Eleanor Fitzsimons - How We Work Together
19 Jun 2014

Eleanor Fitzsimons won last year’s Keats-Shelley Essay Prize. Duckworth have recently bought her book on the women in Oscar Wilde’s life.

It’s said that we live our lives in seven-year cycles. The physiological basis for this is the seven-year process by which we regenerate almost every cell in our bodies, becoming new in the process. A widely held belief that we also undergo fundamental spiritual and emotional changes at this interval grants us licence to shrug off our past and set out in a new direction.

I have a habit of reinventing myself. Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I veered away to write features and opinion pieces for newspapers and magazines. A passion for history sent me back to university. I had this notion to write a book about some of the women who have been overlooked. My involvement with Andrew turned this notion into a publishing deal.

I honestly didn’t know where to start but I had the good sense to send Andrew an unformed outline and a sample of my work. He responded that same day with vital words of encouragement and a template that transformed my notion into a commercially viable proposition. The feedback from him and from his readers was invaluable: professional, forthright and constructive. I felt reassured that anything sent to a publisher with my name on it would be scrutinized first. Andrew knows exactly what publishers want because he asks them.

Andrew responds promptly to every email I send, even the daft, angst-ridden ones. He encouraged me to enter for prestigious prizes, one of which I won. He opened doors that would have remained firmly locked had I knocked timidly on them. He secured a deal for me, scrutinized the contract, negotiated changes in my favour, and had the advance in my account in time for me to pay my spiraling research bill. I simply couldn’t do this without him.