Nerves are the norm with Discovery Day on the horizon

Tomorrow, around 250 new writers will be turning up at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road to pitch their idea to agents from Curtis Brown and hear feedback on their first pages. I know for probably 248 people this is a terrifying prospect.

Talking about your ideas and your writing can be deeply personal, and knowing you have a limited amount of time and the ear of an industry professional is bound to be daunting. But it’s worth remembering that the stakes are not as high as you might fear – it will be an audience of just one and it’s unlikely to be the only chance you’ll have for an agent to read your material, so it should be seen as a trial run rather than a one-off opportunity.  No one is expecting stand up comedy acts or X-Factor performances, (in fact, we might find that a bit alarming). Rather, we’re aiming to have just a brief, informal chat which we hope will be useful.  Sharing your work puts you in a vulnerable position but if you’re a writer who wants to be read, then at some point you’ll need to take the plunge and where better to start than on a day devoted to discovering new talent?

For writers, there can’t be more sympathetic crowd than a bunch of agents.  After all, we know how writers feel and hear their concerns on a daily basis. We’re familiar with the crippling anxiety that kicks in after pressing the send button and delivering a manuscript, and the torturous time spent awaiting a response. We’ve seen even the most experienced writers tackle nerves and beat back butterflies before speaking in public so we know that what we’re inviting new writers to do tomorrow won’t be easy. However we genuinely want to help – to give honest and realistic feedback and positive advice to new writers at the beginning of their journey.

Pitching face to face to an agent is unlikely to be the starting point for most new authors, but it is a useful exercise and whenever I talk to groups I always harp on about the importance of the covering letter, which is where a new writer first interacts with an agent.  A live pitch can be transferred into a covering letter and, as I’ve mentioned before, a strong idea, with the right title will really stand out if expressed in the right way.  We won’t be offering anyone representation on the spot – we couldn’t, based solely on the first page – but we hope the day will provide useful tips, encouragement and practical advice.

And there’s more to Discovery Day, too. Aside from the pitching stations there will be small “surgery” groups in the Foyles Café (a draw in itself), where new writers can ask general questions about publishing. And there will be a panel event in the afternoon with author Salley Vickers and debut novelist Tim Glencross. We hope it will be an opportunity to connect new writers with industry professionals and to celebrate books, debuts and independent bookshops.

If you can’t make it on the day then join us on Twitter and follow the day via our new site which we’re super proud of!  Not only do we now accept submissions online but we’ll be providing resources here for writers in our New Writing Room.

Discovery Day will just be the beginning …

The ebb and flow of Publishing

I recently spent such a special afternoon with Scholastic and two Ibbotson brothers celebrating the launch of THE ABOMINABLES by the much-loved children’s author, Eva Ibbotson.  It consisted of a delicious boathouse lunch followed by punting down the River Cherwell (not quite the Amazon River but similarly idyllic).

As the water sparkled in the sunshine and we trailed fingers (and scarves in some cases) as we floated along, we agreed that there could not have been a more fitting tribute to the author of the prize winning JOURNEY TO THE RIVER SEA, a remarkable woman who touched so many lives not just with her writing but with the spirit of adventure, sense of fun and warmth she shared with friends and even acquaintances, and of course with her readers. I am constantly coming across editors, assistants, publicists and journalists who encountered Eva, even briefly, and who all adored her – it was impossible not to.

I was fortunate to spend a few years representing Eva as her literary agent.  At first she had her reservations about my age (youth),  and hair colour (potentially-ditzy blonde), but I made excuses for both and we quickly became close.  Eva was a real tonic and whatever the issue her phone conversations would always lift my mood and her emails frequently had me in stitches. Despite her experience and success, Eva was incredibly humble about her achievements and, as Marion Lloyd, who edited her for many years, will attest, she would often hand in a new, flawless manuscript saying ‘I don’t think it’s very good’. Without fail, it would be utterly marvellous.  But Eva understood that the publishing industry can be a capricious beast and she captured in a letter a duality familiar to many published authors:

“This morning there was a further lowering of spirits as the paperback of X is to be remaindered and they asked if I wanted copies. But by the same post came the enclosed thing about the film option for Y. It’s like that all the time – up and down – you’re a great author having a ritzy lunch, you’re an obscure provincial failure. So the only thing is to keep on writing and forget about the response”.

Navigating ups and downs gracefully is an art form and one that not all authors master.  For new children’s writers advice that they should keep writing and forget about the response, that it is, (excuse the pun), worth a punt, is certainly encouraging. But for Eva the response was, and still is, one of resounding enthusiasm and utter enchantment. The reaction readers and reviewers have had to both ONE DOG AND HIS BOY and THE ABOMINABLES, both published posthumously, is not one to forget, and Eva will undoubtedly live on through the classic children’s books she has given us that  will continue to brighten the lives of readers in the years to come, just as Eva herself lit up the lives of those who knew and cherished her.

Before JK Rowling, there was Eva Ibbotson by Lorna Bradbury

The Daily Telegraph obituary of Eva Ibbotson

Round up of reviews for THE ABOMINABLES

Mal Peet’s review of THE ABOMINABLES

Creating characters

Never mind dogs looking like their owners: it dawned on me this week that a number of my children’s authors are starting to resemble the characters they create – slightly disturbing, since many write about animals, monsters and other strange creatures. Good-looking versions of their creations, of course.

Perhaps I’m hallucinating as a result of mid afternoon blood sugar level slumps, lengthy meetings or the kind of silliness which occurs when spending a long time immersed in children’s books. But it’s not completely surprising – after all, it is often the case that writers imbue their characters with personality traits they themselves possess, so why not physical characteristics, too?

But actually we shouldn’t really know what characters look like – or, at least, descriptions of physical appearance are best avoided. Characters should emerge through their actions – the way they slam the phone down, scowl at the bus conductor or march to the front of the queue (they don’t necessarily need to have anger issues, though). Knowing that she has long curly brown hair just doesn’t bring a character alive in the same way; in fact, I can’t think of any examples where a description of how a character looks works really well.

Am I wrong? Let me know if you can point to a really strong physical description of a character in a children’s book.

The BBC Writer’s Room site offers some other useful tips on creating character. It’s aimed at scriptwriters but can also apply to children’s book writers,
too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/write-a-script/character