A whole lot of things are happening at the moment that it's too early to discuss on the blog, but let's just say that my agent, Ben Illis, is doing an awesome job and lots of things are starting to happen since Pandora went out on submission at the London Book fair. Please keep checking in.  I will update the blog as soon as concrete things happen.

While I wait, I have continued to work on the sequel to Pandora Wolfe (working title "The Iron Golem") and am making good progress.  I've also tidi...
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At long last I can finally reveal that I've signed with an agent - The Ben Illis Literary Agency (www.the-bia.com)

I've been in touch with Ben Illis - My agent - (just trying the phrase out there. Feels kinda good) for more than a year, ever since I submitted to A.M. Heath - the oldest literary agency in the country, which Ben's agency is affiliated to. Their children's agent was just about to retire and she referred my manuscript to Ben, who contacted me to say he loved the book and the main ...
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When I last blogged about it, I’d made the decision to send off my book to a professional editor after being advised that it needed a “final polish” by a literary agent whose judgement I trust and who has been very open and free with their advice to me since I first submitted to them.

Paying for an edit isn’t a cheap business, so I did my research.  As a generally quite sceptical person, I’d read a number of articles on unscrupulous “agents” or “editing services” which were r...

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It's been a while since I've posted and that's been deliberate.  In some respects, a lot has happened but in other respects, I'm still where I was before.  After sending my revised book back to the literary agent, I was pleased to see that he liked the changes.  I'd been a bit nervous about it, given that I'd basically reduced the novel by a third to make it more like the length that a Middle Grade (9-12) novel should be.  I needn't have worried though, because the agent pronounced it much im...
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Following on from my last post, I found this video (40+ minutes) of literary agents talking about getting published, the work of a literary agent and even self publishing to be very useful and informative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31wOs05wyJQ&feature=youtu.be

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Although I've not yet signed with an agent myself, I have had a fair amount of success in getting agents to read my manuscript, so I must be doing something right.  As a result a number of other unpublished writers have asked me for advice on how to go about it.  Given that I've repeated this advice a number of times, I think it might be worth putting it on the blog.  If you're writing something and hope to one day publish, hopefully you'll find it useful.

The first thing I'd say is that getti...
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Two weeks ago, I reached the point where I couldn't edit the book any more without chopping out what I believed to be important sections of the story.  It's only 2000 words longer than the first Harry Potter book at the moment, so hopefully it's in the ballpark. I re-sent it to the literary agent who'd first suggested I reduce the word count and now I have to wait.  It's likely that this wait will be measured in months rather than weeks and though I'm desperate for feedback, I'll resist the u...
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I'm now on my fifth editing pass to reduce the wordcount of the book by the maximum possible.  It's very much an exercise in the law of diminishing returns, but each pass does yield a reduction, however small.  I'm currently sat at about 81,800 words and I think realistically I'll get to maybe 79,000 words by the time I'm finished.

This time, things are improved by the very able assistance of my god-daughter Natalie, who's just completed the first year of an English Literature degree (with fl...
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What a difference speaking to someone with knowledge of the industry can make:-

One of the main problems I’ve had since writing the Chronomancer’s Daughter was that I never knew which age category it fitted into;  Middle Grade (9-12 or MG) or Young Adult (Teen or YA).   Now, after speaking to three literary agents I’m sure that it’s Middle Grade.

This presents a small problem as Young Adult books (especially fantasy) can run to over 100,000 words, but Middle Grade books are never ov...

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Things are looking very positive at the moment.  One of the agents that I met at the event in London (and gave my first three chapters to) emailed me on Friday telling me she'd enjoyed the first three chapters and would like to see the full manuscript (which I duly emailed to her minutes later).

In terms of writing, I've kept to my 5000 words per week target, 15,000 (eight chapters) so far, perhaps a fifth of a way through the first draft.  I've managed to prise myself off Twitter and Facebook...
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Yesterday I attended an event called "How to Hook an Agent" run by Bloomsbury, the publishers of Harry Potter and the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook.  I and another twenty something aspiring authors got to meet four very interesting and helpful literary agents, two of whom work with Children's fiction.

The day covered how your submissions should be structured and what agents look for. I was pleased to note that I was already doing the majority of things right and was the only person who had ac...
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Today has been a very mixed day in dealing with literary agents.  One of them came back last night saying that she had liked the idea but had not "connected with the voice" which I think means that she doesn't like my style (the precise opposite of the comments the last agent made) so the book wasn't for her.  She was very nice about it and I was grateful she'd taken the time to read it (she got back after four weeks which was good going), but I'd be lying if I said I felt great afterwards.

An...
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While thankfully not one of the two agents I'm waiting to hear back from about their requests to read my whole manuscript, I did recieve a reply from an agent I'd almost forgotten that I'd written to.  Her rejection was so nice, I've decided to share it.

Dear Russell,

Thank you for sending me PANDORA WOLFE: THE CHRONOMANCER'S DAUGHTER.

While I enjoyed reading your work, which stood out from the many we receive,
I’m afraid I didn’t feel strongly enough about the story to take it
further, althou...
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Just had an email from another agent asking for my full manuscript and asking me to check in with her before accepting a deal with any other agents.  I must be doing something right - at least I know there's nothing wrong with my first 3 chapters if it can interest 3 agents.  Fingers crossed!
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Looks like all my eggs are back in one basket again. The second agent who asked for the manuscript last week came back to me on Friday to say that while she'd hugely enjoyed it, she didn't feel the 100% commitment that she'd need to represent me.  I had originally been hoping for more feedback but I'd read during the week that a lot of agents give fairly general feedback as they don't want to steer writers in the wrong direction. In all honesty I'd already been looking at the other writers sh...
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Well a second agent has got in touch and has told me that she's really enjoyed the first three chapters and wants to read the rest. I sent her the manuscript tonight and she replied immediately saying that she was looking forward to reading it.

Sounds promising!  TTFN



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A month after sending my manuscript I succumbed to my inner OCD which kept saying "I bet they never got your email and you're waiting in vain" and emailed the agent to check it had arrived (while being clear that I wasn't checking on progress or being pushy).  They got back straight away and said it had been recieved and was in a queue, so I can relax.

On the plus side I haven't been idle and have continued plotting out book 2 - up to chapter 34 so far. I've invented three new magical items fo...
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Well, this is my first foray into the blogosphere. Congratulations on finding the site and I hope you'll find it interesting.  I've spent the last two years writing and polishing my children's/YA novel, The Chronomancer's Daughter and now I've decided to blog my progress as I take the long road to try to get it published. 

First, a little background. I'd been writing on and off my whole life and have even completed a couple of novels, though nothing that was ready for publication (I can admit...
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