HOW I GOT MY BOOK DEAL | Submissions, Editing & More! | Writing Vlog

hi guys and welcome back to a new writing vlog this is the first writing vlog I've done since I announced my book deal and thank you so much to everyone who was so supportive of that video it was such a dream come true to film that video and I still can't believe I got to do it it was such a career highlight something I've always dreamt of doing so to actually sit down and film that and be able to then share it with you was just absolutely incredible and just thank you so much for that for those of you who don't know my book is being published next June in the UK it's called the paper and heart Society and it is a new teen book trilogy I've got a three-book deal with Hodder children's books and it is about a book club and friendship and not fitting in and it is the book of my heart and I love it so there are more details in the description to the Amazon page the Goodreads page and other various sites where you can pre-order it if you would like to but today I want to talk to you about the book deal process how you go about getting your book deal how I got my book deal so pretty much my whole writing journey this year so basically from January through to now because I've been up to Lutz but I haven't been able to share it until now and I couldn't really share when I was on submissions because it's just not the done thing and then afterwards I had to keep quiet about the fact that I had a book deal so I couldn't talk about my writing down and now I'm back doing edits again so that's been taking up a lot of my time but a lot has been going on so I want to talk to you about how I got my book deal today and what that whole process was like so stretch your minds all the way back to January of this year and I was doing my first edit still with my agent if you remember my writing vlogs back in November last year I talked about how I got my agent and how we were working on and edit together to make the book the best that it could possibly be before we sent it to publishers so that was what I was doing up at the end of last year and at the start of this year to January was a strange month because my book was due to my agent at the start of the month and then for Atlas start as month I had a bit of a crisis and had to have a rethink about what I was doing with the book some of the character motivations right and they were kind of stopping me from getting any further with it so we went right back to the drawing board again and I said my age and everything that I've done so far which I think was about 40,000 words at that point we went back through those 40,000 words and kind of did another edge on top of that so whilst I consider it one edit in some ways it was more like two edits that we went back to and that worked really well so at the end of January I had finished my edit and I was really pleased with it and it was the best that the book had looked so far I've made some quite big changes for those a lot of things as well it just needed smoothing out and some things that seemed really big in my head but actually looking back now they weren't too big of a problem I did find that edit quite difficult because it was the first time I'd worked with someone and was working towards something so originally when I had to send two agents then I'd worked with a friend and I'd felt a lot more relaxed about it and I didn't feel like the book was it's best but it was the best that it was at that point but working with my agent on it I definitely felt that the stakes were raised slightly because I knew that it was going to be sent to publishers and more people would be reading it and then judging it and that was very difficult and I found that that whole process of working alongside someone at first was strange but now I really actually enjoy that and I really like working with someone and getting to bounce ideas off them and my agent has just been absolutely super and I can't think of somebody who gets the book more than I do she just got it from the moment that she read it and we work through per be together on it and I eat lots of mini eggs because they all came out in shops in the lead-up to Easter I led a very boring lifestyle I was editing in between going to college so that was quite difficult but I got the edit done at the end of January and I was really pleased with it so once I finished with my edit I sent it back to my agent who then read it again and she gave me some feedback on the edits that we've done we pretty much got it to a point that we were happy with that we could send it to agents but there were a few things that needed clarifying within the text that maybe didn't make sense or maybe we just needed me slightly bigger or changing it was more of a line edit at that point that's why I've done one big edit and then I think in the end it ended up being two or three line edits where it was just tiny clarifications to make it better the hardest thing was changing the last line because the last one it stayed the same right up until that point and my agent just sat down and said to me you see this is not your character's voice this is your voice speaking and ended up being something very pretentious and very literary and didn't fit with the theme of the book whatsoever but I loved it and that was a bit of a hard moment to delete that but I think that was the only thing that we slightly disagreed on but in the end she ended up being right anyway and now I really like my last line so that was the only thing that I was reluctant to do but at the end of the day she knew the book so well and knew exactly what needed to be doing to make the book better and I really enjoyed working on that edit looking back now it was a dream to edit at the time it felt like the most difficult thing ever but I found that that is a running theme with edits which we'll get onto in a bit so in February once we got the manuscript to a point where we felt like we were happy to send out two editors then I put together a submissions package so I filmed a video talking about the book introducing it and introducing myself to the editors we would be sending it to and then that was sat on my channel for ages and we also put together a leaflet which is kind of in the book club style because my book is about a book club so we kind of put across to the publishers how they could market it if they were to pick it up and it was a really complimentary thing to run alongside the submission and I also redid my synopsis so I don't a synopsis when I submitted the book to agents but since