What happens when you have an agent but don’t yet have a book?

Not everyone understands the enormity of getting a literary agent.  In fact I didn’t really  understand it, until I needed to understand it. Most people don’t.  I don’t think most of my family and friends understood it.  I mean in some ways the news was limited - I had an agent but I didn’t have a book.  I had an agent and so what?  I had representation and that was it.  

But that’s huge! Except most people don’t know that, so who do you tell?  The people at work? Then you reach for ‘Oh my agent represents x’ - ‘Oh that’s nice,’ they say and they think where’s your book then?

I had a very editorial agent who was willing to write a book with me.  Who believed in my idea enough to want to write a book with me but I didn’t have a book yet, I’m not even sure I knew how to write a book. 

There was one friend I told when I got my agent.  An author herself and a School Gates Mum who completely got it.  It was wonderful to have someone who understood. She wrote me that card I told you about before,  which I still have on display on my bookcase and I try to remember the advice in it every day.  

“Remember to celebrate every moment - no matter how small.  That’s where the real wonder lies I’ve found…”   

It reminds me that the journey is about today - not 12th June 2025 when a Murder for Miss Hortense will be published,  not when the cover is revealed and the reviews come in and the book bloggers blog, and the book gets into the bookshops or doesn’t, not when I have my book launch, and I give my speech, or read the reviews or don’t read the reviews.  It’s not about the recognition I may or may not get.  It’s about right now, this very moment.

So what happens when you have an agent like mine but no book yet.  You write.   You write and you experiment with your voice and you are given the space to do that.  My agent wanted to know when the first sixty pages would be sent to her.  I sent them and they were rubbish.  I knew they were rubbish (well I wasn’t sure) but I didn’t really know what I was doing.  Nelle gave me some really good feedback -  make it simpler, give the writing space to breathe, and so I wrote another sixty pages.  

At the beginning of those sixty pages, I saw Miss Hortense in her garden tending to her precious roses.   I knew that she was in one of the few places she went to for solace and that she was hiding from something that was almost unbearable.  Nelle said, that’s it, you’ve found your voice!  That image still kickstarts the book.  

Then Nelle asked when I could send the rest.  Deadlines are generally my friend and to know that Nelle would be there to read my words was just wonderful.  I trusted my agent which meant I could let go of everything else and just write.