Original subtitles

in this lesson I'm going to give you a

few final words of advice for what

happens after you've written your novel

so hopefully by now you have a really

great idea and you're ready to get down

and start writing the first two pages of

your book but I'd just like to talk to

you a little bit about what will happen

later the traditional route to getting

published is via a literary agent

Publishers rarely accept unsolicited

manuscripts they want to receive a full

book from a literary agent who sort of

says this is an amazing book and you've

got to have a look at it otherwise they

get sent so much material that they just

never get a chance to read at all but

literary agents also get sent a lot of

material so obviously you know you need

to still be sending a book that is as

close to perfect as it can possibly be

the traditional route getting published

is to impress a literary agent by

sending them a copy of your edited book

along with a a cover letter and a short

synopsis which will include the title

and maybe a tagline there is a really

great book that I cannot recommend more

highly to you it's called the writers

and artists yearbook make sure you get

the latest edition because it has all

the most up-to-date information about

which literary agents work at which

agencies what sort of books they publish

so you make sure that you only submit to

people who are going to be interested in

the type of book that you've written you

can also find out which literary agents

might work well for you by looking at

the acknowledgements of some of your

favorite books authors almost always

think they're literary agents so have a

look and see who they think and perhaps

you know pay a little bit more attention

to them do some online research and it

may be that they might be interested in

your book at some

stage in terms of coming up with the

title it can be really helpful if you

talk to friends about it and the same

thing with the tagline I still remember

when I had the idea for Lucy in the Sky

and it didn't have a title and I already

had interest from a publisher who I was

going to meet a week later and I said to

my brother you know I need a title for

this book can you help me he's already

creative and and so I told him what the

book was about and he just shot back a

text message with a few different titles

including Lucy in the Sky I was thinking

well that's a great title so my heroin

wasn't even called Lucy um so I ended up

copying and pasting and my heroin wasn't

even called Lucy so I ended up doing a

find and replace on the character's name

and changing it to Lucy and sending it

off to to my publisher when when we

ended up having a chat so just you know

get some inspiration from friends and

family about your book idea they might

someone out there might have really good

inspiration for for a title that you

know might just be the thing that helps

you to get a book deal and then the case

of Only Love Can Hurt Like This an earth

shattering secret a life-changing love

story I think that tagline really sums

up what readers will be able to expect

when they come to read this book it's

going to be emotional and it's a love

story ultimately I want people to know

that what they're picking up is a love

story so it's great if you can somehow

convey the essence of your book through

a tagline one of my most favorite

taglines of recent years features on

Beth O's book The Flat share and it just

says Tiffy and Leon share a bed Tiffy

and Leon have never met I just think

that's just such a great tagline it's

like what what they share a bed but

they've never met each other and you

realize the book is called the flat

share and you know that just seems like

a really intriguing proposition so yeah

have a think about something that you

think might be quite intriguing and and

make a publisher or literary agent want

to read

on but Far and Away the most important

thing you will need to do when you get

to the end of your novel apart from

celebrating CU you should definitely

definitely celebrate because it is a

huge achievement but what you will need

to do is edit your book as I've said

before literary agents and Publishers

get sent so many manuscripts that they

are looking for reasons to say no so

don't give them one if your book is

riddled with mistakes or typos or errors

they're just going to put it to one side

and look for something a little bit

easier it's highly unlikely they'll keep

reading if if they see that it's just

filled with mistakes there are a lot of

very very successful dyslexic authors so

you know don't be put off if you if you

worry that you're you're not absolutely

perfect with everything that you write

grammatically I would actually suggest

that anyone hires a professional editor

if they can or otherwise that they get a

very trusted friend who's really good

with grammar to read through their book

and check for mistakes obviously all of

this is after you have already edited it

yourself now the thing with editing is

that you need to make sure that your

book is really pacy throughout that it's

not you know you haven't gone off on too

many tangents and you know that you've

always kept the story driving forward I

can't go into too much detail in this

course because this course was all about

helping you to write a book we could do

an entire course just on publishing or

on editing so and in fact you know you

might want to have a look and see if

there's something like that that that

might interest you but you know I'm

mainly focusing on helping you to write

the book and then afterwards you know

the editing is going to come down to you

but just to give you a few tips on

editing as you through your book are

there any moments at all that you feel a

