Keep your hand on your ha'penny! by Cathy Ace

 Q: How do you handle sex in your books? Or, if you don’t, why not?

A. The title of this piece might suggest I do write about sex in my books, and that, when I do, my advice to those concerned would be to abstain. But...I don't write about the act of sex at all. 

Across three short works and nine novels, Cait Morgan and Bud Anderson have met, dated, got engaged, married, honeymooned, and now have a happy - if somewhat peripatetic - marriage. I'm certain they also enjoy whatever they consider to be a happy sex life, but they don't discuss it with me because it's their business, not mine, so it doesn't end up being mentioned in the books I write about them. 

Thanks to Free@LastTV for this wonderful photo!

The women who work at the WISE Enquiries Agency? Carol Hill and her husband must have had sex, because she's just had a baby; Mavis MacDonald and her late husband produced children, but she's very much a singleton-widow, so I think not; Annie Parker wouldn't be averse to a sex life, but probably doesn't think there's much chance of one now she's left her beloved London and got stuck in a Welsh village in the back of beyond...though there's always Tudor Evans, who runs the Lamb and Flag pub next to the church, of course; then there's Christine Wilson-Smythe, who...by the looks of her "bad-boy-beau" Alexander Bright...is very definitely sexually active - but, again, that's her business, not mine, so I don't write about it. 

In the village of Rhosddraig, Wales, where I set The Wrong Boy, there have been sexual liaisons of all sorts taking place over decades...which is why so many people there have secrets, I suppose. Certainly what has gone on behind closed curtains there isn't something I about which I choose to share the details. But that doesn't stop the local tongues from wagging, of course, nor the poison of gossip fulfilling its destructive potential. 

Why no sex? So far I haven't chosen it to be a motivating force in any of my plots, though in The Wrong Boy passion and desire certainly play key roles...but there's no need for the detail of sex acts to be used in that book for the implications of the passions and desires involved to come into play.

Thus, I haven't written a single sex scene yet, and don't foresee me doing it any time soon. So yes, thank you, I'll be keeping my hand on my metaphorical ha'penny for some time, in terms of writing, thank you. 

The Kindle version of my first two WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries are currently available for just $0.99/99p...CLICK HERE to get to more info and purchasing links. 

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED THEIR RERELEASE BECOME SUCH A HUGE SUCCESS...THIS PAST WEEKEND I HIT DIZZY HEIGHTS I COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED! 

If you'd like to find out more about how I don't write about sex, please consider visiting my website to find out more about all my characters: CLICK HERE

It's alive! by Cathy Ace

Life: Do you ever base characters on real people? (Famous, or people you know in your real life.) And, if so, how do you deal with that?

The short answer to this is no, so…if I know you, or even if you’re wildly famous, you won’t find yourself in one of my books.

With my chum Annie - part of Annie Parker

That said, I often use a mash-up of the physical, social, and psychological attributes of several people I know/have met to create a single character. So…if we’ve ever met, there might be a little of you in one of my characters.

When it comes to creating characters, I try to make them as real as possible. That doesn’t mean they’ll all be likeable, or pleasant, because my main aim is to make them relatable. However, they also have to be created to allow my storytelling to work, which means that – beyond being merely fictional, and relatable – they also have to work in the reader’s mind on many levels, in that they don’t just “exist” in my work as a mere character to fill out the pages; they have a role to perform, too. 

With my chum Eustelle - part of Annie Parker

Possibly the best example I can give of this is to talk about one of my characters – Annie Parker, in The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries. She’s a character made up of several parts: Annie, my friend of about 30 years; Eustelle, my friend of about 30 years; the character created by that mash-up, and the way that “person” acts within my fictional world of the Welsh village of Anwen-by-Wye. 

The real Annie gives the fictional Annie her warm-heartedness, her clumsiness, her specific professional background, and a fair bit of her attitude toward life. The real Eustelle (I used the name Eustelle for the character of Annie’s mother in the books) gives the fictional character Annie her physical being, her warm-heartedness, a fair bit of her attitude toward life, part of her family background, and part of her professional background. That mash-up then exists and acts in a certain way in my fictional world because she has “become” that fictional character. I can visualise, and know how my fictional Annie would act in any situation, just as I can visualise and understand the same about the two real people who have contributed to her existence. However, there are a great number of aspects of the real Annie and Eustelle that I have not gifted to the character of Annie, because I there’s no way a fictional character can be as fully formed as a whole, real person…the detail would drive a reader nuts – even if it’s dribbled out over multiple books – and isn’t usually necessary for a story to work. Both real people know about their fictional alter-ego, and have “approved” her! Phew!

