How I got published NICKI THORNTON
The debut author tells Dolores Gordon Smith how her novel, The Last Chance Hotel, won the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition in 2016.
‘It’s pretty unusual these days for publishers to accept unsolicited manuscripts rather than expecting all authors to come via an agent.
‘Getting an agent is a very daunting task – for a start, there are so many and each one has different tastes and requirements. Where do you even begin?
‘I just looked at that and thought, well, this is definitely never going to happen.
‘I just liked writing, really. That seemed to be the fun part. There was always a story lurking somewhere at the back of my mind.
‘I had one story that I wished would go away as I knew it was going to be difficult to write – but story ideas do have a habit of drifting to the front of your brain every time you are washing up or driving the cat to the vet. Mine involved a Roald Dahl-type of downtrodden hero, Seth, who was going to be saved by magic. But first he was going to be accused of murder.