University
It began, as these things so often do, with an email. I was in my flat in Bath, getting ready for an early morning business lecture, when I saw it on my phone. Penguin would be giving a talk exclusively for business students at the University of Bath. I usually ignored these emails as I received them all the time, but this time it intrigued me.
Publishing was a career choice I had never really considered. I had dreams of being an author, true, but working in publishing had always seemed like something other people did; a mystical industry that was reserved for the most literary minded. In my mind, publishers were made up of people for whom James Joyce was light, bedtime reading.
In any case, several weeks later, I sat down in a small classroom and the Penguin Digital Sales Director told us about all the changes that were happening to the industry: the rise of Wattpad and the way it was revolutionising how young people read; that the way books were marketed and sold now changed every few months; how we lived in a new world of phenomena: Twilight, The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey.
In that short half an hour, I knew that I wanted to be part of it. An industry where I loved the product I was selling. Where every book was different, with a campaign tailored to each. Where massive changes were happening and they were looking for people with new ideas, new perspectives. Most importantly, they were recruiting business students for a paid internship in the summer of 2013. I knew that paid internships in publishing were virtually unheard of, such was the demand for the experience alone. It was definitely worth applying.
I went up to the speaker after he had finished and introduced myself, casually mentioning that I was an aspiring writer (at that time, I was working on a book that I had started at the age of fourteen, with no end in sight). He immediately told me that I should put it up on Wattpad, naming three different authors who had been discovered that way. At the time, I didn't think that much of it. After all, there were millions of users on the site. Surely it couldn't happen to me.
My Internship at Penguin
The next day, I applied for the internship. I didn't hear from them for months. So it was a great surprise when they called me up and asked me to come in for an interview and give them a five-minute presentation about Penguin Classics ebooks. Armed with a PowerPoint presentation containing several dozen pie charts and graphs, I managed to cram everything I had learned into five minutes.
At the end, we had an informal chat where my writing was brought up again as one of my hobbies. Again, Wattpad was mentioned. This time, I took it seriously.
When they called me to tell me I had got the job, I was informed that over five thousand people had applied for four internships. Somehow, I was one of the four interns chosen.
A few months later, I arrived at Penguin on the first day of their merger with Random House, which made them the biggest publisher in the world. After several speeches and fascinating meetings where the business of predicting book sales was discussed, I began my main project - an overview of the market, namely the rise of the ebook, relations with retailers, where the industry was heading and what strategy publishers needed to take.
After the end of a very rewarding experience, I decided to travel before I settled down. My boss said he would let me know if there was a more permanent opening after all the changes from the merger had been made. Finally, I would have the time to start writing on Wattpad.
NaNoWriMo
November was just around the corner, and I had a whole month to myself before I flew to Australia. Wattpad was at the forefront of my mind (I had thoroughly researched it as part of my assignment) but I hadn't uploaded anything yet. This was about to change.
I heard about NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month from a Facebook group I was part of a few days before it started. It challenges authors to write fifty thousand words in just one month. It seemed perfect for me. I had an idea for a book, one that combined everything I loved about fantasy into one story. It was the book I needed to write. The book I had hunted for in the shelves of dusty book stores, but couldn't find. A book that popped up in my dreams, that I found myself writing in my head with every spare moment I had.
So I sat down and wrote the first chapter and uploaded it to Wattpad, using a cover I made using Microsoft Paint. The next day, I wrote the second. It had maybe sixty reads at that point. I was amazed. I was willing to pay people to read my work and tell me what they thought, but now people would do it for free! One person, going by the name Achilles, wrote a review on every chapter in the early days. Perhaps if he had not done me that one kindness, I would not be where I am today. Every chapter was for him, just to get his thoughts on it. Then other people started commenting. Twelve days later, I had hit twenty-five thousand reads.
At this point, I knew I had something special. People were really enjoying my work, and although there were other books with millions of reads on Wattpad, their authors had been members for years. So I kept going, staying up into the early hours of the morning to make sure my promise of a chapter each day was kept. On a day I missed a chapter, my birthday, I received dozens of disappointed, even angry, messages from people all over the world. It was crazy!
At some time during all this, I hired an artist called Malgorzata Gruszka who I had worked with before to illustrate my front cover. Little did I know that the character we designed together would eventually grace the cover of my published book, which would eventually be printed and sold all over the world.
Australia
When December came along, I had written fifty thousand words and Summoner: The Novice had been read almost one hundred thousand times. But the book wasn't finished and I knew that I would soon be backpacking around Australia, with limited access to the internet. Amid some protests but also a lot of encouragement, I told my readers I would now upload a chapter once a week.
