesday night I thought I'd try out The London Writers' Club live event at a fabulous space called The Cube on Commercial St (right next to Hawksmoor, so I was tempted to drop in for a Dutch-courage cocktail en route). I first came across The Cube, when a writing friend bought me a `retreat' Sunday as a birthday present, so I could go along and have a creative day without distractions- apart from fellow writers plugging in their laptops and clicking away demonically or chatting/bragging over the sandwich lunch and in the kitchenette, stocked with distracting biscuits.


There were about 20 people who turned up to listen to Hattie Grunewald from Blake Friedmann talk about the submissions process and the agency- a good mix of young and older men and women. I'd arrived early at the venue, so I popped into the Costa opposite and enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate spotting the earnest looking, casually dressed, middle-aged women on their own, waiting to head across the road. 


The London Writer's Club is run by Jacq Burns and Kirsty McLachlan. Jacq agents non-fiction and runs writing retreats and workshops and has written `Write A Bestseller`, a copy of which I received with my ticket. Kirsty is an agent at David Godwin Associates Ltd. (Disappointingly, their website isn't very user friendly and when I emailed them via their form to say I was unable to book a one day course they were offering- the button didn't work- I never heard back.)
 

Hattie herself was a delight. She talked a little about Blake Friedmann, a medium sized agency that prides itself in investing in the lifetime careers of its authors. Hattie herself has been assisting the formidable Carole Blake (`either the nicest of the tough agents or the toughest of the nice agents'), but is now accepting submissions in her own right. She likes women's fiction, crime fiction (but not the hardline male cop kind) and is particularly interested in psychological thrillers with strong female characters. She also mentioned that she likes young fiction. Someone asked what this meant and she explained that this was fiction that a 20 year old might pick up who generally didn't read a great deal- she therefore especially likes protagonists in their twenties. She extolled Kerry Hudson's `Thirst' in this category.


With submissions she explained that for her it's all about falling in love with the writer's voice. She puts all submissions into a submissions' folder which she then looks at on a Friday afternoon. She was refreshingly honest about the process. The first thing she looks at is the letter and if she doesn't like the `concept', she often doesn't get beyond that. She said it helps if you can show that you can take editorial feedback, so if you've had a book report done or have a detailed response from another agent, which has led you to make changes, then do mention it.


If she does like the concept, then she looks at the chapters next and usually judges them by the first couple of pages. It's only if she's been prompted to read the whole submission that she will look at the synopsis, just to see where it's going and if there's an interesting twist. I've not met a writer yet who liked their own synopsis, so it was a big relief to know it's not the first thing read. She did say she liked short, clear sentences in a synopsis and the Blake Friedmann guideline of 300 words was definitely too brief.


She said she makes a decision on the spot whether she wants to read any further and aims to respond within three weeks. Given the length of time most agents take to respond- if they deign to respond at all- this was certainly music to everyone's ears. She is happy to get involved in the editing process and said that sometimes a whole structural edit is also needed.
 

Lastly, don't submit in March, April, September or October because of London and Frankfurt, as agents are either busy preparing or recovering from the Fairs. Don't try and write to a trend, as these are always changing and of course there's a year's lag time between successful pitch and publication. The Buyer's Guide is a good magazine to look at, as it shows what's being published and how each book is described- hundreds of mini pitches to learn from!




Friday 15 April 2016

The Write Stuff at The London Book Fair




Yesterday I arrived for 'The Write Stuff' session at LBF16 with plenty of time to spare, which was fortunate, as the signs for Author HQ were misleading, telling me to go up the stairs, when the only stairs led down. I felt a bit like the white rabbit in 'Alice in Wonderland', darting along between the stalls, looking at my watch and muttering to myself.



I arrived at an area of pink wooden bench seats, padded with white plastic cushions (quite in keeping with `Alice in Wonderland') and managed to find myself a perch, before it became standing-room only (which, for nearly 2 hours wouldn’t have been great). The event was sponsored by Kindle Direct Publishing, which I found a little odd, since it was all about pitching to agents. Maybe we were all supposed to take away Despair from the event.



I sat next to a woman who’d written a book about dating. She said it was packed full of tips and handy hints, based on her own experience, but since she referred to her partner’s several children and, as a therapist, I’ve heard all about the perils and pitfalls of being a `step mum’, I wondered whether there might perhaps be better advice available elsewhere. She left halfway through.



