Hi Tina
In 2010 I self-published a romantic comedy novel called The Armchair Bride. Last month I published Lisa Doyle is Absolutely Fine (Spring Street Books, 18 June).
Same premise. Different book.
And crucially, at no point did I ever open the digitally dusty original manuscript. Every single darling met an unpleasant end.
I’d like to write a feature for Writing Magazine about this.
I’m fairly certain many authors have what we like to call ‘bottom drawer novels’. Books we know not to be quite good enough to share with the world. I dare say, some of us have published a book then looked again a few years later and wished we’d had a quiet word with ourselves.
The bog-standard advice is ‘move on’ or ‘revise’. But my piece would address the third way – one we rarely talk about in anything but impolite company. Keep the premise. Burn everything else down. Start over from a blank page.
I’d talk about how to stress test your concept and make sure it has literary legs. After 15 years mine does – but the 2010 execution remains woeful. Why revisions tend to fail when the writer has changed/grown up/moved on. I have friends still working on books they started fifteen years ago. Books they know they’re never going to finish.
My piece would be writing advice with the scars on show. At around 1200 words – though I’ll be guided by you on what length suits.
I write commercial fiction as Mo Fanning and my journalism has appeared in The Bookseller, BookBrunch and Writing.ie. Rainbows and Lollipops won the 2025 Page Turner Award for LGBT fiction and Husbands took the IndieReader Discovery Award in the same year. Lisa Doyle has had coverage from BookBrunch, PinkNews and BBC Radio Manchester since launch.
Happy to send a full outline or a sample opening if useful.
Best wishes,
Mo Fanning
mofanning.co.uk