How I Got Published

Posted byLouise BeechPosted inUncategorized

How did I get a book deal? It’s one of the things I’m frequently asked about at book events and festivals. How did I get published?

Unless the person asking – usually a hopeful writer, like I’ve been most of my life – has five hours, the determination to still keep writing despite my reply, and a pretty thick skin, I can’t respond fully. Time and a desire not to dishearten them prevents me answering in detail. Because my journey was long. Ten years long. People serve less time for serious crimes. It was littered with rejection upon rejection upon rejection. There was no satnav to tell me which way to go so that I arrived more easily at my destination.

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With Maria in the Moon, the first book I wrote, but my third release.

There’s no magical right answer to the question of how to get published. Every single author will likely have a different tale to share. Some might have enjoyed a quick trip from writing a first novel to book deal, some may have got lucky with their tenth book, but most are probably still driving down the motorway, looking for the right exit.

All I can share is my story. And here it is. Are you ready?

I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen. I filled notepads and exercise books with entire novels (chapters and contents page included) from the age of nine. Writing was then – and still is – pure joy to me. The place I escape to, the place I feel safest, the only place in the world where I really feel I know what I’m doing, and that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be. As a teenager, I started my own magazine to rival the school one, and told anyone who would listen that I’d one day be a world-famous novelist. (That I’m still hoping for.) Then life took over a bit when I got pregnant at nineteen…

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Me aged about six, likely already with stories in my head…

In my early thirties, I sent some pieces I’d written to our local newspaper and was offered my own column, Mum’s the Word, in which I wrote for ten years about being a parent. I also began to write short stories. Lots of them. I sent some out to magazines, entered some in competitions. Rejections came thick and fast. I cried the first time. But only once. I got up, wiped the tears away, and decided I had to improve. I wrote more. Slowly, they began being accepted. First by small ezines, and eventually by national magazines. I shortlisted twice for the Bridport Prize.

That was what gave me the confidence to write a novel. Every bit of advice I’d read suggested a writer hone their craft via the precise art of producing short stories, and by joining forums to gain harsh critiques in order to improve. I’d done both. So, after we flooded in 2007 and I had more time due to giving up work to care for my ill daughter, I started Maria in the Moon. It took me six months. It was a labour of not only love, but of tears. When I write, I give everything, and that can be draining afterwards. I let it ‘settle’ and then edited it some more. Then I sent it out to every agent and publisher. Over a period of a year, every single one of them rejected it.

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With the Hull Truck writing group in 2013. I learnt lots with these guys.

I took time to recover – it’s hard, there’s no denying it, when your lovingly created work is rejected by everyone – and in 2009 I started a second novel, The Lion Tamer Who Lost. I tried to use all the advice I’d been given on forums, and all the tips I’d read by successful authors, but most of all I went back to the place where I knew I was supposed to be. Writing. Six months later I sent it out to every agent and publisher. They all rejected it.

In 2011, I went back to Maria in the Moon and tried to improve her. I tried a couple of new agents. Success! (Or so I thought.) A lady from United Agents invited me to visit her. Carol really liked it and took me on. She did everything, but – again – all the publishers she sent it to said no. One of them liked the style and asked if I had any more ideas for a novel. I told her about The Lion Tamer Who Lost but she didn’t like it. I mentioned one I had in my head, and she liked the sound of it. So, in 2012, I wrote The Mountain in my Shoe.

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My lovely agent Carol came to see me at London Blackwell’s when How to be Brave was released…

She said no. Carol sent it to other publishers. They all said no. Some had positive comments, but the general problem seemed to be what I was. Where I fit. I was that difficult creature – I didn’t fit into a genre. But I refused to conform. When I write I can only write what must be written. I can’t fit into some narrow niche. It isn’t me. But this was only going to make things harder.

Ironically, after being told that not fitting into a genre would hinder me, in 2013 I started the novel that was my most unusual and hardest to define – How to be Brave. This was one book that refused to kowtow to any market. I knew this would be my hardest sell, and yet I had to write it. Just as I finished, Carol told me she was retiring. She did everything to try and secure me another agent, but no one was interested. I was on my own again. I had written four books now.

I sent How to be Brave to every agent and publisher. They all said no. At the end of 2014 it shortlisted for a big competition. This is it, I thought. The prize was a book deal. And I was going to win. I wore my lucky red dress, told husband Joe that I knew someone in a red dress was going to win. We arrived at the prize-giving and another writer had on a red dress. She won. I was genuinely happy for her, because I knew how happy she must be. But I cried all the way back to the hotel. I was inconsolable.

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Close… but not quite. At the prize-giving where I didn’t win.

I’ll admit, that was the hardest time. Friends asked how I could go on writing in the face of constant rejection. I said I did because I knew one day it would happen. I really did. But I began to lose my faith a little. I began to wonder if I could write a fifth book and go through it all again.

Then on Twitter I saw that a vivacious woman called Karen Sullivan was starting up Orenda Books. She wanted to publish beautiful books. Books she loved. I cheekily (this goes against all professional advice, folks!) tweeted her and asked if she would read How to be Brave. She said yes. She and slush reader Liz liked it. I had a tense wait for a definite answer, between Christmas 2014 and February 2015.

