Set in an amazingly visualised city with a host of memorable characters, The Relic Guild by debut UK novelist Edward Cox is the first of an epic fantasy trilogy with a complicated heroine who must control her magic and escape her prison. Ed Cox tells us it's a story about intrigue, isolation, magic and adventure, and about people doing the right thing even when they’ve been given every reason not to.

The cover blurb tells us:

Young Clara struggles to survive in a dangerous and dysfunctional city, where eyes are keen, nights are long, and the use of magic is punishable by death. She hides in the shadows, fearful that someone will discover she is touched by magic. She knows her days are numbered. But when a strange man named Fabian Moor returns to the Labyrinth, Clara learns that magic serves a higher purpose and that some myths are much more deadly in the flesh.

The only people Clara can trust are the Relic Guild, a secret band of magickers sworn to protect the Labyrinth. But the Relic Guild are now too few. To truly defeat their old nemesis Moor, mightier help will be required. To save the Labyrinth - and the lives of one million humans - Clara and the Relic Guild must find a way to contact the worlds beyond their walls.

With over a decade of writing behind him, and a whole host of published short stories, Ed is ready to unleash his stunning debut. Marcus Gipps, Gollancz Editor says "Edward takes elements we have seen in fantasy before, and welds them into something new. With two intertwining stories taking place 40 years apart but influencing each other deeply, it is clear that Edward is a very exciting new talent." and we certainly agree.

Today Ed has kindly offered to write a guest blog for SCI-FI-LONDON and tell us about the path he took to his book deal.

A DEAL’S NOT A DEAL UNTIL THE DEAL IS DONE

by Edward Cox

I’ve been asked a few times about how I got signed by a major publisher. My answer always makes me sound flippant: I got an agent, and he got me a book deal. It’s a little more complicated than that, but it’s the truth. What’s also true is that it took me longer to convince my agent to represent my book than it took my agent to get the book signed by Gollancz.

    In October 2012 my agent accepted The Relic Guild. Me and my book had bona fide representation, and it was Mardi Gras in the Mr Ed household. However, my agent was careful to explain that having representation was not the same thing as having a book deal. Getting a book deal takes time, he said, occasionally years! He told me to let him worry about gaining a publisher’s interest, and in the meantime I should simply get on with my life.

    How, I wondered, does one simply get on with one’s life while the joy of acquiring a literary agent explodes in one’s brain like a sherbet supernova? I decided that the best way was to begin writing book two of The Relic Guild.

    I proceeded at a leisurely pace, caring not one jot for the passage of time. I had no deadline, and my shiny, brand spanking new agent had told me that years could pass before we got a book deal. I was secretive about my news, selective in who I told about it. Nothing was assured, things could go wrong, and I didn’t want to set myself up for a fall. I got on with my life. Until January 2013.

    My agent got in touch to tell me that a mysterious editor called Marcus Gipps was riding out from the fabled Tower of Gollancz to make an offer on The Relic Guild. After another quick Mardi Gras, I wondered how that could be, and pointed out that only three months had gone by. My agent told me to stop screaming, and then explained that although these things can sometimes move quickly, Marcus Gipps making an offer was not the same thing as having a book deal. There were decisions to make, details that needed agreeing upon, things that had to be negotiated. So much could still go wrong. Get on with my life? I asked. You betcha, my agent replied.

  Okay then. While leaving my fierce and fearless agent to conduct mighty business, I got back to writing book two of The Relic Guild. But this time with a bit more urgency in my pace; this time with one eye on my email inbox, along with a touch of internet stalking to find out more about this mysterious editor who they called Marcus Gipps. I told no one but Mrs Ed about what was going on, fearing that I would jinx the whole process. And without me realising it, all my fingers and toes had become permanently crossed.

    And then, at 17:36 on 1st February 2013, I received a text message from my agent, which simply read: Congratulations! You are now a Gollancz author. Talk about a Disco Inferno moment! Of course, I’ve kept that text for prosperity. Over two years it took me to ensnare my agent. By the time the Gollancz contract was signed, sealed and delivered, he had taken less than six months to get me a book deal.

    It doesn’t happen this way for everyone. Sometimes it does take years. There’s no set way to get a book deal. Whether it’s by agent, serendipity, the slush pile, a prayer and a hope, or the planets aligning, there’s no hard and fast rule, as far as I can see. Authors can only tell you about how it happened for them. But one thing I’ve noticed that all agented authors have in common, first and foremost, is that we worked hard to produce a novel that our agents could believe in.

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THE RELIC GUILD is out on 18th September in trade paperback and eBook. The digital edition will be available for £1.99 until the 25th September. The novel is also being released as an audio download - the first Gollancz debut to be selected in years!

Edward Cox began writing stories at school as a way to pass time in boring lessons. with his first short story published in 2000, Cox spent much of the next decade earning a BA first class with honours in creative writing, and a Master’s degree in the same subject. He then went on to teach creative writing at the University of Bedfordshire. 

His literary heroes include Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, Tad Williams and David Gemmell. Currently living in Essex with his wife and daughter, Edward is mostly surrounded by fine greenery and spiders the size of his hand. THE RELIC GUILD is his first completed novel, and it is the result of more than ten years of obsessive writing.

He can be found on @EdwardCox10 or at edwardcox.net