Regular readers may remember that last year, I was lucky enough to sign with the Jacinta Di Mase agency.

Today, I feel even luckier to be signing my first book contract with the amazing XOUM Publishing. (Now Brio BooksBrio Books) (YAY!)

XOUM/Brio publish such science greats as Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Adam Spencer (insert another dozen awed YAYS! here). And I’ll be joining them!! You can imagine my excitement 🙂 🙂

Which leads me to my next question…

Do you need a literary agent?

There’s a lot of discussion about how to get a literary agent and whether having an agent is a necessary thing for an author, especially in Australia.

Well, in this case, having an agent certainly helped this book find the right publisher.

Here’s how it went down:

August 2016
I emailed Danielle for the first time. We’d never met, but I’d heard her name and liked her style. I sent her an intro-to-me email and a book idea I’d been brewing for a while. It was a non-fiction kids book. I thought it was pretty cool (I still do :-)).

September 2016
Danielle responded with an “I’m intrigued.” She asked for a more detailed pitch, which I provided. She emailed back the next day (!!) to set up a phone conversation. I loved her enthusiasm, passion and humour. And I loved that she only laughed a little bit when I was rendered mostly-speechless after she offered to represent me over the phone.

October 2016
Contracts done and dusted. I became a fully signed member of the Jacinta Di Mase agency.

November 2016
After lots of lovely discussion and throwing-around-of-ideas, I got stuck into preparing sample pages for what Danielle and I hoped would become our first book project. Exciting times!

February 2017
And even more exciting! Danielle started talks with the lovely people at XOUM/Brio, who are just as thrilled with the book idea as we are. XOUM/Brio make gorgeous books and have an innovative in-house designer who makes sure they’re fun to read and visually stimulating. All perfect for this project!

March 2017…
I have a new home! Today! All systems are go. I’ve chatted over the phone with Alice, my new editor, and I’ve started beavering away at more pages and more ideas and more research…

…and beyond!
I’m going to sign these contracts, pop them into the post, and get to work! We’re hoping to have everything ready (=a fantabulous, fun book for you to read and gift and read again) some time next year… Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

Let’s go team!!