Read what other people say about Kwei Quartey’s remarkable novel WIFE OF THE GODS on this page. You can read the reviews here as soon as they are released, but before that, here’s some insight into how the book came to be published in the first place. This is an extract from the blog of our friends at AR&E, Agent Research & Evaluation, who you can find on the Links page:
“The real success story of this frankly triumphalist blog is of the authors and their agents. But AR&E played a part in both tales and both are out there in the public domain now, so I think it’s okay to toot our horn as well as theirs.
Recently two authors we have worked with sold their books for big and bigger money. To major houses prepared to do real work nurturing the careers of these writers. Both are novelists writing non-genre fiction, and their personal stories are as different as their books; but alike in that both illustrate the meaning of belief in yourself and your work, and the willingness to put in the sweat equity that leads to success, even when you’re writing non-genre quality fiction that one way or another pushes the envelope. One of these writers had a previous book (with a small press) and a former agent (major) when he came to us. The other was a debut author and he wanted a real agent and a real publisher.
Here’s the debut author’s story first - condensed more tightly than a can of Campbell’s soup, but you’ll get the point. Kwei Quartey came to the US from Ghana as a boy, became a doctor, and never lost the itch to write fiction. Particularly a story that would help him explore the Ghanaian world of his youth. He began using AR&E to look for an agent for WIFE OF THE GODS around 1999. We did our best, but no takers. Agents were hugely complimentary, but backed off because this is not an easy to classify book. Kwei did something else. Came back. No takers. He went back and did some rewriting on WOTG. In this case it was obvious he was very talented and had a really good book (agents do not say “I absolutely love this but I don’t know where to sell it” to every author they turn down; when they do, they mean it). We tried again. Fooled around with some different angles by way of agent selection. More near misses. Then, having not been in touch with him for some time, I saw a book Marly Rusoff had sold that made me think of Kwei and his Ghanaian detective. I already knew Marly was a terrific agent - worth a shot.
This past week, after a huge amount of commitment from the whole Rusoff operation, Marly conducted a tightly focused auction between Random and Viking Penguin which wasn’t just about top money, but about how her author felt after he talked to both editors. In the end, though he liked Viking Penguin a lot, Kwei decided to go with Random.
There’s a sentence in most of the memos we write to accompany a Customized Fingerprint Report for writers seeking an agent - few things are more difficult than going after a major publishing contract. It is very true. Grown ups only allowed to play.”
08 August 2007
• 1 | Order
• 2 | Reviews
• 3 | Extract
• 4 | Characters
• 5 | Glossary
