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Determined as I am to add value to my readers, always  – I’ll start by telling you the easiest way to write a plot twist.

Answer: you don’t. You write a compelling, interesting narrative that doesn’t have a plot twist anywhere.

This is advice I live by. If I think back over my fiction, I can think of almost nothing that boasts a honest-to-God plot twist. In all my books, I have only one proper plot twist (and even then, I don’t think most readers or critics commented on the twist specifically; they gave a broader view about the entire book.)

Now, admitting that my books mostly don’t have plot twists is not at all the same thing as saying they’re dull. I blooming well hope they’re not. On the contrary, I hope they’re full of surprise and hope my readers never quite know where the book will be going next.

But a twist is different from a surprise. Here’s the difference:

A plot surprise

Something happens that is perfectly in keeping with what’s gone before. There may even have been some kind of foreshadowing. But the surprise does not unsettle a reader’s expectation, because the reader had not formed any particular expectation in relation to this particular issue.

Examples of this kind of surprise are plentiful. In The Dead House, Fiona spends a long time draining a boring-looking pond. The reader has no idea what she’s going to find. When she finds the (previously flooded) entrance to a cave, the reader is surprised. (“Good heavens! A cave! I never expected that!”) But they’re not unsettled. They simply had no idea what the whole pond-drainage thing was leading up to.

Readers are gripped because they want to know what significance the cave has. But they’re not confounded or startled, because they didn’t have any prior expectations about what might be the case.

A plot twist

For something to count as a plot twist, the plot movement needs to surprise, of course. It also needs to be perfectly consistent with what’s gone before. There may well have been some rather subtle foreshadowing that only makes sense in retrospect.

But in addition – and this is the new element – the plot development needs to overturn, and violently overturn, an assumption that the reader had previously held with total confidence.

There are a ton of examples of twists such as these. In Hitchcock’s Psycho, we simply assume that Janet Leigh – the huge star at the heart of the film – will at the very least survive to the last 10 minutes. (After all: she’s a huge star, she’s box office gold, and the first half of the film centres on her almost completely.)

It’s not that the viewer consciously wonders whether Leigh will survive or not. They simply assume they know how movies work, and you don’t kill the film’s obvious lead character in the middle of the film. But Hitchcock did exactly that – and the film swerved off in an utterly unpredictable direction.

In Clare Macintosh’s debut hit, I Let You Go, we assume that the lead (first person) character has one particular relationship to a dead child. It turns out that the relationship is very different from what we think.

In Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, we assume that Amy’s diaries (in the first half of the book) can be taken at face value. In the middle of the book – well, we discover something different.

And so on. 

Why readers love plot twists – and whether you need one

Naturally, a surprise that comes with the added force of confounded the reader both seems more surprising and also carries a whiff of technical bravado. (“You want a twist, baby? Look at this little beauty!”) There’s something of the circus trick about them, a difficult manoeuvre carried out with dazzle.

That performative quality is why, I think, readers love twists and tend to comment on them. With works like Psycho, I Let You Go and Gone Girl, you just don’t hear critical commentary that doesn’t home in on the plot twist itself.

And of course, if you want to think about embedding a twist in your book, the place to start is always with the reader’s own expectations.

The one time I’ve written a book with a proper twist, I worked hard to embed the expectation – and then overturn it. The sequence ran roughly like this:

1. Get the reader to think that art-thieves have stumbled onto real-life evidence of a major Arthurian artefact. (‘King’ Arthur was almost certainly not a king, but it’s perfectly plausible that there was a major British warlord of that name who fought and won a major battle against the Saxons. So for someone to find archaeological evidence of his existence would be unlikely, but not at all absurd. For what it’s worth, I think that warlord probably did exist, it’s just that no one can prove it.)
2. Reinforce that expectation by making it clear that other people around Fiona share it – and grown-up people too: academic archaeologists, the police, and so on.
3. Foreshadow and hint at the truth, but in a way no one could possibly understand.
4. Boom! Overturn the expectation abruptly and unexpectedly.
5. At the same time make it clear that, if you look carefully, there’s only one way to read the sequence of events up to this point. So the view that the reader (and lots of others held) was actually impossible to sustain.
6. Develop the book along the new lines. More surprises may follow, but (probably) no more actual twists

If you like the whole twist idea, it’s worth taking time just to think through what expectations your reader has – or could have, if you went to the trouble of building false expectations. The more solid and unquestioned those expectations, the more enjoyable the act of exploding them will be.

Once you have that basic notion, you just need to backfill with everything else: embed those expectations as carefully as you can, foreshadow the real truth, detonate as explosively and loudly as you can.

That, my old buddies, is the art of the plot twist. As I say, it’s not actually a route I’ve travelled down all that much and it’s definitely not essential to writing a great book – not even if, like me, you dwell in crime-thriller-land, where twists are much talked about.

That’s me done for this week, old buddies. Have a lovely weekend.

Friday Night Live shortlisted author, Felicia Yap, was snapped up by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown soon after our 2015 Festival of Writing. Her brilliant high-concept thriller 'Yesterday' was bought by Headline’s Alex Clarke for a six-figure sum. Her latest title, 'Future Perfect', was also published by Headline in March 2021. Felicia has had an expansive and divergent career; we spoke to her about how you can use multiple interests to inform and add texture to your writing.

JW: Hi Felicia! It's great to talk to you. Could you start by telling us about yourself as a writer? When did you start writing?

FY: I started out as a journalist. I wrote newspaper articles from the age of nineteen (for The Economist and The Business Times, amongst other publications). Later on, I became a historian at the University of Cambridge and spent years writing academic papers about the Second World War. I only began writing fiction properly after the idea for my debut novel 'Yesterday' came to me; the concept struck me on my way to a dance studio in Cambridge. I started writing the next day and I’m glad I did.

JW: Tell us about your journey to publication. Were there any events or resources that helped you along the way?

FY: I was fortunate to be shortlisted for the Friday Night Live competition at the Festival of Writing in 2015. It was a joy to read the opening paragraphs of 'Yesterday' to a large audience in York; I was thrilled by how the audience responded. It made me confident that my story began decently – which in turn made me twice as determined to finish my manuscript.

"Nothing in life is ever wasted when it comes to writing."

