Die Autobahn to Publication
Posted on Feb 25, 2009 under Juliet Archer's Diary |Each author takes a different road to publication, but few manage the Victoria Connelly route - becoming a publishing success in another country, in a foreign language, before being published in their homeland.
Victoria’s story is fascinating and is best told on her website www.victoriaconnelly.com. Her first novel, Flights of Angels, was bought by a German publisher, translated into German (natürlich), given a different title (Unter deinem Stern) and even turned into a TV film. Strangely, it has yet to be published in the UK - it seems we don’t buy stories about angels whereas the Germans do!
Luckily, Victoria has just had a novel published in the UK - Molly’s Millions, a romantic story featuring a girl who wins the lottery and gives all her money away. Apparently this was far too fanciful for the angel-loving Germans!
I met Victoria last Saturday, when she told her story to the London branch of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She gave us some sound advice:
- Don’t underestimate the ’spark’ of inspiration you get in the bath.
- Never ever give up, no matter how many rejections and setbacks you have.
- Do your research to get the right agent/publisher for you.
- Use the Romantic Novelists’ Association - Victoria can highly recommend the New Writers’ Scheme (snap!) and also got quotes from some of their published authors for her book jacket.
