‘I enjoy reading your blog because it never lacks adventure,’ said someone who wrote to me recently. 

Adventure? I thought.  Moi? But over this past week I’ve been thinking about it – and perhaps she’s right! Starting an agency, from scratch, in another country, has been the most extreme, exciting, challenging, back-against-the-wall thing I’ve ever done, and I never stop realizing how it’s changed my life from the relative straitjacket of my old corporate publishing days. 

One thing I do a lot of now is – travel. Yes, here I am back in England again – formerly my first home, but now my second. And it’s lovely to be here, especially with all my close family and friends around me. Here, every hour, every day is different – not a vacation but a temporary change of lifestyle and pace.  Is it adventurous? Is it a little crazy?  I’ll let you make up your own mind as I take you through the highlights of my past couple of weeks . . .

1.  One week before I leave for England: Do a deal! Yippee!  Sell debut author Cindy Callaghan’s middle-grade novel, KELLY QUINN’S SECRET COOKING CLUB, to Aladdin (Simon & Schuster). This story always makes me feel hungry. It’s fun, it’s pacy, but it also features amazing ice-cream confections called ‘Super Swirleys’. Oh, and there are recipes too!

2. One day before I leave for England: Do ANOTHER deal!  Hurrah! Did I mention that doing deals is one of my favourite activities in the world?  I sell Sarah Aronson’s BEYOND LUCKY to Dial (Penguin Putnam). This story is sort of about soccer, but it’s also about friendship, self-discovery, forgiving – and it has a really strong voice. Sarah’s first novel, HEAD CASE, was published by Roaring Brook, so very pleased she decided to join Greenhouse– one of our first already-published authors.

3. Still sitting at desk two hours before taxi to airport arrives. Hand luggage still in disarray on carpet. Big Submission just sent out could turn nuclear. Two responses within hours. This is extraordinary. Load all relevant contact details for editors on to Blackberry and contemplate how to handle this from 4000 miles away, five hours removed from East Coast, and even more hours from Author. Say goodbye to Husband and Lucy (a.k.a. the World’s Best Dachsund). Husband is jealous because there are special Henry VIII exhibits in UK right now (500th anniversary of accession to throne). Lucy just looks sad.

4. Airplane. Other passengers watch MARLEY AND ME; I write moderately amusing speech for Sarwat Chadda’s UK launch party and read 2 submissions on Kindle before falling asleep.

5. Touch down 6.15 am, and straight to flat, nipping out of taxi to purchase milk and bread. It is cold. I didn’t bring enough garments – or the right ones. A valve on the boiler (furnace) is leaking. It could flood the flats beneath. A new valve costs enough to bail out Iceland’s whole economy.  How can this square lump of metal be so small, so boring, yet cost so much?

6. More publishers responding to Big Submission. Yes, it is turning nuclear.  Look at Blackberry every 30 seconds and worry constantly that all technological connections to inbox could crash. (NB: This is quite hard for family and friends who haven’t seen me for 3 months).  Yes, the transplanted Greenhouse Operations Room is up and running! Clean the windows.

7. Stand on a chair at Dulwich Picture Gallery and make speech at DEVIL’S KISS launch party, along with Puffin’s Lindsey Heaven, as Knights Templar run around outside in the drizzle, bashing each other with swords. We have a lot of champagne, but then it’s not every night I’m with the British Greenhouse posse – Julia, and authors Sarwat, Jon Mayhew and Michael Ford. Bask in the glow of realization they’ve all become friends – this is the Greenhouse I dreamed of.

8. Meet with Julia and Kevin – our new contracts manager, a.k.a. ‘the smiling assassin’.  This is a man who ENJOYS warranties and indemnities. Enough said. Would YOU want to negotiate with him? Fortunately he’s on our side.

9. Attempt to muster prevailing spirit of righteous anger. British Members of Parliament have been charging all manner of bizarre things to their expenses. Duck ponds, second homes, electric mixers, antique furniture, for starters. There is a wonderful eccentricity about all this – ah, I’m home!

10. Meet with Rowen and Charlie - my brothers, my heroes. Actually, our web designers who created the Greenhouse site, and to whom I run wailing when things crash or when I’m just technologically baffled. We hug a lot, and they get quite excited as we talk about developing the site with innovative new goodies.  Their eyes light up as they foresee techno-fun ahead. I’m told that first of all we have to look at costings. Doh, just poop on my parade, why don’t you.

11. Read submissions late at night - and look at Blackberry every 20 seconds; it quivers at my side like a loaded gun.  Many important emails arrive, and I call excited Author of the potentially Big Book, which is brewing nicely. Finesse BEA schedule – Meg Cabot, Laura Langlie (her agent) and I are attempting to meet up after several years (I published PRINCESS DIARIES in the UK) and it’s not proving easy. Hear that my lovely authors/friends will donate me their room in Betsy’s Bed & Breakfast establishment for July Vermont conference, so I can have aircon in boudoir – a break from trickling perspiration. Flat, however, is freezing - turn on fan heater.

