I don’t often post about my first historical novel, Broken Faces.
💫 This was the book that I wrote because I couldn’t find one that fitted exactly what I was hoping to read.
💫 My first agent offered me representation, having been one of the judges for a national competition where I beat 7,000 other entrants to be runner-up.
💫 My agent didn’t manage to sell it, which worked out well for me because I self-published it and have now sold over 22,500 copies. After ten years, I still sell copies every day.
💫 In 2018, my amazing publisher at HarperCollins read Broken Faces while looking for an author to commission for a book she had in mind and offered me a contract.
💫 That book, The Poppy Field became my first USA TODAY bestseller and the reason I was able to give up my day job six years ago.
💫 Self-publishing Broken Faces helped me realise my dream of being a full-time writer.
You never know what will become of those disappointments along the way. Maybe not winning that competition, being dropped by my agent when my book didn’t sell, was exactly what I needed to happen to lead me to where I am today? (Sitting in my attic office, racing towards a looming deadline for my 10th historical novel to be published by One More Chapter at HarperCollins Publishers).
