CELEBRATIONS Justin Davies Hooks an Agent

Those people who attended the 2016 SCBWI conference will be familiar with 'The Hook,' a nerve wracking competition! Writers stand up in front of a panel of agents and a audience of hundreds of people and pitch their book. Justin didn't just win the competition, he managed to hook an agent as well.

Justin writes:

I’m happy to be on the celebrations page!

So, I’m celebrating getting an agent!

After a lot of rejections over 18 months or so, I am now rep’d by Thérèse Coen, of Hardman and Swainson Literary Agency.

I took part in ‘The Hook’ at the November SCBWI conference. My prize for winning was to choose one of the agents (who were the judges) to have a 1-1 with. I chose Thérèse, having done some pre-competition research.

Thérèse asked me to send my full manuscript of Monsters M.I.A., a comedy adventure for Middle Grade readers, and I met with her in London to talk about that and to get some feedback. She ended the afternoon with an offer of representation! Naturally, I accepted and am already working on some edits.

I celebrated that night with Andrew, my husband, but couldn’t tell everyone until I’d signed the contract. I was away working for a while, and the contract was sitting on the door mat at home getting damp for a week. I finally signed it a few days ago, and have been sharing my good news ever since.

I celebrated SCBWI-style yesterday by standing with SCBWI South-East Scotland pals in the Edinburgh rain, trying to draw, on a Scrawl Crawl.

I celebrated again, and in warmer conditions, later on, with Andrew and a friend, both of whom have been brave beta readers for me.

As I said in my post on the SCBWI Facebook page, taking risks can pay off. And without SCBWI, I wouldn’t be in this position now.

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Charlotte Comley