Just don’t expect it to be quick!
Writers Workshop member Penny Frances is releasing her debut novel, Riding the High Road, later this year with Fantastic Books. Congrats, Penny! We are as thrilled as she is, so we asked her a bunch of questions about her experience, and it’s fascinating reading for anyone hoping to pursue a traditional book deal.
Tell us about Riding the High Road
Riding the High Road tells the story of 18-year-old Gethin escaping his hum-drum life in Sheffield to find his sperm-donor father, Don, in the Scottish Highlands during the summer of the Independence Referendum. On a parallel journey is sassy biker girl Jez who rides up to Scotland on a brand-new Harley after nursing her dying birth father. Their journeys collide at Don’s quirky motorcycle museum and, after the devastation of being rejected by the reclusive and suspicious Don, Gethin is persuaded to join Jez’s adventure on the back of the Harley. Meanwhile Gethin’s lesbian mother, Pat, is left to struggle with her art and the outcome of her alternative parenting values.
The novel explores a wide spectrum of child-parent relationships as Gethin’s travels bring him into contact with people from a range of family circumstances. Jez provides a counter to Gethin’s highly planned conception, having largely brought herself up after being adopted by her foster carer. But this road movie adventure through the inspirational Scottish landscape shows that whatever our background, we all need to move beyond our parents’ legacy to achieve a true rite of passage.
While Gethin is the main protagonist, the novel is also told from the points of view of Pat and Jez, with Don having a say as well. Both generations’ perspectives are included to highlight the different expectations they have grown up with.
In the genre of accessible literary fiction the novel will, I hope, appeal to adult readers of all ages who like a good story, featuring motorcycles, art, and most importantly, the challenge of young people coming of age in a world very different to that of their parents’ generation.
Where did the idea for the novel begin?
The impetus for the novel came from my experience of parenting a child (now 25) conceived through self-insemination, and an interest in how children of non-traditional families view their upbringing. Can these young people facing adulthood afford the luxury of their parents’ idealism, given the increasing alienation and sense of social exclusion that many of their generation experience?
The novel also draws on my lifelong interest in art (helps being married to an artist), and my love for Scotland (where I visit annually, sometimes of the back of my husband’s motorbike), where the sublime landscape combines with the energy of direct political engagement.
What has been surprising or challenging when working with a publisher so far?
Just how long it has taken to get this far. I started submitting the novel to agents and publishers in 2017, and after numerous rejections (a few of which were encouraging), I submitted to this publisher in May 2018 and received a reader report on the first chapter and synopsis in July of that year. This was largely positive but suggested that the word count was too high and recommended cutting it by about 15%. After initial resistance on my part (and with no guarantee of acceptance), I eventually resubmitted the slimmed down version in September 2019, which was followed by another reader report in April 2020 suggesting more specific edits. The second re-submission was in August 2020, and I waited a full year until finally being told in August 2021 that I had been accepted by Fantastic Books for publication. Another wait before signing a contract in August 2022, and I’m now waiting to be assigned an editor. I’m hoping to be able to launch the book in October 2023!
Despite the long wait, I am happy with the way I have been treated by this publisher and understand that they are a small independent press operating in challenging times. They have always kept me informed of the delays and responded very quickly to any queries. The reader reports were invaluable, not something most publishers offer on first submission, and I am confident they have helped me improve the novel substantially. I look forward to working with their editor, but in the meantime they have sent me a publicity questionnaire, which has set me on the path of improving my social media and online profile, a challenge in itself!
What are you excited about with regard to publication? What, if anything, are you anxious about?
Excited by the idea of simply holding the physical published book in my hands and having people read it at last but anxious about that as well! Perhaps people will think it’s rubbish and hardly anyone will read it. For me, the whole point of creative writing is communication, and that involves taking the risk of being read, so I care about the success of the novel. Having had some stories published online and in small print magazines, I know how exposing it feels to have your work out there, but that is outweighed by the huge buzz of validation that comes with being selected for publication by someone in the industry who thinks it’s worth it.
Do you have any words of advice/encouragement for authors pursuing a traditional publishing route?
There’s loads of advice out there about researching your market, tailoring your submissions to the publisher or agent’s exact requirements, showing how you fit with their lists, etc. All very important but also quite soul destroying, tedious and time consuming. I’d say it’s important to keep going, develop a thick skin, and make sure you’re working on writing something new so that the submitting process doesn’t completely take over your writing self.
And a few specific words of advice from my experience:
Don’t expect it to be quick!
When you think your manuscript is complete, cut it by at least 15%. You won’t lose anything but extraneous words. Also, if possible, get it read by someone in the industry and edit accordingly before starting to submit.
Don’t expect it to be quick!
Take any feedback that comes with rejection as a gift and use it to improve your manuscript.
Don’t expect it to be quick!
People love to say, ‘Think of how many rejections JK Rowling had,’ but this winds me up. Yes, expect many many rejections (though I bet JKR didn’t have as many as I’ve had), but there is no guarantee of acceptance just by endlessly sending out the same old manuscript. Expect to re-work and re-work again and then it might, just might, happen.
But, having said that, don’t expect it to be quick!