JW: So, you got your agent – what happened next?

FY: I did an extensive round of edits with my agent. He then sent out my manuscript and it went to auction in multiple territories.

JW: What happened at the auction?  

FY: I had the wonderful privilege of speaking to several editors in both the United Kingdom and America, to find out if we shared similar visions for the manuscript. It was an exciting time.

JW: You’ve had a multi-hyphenate career, including working as a radioactive-cell biologist, a war historian, and a technology journalist. How have your different career paths informed your writing?

FY: I have drawn on technical elements and knowledge from the professional orbits I've moved through. I have also incorporated sensory details from these worlds. My second novel 'Future Perfect' combines high fashion with technology; the book is set in the near future where computers will be able to predict how we will live and when we will die. The first chapter is told by a model who carries a bomb down a catwalk in Manhattan. I used to be a runway model and wrote quite a few articles on detection/prediction technologies for The Economist in the past. 'Yesterday' contains spoof academic papers and science articles in the house styles of the publications I have contributed to. Nothing in life is ever wasted when it comes to writing.

JW: Do you have any tips for balancing writing alongside other, seemingly divergent pursuits?

FY: My unorthodox pursuits have stemmed from curiosity; I’m fascinated by the delicious possibilities out there, the things worth trying and doing. I’m convinced that divergent activities can enrich a person’s life (and one’s writing), especially the quirky ones. Life is too short not to be embraced fully. If one truly enjoys one’s pursuits, balance will come naturally.

JW: Your writing balances being very high concept whilst at the same time achieving the complexity of a murder mystery. How do you approach this?

FY: I normally begin with the concept and iron out the details later. Both my novels were inspired by conundrums, questions I knew I would be happy spending two years of my life figuring out the answers to. 'Yesterday' grew out of the question: ‘How do you solve a murder if you only remember yesterday?’ While 'Future Perfect' was inspired by the concept: ‘What if today were your last day?’ Yet, high concepts are merely empty canvases on which to hang narratives. What makes a story sparkle are the tiny yet lively details that populate it.

JW: Is your writing more research-driven or informed by the experiences you’ve already had?

FY: All my writing is informed by personal experience, the things I have done or encountered  (or eavesdropped on). I try to set my stories in places that I have visited before or know well. This is because the five senses are crucial in the art of storytelling, especially their rich alchemy. Stories come alive when readers can feel, touch, hear, taste and see what the characters are experiencing. I believe that one can only write about the five senses convincingly if one has experienced them in the magical amalgamation unique to a particular location.

I also do a lot of research but only after I have completed the first drafts of my manuscripts. It helps to know what you don’t know, so that you can ask the right people the right sort of questions.

"High concepts are merely empty canvases on which to hang narratives. What makes a story sparkle are the tiny yet lively details that populate it."

JW: Do you think that your experience as a journalist had an impact on your writing?

FY: Most certainly. The first paragraph of The Economist Style Guide continues to resonate with me. It says: “Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible.”

JW: Were there any other resources you found helpful along the way?

I did a couple of writing courses; they helped me understand the basic ‘rules’ of storytelling and gave me some appreciation of form, structure, and technique. It helps to know the rules if you hope to break them. More importantly, the courses put me in touch with other writers. Many of my classmates have since become good friends and we still send our works-in-progress to each other for critical feedback.

"It helps to know the rules if you hope to break them."

JW: What are you working on next?

FY: I wish I could tell you but I’m afraid it might jinx what I’m currently working on. Even my long-suffering partner Alex hasn’t got a clue!

About Felicia

Felicia Yap is the author of the speculative literary thrillers 'Future Perfect' and 'Yesterday', published in multiple languages around the world. She has worked as a radioactive-cell biologist, a war historian, a university lecturer, a technology journalist, a theatre critic, a flea-market trader, and a catwalk model.

Read more about Felicia Yap on her website.

FUTURE PERFECT

YESTERDAY

Follow Felicia Yap on Twitter at @FeliciaMYap

It isn’t easy, to become a children’s book author. From deciphering endless submission requirements to learning that your dream children's book publisher doesn’t accept submissions from authors without an agent, it can be difficult finding the right home for your work.

In this article, I will endeavour to make the process of getting a children’s book published a bit clearer for you, as well as include my top picks for children’s book publishers. Because let’s face it, there are a lot of options out there, and you should be armed with the best possible knowledge out there.

You’ll learn the submission requirements for some of the top children’s book publishers, as well as some examples of children’s books these companies have already published so that you can choose a publisher that aligns with your current book. 

Still plotting your next book and unsure if you are writing at a level that’s optimal for children? I encourage you to read our existing post regarding everything you need to know about creating a children’s book, from start to finish!

Now, onto the publishers.

Best Children’s Book Publishers

Before I discuss some of the top children’s book publishers and their most successful children’s books, I should note that not all children’s book publishers accept submissions directly from authors. Some only accept submissions from literary agents, and you should keep this in mind before falling in love with any one publisher.

It is also important to know which category your work falls under. While this may not seem necessary right away, some publishers may only be looking for certain submissions at certain times. And some children’s book publishers may not even accept certain varieties of children’s books. 

The most common submission types are as follows: 

• Children’s fiction
• Children’s non-fiction
• Children’s picture books/board books

Of course, you can also further divide children's fiction and nonfiction by age group/demographic (middle grade fiction and nonfiction, YA/young adult books, chapter books etc), and by genre too (fantasy, action/adventure, romance etc) which further complicates the process of researching children's book publishers.

If you are unsure if your current manuscript meets any of these categories, you may wish to consider our Children’s Manuscript Assessment program. Through this editing service, our  team of editors will read your entire manuscript and give you structured editorial feedback that you can use to craft your work into shape. If your editor thinks your work is ready, we’ll also help you find the right agent, for free.

Now, let’s get onto the children's book publishers. Keep in mind that the following is only a summary list of some of the best children’s book publishers and that many more exist. I do hope that one of these choices suits your publishing needs perfectly!

1. Bloomsbury Children’s Books USA

With offices around the world and prominent publishing houses in both the US and the UK, Bloomsbury Books is a top contender for children’s book publishing. Established in 1986, Bloomsbury has many popular children’s book authors across every age group. Their YA fiction has grown increasingly popular, their authors often topping the New York Times Bestseller list.

