Cart Before The Horse

Even though I’ve only got three chapters of my would-be novel completed, I was wondering how, exactly, one pitches a novel to a publisher. I happened upon the blog of Nathan Bransford, an agent for Curtis Brown, who besides lots of encouragement offers a straightforward assessment of the publishing world and loads of tips on how to navigate it.

Anyway, step one, write a book. A whole, complete book. Step two, sell it to an agent by means of a query letter, in which everything in your 90,000 word novel is summed up in two sentences. 

This is actually a very good exercise, and also an excellent way to create a quick thumbnail of the whole story. 

So, here’s my first attempt to sum up Swallowed in two sentences:

Aaron Adler’s got it all, for a guy nowhere close to middle age: the high-profile design job in Washington DC, the beautiful and bewitching Jazny Phelps as his lover, and a taste for dunken excess that may finally be catching up with him. When Aaron’s colleague Marnie Chrisfield drowns in the Potomac on the hazy, crazy night he realizes he’s actually in love with her, he must face some huge decisions about his future, or risk not having one.

So, that’s a start. I’ll keep working on it.