BFLA Open Week: Resources & Resourcefulness – Some Tips for Writers

Written by Isobel Dixon

So, you’re a writer. You’ve been putting in the hard yards, sitting at your desk/kitchen table/in bed, with your laptop/iPad/notebook and writing, WRITING, whichever way you can. In fact, you’ve written a lot – short stories, one that’s turned into a bit of a novella, a full War-and-Peace-sized novel manuscript even. Or you’ve started and abandoned books half a dozen times, but now you know that this one, this is The One That’s Not Going to Get Away. But you need help, some guidance, a boost in the right direction. Your family and friends are sick of you going on about your book, or are wondering why you keep disappearing, because you’re too shy to tell anyone that you have ambitions as a writer. What to do now?

There are many resources for writers, at many stages of their writing careers, and though I won’t go into extensive detail here, below are a few ideas and waymarkers. Some pointers, starting with your own practice and reaching out further. If you scroll down you’ll find a list with some links – not an exhaustive list and mostly a UK-focused one, but it will give you some idea of the kind of things you can look out for, wherever you are.

Already, as an observer and chronicler, you are watching and recording. Being ‘someone on whom nothing is lost’, as Henry James said. You’re alive to the world around you, noticing, and writing things down. Robert Louis Stevenson said he always carried two books at any time – one to read and one to write things in. And as a writer, you’re also going to be reading widely and closely – for pleasure as a reader, but also with an analytical eye to understand how plot , structure and narrative form work in practice. You can see a bit more about this in a piece I wrote about ‘voice’ (with some emphasis on poetry, given that I am a poet myself).

As a reader, and a writer aspiring to publication, you’ll be curious about how books are sold and received, so you’ll want to spend some time in bookshops and libraries. Whether you’re buying or borrowing, and whatever genre you are writing in, there is so much information to be absorbed there.

In your reading journey, ask questions of booksellers and librarians as to what they’ve liked and what they recommend in your chosen field. If you’re pressed for time, remember that you can listen to audiobooks via your library too. (And a note here that writers love the royalties they get from book sales, but in many countries, authors, translators, illustrators and audio narrators receive a small amount every time a library book is loaned, if they sign up to the national system, called Public Lending Right in the UK. So borrowing lots of books is good for writers too! If you’re published and haven’t registered your books for PLR yet, there’s no time like the present… And while you’re on the admin, check out the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), who also make payments to authors for registered titles, where there has been photocopying or other licensing use.)

Also ask questions as a writer – libraries and independent bookshops will have knowledge of book clubs and writers’ groups in your area too. At some stage you will need to ‘declare and share’ – acknowledging your goals as a writer, whatever your day job, and showing your work to someone else. This may be via an informal local group or a taught course, in-person or online, but it will be transformative, even as it pushes you beyond your comfort zone.

Beyond your local library, local universities may offer writing workshops – in London I started attending Michael Donaghy’s evening poetry workshop, a short course given by City University, which led me to the poetry friends I still informally workshop with, decades later.

Regional writer development organisations do invaluable work with and for writers, offering courses about the craft, information on publishing, creating networking opportunities, running festivals and prizes – so do check what there is in your region. At the agency, we’re big admirers of the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, with whom I have worked closely for years, New Writing North, Writing West Midlands, Writing East Midlands, Literature Works, Scottish Book Trust, and more. The Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Literary Fund also provide support for writers in different ways – see their websites for more.

The Arvon Foundation runs creative writing courses in Devon, Shropshire and Yorkshire. The Word Factory helps support short story writers, bringing established and emerging writers together for mentoring, helping to develop craft and contacts. They run an Apprentice Award Programme for this. Attending festivals, local author events and live literature nights like Café Writers (Norwich and online) will bring you into contact with more useful organisations and creative people! The many online and hybrid events and festivals now available provide wider access: do investigate online festival passes and what discounts are offered for students and those on low incomes.

Arts Council England, Arts Council of Ireland and Creative Scotland provide information and funding for writers and projects – see what applies to your region and what they showcase online. Literature Wales lists writers’ groups and literary societies across Wales and beyond on its site.

