New deals for Jane Lovering

The Kate Nash Literary Agency is delighted to announce new deals for Jane Lovering with a third novel contracted to Choc Lit. VAMPIRE STATE OF MIND, a romantic comedy, will be published by Choc Lit in 2012.

Described as “a highly original author” by Russell Walker of BBC Radio York, it has been an exciting year for Jane Lovering. Her Choc Lit debut PLEASE DON’T STOP THE MUSIC was published in February, followed earlier this autumn by STARSTRUCK. Both titles have been promoted in UK retail and garnered excellent reviews.

Meanwhile her debut novel REVERSING OVER LIBERACE has been published as an audio book for the first time by Iambik.

Jane Lovering blogs at www.janelovering.co.uk

Submissions vacation and Winchester

*** Closed for Submissions ***

The Kate Nash Literary Agency will be closed to new submissions until 1st September 2011 because of traveling and conferences.

 

*** Winchester Writers Conference ***

Kate Nash is giving one to ones to writers at Winchester Writers Conference on 2nd July 2011 and is also delighted to attend the dinner and looks forward to meeting writers there.

Great novel openings: we have a winner!

As the year draws to a close, so does the Great Novel Openings competition. This search for great novel openings caught me completely unawares with how many entries received, and also the high standard of many of the entries meaning that I decided to announce a long list first. Every entry on that long list showed promise and left the reader wanting more – absolutely essential at the beginning of a story. You must draw the reader in right away (and then keep them there…).

In summary, a promising novel opening must have:

- suspense

- and/or a sense of mystery

Deciding on the short list was no walk in the park and here I imagine that some of my subjective preferences as a reader came into play. Looking at creative writing can be done objectively and subjectively and although I forced myself to try and be as objective as possible – trying to pick those entries that seemed strongest – there was not a lot in it in many cases.

Those entries that were shortlisted tended to also include one or more of the following elements:

- danger or the promise of future danger

- emotion

- characterisation

- vivid description

Remember the entries were very short – only 500 words – which is not long to develop elements such as characterisation deeply. Vivid description can often be achieved in very few words and I am not just talking about description of setting here, but description of actions. Novel openings tend to be stronger when something is happening. So another likely essential element to add to the list:

- action

The winning entry also showed the following element – something that is essential for a story that will really draw a reader in and not let them go until the end:

- voice

Congratulations to Alexander Velky, writer of the winning 500 words.

The winning piece started with detailed description – setting and action – and quickly built up suspense. Within 150 words, enough mystery had been initiated so that the reader would be asking “what happens next”. The winning excerpt also delivered characterisation: every word counted, description delivered plot and suspense as well as giving clues about characterisation.

I look forward to meeting Alexander shortly and thank everyone again who entered the competition.

The Festival of Writing and more

2011 brings the second Writers Workshop Festival of Writing in York, 25-27th March, and among the fabulous writers, publishers and agents who will be speaking and leading workshops and courses are Ashley Pharoah, David Nobbs, Nicola Morgan, Kate Williams, Tom Harper, Phillippa Pride (Stephen King’s UK editor), Carole Blake and Patrick Janson-Smith. I’ve been delighted to be involved again assisting with the programming and planning. At the Festival itself I will be running a mini-course, along with the fabulous and funny Jane Lovering, on Characterisation which, I think, makes the critical difference between ok stories and great stories. The mini-course takes place on Friday 25th March.

Looking at next year’s diary, this isn’t the only teaching I’ll be doing in early 2011. In January I’m running a workshop for A-Level students who now have creative writing included in their A-Level English syllabus. Curtis Brown aren’t the only lit agency running writing courses – in April I’m leading a course over an entire weekend covering all the basic elements of novel writing: plotting, characterisation, pacing, suspense, dialogue, conflict, description. The dates are 15-17th April and full details are here.

During the summer I should be at Winchester Writers Conference. In the autumn two more weekends: an autumn writing retreat and a NaNoWriMo weekend.

Add to this the London Book Fair (April), the Romantic Novelists Association conference (July), the Frankfurt Book Fair (October) and the Festival of Romance (October) and no doubt a number of day events and book trade conferences, and that’s the year events-wise.

Exhausted just thinking about it.

Janet Woods two book deal with Severn House

The Kate Nash Literary Agency is delighted to announce that Severn House have offered Janet Woods a two book contract for Tall Poppies, a saga following the lives of a maid and a housekeeper during the First World War, and one further book (title tbd).

Kate Nash: “Janet’s writing is so compelling and vivid readers are going be enthralled by these new stories set during the immediately after the First World War.”

Great novel openings: the shortlist

***drum roll***… And the six shortlisted writers are:

C Hepworth-Wain

Leigh Chambers

Ann Goodridge

Sue Tingey

Alexander Velkey

Vicky Delderfield

Congratulations all of you.

Now I have the unenviable task of selecting just one winner. The field has been very strong. Thank you again to everyone who has entered. Some observations from reading the entries and the winner announcement coming soon.

Great novel openings: the longlist

Judging the great novel openings competition has been entirely subjective. And with over 500 entries it’s also been a voyage of discovery. All entries were read and judged on 500 words alone. Where writers submitted a covering letter or additional information, this was ignored. I almost certainly have turned down work with commercial merit where the first 500 words aren’t reflective of the overall quality. However, this competition was designed to make writers think about the value of how important openings to novels are. If your opening isn’t up to it readers simply won’t get to the rest.