Thus, the second half of the book was written in the back of juddering buses and dingy hotel rooms. I would hoard my access to the internet jealously, making sure to reply to every comment whenever I found a spare moment and noting down my daily read count, using my phone's roaming if I couldn't find it. On Fridays, I would hunt through the streets looking for free wifi, occasionally forced to pay the extortionate fees that the hotel charged for access.
It was a whirlwind trip, where I cage dived with saltwater crocodiles, skydived onto the beach on Surfers Paradise and scuba dived in the Great Barrier Reef. I ate kangaroo, crocodile, camel, emu and barramundi. I learned to surf in Byron Bay, hiked in the outback, hung out with aboriginal tribes and wandered through the jungles of northern Australia.
By the time my travels were over, a month and a half later, it was almost a surprise to find I had hit half a million reads. Even more shocking, at one point Summoner was being read thirty thousand times a day. It was with a heavy heart that I left Australia, but with new purpose. I wanted to get Summoner published.
Yet, at the same time, I knew that I needed to finish Summoner before I could do anything. With that in mind, I moved to an upload every two weeks, so I could complete the book ahead of schedule. I also started sharing concept art that I commissioned from Malgorzata, which many loved and others were frustrated by, since they wanted more writing instead. Four months after I uploaded the first chapter, I hit one million reads.
It was a surreal day and I celebrated my success by popping open some champagne and telling my friends via Facebook what I was doing for the first time, to their amazement. But that wasn't the end of it. Another email was about to change everything once again.
NBC News, Audible, Advice and Agents
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.
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.
Choosing an Agent
At this point, I was still uploading a chapter every two weeks to Wattpad and the book still wasn't finished, but I needed to buy myself some time. I wanted to sign with an agent before the entire book had been uploaded online, so I stopped uploading while this was all happening. I had numerous phone calls with the American agents and meetings with all the UK agents.
My first meeting was with Juliet Mushens, an agent who offered representation within three hours. She had read the manuscript immediately and sent me a long email telling me what she loved about it and listing all the books she thought had influenced it, getting most of them right. I met with her and we immediately clicked. I was especially impressed by the great deals she had made for her stable of authors, the way her writers supported each other and met each other regularly and her deep understanding of the book itself. Like me, Juliet was young and driven, not to mention the fact that she had achieved a great deal in just three years of being an agent. I knew that I was just beginning my career and wanted to find someone who would be with me all the way.
All of the other agents had many positive qualities and it was very difficult to decide, especially as they were all highly skilled salespeople and negotiators. It would turn out to be one of the most difficult decisions of my life. The day I had to decide came far too quickly. The night before I changed my mind a dozen times, but the final decision before I fell asleep was Juliet.
The morning after, I emailed everyone to let them know my decision: Juliet was the right agent for me, come what may.
Submitting to Publishers
The weeks that followed were quite anticlimactic. I uploaded two more chapters and told my fans about signing with an agent. They were very happy for me, although many confused this with being published. Later, Juliet sent me a few tweaks for the book, which helped a great deal. We also decided the book would be sold in a three-book deal, as I envisioned Summoner as a trilogy.
Then, I got a phone call from Juliet. We had received a pre-emptive offer from a UK publisher. The figure was far higher than anything I had ever thought possible. Even stranger, Juliet had already decided we should turn it down, as they wanted World rights and she didn't think it was a good enough offer.
I was ecstatic. I now knew that I could support myself as a full time author. At the same time, they had told us that the deal was off the table if we turned it down. Juliet was the expert and I trusted her implicitly. We said no.
A few days later Juliet called me again. We had received another pre-emptive offer, this time from Brazil. It was almost as high as the earlier offer and this was just one territory! Since I am half Brazilian myself, it was especially gratifying, as my extended family would be able to read it in their native language. I also knew that the deal would signal to other publishers that my trilogy was worth considering.
Soon after, my trilogy went to auction in the UK. It was extremely tense, with me checking my email and phone every few minutes. Publishers were bidding against each other without knowing how much their opponents had offered. We reserved the right to go with either publisher, regardless of whose offer was higher. When it was down to two publishers, Juliet thought it best to take me to their offices so we could meet them before their final offers were sent.
I went and met both publishers in their offices on the same day. Juliet was fantastic throughout, telling me the questions she would be asking and what I should expect.
Both publishers went to a lot of effort to show their passion for Summoner. They had all of Malgorzata's artwork printed on the walls. They had put together proposed marketing plans and schedules in a specially designed booklet, with ideas such as demon trading cards and temporary tattoos. Both were incredibly professional, genuine and I met the entire team that would be working on my book on both occasions, something that Juliet said rarely happens.
