That’s a sentence I’ve been dreaming of writing for years.

You know the saying, ‘everyone has a book in them?’ Back in April 2021, I started writing and didn’t stop for three months. The end result was a complete manuscript (around 84,000 words) that I edited over and over again for another three months before releasing it to a few trusted people to read. Another round of editing later, I submitted it to multiple agents in the hope of being offered representation. Fast forward six weeks and I have an agent!

I’m still in shock. The whole experience feels totally surreal.

This time last year we were in national lockdown and my time was spent juggling homeschooling my son and running a small online business. Now, here we are, and I couldn’t have asked for a better start to 2022. My journey to finding an agent has been nerve-wracking and daunting, but also incredible.

More on that later though. For now, I’m just sharing the news and filling you in on what this space is going to be about.

I wanted to tell people I was writing a book but I had The Fear. I was terrified of rejection. Of feeling embarrassed by putting myself out there. Of what people might think if I couldn’t get an agent. So I kept it a secret which made me feel quite isolated at times.

To help with that, I immersed myself in the writing world. I found authors (published and unpublished) to follow on Instagram. I found blogs that talked about writing. I listened to podcasts about writing. I kept reading and carried on hosting a book club. All of it helped me feel less alone. Proof that other people can do it fuelled the hope that I could too!

So this is going to be a space dedicated to talking openly about writing in the hope it will help others and become a source of support. If you’re a budding writer, secretly hammering away at your keyboard and holding on to the hope of getting published one day, I hope I can inspire, encourage and motivate you to achieve that practically impossible goal, or at the very least, keep writing. I’m going to share the ups and downs on the route to publication - of which there are many - and I’m also going to share the experiences of others. I don’t know about you but I’ve always been secretly obsessed with authors: how they write and plan, how they come up with ideas, and how they got published.

And if you’re a published author, this space will be somewhere you can tell us all about your book and your plans for the future. There will also be interviews with people within the book industry, sharing tips and advice.

The first author interview with Holly Miller will be landing soon!

Thanks so much for reading.

Sara x