Ten Year blog anniversary and exciting publishing news

It's hard to believe but this month marks the ten year anniversary of me starting this blog. When I set it up in 2011 after attending a writing workshop where the tutor recommended all the writers start a blog, I hoped that my sharing information on competitions, workshops, opportunities and all things media related (including publishing, TV, film and my own writing journey) that I would be able to help fellow writers on their journey whilst I continued mine. I never would have thought that this blog would grow to the size it has (Saturday's post had over 3200 hits) or that my writing hopes and dreams may be fulfilled within ten years.

As you know, my journey has been a long one. I was writing well before I started this blog, had attended numerous workshops, courses, set up and run my own writing group and had earned two degrees in the writing related field (creative writing and writing for performance). 

Whilst I shared hints, tips, things I had learned and opportunities I had come across on my blog and with my writers group, I was writing, editing and perfecting my own writing. 

I joined the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators where I made many writer friends in the York chapter and I can't recommend SCBWI highly enough if you wish to write for children and/or young adults. For the yearly fee there are monthly chapter meetings, many workshops and courses to attend, and the social events such as the conference and more.

The first novel I completed was a MG fantasy which this year was longlisted for the Guppy Open Submissions. I will be giving this MS another edit following some excellent feedback I have already received, and some I am expecting shortly. Obviously, I will also be giving my feedback on the MG/YA novels in this feedback group and this is something I cannot stress enough: It is so important to join a writers group, feedback group or organisation like SCBWI as writing can be a very lonely business and I know I have come close to giving up on my writing dreams several times, only to be championed by my writer friends. Thank goodness for them.

I had written a large chunk of what would become my second novel (a crime novel) as part of my BA (Hons) in Creative Writing and Identity and I have worked on this over the years, rewriting and editing following feedback from agents, publishers and writer friends. This year I garned a like for my pitch as part of #PitMad and I am currently editing this MS to be able to send to a publisher (I also have a few agents who kindly said they wished to see it again).

During my MA in Writing Performance I was lucky enough to have my short play Bottle performed as part of the course and I followed this up with a monologue at Lawrence Batley Theatre and a couple of radio plays on Two Valleys Radio. During this time, I also completed a novel version of an inspired-by-true life story that my friend asked me to write with a view to turning it into a script.

Meanwhile I was still working on my novels, short stories and poetry. I was lucky enough to be chosen for inclusion in the Blood from the Quill anthology (which included a live reading in Newcastle at the launch), Inspired by Musuem anthology (which was launched at the Indian Embassy in London) and the Thousand Poets for Change anthology (which included a live reading in Leeds at the launch). Recently I performed two of my poems at the Creative Voices event at Lawrence Batley Theatre and hope to see these in an anthology which is set to follow.

I'd started a children's timeslip fantasy which I edited the first 25k of to death, rather than moving on to finishing it. This was a huge learning curve for me, as I was stuck in the 'reach a certain point in a story and then be seduced by the shiny New Idea' writers circle of hell. It took several part-written stories and attempts at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: an online writing challenge to write 50k words in a month which takes place each November) before I realised that finishing a MS, leaving it and then coming back to edit it with fresh eyes was the way to go. 

During this time I was attending many workshops, writers festivals, short courses, reading a huge pile of books (including tons about writing) and of course writing, all whilst hoping to hone my skills further.

I had started a YA fantasy novel and was sharing this with SCBWI when, on the strength of the beginning of this novel I was offered a place on the Golden Egg Academy North Story Foundations course which I completed and am in the process of, following their advice, turning my A story into my B story and vice versa in this MS, with an agent wishing to see it once it is complete. 

Attending many courses, meet the agent events and beginning to send out my work to agents/publishers, I started to realise which things were working for me and which weren't. For example, I have a 90% written YA dystopian MS which I would have to completely rework for it to be of any interest as not only is dystopian not currently popular, but the MC would need to completely change. Yet meanwhile, I was getting personalised rejections from agents and publishers (the kind that say, would like see again when reworked, this MS is not for us but please send anything else you have or recommending I send to a colleague), so I felt like I was getting close but not quite hitting the mark. So, what to do?

Following attendance at the Harrogate Crime Festival (I attend most years), I was lucky enough to win a day at a crime scene workshop where I met a writer who not only wrote crime, but romance too. She told me about the Romantic Novelists Association (RNA) who were having an afternoon tea in York a couple of months later and then were having their annual conference in Leeds. This felt beyond fortuitous. For not only did I live very close to Leeds and go to York regularly for SCBWI but for a small fee I could submit some of my work for feedback with an editor, publisher or agent at the conference. You were allowed to share the first three chapters and were allocated up to three places on 1-2-1s during the weekend, plus there were tons of interesting and informative workshops to attend too. Count me in! Because I considered whatever I was doing wrong in one genre of MS, I would be doing wrong in all. So, I proceeded to write the first three chapters and synopsis of a romantic suspense novel to send in for the 1-2-1s.

