My Creative Non Fiction Journey - Part Four - The Book Deal
Reposted without the paywall
Quick Notes:
I am running a brand new online, half day narrative non fiction workshop on the body in the landscape. Finding Your Self in the Landscape will run on Saturday 27th September 2025 1-3pm UK time.
Full details and booking link here: Eventbrite
Summer at Notes from the Margin
My memoir, The Ghost Lake
My poetry collection, Blackbird Singing at Dusk
It is one year since my memoir, The Ghost Lake was published and I was heading to Edinburgh for the first gig on my book tour. In celebration, here is the last part of a series of posts about getting to publication, without the paywall.
It’s been a very special year for me.
The Ghost Lake was published on 15th August 2024. This is the last part of a series about how I went tentative blogging, all the way to signing a book contract with The Borough Press - a division of Harper Collins. I’ll include some tips on how you can develop your own prose.
In part four of my creative non fiction journey, I want to tell you about the experience of landing a book deal. You can read the other three parts here:
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part Four
As I previously said in part three, I decided to go with Caro as my agent. We spent months working on a package for submission.
I think this is one of those areas that is a bit of a mystery to writers unless they’ve been there. Many writers think that once you have an agent, you can sit back and relax. They’ll do the work for you. But the agent/writer relationship is one of co-working - which is why it’s so important to have an agent you respect, someone who you can work with. We worked together. Caro guided me, I wrote, we edited, we built chapter outlines, fleshed out proposals, refined what I wanted to do with the book.
I started to think about how I would research and write the book, how long it would take me (spoiler alert - I should have given myself longer) and where the weight of the book would be.
The Ghost Lake covers a lot of theme and the thing that joins all those themes, all those areas - is a sense of belonging. What it means to belong when you exist in liminal spaces - bereavement, infertility, working class, rural etc
It was hard work. In the background, always, was a sense of panic about what happens if no one bought the book. But as I said in part three, Caro and I had already discussed this, because it does happen. We’d set up a plan, I had something to fall back on.
I much prefer to know what happens if things go ‘wrong’ and to have a structure in place to jump on to. In reality, there is no wrong. Things can not work out the way you would have liked, or how you would have imagined them, but really that’s just a different course, things just go in a different way. I think being aware of that, and accepting that, and being able to move on to a new project or a different path is one of the hardest things, but also one of the most necessary in order to hold onto your sanity and not become bitter.
When we finally had everything together, Caro sent out the package to publishers and a deadline was set for them to respond, or not. It was a matter of weeks. And then we waited.
I had to stop myself from messaging Caro for news every few minutes, because there was no news.
From the publisher perspective - any books that they are interested in must make it through several different panels, discussions and meetings in which they will be assessing content, saleability, marketing, budget…all the necessary things that get a book from MS to bookshop.
As the weeks ticked down and we had no news I began to panic. But Caro was steadfast. And because they were not panicking, I was reassured. A couple of days before deadline we had an offer from an independent book publisher. Which was fantastic. I love indie publishers and would happily have gone with them. But I will admit to a little disappointment. Everyone wants to land a big publisher, that’s the dream isn’t it.
As we made it to the last day, I was ready to sign with the indie. The hours began ticking down to the deadline. I remember sitting on the sofa checking my phone every few minutes, not being able to settle, fidgeting.
An hour before the deadline, I had a message.
Another offer.
It was Harper Collins.
I cried. Because, really, that’s the dream isn’ it. I’ve kept every letter headed note, every envelope with the HC stamp on it, every little thing that has come to me from the publisher because it all leads back to this moment, looking up from my phone, my face one big O, “It’s Harper Collins”
It doesn’t matter what happens after this. I will have that magic moment forever. It can’t be taken from me.
I feel quite emotional now, just thinking about it, with my book by my side.
After this, Caro and I discussed who we would go with. And then there were discussions between Caro and HC and an offer of advance was made. The advance was modest.
And bear in mind that an advance is split into four - on signing, on completion of MS on publication of hardback, on publication of paperback.
It is not enough to live on. A writer would have to have a massive advance in order to solely live off that. But what it did allow me to do was to split my advance into a small amount each month that gave me a little stability. It worked out at about £500 a month, which added to with little bits from mentoring, competition judging, substack, and taking a paycut, I managed to work on my book for the time it took to write and edit.
Do not go into this thinking you will be rich. Most writers, myself included, earn about £12000 a year, even with a fancy schmancy book deal. This is why I can’t offer my services for free as much as I would like to.
I would like to think that I would get another book deal after this one and perhaps my advance might increase, things might get a little easier. But the brutal, honest truth is that writing is very poorly paid. Most writers do not get on the best seller list, most writers don’t get to the heady heights of just being able to write for a living.
But what I have is my work. And over the last couple of years I have managed to turn from being a workshop facilitator who writes, to a writer who also facilitates workshops. It meant making sacrifices. But if you know me at all, you will know how important my work is to me and if my life is only ever hand to mouth as it is now, but in a career that allows me to write, to work, to think, to explore, then I shall be happy.
To Recap - What I did to get a book deal
I stayed focussed - did not give up.
I worked with my agent and embraced her skill set in order to give myself the best chance.
I was prepared for the eventuality of not selling the book, and had a plan in place to work on other projects, try again and move forward.
I took a pay cut (cries in freelance) in order to work on the book. The reality of this was that myself and my long suffering husband cut back on non essentials in order to get through. He is hoping that I’ll get on a best seller list and all our problems will be solved. This is extremely unlikely. (cries in author)
I tried to take joy from each moment of success. Success being something I’ve thought a lot about. You need to find what success is to you and embrace that. for me, being able to work, getting my work out there to reach an audience and have that very special relationship with readers - that’s success. Which made the dream moments welcome, wonderful extras.
I have an excellent agent. I got extremely lucky with my agent, but there were moments when I might have given up. If I had given up, I wouldn’t have the book on my book shelf.
What you can do
Have a plan, have a structure, but be prepared to be flexible.
Keep getting your work in front of agents, keep taking advice, mentoring, courses, all the things that will help shape your submission package.
Know what success means to you.
Be prepared to sacrifice. This means different things to different people.
Things I didn’t do
I have never paid for an agent to read my work. You shouldn’t either, unless it’s part of a mentoring package.
I didn’t go to conferences, agent events, any of that. I can’t therefore tell you what their value is, but it always feels a bit disrespectful to the writer to be thrown into an ‘elevator pitch’ situation like you are at a speed dating event. Not for me.
I hope this has been helpful. There is such a lack of transparency in the publishing world, I want to try and right that a little bit.
Until next week
x
This is very helpful, Wendy, so thank you.