My Path to Publication – Alice McVeigh

The path to publication can be a long and varied one. This week, Alice MCVeigh, shares her inspiring writing journey with us. Welcome to the blog, Alice. Can you tell us how you got published?

When I was young, life was easy: I scribbled a novel (about the secret life of an orchestra), mailed it off – no email! – got an offer from the fifth agent I tried (President of the agent’s  association, no less) and – within two months – had a two-book contract with Orion/Hachette. My friends all thought I was made for life – but I wasn’t so sure. My father is a biographer and I knew that I’d have to sell well. My first (contemporary) novel did.  It reached 35 in the bestsellers, and the film rights were sold to Channel 4  – though never made, the money was handy! . . . However, the sequel didn’t do quite so well. . . then my IVF daughter showed up. . . and then my super-starry agent dumped me.

I decided to break into ghostwriting, having made some good connections in the industry. This worked, and I forgot all about fiction, for over 15 years. But when my daughter left for Oxford, I suddenly found ideas for novels nagging at me.

To my amazement, one of these was a sci-fi book about a rebel assassin on 23rd-century Earth. I lay down and waited for the idea to go away. It didn’t: and, within three months, I found that I’d written 113,000 words.  However, what was I to do with 113,000 words, however funny, erotic or brilliant, in a genre where I’d never even published a short story, had no track-record or contacts at all?! I queried, and got some lovely refusals – one of the top sci-fi agents, in Manhattan, sat on the whole manuscript for almost five months – but the publishing world had got a lot tougher during all those years I’d been ghosting. Also: one only gets one shot at being a debut novelist, and I’d had mine.) Although, in the late 90s, even debut novelists even got reviewed. The Sunday Times: ‘Characters rise and fall to McVeigh’s superbly controlled conductor’s baton. The orchestra becomes a universe in microcosm; all human life is here . . . McVeigh succeeds in harmonising a supremely comic tone with much darker notes.’)

Anyway, I was wondering about self-publishing when a writer friend told me about UK publishers Unbound. They’re small but risk-taking, and recently published a novel long-listed for the Booker Prize. They can afford to take risks, because they ask every author to crowd-fund the first part of the book’s publication costs. (Which is what I’m doing at the moment. Only one week in, and 59% already, whoop whoop!)  So, against all odds, sometime in 2020, I’ll have a new sci-fi novel in the bookshops, despite being no debut novelist and now in my fifties.

 So my advice? If you feel a book hammering at you to be let out: do it. Go for it, and be willing to take that risk!!!! Yes, it’s hard – everybody knows it’s hard – but you have to be in it to win it!

Great advice, Alice!