Sending my manuscript to Maggie Alderson (AKA standing naked at Speakers Corner)

I wonder how you know when your book is finished. Do you just wake up one day and think “that’ll do, little pig, that’ll do.”?

I had a that’ll do moment this morning. When I realised that I could keep tinkering around with my first three chapters, changing “the” to “it” or “a” – you know, just the important sort of edits - or I could bite the bullet and just send the chapters off to Maggie Alderson.

So I did. I did a quick last read, a final spell check, uploaded them to an email and hit send before I had too much of a chance to think about it. Which is good, because now that I have had a chance, I think I might just throw up.

Not just because Maggie is a bestselling novelist, but because she is also the first person that is going to read any of my book. Which feels as confronting as standing up and reading it out at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. Naked. I'm suddenly wondering why getting Maggie to be the first person to read it was a better idea than someone like my Mum. Might be something to do with all the swear words.

When Maggie contacted me a few weeks ago in order for me to claim my prize, she promised not to be nasty. When I sent her my chapters this morning, I asked her to please be as nasty and brutal as possible. Because that’s what I need right now, even if my ego is saying “No, you want her to tell you that you’re the most brilliant author since…oh….God, and that she must, just must, connect you to her publisher to sign you up for a trillion dollar book deal.”

I think the nasty and brutal option is slightly more realistic.

It’s been quite a big day on the book front for Corporate Girl. Not only did I send off my chapters, but my book hit 100 pages! Exciting stuff. If only Maggie doesn’t say something like “ummm…just so you’re aware, someone actually already wrote a book about that” and I have to delete the lot, I might just be well on my way to writing an actual novel.