How I Got My Book Deal
Welcome, all! My name is Stacey Thomas and my historical fiction debut The Revels publishes this July. If you love a witchy protagonist, a witch-hunt or two, a dangerous romance and the dead….who sing, then hopefully you’ll love my debut!
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The closer I get to publication day, the more I think about how it all began. It seems like such a whirlwind when I look back, but my dream to be a published author has been years in the making and beset by a lot of rejections along the way. I wanted to write this post to share how I got to this moment.
If I have to pinpoint the exact moment my writing journey began, it would be four years ago when I enrolled in a creative writing course at CityLit in London. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but it had always been in a self-conscious way. For a long time, I was too scared to really go there with my characters because (Gasp!) I was worried about what people would think. The experience of reading my work aloud at CityLit helped me to literally get over myself and develop the confidence to write the stories I wanted to write. I began writing my first novel during the course and finished it a year later. But hands up if you think that novel was the one that got me my publishing deal?
Spoiler alert 1: The Revels isn’t my first book. The first book I ever wrote/finished was a YA contemporary fantasy called The Others. I went on submission with it in the spring of 2020 and by autumn I’d received exactly zero offers of representation. In hindsight, I’m not surprised by the lack of responses. It was terrible and as the months passed I started to slowly research what would later become The Revels.
Months later and I was still researching The Revels. (Confession time: I tend to procrastinate a lot!). What pushed me to actually start writing my ‘debut’ was after I entered and won(!!!) a year’s membership to the London Library courtesy of a birthday giveaway run by Jessie Burton in October 2020. The elation I felt when Jessie emailed to let me know was followed by a brief moment of panic that I needed to get on and write the book! After weeks of false starts, I finally felt as though I had a grip on the story with this line: “I slip into the dead man's life like a thief.”
I had another incentive to push through with my first draft: The Clare Mackintosh Scholarship. I applied with no real expectations of winning, just a silent hope that the judging panel might see something worth taking a chance on. I couldn't believe it when I won! The prize entailed a free place on the Curtis Brown Creative's (CBC) 6-month novel writing course and a year's mentoring from Clare herself. The experience changed my life and I wouldn't be where I am now without Clare's immense support as I went through the process of finishing my novel, finding an agent and landing a publishing deal! I’m also incredibly grateful for the generous feedback and encouragement I received from my fellow writers and amazing tutors on the creative writing course. Their support inspired me to keep going and make my story even stronger.
In April 2021, I entered the first few chapters of The Revels (after much badgering from my sister) for the HarperCollins Killing It Prize for Undiscovered Writers. Later that year, HarperCollins editor (and fellow author!) Phoebe Morgan emailed to let me know I'd won. Looking back, it seemed like I'd won the writing jackpot as The Revels was placing in so many prizes. I'd been used to dealing with rejection for so long, and I remember feeling overwhelmed at the time. Whenever I get good news, I tend to worry that things will soon go wrong. I've realized now that good and bad news is a part of life and I've gotten better at celebrating the good times while I can.
Anyway, back to the HarperCollins Killing It Prize. The prize involved a manuscript report and three mentoring sessions. I went from being over the moon to full panic mode as I rushed to finish my uncompleted novel by the deadline! I just about made it (and promptly collapsed in my bed afterwards!). Phoebe's report was amazing and I'm still in awe of her astute feedback and generosity in illuminating the author-editor relationship. Plus, her book recommendations introduced me to some new favourites incl. Janice Hallett's The Appeal, Liz Nugent's Lying in Wait and Phoebe's own books The Babysitter and The Wild Girls, the latter of which will forever make me rethink accepting an exotic getaway with old friends!
I continued to revise and edit The Revels during the summer of 2020 before starting the querying process that autumn. This was my second attempt to find an agent and while I had a lot more confidence in my work this time around, I still felt vulnerable about putting myself out there again. I queried a small list of agents who represented the genre I was writing in, and whom I felt from their bios and manuscript wishlist would be a good fit. This time round I had some interest and I can still recall hopping on the tube to have "the meeting" with my agent Liza DeBlock. During the meeting, Liza shared her editorial suggestions for The Revels. She was really passionate about my story and the future ones I would write. Throughout the meeting, I kept thinking that I could say yes right then and there. I'd had a couple of 1:1's with agents prior to going on submission and what I loved about my meeting with Liza is that I immediately understood what she wanted editorially from the story. Plus her passion for historical fiction, A Discovery of Witches and The Spanish Princess convinced me we were a perfect match. I'm happy to report that my opinion remains the same!
The experience of editing The Revels with my agent Liza reassured me that I'd made the right choice in signing with her. We did three rounds of edits, and her feedback helped me develop the story and the characters even further. I'm also grateful to everyone at Mushens Entertainment who read and fed back on my story. Writing a book is a team effort!
Liza submitted my book to publishers just before the London Book Fair. I was overwhelmed by the interest we received from different publishers. I met with them all, and their passion for my book meant I had a hard decision to make. Ultimately, I chose the wonderful Katie Seaman at HQ Stories. The whole experience was a bit of a Sliding Doors moment as all of the editors who offered for The Revels were wonderful. However, I've not regretted stepping through this door.
Editing my book with Katie has been amazing, and I love that she gave me the time and support to make The Revels even better than I could have ever thought possible. I also have the most amazing publishing team and I’m so excited to see their publishing plans for The Revels unfold over the next coming weeks, including a cover-shaped reveal later today! I will try to update this blog as I reach milestones, but please feel free to sign up to my mailing list for behind-the-scenes extras, including exclusive author interviews, reading recommendations and historical gems I uncover as I research Book 2! https://linktr.ee/staceyv_thomas
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The closer I get to publication day, the more I think about how it all began. It seems like such a whirlwind when I look back, but my dream to be a published author has been years in the making and beset by a lot of rejections along the way. I wanted to write this post to share how I got to this moment.