You can meet Annie Parker in this series

I have also crafted characters from parts of many different people I know…stitching together bits from lots of folks into one whole person. So, yes, Dr. Frankenstein had a good idea, in some ways, though hopefully most of my characters fare rather better than his creation.  

If you'd like to meet more of my characters, you can find them by CLICKING HERE.

Being Frank and... by Cathy Ace

What change in the publishing landscape over the past decade and a half has impacted you the most?

First of all, if you didn’t read Frank’s piece yesterday…do that, because he said what I would have said, but better than I would have said it. He talked about self-publishing and the access to e-books…then mentioned the perennial problem of getting readers to find out about and choose to read your books, but – as Frank wisely observed – that’s a blog for another day.

So, moving forward – and bearing in mind that in the “current situation” (my chosen euphemism for being quarantined due to the global pandemic) my answer might change within the next two hours – I think a huge change has been the shift in accessibility to Print On Demand,both for traditional and indie/self-publishers. E-books are e-books, and print is print, and the way the two options get themselves into the hands of readers is very different (NB: Yes, I know that these are extraordinary times and that the new normal isn’t anything close to normal at all, so bear with me?).

Well, here’s the thing: my Canadian traditional publisher and my British traditional publisher both shifted my books onto a Print On Demand (POD) footing long before I stopped signing contracts with them. They took the business decision that they didn’t want their money tied up in boxes and boxes of books sitting in warehouses. Fair enough. But that meant that certain booksellers wouldn’t stock those titles because – no matter if it’s a traditional publisher using POD or an independent/self publisher using POD – bookstores won’t pay upfront for books to put on their shelves without knowing they can return them to the distributor if they remain unsold, and both my publishers had a “non returnable” clause with their POD provider. When I signed with those publishers, this wasn’t the case. But the contracts I had signed with them allowed them to do this. So, there I was, being published by two traditional publishing houses, neither of which could get my books onto bookshelves in bricks and mortar bookstores any better than I could by setting up my own publishing company and taking up the same contracts for my new books with POD providers that those publishers had.

So that’s what I did. I’m no worse off than I was. 

And now the blatant self promotion…PLEASE consider trying my books while you’re holed up? My Cait Morgan Mysteries offer traditional puzzle mysteries for the armchair traveler, with each book being set in a different country; my WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries feature a quartet of softly-boiled female PIs who run their business out of a Welsh stately home; my amazon #1 bestseller The Wrong Boy is a tale of psychological suspense set in a clifftop village in Wales. You can find out more about my books by clicking here.

Another little piece of my heart....by Cathy Ace

Life: Does your writing ever interfere with your family life? Do the demands of your fiction ever create friction with those closest to you?

BEAR IN MIND AS YOU READ...I don't mean to moan. I'm just answering the question as honestly as I can. I know authors who (somehow!) manage to write three excellent books each year...they regularly win awards and top the bestseller lists and maintain that all-important media profile publishers want. I honestly don't know how they do it all; I am in awe of them! Strength to their arms...and fingers...and souls. I have rewritten this post several times. But now I have to step away. 

Simply put, the answer to both questions asked is “Yes”.

Also simply put, I know in my heart that the answer to both questions should be “No”.

Oh look, conflict! As a crime writer that should make me happy. It doesn’t.

Here’s the thing…my first novel, the first Cait Morgan Mystery entitled THE CORPSE WITH THE SILVER TONGUE, was published in March 2012. By the time it was in print I had already signed a contract to write the second Cait Morgan Mystery, THE CORPSE WITH THE GOLDEN NOSE. By the time that came out in March 2013 I had already finished the third in the series and was contracted to write the fourth…and so on, until I had contracts in place to write three novels per year across two series during 2015-2018. I was also Vice Chair of Crime Writers of Canada for 2014-2016, then Chair from 2016-2018. By the time I stepped down to become past-Chair of CWC in May 2018 I had given the organisation and its members the best effort I could muster, had twelve novels published...and was completely exhausted. But lucky to have been given all the opportunities I had been, so that I could do all that I had done.

I hadn’t had a single day when I hadn’t worked (in some way or another) for six years, and that work had become a source of friction when it involved seemingly endless emails, responses to queries or publisher needs etc. during so-called “vacations” or “family time”. And, even when the friction was only in my head, I felt guilty all the time...I constantly felt I wasn't doing enough for anyone. It turned out I was doing nothing at all for myself! I wasn't the healthiest version of myself during the latter part of 2018, so I had to address that. Something had to change...

