John S Alty

Wow! Congratulations on all these great events! Your daughter’s just in time to votre for midterm elections if she wants. 😉

Interesting links, and thank you, Raine and Debi, for the links. At the moment I have blinkers on, ignoring as much as I can to stop me being over distracted from my WIP, but I will look these up another time.

What counts though as historical fiction? Look at Wiki, and you’ll get a variety of answers. My own novel, set in the 1980s and 90s would count as historical by the 25-year definition, while it wouldn’t by the 50-year definition.
If I could pitch it as historical as well as supernatural, it would really open up my options.

@jd73 Bluemoose are supposed to be really good aren’t they? One of the big hitter indies. So good luck with them!
@bellam if you are southeast, keep an eye out cos there are loads more of these kinds of things in and around London. Are you on Twitter? They are forever coming up on my TL, and always down south somewhere (sigh).

There are quite a few independent presses and publishers in the north, and there’s a great sense of coalition about them all. I’m going to a talk-to-the-publisher with Bluemoose Books (the ones that published the Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers) at a literary fest in town in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they’ll have reviewed my MS by then. I’ll…[Read more]

Crikey. I’m quite tempted and I am a solid South-Easterner. But 2 hours on the train is hardly a no-no.

@juliecordiner: lots of agents are looking for historical fiction at the moment (it’s the latest trend…), so any agents that represent “fiction” will probably be interested. Go for it!

@giselle, I was wondering about the set up too. Will it be like job interviews? Erk.

And yeah, it’s great that they are doing this. BUt also really sad that it’s so exceptional, and demonstrates just how London-centric the industry is – that two hours north constitutes venturing into exotic territory!!

What an astounding event. I can’t imagine any NY or Parisian agents heading two hours north to find new talent.

I wonder what the ambiance will be. Writers waiting in little rooms, or a more open event where they can mingle with one another?

@jd73, I asked that very question during York’s “meet the agents” panel. And they were unanimous in…[Read more]

Thank you – will consider pitching. Nothing ventured…

@juliec not really other than what they say on their site and twitter feed. I do know that they tend to be one of these “if you don’t hear back from us, assume it’s a no” which is why I never heard back from them… I queried Hannah Sheppard before (YA), but I think I will go with Harry Illingworth (SFF) this time.

@jd73 that’s good news! I guess just make sure the first 3 chapters are different to the old version!

@juliec The agency are a big-ish well established one, with some big name authors and all that jazz. And yeah, any agency actively looking at diversity and accessibility is a good agency, to my mind. 🙂