12. Start Tudors fix by visiting Hatfield House, where young Tudor royals were sent either to be educated or put firmly in their place. Look at Princess Elizabeth’s ‘garden hat’ and silk stockings and stroll around knot garden, imagining when Mary ventured out to see her dad, Henry VIII, only to have him ignore her – after all, she’d been cut out of the succession in favour of Elizabeth (who was herself later cut out in favour of Edward), so she was nothing but trouble. Sit on damp grass photographing big purple flowers like puffballs with telephoto lens. Wireless signal wobbly, but manage to send emails from behind large hedge.

13. Sons celebrate their birthdays. More Tudors fix as we visit the Tower of London, where Son texts constantly (what can I say – it’s his birthday), and I stare equally at a) my Blackberry and b) sixteenth-century graffiti gouged into the walls by tortured prisoners. Email New York publisher who has offered on Big Submission; contemplate sending them greetings from the Bloody Tower, which is where I really am. See many suits of armour belonging to Henry VIII, and Son and I comment on the enormous size of Henry’s rear in later life. Those thighs were like tree trunks.

14. Make legendary shrimp and egg sandwiches for ongoing birthday bonanza. The secret is all in the mayo ratio.  Stay up late as everyone still working on East Coast. Sit writing blog post at midnight, with the remains of large chocolate muffin scattered in front of me, and double-chocolate chips glued to keyboard. Look at Blackberry as I sip steaming cuppa. Await more offers. They are coming – oh yes, they are coming.

15. Sleep.

16. Blackberrrrrrrrry. . . . . .

17. Contemplate my adventurous life.

May 7, 2009, is a very, very special date.  Today marks the publication of our first Greenhouse title.  DEVIL’S KISS by Sarwat Chadda publishes today in the UK with Puffin – to be followed by a US edition from Hyperion in September. Seven other countries (France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Indonesia, Holland, Japan) have currently acquired rights in the book, and an audio edition will be coming from Brilliance Audio in due course.  Sarwat signed with Greenhouse in Fall 2007, when the agency was still being formed, and he went on to secure virtually simultaneous US and UK deals at auction (with just a weekend in between!) in March 2008.  You can find out more about Sarwat and DEVIL’S KISS on the Author section of this site, but now he’s magically dropped in on my blog to tell you the story of this extraordinary year in his life.

Hi Sarwat.  You’ve featured a lot on the Greenhouse website over the past year, so it’s great to welcome you in person. You were the Greenhouse’s first-ever client, so tell us – what’s it like to be a Greenhouse author (if I dare ask!)?

Very nice. I was pretty anxious when we first met, having no real idea what to expect. There was a sense that this was going to be an adventure, no matter how it turned out.
I remember speaking to one or two of the other writers as they were joining Greenhouse and there’s a great feeling of solidarity with the other ‘seedlings’ as we’re mostly debut authors all trying to find our way. I love the range of the Greenhouse writers and how different our journeys are turning out to be.

It’s weird to think it’s only been just over a year since it all started. A lot has happened!

The story of how you got your book deals for DEVIL’S KISS is quite exciting. Can you tell us about it – and did you ever think something like this would happen to you?

Never in a million years. It still feels like I’ve won the lottery. I remember working at the first rewrite over Christmas and sending it to you on New Year’s Day. It was when you contacted me the following day saying you’d read it and loved it that I started to hope I had something good. Then there were the crossed fingers when it went out to the publishers, both in the US and the UK.

My wife and I had forced ourselves not to have too high hopes. If we were lucky we could get our carpets replaced and maybe cover our holiday costs. Our best-case scenario was for me to stick at the day job and maybe, just maybe, in five of six years make a gradual move into writing. But I never imagined that I’d become a writer full time.

I had a running joke at work that I’d quit engineering before my fortieth birthday. Can’t believe I actually did that with two weeks to spare.

We all know it’s very hard to get published, so give us some insights into how you got there.  Going back in time a bit, when did you start writing, how long did it take you to write DK, find an agent, and get to submission point?

I think one of the things that holds people back from their full potential in writing is that they see it as a hobby that pays. I always saw it as a career change. So I put in as much effort as I could, imagining it as a second job. So I read a lot of those ‘how to’ books, I went on courses and tried to get myself involved and understanding the publishing business. Everyone talks about how you wouldn’t imagine playing a gig just because you’d picked up a guitar. The same applies to writing. Don’t think you can earn a living just because you’ve sat down at your keyboard.

The key issue was that the learning never felt like hard work. It felt like playtime.