Something had changed already – my husband had put off retirement for a couple of years so I would have the resources I needed to support my writing career (not just the writing, but all the other work that accompanies it in terms of volunteering my time to be involved with Crime Writers of Canada, attending several conventions each year, doing all the promotional work required etc.). I still think that's incredible. He'd kept going for years, so I could do the same. But he’d finally packed it in for good in March 2018. It was time. That meant he was no longer leaving the house at 5.30am, returning by about 8.30pm, and he and I both realized that my pace of work couldn’t continue as it had because I was the one keeping us apart by continuing to work long hours.

So...change was needed. Because life is about more than work.

BUT...I had a book that I desperately needed to write. It was burning a hole in my soul. It had to come out of me.

So, in early 2018, my husband and I agreed I would make the biggest push ever – I would get the book written (The Wrong Boy), and promote it the best that I could. We incorporated, since I’d decided (after some poor experiences with publishers/agents) that I would self-publish it, and we planned how and when it would be released and promoted. I was lucky – I had money from a personal pension plan I’d set up in the UK back in the 1980s to be able to invest in launching the book and supporting it in the marketplace.

I am happier now that I don’t let work steal me away from my husband as much as it once did. I have also now used the rest of that pension money to buy back all my rights to the Cait Morgan Mysteries (except English print rights) and to be able to support the digital relaunch of that series. Oh, and The Wrong Boy has achieved super sales (even reaching the top 10 on the amazon charts - paid-for sales - in four countries, and #1 in one), and has won a couple of awards...PHEW! 

I know I have another story wriggling around my head that I MUST tell, and I will be doing that, but I have promised us that I won’t aim to publish that book until late 2020, which means we’ll both have some time for us to get used to “being together” without my writing, (or all the other, necessary, work that goes hand-in-hand with that) treading too hard on the toes of our relationship and time with each other and the family. 

It’s taking some getting used to – we’re two workaholics both trying to support each other in recovery. I’ll let you know how it goes a year from now. (I should confess that I am doing my final edits to this piece while Husband takes a nap, as we cruise in the Caribbean...maybe I need help - or a piña colada?)

Meanwhile, if you haven’t considered reading my work, maybe I can beg you to do so? I’ve put a lot into it, and it continues to be my passion. CLICK HERE to get to my website where you can find out all about it.

And they're off... by Cathy Ace

Craft: Describe your editing/revision process. How do you make that mess of a first draft into a real book?

In a word, my editing/revision process is…PAINFUL!

I love writing my first draft, I hate the first round of editing, then increasingly loath every round of editing beyond that. 

I have likened my writing process to three-day eventing, when horses are allowed to be…well, horses…during the steeplechase – galloping, leaping, running with their heads held high.

Then they have to make a much more controlled run during the show-jumping.

Finally, they are forced to act like ballerinas during the dressage competition. 

I feel this way about writing…the fun is in the frantic writing of the first draft, then I have to finesse a little in the first round of edits, followed by finagling all the tiniest details in each round of edits thereafter.

The thing is that – love it or hate it – editing in this increasingly detailed way is critically important for every manuscript, if you want that manuscript to become the best, most readable book it can become.

Specifically, I will just let my writing flow for the first draft: my plan is to keep my head down for as long as it takes to get from the beginning of the book to the end, following the detailed chapter outlines I have already written in my notepad. I type fast (and fairly inaccurately) for as many hours as I can, then I print out what I have written and mark up the pages for obvious problems/typos etc, make those amendments on the digital document, then start again from that point with the new input. It usually takes four to five weeks of this for the first draft to emerge. I then give myself as long a break as possible (at least a week) before I go back to a printed version of the draft and read from the beginning to the end, making notes about queries I have, name/time/place changes/issues, the need to rewrite a paragraph/scene etc…but I don’t make those changes at that time – I get to the end, then make the changes on the digital copy, then print that version out and start again. Over and over, until I feel it’s almost there, then I take another break, then go back and start over.

How often do I do this? It’s varied from three times to nineteen. 

Yes, n-n-n-n-nineteen! 

Like I said – it’s PAINFUL! 

Want to see what all this attention produces? 

You can find out more about my work at my website by CLICKING HERE. 

Can you smell it? by Cathy Ace

They say it’s all in the details. When you’re writing a scene, how much needs to be told?


