Interview with Author Annabelle Simons by Tillie Holmes
Annabelle Simons (she/her/they) is a young adult fiction writer, specialising in LGBTQA+ fantasy. Since graduating from Falmouth University in 2016 with a MA in Professional Writing, she has been working on her debut novel. This year she landed her first literary agent. I spoke to Annabelle, and she cast some light on the stepping stones that occur between writing a book and seeing it come to life in print.
Q - Tell me about yourself and your book?
A - I’ve been writing this particular book since 2014, but I was thinking about it for a long time before that. I used to write online with friends, mostly fan fiction, which was really useful. You get comments online which inform your process, even when you’re eleven and writing stories entitled ‘sexy-teen-demon-school’.
For a long time, I thought I wanted to be in theatre, but I was always writing on the side, and at some point, the writing overtook the acting. I decided to commit to it, and I started a master’s in Professional Writing. During that time, I worked on my book idea and workshopped the first thirty-pages within an inch of their life – ironically, pages which aren’t even in the book anymore.
I ‘finished’ my book in 2017 and started querying it, but after thirty letters of rejection from literary agents, I realised it wasn’t ready yet. I had the customary cry and then got back to editing. I started looking around online for ways to receive feedback, and entered a load of Twitter pitch competitions, including one called #DVPit. I got attention from a couple of literary agents, who requested to see the full manuscript. They didn’t want to move forward with it, but they gave me some great comments which really helped.
In 2019 I (cautiously) started sending out queries again. I sent letters to several agents around June time and got an offer from a literary agent in August.
Q - What preparations did you do before reaching out to agents?
A - I think I was resistant for a long time to look into the process of querying, assuming I could just wing it on passion and enthusiasm for the craft. Obviously, that’s not how it works.
I started paying more attention to my cover letter and synopsis, which are the first things an agent will look at a lot of the time. I learned about the ‘elevator pitch’ and practiced writing taglines for my book until I got it right. Agents really like it when you can sum up your book in a couple of lines and make it sound enticing.
I got feedback from friends on my cover letter, and most importantly, I took my time. I think a big problem I had the first time around was rushing myself to finish it, and so I made sure that the book was ready this time, and although it took another 2 years, it was worth it.
Q - What resources did you use to find an agent?
A - Manuscript Wishlist is an invaluable tool. Also Twitter. If you use it right, then you can find hundreds of people interested in your genre, just by following agents and then finding others through their profiles.
Q - Any words of wisdom for writers out there looking to get their book ready for publication?
A - I can’t emphasise enough the importance of writer friends!
Friends are great, but writer friends are a necessity. Asking a person to read through your manuscript is a really big deal, and other writers get that. Find a writing group, go online, or connect in other ways. Most importantly, ask for help.
Words by Tillie Holmes
Edited by Klaudia Hanssen