The rewrites were endless. Fortunately, I write pretty quickly but still it’s hard having the guts to scrap EVERYTHING you’ve already done and start again. DEVIL’S KISS began in Autumn 2004. Between that version and the one that got the book deals I’d rewritten it maybe three or four times from complete scratch. The last (and biggest rewrite) was once I signed with you. From signing with Greenhouse in November 2007 to getting it to the publishers in March 2008 I tore the entire story apart and not one aspect of it survived, not even the title. But my goodness, it was worth it!

Nothing is wasted. All those words I scrapped over the years meant the ones remaining were the strongest. The stale plots were abandoned so what I had left was red and bloody. For me I think my selling point is the passion I feel for my subject. The writing isn’t that sophisticated. What I aim at is getting my story across as powerfully as possible.

DK is very dark and actually quite violent.  Where did the inspiration for the story come from and how did you work out where to draw the line in terms of content, given your teenage readership?

I’ve always loved action stories and gothic horror, so wanted to combine the two. I love Bernard Cornwell and Clive Cussler, but their heroes are the best of the best. You never really feel the hero is ever in mortal danger. I wanted to give my hero a real run for her money and test her to the limit.

The London setting helped immensely. It’s a unique mix of ancient and modern. I used to work in a modern air-conditioned building five minutes away from Temple Church, which was consecrated in the twelfth century. I’ve been out on the streets before dawn, watching the mist roll off the Thames. I love history and the way it creates our present. Writing supernatural horror allows me to take this quite literally. I wanted somewhere very modern and very ancient, like London.

Interestingly, your main protagonist – Billi SanGreal - is a fifteen-year-old girl.  Did you find it hard to write from a teen-girl’s perspective?

No, not to begin with. There are issues at fifteen that are relevant to girls and boys. Identity, the idea of becoming an adult and the responsibilities that brings. Rebelling against the normal order of things, like your parents.
I remember what it was like being fifteen, and the decisions I had to make about what sort of person I was going to be. It’s a time for choices and it’s hard to pick the right ones. There are pressures all around, from parents, friends, and teachers, most well-intentioned. Billi’s in the same position, but her choices have life-and-death consequences.

That said, I have been picked up on where I’ve strayed off the female perspective. Fortunately, having female editors and my wife as a first reader helps. Curiously, writing the romantic scenes wasn’t hard. Billi’s consumed with self-doubt. That’s something I identify with.

So you’re publishing in the UK today and in the USA in September.  Given your deals were virtually simultaneous, I know you’ve been working with both American and British editors at the same time. What is it like to be a truly transatlantic author? Has it been hard to work for two publishers at the same time and are their approaches different?

Ari [Ari Lewin at Hyperion-Disney in the USA) and Lindsey [Lindsey Heaven at Puffin UK] have worked together to make this pretty seamless, collaborating on their edits and sending me only one set of notes. For a while after that my main contact became Lins as we worked on the UK edition.

However, there are different demands from the different markets. I delivered the Puffin revision last Autumn, knowing I still had time to continue working on the Hyperion version, which wasn’t due out until five months after the UK edition. Then my main contact became Ari.
The two books are subtly different. I’d be interested if anyone could actually spot the differences. Of course, I’d be very happy for everyone to buy both.

I know you’ve got a lot of publicity lined up on both sides of the Atlantic.  Can you tell us what you’ve done to help promote yourself, and what your publishers are doing for you?

Oh, the blog – and completely rebuilding my website, www.sarwatchadda.com. I started the blog last year, thinking I’d get bored after a month or two. I probably never really appreciated the world out there on the Internet. I’m still trying to find a balance between blogging about writing, and blogging about books.

I’ve a week of school visits, starting this Thursday. Done one already and it was a laugh. I got the audience to write their own ending to the story then act it out. Fortunately no-one was hurt.
I’ve a trip to New York coming up and will be attending BEA at the end of the month. I’m on a YA panel with other writers so it’ll be great to talk shop with them. I’ve just taken part in the Crystal Palace children’s book festival in London and did a reading there, and that was fun. Met a lot of other writers and I loved the camaraderie. We all know how lucky we are to be part of such a cool profession.

You’ve come such a long way in the past eighteen months.  Imagine you are talking to all the aspiring writers who read this blog.  From your own experience, what tips would you most like to share with them?

Write what you love. It’s the only thing that will see you through. Writing’s the closest you get to revealing your heart so make it worth it (but not worthy).

I know you’ve got some foreign deals, so DK will appear in other languages, thanks to our sister company, Rights People. We tend to think most about the market in our home country, so what’s it like to be published in other parts of the world?

Very, very cool. C’mon, I’m going to be published in Indonesian, how cool is that? Went to Bologna for the international children’s book fair in March. Meeting my foreign publishers there really brought home the enthusiasm people have for books. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever come across. You do it because you love it. Not because it pays well, not because it gives you status, not because it’ll make you popular at parties. There’s something magical about books and storytelling.

