I didn't want to mention it until I'd signed contracts and it was up there on their website for real. But there, check it out, is my gorgeous fizzog slap bang in the middle of the page of the authors and artists represented by - fanfare - my agent.
I've only been and gone and got myself an agent, after years of occasional trying (see details here). I've been take on by Emily Talbot of United Agents, on the strength of Richard The Third which I sent her, as a PDF, back in September. She replied to me on October 10th, we had a really positive Zoom call on October 16th (after which I came down and said, confidently to Hev, "looks like I've got an agent"), and since then I've been waiting to exchange paperwork (it's done by DocuSign these days, kids) and for it to be confirmed.
Now, of course, this is just the start of the process that could, if we were lucky, end up in my books being published and reaching the public the way I'd like them too. There's plenty of people who can still say no to everything I do, and we could end up no further on. But it certainly is a major step.
The first hurdle we know we have to get over is that Richard The Third, the book that caught her eye (and which has proven my most popular in the past month) has already been self-published by me. And publishers are less likely to be attracted to something that's "second hand" like that. So I have set to work producing more work in that same vein, in order to have work to present in the new year. Hence Midsummer Night's Dream, which I started adapting in October (but couldn't explain why. Well now you know).
As I say, this could still lead to many more brick walls and ultimate frustration. But it does so from a position of more importance. Publishers talk to and listen to and have a working relationship with agents, which they very rarely have with authors coming in from the cold. Especially author-artists of graphic novels who have, until very recent years, been an unknown quantity in the world of traditional British publishing.
Let us see how I progress. In the meantime, suffice it to say I am delighted with the current state of affairs, and enjoying the incentive to produce some great new work in the hope it will eventually reach its audience.
My Books and where to get them:
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