Tag Archives: publishers

Don’t wait for the phone to ring (blog post 11 of series)

Posted on by vgemmell
Young Blood Launch —- 2024

Back to the blog today after a short trip away. If you missed my last two posts about book submission stories you can read post 1 here and post 2 here.

When I started to write Young Blood I attended an open submissions event in Edinburgh, where I got to pitch face-to-face to a YA agent I was keen to meet. It was the first time I had pitched a book that wasn’t finished, and when she asked me to send through a full submission I had to confess it wasn’t ready, and then took months to send. She did remember me and my book (which was a good sign), but the version I sent was nowhere near as tight as my eventual final draft for this book, and I received a rejection (a nice, personalised one, which I appreciated).

So a lesson, be patient, and wait until your book is fully ready before pitching to an agent you like.

This period of time crossed over with the ‘in limbo situation’ with Promise Me, so by the time Young Blood was fully ready (i.e. had been through multiple edits, with in depth feedback on both structural and grammatical aspects, resulting in fleshing out bits, re-writing parts), I was then set on continuing with independent publishing. Also around this time I saw Reese Witherspoon post a reel on her Instagram with the words, Don’t wait for the phone to ring. (In reference to her starting up her own production company, so she could take control over her own roles, and ensure she was able to continue to make quality work).

By this point I had purchased a batch of ISBN numbers (this works out cheaper than purchasing one-offs). If you are serious about independent publishing and plan to go wide with distribution, you will need ISBN numbers – see here on the Nielsen site for more info. As quoted on the link to Nielsen, ‘Systems used by publishers, booksellers and libraries all rely on the ISBN to identify books ensuring they select and stock the correct title and edition.‘

Here are some of my personal reasons I decided to continue with Independent publishing for Young Blood:

  • I wasn’t under pressure to hit deadlines or do events This was a pressure I didn’t want at this particular time in my life because in 2023 I was organising my wedding, and my day job felt like it was getting busier (zapping my brain capacity). I didn’t want to feel beholden to anyone (I’m now moving more towards wanting to get fully back out there!)
  • I got to control when I released the book, and put it out on various platforms I didn’t need to rush a release date, but also I didn’t have to wait another 6 years for my book to see the light of day. I was able to put it out in print and on all digital channels
  • I had full control of purchasing my author copies in advance of my launch (So I got to control how many were available, and no worrying about them turning up on time for a big event)
  • I was able to see proof copies before they went to print Mistakes happen; but at least I was able to make immediate fixes to any spotted
  • I was in full control of cover design (this is something that wasn’t an issue with traditional publishing, but it was still fun to be able to come up with the concept, and collaborate with my friend Dainty Dora to produce the final design).
  • I get access to statements of all of my sales, and often from Amazon in real-time. Amazon KDP have a dashboard you can log in to which breaks down your daily and monthly sales in to ebook and print sales. This can be helpful if I try something to market my book, to see if it actually had any impact! I also get regular statements from Ingram Spark and Draft2Digital (who I am with for wider distribution) This article from the Bookseller published a survey exposing writers’ frustrations with lack of clarity around royalty statements, and delayed payments
  • I got to write the story the way I wanted to tell it Young Blood did not fit into the word count most agents and publishers were saying was ‘acceptable’ for contemporary Young Adult novels. There are many conflicting opinions about YA word count. With rising print costs, and opinions about diminishing attention spans amongst young people, some are saying it is ‘safer’ to publish shorter books. If you are an unknown writer, publishers are probably less likely to take the risk of a bigger spend. But when I did a quick check of some of the best-selling and most successful YA books over the years, guess what….nearly all of them were near 100,000 words. And for Young Blood to have the depth I wanted it to have, I needed the layers a bigger word count allowed (it sits at 100,000 words). A couple of people have said they feel it’s my strongest book so far, and I know this is because I put the layers in
  • Readers don’t care I mentioned this in my last post, that hardcore readers just want to read books, and often don’t have a clue or care about who you are published by (or not published by) What readers will care about is unprofessional editing, and production. So if you’re going to do this yourself, then do it right, and don’t work alone. I got so much support with edits and formatting, and the technical uploads (thanks Mum! See Rosemary’s books here ), as well as the design aspects. Even although platforms such as KDP and Ingram provide you with templates, you need to understand the technical nuances to ensure everything looks right

