In case you missed this from my recent emails / social media, the manuscript I've been working on all year, Blackmailing Ava Darling, got into Queensland Writers Center's Publishable competition! The program, which took place from July – October, is now complete, so I thought I’d put down my thoughts on the experience as someone who made it into the top 10 and got to do the whole program.

So, what is Publishable? It's a competition to find 10 finished book manuscripts from emerging writers around Australia that are, in essence, 'publishable'. I.e. manuscripts that are great reads with a high level of commercial appeal (You can learn more about the program here).

I entered the first 50 pages of Blackmailing Ava Darling earlier this year, and the day before the Longlist was announced in July, I got a call from QWC telling me I’d made the Longlist of 25 writers! Cue excitement!

Being on the longlist meant that all 25 of us got to participate on three informative video calls with some amazing people in the publishing industry – one with Natasha Lester, a highly successful Aussie author, one with two experienced editors from the Institute of Professional Editors, and one with Ally Blake, another hugely successful Aussie author. In addition to the calls, we all got a one-on-one half-hour meeting with someone from QWC, who took us through the feedback from the three independent judges who had read our submission and highlighted where the work could be improved.

Once all these session were completed, all 25 longlisted writers had the chance to rework their first fifty pages and resubmit them to QWC. After reading them all, QWC then selected the top 10 entries who became the Shortlist – and I was one of them. Cue more excitement!

As part of the shortlist, I now got paired up with an experienced independent Editor, and I got five hours of their time to use to help me with my work. I was paired with the wonderful Lauren Elise Daniels, and on our initial call I discovered she is American. This was perfect for me, because one of my secondary characters is a Texan girl, and I knew I wanted an American reader to take a look at her scenes to make sure she did, in fact, sound American (and not like an Australian person trying to write an American character!) Lauren was fantastic to work with, and she gave me some really good suggestions on that character, as well as doing a general edit on the scenes I sent her.

The last step in being part of the shortlist was to have a couple of pitch-coaching sessions with QWC, where they got me to practice my pitch for the book. And then it was up to the final step, the BIG PRIZE … the chance to pitch my book to an agent or publisher.

First up, I was paired with a publisher from one of the Big 5 publishing houses. I’ll admit that the meeting wasn’t quite what I’d been expecting, because the person I pitched to wasn’t actually a publisher of commercial fiction. Though she gave me some great feedback on my pitch, she wasn’t interested in acquiring my book because it wasn’t the genre she published. She did, however, offer to pass my book on to the publishers at that publishing house that do acquire commercial fiction, for them to take a look at. So though I didn’t get to pitch to those publishers directly, I presume (hope?) they are now taking a look at my book.

After chatting with QWC, we agreed that I should next try to pitch the book to an agent, and they set up a meeting for me with an Australian agent. This second meeting was more what I’d been expecting – the agent really liked my book and said that she could definitely see it on bookshelves some time soon. But she also said that the only publisher she could see it fitting with didn’t really deal with agents, and that I should submit the manuscript directly to them myself.

I chatted with QWC again after this meeting, and they agreed that we should take the agent’s advice and that I should pitch the book directly to this other Big 5 publishing house, which the agent had recommended. Luckily that publisher was also a partner in QWC's Publishable program, so they were able to set up a pitch meeting for me to pitch to someone there directly. SO, now I had one last shot, and I was really hoping it would be third time lucky.

I did the last pitch and the meeting went really well. The publisher I pitched to at this second Big 5 publisher seemed genuinely interested in my book, and even asked me what other book ideas I had for other novels (and I did a really short pitch for another book I have in mind!). She asked to see the full manuscript at the end of the meeting, which I believe is a really positive sign.

And so now, I wait. I have no idea how long I’ll be waiting for, but I think 3 months is the estimate. My manuscript is now in the hands of two different publishing houses, and I’m crossing all of my fingers and toes that someone loves the full book and wants to publish it. Overall I think the Publishable program that Queensland Writers Centre has put together has been a really great experience, and I feel so lucky that I got to meet some fantastic people there who really believe in my book, as well as that I had the opportunity to pitch my book to three different people in the industry – 2 publishers and 1 agent. I just hope that the publishers see the same potential in the book that the judges at QWC saw!

I have no idea how the other 9 shortlisted Publishable writers have gone with their pitches, but I hope they have all had some positive pitches too. I guess we’re now all playing the waiting game – and hoping like hell that sometime soon we might just get “the call”!

I’ll post another update once I know more. And don't forget to sign up to my mailing list so you don't miss any news!