In London, Spread the Word also does excellent work, and Apples and Snakes supports spoken word artists. Recently, my colleagues Juliet, Sian and I enjoyed talking about agenting with the Black Girl Writers group: a free mentoring programme for Black women who write, pairing them with established authors and literary agents and hosting online workshops.  Other towns and cities will have their projects too – too many to mention individually, so do your local research. Sign up to newsletters from organisations like these, and also festivals and venues that offer events and courses that could help you in your writing practice.

If you’re interested in finding out about the publishing industry in general, this year in the UK the Association of Authors’ Agents, the  Publishers Association and the Booksellers’ Association joined together to create a platform called OpenBooks – an initiative designed to reach the next generation of book industry talent, through a series of free, accessible online events. Aimed primarily at 14 to 19-year-olds from underrepresented backgrounds, OpenBooks showcases a range of book-related career options across publishing, bookselling, literary agenting and beyond. Speakers on various panels help to demystify publishing career options and identify routes into the book trade. Various publishers and literary agencies run paid internship programmes, like our own Carole Blake Open Doors Project.

Carole Blake, the brilliant co-founder of the agency, also wrote an excellent book, From Pitch to Publication, about finding an agent, and the path to publication. It’s due an update on some aspects like e-books, but the core principles are timeless and valuable.

The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is a practical compilation of industry advice including agent listings, author interviews, and information on editorial services. If you want to move beyond courses and workshops, don’t have an agent, and choose to pay for one-to-one editing or writer mentoring, there are many companies and individual freelancers who offer these services. The Literary Consultancy is one that is long-established and supported by the Arts Council.

The Society of Authors also hosts a number of excellent creative seminars and panel discussions around writing and publishing. Membership eligibility covers all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators at every stage of their careers – including journalists, scriptwriters, bloggers, novelists, biographers, translators, poets and games writers. The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is also a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, comedy, poetry, animation and videogames.

Do also take a look at the various practical pieces written by Blake Friedmann colleagues over our Open Weeks!  There is lots of information on submitting to agents, what agents do, and much more, and you can access these here. 

Here are just a few good books on writing and creativity (much more to say on this another time!):

Happy writing, and exploring!

 A (non-exhaustive!) list of some links and resources

Open Books – joint UK book industry initiative:
https://agentsassoc.co.uk/2022/11/04/press-release-the-pa-ba-and-aaa-join-together-for-openbooks/

Open Books website
https://www.publishers.org.uk/openbooks/

Carole Blake Open Doors Project
http://blakefriedmann.co.uk/carole-blake-open-doors-project

Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook
https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/

Spread the Word
https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/

Apples & Snakes
https://applesandsnakes.org/

Black Girl Writers
https://blackgirlwriters.org/

Word Factory
https://thewordfactory.tv/about/

Arvon Foundation
https://www.arvon.org/about/arvon-home-of-creative-writing/

The Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA) – UK
http://www.agentsassoc.co.uk/

Association of American Literary Agents
https://aalitagents.org/

The Australian Literary Agents’ Association – Australia
https://www.austlitagentsassoc.com/

Arts Council England
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

Arts Council Ireland
https://www.artscouncil.ie/home/

Royal Society of Literature
https://rsliterature.org/

Royal Literary Fund
https://www.rlf.org.uk/helping-writers/

Society of Authors
https://www.societyofauthors.org

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) – UK
https://writersguild.org.uk/

Authors Guild of America
https://www.authorsguild.org

PEN International
https://www.pen-international.org/

Society of Childrens’ Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) – International
https://www.scbwi.org/

The Writers Union of Canada (TWUC) – Canada
https://www.writersunion.ca/

We Need Diverse Books
https://diversebooks.org/

Public Lending Right (PLR)
https://www.bl.uk/plr

Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS)
https://www.alcs.co.uk

Literature Wales
https://www.literaturewales.org/for-writers/writers-groups-literary-societies/

Conmonword
https://www.cultureword.org.uk/

Literature Works (South West)
https://literatureworks.org.uk/

New Writing North
https://newwritingnorth.com/

Writing West Midlands
https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Writing East Midlands
https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/

Scottish Book Trust
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/

Publishing Ireland
https://www.publishingireland.com/

Publishing Scotland
https://www.publishingscotland.org/
https://www.publishingscotland.org/about-publishing/

Independent Publishers Guild
https://www.independentpublishersguild.com/

Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ)
https://publishers.org.nz/

Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA)
https://publishsa.co.za/

And for those in the book trade who are in need, see what BTBS the Book Trade Charity has to offer:
https://btbs.org/

BFLA Open Week: What happens once you’ve signed with an agent?