we've done this round of edits then the book had changed slightly so the synopsis needed redoing and the other thing was that I put together kind of my achievements and a biography a bit about me to introduce myself to the publishers who it would be sent to so they get a feel of who if they picked up they would be working with once that was all done I had a bit of time to breathe for the rest of February I went on holiday it was in Howarth and I went back to college and normal life resumed but it was always in my mind the book would be going out with submission and the book did grant submission on the 13th of March now March is a difficult time in publishing because the big book fairs are coming up you've got Bologna which is a big children's book fair and then London book fair later in the month so publishers are looking to acquire and there's also a lot of books on submissions so it's highly competitive time in publishing so that was very difficult in the run-up to submissions I was having dreadful nightmares about it the manuscript was invading my dreams I was dreaming that some awful things have slipped into there and I had another dream that we sent out something that wasn't even the right book I just couldn't stop thinking about submission and then the day of the 13th of March dawned and my book was sent to editors we'd come up with a list of about 20 editors which is standard in the UK other parts of the world I think that are slightly different if you're in the US then the process of submissions does work differently but usually in the UK your agent will send your book out to about 20 publishers and those should be publishers that your agent has put together a list of beforehand and thinks they are going to be interested in your book so we'd already had that list put together and my agent was very confident in the list which was really nice she'd handle that and the thing with an agent is that they're really there to do the hard work for you so I'd have done the editing and I'd done everything ready for the submission but then my agent Lauren took over and she did all of the work and it was still very stressful for me but I can't imagine what it's like on that other side and an agent is worth their weight in gold they really are because I couldn't have done it without her I found the next few weeks very stressful I was constantly checking my phone refreshing my emails just waiting for news and no news came so 13 days later it was the 26th of March and by this point I thought I haven't heard anything Bologna starts in the next few days and I'm not going to hear anything until after that so I'm just gonna forget about this in some ways I hadn't given up hope because some had gone very quickly by that point although it felt like it had gone slowly and actually been that long but I did think that I'm not likely to hear anything in the next week or two because so much is going on and publishing so let's just forget about it and try not to think about it and just try and relax a bit so it was about five o'clock at night I had decided to reorganize my entire bookshelves so I taken down all of the books from here they were surrounding me on the floor in front of me where I film and I was trapped I'd just for some reason gone downstairs to get my phone I don't know why because I was trying to stay away from it but I've gone to get it for some reason and I was surrounded in this sea of books and my phone rang and it came up and said that it was my agent and I thought she hasn't run before you know during this whole process we've communicated by email or text she's never rung during submission what is going on and it was five o'clock and I just I didn't want to get my hopes up so I answered the call and the first thing she said was are you okay to speak and I just looked down at the books in front of me and say yeah it's fine I'm okay to talk and so I have like scramble over the books get out on the other side of my bedroom and she said to me we have had a pre-emptive offer from Hodder children's books and they want to publish a trilogy they want three books they've offered you a three book deal and I rushed downstairs my mum was hoovering and I saying no no no just stop hoovering now and he put the phone on speaker and I just couldn't believe it because it was a pre-emptive offer which means that the offer is on the table for 24 hours you've got that long to accept it and usually is an offer that you can't say no to so the whole team including my editor and the people who will be working on my books had put together videos like the ones I'd done introducing themselves and they'd done a whole PDF of things that they were really excited about about the book and my editor had put together reasons that she really liked the book and things that we could work together to make it even better and it was very overwhelming so the nature of a pre-emptive offer is that it is there for 24 hours so I rushed down to London the next day and got on the first train and headed to London and I met with the hatchet team for the first time her share offices are pretty surreal they are in this very modern building and they're very fancy and very professional and I felt very out of my comfort zone and I knew that this offer was on the table and I knew that one way or another my book was going to get published and that was the absolute best feeling after weeks of stress I kind of knew how much I wanted to get the deal because I knew like this was either it or it wasn't it and if it wasn't it then I would write something else and it would be fine and hopefully one day I get a deal but my book was out there and it was being judged and people were deciding whether it was good enough to publish or not so I met the team at Shep and I just loved them straightaway and it was one of those things where you know they are gonna champion your book and they're going to be the absolute best people and they were so enthusiastic about it and it was just weird to be talking about my book and talking about the characters as if there were real people and to know that other people had read my book and loved it just as much as I did and felt the same way about the characters but also felt that we still had a long way to go with it and it really did need improving and that they were in on that journey with me and would support me through it because I knew that I needed more work done they knew it but I think finding the right editor is finding the right person who will go on that journey with you and will take you through the whole process and