Literary Agent Secured

Yep. My wife and I returned from our Christmas in Europe to the news that Lyn Tranter at Australian Literary Management was willing to act as my literary agent. This is how the situation played out: the moment we got home from overseas, my wife and I combed through my manuscript looking for typos, spelling mistakes, poor formatting – and of course plot holes and character flaws. When we were happy with the manuscript, I emailed it to Lyn – and then waiting began . . . Every time my phone rang I would check caller ID, hoping it would be Lyn calling. I know this much about publishing – good news is rarely emailed to you. A ‘thanks but no thanks’ from potential publishers or agents usually drop in your inbox. But good news, such as ‘we want to publish your manuscript’ or ‘I’d like to take you on as a client’ are pretty much always a phone call. So, in mid February, that’s what I got. A phone call from Lyn requesting a meeting. ‘How about tomorrow?’ I said. We arranged a time in the afternoon and the next day I went into work early (4:00am) – remember I’m a postie? – delivered my mail at warp speed and drove to Balmain to meet with Lyn.

First off, we decided on a new title for the manuscript. Gone is Disputed Provenance and Murder is an Art. The new title of my first Liz Kolle crime novel is . . .

The Highlands

And now I’m faced with more waiting as Lyn shops the manuscript to potential publishers. I have my fingers and toes crossed that The Highlands will find a home soon. Mind you, crossed fingers make it hard to type – as I work on my next crime novel. It’s called Burned. I’ll tell you more about that one in future posts.