Written by Sian Ellis-Martin

When you’re writing your first book, it can be difficult to see past the goal of finding representation with an agent. But what comes next?! Below is a non-exhaustive list of what you can expect from working with an agent, how your book is sold to a publisher, and what happens once you have a deal. Sometimes these things happen in a slightly different order – particularly once you have a publication deal and lots of things start happening simultaneously.

Edits from your agent

Although your agent already loves your book and writing (they’ve offered you representation after all!), it will usually take a few rounds of edits to get your manuscript ready for submission to publishers. Your agent will discuss those edits with you, and you’ll likely focus on the larger, structural edits first such as plot and narrative threads, character, pacing and general structure of the book. Once you’re both happy with the work you’ve done on a larger scale, your agent will usually do a line edit of the manuscript to check for any smaller issues to do with spelling and grammar.

Your book goes on submission

While you’re editing your manuscript, your agent will be doing all sorts of things in the background in preparation for submitting your work to publishers. Agents and the rights team will be pitching your book to editors when they can – at day-to-day meetings and at book fairs. Closer to submission time, your agent will draw up a list of editors that they plan to submit your work to and, once the manuscript is ready, they’ll send it out via email along with a submission letter.

As well as trying to secure a print deal, your agent will also be actively trying to sell other rights in your work, such as audio, radio, film and television (if these rights are covered by your agency agreement). If you write short stories, they may also be able to help you with submitting those stories to prizes and short story publications too. For more information on rights, see Roya’s piece from Open Week 2022.

Waiting

We often see news of overnight book deals, publishers pre-empting books for seven figures and hotly contested auctions with multiple publishers and massive advances. Sometimes books sell that way, and it’s really exciting when they do! But it’s not always the reality of the book selling and buying process, and sometimes you’ll wait a while before you hear that an editor is interested in acquiring your book. That’s completely normal – editors often have bigger reading piles than they have time to get to, and more hoops to jump through than your agent would have had when they signed you – but it can understandably be a frustrating and worrying time. Rest assured that your agent is on top of things, continuing to pitch your book, and will update you when they have news.

Agreeing a deal to sell the book

There are also multiple ways for an offer to come about. You might receive offers from multiple publishers, which means your book will be sold at auction. You might receive a pre-empt offer, which is where a publisher makes an offer but sets a deadline by which that offer will expire (this is usually an attempt to take the manuscript off the table and avoid an auction situation), or you might receive one offer.

There are also lots of variables within an offer itself, including how many books the publisher is offering for, advance level, royalties, bonuses and subsidiary rights splits. These main terms will be outlined at offer stage.

Your agent will be ready to handle any outcome of the selling process and will explain the ins and outs of each offer to you to ensure that you are equipped with all the knowledge you need to make the decision that feels best for you.

There’s always a chance that your book unfortunately does not sell, and your agent will be able to discuss a plan for next steps with you. You can read Isobel’s Open Week 2022 article here if you’d like to know more about how publishing is sometimes a long road to success.

Publisher contract

Once you’ve agreed a deal with your new publisher, your agent will negotiate the full contract with them. Contracts are usually based on a boilerplate – a template of agreed wording – between the agency and the publisher but if this is the first deal the agent has done with that publisher, they will need to negotiate the boilerplate first, which may take a little longer.

To find out more about the money side of your publishing deal, take a look at Juliet’s Demystifying Money piece from Open Week 2022.

Edits from your editor

While your agent is negotiating the contract, your editor will start to write up their editorial thoughts – yes, more edits! This will follow a similar pattern to the edits you undertook with your agent; first, the larger, structural edits, and then, once those edits are complete, your book will be passed on to the copyeditor and/or proof-reader who will check for any inconsistences, factual inaccuracies or spelling and grammar errors. You’ll be asked to check and approve the edited manuscript.