Their kid’s division covers all books for any age, from picture books to young adult novels. Bloomsbury is known for publishing high fantasy YA fiction and heartwarming tales that help provide kid-friendly entry points into emotional intelligence topics. Some of their most popular authors and series are Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival and Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer. 

The unfortunate news is that, unless you have a YA book ready to go, Bloomsbury only accepts submissions from a literary agent. However, feel free to take a look at their website for any more useful information, including their various adult and children’s book authors.

2. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, known as HMH for short, has gone through a few changes in its recent past. Now known as either Clarion Books or Mariner Books, this company has been a mainstay in children’s publishing since 1832. From board books to graphic novels, HMH publishes just about any children’s book you can think of.

HMH has worked hard to develop programs for more unique voices in publishing, including new authors in their children’s publishing division. Entitled VERSIFY, this fantastic publishing program reflects a need for accessible and powerful prose and poetry—in children’s picture books, novels, and nonfiction. HMH strives to publish work that can celebrate the lives and reflect the possibilities of all children.

For the most part, HMH is an agent-only submission publishing house. However, their VERSIFY program does accept unsolicited submissions during certain parts of the year. Learn more about HMH and its various submission opportunities here. 

3. Holiday House

Established in 1935 as a publishing company for young readers, Holiday House is a wonderful organization to submit your children’s book to. Their books are processed and distributed as a division of Penguin Random House, and they publish children’s books from ages 4 and up. From picture books to nonfiction informational handbooks, they are publishing some of the most creative and educational children’s books out there.

Given their commitment to education and teaching children about major childhood themes, their website’s search engine for currently published books is in-depth and informative. From young readers books such as Lunch Box Bully by Hans Wilhelm to riveting and humorous YA fantasy like the Devil series by Donna Hosie, Holiday House no doubt publishes something for every kid in your life.

Holiday House does indeed accept unsolicited submissions, which is great news for those of you without an agent. They don’t have the time to respond to every submission that they receive, but they will of course reach out if your manuscript interests them. You can learn more about their variety of books, list of awards received, and their submission process here. 

4. Chicago Review Press

An independent publisher founded in 1973, the Chicago Review Press strictly publishes nonfiction, including an award-winning selection of children’s nonfiction. They are firm in their desire when it comes to children’s picture books: they do not accept them, whether fiction or nonfiction. However, that doesn’t mean you are completely out of luck. If you have a fantastic nonfiction book for children, their submission process is clear and easy to follow on their website!

While nonfiction children’s activity books are their bread and butter, their topics range broadly, from the history of American environmentalism all the way to Salvador Dali. There are a lot of perks to publishing with a small independent publisher, including the fact that they accept unsolicited submissions without an agent. If your book fits the niche that is the Chicago Review Press, they are an award-winning publisher that would be happy to have your nonfiction children’s workbook!

5. Flashlight Press

Looking for another publisher searching for very specific submission guidelines? Check out the specificity needed from Flashlight Press, a children’s book publisher hunting exclusively for books that explore and illuminate the touching and humorous moments of family situations and social interactions through captivating writing and outstanding illustrations. What does this mean, exactly?

Well, if your book targets 4–8 year olds, is under 1000 words, and has a universal theme fitting with many other Flashlight Press titles, you may have found a home for your book! Their titles vary wildly in themes, but all of them have to do with childhood themes and concerns. All of the books tend to tackle these themes with a sense of humor, such as I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, and Carla’s Sandwich by Debbie Herman. 

So long as you are familiar with the rest of Flashlight Press’s work and think your book has a similar thematic feel, their submission process is easy. Feel free to submit without an agent too, and check out Flashlight’s website here.

6. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

An American publishing company started in 1924, Simon & Schuster is a powerhouse, capable of publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints. Their children’s publishing division is just as lauded and award winning, and they publish just about anything ages 0-12 as well as everything young adult. 

There’s no shortage of award-winning selections published by Simon & Schuster, including the ever-popular To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series by Jenny Han, and the City Spies series by James Ponti. Simon & Schuster may not be the easiest publishing company to publish with for your first book, especially because they don’t accept submissions without an agent. However, they should definitely be a publishing company to reach for as you grow as a children’s author! Learn more about them here.

7. Chronicle Books

San Francisco-based favorite Chronicle Books has a wonderful eye for the unique and aesthetic storyteller. Their children’s books are beloved and unique, and this small independent publisher receives more than 1,000 submissions a month for their YA department alone! They publish most children’s books ideas, including activity books, art books, board books, picture books, chapter books, young adult, games, and gift and stationery items.

While they accept a wide variety of children’s publishing themes, it is important to note that, since Chronicle receives so many submissions, they are hoping for the most unique and innovative stories out there. No pressure, right? At any rate, check out their submission process and desires here!

8. Ladybird Books

UK-based and another division of the Penguin Group, Ladybird books is perfect if you’ve got a bedtime story to tell. Their lineup of children’s books is primarily geared toward younger audiences, from toddlers to roughly age ten. They have many award winning series published under their name, including many Peppa Pig books. 

Their offerings also include a long list of informative nonfiction titles, such as books about the human body and our natural world. While publishing for any division of Penguin may seem complicated at first, they have provided an easy to read guide regarding their submission process. I believe having an agent would be useful if you are hoping to submit to any Penguin Group. 

9. Quirk Books

Looking for a smaller publishing agency for your unique and captivating children’s book? Publishing only around 25 books a year, Quirk Books is based in Philadelphia and is searching for the most original, cool, and fun ideas out there. Is your book creative enough for Quirk? It’s one of my favorite publishing companies, having taken the helm on series such as the Miss Peregrine anthology by Ransom Riggs.

Quirk Books has a very informative and helpful submission page, found here. They have clearly outlined books that they are interested in, as well as appropriate emails for your submissions. From popular YA series to nonfiction books for young readers, Quirk publishes just about anything, so long as it’s quirky.

10. August House Publishers

A more traditional publishing company, August House Publishers are seeking children’s book authors committed to folktales, diverse and memorable. They enjoy stories from many diverse backgrounds, as well as stories that work well as oral tales, stories meant to be passed on from generation to generation. They also have a soft spot for scary stories and stories that can be used in a classroom environment. 

