Debut Publishing Deal in the Time of COVID

Elle.

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There have been a lots of uncertainties and worries in the last few months about writers submitting to agents or going out on sub with the current situation and I wanted to offer some positive news.

I signed with my agent in late March days before the UK went into lockdown. We did two rounds of edits and went out on sub in mid-May. My book is a feminist thriller/dark reading group fiction. I was worried about going on sub during lockdown but my agent was confident. She is a brilliant agent so I trusted completely. Because of the lockdown and publishers juggling working from home and looking after children I didn't expect to hear for a couple of weeks so I asked my agent to just send me a weekly email update even if it's just to say "no news".

We went on sub on a Tuesday and by the following day we has several UK editors interested who were sharing with their teams. Needless to say the weekly email plan went out of the window by that stage. We ended up with main auctions in the UK and the US and so far deals with 7 other territories most of them 2-book deals!

It has been an absolute whirlwind — and a dream come true — but hopefully this will also show that publishers are still looking for and buying books. Plus this whole process as just reinforced for me about important choosing the right agent is.

Give to add some perspective, I've been writing seriously for about 5/6 years now. This is the 2nd novel I queried (1st one went nowhere) and I have also cut my teeth on short stories over the last 3 years to improve my writing, so perseverance paid off!
 

Woollybear

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This is fantastic Elle. Thanks for the encouragement--and congratulations.
 

hjrey

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Congrats! That's awesome news!! Very exciting success story to have multiple publishers interested as well, so glad your hard work paid off :)
 

mccardey

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That is a brilliant, brilliant story :) Well done, you! (and your agent!)
 

musicblind

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OMG! Congratulations.

And that is crazy! I logged on to send you that DM I sent a minute ago, and then I see this! It's like the day can't get better.

You deserve this. You offered help to me when you didn't have to. You're passionate, you love what you do, and you want others to love it, too.

And if this is the same story you told me about in the DMs, it sounds good. This will make a great book.

Again, congratulations!
 

TrapperViper

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I am so happy for you! Congratulations. Giant accomplishment. You have so many reasons to be proud of what you achieved.
Thank you for sharing:)
 

Elle.

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Thanks everybody for your kind words! It's still all feeling pretty surreal.
 

Pastelnudes

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That's great news, Elle. I'm so pleased for you!