Pitching at the Verulam Writers Conference - Get Writing 2012

It's been a while since my last blog, but by no means does it mean that I've been idle.

The last few weeks have produced both lows and highs. My lowest point came when I experienced my first rejection of the full Delve manuscript. That I'd got to the point of being asked for the full validated my believe in Delve and when the response came it wasn't the one that I'd pinned my hopes on. The agent in question gave me some really good feedback saying that the manuscript was too long at 126,000 words, slowing the pace, and that for a first time YA author I should be aiming at 65,000 to 75,000 words. The good news was that the story, the characters weren't the issue, so I knew that I'd got the formula right, but needed to kill my darlings to make it pacier. I bounced back the next day and began to work on the re-edit of Delve to cut the length, and up the pace.

And in amongst it all, I heard from a fellow Writewords member that there was a conference about to take place arranged by the Verulam's Writers Circle where attendees would get a chance to pitch their novels to agents and editors in the business. Well I couldn't miss such an opportunity. I had two completed manuscripts  - Delve, my urban fantasy, young adult paranormal novel, and x3 (previously titled The Curse), a chilling adult supernatural horror. I decided to pitch both, and spent the weeks running up to the conference making sure that I had samples for both (consisting of a synopsis plus first three chapters). With the re-edit on Delve, my first three chapters needed pace, and x3 needed to be dragged from first draft to a standard worthy of submission.

The Get Writing 2012 conference took place yesterday, 11th February 2012, at Hatfield University. There were the usual talks and seminars, all very well organised, but it was the afternoon that made it for me, having the chance to try and pitch my work. That and meeting fellow writeworders, Sharley, Astrea, Petal, Helen Black, as well as Judy, Nurgs and other writers. A short gaggle of witches was how Sharley's husband described us I believe, and my fellow coven members were all so lovely and down to earth.

My first pitch was a three minute pitch of x3 to horror author and editor, Adrian Chamberlin. I'd practiced the pitch the night before with my husband, while he tried to distract me with gestures from my son's cuddly monkey. But nothing could have prepared me for the sheer terror for having to stand in line, and wait to be called forward. I cut someone up just to get to the chair, and I delivered the pitch with my heart beating nervously in my chest. Adrian was lovely, and what was more - he liked it, wanting to see more. Big whooping yay!  The egg timer buzzed, and with the threat of being thrown out of my chair by the next person, there was just enough time for me to give him my sample, and for him to give me his details, and a collection of dark tales published by Dark Continents.

My next session was a 10 minute face time slot with Jane Judd, literary agent. She'd had sight of my synopsis and sample for Delve, and whilst she told me that I was a good writer, unfortunately the genre wasn't right for her. She talked about avenues I could explore, some of which I'd already tried, some that I haven't. She was again lovely, and I didn't come away feeling despondent, but spurred on to explore those new avenues.

Finally I had 10 minutes face time with Simon Taylor, editorial director of Transworld Fiction. He'd had sight of my synopsis and the first five pages of Delve, though he concentrated on both the title and the synopsis. The first thing he told me was that the title was a problem, something I'd never been told before, and which I might have to rethink. He gave me some really good advice on my synopsis, and the overarching story arc, and I talked to him about the rejections that I'd had, and that I was having difficulty finding the right agent for it. A theme was starting to manifest during my talks with both Jane, and Simon, which was that there are very few UK agents who deal with urban fantasy, young adult paranormal. And that whilst this type of genre was prolific in the states, in the UK it really hasn't taken off the ground. Great! I thought. No wonder I'm experiencing so many rejections.

And then something happened. There was one editor, at Little Brown, that I'd desperately wanted to pitch to, but who'd been fully booked by the time that I'd found out about the conference. And in an open Q&A session she talked about one of the genres she dealt with being urban fantasy, young adult paranomal romance where the romance is secondary to the urban fantasy. So far, bing, bing, bing! Then she said that there were so few UK voices that they'd seen. Bing!  At the end of one of the Q&A sessions, I pounced with a sample of Delve in my hand. Well I knew I'd never get an opportunity like it again. She took it, promised to read it, and told me that she'd asked for more if she liked it. And as I babbled, stalker like that she was brilliant, I knew that I'd done everything I could.  Now I'll just have to wait and see what happens.