Hmmm…it all depends on the scene…




Overall, I think less is more when it comes to description within a scene, and that can also apply to setting the scene in the first place. Which doesn’t mean I don’t describe settings, or people…but I do try to do as little of that as possible. When it comes to action, that’s a different thing, though I don’t think it means you need an unbroken stream of constant action which – even when it’s well written – suggests to the reader that they can skip to the end to see what the outcome is, rather than living through the experience with the characters. Better to break the experience into a series of smaller actions, so the reader works through them with the characters, I think.


I have quite often reached the third or fourth reading of a manuscript before I realize I have given absolutely no physical description of a character at all, and I have to address that; I might be able to see them as I allow them to speak/act, but I feel I have to give my reader at least a sketch of them so they can fill in the blanks for themselves and see their version of the person they are “listening” to.




“Show, don’t tell” is an adage that’s hard to understand, until you realize that the smell is what makes us (even some vegetarians, I understand) want to eat the bacon. Maybe that’s why I seem to have a lot of smells in my books…because (as a psychologist) I know that smell is the sense used to help those suffering from “recollective disorders” to remember. Freshly cut grass, bread baking in the oven, brewing coffee, woodsmoke on the night air…further description of the smell is unnecessary – it’s held so firmly in the grip of our memory we don’t need more than its name to allow recollection to begin.




If you’d like to find out exactly how much I show vs how much I tell, you could check out my books by CLICKING HERE.

"Did you have a good day at the office, dear?" by Cathy Ace

Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil. Do you budget based on book sales, or do you just go for it? What’s your dream office look like?


I’m so lucky to be able to say I already have my dream office.

1      1) I work at home = 1 minute commute, being within cuddling distance of my dog and husband (yes, that’s the right order), snacks, and being able to get jobs like the laundry done.

2     2)  I can choose which “office” I use – either the dining table upstairs, or my actual office downstairs. Better view upstairs (so, more distractions), more privacy downstairs (better concentration).

The view from my upstairs writing spot

3     3) I graduated from a desktop to a laptop three computers ago, and won’t revert. Longhand is out of the question. I have never used a typewriter in my life, and I still can’t type properly (I’m a fast, three-fingered hacker). I bought my most recent laptop when it was on sale in the summer – that’s what credit cards are for, right? 

My office is set up to be the library/study/workspace I have always wanted. It has a black carpet (everyone said I was mad – and they had a point, because it’s really a challenge to keep it looking clean, given we have a chocolate Labrador); the aqua walls are a shade it took me a while to find, because I wanted the EXACT colour in my mind’s eye; all the other furnishings are black. I love it. I built the fireplace in the corner because I wanted to be able to see the flicker of (albeit fake) flames in the winter. 

My downstairs writing spot

The pictures on the walls have been collected over decades, as have the books on the shelves. The decorative objects are there because they mean something special to me, not because they are just decorative. All this means that whilst I choose an essentially art deco aesthetic, there’s a non-designer collection of items in the room – the only thing they have in common is that I like them all. 


It’s my nest. The room in the house that’s most essentially “me”. 

If you'd like to read some books that are also "me", try the ones I've written by CLICKING HERE.

Time is precious... by Cathy Ace

How do you know when you’re finished and it’s time to submit? Do you take a break or start right on the next one?


This is an interesting question, and my answer to it now differs from the answer I might have given a few years ago.


When I had contracts with traditional publishers I was absolutely deadline driven…insofar as I would work on editing right up to the very last minute, THEN it just HAD to go. Of course it was then going to a publisher who would read it and might give me a bit of direct feedback, or it was going to an agent who might give me a bit of direct feedback….thence to a publisher, thence to an editor, thence to a copy editor with it coming back to me several times, and with my still having the opportunity to change anything I wanted right up until the final, final last minute, when the final copy edits went back to the publisher. So, even when I pressed “SEND” for my already-much-edited manuscript, there were still lots of opportunities for me to make (more) changes.


The only difference in terms of each manuscript now that I am self-publishing my novels is that my editor works for me on a contract basis, rather than for an old publisher of mine. That’s about it. And I can make changes to both e-versions and print versions more easily after publication if a typo is brought to my attention that needs amending.

The BIG difference is that I no longer feel as though I am on a writing treadmill, because I don’t have any signed contracts “telling me” I have a specific deadline for a specific book. Which, I have to say, is FABULOUS! It means I am living more of my non-writing life than before, and spending more time with my husband. Which I shall never, ever regret.

That being said, I just cannot stop myself from constantly plotting, refining and running the movie of my next book in my head…even when I’m doing something else! (Don’t tell my husband!)