August House is committed to children’s publishing, and there’s no shortage of awards gifted to them for such a commitment. If you have a picture book made especially for young readers or a story related to folktales, stories from the oral tradition, stories from diverse cultures, scary stories and resource books about using stories or storytelling in the classroom, August House Publishers may be the right choice for you. You can email them and learn more about their submission process here.

More Great Children's Book Publishers

11. Macmillan Children's Books

12. Hot Key Books

13. David Fickling Books

14. Balzer And Bray

15. Quarto Kids

16. Usborne Publishing

17. Hachette Children's Group

18. Little, Brown Books

19. Scholastic, Inc.

20. Lerner Publishing Group

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Is The Biggest Publisher Of Children's Books?

There are several big children's book publishers, including: Bloomsbury; Simon & Schuster; Ladybird books; Macmillan Children's Books; Usborne Publishing; Hachette Children's Group; Scholastic, Inc.; and Little, Brown Books.

How Do You Submit A Children's Book To A Publisher?

To submit a children's book to a publisher, you first need to decide whether you want to find a literary agent first, contact the publisher directly (rare, but not impossible), or self-publish. It's helpful to do some research beforehand to find out where your book fits in the market (in terms of age range, genre, hook etc). Then, ensure your manuscript is as well-edited and finely tuned as you can make it, and then proceed to query agents, contact publishers, or begin the self-publishing process; whichever is applicable. Make sure that you carefully read the agent's/publisher's submission guidelines before sending your work to them.

How Long Does It Take To Publish A Children's Book?

As with any book, it can take quite a while to publish a children's book. Between coming up with the initial idea, planning, writing, researching, editing, and contacting literary agents/publishers or self-publishing, it requires a lot of time and effort. How much time varies widely on a case-by-case basis, but, from start to finish, it generally takes around 1-3 years. Of course, this is an approximation, and some books are published in far less time, while others take much longer to be published. Whether you choose to be traditionally published or self-published also makes a big difference.

How Much Do You Make Selling A Children's Book?

How much authors make from writing a children's book depends on whether they've already published successful books or have an existing audience, whether they have foreign rights, and even things like how recently the book was released can affect sales figures. Writers generally get an advance; the amount of which can vary based on the popularity of the book's topic, whether they're a first time author or an experienced one, and many other factors. If the book has illustrations, the author will split the royalties with the illustrator (unless the author is also the illustrator), so they will both get around 3.5-6% of the book's sale price, rather than 7-10% royalites for the author of a non-illustrated children's book. If you have an agent, a proportion of your royalties will also go to them.

Conclusion

While I hope you found a few excellent children’s book publishers from this list, do keep in mind that there are many more that are worth your consideration. Whether you have an agent or not, there are always publishers seeking the best new stories out there. Yours could very well be one of them!

What are some of your top publisher picks for your children’s book? Are you still crafting your book? I encourage you to take some time exploring our website for many publishing resources, and perhaps consider joining the world’s leading online writers club! Happy writing!

I’ve never really been a sailor, but I’ve done some mucking around in dinghies on lakes and on the coast. At one point, my dad, thinking that I should actually learn something about the craft, gave me a book about it. I don’t now remember the difference between a halliard and a shroud, but I remember one section quite clearly. There was a long and patient discussion of rights of way on the water – who gives way to whom, and that sort of thing. The discussion ended with this verse:

Here lies the body of Mike O’Day
Who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sailed along,
But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.

It’s a ditty that I urge you bear in mind. Here are three reasons why:

Copyright

A lot of authors, especially indies, are anxious to Protect Their Copyright. Back in the day, people used to mail themselves sealed, dated packages containing their manuscript. More sensibly, you can register your work with the US Copyright Office, at the cost of some manageable fees and some tiresome form-filling.

And OK, if you want to do it, do it. (Any competent publisher will do the legal basics for you, and you can always check to see that they have.) But here’s the thing: let’s say you have the world’s most bullet-proof copyright registration in the world. Let’s say you have film of Barack Obama solemnly testifying, his hand upon the Great Seal of the United States, that he watched you and you alone write your manuscript. Ok, great – but so what?

If your book is popular, it’ll be pirated. Sleazy crooks, probably based in Russia, will rip off your book and make pirate copies available online.

What then? What do you do? It’s not like there’s some Interpol of Copyright staffed by a combination of Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise and the like. There’s literally no one who’s going to help you. So, sure, you could sue, but you’d have to go to a Russian court to do it (and good luck with that.) And even if you did that and won, the crooks would just pull down one pirate site and pop up a duplicate site two weeks later.

I can prove to you that you won’t defeat piracy, as follows:

1. You’re not as well-resourced or experienced in fighting piracy as Penguin Random House
2. PRH books are pirated all the time
3. So your book will be pirated too, assuming anyone can bother to do it

Which all sounds terrible, except that almost no one gets their books from pirate sites and plenty of people make plenty of money from books. So the problem can’t be that bad.

Contracts

You sign a contract with a top publisher. They make various commitments and you take those undertakings in good faith.

But it’s not unheard of for big publishers to break their contractual commitments. It’s happened to me, more than once. It used to be really quite common. Now, I think, it happens a bit less than it used to, but it still happens.

So let’s say a publisher breaks a contract with you. Let’s say, they commit to publishing three books. They publish one and it doesn’t do well. They bring out the hardback of #2 and it doesn’t do great. Meanwhile, corporate shenanigans mean the entire imprint is being reduced in size, so you get an email telling you sorry, there won’t be a paperback of #2 and they won’t bring out book #3 at all. That story isn’t made up. That exact thing happened to a friend of mine.

(And what’s more, the whole communications round the episode were terrible. It would be one thing for you editor to call, or take you out to lunch, and say, “Look buddy, I’ve got terrible news and I feel awful.” Quite another to get a blunt email from someone in Contracts you’ve never even met. I might also add that there was nothing wrong at all with the books – the same author has a great career elsewhere now. The sales failure was entirely on the publisher’s side.)

So what do you do?

You have in black and white a contract signed with full faith and credit of a very large corporation, undertaking that they WILL do X.

