What Happens After We Sign an Author?

A very happy Friday Scribblers,

Slowly recovering from laryngitis and we are now tackling our novel and novella outcome emails - it may take us a few days to get to you, but keep your eyes peeled and check your junk!

Not long until our bookish Summer Party in Manchester at Seesaw! Expect author performances Friday night (from 7pm) and publisher panels and Q&A on the Saturday (from 12pm). And it wouldn’t be a book fair without a wide, curated range of community publishers and artists :) SIGN UP HERE

And we’re planning the tour for Zahirra Dayal’s evocative debut - The Whispering Jacarandas!

You can either join us at SERENITY BOOKSHOP, Stockport on Thu 27th Aug for a conversation with Zahirra and I, or you can pop in informally at 3pm at Waterstones Manchester Arndale on the same day to grab a signed copy!

Now…

(Disclaimer that, of course, every publishing house will have a different editorial process.)

1. If an author has been signed with us via their agent, we will usually hop on a call with agent and author that essentially establishes the ‘why’ of the novel (what led the author to write THIS story). This helps us ‘package’ the book, and my brain starts whirring about PR angles and personal stories, that can help us get radio, media and festival attention for the author!

2. On this call, we will also ask how ready the AUTHOR thinks their manuscript is. Some authors never consider their manuscript done (though in my experience, this is mostly the poets haha!) and some authors feel that once they’ve worked with an agent, the bulk of the work is done – and they actively would not like to engage with a developmental edit, for example. It’s very rare that we would advocate to go against exactly what the author wanted, because their gut instinct is often the right one on what the novel needs next.

3. If an author doesn’t have an agent, we will still hop on this call and ask their gut feeling on edits – but they are more likely to want in depth editing, unless they’ve done an editorial edit with a development agency before!

4. So now we’ve established – developmental or copy edit to begin?