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The email I wrote Karen that changed my life.

Then on 9th February 2015 Karen emailed to say she loved the book, and of course it was a yes. I think, having read my journey, you can imagine how I felt. It makes me teary now to revisit. I know now that I only got rejected because I was supposed to be with Karen. She’s the only one who ‘got’ me. Got my books. Two years on, she has published the other novels no one wanted. Next year she will publish The Lion Tamer Who Lost too.

And I’m back to doing what I love, but without all the tears. Writing. I’ve started book five, loosely titled Star Girl. And it’s exactly like when I was nine and filled notepads with words. It’s where I’m supposed to be. What I’m supposed to be doing. And I’m glad I never gave up.

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Published by Louise Beech

I remember sitting in my musician father's cross-legged lap while he tried to show me the guitar chords. I was three. His music sheets fascinated me - strange language that translated into music. My mother taught French and English, so her fluency with words fired my interest. I love all forms of writing. My short stories have won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting twice for the Bridport Prize and being published in a variety of UK magazines. My first play, Afloat, was performed at Hull Truck Theatre in 2012. I also wrote a ten-year newspaper column for the Hull Daily Mail about being a parent. My debut novel, How to be Brave, was a Guardian Readers' pick for 2015. My third novel Maria in the Moon was described as ‘quirky, darkly comic and heartfelt’ by the Sunday Mirror; The Lion Tamer Who Lost shortlisted for the Popular Romantic Novel of 2019 at the RNA Awards and longlisted for the Polari Prize 2019; Call Me Star Girl longlisted for the Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and was Best magazine’s Best Book of the Year 2019; and I Am Dust was a Crime Magazine Monthly Pick. This Is How We Are Human was a Clare Mackintosh Book of the Month. Daffodils, the audiobook of my memoir, and Nothing Else were released 2022. End of Story (as Louise Swanson) and the paperback version of my memoir, Eighteen Seconds, were released in 2023.

39 thoughts on “How I Got Published”

  1. I’m ever so glad you never gave up, your books have been so important to me as a reader & blogger, I hold my signed copies dear to me & will eagerly await news of your next books so I can cherish those too xx

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  3. If there was a ‘love’ star on WordPress, I’d have clicked that. Your post brought a lump to my throat not last because I recognise the journey. I’m so glad you didn’t give up, Louise. Like The Quiet Knitter above, I adore your books. Each one of them, as you know, echoes aspects of my life. Thank you for them. xXx

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  5. Having read How to be Brave, and having encountered it on another blog here on WordPress, I think it was your breakthrough because it was so original. It also speaks to a lot of people going through hard times especially because the two sides of the story complement each other so well. It also has a great title, which tells you everything you need to know. Who came up with that, I wonder?

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      1. And a great one too. I think apart from pure luck, the best way to get published is to have an original story that nobody else has, and one that lots of people want to hear.
        Even the publishers admit that they have no idea what will be a hit or not.

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  12. Love your honesty. My agent just got the latest rejection for book 2 and these all fit what you said – all positive, some glowing but not quite fitting. Your kind of post is so much more helpful than the pollyanna ones! Keep writing, love your work x

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  13. Love this! Full of admiration at your peristence and that you never gave up. I’m at the rejection stage (with the odd glimmer of encouragement).

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  15. This is a very moving story of courage, perseverance and motivation. And.. sadly, it’s not that uncommon. This kind of experience inspired my friend Isabel Costello and I to develop a work shop “Perseverance and Motivation for Writers.” You are a living example of what it takes. Thank you for sharing your story.

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  18. I just loved Mountain in my Shoe. I’m so glad I’ve discovered your books, and so glad you found Karen to publish them – and I’m REALLY glad there are more I can read.

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  19. You write so beautifully, Louise, moving us with your honesty and insight. I too loved The Mountain in My Shoe and am looking forward to Maria in the Moon. Keep giving us these moments of joy.

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  21. Hi Louise,

    This may be an odd way in which to contact you but I cannot find an email address or phone number for you. I am writing from Beverley FM radio. We would be very interested in interviewing you about your writing career and your latest book. I work here as studio supervisor one day a week. If you are interested would it be possible to email me with contact details? Hopefully I can then follow this up when I’m next in on Tuesday 1st August.

    email: studio@beverleyfm.com (FAO John Halocha)

    I look forward to hearing from you.

    Best wishes,

    John.

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  22. Great telling of your path to publication and oh how it resonated with me! My debut came out July 17th this year . it was my 9th book. Did I get rejections? Oh yes. Did I send out submissions and be completely ignored? Oh yes. But then lat year I was offered representation by Annette Green Agency and now I have a 2 book deal. The second one is due out in February 2018. I’ve written the third and fourth too.(Well first drafts I’m not that daft!) I too wrote books when I was small, marvellously awful. All about ponies and gymkhanas.Like you I never gave up. I couldn’t be happier. Congratulations on your books and keep going! xx

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