Richard Pickard’s Journey to Publication
I first became aware of Chicken House in late 2015, in a bar at the National Theatre.
I was there to celebrate my friend Sam’s birthday, and many of his colleagues from the theatre were there too. One of those colleagues was MG Leonard, who Sam was excited to introduce as the soon-to-be-published author of Beetle Boy.
At this point I’d only just begun to secretly tinker with an idea for a children’s novel of my own, doodling an inky picture of a dilapidated pier, cut off from the land and swaying in the tide on four stilt-like legs. The image had come to me from my love of Brighton’s West Pier, and the thought of who might make a home in such an inhospitable environment ... a boy who is part-fish, of course!
I’d never met a real-life children’s author before those fateful drinks at the National. I had loved the idea of becoming one as a kid, and had developed into a voracious reader in my teen years. But like those other childhood dreams of going into space or running off to join the circus, being an author was not something that had ever seemed realistic. And yet, here was a children’s author soon to be published by Chicken House. Sitting at the same long table as me and my friends.
Despite having only a few chapters of my secret novel on the page, I couldn’t resist looking at the Chicken House website to see how, one day, I might be able to get their attention myself. Like most other publishing houses, Chicken House doesn't accept unsolicited manuscripts, but I was intrigued to find details of The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. I made a mental note and promised myself that one day – when I finally had a finished novel – I would enter.
That day came over three years later, once I’d finally found the time to finish a draft of my story, then called Something Fishy. I knew the competition was a longshot but in early 2019, as I went to read the entry requirements for the umpteenth time, I was happy to find that my chances had been doubled by the addition of a second prize – the Chairman’s Prize – which would be awarded to a work that required slightly greater editorial input than the overall winner. I knew that if I had any chance of winning a publishing deal, this might be it.
I was sitting at my desk at work a few months later when an email came through from my now-Editor, Kesia, telling me I was longlisted for the prize. I didn’t think my heart would ever beat that fast again, until a few weeks later an unknown phone number based in Somerset popped up on my screen. I knew immediately it must be Chicken House, and when Barry Cunningham’s voice came down the line to tell me I’d made the shortlist I almost exploded.
So, it was with a great amount of nerves and excitement that, along with five other talented writers, I descended on London’s Zetter Townhouse for lunch with the judging panel. This esteemed group, including the author Nikesh Shukla and Waterstones buyer Florentyna Martin, had spent the morning discussing our novels. After the main course, Barry Cunningham stood to announce the winner – Children of the Quicksands, by Efua Traoré, followed by the recipient of the inaugural Chairman’s Prize ... me!
My entire journey to publication has felt incredibly surreal. From that chance meeting at the National Theatre, to the time I scanned a middle-grade section of a bookshop and found a literal space on the alphabetised shelf where a novel by someone named Pickard would sit. Two years on from winning the Chairman’s Prize and I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting bookstores to see The Peculiar Tale of the Tentacle Boy filling that very same space. Copies have been piled high on tables, face-out on shelves, and even sitting proudly in several windows – the cover’s blue foil glinting in the sun.
If you’re reading this and have a novel in progress, or perhaps a finished draft gathering dust in a drawer, then take a chance and enter the competition when it next opens in October. For me, it provided the end goal I required to keep moving forward with my draft as year after year I saw successful entries popping up in bookstores. I couldn’t have asked for a better home for my novel, and from working on the edits, to seeing my beautiful cover by Maxine Lee-Mackie for the very first time, the entire process has felt like a waking dream.
Now, I’m overjoyed to be drafting my second novel for Chicken House and am thrilled I get to ride this most-fantastic merry-go-round all over again.
Find out more about submissions here.
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Lindsay Galvin: Writing behind the mask and productivity in a pandemic
Here, DARWIN'S DRAGONS author Lindsay Galvin explores what writing and publishing a novel in a global pandemic is all about. Over to you Lindsay ...
By the time the pandemic hit this year, my new book Darwin’s Dragons was already finished, printed and ready to fly. But only a month before launch my real dragons were grounded, a decision agreed by all, until 2021.
I’d never imagined anything like it. So what does a writer do in this situation?
Try to stay in the air
Darwin’s Dragons is the start of a new venture for me, into middle-grade historical fiction. I found this genre suited me by accident, when drafting a backstory for how dragons could be discovered, and it felt so natural that the story grew from there. I needed to keep going and write the next thing, but Covid was everywhere and nothing was the same. I was devastated at the tragedies happening daily. My whole family were at home, so I was home-schooling, snack-providing and generally unable to retreat to a fictional world. My brain wasn’t in a good place. Bombarded with news, I couldn’t get in the headspace. At first this was frustrating, but I knew I had to accept I needed to find a landing space and hibernate for a while before I crash-landed, just like a real dragon would.
What do you do when you can’t do it?
But I couldn’t just sleep! I need to give my mind activity otherwise it will find it elsewhere in anxiety thoughts. I went back to research and reading. I knew the basic direction for my next book and watched documentaries, researched, and listened to audiobooks. I read other unrelated books, because I’m always behind on those and reading helps everything. And I relaxed and cut myself some slack.
