Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#172 - Alexandra Potter
412 Plays1 year ago
Best-selling romantic comedy author, Alexandra Potter joins us to talk about her latest the novel, the sequel to 'Confessions of a Forty-Something F*** Up'. We also chat about the television adaptation, 'Not Dead Yet', as well as the writing process and how publishing has changed over the years. (Picture by Alecsandra Dragoi)
💖 Join the Patreon 🙏
Support the show and get access to the extended cuts early and ad-free!
📚 The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes 🥳
Jamie, Melissa and Noami talk about all things writing, tropes and publishing!
✍️ WriteMentor 🧑🏫
Get a whole month with WriteMentor's Hub for free using the coupon code 'Write&Wrong'.
🎙️ Zencastr 🎬
Click on this referral link to get 30% off your first three months with Zencastr.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Alexandra Potter
00:00:00
Speaker
To listen without ads, head over to patreon.com slash rightandwrong.
00:00:04
Speaker
Ooh, a spicy question.
00:00:07
Speaker
I love it.
00:00:07
Speaker
Because the writing is sort of everything, right?
00:00:09
Speaker
You can fix plot holes, but if the writer... So some readers love that and some readers are like, but I wanted more of this.
00:00:16
Speaker
So it's kind of a gamble.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm very excited to have with me today best-selling romantic comedy author, Alexandra Potter.
00:00:28
Speaker
Hello.
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello!
00:00:30
Speaker
Thanks for inviting me on.
Inspiration and Challenges of Writing a Sequel
00:00:32
Speaker
So great to have you.
00:00:34
Speaker
Jumping right in, the latest novel just came out a few weeks ago, More Confessions of a 40-something F-Up, an aptly named sequel to your hugely successful book of 2022, Confessions of a 40-something F-Up.
00:00:48
Speaker
Tell us a bit about the sequel in the series.
00:00:51
Speaker
Well, the sequel came about because my editor actually said, oh, I think we could do with a little bit more Nell and Cricket, who are the main characters in the book.
00:01:02
Speaker
And it had been so kind of well received by readers that I was thrilled to be able to write sort of part two because...
00:01:13
Speaker
When you spend a year with characters, they kind of become like friends.
00:01:20
Speaker
And these were great friends of mine.
00:01:24
Speaker
So I got to hang out with them for like another year.
00:01:27
Speaker
And the idea behind this book was that you can read it as a standalone.
00:01:32
Speaker
You don't need to read the first one because I kind of do a sort of recap.
00:01:36
Speaker
But it was the idea that sort of when you finish a book and you sort of tie up the ends, well, real life's not like that.
00:01:44
Speaker
So, you know, you never really get the happy ending because you've got another, you know, hopefully 40 years to go.
00:01:51
Speaker
And it's kind of what happens is
00:01:54
Speaker
after Nell, who's my main character, meets the guy and gets the job and everything sort of seems sorted out.
00:02:01
Speaker
And I wanted to explore the idea that in life, there isn't a sort of magical place that you get to
00:02:07
Speaker
where everything's sorted out and figured out.
00:02:10
Speaker
It's not like that.
00:02:12
Speaker
Life throws constant curveballs at you.
00:02:14
Speaker
So I wanted to take these characters on another year and show exactly what happens to them.
00:02:19
Speaker
And it was quite good because I then got to delve into everybody else's backstories because the characters, I've been able to establish them and I knew them better.
00:02:28
Speaker
And hopefully there's some more funny stuff in there and some poignant stuff and some kind of life lessons and stuff.
00:02:35
Speaker
And, you know, fingers crossed so far, readers love it because there's always a pressure with a second book that it won't be as good as the first book.
00:02:43
Speaker
I think it's a harder with any kind of sequel to anything because the first book is always original in that space.
00:02:51
Speaker
And then the second one is like, it's building upon, you already have the fan base, but at the same time, it's like, it's no longer an original concept.
00:02:59
Speaker
So like people already know what to expect.
00:03:02
Speaker
Very much so, yes.
00:03:03
Speaker
And in the first book, she is doing an anonymous podcast, which is the title of the book.
00:03:12
Speaker
And everybody sort of finds out about this podcast at the end.
00:03:16
Speaker
So moving into the next book,
00:03:18
Speaker
it's kind of like, okay, so where do we go from here?
00:03:23
Speaker
And I was able to take it in a new direction because I think it's almost as if you're watching a television show and you have the first season and then you have the second season.