You could – you really could – go to court and seek an injunction compelling the so-and-sos to do what they’d promised. But in the first place, the publisher would probably deny they’d caused commercial harm. In the second place, a publisher forced by court-action to publish a book is hardly likely to do a great job with it. And third: what next? The great publishers of the world are unlikely to want an author who’s willing to sue them.

In other words, there’s damn all you can do. (Or almost damn all: you should make a big, bloody fuss because someone might offer you some apology-money, and because you thoroughly deserve to have your feelings known and recognised.)

But legally speaking? You are Mike O’Day: right, but powerless in your rightness.

Agents

Same thing here. With agents, the issues don’t tend to be contractual exactly, as the author/agent contract is often pleasantly brief. But there IS an implicit contract, nevertheless, which runs as follows:

• You will sell your work only via the agent (with a little carve out for direct-to-reader selling, via self-pub – and even then, that should always be talked about first.)
• The agent will represent your work and manage your career
• If anything happens to disturb that understanding, you’ll both talk about it like grown-ups

Often though, that’s just not how it turns out. I know of well-known agents at absolutely first-class agencies who have simply discontinued any kind of comms with no-longer wanted authors (even, in one case that springs to mind, when that author was actually a bestseller in her own country.)

So, quite possibly, the agent you think it going to take care of your career simply exits, stage left, with no proper discussion or handover. And even though your contract is with Big Agency, LLC, not with Jane Jones of Big Agency, LLC, it turns out that Big Agency has literally no interest in taking care of you if and when Jane Jones decides to wash her hands of you.

Is that fair?

It is not.

Is there ‘owt you can do about it?

There is not.

Sandy O'Donnnell

So where does that leave you? You should sail your career like a wiser Mike O’Day. You take care of your copyright, your contracts, your agents and all the rest of it as professionally as intelligently as you can.

You will do that, and people may still – unreasonably and uncontractually – mess you around. You are welcome to scream. You are welcome to feel peeved. But the thing you do after that is get back to your desk, so you can start writing another book.

Here lies the body of Sandy O’Donnell
Who never again would write a novel.
An agent betrayed her, a publisher lied –
And instead of just working, she sat down and cried.

Do not be like her.

Hi everyone!

Today I'm introducing you to the wonderful Ren from Janklow & Nesbit.

As a new agent, Ren started building their own client list just last year. However, having worked at the agency as an assistant to Will Francis since 2016, they've gained a significant amount of agenting insight from the various agents, authors, and books they've worked with during this time.

Ren has previously worked as a Library Shelver, Library Assistant and Bookseller, so they have ample experience in the world of books! They also have a BA in English & Creative Writing from the University of Chichester. Ren predominantly works with sci-fi and fantasy, along with some contemporary queer fiction.

Think Ren could be perfect for your book? Well, you're in for a treat. They are one of many agents who are offering one-to-one sessions this summer. This is our bespoke service offering both valuable and personal feedback on your work from leading literary agencies in the UK and the US. Ren also kindly took some time to provide us with an excellent and in-depth interview.

Please read below for some highlights from the interview, including what Ren's looking for, some advice for querying writers, their passions outside of the literary realm, and more.

You can see Ren's full interview on their AgentMatch profile.

"I'm excited by good dialogue, strong scene setting, and a hint that the character is full of facets that we'll spend the novel exploring."

Hi Ren! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. We can't wait to learn more about your literary tastes and how you approach submissions.

Q. What's at the top of your fiction wish-list? What authors do you love? What kind of books?

My favourite authors have for a long time included the SFF classics—Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula le Guin—though I also very much enjoy discovering more recent authors such as Aiden Thomas, Tamsyn Muir and Anna-Marie McLemore. I love SFF most when it covers serious topics in a meaningful way while also enjoying itself. I'm also open to more contemporary queer fiction—I loved Juliet Takes A Breath and Everything Leads To You.

I‚Äôm looking for fantastical stories with diverse casts, for stories of complex lives and queer joy particularly. Already, certain themes are emerging in the books I'm taking on—found family, queer and neurodivergent protagonists, magic employed in an interesting way. I live for complex worldbuilding that really impacts the story—a living, changing world rather than a rigid, encyclopaedic backdrop. I want to be surprised, entranced and delighted by the stories I read and represent.

Q. What do you want to see in a query letter? And what do you hate?

Query letters are one of the easiest parts of a submission to write, but because it's often the first thing agents and editors see, it's hard not to overthink it. A query letter should include the title of your book and word count rounded to the nearest thousand, a brief summary (the elevator pitch, if you like), and any relevant biographical information about the writer (e.g. previous publications, prizes, other ongoing projects). If there's a particular reason why you're sharing it with me, tell me why!

Pet hates in query letters are different for everyone, so it's best to simply be friendly and professional. I can usually tell when someone's trying to come off as quirky to stand out, and it never reads well. Basic things, like not apologising for your own book as you're trying to pitch it, being appropriate, and avoiding epic-length rambling, will put you above about 60% of the submissions we receive. If you can come across as a reasonable, friendly person capable of being professional, chances are your query letter will be fine.

Q. Tell us about a recent deal (or three) that really delighted you.

I have to say that my favourite deal is still my first, for Dan Ford last year with Tor Books. The Warden was the first book I took on, and I can't wait for everyone to meet this no-nonsense bisexual necromancer.

I'm also very excited for Holly Black's debut adult novel which has just been announced, Book Of Night, as well as R. B. Lemberg's The Unbalancing.

Q. What's been your favourite recent beach read? Your favourite recent heavyweight novel?

Ever predictable, I tend to take a Terry Pratchett book to the beach. I'm currently reading Night Watch to my partner. A highlight of my recent reading was Anna-Marie McLemore's Dark And Deepest Red, a take on medieval Europe's dancing fever, which lived up to and exceeded my expectations of McLemore's beautiful work.

Q. What interests or passions do you have beyond the world of books? What do you love?

I play a lot of D&D. At one point we had four games a week, and though that pace wasn't quite sustainable I'm still playing in a homebrew campaign and a horror mini-campaign as we reach the end of the game of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, which I'm the Dungeon Master for. Outside of D&D, and dice hoarding, and mini-painting‚ I also enjoy crochet, watercolour painting and digital art. I love learning new crafts and building things with my hands. I'm currently working on designing a tarot deck, and figuring out if I have the necessary skills to build a video game about collecting plants for a garden.