Not giving away any state secrets (of course), are you able to give us any clues about what you’re writing next?

THE DARK GODDESS. It’s the sequel to DEVIL’S KISS and takes Billi way out of her comfort zone and drops her in Russia to face Baba Yaga, the fairy-tale witch.

If I have a style it’s that I take ancient legends and myths and put a modern spin on them. Baba Yaga is an avatar of the Earth Mother. Her job is to protect the Earth. She’s had enough of the damage Mankind has inflicted on the planet and is now going to do something about it. Something very drastic.

I think as a species we’re slowly waking up to the idea that we’re not aloof and detached from nature. We’ve tried to conquer it, not realising nature always wins. Always. Humanity hasn’t been on the planet for that long. The terrifying fact is that with us gone, everything else will be better. Baba Yaga represents all those species that have suffered under the dominion of man.

Take us through a typical day in your life as a writer.  How do you organize your time?

Oh, my day is terribly domestic. Once I drop the kids off I try and write a thousand words. Usually in the morning. I try and avoid emails until the afternoon. Actually, one of the advantages about having a transatlantic set-up is that my afternoon is your morning. I feel I almost have a double-day, which means writing when everyone’s asleep too, but that’s cool. Afternoon and early evening is family time. My worst habit is the tendency to write on Saturdays.

I focus on monthly word targets, so there’s some scope for the unexpected. The target is usually about 20,000 words. That’s separate from rewrites, but I divide those up into chapters per week, leaving two weeks to polish before I need to return my manuscript to the publisher.  That’s the ideal arrangement.

One thing I do miss is the chit-chat and larking about of an office. I socialized a bit (a lot, truth be told) in the office. Working alone means I’m probably quite manic now when let out in public.

Your life has changed a fair bit in the past year.  Tell us about that – and how do you see the year ahead?

The main thing is that I love my job now. Really, really love it in a way I feel embarrassed trying to describet as ‘work’. Like I said earlier, it feels like playtime. Which is weird because, when you think about it, it should really be very boring. Sitting alone in a room for days and months upon end.

I spend much more time with the kids. Being away from them so much was something I always regretted when I was a wage slave. To be honest, I think there are times they probably wish I wasn’t around quite so much. In a few years I’ll probably evolve into one of those embarrassing dads, if I haven’t already.

I want to become much more disciplined with my writing over the next year. I’ve still got loads more to learn (like where to put inverted commas) but that will probably be how I feel for the rest of my life.

If you could choose just one word to describe how it feels finally to reach PUBLICATION DAY – what would it be?

Delirious.

Thanks so much, Sarwat - and congratulations!  We wish you a wonderful day and much success to DEVIL’S KISS in all its incarnations.  We’ll be keeping track of your progress in the years ahead.  And also, of course, talking to other Greenhouse authors as they experience their various literary milestones.

Just back from a gorgeous weekend in the Shenandoah, where the sun shone, the flowers were brilliantly lovely, and I clumped around in shorts and hiking boots taking endless photographs in my quest to master light meters and variable exposures. Come anywhere near me and I’ll bore you to death with shutter speeds, F-stops and much more camera-related blah blah blah. If books weren’t my first love (and if English Literature hadn’t been the one thing at which I really excelled in school), I’d probably be found in a studio somewhere, trying to make unattractive people look beautiful, or taking giant photos of insects.

Now it’s Monday morning and I’m at my desk.  But wait! As I peer around my monitor what do I see? A small, furry, red-and-black creature fast asleep on my office sofa!  A number of really good things happened last week, but Lucy – our charming, funny dachshund, who arrived last Sunday – was the best of them. Lots of you were so kind to me when Hogey, our beloved Golden Retriever, died in January, so I wanted to let you know about Lucy’s arrival – and also, of course, share this rather beautiful photo with you.  Lucy is a former champion showdog, eight years old, who needed a ‘forever home’, and somehow we just knew we were the people to fill the gap.  Now the Greenhouse has a Hound once more – a quarter the size of the previous resident, but just as good at a) showing up for work on time b) snoozing on manuscripts and c) demanding walkies. But sometimes walkies and distraction are just what I need, and I’ve made many of my best decisions while ambling up the road with a dog. I wonder what jubilations Lucy will witness in the next few months and years. Oh, it’s good to have a canine staff member again – take a promotion immediately, Lucy!

Apart from dogs, there is another thing that makes me very, very happy – and that is DOING DEALS.  I love it.  I revel in it. I love the strategising and the organizing, the mental mosaic of submissions, the pondering of editors’ personalities and idiosyncracies, the composing/re-composing/re-re-composing of my submission email – and the heart-in-the-mouth moment as I click ‘send’ and a manuscript (born of effort, garnished with dreams) floats away. I feel like I’m sending my baby out into the river on a little craft made of bullrushes . . . Who will discover the baby? Who will give it a home? Who will nurture it as I nurtured it?  How dare anyone push that baby away!  Yes, as you can see, it all gets just a bit personal. As someone once said about soccer – ‘It’s not just a question of life or death, it’s MUCH more important than that.’ Isn’t that how you feel as an author?  Well, despite my hard and flinty exterior (oh, I can always dream), as your agent I feel it just as much.