00:03:33
Speaker
So, you know, you can take characters in different directions and create new conflict.
00:03:39
Speaker
But like you say, the original idea is
00:03:42
Speaker
has been done.
00:03:43
Speaker
So it's how can I build on that?
00:03:46
Speaker
How can I make it better?
00:03:47
Speaker
How can I keep readers interested?
00:03:49
Speaker
It has its own challenges.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:52
Speaker
And it's about overcoming
Challenges of Creating Sequels in Media
00:03:53
Speaker
this.
00:03:53
Speaker
The one that always stuck with me was, I don't know if you remember that there was a show many years ago called Prison Break.
00:03:58
Speaker
And in season one, it was, it was as the title would suggest a prison break, but then they'd already broken out of the prison.
00:04:06
Speaker
So all subsequent seasons were not breaking out of prison.
00:04:09
Speaker
So I was like, Oh, well, it's like with many shows, isn't it?
00:04:14
Speaker
It's, um,
00:04:15
Speaker
I mean, you know, there's multiple shows I can think of that it's kind of like, how do we keep this going?
00:04:23
Speaker
Same with movies.
00:04:24
Speaker
If you think of something like The Godfather and then you have the second Godfather Part II, which actually I think is a better movie in many ways.
00:04:34
Speaker
But it's just about how you do that.
00:04:37
Speaker
And so people thought that writing a sequel –
00:04:40
Speaker
is easier.
00:04:41
Speaker
And it's actually, it's not easier.
00:04:44
Speaker
It's definitely got some unique challenges.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree.
00:04:49
Speaker
I guess also there's a challenge with, and you've written a lot of, it's romantic comedies, but especially within romantic books with, which, which are sequential, there will be a part, and you get this in television series as well, things like friends and stuff where you, the couple gets together and then to continue the whole premise, you need to break the couple up again.
00:05:14
Speaker
You need to have an argument, right?
00:05:16
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:17
Speaker
Well, yeah, because you need conflict.
00:05:20
Speaker
So you need to have a character being challenged and overcoming some kind of obstacle.
00:05:29
Speaker
And I think that if you watch anything like something like Friends or there was a really popular series called Cold Feet, which I watched it back in 20 years ago.
00:05:39
Speaker
And then I think they redid it again when the characters were older.
00:05:43
Speaker
And if you watch a show like that, you're constantly seeing sort of everything great with the characters and the relationships.
00:05:51
Speaker
And then things always go wrong.
00:05:54
Speaker
And they have to kind of go wrong because otherwise it would be kind of boring if you were just watching a really happy, contented couple.
00:06:05
Speaker
There's no sort of entertainment value in that and there's no stakes.
00:06:10
Speaker
You need to raise the stakes, I think.
Unexpected Success During the Pandemic
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:06:17
Speaker
Because there needs to be some kind of tension or some kind of like, what are we building towards if we're just watching resolution play out?
00:06:26
Speaker
So talking about the Confessions novels, you'd actually written a lot of books before that.
00:06:33
Speaker
Your debut came out in the year 2000, the millennium.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:06:40
Speaker
Is this new one, More Confessions, is this your 15th novel?
00:06:44
Speaker
The one I'm currently writing is my 15th.
00:06:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:47
Speaker
So this is the 14th.
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker
I, you know, I lose track, but somebody did ask me that the other day.
00:06:52
Speaker
So I counted them up.
00:06:54
Speaker
So yeah, it's the 14th.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:58
Speaker
And this one, this series, which has been made into a television series as well.
00:07:04
Speaker
Does it, did this have a much bigger splash on launch than, than your kind of previous expectations?
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:10
Speaker
You know, it had no splash whatsoever.
00:07:12
Speaker
Really?
00:07:13
Speaker
Nothing at all.
00:07:14
Speaker
I came out during the pandemic.
00:07:18
Speaker
The book, the hardback, it was my first hardback and I was super excited and we had all these publishing plans.
00:07:26
Speaker
And it was supposed to come out in April 2020.
00:07:29
Speaker
And then obviously we had the pandemic.
00:07:32
Speaker
And so they pushed, everything got cancelled.
00:07:35
Speaker
We pushed the book six months to come out in December.
00:07:39
Speaker
And the day it came out, which was New Year's Eve, December the 31st, everything went into another lockdown.
00:07:47
Speaker
So every single bookstore closed.
00:07:51
Speaker
I could do no events.
