The Dream – What’s it like to get a Book Deal…..

Book cover for A Murder for Miss Hortense

It was 2am in the morning on a Monday in May in 2023.  Unusually, I was up.  Chatting away to my sister who was staying with us for a few days.  I can’t remember the exact conversation, maybe something to do with what the future was holding for each of us.  Her life plans had been upended when Covid hit - she had been studying a degree abroad and had had to come back to the UK. I had some meetings over the previous few days with editors in the US over Zoom.  I was still buzzing.  My phone was upstairs with my sleeping husband.  It started to ring.  He shouted from upstairs, grumpily, “Get your phone! It’s ringing!” 

Who could be calling me at like 2am in the morning? 

We went out to submission, I’m going to say about a week before.  it might have been a bit longer.  Submission is when your book gets sent out to publishers to see if they would be interested in buying it. Nelle, my agent, had made no promises.  Of course I’d googled: 

 “What’s it’s like to go on submission?”  

There are some really good articles from those who have come out on the other side of it.  The most comprehensive sites had an explanation of the process, information about the biggest publishing houses and a link to real life stories.  There is also a Facebook group.

The long and short of it was that it could be painful and long and sometimes, more often than you might think, there would be no book deal at the end of it and the book, the book that you may have slaved over for months or years, would fall by the way side and never become an actual published book.

The advice was that there were no guarantees so  pace yourself - forget about the book, work on something else.  Once we went out on submission I was checking my emails every minute!

The 2am phone call was from my agent Nelle.  Nelle said something like, “Are you sitting down?” 

It was a US pre-empt (which means an early offer for a publishing deal is made from an editor.  If accepted by the author and agent, it will result in the book being taken off the market and no other bids from any other publishing houses will be accepted.) It was a US offer from Lisa Lucas at Pantheon.   I met Lisa in one of my zoom meetings a few days before.   I did my research.  I had  read this article in the New York Times. OMG.  Yes, that Lisa Lucas. A titan in the industry.  I knew from the questions and comments in the earlier zoom meeting that Lisa and I had, that Lisa had read the book and understood it, more than understood it.  She completely got it.  She asked me questions.  she challenged me, “Remember Miss Hortense doesn’t have to be perfect she can have flaws too”.  I mean!!!  

“So do you want to take it…?” my agent Nelle asked.

YESS!!!!!OF COURSE I DID!!

I had a book deal.  I had a book deal. I had a book deal. I had a book deal with LISA LUCAS!!!!  

A book deal meant that my book would get to be real! It would become a physical thing that I could hold.  A book deal meant that the idea was no longer just part of my imagination but would be available for readers to read.  Miss Hortense would get an audience!