01/05/2014 Meet the Author

backtracked on that. It needs to backtracked on this and allow these

mangoes to be sold in Britain again. Now it is time to Meet The

Author with Nick Higham. Normally the interview the writer of

newly published books but this week is an exception. One step too far is

a contemporary tale of a young wife and mother who one day disappears.

She walks out on her old life and start afresh under a new name. We

are left guessing as to why until almost the end of the book. This is

not the first appearance in print of this book. It was originally

published as a paperback. And more than 100,000 copies were sold. Which

is why Penguin and other publishers have now picked it up.

Tina, when we first meet your central character Emily, she is on a

train from Manchester to London. And we do not discover why she's leaving

her old life behind. How difficult was it to mislead your readers to

keep that secret? I found it surprisingly easy and in fact I had

to go back and take out some of the red herrings. Because I think there

were points where it was unnecessary to actually mislead people in that

way. So I found it surprisingly easy. That was your starting point,

that twist, that reveal was what sparked the idea. I had the idea for

the twist just out of the blue and it was when I was in holiday in

Venice. Even though Venice has nothing to do with the book. I

thought it would make a great plot twist. So when I came home I started

writing it down in chapters on my laptop. And the story just evolved

and I wrote it as and when I felt like it. Before I knew it I had

40,000 words and thought it was going to turn into a novel. You had

not written a novel before but you had been to creative writing

classes? You just did that for fun between work contract. I decided to

do all the things I had always wanted to do and one of those as

well as doing an acting and writing class, the writing I just loved. It

was literally one Thursday afternoon for the a couple of hours in my

local park. And we would just write and it was not writing a novel

necessarily. But a novel emerged from it and you as a novelist, you

pass that amount to agents and publishers but could not get anyone

to publish it or even an agent to take you on. I finished the book in

2010 and send it out to agents and got nowhere. I gave up and then one

year later I thought, what will I do with this book. I had two choices,

either carry on trying to get it published, but by then I realised it

was quite difficult. I think the previous year I've been quite naive

and thought I would get it published. And I had to make a

decision as to what to do. So a friend suggested sending it to a

manuscript assessment service, which I did. They came back and said they

thought it was very good and so they then offered to help me try to find

an agent. A manuscript assessment service, what is that? Literally

just getting someone to read your book and you have to pay them for

it. And they give you an assessment. So you got an

endorsement from them but not from whence dream publishers. So you

decided to go it alone. Amongst many jobs, you also worked in

advertising, was that helpful? To an extent. But I did not know anything

about publishing. I took it back to what publishing is all about. I was

simple in my approach. The first thing I felt was well, I need a good

product. I put all my effort into editorially making a strong and

making it look good and like a proper book. And secondly, you need

to then sell the book. So my approach for that was to get it out

to as many people as I could. And ask people to read it. So I just

gave the book away as often as I could do anyone. I would go to

parties and ask strangers to read my book. You published it as an

electronic book and also as a paperback. And you got WH Smith to

stop it. That stock it. Publishers have never actually been given by

book. And I get from the point of view of literary agents, I had no

writing credentials, I had a book that was not falling into any

distinct genre. And it is hard to get a publisher to take on

manuscripts. Fighting agents felt it was too difficult to sell. But you

now have it picked up by Penguin and they kept your original cover. Do

you think the old model of publishing is broken, or do most

authors still need mainstream publishers? Is there still a place

for them? Without doubt there is still a place for the mainstream

publisher. I feel I got as far as I could doing it myself and I achieved

things yawned my wildest dreams when a year ago I published it myself. I

sold 100,000 copies and 10,000 in paperback which I did not realise at

the time is pretty good. What I'm hoping with going with Penguin, is

that it can help get the book out to an even wider readership. And you

also have all of this up with another book. And it is the third

book in the works. At one point you thought about turning yourself into

a publisher with Mac you had done it for your own book. Might you still

do that, or are you now a writer? The business model of my publishing

company was to take on other authors as well. I felt if my manuscript

could not get picked up, there must be other manuscripts out there as

well. So I did open for submissions and did get submissions but then my

book started doing incredibly well. I brought out a second book and

needed a summer holiday, needed to spend some time with my family. And

then the penguin thing happened so at the moment it is firmly on the

back burner. But in a few years' time, I don't know. Who knows what

will happen but I'm hoping, my aspiration is that I am now a writer

and this is the first of many books to come. Absolutely fascinating.

Thank you very much indeed. Heavy showers in England and Wales

will fade as the night goes on. We have some slow`moving intends