00:07:54
Speaker
So apart from posting some stuff on social media, the book just came out to nothing.
00:08:01
Speaker
It was really weird.
00:08:04
Speaker
And then it sort of...
00:08:07
Speaker
It started to sell by word of mouth.
00:08:10
Speaker
So the initial sales were quite small.
00:08:14
Speaker
And then it sort of started to gain a little bit of traction as people liked it and they would share things on Instagram.
00:08:19
Speaker
And then I think when the paperback came out...
00:08:23
Speaker
It became really popular then.
00:08:24
Speaker
It was at the airports.
00:08:25
Speaker
People took it on holiday.
00:08:26
Speaker
They really liked it.
00:08:27
Speaker
And so I think it was sort of a snowball effect.
00:08:30
Speaker
But it's really ironic, actually, that my best-selling book had pretty much no PR at all.
00:08:38
Speaker
That's, I mean, I guess as an author, there's nothing more validating than knowing that your book and this kind of bestseller success came largely because of word of mouth.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
Huge compliment to you as a writer to be like, wow, people really connected with this and resonated with this.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a huge compliment.
00:08:59
Speaker
And I think it's quite an unusual thing to happen in the publishing industry.
00:09:06
Speaker
I do always tell writers, would-be writers or fellow authors that, you know, it's kind of a really sort of inspiring story, really, that you don't need to get a lot of promotion for a book to do well.
00:09:21
Speaker
It can sort of
00:09:23
Speaker
sell by word of mouth and it can have a life of its own.
00:09:26
Speaker
And I think there is a belief that a book has to do well on its opening weekend kind of thing, you know, almost like a movie.
Modern Book Promotion and Social Media Impact
00:09:35
Speaker
It's like, how does it do when it first comes out in the first week's sales?
00:09:38
Speaker
And that traditionally has been your book's best sales the first week or the first few weeks.
00:09:45
Speaker
But if you look at Confessions of a 40-something F-Up, the first one, that was just not the case at all.
00:09:51
Speaker
In fact, it's selling
00:09:53
Speaker
I would say it's selling better now in 2024 than it sold in 2020.
00:09:58
Speaker
Wow.
00:10:00
Speaker
Which is kind of crazy when you think about it.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
So that kind of, the kind of fanfare and the PR push, did you, have you got to have that this time around with the, with the Z-Q?
00:10:10
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:11
Speaker
I got to have, I got to definitely have, um, I did a Waterstones event, which was really fun.
00:10:17
Speaker
I've been doing some podcasts, which are great.
00:10:20
Speaker
Um,
00:10:22
Speaker
So I've definitely had a lot more of a PR push this time around.
00:10:29
Speaker
Though with paperbacks, people kind of always want to sort of review a hardback.
00:10:35
Speaker
And so when the paperback version comes out, which actually I find a lot of readers like the paperback because it's easier to put in a bag, it's lighter, it's a bit cheaper.
00:10:45
Speaker
But the sort of newspapers and the magazines, they like to review the hardbacks.
00:10:52
Speaker
So I think even though this paperback just came out on April the 11th, the reviews for it came out last year.
00:11:01
Speaker
Because that's when the hardback was published.
00:11:05
Speaker
It kind of works like that.
00:11:06
Speaker
But it's kind of nice, really, if you have a hardback, because it's almost like getting two bites of the apple.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker
And I guess it does act as a sort of like preview review thing.
00:11:16
Speaker
And if majority of people are waiting for the paperback, they have like a kind of source of reviews to be like, yeah, this will be something you like if you like this, that, that.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:25
Speaker
And I also think these days, the sort of traditional reviews that appear in magazines and newspapers aren't necessarily...
00:11:33
Speaker
as influential as somebody reviewing your book on Instagram.
00:11:40
Speaker
So bookstagrammers are hugely influential.
00:11:46
Speaker
Readers posting, if you get a celebrity posting, those kind of things are the things that really spread the word.
00:11:54
Speaker
And I think in the old days, it was definitely you had to get a review in a newspaper or a magazine.
00:12:01
Speaker
And it's changed now.
00:12:03
Speaker
The climate has completely changed, which I think is a really good thing.
00:12:07
Speaker
Because if you're a writer and you don't get those reviews, you can feel...
00:12:12
Speaker
really disappointed and sort of downcast about your book coming out.
00:12:18
Speaker
You shouldn't because all it takes is some people to love it on social media.
