My Road To Publication

My debut novel, a psychological thriller called Keep You Safe is published on 17th August. It follows the story of Natalie, who is convicted of a crime she can’t remember committing and separated from her baby son, Harry, for over three years. Her husband has divorced her and taken their son to live on the Isle of Man, a place where Natalie has no legal rights. Once released she sets out to find him, knowing that his life is in danger. But who can she trust?

I still can’t quite believe that I’ve made it through the whole process: from writing the book, to finding an agent, to securing a publishing deal and all the rounds of editing and proofreading that come after that, to make a story into a published novel.

Every author has a different experience of getting published. This is mine.

I started taking creative writing seriously seven years ago, when I turned fifty, a landmark birthday in anyone’s life, and I thought, if I’m ever going to write a novel, I better get started! I would have to admit that my first effort took a very long time to write and was not great, but you have to start somewhere and I knew there was an awful lot to learn. I got some positive feedback on my first book, which went something like… we like the way you write, but we’re not mad about the story. So I put that to one side and after a year of not writing, telling myself there was no point, I started again, putting everything I’d learned into the second book, which has now become Keep You Safe.  

Writing the book has been like watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly and has been an enthralling process. My story started as a romantic mystery, until I pitched to an agent at a literary festival and she said she liked my writing, but thought my book would be better re-worked as a psychological thriller as my voice was perfect for this genre. I was excited and appalled in equal measure, because although psychological thrillers are my favourites, I didn’t think I had the patience or the skill to work out clever plot twists.

However, with the support of the agent, I managed to get an outline together and off I went with the rewrite, which, I have to say, was a lot of fun. Turns out I like being in the bad guy’s head and I really like a good fight scene! I’d found my genre.

Unfortunately, the agent I was working with decided she had taken me as far as she could and my story needed something extra to take it to the right level, so we parted ways. Okay, I’ll admit I cried. It felt like the end of the road because I’d tried so hard. However, my daughter had other ideas and having read my manuscript and shared it with her university housemates, they came up with the perfect idea to make it better.

I got stuck in to another re-write, excited by the new shape of the story. By this time, I’d learnt a lot more about the publishing industry and when I was ready, I knew which agent I wanted to work with – Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV and Film Agency – as they represented a number of authors I really admired – Caroline Mitchell, CL Taylor, Fiona Barton and CJ Tudor, to name a few. I was astounded when, on the same day I put in my submission, the agents replied asking for the full manuscript! A few weeks later, I was signed up and ready to go. Their enthusiasm for my story was overwhelming and just the confidence boost I needed.

They had a careful look at my manuscript and we went through a couple of rounds of edits to tighten up the plot and expand the prison scenes, to really get the emotional pull for the reader. As a first time author, having an editor to work with was such a delight, I flew through the work, committed to making the story the best it could be. I had deadlines, and a list of things to achieve, which gave me a challenge. And I love nothing better than a challenge!

Once my agents were happy with the manuscript, it was submitted to digital publishers, as in their view, this was the best place for me. Bookouture responded quickly, signed me up for a two book deal and seven months later, my book is about to be published.

Throughout all the changes, the first scene of the book has stayed the same, together with the central theme of a mother separated from her son by an injustice. The idea came to me as I was sitting on a ferry, doing the same journey to the Isle of Man as my heroine, Natalie. I could clearly visualise her and my hero, Jack, could hear their conversation in my head. And from there I kept asking myself why. Why would she be separated from her son? Why would there be danger? Until the plot started to develop.

Inevitably, Keep You Safe contains pieces of my life experiences, but it also contains an awful lot of research for the prison sections, which involved hours of watching documentaries and reading prison reports. I can tell you that was an eye-opener. I have always been an empathetic person, able to see both sides of a situation, with an imagination vivid enough to bring me to tears on behalf of others.

All of that went into the character development because you have to live in your character’s lives, let them fill your head, experience the emotions they are going through if you are going to describe what they are feeling with any sort of authenticity. I ended up feeling so much sorrow and anger at the justice system and how women are treated as criminals rather than the victim they often are.

I am so proud of Keep You Safe and it is immensely satisfying to see the positive reviews, telling me that readers are enjoying it.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing