Writer Development Day

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to a Writer's Development Day organised by Literature Works, a charity set up to support and encourage West Country writers. The speakers were Clare Wallace, Head of Rights at Darley Anderson, literary agents to the likes of Lee Childs, Jane Costello, Clare Dowling and Martina Cole,  and popular Women's Fiction author and the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bath University, Sarah Duncan, writer of five novels, two of which have made the lists for Romantic Novelists Association book of the year.

The idea behind the day was to learn more about how to approach agents, how to pitch your book and just what level of flattery is acceptable when writing a query letter.

Sarah gave some great tips on telling your story and some excellent advice on dos and don'ts; for example, agents don't tend to like books that start off a) talking about the weather b) waking up with a hangover or c) looking in a mirror.

Clare talked about the role of an agent, what they do, how many submissions they get (300 a week) and how to get your book noticed. She also gave advice on writing your query letter, what to say and what not to say. Don't for example tell an agent it will make a good film, or worse still, send them a Hollywood cast list, don't come across as an agressive loony but do include a bar of chocolate - that was a tongue in cheek comment. Don't make a grand gesture, such as one aspiring author did, and leave your manuscript, wrapped in a blanket in a Moses basket on the doorstep of the agency.  It spent a few hours sitting on the step while they tried to decide whether or not to ring the police and the author wasn't signed anyway. They do still have the Moses basket though.

For someone like me, who was lucky enough to be signed by a publisher on my first book, without ever having had to write a query letter, it was invaluable, should I need to find an agent in the future.

We were all asked to bring along the first page of our book, so, having lots of ideas but no firm plans I did a quick Facebook poll on two ideas I had, one for a more serious, literary book and one for another lighthearted, Popular Women's Fiction one in a similar tone to L'Amour Actually. The vote was overwhelmingly for the latter, so I quickly banged out a first page. Everyone present had to vote on their three favourites then Clare and Sarah gave quick feedback on each. I was delighted that my first page was the second most popular of the thirty on offer and Sarah picked it out as one of her three favourites. Now, to write the other 300 pages!

I would highly recommend events like this to other authors. It was a great opportunity to network with other writers and find out more about other opportunities in the local area. I'm so glad that I discovered Literature Works and look forward to more events in the future.