So this should be a GOOD WEEK, knowing, as I do, that an offer is on its way on a manuscript that’s been out.  It’s really very much like a love affair (OK, so now you can forget the baby). When I submit work, I’m hoping to find that one person – or sometimes more – who will feel they are the perfect match for that book, that author.  A weird kind of chemistry comes into play and sometimes you just know that one editor, one house, is going to be the betrothed – there will be an engagement ring, a marriage, a future.  So it is written, so it is done!  When that happens, I have done my job as Chief Matchmaker, and there is immeasurable satisfaction in that.  We don’t need lots of suitors – we just need one very long and happy marriage!

But other editors, in other countries, are falling in love too.  Miles away, an editor in Denmark fell for the charms of Harriet Goodwin’s THE BOY WHO FELL DOWN EXIT 43, and last week we had a confirmed deal for Danish rights – with a publisher named Forlaget Flachs (don’t even try to pronounce that one, especially after a few gin and tonics).  At some point Harriet’s going to see a book on her shelf that speaks to the Danish market – what will the cover image be like?  What will the title look like in Danish? The one thing we can be sure of is that it will look surprising (as other languages always do), and we’ll be amazed all over again at how the market for children’s books can be so similar and yet so different, around the world.

What else does this week hold?  Various possibilities, as I wait with bated breath and crossed toes for responses on a few things out in the wide blue yonder.  One thing I’ve learned – enthusiasm alone does not a deal make.  Excited emails are great – but show me the colour of the money. I believe nothing until I see the money! So all to play for on a variety of fronts – but now I’m just being annoyingly cryptic.  To distract me I’ve got a lot of planning to do – flights, hotels, meetings for my next trip to New York in late May. I’m spending part of my time seeing editors, part at BEA where Sarwat Chadda will be speaking at a YA Buzz discussion and autographing THE DEVIL’S KISS.  If you’re attending, get in that line – be there or be square! Then there are more flights to book, handouts to plan, breakout sessions to agonize over, for SCBWI Los Angeles in August. This is a new one for me – and it’s big.  Do I want to be great?  You bet – and that’s going to take a lot of prep; I don’t believe in leaving ANYTHING to chance.

Sorry to leave you, but I must get on. Re-reading this piece, I’m feeling a whole lot of love. For the beautiful mountains and rivers of the Shenandoah. My love for books, authors and deals, and for the excitement and mystery of this international business.  But also my love for photography – colour and image - and for my adorable new friend, an elegant, middle-aged, long-haired dachshund named Lucy who snores on my sofa as I write. And finally, upcoming deals make me think about the weird chemistry that draws one editor to love one author’s work - the best platform for great publishing - and my role as professional matchmaker.  That’s the kind of love that makes me know I’ve done my job right.

There’s a whole lot of sun outside, and a whole lot of love in the Greenhouse this morning.  Get writing, people, and feel the love!

I quite often read about the mystery of literary agents.  That to many aspiring writers, agents appear to inhabit some arcane universe, entered only by secret handshakes, coded and cryptic messages, insider knowledge.  And that their decisions are unfathomable and capricious, if not downright cruel. A bit like the election of a Pope by the cardinals, dark smoke probably appears from our windows if an aspiring writer doesn’t achieve representation; white smoke means they’ve hit the jackpot – a new Pope! Everything’s going great!

But where is the logic? How we must be hated sometimes as we sit in judgment in our throne-room, making trite comments (or even worse, no comment at all) on work over which you’ve laboured for years. How you must long to say very rude things to us, shove that middle finger in our faces – and yet you daren’t, because we’re the magic portal by which you can find yourself suddenly teleported on to the desk of a publisher and living the dream.

It’s a tough life as an aspiring writer, but despite what you think, it isn’t all ambrosia for agents either – or publishers.  This is a tough food chain, and the risk and the disappointments and the hunches that go right or wrong travel both up and down the line, all the way to the top. As agents we’re less likely to be sipping champagne than sitting in a Starbucks (because you can only look at contracts so long) with ten manuscripts on our e-reader, wondering where to begin. And there’s nothing to describe the physical sensations you get when an email headed with the title of a current submission plops into the inbox – and you know that this is the long-awaited response from an editor on your author’s work.  Will the smoke be dark (a ‘no’? A ‘can’t decide yet’?) – or could it just possibly (please, please, please!) be white? Deal or no deal – it’s all focused on that moment and it can make you feel positively sick.

