A reporter from NBC news got in touch, a day after I hit a million reads, asking for an interview. Of course I said yes and we talked down one of the most frustratingly bad connections I had ever encountered. A few weeks later, an article was uploaded to their site, "Must Read: Serial Novels Get Second Life With Smartphones, Tablets".
They talked about my book, how quickly I had reached that many reads, what it was about and even included some of my concept art.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mobile/must-read-serial-novels-get-second-life-smartphones-tablets-n33136
The next day, I didn't see an uptick in my read count, which was slightly disappointing. But what I did see was another email sitting in my inbox from a big audiobook publisher. They wanted to buy the audiobook rights to my book.
This one email kicked me into gear. I suddenly had a very hard decision to make. I knew for a fact that if I gave away the audiobook rights, it would be harder to get a publishing deal, as publishers often want to have audiobook rights too. I asked them for some time to think and started to do some research.
With this in mind, I decided to contact some literary agents, looking for advice. I didn't think that it was time to approach them for representation, as my book wasn't finished and querying an agent with an unfinished book is a big no no.
In order to make it less formal, I found a few by searching "literary agent" on Facebook. I explained my situation and waited for a response.
Within the next few hours, I had three replies. They all said I shouldn't sell audiobook rights and they all requested the manuscript. One of them read the book overnight on Wattpad itself and offered representation there and then. It was very difficult to not say yes immediately, but my gut told me to explore my options. By pure coincidence, my ex-boss had recently contacted me, so I asked him for advice. He very kindly put me in touch with an editor at a UK children's publisher, who had coffee with me the morning after my Skype session.
It was a very productive chat, but the thing he was most confused by was the fact that I hadn't approached any UK agents. I explained that, originally, I was just looking for advice and I had no idea who the best UK agents were. In the USA there were various websites ranking the best in the industry, so I knew the current offers I had were from good, reputable agencies.
The editor wrote down a list of the three hottest UK agents in my genre. I would eventually receive offers of representation from all of them.
Within a week or two, I had six offers on the table, all from the best agencies in the world. Three were from the UK and three were from the US. I had my next big decision to make.
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If you are enjoying reading this, please don't hesitate to vote! Feel free to comment and ask questions, I'll always try and respond when I can :). Don't forget to look out for Summoner: The Novice in your local bookstores or if you're feeling extra excited, you can preorder the book using the links on my profile, or searching for it in your usual online bookstore.
All the best!
Taran
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From Wattpad to Published Author - My Journey
Non-FictionIn November 2013, I started writing my novel, Summoner: The Novice on Wattpad. I reached 1 Million reads within 4 months and was featured on NBC news. I was offered representation by 6 agents and my trilogy was eventually sold in auctions all over t...
