GUARDIAN MASTERCLASS
I attended the Guardian Masterclass on Getting Your Book Published last week (15th and 16th June) and thought it was absolutely brilliant. A big thank you to all the tutors:  Liesel Schwarz, Catherine Ryan Howard, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kelly Glencorse, Hellie Ogden, Tory Lyne-Perkis and particularly Danuta Kean, who programmed the weekend. They were all complete stars.

After two very enjoyable and information packed days I have learned what an agent is looking for, how to write a pitch letter and how to write a winning synopsis, amongst many other things. I now feel both far better equipped and confident that I can secure an agent this time around. When I think back to my original attempt at gaining representation a couple of years ago I have to laugh. I made so many schoolboy errors with my pitch letter and synopsis there is little wonder I didn’t get anywhere. I also made a fatal error in timing by submitting my work just before the London Book Fair which I can now see is completely ridiculous. What the fuck was I thinking?

Over the course of the last week I have literally not stopped working. Godman has been given another polish (still finding typos which is a bit painful), I have rewritten the synopsis and I am currently reworking my pitch letter. In the next few weeks I will begin to resubmit Godman to prospective agents. Hopefully, this time with better results.

The course has also made me appreciate the importance of social media and to this end I have finally joined Twitter. You can find me @johnelliswriter Follow me and I will follow you if you ask me to.