If you'd like to find out more about the books I have written so far CLICK HERE.

Night, night. Sweet dreams. by Cathy Ace

Q: Where do you normally read? In bed? A favorite chair? Listen to audio when commuting?

It might be easier to tell you where I don’t read; not in bed, before sleeping. That’s about it, really. Anywhere and everywhere else is fair game. 

The view from the lower deck to the upper deck

I like to sit outdoors whenever I can, so the upper and lower decks at the back of the house are favourite spots. The upstairs deck has an awning which means the ultimate indulgence of reading “under canvas in the rain” is possible; the sound of the rain takes me back to my youth when I spent a fair amount of time camping (in a tent!), either with my dad or with the Girl Guides/Ranger Guides/Venture Scouts. 

View across the side-lawn from the lower deck

When I read indoors I like to be comfy, with my feet up, but not lying down. This is my chaise with a good reading light – as you can see, it might not always be available for human use (this was the only piece of furniture in the entire house our dearly-missed Gabby was NOT allowed to sit on, thus it was, of course, her favourite place...I miss her a great deal, and always think of her when I sit here). 

Gabby's no longer with us, but I think of her whenever I sit here

When I have to leave the house (frankly, not something I like to do!) I always have my phone with me (because the one time you don't have it is the very time you'll need it, so if I forget to pick it up initially I have to go back into the house, give Poppy another "Sorry I'm leaving you...here's a treat so I don't feel so guilty about it" marrowbone treat...yes, we still have Poppy, and she's doing well despite being over thirteen, very arthritic and possibly a bit annoyed she gets cuddled so much) and my phone has a Kindle app on it. This is extremely useful because - even if I've had to go back indoors to fetch my phone - I can be relied upon to sometimes forget to pop my actual Kindle into my handbag!

If I’m off on a trip, I always take my Kindle (I check at least three times that I have it with me before I set out to the airport). In a hotel room I sit ON the bed to read, but I don’t read IN bed before I go to sleep. This is true whether the bed in question is my own, or one in a hotel room.

Why this aversion to reading IN bed, before I go to sleep? I don’t find that reading is a good segue to sleeping – it makes my mind whirl rather than relax. That’s possibly just me. When I want to sleep, then the semi-vegetative state induced by watching TV is – for me – the perfect precursor to a good nap/night’s kip.

I don’t listen to audio books. Not yet. If I need a secondary activity to accompany gardening, driving or anything else that means I can’t read, I’ll either enjoy the peace and quiet and allow my mind to romp through my Work In Progress, or I’ll listen to music and indulge in singing along. 

If you fancy trying some of my work, you'll find all the info and links here: click here to reach Cathy's website

Digging holes... by Cathy Ace

What did you do this summer? Did you take a break from writing? Continue to write while you were on vacation? Change your writing habits at all?


What did I do this summer? No writing at all. Plotting, yes. Outlining, yes. Writing, no. (Other than blogs, articles, interviews etc., that is.)


What did I do instead? I planted. Well, Husband and I planted. Well, OK then, Husband dug big holes in the spots I picked out, and I sort of whined and criticized as he placed plants into said holes. In my defence I also brought trailers of soil, plus all the associated bone meal/feeds, mulch and water to the planting spot...as every good “helper” does. 

Not dressed for being helpful!

It doesn’t sound like much. But we have poor, clay-based soil in many parts of our property, so each hole can become a nightmare to dig, has to be two or three times the size of the pot from which the plant is being taken (some holes have been a few feet deep and wide), and we’ve repeated this process with more than a hundred plants. (Good-sized maples, ornamental evergreens, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, forsythias, hostas, hibiscus, pots of canna lilies and tender hibiscus, and planting out our perennial seedlings of rudbekia, lavatera and the annual petunias, nasturtium and marigolds…for the gardeners amongst you.) 


It’s been a LOT of work. Then there’s the watering, of course…and our well ran dry at the beginning of July. So…lots of water trucks delivering water. And lots of hosepipes.

It’s been a BIG planting year, and next year will be too. Why all this activity? Well, we’re pretty serious gardeners (OK, like all gardeners, we’re addicted – and we have five acres with which to indulge our addiction) and a good friend of ours died last year; he’d begged us to save the plants from his commercial-sized greenhouses, which we did. We over-wintered them in pots in a safe spot, and are now doing our best to get what we can into the ground, where it will be happiest. It’s a mammoth undertaking. In April this year I counted around 350 pots. We’re down to something over 200 left. Still a long way to go. 