The event was introduced as `The Voice’ meets `Dragon’s Den’. Six authors who’d been shortlisted from the hundred or more who’d sent in their synopses and `I should be picked because’ 500 words were going to get a chance to pitch for 3 minutes exactly (there was a harsh buzzer) to 3 agents who would then each have 3 minutes to respond. The agents had read 3 chapters from each of the selected books in advance.



The first person we were introduced to was Sanjeev, who won last year. He said he’d been apprehensive, but it had all been very `cordial’. He’d appreciated all the constructive criticism and it had been like `a dream come true’, as he’d come away with two offers of representation. His advice to the six contestants was `Proudly present your creation’ and `Don’t look at the audience!’



He said he could be lazy and he’d had the idea for the novel for 10 years, but it was only because he’d had knee surgery that he’d had the time and motivation to write the first chapters from his bed two months before the competition. His novel is called `The Insignificance of Good Intentions’ (which I decided was either brilliant or ridiculous), a first person account of a journalist in India, dealing with caste and politics, prison and romance. He referred to the agent he’d picked as Toby (better Google that one, I thought, how many Toby agents can there be? Toby Mundy? Toby Eady?) Sanjeev said he was in touch with Toby every couple of months and relied on him as an `industry insider’. He intends to finish the first draft by the end of July. Wow, I thought, does this guy have any idea how lucky he is? A dream come true indeed.

We were then introduced to the three agents: Ella Kahn, from DKW, who’s just won the LBF Trailblazer Award; Sheila Crowley from Curtis Brown, who likes stories that make her cry and Tim Bates from PFD, who covers cookery, celebrity memoirs and commercial fiction. (I looked him up on the way home and Pollinger aren’t accepting any unsolicited submissions right now, plus he’s not on Twitter- so what, perhaps).
First up was Karen, whose hand understandably shook as she held the microphone. She’d written a YA thriller, `Off The Rails’, about murder, arson and stealing a kiss, dealing with a myriad of topics, including self-harm and cyber-bullying.
Tim liked the different layers, but only represents one YA author. He found it slightly breathless and told her to make the writing more elegant. Ella, who does do YA, agreed, but liked the strong characterisation. She felt that the pitch should have had more focus on what actually happens. Sheila loved the premise, but suggested making the opening calmer and deciding what would make the reader `jump in’ and relate to the characters. She recommended her ex assistant, Rebecca Ritchie, who is `brilliant’ at YA.
Next came Tony, who has written ‘The Blog of Samuel Pepys’. Pepys finds himself stuck in 2016 and spends his time getting into hilarious scrapes, such as cruising churches for pick up opportunities. Tony felt this would be very popular as a gift book.
Ella said this was not a genre for her, although she enjoyed the concept. She wondered, (as did I) why Pepys found himself in 2016 and why his wife was coping better. Sheila felt humour was difficult to sell and to publish. Tim found it `huge fun’, but felt it needed a `narrative context’.
Susannah had written a `creative biography’ of Maude West who ran a detective agency in the Twenties and Thirties and was a Queen of PR, creating a false persona for herself- in reality she was the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl and had 6 kids.
Tim said it was a brilliant idea for a book, but felt it needed to be a more sober work. Ella was interested and intrigued, but was confused as to whether it was a novelisation or a biography. Sheila is a big fan of detectives, but felt it wasn’t for her.
Dave decided to do his pitch as a screen presentation, which crashed a few times (much to my secret delight). He was a pilot who has written `Infiltration’, a cold war aviation thriller.
Sheila said she wasn’t the right agent, as this was a man’s world. Ella felt the pitch was impressive, but she would be wary of taking on a previously self-published author and she knew nothing about planes. Tim wondered why he wanted to move to traditional publishing and  suggested it was too detailed and could be cut by a third. Ouch!
Nathalie has written `Not my Soldier’ about collateral damage far from the front line. She herself has worked in conflict zones, seemed eloquent, engaging and humble. Even before the agents responded, I felt she was the best so far.
Ella loved her prose and wanted to read more, Sheila said, `You’re amazing’. She said she `got the tickle at the back of her neck’, when she read it, which happened once every three years, at most. This turned me a little green. (She read an early draft of my psychological thriller and said it was too intellectual for her and recommended a fellow agent, who loved my writing and the protagonist, but wasn’t convinced by the plot. No tickle for me). Tim said Nathalie was a very strong writer, but he found the smaller chapters a bit `arch’.
Finally John pitched his novel, `The Dreaming Mechanicals’, which is the story of a videographer who answers an ad and films the final tour of the eponymous mechanicals. Tim said he wrote beautifully but wasn’t sure what the book was about or what the market might be. Ella liked the writing and his sense of humour, but wondered again where it might `sit’. Sheila liked the narrative voice, but again found it hard to position commercially.
Needless to say, Nathalie won and picked Sheila to represent her. She got a bottle of champagne, a framed certificate and her photograph with everyone, including the now 80 something year old bookseller whom she’d first worked for aged 13. She was obviously a precocious child, as she’d told him he wasn’t to close down till she had her own book in the window. Not long to go now then.
 