If you're interested in booking a one-to-one session with Ren, then click here.

If you're in need of some support and advice in regards to your query letter and synopsis, please do check out our resources on our website here; we have lots of information to help guide you on your way. Or, if you're a member with us, our lovely Writers Support team will be happy to offer you a free query letter review! Login to access the service here.

Last week we were all set to talk about time, when Markus Dohle of PRH and some Italian pigs’-bladder-kickers got in the way.

This week, however, we’re back to our favourite dimension and how to use it. Oh, and incidentally, although I always talk about novels as though that’s all that matters, the issues here are deeply important in narrative non-fiction too, where they tend to crop up a lot.

The idea for this email arose from my self-editing webinar the other day. One of the pieces we looked at was particularly well-written. It had some really good phrases in it, good use of vocabulary, and a great little story to tell. (Ordinary Yorkshireman in the late sixteenth century is called up to fight in a foreign war. He doesn’t want to go, but is compelled to do so.)

But the particular snippet under our microscope didn’t work. The prose had great content everywhere you looked, but the air leaked out anyway, a tyre too flat to pump up.

The problem is common. The solution is easy. And the technique for solving it is universal. Here goes:

The problem

Let’s say there are three chunks of time you want to talk about. Just to mix things up a bit, let’s say our story is about Melinda. She’s a pharmacist’s assistant in Alabama. Her husband, Bill, is a forklift driver, but also a former serviceman who is technically still a reservist for the US Army. The army wants him to go to Afghanistan. He doesn’t want to go, but he’s gotta. Off he trots, leaving Melinda at home. To add a little cajun seasoning to all this, Melinda and Bill haven’t long been married and Melinda is pregnant.

The sequence we need to manage is therefore as follows:

1. The period after getting married. Bill’s merrily forklifting around. Melinda’s happily getting pregnant, assisting pharmacists and planting dahlias. This period is maybe six months, or something like that.
2. Bill gets called up. He tries to fight the summons – tries to get a court order, or something. There’s some kind of legal process, but he never stands a chance. All this evolves over a month or two.
3. Bill forks off to Afghanistan. Melinda’s left at home, heavily pregnant, looking at her dahlias and feeling that life has already gone off the rails.

Now, to be clear, none of this stuff is THE story. It’s effectively a prelude to the action that the author really wants to talk about. But all these elements of the prelude matter, of course. Quite clearly, Bill and Melinda’s feelings about their situation would be utterly different if they were in the midst of a tangled divorce and Bill couldn’t wait for any opportunity to get away.

So we need a way to lay out these elements in a way which prepares us properly for the story to come.

Here are three ways we could do it.

The method condensed

We could handle the entire sequence in a single paragraph or so. Crucially, we’ll avoid any real attempt to give depth of flavour to any of the individual segments. The result will be that the whole thing reads like a single episode – perhaps something like this:

Those first months of married life contained the joys and annoyances usual to the state. [One or two sentences describing that period.] All that, however, was ended – abruptly, rudely, even – by an envelope bearing the insignia of the US Army Reserve Corps. The letter inside informed ‘Sgt. Gates’ that he was being called up for a six-month tour in Afghanistan, the tour he had been promised would never happen. They fought, of course. Launched an appeal against the summons. But the appeal was brushed away. The cruel date arrived. Bill, in uniform, left the house. Melinda cried. Bill promised to write. They told each other that six months wasn’t really that long. But Bill drove away and Melinda was left behind. She was five months’ pregnant.

That’s all fine.

You might, optionally, wish to break that out into two paragraphs, and of course you’ll edit and adjust that prose as much as you wish.

But look what we haven’t done. We haven’t got specific about place and time until the very end of the period in question (“the cruel date arrived. Bill … left the house.”)

The result is that the reader hears “Ah, yes, some good general blah about what things are like after marriage, and NOW – when we get specific about place and time – that’s when our story properly kicks off again.” In effect, the story uses a bit of compressed telling-type language (telling the reader about those post-wedding months) followed by a jump back into showing (time and place specific) at the end. The jump into specificity signals to the reader, "Here's where the story restarts."

That strategy works.

Here’s another way to do things:

The method discursive

This is the opposite strategy.

You take each period – post marriage / fighting the call-up / departure for Afghanistan and the months after that – and give them proper page space. How much is up to you. I’d say a good length paragraph would be the minimum, but if you wanted to write a page or two on the honeymoon period of the marriage, that would be fine.

If you adopt this approach, it’s fine to drop some specifics in there. This sort of thing:

It was a broiling August day. Melinda was rocking on the porch, eating grits, brewing moonshine, fixing her pickup truck and generally demonstrating her hatred of deep South clichés. The postman arrived, as ever with a wad of chew-tobacco tucked inside his lower lip. ‘Seems like the Army got some business with your Bill,’ he drawled…

You can get away with that dab of specificity, because you have given yourself the space to deal with the specific moment, then pull back to a more general discussion of the aftermath, before moving on to the next period.

That strategy also works. Whether you use this option or the one before is really up to you. What’s the right balance for your story? Only you can feel your way into answering that question. (And, by the way, your answer may well change as you come to re-edit the book as a whole. When you first answer the question, you can’t feel the weighting of the whole book. When you do have a sense of that, your first guess about what works may prove wrong.)

But there’s one more strategy you might choose to follow. It’s this:

The method calamitous

This is where you try to combine the two approaches. Where you seek to handle everything in a condensed way, but still try to insert real specifics about time, place, and mood.

This approach always fails. It induces a kind of sea-sickness in the reader. And the reason is that you are making multiple very frequent switches between telling-type prose (condensed, summary, economical) and showing-type prose (time- and place-specific, detailed, discursive.)

Of course, every book can and does switch between those two modes, but you can’t switch too fast and too often in a limited space.

The Method Condensed works, because you basically avoid showing-type language until the very end of the section – that is, when you are ready to dive back into your story proper.

The Method Discursive works, because your switching between modes is quite widely separated – by several paragraphs, perhaps even a page or two.

You almost need to think about the showing / telling switch in the same way as you would handle a switch between character viewpoints. You can do it, yes. But you can’t do it abruptly. You can’t do it screechily, with smoke coming from your handbrake.

That’s it from me.

