Jo Reed: authonomist published by Wild Wolf

Here at authonomy, we love a success story. Sometimes authonomists write to us to letting us know about being picked up by an agent or publisher, and sometimes we find out for ourselves by scouring the 'Good News' thread in the forums. The latter is what happened last Friday, when we read that Ed's desk alumni Jo Reed had just had her book The Tyranny of the Blood published by Wild Wolf. Jo agreed to share her story here...

The guys at HC have asked me to say a little bit about my journey from authonomy to getting a publishing deal for my first novel, ‘The Tyranny of the Blood’ with Independent Fantasy publisher, Wild Wolf. The story, though, starts a while before that, so I hope nobody minds if I fill in a little background first!

I started writing seriously in 2002, with a vague idea for a novel about eugenics and time travel. The novel became two, and as I was writing the second, one character began to nag at me – the flawed anti-hero and cause of all the mayhem, Rendail. I just had to tell his story and so, Tyranny became the third in a trilogy. As I was writing the draft I was sending out my first efforts to agents and publishers, with predictable results. I blush when I think of some of those early query letters, and the perfunctory rejections that quite rightly slammed on the mat with depressing regularity.

It was only as I finished the first draft of Tyranny that I realised I was pitching the wrong novel, and was thinking of the trilogy in the wrong order. I took a step back, and got in touch with a professional editor who gave some invaluable advice. I rewrote the manuscript (we’ve all been there!) and within weeks knew I’d been right to take that professional advice. On the strength of the novel I was awarded an Arts Council funded ‘Apprenticeship in Fiction’. I began a year long mentoring program with scifi/fantasy author Liz Williams, and put Tyranny up on authonomy to get some idea of what people thought of it. I had no idea it would be so popular. In fact, a friend had to email me to tell me how well it was doing in the charts! Reaching the Ed’s desk last December was a great feeling, and getting such a good review was a real bonus.

Tyranny has been through another stiff edit since then. I submitted it to Wild Wolf in December 2008, and they took it on in March. It’s been a whirlwind of proofing, editing and discussion over the last two months, after which it was finally released on June 25th –a lot sooner than I had expected. The publisher has been great to work with, enthusiastic and ready to help me through any queries I have about the process. From submitting to holding the published book in my hand has been a real roller coaster ride, hard work but incredibly exciting. One of the biggest thrills has been my first signing, and meeting the people who are actually going to be reading (and judging) what I write. As well as working on getting Tyranny out there, I’ve completely rewritten that first book and it is now the sequel, ‘A Child of the Blood’, which recently got a great critique from Orion’s Natalie Braine. It is every new author’s goal to see their work in print. Now that I’m over that first hurdle, I can see that the hard work is only just beginning, and a lot of very exciting challenges lie ahead.