Finishing my novel, and being commercially minded

Last week, I finished writing the first draft of my novel. After several months of planning, I started writing it on 21st October last year and gave myself 16 weeks to reach 90,000 words.

Whether those words are any good is another question - but it was important for me to get the first draft done according to that timetable. By prioritising writing, and allocating a specific daily time slot to write (as a freelancer, I realise I am fortunate to be able to do this), I wanted to prove to myself that I could treat fiction writing like a job.

The next part of my timetable gives me three weeks for rewrites before I start submitting. This is harder to plan for, because I don’t know how much time rewriting will take. At the same time, I need to start shortlisting agents, preparing my query letter and writing a synopsis.

The chances of getting an agent are notoriously tiny, but I have deliberately written this book to be commercially viable. Previously, I wrote a novel based around wine, although the main storyline was a straightforward girl-meets-boy. The responses I got from agents that wine is just not sellable to a big enough audience - which is painfully obvious in retrospect.

My new novel is a coming-of-age story. The working title is Contrary States and the current strap-line is

In mid-90s small-town Britain, three adolescent friends lose innocence, find love - and end up paying the price for both.

From the very beginning I’ve had an audience in mind, as well as popular references that should give a clear impression of where the book would sit in the marketplace, who might want to read it, and what current cultural trends it relates to.

Commercial realities in wine and fiction

Having such a commercial approach might seem to run counter to the supposed sanctity of the creative process, but there is a strong parallel to be made with wine. Many wine producers believe that simply expressing the terroir of their vineyard is all that’s needed to sell their wine. In reality, there are vital commercial considerations - labelling, distribution, price point, closure, PR, marketing and much more besides.

The ideal combination is a producer who makes authentic and expressive wine, but also has an intelligent and realistic understanding of market requirements. They are few and far between. Whether the same applies to the world of fiction, I will shortly be finding out.