Hi Chris,

Thanks very much for sending this over to me. I think it’s great – incredibly readable, very funny, and on the whole an engaging, well-crafted novel. I found myself thinking about it after I’d put it down, which is a pretty rare thing for me these days considering the amount of manuscripts I read.

I’m not going to sugar coat things: I think it could be tricky to sell. Publishers are increasingly nervous about buying debut fiction, particularly non-genre (i.e., crime, thriller, women’s, etc), and black comedy is a notoriously difficult market. But I do think this yours is a great book and I would love to give it a go.

Now for the questions: What’s your background? Have you ever been published before? Do you have any plans for future books?

Also, I’m not entirely convinced by the title…. are you very attached to it?

All the best,

Melissa

(N.B. The title then was “Cooking a Fish”)