I have a cunning idea for folding time in on itself which should give me an extra two hours lie-in on Friday mornings. I’m going to need a large amount of liquid helium and a docile test subject …

I was going to write an email today about time, and how to write it. But then –

1. A group of eleven Englishmen managed to kick a pig’s bladder into a white net once more often than a group of eleven Vikings.
2. I read about a speech from Markus Dohle (CEO of Penguin Random House) about reasons to be happy.

So – we’ll talk about time next week. This week, let’s look at the Dohle Six – his reasons to be positive about the future of publishing.

Reason Number One

The global book market is growing every year.

That means people are spending more money on books. More money is coming into the industry. Yay!

Now, those statements do need to be expanded a little. The US and UK book markets are very highly developed and better described as flat or mature rather than growing. But they’re certainly not shrinking and more books are being read in parts of the world that have had too little cash (or sometimes literacy) in the past to support a mature books market.

My take?

Yes. A good reason to be happy. Even a flat / mature / stable market is something to celebrate. Ten years ago, nobody knew if the internet would simply kill books. Why not? In Stewart Brand’s famous formulation: “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable … On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.” Which would win? In music, free mostly won. In newspapers, free has bankrupted a ton of local presses and is placing unprecedented pressure on many, even highly established, titles.

But in books: free has not won. There is a lower cost ebook market and a higher cost print one. Both are orderly. Piracy is minor. The original publishing model has adapted – but held strong.

Reason Number Two

The industry has a robust business model for both physical and electronic distribution.

Publishers have strong stable relationships with all parts of the retail ecosystem: Amazon, other e-stores, supermarkets, flagship booksellers (B&N, Waterstones), and independent book stores. All those parts of the ecosystem are doing OK. Nothing is tottering.

My take?

That’s true – just. A few years back it was genuinely unclear if B&N or Waterstones would survive. I think that, in the longer term, the fate of those chains is still not completely clear. Will the shift to online selling just decimate ordinary retail? Those flagship chains survive because people go to the High Street or the mall to buy other things and pop in for a book at the same time. You don’t need many people shifting from physical to online buying to jeopardise a huge swathe of physical retail, including the bookstores.

But that’s a bit too doomy for our present mood. The fact is that, as of today, all the key sectors are OK. The publishing industry has been through the most wrenching ten years of its half-millennium history and it’s done just fine. It’s making more money than ever.

Reason Number Three

The physical / digital split seems stable rather than precarious.

As with all big publishers, print books account for about 80% of PRH’s global sales. Physical sales remain the anchor product of the entire market.

My take?

Well, I have two reactions really.

The first is that he’s right. When you think of a book, you think of a thing you can whack a spider with, or hurl at your TV screen if a Viking kicks a pig’s bladder into an English net.

That’s no longer true of music. You think of a song as something you find on your phone or stream through your iPad. You actually have to strain to remember music as something that lay embedded in grooves laid on vinyl, or spooled on tape, or weirdly curled up somewhere in the shine of a CD.

My second reaction is irritation, as always, when grown-up publishers just pretend the self-publishing market doesn’t exist. The 80% physical / 20% digital split is true of traditional publishers only. But just this year, as part of our regular JW member events, I’ve interviewed, or am about to interview, Marie Force (10 million copies sold), Mark Dawson (4 million), Amanda Prowse (untold bazillions.) Virtually all of those sales have been self-pub or with Amazon Publishing. Virtually all self-pub and APub sales are digital. Markus Dohle knows this perfectly well but, like all publishers at his level, he pretends to forget it when talking in public.

That said, the fact that this enormous digital market exists while the traditional one is still healthy is a powerful endorsement of Dohle’s basic contention. Now is a good time for publishing. It’s a good time for authors.

Reason Number Four

The addressable audience is growing.

The world population is growing. Literacy is booming. More and more people are earning enough to be able to think about books.

My take?

Well, I’m not absolutely sure that more humans is a good thing. (If you asked our planet, it might very politely ask for rather fewer monkeys, pretty please.) But, OK, Dohle’s talking economics not mass extinction, and of course he’s right. And the fact that many, many more people are able to read and can afford books is an unalloyed good.

Reason Number Five

Ever since Harry Potter, children’s books have been the fastest growing category in publishing.

Reading habits are formed early, so that means more and more children are becoming adult readers. That means we can already be confident in the reading appetites of the future.

My take?

He’s right. My kids are aged 7, 7, 5 and 5 and they’re all addictive readers. I’ve noticed how their language improves, how their imaginative play is enriched, how their horizons broaden. The gift of reading is a huge one and it’s embedded young.

Reason Number Six

Audiobooks are booming.

You can listen to audiobooks in a car, or while cleaning, or in the bath, or wherever. That means the number of attention-minutes available to publishers has increased. And it turns out that audiobooks have expanded the overall market for books. They have not cannibalised it.

My take?

I’m not an audiobooks fan. I haven’t even listened to my own books on audio. But again: boom. He’s right. In a way that no one predicted, digital has expanded the for-sale books market, when plenty of people thought it might actually kill it.

And because it’s our duty and our pleasure to out-perform expectations, here’s one more reason to be happy just for you:

Harry’s Bonus Reason

There have never been more or better paths to market for authors. There have never been more or better ways to market and establish yourself.

Self-pub and digital first publishing are wholly new routes to market. They earn a hell of a lot of money for authors. They provide an amazing way to access a huge number of readers.

Micro presses and very specialist presses are having a golden age. In literary fiction especially, some of the best work comes out of the smallest spaces. If big publishing has grown a bit conservative (and it has), that hardly matters when experiment and passion at the micro level is stronger than it’s ever been.

Same goes for marketing tools. Mailing lists have an extraordinary power. Ten years ago, virtually no authors have them or deployed them well. These days, we know just what to do and just how to do it. Those lists (and other tools, such as ad platforms) give authors a power we never had back when publishers controlled everything.

Oh, and the heck with it, here’s one more reason too. If you happen to be Italian, you may want to look away now.

Harry’s final reason to be happy

The England football team are going to win the Euros. We’re going to beat the Italians 19-0. Our pig’s bladder kickers are better than theirs. It’s coming home, football’s coming home.

