How to Hook an Agent

On Saturday I went to a Writers and Artists event at Bloomsbury Publishing in London.  There were supposed to be only eighteen of us aspiring authors (actually there were about double that number) and four agents. None-the-less the morning was really informative and quite interactive and we all had a chance to write a hook for our book.

Mine went like this:

If Judith wants to be your friend, she’ll make it happen. She’ll follow you and get to know you, whether you want her to or not.

During lunch we each disappeared from the table to have a 1:1 ‘speed dating’ session with one of the agents. I was first on the list to see Lucy Luck. She read my synopsis (even though she doesn’t like them), gave me some feedback and suggested I submit my first three chapters to her agency.  I have done it this evening.

Right before leaving I had the chance to speak to Madeleine Milburn. About six months ago I submitted three chapters to her agency and she asked to see my whole manuscript (it was a ‘no’ in the end). I was flattered that she remembered so much about it and she was VERY complimentary about my writing.   

Most importantly, she gave me some really good, specific and constructive feedback on how to improve it. That’s my job for the next week or two.

NaNoWriMo 2012

1st November brought with it National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Once again I am going to try for 50 000 words of a new novel. The idea is that you knock out nearly 2000 words per day for 30 days to give the raw material from which to write the next big thing.

So far I have done 5714 words which means that I am behind the average required by 2619 already. I have caught up a bit since Saturday night so feeling confident. I am going to spend almost the whole of Thursday writing, including a NaNo-meet-up in a café in Kendal at 4.30pm. As I understand it, we won't talk to each other, we'll just sit there scribbling away for an hour.  We'll see.

Any other Cumbrian NaNos going?