little bit underwhelmed by as you're

reading them if you find it a little bit

boring chances are you'll read as will

too so you need to either cut it out or

cut it down you can just make sure that

the story keeps moving forward and

doesn't get weed down with too much

detail cut words sentences whole

paragraphs even an entire chapter if you

find that it's not really adding to the

story and if it's slowing the pace down

too much when I wrote Lucy in the Sky I

remember receiving my manuscript back

from my editor and she had drawn an

entire line through a whole chapter and

she just said cut and I was like what

you know you got to cut the whole

chapter and she's like it's not adding

to the story you've just written an

entire chapter about the characters

going to you know going out looking at

something you know and it's just you

know wasn't very exciting so we did cut

it and I think that's another really

important piece of advice if you do

decide to hire an editor or even if

you're at the stage where you've got an

editor at a Publishing House and they're

giving you some advice I remember when

my editor said to me she said it's your

book if there's anything you really

disagree with then you know you don't

have to do it I really like that she

said this to me because you know made me

feel a little bit more in control but

I'd already said to myself my editor had

30 years of experience and I had

absolutely none I'd never written a book

before so I just decided in advance I'm

going to do absolutely everything she

tells me to do and I think that's a

really good attitude you know listen to

The Experts listen to you know what

suggest and just be open to it it's not

an insult to you you know everybody

makes the odd mistake and you know you

just need to listen to really good words

of advice but ultimately do remember it

is your novel if something doesn't feel

right to you and if there's something

that you're really really passionate

about keep it in plenty of authors

do also as you're editing check the

timeline and make sure everything's

accurate you know don't include little

details there or you know make sure

things are consistent throughout and

that you haven't sort of said one thing

somewhere and something else somewhere

else just make sure it's all as

consistent as possible and then once

you've done this whole process you need

to repeat it do the whole thing again

read the book from the beginning all the

way through to the end tightening up

dialogue tightening up scenes making

sure it's pacy and keeping the story

moving forward if you find that your

characters have gone off on a tangent

that maybe you quite enjoyed writing but

actually really doesn't add very much to

the story line think about trimming that

down or cutting it out completely you

just want your story to always feel as

though it's you want your story to be a

page Turner you know this is ultimately

what it comes down to and as I say with

my editor with Lucy in the Sky she cut

out a whole chapter she cut out

paragraphs here she cut out paragraphs

there that weren't really adding to the

story I'd really enjoyed writing those

paragraphs but um if they didn't really

add anything I've always sort of said

since you know when readers say that my

books are a page Turner well that's you

know partly down to my editor you know

she cut out all of that loose wood and

just kept going forward so you'll need

to do that job for yourself or get a

really great friend who's very very good

at at grammar and and ask for their

opinion but when I talk to you about

friends also do be a little bit careful

because if you give your book to too

many friends to read and only give it to

them when you feel really happy with

your book and make sure you get to the

end first because any constructive

criticism may damage your confidence and

stop you from writing so you want to get

to the end of your book first and then

have edited it you know enough times

yourself and then you will find you know

that if you give trusted people to read

it they may have different opinions as

to what needs to be done to the story

and that can be really overwhelming so

ultimately you need to have a pretty

clear idea of what you think your story

needs and what your readers will get

from it because if one friend says I

didn't really like this part of the

story line and another friend says I you

know I liked this more than anything

else ultimately you have to listen to

your heart the most important thing for

you is to write the book that you love

and if you love writing it then

guaranteed you will find readers out

there who love reading it just as much

as you loved writing it so that's what

you're looking

for so I'm just going to finish this

lesson again with these words of advice

but the most important one is do get

yourself a copy of the writers and

artists yearbook the most recent Edition

because it has all the up-to-date

information about agents where they work

and it also gives you some fantastic

advice on how to write a cover letter

how to draft a synopsis and it also

helps you with self-publishing advice

because if you don't end up getting an

agent do not disp fair you know it might

be that you will end up publishing this

book and it might end up becoming a huge

success and later get a traditional

publishing deal you know you just don't

know that's happened to so many people

but you know the most important thing is

just to really really enjoy the book

that you're writing write it for

yourself don't write it for anyone else

just enjoy it so we're reaching the end

of the course but we still have one

final video where I'm going to outline

the essential steps you'll need to

follow in order to start writing your

book and especially those first two

pages