The judging criteria was “do I want to read on?” and whether I was disappointed to reach the end of 500 words without knowing what happened next.

The longlisted entries represent a wide variety of styles of writing and genres but all of them scored highly on “do I want to read on”.

Longlisted writers are:

C Hepworth-Wain

Margaret Piran

Jessica Patient

Stephanie Broadribb

Leigh Chambers

Eleanor Patrick

Ann Goodridge

Karen Marsh

Michael Monkhouse

Deborah Bryne O’Shea

Sue Tingey

Alexander Velky

Amy Spencer

Steve Jensen

Vicky Delderfield

Keelie Walker

Richard Masson

Tracey Emerson

Jane Taylor

Neil Colquhoun

Darren Topham

Debbie Kavanagh

Mike Chinn

Leona McPherson

Sophie Duffy

Daryl Sedore

Gary Dolman

Martin Wells

Derek Thompson

Congratulations to everyone on the longlist.

I will be rereading the longlisted entries in a couple of weeks with fresh eyes, so expect the shortlist announcement and winner around the beginning of September.

Submissions and competition update

I was quite stunned to have recieved over 500 entries to the Great Novel Openings competition and am afraid I’m still reading through the entries which has been really interesting. However, I will be in a position to post a longlist this coming week and the winner by the end of August. I think because of the interest and number of entries you deserve the excitment of a longlist. So watch this space.

I’m also afraid that I’m terribly behind with submissions. Please bear with me but if you haven’t heard from me within 3 months, or 6 months for a full manuscript, please do chase.

Pitching in person

In the last two weeks I’ve been at two events where aspiring novelists have had the opportunity to present their work and ideas to me face-to-face for feedback. I never did anything like this when I was an aspiring novelist and so I was trying to imagine how terrifying this might be for participants. I used to get sweaty palms just standing in the post office queue with a requested manuscript so I don’t think I could have done it. WELL DONE YOU BRAVE LOT. I hope I didn’t scare you too much.

The first event was Pitch Your Novel which took place in Westminster, London and where writers had five minutes to pitch their work/ideas to an industry panel which comprised agent Lorella Belli, m.d. of Legend Press Tom Chalmers and I. From my point of view I was disappointed when writers used their five minutes only to share ideas and I didn’t get to hear any writing. But I did my best to give feedback on those ideas in the context of today’s marketplace. Several of the writers presented material that might have interested a publisher twenty years ago but styles and fashions move on. You may not want to write for the market but do write for today’s reader.

The real benefit of the day lay in watching and learning from the feedback on everyone’s pitches, not just your own. I was also interested to find I agreed with and was thinking the same as my fellow panelists 90% of the time.

I heard a couple of writers who I thought I were promising so certainly not a wasted day from my point of view.

Last weekend I saw about 15 writers one to one at Winchester Writers Conference. No audience this time as the meetings between writer and I were private, albeit in a very noisy room. I intended to give feedback both on the writing as well as marketability but I did notice that writers were disappointed when I didn’t ask to see more material. In one case I’m sure the writer will find an agent but her work was simply not for me. It’s a subjective business and we all have our personal tastes.

I saw one very promising novel but felt it needed work on the plot so it could be more marketable. I don’t think the writer agreed with me but maybe she’ll have second thoughts. Unfortunately it’s not good enough these days just to write a novel of publishable standard, it also must be marketable.

The great novel openings competition

The Kate Nash Literary Agency is delighted to announce a competition open to all unrepresented writers. Submit a great 500-word opening to an adult novel, and you could win the opportunity to meet Kate Nash for lunch and an in-depth discussion of your writing.

The rules

* Entries must consist of an opening to a full-length adult novel. Work aimed at the childrens/YA market or non-fiction will not be considered.

* The entry must bear a title and be emailed to Kate Nash Literacy Agency with the word “Competition” in the email title. Entries without “Competition” in the email title will not be read.

* Prose should be pasted into the body of the email. Entries which include attachments will not be opened.

* Entrants must be located in the United Kingdom or be willing to travel to London.

* Entrants must include their real name, telephone number and postal address.

* Entrants may be previously published or unpublished but may not be currently represented by a literary agent.

* Entries must be exactly 500 words of prose, excluding title. If this means finishing mid-sentence, sobeit.

* Entries must be original work of the author. Entry into the competition grants no rights to the Kate Nash Literacy Agency over the work. Copyright remains with the author. Subject to agreement with the author, the entry or extracts of, may be published on this website.

* While the Kate Nash Literarcy Agency will take every care with entries, it can not be responsible for loss or damage.

* Winning entrants agree their name and entry title can be announced on this website.

* Entries will not be acknowleged and no individual feedback on entries will be given.

* Entries must be received by midnight on June 30th 2010.

* Entries will be judged by Kate Nash. The judge’s decision is entirely subjective and final.

* The winner(s) will be announced on this website.

* The winner will be invited to submit further work to the Kate Nash Literary Agency and to meet Kate Nash for lunch/afternoon tea in London (or other mutually convenient location) to discuss their work.