“I felt terrible…because if I couldn’t get an agent with Penguin Random House behind me, then what hope was there?”
After much rejection, it was deciphering what made a similar, bestselling novel work that landed Lorraine Brown her book deal.
After seven years of trying to be an actress, you’d have thought I’d have been well-equipped to deal with the ups and downs of the publishing industry. Rejection? I was used to it. Approaching agents and hearing nothing back? I was an absolute pro. But as I soon discovered, the writing rejections felt even worse than the acting ones had, with the difference being that at least I could carry on and do it anyway. I didn’t need anyone to give me permission to write, or to cast me in anything. And that, I think, was what kept me going.
My journey to publication was a sort of one step forward, two steps back situation. I was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award in 2016, but then when I approached agents, I got standard rejection letters (or heard nothing at all). A year later I was chosen to be part of Penguin Random House’s WriteNow programme, which aims to launch the careers of writers currently under-represented in the industry. I was mentored by an editor for a year, everyone was passionate and encouraging and I began to hope for the first time that giving up my day job (I was a school secretary) might one day be an option. Until, full of optimism (and with what I thought was a pretty strong covering letter), I submitted again. Agents will be biting their hands off to represent you! we’d enthusiastically been told. Except they weren’t. And I felt terrible, possibly worse than I had the first time, because if I couldn’t get an agent with Penguin Random House behind me, then what hope was there? Agents felt the book didn’t fit into a genre – it wasn’t sweet and funny enough to be a rom com, the themes weren’t strong enough for it to be literary and although it started a bit like a psychological thriller, it quickly turned into something else altogether.
Around that time Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare had just come out and was doing phenomenally well. I read it avidly, deciphering what it was about Beth’s writing that made it a romantic comedy (and made it sell) and what it was about my own novel that was falling short. That was the moment it all came together in my head – I could see what I needed to do (ramp up the love story, warm up the characters, add a touch of humour). I did another draft and scrimped and saved to book one-to-ones with agents at The London Book Fair, The Winchester Writers’ Festival and the Romantic Novelists’ Association Annual Conference. I thought this was probably my last chance – if nobody wanted the book, if it still wasn’t good enough, then I was going to have to scrap it and start something new. Thankfully the festivals and the Beth O’Leary-inspired redraft got things moving – a couple of agents I met called in the full; I emailed others to let them know and some of them called in the full, too. There was suddenly a bit of a buzz about the manuscript and it felt GREAT. Sometimes I think about how close I came to giving up on The Paris Connection and how differently things might have turned out if I had.
Lorraine Brown previously trained as an actress and has just completed her final year of a postgraduate diploma in psychodynamic counselling. She lives in London with her partner and their 8-year-old son. The Paris Connection is her first novel.
ABOUT: The Paris Connection
Could one split second change her life forever?
Hannah and Si are in love and on the same track – that is, until their train divides on the way to a wedding. The next morning, Hannah wakes up in Paris and realises that her boyfriend (and her ticket) are 300 miles away in Amsterdam.
But then Hannah meets Léo on the station platform, and he’s everything Si isn’t. Spending the day with him in Paris forces Hannah to question how well she really knows herself – and whether, sometimes, you need to go in the wrong direction to find everything you’ve been looking for…
The Flatshare meets Our Stop – this is a quirky, modern love story that will sweep you off your feet.