my editor Polly has been great at doing that so I just knew when I was there that it was just the absolute dream for me and I couldn't have wished for anything better more supportive people I couldn't have wished for it it was absolutely brilliant and just one of those moments in my life that I just can't forget and I don't think I'll ever forget because it was just I can't even put it into words what it was like because I felt like people believed in me and that was a really nice thing I spent the next week in a complete daze I didn't know what my name was I didn't know what was going on I just couldn't think about and think other than the fact that I had a book deal and my book was gonna be published and it was going to be a thing that I could hold in my hands and as a thing that other people could read and it was going to be a real book I just couldn't stop thinking about that and because it was a primitive author I had to say pretty quickly whether we were gonna accept it or not I did get a tiny extensions that I could talk it through of my parents and could really think about what it was doing but as soon as I got home that night I knew that there was no other way that I was gonna go and that this was an offer I really couldn't turn down and it was something I really wanted and it was incredible and if you've experienced that then you know what I'm feeling and if you are a writer one day hoping to experience that then for me I feel like the thing that got me through submissions was imagining that phone call imagining getting a book deal and whether that happened then or what that happened in the future that was just something that really kept me going and it was nothing like I imagined it was euphoric but also still quite stressful because you feel like you're making this a monumental decision but it was brilliant and I'm still in shock as you could probably tell I still haven't quite processed it yet it was just one of those things that you've won you remember it's so vivid and vibrant in your mind that you can't really talk about it because it doesn't feel real you have to be there to know what it was like so I don't know I just I just still I'm still in shock about it and I just can't believe that that actually happened to me so when a publisher offers on your book they will send you an offer letter with some of the terms off your book deal and then your agent will take it away and then that gets turned into a contract once you've negotiated on those terms then offer terms go towards the contract and then for the next month or two my agent was working with her shot to draw up the contract and to make the contract right which can be a very lengthy process but it is the most important one because these are the terms of your book deal and determine things like your royalties and your advance and all that kind of stuff so that is really important that I didn't really have a lot to do I just sat back and kind of relaxed but I also have my exams so it was a very busy time with submission and exams and then all this kind of stuff I would just straight onto revising for my exams so it was just I suppose you can imagine my head was completely full of information and it took a lot to process but I feel like I am kind of processing it now but I'm glad that that side of it is over then in May I was in contact with my editor again because the title that I had submitted the book on was just not quite the right fit the market we were going for or the tone of the book I really loved my original title but now I much prefer the title that I have and so we had to correspond back and forth on the title that we were going to go for so I drafted up some of the titles I liked and then I sent them back to my editor Polly and then she took them to a meeting and we know we wanted an overall series title and we then had to go from there so in the end it was the her Shep team that came up with the paper and heart Society and I'd loved it as soon as I saw it it was quite weird seeing it because it was like oh my gosh this is not my book anymore and that was kind of the start of that process of working with a much bigger team on the book but I knew that as soon as I saw the title it was brilliant and I loved it and I love how it fits the book and it fits the book so much better now than the original title dead as June came along my contract was finalized and it got sent in the post to me and I filmed the moment that I signed the contract so instead of talking about it I will show you exactly what it was like right here it is the 14th of June and today I am signing my book deal contract which means that this is officially real and I could not be more excited right now they came in the post today so I'm going to sign them and then I've got to send them back and it's just kind of hit me that I've got a book deal when my title is all laid out and it's just all done and it's official and I also have this cool pen to sign in because I'm a dork I'm just very excited about this it's been months and it's just it's felt real but now it's like actually done it's a done thing and I've got a three book deal what what I feel like my signatures got to be really professional because well if this pen doesn't mean I'm a professional person then what does but um I feel pressure to get my signature right okay I'm going in I'm gonna do it one signature done my signature it was looks wildly different on everything so that's it assignment but contracts send it back it's done I am what what is this life what signing the contract made it actually real and official and I thought that was when it really hit me that this was going to be a thing that was happening and it made all those months of waiting absolutely worth it and it was just one of those moments I don't think I'll ever forget signing my first book contract it was just incredible and you saw the evidence it was so amazing then in July we had the announcement which you would have seen and I had put a lot of work into that so I'd redone my website I'd put together loads of graphics to share on all my social media platforms I'd filmed another video and I don't also some other things as well behind the scenes and the pre-order links went up and that again was another moment for me where it finally hit me that it was going to be real because the book went up on Amazon for the first time and I got to see it and got to see the synopsis and got to see what it looks like when you order your book and my dad is actually the first one to pre-order the book and then I pulled it and I made my mum