00:12:23
Speaker
And you can really gain traction with that.
00:12:26
Speaker
And you can have a book that does become a word of mouth bestseller and people will read it.
00:12:34
Speaker
So I like the way that things have changed actually, because I've been doing this such a long time now.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
00:12:41
Speaker
Because a newspaper only has, there's only so much space on the page, you know, even if they wanted to, they can't put a review for every single book that comes out every month.
00:12:50
Speaker
Whereas something like Instagram or TikTok or whatever it may be, there can be as many posts as people want to make.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:59
Speaker
Do you have, I know we talked a bit about this before we started recording.
TV Adaptation Experience with Gina Rodriguez
00:13:03
Speaker
I know you don't have a TikTok, but like, have you, are you aware of your books kind of getting any traction on TikTok or BookTok?
00:13:11
Speaker
Do you know, I have absolutely no idea about TikTok and BookTok.
00:13:15
Speaker
I know that it's a really popular way of finding books.
00:13:21
Speaker
And I know that, I mean, I've been into airport bookshops and seen they have a whole BookTok section.
00:13:29
Speaker
But I just found that there's only so much social media I can handle.
00:13:35
Speaker
And so I have a few platforms I'm on, but I just, I can't look at everything because I just wouldn't have any time to write.
00:13:42
Speaker
So, and I, I joined it briefly and then sort of deleted my account because I was so overwhelmed by all these kinds of videos sort of
00:13:54
Speaker
coming at me.
00:13:56
Speaker
Um, I don't think my algorithms have kicked in yet.
00:13:59
Speaker
So, uh, no, I, I don't, I'll be honest.
00:14:02
Speaker
I don't know much about TikTok.
00:14:04
Speaker
No, that's, that's absolutely fair enough.
00:14:06
Speaker
It does seem to be, I'm just curious because there definitely does seem to be within certain genres and within certain ages for books, different social media platforms seem to really like reach people.
00:14:18
Speaker
So I imagine for your book, which is for like adult rom-com kind of area, um,
00:14:24
Speaker
Instagram probably has a community that's going to resonate more with that.
00:14:28
Speaker
Whereas BookTok tends to be more like young adult crossover, sort of the younger end of adult.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yes.
00:14:35
Speaker
I think there's a genre now called, is it romanticcy?
00:14:39
Speaker
Romanticcy, yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
Which is taking the bestseller charts by storm.
00:14:44
Speaker
And I think that's
00:14:46
Speaker
really popular on TikTok.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:14:51
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:14:51
Speaker
Let's go back to you.
00:14:52
Speaker
I'd love to talk about, continue talking about the Confessions books because hugely popular worldwide and inspired a whole television series starring Jane the Virgin herself, Gina Rodriguez.
00:15:09
Speaker
What was it like having one of your books turned into like a live action extravaganza like that?
00:15:15
Speaker
What was it like?
00:15:17
Speaker
Do you know, it's difficult to put into words what it's like because it's so dream come true stuff.
00:15:25
Speaker
It's the kind of thing that you sort of allow yourself to dare dream about, but just so rarely happens.
00:15:35
Speaker
I've had books optioned before for television and film.
00:15:42
Speaker
Um, nothing's ever happened, but this one, um, this one happened.
00:15:48
Speaker
It was just, this one happened.
00:15:50
Speaker
And I, I actually went to, um, I used to live in LA for a number of years and, um, I actually went back to LA and I visited the studios and went onto the set and I met all the actors and I watched them film a scene and I met the producers and it was, um,
00:16:10
Speaker
It was like a Cinderella moment.
00:16:13
Speaker
It really was.
00:16:13
Speaker
And it was sort of, it was just, it was unbelievable.
00:16:18
Speaker
And I still have to kind of pinch myself.
00:16:20
Speaker
I mean, sometimes I think, wow, I've got a TV show.
00:16:25
Speaker
You know, there is a TV show made, adapted from my book and it is different and they have changed it.
00:16:31
Speaker
And that's absolutely fine because that's what they do when they make a TV show.
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:36
Speaker
Especially if it's,
00:16:40
Speaker
especially if it's going, it's a half hour sitcom.
00:16:43
Speaker
It's an American television show.
00:16:46
Speaker
It's a completely different way of writing.
00:16:49
Speaker
I love the show and I watch it, but they have to cram so much into, I think it's like 24 minutes of television show because obviously you have the ad breaks.
00:17:00
Speaker
So it's a completely different way of writing.