The only way out is through
When things were calmer, I started to write again but changed up my routine. The kids were still home so I wrote in bed in the morning before I got up. Usually I would never do this – I’m not a morning person – but it was my only quiet time. I just plodded along slowly with no pressure on myself, other than to get some words down each day. New characters and worlds took shape slowly, slowly. I wasn’t working at my normal speed but I made myself accept that was okay in a global pandemic, and I gradually started to look forward to it. I wrote half a new story draft that way – very gently – and where it felt like I’d never be able to take off … finally, it did.
Flamingos never look like they are going to be able to fly … but they do.
Write on!
I think when tough times hit and your career is grounded for whatever reason, there are no easy answers. Creativity is an impetuous beast, a bit like my five-month-old puppy! You can’t force creativity to do as it’s told, you can only provide conditions (like giving yourself a treat!) so it might want to. Carve a little quiet time, be patient and trust. Creativity will come back to you, it always does.
If you've been inspired by Lindsay's words here, take a look at our Times Chicken House Children's Fiction competition for unagented/unpublished authors. Submissions are being accepted now!
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NaNoWriMo Nov Day 20: Dan Smith
Today Dan Smith – author of no less than FOUR Chicken House books, including Big Game and his most recent novel, Boy X – has stopped by the blog to share his top tips for aspiring writers.
What would be your five top tips to budding writers?
1. Read, read, read. If you’re not a reader, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll never be a writer.
2. Write, write, write. It sounds obvious, but you’ll never be a writer if you don’t write anything - and, like many other things, writing takes practice.
3. Write with confidence and assurance and let your imagination run wild. Write the kind of book you would want to read.
4. Don’t wait for inspiration. Just write.
5. Be yourself and don’t spend too much time listening to advice from other writers.
For those hoping to take part in NaNoWriMo or enter the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition, what would be your best tip for writing something every day?
Just write. Don’t give up. Writing is hard work and there will be times when you don’t feel like it, but you need to find a time, sit down, and write. The words you put onto the page might be the most awful rubbish you have ever written (or they might be the most excellent) but they will be words on the page and you will be closer to your goal. Words on the page can be reshaped or deleted during the editing process, but no writing is just a blank page. So don’t ever give up.
Enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition to be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 publishing contract!
NaNoWriMo Nov Day 18: Lucy Strange
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NaNoWriMo Nov Day 17: Natasha Farrant
Next up is Natasha Farrant, author of the Pride & Prejudice-inspired Lydia: The Wild Girl of Pride & Prejudice, sharing her top tips for writers!
What would be your five top tips to budding writers?
1. Read extensively. Other writers are your best teachers.
2. Always have pen and paper (or other note taking device) handy. You never know when inspiration will strike.
3. That said, writing is a discipline. Sitting around waiting for inspiration never finished a novel. You need to put in the hours. It also helps to develop a routine.
4. Leave some time – at least a week, preferably a month – between finishing and re-reading. When you do re-read, be prepared to be ruthless. Accept that you will never get it right first go.
5. Read what you have written out loud. You will be amazed how much it helps.
For those hoping to take part in NaNoWriMo or enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, what would be your best tip for writing something every day?
Be disciplined. Set yourself a target number of words every day, and stick to it. Even when it feels like you’re writing rubbish, stick to it. Bad words are better than no words at all and anyway, this is just the beginning of the process: the real work starts with the rewrites!
Enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition to be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 publishing contract!
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Today it's the turn of Faceless author Alyssa Sheinmel to share her five top writing tips for aspiring authors – take it away, Alyssa!
What would be your five top tips to budding writers?
1. Read. Read writers who wrote the type of writing that you’re trying to do yourself.
2. Read. Read writers whose work you look up to, whose stories might be very different from the stories you’re trying to tell, but who tell their stories so well that just reading them feels like a writing lesson.
3. Read. Do research on the story you’d like to tell – read articles, essays, interviews, the works.
4. Read. Pick up something a friend or teacher recommended that you’d never have thought to pick up otherwise – an author you’ve never heard of, a genre you never thought you’d be interested in.
5. And if all else fails ... Read. I honestly believe that every single thing I’ve ever read has taught me something about how to tell a story: books that I’ve loved and books that weren’t necessarily my cup of tea. Novels and non-fiction. Essays and articles. Even – and I really mean this – textbooks. Ideas can come from the most unexpected of places. A textbook taught me to insert humor into a dry topic. Magazine articles have prompted (sometimes completely unrelated) story ideas. Novel after novel has shown me beautiful and unexpected sentences. Essays have improved my vocabulary. For me, the essential thing isn’t always what I’m reading; sometimes it’s just enough that I’m reading. It’s still (and I suspect always will be) the piece of advice I most often give to myself about writing: just sit down and read.
For those hoping to take part in NaNoWriMo or enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, what would be your best tip for writing something every day?
For me, I find it’s incredibly helpful to set a manageable goal for the day. That way, if I exceed my goal, I feel great, but even if I only just barely meet it, I still have the satisfaction of completing my day’s work. This can be a word-count-goal, or a chapter-goal, or just a getting-through-a-scene-goal – whatever feels right to you.
Enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition to be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 publishing contract!
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