Aliya Ali-Afzal became a member of Jericho Writers in 2019, signing with her agent in 2020. Aliya’s debut novel, ‘Would I Lie to You?’, will be published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Grand Central Publishing in the US in July 2021. Having already proven to be in-demand at auction, it looks set to be incredibly popular. Aliya is represented by Juliet Mushens of Mushens Entertainment. We spoke to her about the working relationship between author and agent, and the surreal experience of choosing a publisher from an online auction.  

JW: Hi Aliya! Great to talk to you. We’re really intrigued by the concept of your debut - where did the inspiration for ‘Would I Lie to You?’ come from? 

AA: The initial inspiration came from something that happened in my own life. I had been on a big spending spree, and when I got home, my husband called to say he had lost his job. I felt a surge of panic - then guilt - as I thought about all the money I had spent, especially as my husband didn’t know about it. This sparked the idea about what would happen if someone had spent a lot more in secret, and unless they could put that money back quickly, they risked losing everything. 

I’m fascinated by human nature and when I worked in London as a career and life coach, I saw how people’s sense of self can sometimes get caught up with how much they earn and what they have, rather than who they are. I also wanted to explore what happens after someone makes a terrible mistake. Can we ever put things right and can others ever forgive us?  

JW: How did Jericho Writers membership help you with your writing journey? 

AA: I became a member of Jericho Writers in the Spring of 2019, when I had just started editing my novel. I listened to every single podcast and video in the resource library! There’s a really broad range of topics covered including plot, characterisation, editing, writing cover letters and synopsis. I also loved watching Slushpile Live. 

In September 2019, I attended the Festival of Writing in York for the first time and loved the panels and workshops. In my one-to-one session the agent asked for the full manuscript, which was an incredible boost for my confidence. It was also very helpful meeting other writers who shared their experience and tips about the submissions process. I felt inspired by hearing stories about writers who had found agents, after countless rejections! 

All these things helped enormously when I started submitting in November 2019 - which resulted in me signing up with Juliet Mushens in January 2020. I would recommend that writers sign up with Jericho Writers immediately! 

"I became a member of Jericho Writers in the Spring of 2019, when I had just started editing my novel. I listened to every single podcast and video in the resource library!"

JW: In what ways have writing groups helped you along in your journey to publication? 

AA: Our group meets every fortnight to give honest feedback, help with plot ideas, synopsis, advice on cover letters, agents, and publication. We also provide each other with that other vital ingredient for writers- moral support! The group has been invaluable and feels like having my own personal hotline whenever I need help! 

Knowing each other’s work intimately, we feel comfortable enough to point out things that could be improved or are not working. By workshopping regularly, we also shift the focus from writing being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, to work that is simply being edited and improved. This is an important distinction. As well as learning how to give clear, productive feedback, it is important to know how to receive and process feedback too. Over the years, I’ve almost developed an intuition about which feedback I want to take on (often something that most people in the group agree on), and which elements of the feedback I disagree with. After a while, you learn to trust your own instincts as well, and it is important to be able to reject feedback sometimes too, even if you value and accept it most of the time. 

"[We] provide each other with that other vital ingredient for writers- moral support! The group has been invaluable and feels like having my own personal hotline whenever I need help!"

JW: Can you tell us about how you found representation with Juliet Mushens? 

AA: Juliet was my dream agent and there were several reasons why she was at the top of my list. I knew that she represented some incredible writers, who all raved about what a great agent she was. She was super successful and brilliant at her job, but also seemed very passionate about it, which I admired. I followed her on Twitter and found that we shared a similar sense of humour and a love of beautiful dresses, which also convinced me that she would be my perfect agent! 

I attended an excellent Guardian masterclass that she presented on how to find an agent, but was too shy to go and introduce myself or even ask a question. I did, however, take lots of notes! By the time I submitted to Juliet via the slush pile, I had done months of research about her wish list and wrote a targeted and personalised cover letter. Juliet asked for the full manuscript the same day that I submitted to her. Five days later, she emailed me to offer representation. It was, without doubt, the best email I had ever received in my life! 

In total I submitted to five agents and it took me seven weeks to find representation. I had expected it to take months, even years, so I was blown away at the speed at which it all happened. Some of this was of course down to luck and timing too, but I think it also helped that I did months of research, preparation and hard work before I started to submit.

JW: What’s your working relationship with your agent like? What do you think are the benefits of having an agent? 

AA: Juliet is an incredible, extraordinary agent. Despite being insanely busy, she is always available for me and makes me feel as if I am her only client! She is direct and honest in her communication and I love that – I'm the same and I feel comfortable saying what I think to her. We also instantly got on when we met, so I really enjoy working with her too. 

The most valuable aspect of having Juliet as my agent is that I absolutely trust her opinion on both business and creative matters. I have consulted her throughout the publication process and value her advice. This is especially important as a debut, when you can feel out of your depth. 

Juliet is also a brilliant editor, and gave me extensive editorial feedback. I love brainstorming with her, and it helps that we are both obsessed with working on the manuscript until it's perfect, however many rounds of edits it takes! 

"Juliet asked for the full manuscript the same day that I submitted to her. Five days later, she emailed me to offer representation. It was, without doubt, the best email I had ever received in my life!"

JW: Can you describe the auction? 

AA: It was a surreal and very exciting experience. Under normal circumstances, we would have visited each publisher’s offices for the auction, but under lockdown, everything took place on Zoom. Each publisher’s entire team- editorial, marketing and publicity - pitched to me and Juliet, showing us presentations about their publication plans and creative visions for ‘Would I Lie to You?’ We also chatted to see how we got on. 

After years of wondering if I would ever get an agent or any interest at all from a publisher, I suddenly had three publishers, each wanting me to choose them! It was a great feeling to have these amazing publishers telling me how much they loved my writing and discussing my characters with me. It boosted my confidence enormously, both in my writing and in my story. Juliet debriefed me after each pitch and outlined all the factors I needed to consider before making my decision. 

JW: Do you have one last piece of advice for the JW members? 

AA: Prepare, prepare, prepare, before you start to submit! 

About Aliya  

Aliya Ali-Afzal is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, and studied Russian and German at University College London. She is an Alum of the Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing course. Aliya lives in London and is a career and life coach.  

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Follow Aliya on Twitter: @AAAiswriting