If you’re an emotional, passionate person (er, like me), it’s a rollercoaster that can have you sinking to the floor with head in hands, or jumping up and down whooping like a kid.  Or sometimes just wanting to grab an editor by the neck, shake them and yell, ‘Look, just let me know, can you? Enough of the delays, meetings, discussions, vacations, dental appointments - just get on and make a %$#@ decision!’ But it’s no good – we are professionals. We must breathe deeply and be charming, measured and understanding, tempering the excitements, absorbing the pain, always staying positive and encouraging for the author who is hanging on our every word. Because after all, we are omniscient, right?

Most weeks are a mish-mash of so many different events – small victories, setbacks, lots of ordinary office stuff. But then there are the occasional flaming moments of glory – the ones that change everything and bring the sun bursting out. Ha ha, I’m an agent – and there’s nothing to beat it in the world!

I’ve had a few of those moments in the past week or so.  Most excitingly, closing a deal yesterday for Lindsey Leavitt’s teen novel SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD, which has been snapped up by Caroline Abbey at Bloomsbury US. So many deals are fascinating sagas, with their own mini-stories attached, and that was true in this case. Bloomsbury narrowly lost out to Hyperion last summer as underbidders for Lindsey’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE. I know that hit them hard – they really loved Lindsey’s wit and voice. So when SEAN went out a few weeks ago, they were really excited to have another crack at acquiring her. It all went swimmingly and we’re so delighted to have SEAN (a novel Lindsey wrote before PFH) with them. And good to know there is still a market for a funny, quirky, poignant contemporary teen love story in our current market. Have a look at our Author section and you’ll see more about SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD, which is such a fun and lovely story.

But there have been more bits of great news too.  A mini--auction in the Netherlands for PRINCESS FOR HIRE, resulting in a three-book deal with Uniboek (and I’ve just heard today that other foreign houses have had good preliminary reads following Bologna).  A deal by Hyperion with lovely Tim Ditlow of Brilliance for audio rights in Sarwat Chadda’s DEVIL’S KISS, as well as Rights People’s sale of Japanese rights to Media Factory. Sarwat’s first radio interview on the BBC Asian Network (a star is born).  Great cover proofs of Val Patterson’s THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE, which looks so classy and enticing. And a new speaking gig lined up in Miami with SCBWI Florida for January 2011 – and more engagements on the way.  Then there are the other things going on that I can’t tell you about (hey, it’s true – we really are secretive!) – the submissions that are out, the revision of the hot manuscript I’m awaiting next week, the quality manuscript I’m currently reading . . .

The one thing I can say about being an agent is that there’s very rarely a dull moment!

Welcome to my world. Today, the view from my desk, over my Vegas boots, is set fair – and the smoke is definitely white.

It’s a good thing President Obama married Michelle when he did, because otherwise one of my two sons would have whisked her away.  Or possibly both. Never mind that they are only 22 (yes, both of them) and spend most of their time in London; age and distance are no object when it comes to their reverence for the gorgeousness of the First Lady.

You see, Europe loves the Obamas.  My husband now gets greeted excitedly by customs men at London’s Heathrow airport, simply because he is American and wearing his Obama hat.  French publishers struggle incoherently (zut alors! C’est merveilleux!) to express their excitement over a bottle of wine in a Bologna restaurant, even as Monsieur Sarkozy hovers gnat-like at the President’s shoulder in his desperation to absorb some radiance from the Sun King. And now even the Queen has dropped centuries of stiff-upper-lip and let Michelle embrace her.  What is the world coming to! Touching? Smiling? By rights, the First Lady should be in the Tower by now, waiting to have her head chopped off.

These last two weeks have been all about Europe – both in the big, bad world of politics, in the children’s books industry, and for me personally. It’s not all been easy.  Protests in London (I’m sorry, but what on earth is there to protest about? None of us are exactly thrilled about the economic situation). And then for me, getting sick just before I flew to Bologna for the book fair, and staying sick for the whole thing. In fact, I couldn’t speak (though Julia might say that was a welcome relief). I can tell you, I was mad as a hornet to be lying in bed with a tray of room service while my buddies were sauntering over the cobblestones to La Antica Osteria Romagnola for another smashing dinner, but hey ho, one has to at least try to be mature. The main thing is that it was a great fair for the Greenhouse. Julia and I had bags of appointments (even if I did have to whisper and croak), there was loads of interest in our foreign rights, and follow-up manuscripts are going out to publishers all over the world.  Oh, and we’re also anticipating our first Japanese and audio deals, which is all very cool. Sure, the fair was a bit quieter than usual in terms of the number of feet on the floor, but the editors who were there definitely felt they had a great opportunity to score the best projects around, which made them feel pretty smug.