Our friend David, who died last year, having given us hundreds of plants

The task continues – and we do love the end results. Even though we’ll have to wait until next year to see the blooms on the shrubs, and it will take many years for the maples to create the sort of canopy we’re aiming for, we can be patient (not that it’s easy!). Sorry the photos aren’t full of dazzling blooms or spectacular foliage – you’ll have to use your imagination, as we are!


Hopefully my next novel will bloom into something you’ll enjoy reading next year, too!

If you'd like to read some of my work to date, you can click here.

Agents? Provocative! by Cathy Ace

Business: Do you have, or have you ever had, an agent? Depending on your experience, mount an argument for or against having one.

This is how it’s supposed to go:

1) find an agent

2) get said agent to sell manuscript to publisher for loadsamoney

3) sit back and accept the plaudits, watch the dosh roll in, polish your awards and beam every time your name appears on all the bestseller lists

But, here in the real world, that’s not how it goes at all, it seems.

When I'd written and self-published a collection of short stories and another of novellas I tried to find an agent, because I believed that was the best route to get my books to a wider audience. I wrote to agents one at a time, rather than en masse, only to first receive a reply of "I am about to retire, so I'm not interested in your work". A while later I had lunch with another agent who told me he was more interested in representing a sex therapist who'd recently snagged a regular spot on local TV and was about to write a book than my work. All of that took about six months. Gah!

Then I saw a story in a local newspaper about an event being organized at a nearby theatre, inviting authors to sign up, to read from their work and participate in an interview. I got in touch with the organizer, took part – really enjoyed it – and there met an author who connected with the company that had recently published his non-fiction book...he’d heard they were on the lookout for mystery authors! After six months or so they invited me to submit a manuscript for a novel, which was finally published in March 2012 as my first Cait Morgan Mystery – The Corpse with the Silver Tongue.

Having thus managed to find a traditional publishing house – albeit a tiny, independent Canadian one – prepared to publish a novel without my having an agent…then another…then another, I put finding an agent lower on my list of priorities.

By the time I was writing my third novel I realized I had better give some thought to the “agent question” again. I’ve always worked hard to try to understand the business of publishing, and – as far as I could see – the most critical role played by an agent was to get a manuscript in front of a publisher who wouldn’t otherwise look at it (because why would publishers deal directly with authors when they can work through the filter of agents?). However, I didn’t need a new publisher – I had one, right?

But…what if I ever wanted another publisher, maybe for a different series? I found the person who became my agent via a fellow author I met at Bouchercon in Albany (in 2014). Both will remain nameless. Yes, the agent found a home for my new series – The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries – and with a well-established publishing house where my work was initially well-supported. But my agent simply passed my manuscripts to the publisher having given me a few comments I usually didn’t find very helpful.  

The services agents can offer can be wide, and varied – some specialize in critical editorial feedback prior to submission, some are great with foreign/TV/movie/international/format rights, some work with authors to allow their career-molding advice to deliver real benefits. I believe they should excel in one or two of these fields, though it might be a bit much to expect them to do well at all. I had found one who didn't want to give me input in any of those areas. I am now “un-agented” again – the response I got from my agent when I sent a letter firing them was along the lines of “I’m not surprised”. Really, Sherlock?

So – bearing in mind the fact I have had a less than wonderful experience with my one and only agent – I can tell you this…

I know authors whose relationships with their agents are longstanding and truly supportive; I also know authors who've been through several agents – always hoping they’ve found the right fit – and have been disappointed each time. 

Maybe – like me, to be fair – they didn’t really know what they were looking for – or needed – to start with. I have heard it said that you don’t need to like your agent, you just have to be happy with what they achieve for you…so knowing what that is will help when/if you search for one. 

One tip – check what agents achieve for authors they currently represent, but – whenever possible – also ask those authors how the relationship is going for them.

At the moment I am not looking for another agent; I have indie-published my last three titles and they are doing better than I could have hoped. It's been a steep learning curve to reach the point I'm at this week (I have successfully negotiated the return of the rights to my Cait Morgan Mysteries - in every form but English language print....long story!...and I'm about to relaunch the digital collection of books - YAY!). 



If (when?) this level of satisfaction with the Indie world changes, I'll follow the sage advice of Jane Friedman, who (IMHO) gives some of the best advice to writers and authors that's available online! Here's the link I'd start with: https://www.janefriedman.com/find-literary-agent/

If you'd like to find out more about my traditionally published, and self published books - click here.