If I have to pinpoint the exact moment my writing journey began, it would be four years ago when I enrolled in a creative writing course at CityLit in London. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but it had always been in a self-conscious way. For a long time, I was too scared to really go there with my characters because (Gasp!) I was worried about what people would think. The experience of reading my work aloud at CityLit helped me to literally get over myself and develop the confidence to write the stories I wanted to write. I began writing my first novel during the course and finished it a year later. But hands up if you think that novel was the one that got me my publishing deal?
Spoiler alert 1: The Revels isn’t my first book. The first book I ever wrote/finished was a YA contemporary fantasy called The Others. I went on submission with it in the spring of 2020 and by autumn I’d received exactly zero offers of representation. In hindsight, I’m not surprised by the lack of responses. It was terrible and as the months passed I started to slowly research what would later become The Revels.
Months later and I was still researching The Revels. (Confession time: I tend to procrastinate a lot!). What pushed me to actually start writing my ‘debut’ was after I entered and won(!!!) a year’s membership to the London Library courtesy of a birthday giveaway run by Jessie Burton in October 2020. The elation I felt when Jessie emailed to let me know was followed by a brief moment of panic that I needed to get on and write the book! After weeks of false starts, I finally felt as though I had a grip on the story with this line: “I slip into the dead man's life like a thief.”
I had another incentive to push through with my first draft: The Clare Mackintosh Scholarship. I applied with no real expectations of winning, just a silent hope that the judging panel might see something worth taking a chance on. I couldn't believe it when I won! The prize entailed a free place on the Curtis Brown Creative's (CBC) 6-month novel writing course and a year's mentoring from Clare herself. The experience changed my life and I wouldn't be where I am now without Clare's immense support as I went through the process of finishing my novel, finding an agent and landing a publishing deal! I’m also incredibly grateful for the generous feedback and encouragement I received from my fellow writers and amazing tutors on the creative writing course. Their support inspired me to keep going and make my story even stronger.
In April 2021, I entered the first few chapters of The Revels (after much badgering from my sister) for the HarperCollins Killing It Prize for Undiscovered Writers. Later that year, HarperCollins editor (and fellow author!) Phoebe Morgan emailed to let me know I'd won. Looking back, it seemed like I'd won the writing jackpot as The Revels was placing in so many prizes. I'd been used to dealing with rejection for so long, and I remember feeling overwhelmed at the time. Whenever I get good news, I tend to worry that things will soon go wrong. I've realized now that good and bad news is a part of life and I've gotten better at celebrating the good times while I can.
Anyway, back to the HarperCollins Killing It Prize. The prize involved a manuscript report and three mentoring sessions. I went from being over the moon to full panic mode as I rushed to finish my uncompleted novel by the deadline! I just about made it (and promptly collapsed in my bed afterwards!). Phoebe's report was amazing and I'm still in awe of her astute feedback and generosity in illuminating the author-editor relationship. Plus, her book recommendations introduced me to some new favourites incl. Janice Hallett's The Appeal, Liz Nugent's Lying in Wait and Phoebe's own books The Babysitter and The Wild Girls, the latter of which will forever make me rethink accepting an exotic getaway with old friends!
I continued to revise and edit The Revels during the summer of 2020 before starting the querying process that autumn. This was my second attempt to find an agent and while I had a lot more confidence in my work this time around, I still felt vulnerable about putting myself out there again. I queried a small list of agents who represented the genre I was writing in, and whom I felt from their bios and manuscript wishlist would be a good fit. This time round I had some interest and I can still recall hopping on the tube to have "the meeting" with my agent Liza DeBlock. During the meeting, Liza shared her editorial suggestions for The Revels. She was really passionate about my story and the future ones I would write. Throughout the meeting, I kept thinking that I could say yes right then and there. I'd had a couple of 1:1's with agents prior to going on submission and what I loved about my meeting with Liza is that I immediately understood what she wanted editorially from the story. Plus her passion for historical fiction, A Discovery of Witches and The Spanish Princess convinced me we were a perfect match. I'm happy to report that my opinion remains the same!
The experience of editing The Revels with my agent Liza reassured me that I'd made the right choice in signing with her. We did three rounds of edits, and her feedback helped me develop the story and the characters even further. I'm also grateful to everyone at Mushens Entertainment who read and fed back on my story. Writing a book is a team effort!
Liza submitted my book to publishers just before the London Book Fair. I was overwhelmed by the interest we received from different publishers. I met with them all, and their passion for my book meant I had a hard decision to make. Ultimately, I chose the wonderful Katie Seaman at HQ Stories. The whole experience was a bit of a Sliding Doors moment as all of the editors who offered for The Revels were wonderful. However, I've not regretted stepping through this door.
Editing my book with Katie has been amazing, and I love that she gave me the time and support to make The Revels even better than I could have ever thought possible. I also have the most amazing publishing team and I’m so excited to see their publishing plans for The Revels unfold over the next coming weeks, including a cover-shaped reveal later today! I will try to update this blog as I reach milestones, but please feel free to sign up to my mailing list for behind-the-scenes extras, including exclusive author interviews, reading recommendations and historical gems I uncover as I research Book 2! https://linktr.ee/staceyv_thomas
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