Lauren Pearson: 'Don’t be afraid of making big changes if you discover that you need to'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
10th Apr 2024
Lauren Pearson is a long-standing and much-loved member of the CBC tutor team. She has worked in publishing for more than 20 years, both in the US and in the UK. A former agent, most recently with Curtis Brown, she has worked with authors including Audrey Niffenegger, Gregory David Roberts, Babette Cole, Isla Fisher, Paula Harrison and Emily Barr. Now a freelance editor and writer, she is the author of the Crabtree School series (Scholastic) and The Sleepover (Orion Children’s Books).
We're thrilled that Lauren is teaching on our upcoming Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced online course, designed to help you polish your prose and put together a compelling pitch package. She is also joining CBC’s Head of Courses, Jennifer, as the co-tutor on our one-day Pitching Your Novel course. Nail your one-line pitch and learn how to write a great query letter on this Zoom course.
We spoke to Lauren about how to query agents and her advice for getting the most out of your creative writing course.
What's the most rewarding part of teaching creative writing on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course?
I really enjoy getting inside each of the students’ novels and rediscovering the essence of what that writer set out to do... Sometimes when you toil away on a novel for so long, you can lose sight of what it is about the story that will really captivate readers and agents, and this can make it extremely frustrating when it comes time to edit your own work. I love being a fresh pair of eyes and someone to brainstorm with, and then seeing how the novels and pitches are transformed as the course progresses. There is a lot of collaboration on this course, both amongst the students and with myself, and the creative energy that creates is wonderful – I’m always gutted to say goodbye when it’s over!
You’re also joining CBC’s Head of Courses, Jennifer, as the co-tutor on our one-day Pitching Your Novel Zoom course – we’re so pleased to have you onboard! What is the one piece of advice that you always repeat to students when it comes to pitching?
Never forget that first and foremost you are selling a story – that’s what agents (and publishers and readers) are really after.
You are the author of the Crabtree School series from Scholastic and The Sleepover from Orion Children’s Books. What first inspired you to write for young children?
I had young children at the time, and I was just moving into agenting more children’s titles. I saw a bit of a gap in the market for really simple chapter books that kids would just tear through, and the idea for the first Crabtree book was actually my daughter’s. She was about six at the time!
Prior to becoming an author, you were a literary agent (most recently, at Curtis Brown). Having experienced both sides of the author/agent relationship, what should students keep in mind when querying agents?
Until I was an author myself, I didn’t really understand just how terrifying it is to send your manuscript out into the world – boy it is terrifying! It feels like someone is going to sit in judgement over this thing that you’ve spent however many years creating, but the agent/author relationship really isn’t like that, even at the querying stage. It’s a partnership, and it’s best to start off by approaching it this way. You as the author do your bit by submitting the best novel you can, and by pitching it in the best way possible. That way you’re starting off the agent/author relationship by doing the heavy lifting, and then it’s up to the agent to take that and run with it. You want that spark of connecting with someone who really gets your work, and then the agent passes that on to the editor and the editor passes it on to the marketing people and on and on until we get to the most important recipient of your original vision and pitch: the reader.
When you’re working on a book do you have a writing routine or any rituals?
I don’t have a strict writing routine, apart from trying to write every day. I do a lot of planning and troubleshooting in my head, and when I’m right in the thick of working on something it’s pretty all-consuming; the story and the characters are always on my mind. (When I’m teaching Edit & Pitch, I get obsessed with other people’s novels in pretty much the same way!)
Do you have any thoughts on the best way for a writer to get the most out of their Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course?
Come to the course with an open mind, and don’t be afraid of making big changes if you discover that you need to. This course is about more than just line edits and tag lines; it’s really about making your novel the best version of itself, and that can involve everything from big structural edits to much smaller changes that will still have a huge effect on the final manuscript.
Do you want to learn more from Lauren?
Apply for our one-day Pitching Your Novel course taking place on Tues 16 Apr.
Or take your rough first draft all the way to finished and polished novel and put together a compelling pitch package ready to send to agents on our specially designed Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course.
The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our Bookshop.org page.