The Book Deal Diaries - Video Masterclass
Book inception to the Book Deal Moment
Spring has sprung, the grass is riz,
I wonder where the boidie is?
They say the boidie’s on the wing.
But that’s absoid. The wing is on the boid!
As we emerge into the lighter part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, things feel hopeful. My chronic fatigue fairies have flitted away for the time being. I shall not miss them, although I’m sure they will revisit at the most inconvenient time. In the meantime I shall make proverbial hay whilst the sun shines. There is lots coming your way!
A couple of weeks ago, whilst going through the very solitary pain of submitting the finalised manuscript of Breaking Waves to my publisher (darling), I had the most joyous interlude with one of my favourite Substack groups:
Heart Leap club. A writing community that has become my absolute go-to twice a week. A place to write, to share, to be together. It’s very special indeed.Suzy invited me to share a Masterclass with her amazing community on how I got a book deal, at the age of 51, with no prior experience in the industry, with my first book. I was a little nervous, I’m not gonna lie, but it was utterly wonderful to be amongst other writers, sharing knowledge and the feedback I received was so heartening and humbling in equal measures.
The topics covered include:
The Business of Books - why your book matters and why now
A Sense of Place - finding your genre, book themes and developing your pitch
Agents and Agency - finding your ideal agent, accepting terms and the social contract
PR, Marketing and Social Media - the agents’ and publishers’ view
Networking and Endorsements - how to approach this
Other Ways to Shine - unusual and creative ways to build your audience
The Book Deal Moment - how it happened and what it means
What Happens Next - the book publishing process and book 2!
This is what some of you had to say, and I’m so grateful for your feedback 🫶
I plan to run a couple of live Masterclasses/Workshops to go into more depth on some of these topics. I’d love to know which ones would be of interest to you? If anything else comes to mind when you’ve watched the Masterclass please do put that in the comments. The whole point of The Book Deal Diaries is to respond to what you would like to learn, not me just blindly transmitting what I think you need to know!
I really hope you enjoy the recorded video of the Masterclass. This content is for paid subscribers only due to the depth of content and the extraordinary amount of time and work that has gone into it. If you feel this would be helpful for you and you don’t have the affordability at this time please do get in touch and I can offer you a coupon. 🙏💕
Enjoy, and please do leave your thoughts below!