The conference was a revelation. Not only did I meet lots and lots of friendly writers, but the 1-2-1s went better than I could have hoped. The editor said it was the best synopsis he'd seen all day and that he'd love to work with me on the MS (this has led me to believe that for me, writing the synopsis BEFORE the novel works best), one agent was very complimentary about my writing and though he wasn't looking for romance MSs, asked me to send along my crime, and the second agent was also complimentary about my writing and she gave me her card and asked me to send the MS to her once it was finished. This was the first time I had been this close to getting an agent and the confidence it gave me was invaluable. 

I joined the RNA New Writers Scheme and got two years worth of feedback on my first romantic suspense novel (the one I shared at the conference) until I was advised that it was ready to start submitting. Then I got a years feedback on my second romantic suspense novel (a sequel to the first) which I am currently editing down as it is a little long. This year was my final year to receive feedback and I submitted a partial of the sequel to a romance novel that I was unable to submit (more on this later*). The RNA is a lovely welcoming group and the NWS is a great resource for writers wanting feedback on their novels. I would like to thank the volunteers that work so hard at RNA and my readers, especially those in the first couple of years, for their constructive criticism of my work that enabled me to get my first two romantic suspense novels to a publishable standard.

So I now had the following finished MSs: MG fantasy, crime novel, inspired-by-true-life-events MS, a YA fantasy, a dystopian YA fantasy and two romantic suspense novels. I was also had excellent writer friends and feedback in the many groups and courses I was attending when the pandemic hit.

I was lucky that my family and friends were unaffected by the illness but I lost several of my part-time  jobs and during lockdown I found it hard to edit my crime MS because of what was going on in the world. But I did see a couple of writing competitions that sparked my interest. One was a call out for a Christmas romance and the other for a comedy. I needed to write something that would cheer me up, so I thought, why not combine the two? The idea was born for writing a Christmas romcom.

The whole MS was written during lockdown and I had a fabulous writer friend who kindly agreed to be my beta reader (she had enjoyed my first two romantic suspense novels when she beta read them) who kept me on track for finishing it. 

I had just finished writing the first draft when I saw another competition and #PitMad came around. My MS would work for all three competitions and I decided to pitch it along with my other MSs. Yes, I hadn't done my usual edits yet but what did I have to lose?

My MS wasn't chosen for either of the first two competitions but a couple of US publishers wanted to see the first three chapters and a synopsis (plus some of my other MSs). I was then very excited when one of the US publishers wanted to see the full MS, then beyond happy when I found out I was shortlisted for the third competition. My Christmas romance had been shortlisted for the Owned Voices Novel Award 2021.

Sadly it wasn't chosen as the winner, but I had started writing the sequel when I got the most exciting email. The US publisher wanted to publish my novel. *This was the reason I was unable to submit to RNA NWS, because I had already been offered a publishing deal on the novel.

I'D ACHIEVED MY DREAM OF A PUBLISHING DEAL.

I haven't got an agent, so when the draft contract came through I asked my contacts at both SCBWI and RNA, and my writer friends for advice. Plus I attended a fortuitous RNA event about publishing contracts with an agent. That agent recommended I join The Society of Authors (a writer can join when they are offered a publishing deal and then the SOA looks over the contract for them and advises) and very generously said she would take a look at the contract for me. Armed with the agent and SOA feedback I negotiated the contract and now I am happy to say that I am a represented author. I even have an author profile up on the RNA website: https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/rna_author/karen-naylor/

I AM AN AUTHOR FOR U.S. PUBLISHER CHAMPAGNE BOOK GROUP.

This is so exciting for me. By the end of the year my first book will have been digitally published.

But the learning curve wasn't and isn't over. Following the signing of the contract there was the assignment of an editor and their marketing/publicity assistants. I went through a long and arduous stage of editing and produced a production package for my novel. And I am sure there will be a few more stages before I can see the Ebook with my name on it but for now, I am so happy and pleased to say that Christmas Evie a romcom will be available for purchase for Christmas 2021. Full details to follow.

I achieved my dream of becoming a published writer with my eigth book, so please, please never give up. If it can happen for me, it can also happen for you.