Proofs

Sometimes (but not always) a publisher will produce proofs of your book. Proofs are an early hard copy of your book – it may not have the final cover or be the very final text – which are sent out to early readers for review. This includes other authors, book bloggers and reviewers for newspapers, magazines and websites. It’s a good idea to have a think about whose hands you’d like to get the book into and to share that with your publisher when proof discussions are happening.

Choosing a cover

Alongside your edits, you’ll also engage in conversations about the book cover. Although a publisher usually makes the final decision on your book cover, they’re always happy to hear your thoughts and ideas too, and will usually seek your approval before they go ahead. This can be a really fun and exciting part of the publication process! Don’t forget to discuss the cover options with your agent who will have valuable insight too.

Marketing, publicity and promotion

Your editor will usually set up a meeting between you, your agent and the publishing team working on your book, including the marketing and publicity professionals tasked with looking after your book. In this meeting, they’ll outline their plans for promoting the book before, during and after publication. It’s also an opportunity for the publisher to outline what might be expected of you in the lead up to and around publication – this could include events, signings, social media posts or any other promotional activity.

Around this time and in the lead up to publication, your agent will ask the publisher about numbers: how many books have been ordered by the main retailers? What level are pre-orders at?

Publication

The big day has arrived! Your book will be in the bookstores (and possibly supermarkets) and available to buy online too.

After publication

In the weeks after publication, your publisher will update you and your agent on the sales of your book and any post-publication reviews that you might receive.

If you agreed a multi-book deal, you’ll probably already be writing your next book but if not, you and your agent will have a plan for selling the next one!

BFLA Open Week: A Writing Life: The Long Road & The Long View

Written by Isobel Dixon

Determination, self-belief, belief in the work itself, and perseverance all round are crucial characteristics for writers.  Persevering daily on the creative side, in the writing, editing and development of the craft, and also in managing the logistics of the professional writing life – finding and working with an agent and publishers, on the journey of a creative career. Hopefully a journey with lasting relationships with an agent and your primary publisher, but also navigating the inevitable setbacks, the bumps in the road, the possible cul-de-sacs – the novel that is started that never fully comes to life and needs to be set aside, the book that takes a decade or more to find its champion, the sequence of editors who leave for different jobs, or the publisher that gets bought or goes bust, just when you thought things were beginning to take off.

The aspiring author’s dream checklist: finish that great novel at last; find an excellent agent who loves your work; get a sweet deal (hopefully after a heated auction!); publish, win prizes, sell film rights, be translated into dozens of languages; repeat with many books; go on to enduring fame and fortune. The headlines are tantalising: the latest debut sensation, the Best Young Novelists/Ones to Watch lists, the ‘hot’ London/Frankfurt Book Fair titles, the surprise Booker shortlister, the latest TikTok bestseller…

The reality for most is a slower, longer road, with many twists and turns. Perhaps a swift debut start, with second- or third-book setbacks, or a career gap somewhere en route. A writing hiatus when life interfered, or the book that was once so clear in your mind just refused to take proper shape. Or for others a long, slow burn – book after book just simmering on, till one particular title makes its blazing breakthrough. Not always the story you’d expect to be the one to shine so brightly or find favour – and thus potential fortune – with that year’s particular blend of reviewers, prize judges, booksellers and, of course, readers.

There will always be surprises in the writing and publishing life. It’s part of why I love this job, even as I grind my teeth and curse as another ‘rave rejection’ pops in from an overstretched editor. And when we get asked, ‘What’s the next big thing?’ – well, if only we knew…

Watership Down by Richard Adams was rejected at least seven times before it was published by Rex Collings, Frank Herbert’s Dune turned down by publishers more than twenty times, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time more than twenty-five, Stephen King’s Carrie more than thirty. Moby-Dick, Twilight, Dubliners … the line stretches on, and on. And those are just a sprinkling of the manuscripts that eventually had their happy reversal of fortune: agent and publisher acceptance, followed by triumphant publication and the glorious revenge of success.

In Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery’s memoir The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, she wrote of finally finishing her first novel, which she typed herself on an old second-hand typewriter ‘that never made the capitals plain and wouldn't print "w" at all’. First she tried ‘a new American firm that had recently come to the front with several "best sellers." I thought I might stand a better chance with a new firm than with an old established one that had already a preferred list of writers. But the new firm very promptly sent it back.’ She then tried one of the ‘old, established firms’, and the manuscript met the same fate. Three ‘betwixt-and-between firms’ sent it back too. Four of her rejections came with a standard printed note, one of them damning with a sprinkling of faint praise. It was that, she wrote, that ‘finished me’. The manuscript – of Anne of Green Gables – was consigned to a hatbox, until she came across it later ‘while rummaging’. It ‘didn’t seem so very bad’, she thought, on turning the pages. So she tried again and the novel was accepted and became a worldwide bestseller, loved by readers of all ages in her lifetime and successive generations too. In South Africa, my mother kept all her carefully collected L.M. Montgomery books in a special lockable bookshelf in her bedroom. I too was glad of Montgomery’s fruitful ‘rummaging’ and persistence.

L.M. Montgomery writes beautifully of the unexpected success of the novel which launched her career and the moving letters of appreciation she received from male and female readers. I smiled though at this wry line, yet another jolt of realism: ‘Well, Anne was accepted; but I had to wait yet another year before the book was published.’ In the long game of publishing, there is indeed a lot of waiting to get through.

For many it takes a long time to find an agent, and then it can take some time again before the right match with a publisher is made. Our agency co-founder, Carole Blake, famously submitted Barbara Erskine’s Lady of Hay to over forty publishers before she received an offer. It became a major international bestseller, sold millions of copies and has been continuously in print since. When the thirtieth anniversary edition of Lady of Hay was published by HarperCollins, Barbara wrote: ‘In so many ways Carole Blake, my much-missed and beloved agent, was as much the author of Lady of Hay as I am. She read my original 1,000 (at least) page manuscript, she spotted its potential, she moved heaven and earth to find a publisher for what was at the time a deeply unfashionable genre and she helped create what became for many people a legend.’

Early in my career I was hugely privileged to work with the late South African author Achmat Dangor. I sold his novel Kafka’s Curse to a discerning young editor, Dawn Davis, at Pantheon in the US, and it was hailed as a New York Times Notable Book on publication in 1999 and translated into six languages. Achmat then embarked on what he described as ‘a bigger book about the New South Africa’, which took some time to write, in between his many duties as head of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. I was amazed by the fierce, lacerating novel when it was delivered. But selling it, to cut a very long publishing story short, also took some time. Bitter Fruit was bought in France, Spain and Canada first, and turned down by more than twenty English editors before Toby Mundy of Atlantic and I had a long conversation over lunch and he decided to take a second look, having passed earlier. The novel – as it does – had continued to haunt him. Bitter Fruit was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004, after publication to many fine reviews. Morgan Entrekin and Amy Hundley came on board for Grove Atlantic in the US and other translation deals followed.

Every experienced agent has represented authors through different publishing journeys, different variations on these tales. Yes, we have the thrilling debut auctions, the consistent book-a-year bestsellers, but all the time, as I type this, and as you read this, the submission-rejection pinball goes on. Someone, somewhere, is rummaging through the proverbial bottom drawer (or hatbox), reassessing a story written long ago that they have had to set aside, but which may yet – usually after some reworking – have its day.

After that first breakthrough into print, reviews (many or few) and the recurring question of ‘the difficult second book’, there are many writers who have experienced some success in one area and along the way have been tempted to tackle a different route entirely, deciding to switch genres. Sometimes this is out of sheer curiosity, a key quality of all the best writers, or sometimes it is the result of specific inspiration, an idea or story that just arrives and takes up residence in the imagination, refusing to depart.

David Gilman came to the agency as a scriptwriter client in the 1990s and was represented by my colleague, now Head of Media, Conrad Williams. Ahead of Frankfurt Book Fair one year, Conrad said David had written an adventure novel for younger readers, would I read it? I did, and I loved it, and sold his Danger Zone trilogy to Puffin for a six-figure pre-empt, also separately in Canada and the US, and in ten other languages. Not content with that shift, David then moved into the world of historical fiction for adults, with his Master of War series featuring the much-loved stonemason-turned-archer-turned-knight Thomas Blackstone. Now David also has his contemporary thriller series The Englishman, starring ex-Foreign Legion fighter, Dan Raglan, racing alongside Blackstone’s Master of War – with a few historical adventure standalones popped in-between. It takes agenting stamina to keep up with some authors too!

