Novel fair Launch 2012

A lovey evening in the Writers’ Centre on 27 June. Diligent Jack Harte launched the Novel Fair for unpublished authors for next year. It was a great success last year with 570 submissions and the twenty chosen are now in negotiation with either agents or publishers. Special congrats to my good friend and fellow Kildare writer Niamh Boyce who through agent Ger Nicholl landed a book deal with Penguin /Ireland for her novel, The Herbalist. Patricia Deevy of Penguin, a most gracious lady, gave an insightful talk on pitching, distinguishing it from synopsising and emphasizing how important it is to be able to say what your book is about in a sentence. Quality of the work is still paramount but timing is also important and can the idea be made to work? Patricia pointed out it is important to be able to objectify your work: pretend your book is written by someone else and you are telling somebody this amazing story about what goes on in it. She also made clear that she is always open to ideas but only a tiny percentage of submissions are taken on. Five of this year’s finalists read from their short listed work: Niamh Boyce who read from The Herbalist which will be published by Penguin/Ireland nest May, Ian Flitcroft, Daniel Seery, Fran Russell Banks and Jennifer Brady who shares a Stinging Fly link with me. Other friends I met on the night included Louise Phillips who has a book deal with Hachette and Helen Dwyer who asked to interview me about my poetry collection Rus in Urbe on Dublin South FM 93.9 for her programme Rhyme and Reason.