Stop biting your nails about UV – Book Bound can also help you on the road to publication!

This week congratulations go to SCBWI author/editors, Sara Grant (UV co-founder), Sara O’Connor (UV co-founder, Hot Key Books), Jasmine Richards (OUP) and Karen Ball (Little, Brown) for the launch of their brand new venture, Book Bound. The inaugural Book Bound residential retreat in May 2014 is an exciting opportunity for writers to polish their novel and get it in front of agents. And all with the help of these four amazing authors and commissioning editors who clock up over 30 years combined editorial experience on more than 1,000 books! 

Bookbound Team: Sara O'Connor, Karen Ball,
Jasmine Richards & Sara Grant

At the launch event a few weeks ago, the Book Bound team were brimming with enthusiasm as they told us all about the retreat and where the idea came from. Each of them gave us some writing tips to whet our appetites for the workshops that they're teaching on the retreat. 

SCBWI members Sarah, Nick Cross, Michelle Newell,
Miriam  Craig, Linda Lawlor

It was a fun afternoon and really inspiring to hear how teamwork has helped Sara, Sara, Jasmine and Karen in their writing careers, and how they want to help new authors get published. 

The venue in Kent looks absolutely gorgeous, and the four agents attending are Julia Churchill (A. M. Heath), Zoe King (The Blair Partnership), Polly Nolan (Greenhouse Literary Agency), and Claire Wilson (Rogers, Coleridge and White). 

You can read full details about the retreat and how to apply here. And our lovely editor Lorraine Gregory has blogged about the launch event here. Meanwhile here are some pix and soundbytes from the Book Bound Team and the many SCBWI members who were there....

Sara Grant: “I’m thrilled by the people we’ve had here today. What we want to build is a writing community and we want a retreat where writers, agents and editors will all learn from each other."

Linda Lawlor & Jasmine Richards

Linda Lawlor: “It’s great to have something for more advanced writers, who are almost ready to be published.” 

Miriam Craig: “I was really interested to hear Jasmine’s point about making sure you can say ‘But’ or ‘Therefore’ about what happened from chapter to chapter, rather than just ‘And then’.” 

Nick Cross & Lorraine Gregory

Nick Cross: “I won a one-to-one with Sara O’Connor. My pitch went on for about five minutes, so I might have to shorten it slightly! Sara kept smiling despite it all.” 

Karen Ball: “I hope it’s an opportunity for a group of writers to become friends, hear expert advice, benefit from the workshop and go home inspired and full of confidence. PS the venue is awesome!” 

David Richardson, Sara Grant,
Vivienne Dacosta

David Richardson: “The prospect of meeting with agents and polishing my work is really useful for me at this stage.” 

Clare, Annie Walmsley

Annie Walmsley: “To have the chance to meet people who are as passionate and eccentric about children’s literature as myself is invaluable.” 

Jasmine Richards: “We want to give an honest and realistic view of the children’s publishing industry, as well as support and guidance for writing a novel that will be published.” 

Sara Grant, Sara O'Connor, Jasmine Richards & Karen Ball

 Lorraine Gregory: “Sounds like an amazing opportunity for some lucky writers.” 

 Larisa Villar Hauser: “So much enthusiasm, energy and expertise all in one team. Wow!”

Sara O’Connor: “Book Bound has been so long in the making I’m so glad we’ve finally kicked it off with so many lovely people!” 

If you get your skates on and submit before 31 October you can get a £50 discount when you join their mailing list. So let’s wish the team a big Hurrah! for launching such a fantastic retreat. And if you need some distraction from wondering whether you’ve made the UV longlist, why not give Book Bound a try?

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Tania Tay is an ex-advertising copywriter and has been published in Sable LitMag. She is currently writing a YA romantic thriller, and is on the editorial team at Words & Pictures.

Editorial and the Agent

Continuing our "Everything Editorial" theme for this month, Julia Churchill from A.M. Heath tells us how she works with her clients on an editorial level to get a book ready for submission.

As with anything about this job, it's all about taking a view at the time and working towards the needs of the client and the situation. 

The first chat I have with a prospective author is crucial in making sure that we’re on the same wavelength, that we are working towards the same end. My advice if you’re choosing an agent is to listen to what they say about your book. Sounds obvious. Can you connect with it, do they talk about your book in a way that you can enter in to?

When choosing an agent, listen to what they say about your book.

I’ve been interested in a book, but when talking to the author, it became clear we would pull in opposite directions. I knew I wasn’t the right match. I think a good edit is about being in synch and complementary, identifying the strengths of the writer, story and concept, and helping draw them out. 

A debut often requires some measure of work. My client and I need the best possible book to maximise the chance of a publishing deal, and the value of that deal. 

A debut often requires some measure of work.