Now here’s my reasons why for my next project I’m going to try the traditional path to publication again:

  • I want wider readership To get wider readership I need someone bigger (i.e. an agent, and publisher, maybe just a publisher) to get behind me and help me promote and publicise my work to others. I don’t have the confidence to do this alone. I can’t deal with translation rights, distribution to bookshops is complicated, and some publications that list book releases will forever ignore me as an indie
  • Linked to above – I want to get into bookshops When Promise Me and Young Blood came out, this wasn’t an aim. I understand how hard it is to get into bookshops (even when with a traditional publisher), and my priority for these books was actually to get into libraries (especially school libraries). Bookshops have to be business minded and will only stock books they know will sell, and these tend to be ones which are getting a lot of exposure. They also need to trust the quality, and unless they read mine cover to cover, they’re not going to take my word for it. But for my next project (if it goes well, and ever sees the light of day) I would need a local bookshop in my area to get behind me as they seem to have all of the distribution tied up with local primary school events. Even although I am on wider distribution, so bookshops can find me on their distribution system, I have my books set to ‘no returns’. I have global distribution and if I allowed returns two things could happen: Bookshops could order in lots of my books, but if they don’t sell, they then return direct to me (the publisher) and charge me postage as well as RRP cost of all books unsold I’ve heard horror stories about a certain retailer managing to bankrupt small publishers by ordering in crates of books, keeping them in storage and forgetting about them, then returning them unopened to the publisher (which lands them with a massive unexpected bill). This is another insane part of the business that makes me wonder how anyone actually makes any money!
  • I want to kick the Imposter Syndrome I love doing events in schools and the community. Usually I feel confident but I was really nervous being part of the Paisley Book Festival School events last year because I was just waiting for someone to compare me to the bigger names on the programme, and ask me what I was doing there. Being validated by a publisher opens doors to big events; there is no getting around this.
  • And finally...I feel ready! Back in January when I wrote a post outlining my plan for this series, I talked about how writing should be treated like an apprenticeship, and that it’s a journey of learning. It’s easy for writers I think to share knowledge about the process and craft, and pass on hint and tips, similar to what I have been writing these past few months. What isn’t often talked about, is the emotional impact of sending your work out into the world, and the emotional impact of attempting to make a serious career out of writing, when challenges and setbacks extend way beyond your initial rejections. You’ll often hear writers say writing the actual book is the easy part, and I agree and think it’s because that’s the fun part (when things are going to plan!!) You can enjoy just creating, and get lost in the creative process. At the other end, once your words are released, they become a product to be consumed, and with this comes expectation. And that’s when it all can feel a bit overwhelming, and the pressure and disappointments can set in. Now, I feel ready for the emotional parts, because none of it feels so raw anymore. And because so many writers are opening up and being honest about the full picture of what it means to be part of the industry, it makes it all feel a little less daunting, knowing it’s okay to embrace both the failures and the successes.

So onwards I go. And onwards I hope you go too!

Links to my books are here

Submission Stories #Part 1 (blog post 9 of series)

Posted on by vgemmell

In these posts I’m moving more into a personal ‘behind the scenes look’ at my submission experiences for my three Young Adult books. I’ll do a post for each book. I’m doing these posts because I love to read about other author’s journeys. I find it motivates me and makes me feel less alone in what is quite a mad creative world. Also for all three books I’ve had very different experiences, which resulted in me taking more personal control.

