It feels like the right time but this will be my last entry. I know! I’ve been writing in this blog for TEN YEARS but this year it just felt off. I couldn’t pinpoint why that was but the other day I realised I started this blog because I was a dancer who was trying to understand the publishing world. I also was so scared of anyone reading my work hence why I started a blog. Ten years later I have fulfilled my goals!
Back in May I had finished my first YA book, a love story based around a Black owned bookshop in Stoke Newington. How I wrote this book when I was heartbroken I have no idea. I vaguely remember sitting on the couch with headphones on playing O Holy Night on repeat at 3am writing. I made my deadline and I wasn’t sure if the book was good. My first round of submission for another book had very conflicting feedback and honestly I didn’t have it in me to experience that again. I just wanted a deal.
Fast forward to September 21st and my book was sent on submission. The next day Simon & Schuster emailed saying they had been looking for this book, then loads of publishing houses emailed liking the book. In the end I had 3 of the big 5 interested. It was so crazy. The week after on the Monday S&S wanted to have a chat with my agent Gemma, initially our meeting with them was booked for that Friday. I knew they were going to offer me a deal because no one in publishing wastes the time with a meeting unless they’re interested but I wasn’t expecting what happened to happen.
Gemma called me and told me they wanted to make a pre-empt for 3 YA books! Usually it’s a 2 book deal so I was so happy.
“Do you want to know how much money they want to give you?” Gemma asked me.
“Oh yeah how much?”
“6 figures.”
I immediately burst out crying, then Gemma started crying cause I was crying. I remember asking ‘are they sure?” Honestly I couldn’t believe they wanted to give me that much money for this love story that I wrote in 5 months. It all seemed like a dream. They wrote an offer letter and it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said about me. I knew they were the right people for me after reading that letter. This was all in one week. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw and just like that I was a YA author with a 3 book deal for 6 figures with the big five.
So much has changed in my life this year and I’m not the same person I was last year. Sharing my journey doesn’t appeal to me anymore and privacy is something I love. Maybe that will change and I might start a new blog with another name showing my journey with a big 5. I don’t know but for now I can say we’ve come full circle. If you read this blog from the beginning you will see my journey and just how much it has been. I’m so ready to see what this new journey will be like. Hopefully a movie deal is coming and more and more books!
Thank you to anyone that has read my blogs and liked it. This year I got two book deals and this deal is the highlight of the decade and I’m very thankful. My book Love In Winter Wonderland comes out November 2022 and I hope you enjoy it. I’m still on social media and doing stuff with The Author School so holla!
Peace out! x