Romy Sommer

Today is release day for Waking up in Vegas ! And as you're reading this I'm sitting beside the road somewhere watching a Toyota TV advert being filmed. Hopefully I'm warm, comfortable and not too exhausted from an early morning start. So what are you still doing here? Have you gone off and bought my book yet? Oh, okay. If you've already bought your copy, then you're allowed to stay a little longer and read on... Waking up in Vegas started with a dream. Not a metaphorical dream but a literal one. I woke up one morning and thought “now that would make a great story”. I wrote the first draft three years ago, in 30 days during the mad month of November. I submitted it to a publisher only to receive a personalised rejection that said the opening just wasn’t innovative enough. So I set the story aside, wrote a bunch of other stuff, learned the craft, and then one day late last year, as I was driving home from work, singing at the top of my lungs to Katy Per...

It's Friday morning, 5th April. I return to my desk at the day job from a coffee run to see an email in my inbox titled 'Harper Impulse submission'. My heart starts thumping wildly. It's only been three weeks since I submitted to Harper Impulse , the brand new imprint from Harper Collins, but I've heard via the grapevine that the editors had an acquisitions meeting... I'm not too stressed. A sale would be a dream come true, but a rejection won't be the end of the world. If it's a rejection, then I plan to self-publish. I have a freelance editor on standby and a cover already designed. I may not be anxious, but I can still scarcely breathe as I click open the email. It's two lines only. "Are you free today for a quick call? I'd love to chat further to you about your submission." I've already had friends go through this, so I know editors don't just call to chat about your work. They call to buy. I shoot back a reply. ...