Then it was on from Bologna to Paris, and a few great days’ vacation in the city with French family and friends.  I love it, I love it, I love it.  I love the grandeur of the architecture – the insanely splendiferous vision of Louis XIV (really quite a small dude, but with awfully big hair) who popped up new palaces on a weekly basis.  Louis XVI who just didn’t see the end coming, and whose Marie-Antoinette was playing milkmaids down at the farm instead of contemplating the possible severance of her head. I love the epic vistas, the gleaming gold leaf, the sun turning stained-glass into jewels; the centuries’ old collection of armour over at the Musee de L’Armee (sorry, no accents on this keyboard), the squares, the gardens and ‘etoiles’. And I love the wallopingly huge edifice of Napoleon’s tomb.

Yes, I have a weakness for a really good tomb. Because at a tomb you can stand and imagine; a tomb is the ultimate leveller; it sorts out the ones you need to go and visit, even in death, and those whom history has passed by. And in Paris there are some crackingly good tombs for all of us obsessed with books and writers. Here on my blog photo is Jean-Paul Sartre, ensconsed down at Montparnasse with Simone de Beavoir. But I also paid a visit to Voltaire, Dumas, Victor Hugo – and Baudelaire. None of them may quite have the tomb-perfection (thin blue light, gloomy hugeness) of General Foch, or the panache of Serge Gainsbourg’s last resting place (‘je t’aime, je t’aime, Jane Birkin . . . ‘), but we know, don’t we, what they contributed to books and letters and how, in their strange and magisterial ways, they influenced us to follow behind, struggling in their wake to master big ideas and this great and difficult craft of words.

Europe. Here is history, untold centuries of it, layered in buildings, books and language.  But also the present day – a political community, hub of commerce for the children’s books industry and so much more. Europe is like the glass pyramid outside the Louvre – the startlingly new abuts the casual grandeur of antiquity.

Can we make what we write and create speak to the present day and to a global marketplace - but also worthy of the vast literary heritage from which we come?
Now that’s a tough one. But you know what? I think we should try. 

I think I’m going to make it.  It was touch and go at times, but I prevailed.  The fog has cleared, I’ve climbed up the tree and can almost see the plain below . . . Yes, there’s scope for metaphor in the hectic days leading up to the Bologna Book Fair!

Some of you will know all about Bologna, others of you will have vaguely heard that something bookish happens there. But still more of you may be thinking . . . Bologna? What’s that? Here then, in my first-ever self-interview, is a guide to everything you need to know about the Bologna Book Fair.  Including the bits that most professionals will never tell you.

So, Sarah, what and where is Bologna? 

Bologna is a very beautiful town in northern Italy – in fact, it is the capital of Emilia-Romagna, located between the Po River and the Apennines.  It was founded by the Etruscans in c. 534 BC and has had a long, varied, and at times rather bloody history since then.  It is home to the oldest university in the world – the Alma Mater Studiorum, founded in 1088.  It is also, apparently, consistently rated one of the most attractive and desirable Italian cities in which to live and . . .

Sarah, do us a favour and shut up.  What we REALLY want to know is – why are you going there?  After all, you’re supposed to be a literary agent of children’s books, not a medieval scholar.

Doh, you Philistine. OK, Bologna is also home to the annual international children’s book fair, which is held each Spring in a gigantic complex of exhibition halls just outside the city. Publishers, agents and other industry professionals flock to Bologna for about 4 days to do business, to talk about business they might do, and to make and cement the networks of connections that could enable them to do business in the future. It is a melting pot of people, information, images, languages - and business cards are the currency of this huge international melee.

Wow! But why do you need to go all that way just to see people?  Aren’t internet and email good enough?

You’re a spoilsport, aren’t you! Though you’ve got a point – or you would have if this business was a science and not an art.  You will never get around the fact that this is an industry lubricated by the oil of relationships, and (as in any business) you tend to engage in commerce with those you know – and like.  You chat with them, and you know their tastes – so you submit work to them.  They’ve seen your wares – so they ask to see something you’re representing.  You pick up ideas, information and tips ‘on the wires’ (you might say). What is hot, what will be hot, what’s out there, who’s snapped up something good.  It’s a buzzy business and it’s the job of publishers and agents to be up to date with the buzz.  Plus, actual deals are often done at the fair (though not so much with fiction, which requires a longer read), with a lot more in the subsequent follow-up. Bologna can be worth thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars or pounds to a publisher. It’s a trade fair, it’s about buying and selling – it’s not a writers’ conference (though some organizations like SCBWI have events running alongside).

OK, enough already, you’ve convinced me.  But what exactly is being bought and sold? Not actual copies of books, surely.