Prior to ‘Book 1’ there were other books, but I refer to them as my practice novels. I completed my first typed ‘novel’ (as opposed to the many, let’s call them ‘novellas’, I had written in jotters) when I was about thirteen, and received my first rejection from a major publisher.  I wrote a magic realism contemporary novel in my early twenties and sent this out to a few publishers and one agent. I randomly met the agent’s assistant at an event and he said he pulled my book out of the slush pile and enjoyed it. (The agent making the decisions, didn’t). Years later I bumped into him at another event and he asked what happened to it. I am sure you are thinking I should have persisted with this one. But I felt I could write better, and by that point I had started to focus more on writing Young Adult, because most of the ideas that were forming in my head seemed to lend themselves better to having teen protagonists. So here’s some highlights of my submission journey with my debut Young Adult novel, which eventually did reach publication back in 2015.

Book 1 – Follow Me

When I first started writing Follow Me something took over. It was the first time a book seemed to take on a life of its own and perhaps because I was living alone at the time, once I had established a basic plot, characters, and written my prologue (which set the tone and gave my protagonist a ‘voice’), every time I sat down I was able to immerse myself fully in the world.

A couple of people who read Follow Me talked about the ‘hypnotic’ characters and feeling like the writing contained some kind of undefinable ‘magic’. I mention this, not to ‘big up’ my book (though I will always have a soft spot for this story), but because it aligns to how I felt early on when ideas and chapters unfolded. I could feel the magic driving this one, and I knew deep down this was going to be ‘the one’; the book I was going to get published, because it was the first time I properly felt like I knew what I was doing structurally, and was excited by the story and characters. Also, something in my mindset had changed. I had started to send out short stories, and was reaching publication, and being placed in competitions. I was starting to believe I could be a ‘serious writer’.

When I had nearly finished my first draft I submitted the book to the TC Farries competition at the Scottish Association of Writer’s conference and won first place.

A well-established children’s author was the adjudicator, and said it contained the ‘magic’ needed to captivate a YA audience. This gave me the confidence to finish it, fine tune my manuscript and start subbing to agents. Colleagues at the time discovered print-outs of my first few chapters and their excitement at reading, and wanting to continue reading (along with my Mum’s encouragement, and another writing friend) all kept me going…

And then when I started to sub to agents I got emails from about three asking very quickly to read the full manuscript. I was on tenterhooks waiting for replies as you can imagine.  But then the rejections started coming in.

Here’s a snapshot of some rejections.

Unfortunately, the premise involving twins is too similar to another title on our list. We wish you the best of luck with placing your work.

Many thanks for sending me your submission, which I read with interest. I’m afraid, however, that I didn’t feel passionately enough about it to offer you representation. You write well, but I’ve just taken on a book which deals with teen suicide so this feels too close to it for me. Our business is subjective by nature and another agent may well feel differently. I wish you the best of luck with that.

I realise now how lucky I was to get some personalised feedback. The landscape of publishing has changed a lot and it can be rare now to get any response.

The most disappointing knock-back was a rejection from an agent I met face to face at a York Writing Festival who was so excited when she read my first three chapters, and was so lovely in person. The type of agent I would have been happy to work with! Interestingly I really didn’t gel with a different agent at my other 1:1 and she suggested quite a graphic, dramatic change to part of my opening which made me feel uncomfortable. This experience showed me the importance of finding the right agent or publisher. Someone you connect with, and who understands your story.

This was the rejection email from the excited agent (I had to wait over 6 months for this, and it felt like a loooong wait):

As you know, I was really excited by your novel when we met in York, and I very much enjoyed reading the complete manuscript. It’s stayed with me and I’ve been ruminating on it since. The premise to the novel is really interesting and I think you write very well for this market. I love sister/twin stories too! I do think there is a lot of potential here, but I’m afraid I don’t think, at the moment, this stands out in what is a crowded market. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but do bear in mind that another agent may feel differently.

I was gutted to get such a positive rejection.

I kept going.

A BIG publisher were doing a call-out for a new teen digital-only imprint, and wanted the full manuscript emailed.

