In November 2006 I accepted a two-book deal from Scholastic Childrens’ Books, UK to publish the first two books of ‘The Joshua Files’ children’s adventure series.
Compared to most writers I was lucky – it didn’t take too long from starting to write to find a literary agent (11 months) and then another year to land a very generous 2-book deal. I did have to write three manuscripts in that time, however. Which is pretty much par for the course.
I put the speed of the process down to the fact that a) I broke my leg and didn’t have anything else I could do except write for 12 weeks (and even thereafter I wasn’t able to be very physically active), b) my husband had at the time a job which could support the family so could give up my job and c) I don’t revise my first draft much…just send it out! (bad, naughty lazy author, don’t follow my example there!)
Even so, two years from start to book deal feels like a long time when it’s the main focus of your life, when every single day you wonder if it is ever going to happen.
So to all your writers out there, hang in there, keep at it. It took me two years full-time. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Keep writing and keep learning!
You can read the blog entries about how I became a published author.
