Ask the Author: Marie Phillips
Answered Questions (7)
Marie Phillips
Thank you so much! Re a sequel - I want to come up with a really elaborate way of saying no so that it isn't all blunt and dismissive because how awful would it be to wait two months for an answer to your question and then come back and discover just the word 'no', all alone on the screen, but right now... no. Maybe one day?
Marie Phillips
Thank you, that's amazing to hear! OK, so the process with GBB was unusual. I already had representation for a book that was never published - I'd been recommended an agent through a friend, and he'd passed me on to her (they were within the same agency), so that was pretty straightforward. But she really didn't like GBB, and she gave it to a reader who felt the same way. So I was left with a choice, persist with the agent or persist with GBB. I chose the book, but it was a very tough decision. Anyway I was working in a bookshop at the time, and one of the sales reps who came in regularly (a lovely man, Peter Fry, now retired) knew that I had written this book and advised me to send it to his boss, Dan Franklin, who at the time was the head of Jonathan Cape, a publishing division within Random House (he is also now retired). He was a hugely important guy, but I thought, what do I have to lose? So I sent him the opening chapters, with a short note explaining that I would appreciate his advice on getting representation or how to go about getting it published. I was incredibly lucky: Dan loved it, asked to read the rest, and made me an offer within a week. Then with his help I chose an agent: one look at the complexity of the contract they'd offered me made me realise that I did not want to do this alone. (I have never regretted this decision.) Having worked with Dan on a couple of books, and read other books that he recommended to me, I realised just how lucky I was - Dan and I happen to have the exact same sense of humour. The same book landing on someone else's desk might have had a very different response. Anyway, it's hard to generalise from my very unusual story, but I suppose what I learned from it is to believe in my work, not to give up if I get a negative response, and that when an opportunity comes your way, take it without thinking twice. Thanks again for your question, KDH - I'm guessing that you might be a writer too, in which case very best of luck with it!
Marie Phillips
Writing. It is the best and only thing. Oh, and also sometimes people send me free proofs.
Marie Phillips
Here's something nobody told me: procrastination can be healthy. There is a time for sitting in front of the screen trying to push on through, but there is also a time for going and doing some laundry. Let your mind rest and recover, and it might just come up with the solution on its own.
Marie Phillips
Writing is writing and everything else about being a writer is noise. Enjoy the day to day experience of writing and try to forget about everything connected to publication, the book scene, other people's expectations, and so on. None of that matters. Even if you eventually publish a book to huge acclaim, in the end you will just be sitting down to write again, exactly as before. The noise can overwhelm you. Just write.
Marie Phillips
I wouldn't say that I get inspired to write. I just write because I like to write.
Marie Phillips
Ideas come from anywhere, they float through the air like pollen and can be similarly generative or irritating depending on where they land. The idea for the book I am working on came from a passing remark by a teacher in an Alexander technique workshop I was attending, which had nothing to do with Alexander technique, but somehow switched something on in my mind. There is no off switch for an idea, but sometimes there is a gradual winding down of energy, and then the idea dies. Not this time, I hope.
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