second date/ how i got my book deal (part 1).

#SpringFlingKidlit has come and gone, and I definitely owe you that second date I promised! So, let’s make it a fun one - the kind that hopefully makes you realize “hey, this girl might be a keeper” ;)

(or not.)

But anyway, let’s talk about the most ridiculously exciting thing to happen to me this year so far, aka:

The Story of How I Landed my First Book Deal!

Yes, this book deal. For two of my books. At auction. With an amazing publishing house and editor, to boot! 

To be honest, even though some time has passed, I still can’t quite believe these words I’ve typed out. This still feels incredibly surreal to me in the best sense of the word, and looking back on my journey has only served to remind me of how fortunate I’ve been.

But I digress. (Often, as you will soon note.)

I’ll try and give you a bit of background info, CliffsNotes style - so stay with me, my friend!

How it all began

Let’s circle back to the middle of The Fun Year that Was 2020. I had just birthed two babies: one of the human variety (love him!) and the other, my first picture book - a project spurred on by the wonderful people I write for at makchic. (More on this book another time, I DID promise you the CliffsNotes version - and I have to leave something for when this book is out. Which is SOON!).

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Cringeworthy poems as a child, scribbled stories on serviette napkins, angsty high school journal entries.

I kept writing up until the point when my more traditional parents started encouraging me to pursue a legal career instead. “It’s stable,” they said. “And you’d be perfect for it.” 

(Which, of course, was code for “You’ve been unable to shut up practically since birth, so you might as well make a career out of talking.”)

So, a lawyer was what I ultimately became: qualifying as a barrister in the UK, returning to Malaysia to practice for a number of years and slowly relegating those poems, scribbled stories and journal entries of mine to fond but distant memories. 

But shortly after taking a sabbatical from legal practice after the birth of my first child, I grew restless. That itch to write that never truly went away began to flare up again like a not-altogether-unpleasant allergic reaction. And slowly, the well of creativity that I thought had completely run dry slowly began to fill up -  like an old friend welcoming me back into the fold. Missed you, it’s been a while. 

I started freelance writing for various publications, found my way to the team at makchic and months later when I was asked if I’d be interested in their book project, I leapt at this opportunity almost as quickly as my heart did. 

(Ok, so this has been a whole origin story so far (and at this point, let’s safely abandon all pretences of “CliffsNotes”, shall we?).

Writing this book only made me fall further in love with the PB genre. Being that first stepping stone in a child’s (hopefully lifelong) love affair with reading and having the chance to impart values and ideas that might empower young lives is, truly, such an immense privilege. (And please don’t get me started on how much I adore the beautiful pairing between art and text in PBs!)

Then slowly, I started wondering. Could I do this? I mean, really do this? The “let’s do something crazy and see if you can get published in the US, even though you’ve technically only ever written one book, but you really want to see where this goes, and it’ll be that whole “shoot for the moon and hopefully you’ll land among the stars” sort of thing (even though you clearly have terrible aim) and NO one you personally know has ever attempted something like this and really, how many people are actually going to be interested in your stories and in you as a Malaysian writer” sort of “this”?  *breathes out shakily*

But with nothing to lose (except, well, PRIDE), I jumped in - heartfirst. In September 2020, after some encouragement from a terrifically talented illustrator friend of mine, I joined a six-week-long PB writing course. And by October, after I had written just one more story, I thought - this is it, I’m readyyyyy!

(Spoiler alert: I was not, obvs.)

I am nothing, though, if not a queen of research, and wound up spending the better part of that month looking up agents, joining organizations and critique groups, and figuring out the road towards representation. After stumbling about a little (ok, a LOT!) and realizing that I definitely had to add more stories to my submission package, I finally narrowed down my list of agents, got to work on a couple more stories and mentally prepared myself to enter the querying trenches!

In November 2020, I sent off my first query, crossing my fingers so hard that I think I might have broken a blood vessel. I also joined Twitter (after merely creeping for the longest time), throwing myself into the fray of the wonderful world of the kidlit writing community with sheer abandonment.

And slowly, with the bad that began to roll in (my first rejection! Followed by a rejection from my dream agent! Followed by yet *another* rejection from this same agent!), so too did the good (ooh, pitch contests! Critique giveaways! Fabulous writing friends!). 

I was learning and growing with everything that I experienced. And the new stories I was writing soon followed suit. I was excited - unable to stop the ideas from coming, living each day for that wondrous window of time when the kids were finally asleep and the husband was winding down for the day for my precious writing time to begin. 

And then December 2020 rolled around and with it, #PitMad (which, if you don’t already know, is a Twitter pitch contest where writers from all over the world and in every genre throw their best pitches out into Twitterverse, in the hopes of landing an interested agent/editor). Armed with my newfound knowledge, the support of new friends, and stories that I felt were worth telling, I sent out my first pitch: the story of a young Malaysian boy who defies traditional norms to do what he was born to do: cook the Peranakan/ Nyonya food of his dreams.

A book that meant (and still means) the world to me… BOYS DON’T FRY. 

And oddly, wonderfully, magically…my pitch took off! People were retweeting and commenting, saying that this story reminded them of their childhood, their grandparents, their desire to help out in the kitchen, their longing to feel included. My phone kept pinging with notifications throughout the night and I hardly slept a wink from the pure rush of adrenaline. I couldn’t quite believe this was happening, especially not when I got my first proper like of the day…

...from the wonderful human being who would ultimately become my agent, Emily Forney.

For more on THAT journey, please read this. And for more on what happened after I landed my agent? 

Well, let’s schedule that third date soon, shall we? ;)

Kim x