I received this exciting response from one of their editors: Thank you for sending Follow Me to xx for our consideration. I enjoyed reading it and think that your accessible voice matched with the dark and emotional subject matter makes it well suited to the list. …..  (The email then contained some editorial suggestions)…Of course we would discuss all of this later should we decide to acquire Follow Me but I just wanted to check with you before I share the script with the rest of the team whether Follow Me is still available for publication and if you would be open to editorial suggestions such as those I’ve mentioned.

I responded positively. A month later I got this response:

I just wanted to let you know that because it’s been so hectic here, I haven’t taken Follow Me to our acquisitions meeting yet, but I hope to do so next Wednesday and so I should have a decision for your shortly after that.

Then… SILENCE.  Six months later, still nothing.

Around this time I met a different publisher, who ended up taking Follow Me, at a networking event. I nearly didn’t speak to him, because I had already submitted Follow Me to them via their website submission process, but he said he didn’t remember reading it, they’d had server issues, so to email through the whole manuscript.

I emailed the big publishing house to let them know a Scottish publisher had shown interest, and another editor got back to me apologising saying the first editor had gone on maternity leave. She asked me to keep her posted on what happened, and she would read my submission again. Because I was offered print publication (and because the big house had just kept me hanging) I accepted the offer from the Scottish publisher. I had received an email from the Scottish publisher one night saying they had finished reading Follow Me and asked to meet me. Because of the ‘nearly there moments I’d had already’, I still wouldn’t let myself believe it was going to be positive news. But it  was at the face to face meeting I received an offer for publication.

It was fast-moving from there. The meeting took place at the start of April, with a publication date set for October the same year (this is very rare). It was a whirlwind which led to lots of doors opening for me in terms of opportunities to do talks and workshops in schools and in the community. I’ll talk more about those another time. The rollercoaster of ups AND downs continued, something I don’t think many people prepare you for, when you reach the goal of publication.

And sadly, with my second book I found myself back out on submission. I’ll focus on parts of that story in post 2.

I’ll leave you with some things I learned along the way from the first part of this journey:

My tips:

Spend time preparing your submission. Perfect your synopsis and intro email, along with the sample chapters. Follow the submission rules (you’re doing yourself and your book a disservice if you can’t take the time to read these properly and get them right).

If an agent, editor, or publisher takes the time to give you feedback, know that this means they really do see potential in your work and if the feedback contains constructive criticism, take time to reflect and take on board what they say

If you’re pitching to agents and you have the opportunity to pitch to them in person (to allow a face to face conversation) take it! A five minute conversation can tell you so much about the other person, and a two-way conversation allows you to see if they are on the same wavelength about your book

If you’ve spent time perfecting your craft, your book is well-written and enticing, your success now is going to rely a lot on being in the right place at the right time, connecting with the right agent/publisher, and persistence

Related to this: make the most of any writing related networking events you are invited to. Sometimes introductions to the right people means you are noticed and remembered when submitting/pitching

Don’t send your book out to one agent at a time. Any agent who says they want an exclusive read is worth avoiding (unless you’ve made some sort of personal connection with them, but even then I would say no- you’ll find out why in my next blog post). They can take six months, or more, to get back to you (IF AT ALL – the ghosting is real). A lot of very successful authors have had their manuscripts rejected 20 + times, so do your maths on that one. if they were sending them out one at a time, waiting months for responses

Forge friendships with creatives who understand the pain of the ups and downs of this journey. If you detect jealousy and negativity try to spend more time with people who lift you up. Trust me, at ALL times in this weird creative world, even when folk think you are doing well, you need to surround yourself with positive people

And to help us all keep the faith, some famous rejections:

Lisa Genova, Still Alice: about 100 rejections (or non-replies) from agents (info from Lithub.com)

After getting very little positive feedback, Genova opted to self-publish her book. Eventually, it was acquired and re-issued by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and proceeded to spend 40 weeks on the New York Times best seller list, and was made into a film.

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife: 25 rejections from agents.

After getting rejected by 25 agents, Niffenegger sent the book directly to a small San Francisco publisher, where an editor discovered and loved it. It became a best seller and was also made into a film.