Sometimes a debut comes in ready to sell, not often though. The only time it’s happened to me I was in a salon having my hair bleached on the phone to an author whose book I’d just finished and it was perfect: ready to send out; raw; magic; stunning. I signed this author up standing on King’s Cross Road with my hair in foils. The phone call took an hour, my stylist was freaking out, the bleach was in for way too long, and when I got off the phone and washed the bleach out, my hair was grey. But it was worth it. I sent it out the next day, and two weeks later tied up a seven publisher auction: this isn’t the norm. 

More likely we'll spend some time working on the ms. Again, every situation is diffferent. We may sit down with a cup of tea and ask some big questions. What does the writer do best? Where do they fly? Where does the story lose focus? Is the tone consistent? Is the story moving towards its big themes? Why does this section not work? Is it needed? Are there too many characters? Is the story pulling in too many directions? What is this book about, in the small ways and the big ways? What is it trying to say? Is the ageing on point? Are there ways to strengthen the concept? Sometimes we might do it over the phone, or by email. 

A good pitch has focus, clarity and intent.

Often we might work on the pitch before the writer heads into their revision. A good pitch has focus, clarity and intent, and keeping those top-line thoughts in mind can help the writer hit the high notes when it comes to revising. 

In my job there are two markets. The market that I think about when I sell books to publishers, the editor as buyer, and then there’s the real market. This is what is happening in bookshops today, right now. I get a debut ready for the market of editors. The publisher gets the book ready for the market of book buyers, real readers. Once a debut is sold and author is connected with editor, obviously the agent's role adapts. It’s the editor and the author who create that vision of where the book needs to go, and I work towards supporting that relationship. Editorially my role may recede, it may never be as hands on as it was for the debut. 

What I want for my author is a direct, open and trusting relationship with their editor. That’s when the magic happens. 

If a client is delivering late and we're getting too close to publication, then the ms may go straight to their editor. If the author has worked long-term with their editor, is in a good position in-house and feels relaxed about the ms, then I may wait to read an edit. If a client is worried about the ms, if we're looking to do a new deal, if I think this new book could make a transformative leap for their career, if their contract isn't being renewed, if I’m worried about any number of things, then I may well work on it if we agree that's the right course of action. 

I'm there to help guide my authors, to tell them the truth, and I'm there to listen to what they need and to keep both eyes on their long term interests. 
 

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@JuliaChurchill

 Julia Churchill joined A.M.Heath in 2013 as Children's Agent, after four years building up the UK side of the Greenhouse Literary Agency, and six years at the Darley Anderson Agency where she started the children's book side of the list. She is lucky to represent some fabulous writers, but is always on the treasure hunt for new writing talent and consider the slushpile to be the greatest place on earth. Julia is looking for debut and established authors with storytelling magic, from picture book texts right up to YA fiction.

Agent Confidential: Julia Churchill

Name: Julia Churchill  

AKA: Church

Agency: A.M. Heath

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Genres Represented: Every type of children’s fiction, from picture books up to older YA and everything in-between.

Authors Represented: Allan Boroughs, Lil Chase, Cat Clarke, Helen Douglas, Michael Ford, Michelle Harrison, Anne-Marie Conway, SD Crockett, Sarah Crossan, Stephen Davies, Kathryn James, Pip Jones, Kate Kelly, Sarah Lean, David Macphail, Leila Rasheed, Nikki Sheehan, Amy Sparkes.

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Recent deals: Rebecca Smith’s DANDELION CLOCKS and second book, at auction to Puffin, and Rob Stevens’ WOULD THE REAL STANLEY CARROT PLEASE STAND UP and second book, to Andersen Press. And a few that I’m not allowed to mention yet.

Wish list: I tend not to be prescriptive about what I’m looking for. Essentially I’m looking for quality and freshness in concept, voice and story, whether that’s in 250 words for three year olds or 80,000 for sophisticated young adult readers. I am keen to see more 9-12 though, though I stay open-minded on genre and area of the market.

Favourite books: Charlotte’s Web, Goodnight Mr Tom, The Secret Garden, the Mr Gum books, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, A Greyhound of a Girl, Skulduggery Pleasant. That’s a start, but I reckon on a different day, there’d be a different answer. And I still love The Hungry Caterpillar.

Agent style: Just as every client is different and has different needs, so too am I a different agent according to those needs. But always up-front, straightforward and with a long term view towards my authors’ financial and professional well-being.

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How to Submit: Through the website at amheath.com

Submission tips: Always finish the book. The book you finish is a different book to the one you started. At the end, you’ll know clearly what your book is and what it needs to achieve, and in revising you are going to get there more effectively in those first chapters.

Also if you share prematurely, and you get roundly rejected, you may lose the confidence you need to nail the book.

Don’t rush.

Website: amheath.com 

Twitter: @juliachurchill

Events: September 25^th – 29^th 2013 Matera Women’s Fiction Festival

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Read Nicola Morgan on 'How to Find a Good Agent'

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Mel Rogerson and Katrina Charman
Writing Features Editors

If you are an agent and
would like to be featured
in Agent Confidential,
please contact us at
writers@britishscbwi.org