The previous year, I had written a fiction book that I had queried. I was rejected by, like, a hundred different literary agents. This meant I knew the process of acquiring an agent. I didn’t know what to do. The possibility of publishing a book was right there, but I wanted to do it as well as I could. I sought some advice from other authors online and they all told me to get an agent. So, I did.
I was really, really lucky in the fact that I actually only approached one agent, who I was introduced to by Cathy Wassell, the CEO of Autistic Girls Network. Jessica Killingley had an interest in neurodiversity and I sent her my manuscript. She read it very quickly and sent me a lovely long email. I felt like we clicked and like she understood my book and why I wanted to write it. I signed a contract with her and the BKS agency on 21st December 2021, which was actually four years to the day after I’d been discharged from the CAMHS unit.
Jessica and I spent a few months revising the book and working through some edits, and then it went out on submission. This is where your literary agent submits your manuscript to different publishers. In May 2022, my mum, Jessica and I went into London to meet with Octopus Books and they offered me a publishing deal, which was a dream come true. Although I’d always imagined I’d write fiction, I wanted to tell my story. I had an urge to do something about what I had experienced because so many others were experiencing similar.