Tuesday 5 April 2016

First Monday Crime- Last Night

Last night I made my way- nervously- to the inaugural meeting of First Monday Crime, a new monthly crime fiction night at City University, the brainchild of David Headley and Harry Illinworth of Goldsboro Books, Katherine Armstrong of Little Brown and Bill Ryan, Lecturer on the City University Crime Thriller MA course. The idea is for these meetings to be a mix between a social event and a festival-style panel of writers, with everyone piling off to the pub afterwards, in this case, The Peasant (I'm reaching for a joke here, but it evades me).

I felt like I was back at uni as I located the correct entrance, then made my way along drab corridors to the lecture hall and wondered where to sit- near the front, but not the front row- and looked around for any familiar faces. I stared longingly at a box of tiny fairy cakes, before reminding myself that I was greedy and too clumsy to be allowed to eat in public and eschewing a cup of wine for the same reason (both included in the amazing £5 entry ticket). There was also a calico goodie bag including a proof of Jane Corry's `My Husband's Wife', due out in August. I started reading it on the tube going home and was instantly gripped.

The panel was chaired- with the lightest of touches- by Barry Forshaw, who has written a number of guides, including `Brit Noir' and `Nordic Noir'. There were four writers: Leye Adenle, a Nigerian debut novelist writing about a British journalist and a `Pam Grier-esque Blaxploitation heroine' (who shares traits with the writer's sister) who get involved in Lagos' seamy underbelly, when a woman's mutilated body is dumped near a club; Elly Griffiths (half Italian, half Welsh, but still can't sing), an established writer with several series under her belt, promoting `The Woman in Blue', featuring Dr Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist (the writer's husband is an archaelogist); Amanda Jennings, whose haunting psychological thriller, In Her Wake, is her third crime novel. She was very amusing about her second, `The Judas Scar', which she views as a troublesome middle child and feels extremely protective of, as it didn't do as well as the others. The final panellist was Mary Paulson-Ellis with her debut novel, `The Other Mrs Walker' who talked with delightful insight about her writing and the search for identity as a theme in life, as in fiction.

What did I learn? Firstly, that I'm a coward, as I didn't go to the pub afterwards.

Before the event I spoke to the charming Katy Loftus, now Commissioning Editor at Viking, whom I first met when she gave a talk at the Curtis Brown Creative course. I admired my other neighbour's teal nail polish and caught up with Claire McGowan who also lectures on the Crime Thriller MA and spoke compellingly at the York Writing Festival last year.

I was exhausted- that's my excuse. My Christmas-present-from-the-husband Fit Bit is part of the reason, as I'd already clocked up 13,000 steps by then and longed for home. Also, for the first time ever I had 108 active minutes. I think it tracks your heart rate, so it shows how truly anxious I was, as I didn't even go to the gym yesterday!

Leye Adenle doesn't own a desk, but feels the need to tidy up all his papers before he can sit down to write. Us therapists call that `displacement activity'. He suggested we all give up writing and just buy his book. Elly Griffiths' editor tells her to cut the adverbs and stop anthropomorphising the cat;  Mary Paulson-Ellis advised us to ignore the advice of other writers and just write what felt right and believe in oneself; and never show your manuscript to family. Amanda Jennings said to power on through to the end on a first draft, before you start editing little bits or you never get anywhere. She's been known to change the sex of the protagonist halfway through, but even that doesn't stop her forging on. Also, she once tried to write romance, but killed off the protagonist after 8 pages. So- stick to one genre, I guess, although several of them seemed to have zombie apocalypse novels just waiting to burst out.

Next time I'll leave my Fit Bit at home and definitely go on to the pub, although I've no idea how they fitted everyone in...