:00:00. > :00:00.backtracked on that. It needs to backtracked on this and allow these
:00:00. > :00:00.mangoes to be sold in Britain again. Now it is time to Meet The
:00:07. > :00:11.Author with Nick Higham. Normally the interview the writer of
:00:12. > :00:17.newly published books but this week is an exception. One step too far is
:00:18. > :00:21.a contemporary tale of a young wife and mother who one day disappears.
:00:22. > :00:27.She walks out on her old life and start afresh under a new name. We
:00:28. > :00:34.are left guessing as to why until almost the end of the book. This is
:00:35. > :00:41.not the first appearance in print of this book. It was originally
:00:42. > :00:45.published as a paperback. And more than 100,000 copies were sold. Which
:00:46. > :01:05.is why Penguin and other publishers have now picked it up.
:01:06. > :01:10.Tina, when we first meet your central character Emily, she is on a
:01:11. > :01:15.train from Manchester to London. And we do not discover why she's leaving
:01:16. > :01:21.her old life behind. How difficult was it to mislead your readers to
:01:22. > :01:25.keep that secret? I found it surprisingly easy and in fact I had
:01:26. > :01:30.to go back and take out some of the red herrings. Because I think there
:01:31. > :01:34.were points where it was unnecessary to actually mislead people in that
:01:35. > :01:40.way. So I found it surprisingly easy. That was your starting point,
:01:41. > :01:44.that twist, that reveal was what sparked the idea. I had the idea for
:01:45. > :01:50.the twist just out of the blue and it was when I was in holiday in
:01:51. > :01:54.Venice. Even though Venice has nothing to do with the book. I
:01:55. > :01:59.thought it would make a great plot twist. So when I came home I started
:02:00. > :02:04.writing it down in chapters on my laptop. And the story just evolved
:02:05. > :02:08.and I wrote it as and when I felt like it. Before I knew it I had
:02:09. > :02:14.40,000 words and thought it was going to turn into a novel. You had
:02:15. > :02:18.not written a novel before but you had been to creative writing
:02:19. > :02:23.classes? You just did that for fun between work contract. I decided to
:02:24. > :02:28.do all the things I had always wanted to do and one of those as
:02:29. > :02:35.well as doing an acting and writing class, the writing I just loved. It
:02:36. > :02:40.was literally one Thursday afternoon for the a couple of hours in my
:02:41. > :02:46.local park. And we would just write and it was not writing a novel
:02:47. > :02:52.necessarily. But a novel emerged from it and you as a novelist, you
:02:53. > :02:56.pass that amount to agents and publishers but could not get anyone
:02:57. > :03:04.to publish it or even an agent to take you on. I finished the book in
:03:05. > :03:08.2010 and send it out to agents and got nowhere. I gave up and then one
:03:09. > :03:14.year later I thought, what will I do with this book. I had two choices,
:03:15. > :03:18.either carry on trying to get it published, but by then I realised it
:03:19. > :03:21.was quite difficult. I think the previous year I've been quite naive
:03:22. > :03:28.and thought I would get it published. And I had to make a
:03:29. > :03:33.decision as to what to do. So a friend suggested sending it to a
:03:34. > :03:38.manuscript assessment service, which I did. They came back and said they
:03:39. > :03:44.thought it was very good and so they then offered to help me try to find
:03:45. > :03:48.an agent. A manuscript assessment service, what is that? Literally
:03:49. > :03:51.just getting someone to read your book and you have to pay them for
:03:52. > :03:56.it. And they give you an assessment. So you got an
:03:57. > :04:02.endorsement from them but not from whence dream publishers. So you
:04:03. > :04:05.decided to go it alone. Amongst many jobs, you also worked in
:04:06. > :04:12.advertising, was that helpful? To an extent. But I did not know anything
:04:13. > :04:17.about publishing. I took it back to what publishing is all about. I was
:04:18. > :04:24.simple in my approach. The first thing I felt was well, I need a good
:04:25. > :04:28.product. I put all my effort into editorially making a strong and
:04:29. > :04:35.making it look good and like a proper book. And secondly, you need
:04:36. > :04:39.to then sell the book. So my approach for that was to get it out
:04:40. > :04:45.to as many people as I could. And ask people to read it. So I just
:04:46. > :04:48.gave the book away as often as I could do anyone. I would go to
:04:49. > :04:53.parties and ask strangers to read my book. You published it as an
:04:54. > :05:03.electronic book and also as a paperback. And you got WH Smith to
:05:04. > :05:10.stop it. That stock it. Publishers have never actually been given by
:05:11. > :05:18.book. And I get from the point of view of literary agents, I had no
:05:19. > :05:25.writing credentials, I had a book that was not falling into any
:05:26. > :05:30.distinct genre. And it is hard to get a publisher to take on
:05:31. > :05:39.manuscripts. Fighting agents felt it was too difficult to sell. But you
:05:40. > :05:45.now have it picked up by Penguin and they kept your original cover. Do
:05:46. > :05:49.you think the old model of publishing is broken, or do most
:05:50. > :05:55.authors still need mainstream publishers? Is there still a place
:05:56. > :05:59.for them? Without doubt there is still a place for the mainstream
:06:00. > :06:03.publisher. I feel I got as far as I could doing it myself and I achieved
:06:04. > :06:11.things yawned my wildest dreams when a year ago I published it myself. I
:06:12. > :06:17.sold 100,000 copies and 10,000 in paperback which I did not realise at
:06:18. > :06:21.the time is pretty good. What I'm hoping with going with Penguin, is
:06:22. > :06:26.that it can help get the book out to an even wider readership. And you
:06:27. > :06:33.also have all of this up with another book. And it is the third
:06:34. > :06:38.book in the works. At one point you thought about turning yourself into
:06:39. > :06:47.a publisher with Mac you had done it for your own book. Might you still
:06:48. > :06:50.do that, or are you now a writer? The business model of my publishing
:06:51. > :06:59.company was to take on other authors as well. I felt if my manuscript
:07:00. > :07:06.could not get picked up, there must be other manuscripts out there as
:07:07. > :07:11.well. So I did open for submissions and did get submissions but then my
:07:12. > :07:15.book started doing incredibly well. I brought out a second book and
:07:16. > :07:20.needed a summer holiday, needed to spend some time with my family. And
:07:21. > :07:25.then the penguin thing happened so at the moment it is firmly on the
:07:26. > :07:31.back burner. But in a few years' time, I don't know. Who knows what
:07:32. > :07:35.will happen but I'm hoping, my aspiration is that I am now a writer
:07:36. > :07:50.and this is the first of many books to come. Absolutely fascinating.
:07:51. > :07:55.Thank you very much indeed. Heavy showers in England and Wales
:07:56. > :07:56.will fade as the night goes on. We have some slow`moving intends