The same goes for Peter James, who also made a genre switch that paid off very well. Having had success as a writer of supernatural thrillers, which Orion began to publish in the 1980s, Peter later joined Blake Friedmann as a client of Carole Blake’s and began to write a crime series, a police procedural starring a Brighton-based police detective, Roy Grace. In 2005 Pan Macmillan published Dead Simple, which became a major bestseller, launching a multi-million selling series published in dozens of languages, with some of the books adapted for stage – and now Grace is an ITV crime drama series too, starring John Simm. The drama behind the journey from page to screen (almost twenty years after Dead Simple topped the charts) is another epic tale in its own right.

Edward Carey is the author of another epic book with a modest name, Little. The wry, macabre, haunting tale of the orphan girl who became Madame Tussaud, the novel was a very long time in the making. It was a novel that haunted us both, and wouldn’t let go, yet publisher after publisher said no, to successive edits of the manuscript, on both sides of the Atlantic. A whole lot of rage, disappointment, despair experienced throughout that long process, over fifteen years, by both author and agent. In between, Edward also stepped across genre ‘lines’ (which many of my authors love to do) and wrote The Iremonger Trilogy – Heap House, Foulsham and Lungdon – for younger readers. But also, always, the dogged belief that Little was a book that deserved its readership and would eventually find it. As it did, in the first instance thanks to Edward’s thoughtful reworking and the development of both the text and the beautiful drawings that always accompany his work, and then due to the discernment and care of Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce at Gallic Books, who were the first to offer for English rights, followed by Cal Morgan of Riverhead in the US. Little is now sold in 20 languages, including several English language editions.

More recently, Monique Roffey’s marvellous The Mermaid of Black Conch made literary waves. Published by UK indie Peepal Tree Press, it won the Costa Prize in 2021 and was shortlisted for an astonishing array of other prizes – despite being published right into the first lockdown. Adversity aplenty on this particular journey, but after several brilliant novels and years of dedication, the mermaid delivered Monique the widespread acclaim she deserved, with more than 100,000 copies now sold in the UK, a film deal closed after auction, and a growing list of publishers bringing this beautiful story to readers in other languages and on other shores.

Those are just a few examples then of how as agents we’re in it for the long run, through the ups and the downs, the frustrations as well as the celebrations. I seek to represent authors, not individual projects, with long-term commitment to selling the work of writers I believe in. Being an agent requires a sharp eye for detail – the difference a percentage point makes in a high discount clause, the importance of the escalating levels in royalty rates, the nuance of a sentence, the missing angle in a book’s cover copy – but also the long view. A shared long-range vision for where the author could go, a fierce joint ambition for the work. Sometimes that also means seeing potential in something the author can’t quite see for themselves. That catalysing ‘Have you ever thought of…’ moment, or the happy rummage in the author’s bottom drawer, for the novella they wrote years ago, like Elizabeth Chadwick’s recently published The Coming of the Wolf, or Ann Granger’s collection of mystery stories, Mystery in the Making, comprised of eighteen stories and longer serialisations she wrote for magazines – some of which I sold to Women’s Weekly and others when I first joined the agency as an assistant in 1995! Her introduction to the collection is a delight in itself.

A writing career can be a marathon, hopefully still a rewarding one, in spite of the many frustrations and publishing challenges en route. For the disappointed and exhausted, struggling with writing or publishing dilemmas, keep the faith and keep working. I wish you good champions too. For the aspirant authors out there, first of all you have to sit down and write that book (and often rewrite and rewrite) to be in the running. And while there may be sprints, leaps and spurts when you really get going, be ready for the long road ahead.

And ‘lots of typing’, as an agency client once said about the task of writing a novel. Who knew there’d be so much typing! Blood, sweat and typing, a whole lot of alphabet. But that, as we know, is where the real magic of the whole crazy journey begins.