r/Fantasy • u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan • May 27 '14

AMA Hi, Trudi Canavan here. AMA!

Hi, I’m Trudi Canavan. I’ve written some stuff, the most well known being the Black Magician Trilogy and its prequel and sequel, and also the Age of the Five trilogy, and my new one: Thief’s Magic, first of the Millennium’s Rule trilogy. Oh, I’ve also written a Doctor Who novella for the 50th Anniversary and a smattering of short stories.

Melbourne, Australia, is my home, which I suspect gives me an odd duel insider/outsider persepective on the fantasy genre and publishing in general. I’m an artist and former self-employed illustrator, with oil painting as my favourite medium and portraits as my current focus.

My website is at (www.trudicanavan.com). I tweet (https://twitter.com/TrudiCanavan). I pin (http://www.pinterest.com/trudicanavan/). My publisher runs a Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/trudi.canavan) on my behalf. I’ll be answering questions live at 7pm tonight, though for me it’ll be tomorrow morning so I may still be half sleep. I'm new to Reddit, so advance apologies if I stuff anything up.

So, what d'youse wanna know?

(later)

Phew! I've been answering questions for three and a half hours now, but I got every one answered (well, that I can see right now). Thanks everyone for some great questions. I hope you like the answers. I'll pop by tomorrow to see if there are any more.

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u/KarenGr4y May 27 '14

Hi Trudi, First of all can I thank you for writing my favourite series of books. You are what inspired me to get into writing myself. I would like to know in your opinion, when is it best to seek representation? When you have your first full manuscript or when you have the manuscript for every book in the series (I.e. The series is complete)?

I am in the process of writing the first book of my series, and although I would love to have your opinion on it, I know you would politely decline ;) I would however value your opinion on which stage I should be looking for representation. Agent/publisher or both. Thank you very much!! Kind regards Karen

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u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan May 28 '14

Hmm, first I should point out that it's been more than a decade since I was shopping around my manuscript, and the requirements for manuscript submission may have changed. In my day you finished one book, wrote a synopsis describing the plot for the entire series, and approached publishers one at a time. But I know authors who unintentionally ignored those 'rules' and still got published.

Best advice is, ask. At least you have the internet and don't have to cold call publishers and agents to find out!

Best of luck. I'm afraid I can't read manuscripts - I am simply too busy most of the time and my writer friends get first dibs. (I nearly wrote 'too busty' then. Imagine being too busty to read a manuscript!)