pre-order it as well so I'm going to be drowning and copies of it but it was really weird to be able to order something that I've worked on and I'm still working on I've worked really hard on and that on the publication date it's gonna be over to me and like any other book that I've ordered I'm really excited about this time it's gonna be my own book and that's just absolutely amazing and just so we have at the same time because my name attached to it and mining that people are adding on Goodreads and my name that is on Amazon and you can buy my book and what honestly I feel like this video could be a little more articulate but it wouldn't be honest because I'm still so excited about this and I don't think I'm gonna get over that anytime soon I still can't believe that any of this has happened and being able to announce it to the world was so amazing that was another time when I went around in a blur because it was finally out in the world I could finally share it and I wanted to share it for so long and then it had gone quite a while before I could talk about it but I'd known about it and trying to keep it a secret was impossible but I managed it and actually didn't tell that many people so it was pretty good I didn't manage to accidentally blurt it out with social media or anything I managed to keep it a secret and then being able to announce it was absolutely incredible and then we move on to the most recent thing that I've been doing on the book at the start of August I met with my editor again I went up to London and met with my editor Polly and my agent Lauren and we had a meeting about the structural edits that we would be doing on the book so these are kind of the main edits that you work on with your editor that can be many rounds of edits but the first structure edit I think is the hardest out of all of them because you're really doing a big overhaul on the book and making it the best it can possibly be so I got sent a seven page edit letter I think from my editor which is quite overwhelming at first but she laid out exactly what she liked about the book exactly what wasn't working exactly the moment that she felt could be bigger and the moments that could be smaller and things that we could change it's basically about making the book the best it can possibly be that is how I describe this edit and you are making it and laying out exactly as you want it to lay it out and that can change in another edit but this is kind of the biggest edit in terms of moving scenes around and changing big things changing characters changing motivations changing everything about the book pretty much the book is the same but I feel like people think when they're working with an editor the editor is going to change your whole book and it's going to be a completely different book that is not how it is whatsoever my editor knows exactly what she's doing she knows exactly how to make this book so good and her vision sit with mine and if her vision doesn't fit in his mind then we have a conversation about it and we make sure that the book does fit with both who are visions for it and I might talk about this in a separate video fully the process of working with somebody else whether that's an agent or an editor on a book I think there is this misconception that they are going to change your book completely and it's not going to be your book anymore but I'm fully in control over the Edit they're just offering guidance on how to change it I can take a board as much or as little of that as I want as long as at the end of it it's a better book and I feel like I'm appointing the idea where it is better than it was originally but this edit has been very difficult and I'm going to be doing day-in-the-life log so you will see that in the next few weeks how difficult it has been it's the most work I've done on this book so far and it took a long time to get started on it and to get it exactly right but I feel like I'm hitting on that now and I've had some meltdown moments I've had a few tears during this side of the idea but I am out the other side of that now and I think finally getting back on track with the book and falling in love with it again which is the most important thing so I took my edit letter and then I made it into an edit letter of my own and laid out exactly how I was gonna tackle each point in the Edit letter I'll talk about that again once I start my day in the life of vlogs so you'll see more at the intricate side of what it's like with to do edits so that's what I've been working on for the last month or two really and that's taking up so much of my time that I didn't imagine it's just very very heavy work and very emotionally and physically draining but I quite enjoy it now I didn't know at first but now I am enjoying it again and it's a really good rewarding thing to do to make the book really good and to make it something that I thought I could be proud for people to read because at first when I went into the edit I felt like there was some big gaping holes I wasn't happy with so I've been filling them in and smooth out and I feel like it is finally getting there now which is really good so that is what it's like to get a book deal from the submissions beforehand choose actual submissions process to afterwards when you've got a book deal I'm gonna be talking about this a lot more in the next few months as I get to work on my edits and see other sides of the process to it so if you have any questions about anything that I have raised in this video then do leave them in the comments because I will be doing Q&A s with in my writing vlogs in the next few months so I will fully explain everything if either you want me to go into more detail but anything about this or clarify anything it's quite a confusing and overwhelming experience unless you've been through it I don't think you fully understand that because it's just one of those things that is so hard to explain but I hope that it came across or something that was enjoyable but also quite difficult to go through I can't think I've done anything like it before until I've done it now so that was the how I got my book deal video I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you guys soon happy reading

Channel: lucythereader

Views: 8,049

Keywords: lucythereader, Lucy the Reader, booktube, books, writing, writing vlog, book deal, how i got my book deal, publishing, book publishing, the paper and hearts society, the paper & hearts society, lucy powrie

Id: EuxY9iCid5U

Length: 25min 29sec (1529 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2018