One of my favourite books of recent years was Lessons in Chemistry. Here’s an interview with author Bonnie Garmus at Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper (you can read the full interview here https://www.mariashriversundaypaper.com/bonnie-garmus-lessons-in-chemistry/) – Did you indeed receive 98 rejections before Lessons in Chemistry?

“Yes! And they were all from agents. What happened was I had written a novel that was approximately 700 pages…Finally, agent number 98 said that she would read part of it…She wrote back the next day and said, ‘You write well, but you don’t understand this industry…’ The email was pretty nasty, but it was also a very big help. She said, ‘No one’s going to look at a debut author’s 700-page novel—ever. Do yourself a favor and write a novel of appropriate length, and you can send me that when you finish’—which I never did. But that all turned into Lessons in Chemistry. I started completely new. “

Reading these stats makes me realise I’ve never been this persistent. Talent, persistence and resilience. These are the magic ingredients.

Happy 2025

Posted on by vgemmell

I was lucky enough to extend my festive holiday this year and flew off to sunny skies just as my office was re-opening. A dose of sunshine and relaxation was the perfect way to recharge and have space to reflect on my writing and what I want to achieve in 2025.

I often find when I’m away from everyday life the creative and ‘ideas’ side of my brain really wakes up. I even managed to ‘type’ a short story in my phone while I was sitting out on my balcony in the sun. Having space to think properly also allowed me to reflect on how I could use my blog here in a bit more of a consistent and creative way.

A lot of young people (and adults!) I come into contact with who have an interest in writing are yet to find supportive communities, and don’t know where to start when delving into the world of writing.

Often when I do school or community workshops I’m asked questions around the practical side of writing, as well as my own experiences and how I have approached things.  I realised there is a lot I could write about on here, starting with where my writing journey began, and all of the different experiences and creative projects/competitions/workshops I have found to be helpful along the way.

I am no expert by any means within the industry, or a big success, but what I’ve had are real experiences – mostly good, sometimes deflating- over a large period of my life, a lot of which I was lucky enough to be introduced to thanks to being immersed in a supportive writing community (which started with a supportive writing Mum).

Over the years I’ve submitted short stories to competitions/journals, and then started to pitch books to a range of agents/publishers, met with them face to face, made it to publication then changed course so had to go back out on submission; had zoom pitches, a chat with an editor when I made the final seven in a big competition. I’ve faced numerous rejections, been ghosted, and most recently delved into independent publishing. I’ve attended writing festivals/workshops/talks/retreats, absorbed advice from top authors, agents, publishers and other writers of all levels of experience.

After my first book was released I started to deliver creative writing workshops and talks in schools, libraries, community venues, small book festivals, rooms to an audience of three… Adjudicated competitions for writing groups, bigger conferences (and even adapted my workshop to an online version during an unexpected lockdown!). I’ve organised in-person and online book launches, written press releases, been interviewed for a magazine and over the phone by a journalist.

I’ve kept my creative momentum going by setting myself numerous silly and engaging creative challenges over the years, which is good to remind myself about, as often when writing starts to feel too serious/stressful it’s good to take some time out to remember how to be creative. I know a massive challenge of any creative is staying motivated.

That was a bit of a brain dump list but introduces some themes I hope to focus on.

I remember reading once that writing should be treated like an apprenticeship; that it’s a journey of learning. I started my ‘apprenticeship’ way back in primary school and I am still very much learning. Every new writing project I start, I want to be better.

This year I hope to start a new type of writing project, and plan to go back out on submission again to try to secure an agent, which I am sure will bring a whole lot of new experiences and learning.

You can get all of my posts into your email inbox if you subscribe (on my homepage).

I plan to give honest insights into the behind the scenes of what a writing life for me has looked like so far (and new experiences going forward), with links to any interesting groups or writing related sites/comps I come across.

The first post will be going live next week.

Wishing you lots of success in your own writing this year, and just a reminder it’s okay not to feel dynamic in January. If you are still Wintering, take that time to relax and recharge!