It was a difficult decision but we finally made the choice to go with Hodder Children's Books, who are part of the Hachette Children's Group.
A few weeks later, my book went to auction in the US, with three publishers. This time I dealt with Juliet's US counterpart, Sasha Raskin. I had phone calls with all the publishers and one even had a conversation with Wattpad.
Ultimately, the trilogy was won in a highly competitive auction by Macmillan.
Later, the book went to auction in Germany and sold in several other territories. At the time of writing this article, it will be published by Hodder Children's Books (Hachette) in the UK, Australia and Commonwealth, Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan) in the US and Canada, Hachette Jeunesse in France, Heyne in Germany, Planeta in Spain, Crown in Taiwan, Record in Brazil, EKSMO in Russia, Jaguar in Poland, Ecliptic in Bulgaria and Alpress in the Czech Republic.
On the day I finally announced it was going to be published, Summoner: The Novice gained one hundred and fifty thousand reads within 24 hours. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Since Then...
Even in the months leading up to The Novice's release, my life began to change. Wattpad flew me out to Canada for their new office launch party, where I got to meet the entire team. They were a fantastic bunch of people with one of the best work cultures I have ever encountered.
I found a kindred spirit in the cofounder of Wattpad, Allen Lau, who had combined his love of books and business, just as I had. Allen told me how in the early days he had received grateful messages from children all around the world, who could not afford books. One stood out in particular, a boy who had got into trouble on the streets and was going down a bad path. Wattpad was his salvation, staying in and reading rather than going out and getting into trouble. Allen told me Wattpad wasn't about profit in his eyes. It was a way to improve people's lives.
Most fascinating of all was when Allen took me through a presentation that all Wattpad staff were shown when they joined. It was truly inspiring, detailing the humble beginnings of Wattpad to the multimillion dollar company it is today. Someone should write a book about it.
I was also given the opportunity to meet key Wattpad members and give them my ideas for improving the site the following morning. I am told at least three features I recommended are in the pipeline and I'm proud to say that one has already been introduced! It was also surreal to meet people such as Beth Reekles and Abigail Gibbs, two authors who had inspired me to put my book on Wattpad in the first place, being young British authors who had their Wattpad books traditionally published.
There were other amazing authors there, too many to name, but we all got on extremely well and have plans to write together in the future, when Wattpad's collaborative feature is introduced. Perhaps unusually, of the dozen or so Wattpad authors who had been flown in, I was the only male.
Ultimately, I never put the rest of the book on Wattpad. It would be unfair on the publishers who have invested so much time and effort in the series to then give it away for free on another platform, nor fair on myself given the time I have put into writing it. At the same time, without my readers, my book may never have been published, or even finished. In the end, I realised that there was a net gain for all by publishing the book. Now I would have the time and incentive to write a further two books for my fans to read, whereas before I would have stopped at one. I also decided to write a fourth book, a prequel, for them to read on Wattpad for free as a thank you.
Since then I have been on panels at several conventions and festivals, including Hay Festival, Bath Festival, Wattpad Loncon, Nineworlds, DeptCon in Ireland and even EMIL in Brazil. I have presented at several schools and given talks at author events on how to promote oneself on Wattpad. Perhaps the most gratifying change is that I trained with the UK's National Literacy Trust and Author Profile to become a professional speaker and now campaign to improve children's literacy around the United Kingdom.
I am also proud to be able to say that a year and a day after I started uploading on Wattpad, Summoner: The Novice hit five million reads. The Inquisition also hit the New York Times Bestseller List at #2 and #3, while The Novice reached #5!
It has also been amazing to get to know my two brilliant editors, Liz Szabla in the US and Naomi Greenwood in the UK, who's combined insight have taught me more in one year than a lifetime of my own study of the craft. They have been a stellar team and have managed to polish Summoner: The Novice into a book I am hugely proud of.
Juliet has been my guiding light, helping me navigate the world of publishing with a steady but firm hand. I don't think there is another literary agent like her, nor one more suited for my needs as both a person and an author.
While some might look over their shoulders and wonder what might have been, I am very fortunate to know in my heart that I can stand by my decisions. I can safely say that I have no regrets, only eagerness for what the future will bring.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my journey to becoming a full-fledged author! If you're curious about my books, please do feel free to check them out! They're available in Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and many other bookshops, as well as online on Amazon, Kindle, Google Play, iBooks, Nook and Kobo, to name but a few.