You’re right! Every book is a Work – an intellectual property in which there are numerous ‘rights’, which are sliced up and sold in different segments.  These segments are what are sold at Bologna – or in which interest (with a view to sales) is solicited.  For Greenhouse, being a transatlantic business, the most important segments are the US/Canada and UK/ Commonwealth chunks. Then there’s the ‘translation rights’ chunk, represented (usually) by my colleagues in Rights People. Film/TV (aka ‘dramatic’) and merchandising rights are further chunks, which we always retain to be sold separately, while audio (physical and non-physical formats) is up for debate, often but not always falling in with volume rights, along with electronic.  All these chunks are of interest at the fair.
I pitch some Works at Bologna which haven’t even been submitted to publishers yet, while chunks of the rights in others have been sold already.  Last year the baby Greenhouse had only sold one author by the fair - this year we have a whole portfolio. 

How does it all work, what does it look like, and who goes?

Imagine rows and rows of exhibition halls, a bit like warehouses. There are grassy bits with benches in between the halls, where you can grab a cappuccino or panini and sit if the weather’s good.  If it’s bad you run between them. US and UK have a couple of halls, with European halls adjoining.  The further you go the more exotic it all gets – Iraq, Africa etc etc. I’ve never been to the furthest reaches, but it’s a real eye-opener to the sheer scale of the industry. The halls are packed with publishers’ stands, most designed so you can’t see inside (for fear of piracy), and with giant ‘panels’ of book jackets on display. Agents have an area all their own, with lots of small tables for one-to-one discussions.  Mostly, attendees schedule their days in half-hour slots, often without a break from 8.30 to 6pm.  Sellers tend to remain on their stand; buyers walk miles between stands.

Who goes?  Publishing rights-selling staff (they sell - and are the engine-room of the fair), senior editorial staff (they want to buy – and are looking for new projects), scouts (both book and film), agents, representatives of more niche businesses – whether marketing, ebook/electronic, retail. And trade journalists. Though this year will be leaner than most, due to the global economy. Authors are sometimes hosted at the fair – if they are a really international property. This year Greenhouse is taking Sarwat Chadda (DEVIL’S KISS) for 24 hours. It’s a brilliant opportunity for him to meet face to face nearly all his international publishers in one place and at one time.  Even if we all have to go to Italy to do it!  But then, from London it’s a very quick hop.

Come on, Sarah, we know this is really all about great food and lots of fun, isn’t it?

Well, it’s true that you won’t starve at Bologna, and the evenings are a highlight. You scramble back to your hotel for a very quick turnaround, then usually out for drinks/dinner at one of the city’s many great restaurants (you have to book early!).  The food is fantastic, usually lots of little courses, and it’s fun dining out with people you don’t normally get to see – especially when they’re from different parts of the world. I’ve been to around 10 fairs and have got to know a lot of people. I always say this is a very international business, and at Bologna you live and breathe that.

So, go on - tell us the bits that most people don’t know. Like you promised?

Aha, I knew it! You want the good stuff. OK:

The Pink Bar:  This is down at the bottom of the Via Independenza and is where the hard-core, cool people hang out till the early hours.  By midnight I can hardly stand up I’m so shattered, so you’ve got to hand it to anyone who’s still up for it at 2am. Often you can see quite famous authors there, looking a bit wild.

The Bologna Haircut and Outfit:  It’s lost in antiquity, but everyone (well, everyone female) knows you have to get your ‘do’ done just before Bologna. And there must be at least one new item in your suitcase. It’s just law. Could be because we pasty-faced, lumpy-looking Brits and Americans have to stroll up and down past the fabulously beautiful Italians, all chic little Armani suits, tans and black manes of hair.  It’s tough in a place where even the bus drivers could model for Vogue.

The Book of the Fair:  This is what you always wish you had.  This mythic Work that is so hot it’s practically sizzling, that sets the halls a-buzz with envy and speculation. Who’s got it, who wants it, what they have paid for it or would pay for it.  Believe me, if you’ve got The Book you just float as people lurch up to you with wine-glass in hand hoping to stand in the shadow of your greatness.

The Bologna illness:  It’s guaranteed. You’ll get it before, during, or after.  Take your pick. This year I’ve chosen before. Or it’s chosen me.

The Lost Luggage: Ha ha! Always gleeful schadenfreude when it happens to others - as it does every year, to Americans.  Because there’s nothing more horrific than imagining oneself at the fair without even a spare pair of underpants.

The Dark Glasses:  What you see on the faces of many ‘industry professionals’ as they sit in Bologna airport, waiting to fly home. If you talk without ceasing for 18 hours per day for 4 or 5 days, stay up much too late and get up much too early, drink too much prosecco and eat way too much mascarpone . . . well, only enormous dark glasses can save you now.

Thank you, Sarah, though why I should thank you for going to Italy, I don’t know. Rumour has it that you’re even going off on vacation after the fair to an Undisclosed European Destination.  Tell me it’s not true or I’ll hate you even more?

Er, actually it is true – but only for a few days.  Back in the hotseat on April 1.  See you then!  Ciao!