00:17:03
Speaker
But I love it.
00:17:04
Speaker
I love watching Nell and Cricket and Edward and all the rest of the gang get up to stuff.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's amazing.
00:17:10
Speaker
And, you know, every time it comes on every episode, it says, you know, best based on the novel Confessions of a 40-something Effort by Alexandra Potter.
00:17:17
Speaker
And I get a little producer credit at the end.
00:17:20
Speaker
It's just amazing.
00:17:21
Speaker
I mean, I can't, yeah, I can't even really describe how
00:17:27
Speaker
how sort of unreal it's surreal.
00:17:29
Speaker
That's a good word.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yes.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:32
Speaker
Did you have any beyond like visiting and sort of, uh, meeting some people, did you have any involvement with the adaptation?
00:17:40
Speaker
It didn't actually.
00:17:43
Speaker
When I sold the idea, sorry, sold the book, a friend of mine had said to me, you mustn't get hung up on sort of being involved with the television show because it's a completely different medium.
00:17:59
Speaker
They'll have TV writers and
00:18:02
Speaker
Really good TV writers in there.
00:18:04
Speaker
And I could have sort of... You know, you don't want to...
00:18:11
Speaker
What's the word I'm looking for?
00:18:12
Speaker
You don't want to sort of try and claim this thing as your own because the book was mine.
00:18:19
Speaker
I created the book, but the television show is somebody else's.
00:18:23
Speaker
And so I didn't have anything to do with the adaptation.
00:18:26
Speaker
I didn't have anything to do with the writing.
00:18:28
Speaker
I met the head writers.
00:18:29
Speaker
They were lovely.
00:18:30
Speaker
They are fantastic writers.
00:18:32
Speaker
They've worked on some amazing shows.
00:18:35
Speaker
And I knew that I was in really safe hands with them.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I just didn't need to worry.
00:18:40
Speaker
And actually they can do a way better job than I could of writing a television show because I've never written one.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's a very different skill set.
00:18:50
Speaker
It's a completely different skill set.
00:18:52
Speaker
I've had a go at writing TV pilots with a friend and, you know, a little screenplay here and there, but writing, writing for a US network show is, is, it's completely different.
00:19:05
Speaker
So yeah.
00:19:06
Speaker
So that's a very long answer to your question of was I involved?
00:19:10
Speaker
I would say no.
00:19:12
Speaker
No, no.
00:19:13
Speaker
Would you maybe one day like to be involved if there were more adaptations of your work?
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would like to be involved in that it's really fun to try new things, especially with writing, because I've just spent my entire career writing all different kinds of things.
00:19:31
Speaker
I started out writing features for magazines.
00:19:35
Speaker
Now I'm writing novels.
00:19:37
Speaker
I've written, I mean, all kinds of stuff.
00:19:39
Speaker
I once wrote a radio play.
00:19:42
Speaker
So yeah.
00:19:43
Speaker
It would be fun to try and write a television show.
00:19:47
Speaker
It'd be fun to write a film script.
00:19:51
Speaker
That would be an extra thing for me.
00:19:53
Speaker
I think I've been writing novels for nearly 25 years now, and I've kind of figured out how that works, even though every single book I write works.
00:20:05
Speaker
is a challenge.
00:20:06
Speaker
And I'm like, gosh, it's, am I ever going to be able to do this?
00:20:09
Speaker
And you think that every single time.
00:20:11
Speaker
And then I just have to remind myself, well, yeah, I've done it before.
00:20:14
Speaker
I can do it again.
00:20:16
Speaker
So, but yeah, no, it would be fun to, would be fun to try and to definitely to adapt one of my novels, I think.
00:20:24
Speaker
But sometimes you can be quite close to it, too close.
00:20:27
Speaker
So you don't want to cut scenes out.
00:20:29
Speaker
I think that would be quite hard.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's, I guess, because you wouldn't be so familiar with the medium.
00:20:36
Speaker
When your editor takes your book and says, okay, so we need to do a bit of reshaping here, maybe this could be moved around, you're a bit more open to it because you understand the medium.
00:20:45
Speaker
But with screenwriting, they'd be like, no, we have to get rid of this whole character because we don't have time to do that.
00:20:51
Speaker
And you'd be like, but wait, it's so important.
00:20:53
Speaker
Yes, I know.
00:20:54
Speaker
Well, there's a phrase, isn't there?
00:20:55
Speaker
You've got to kill your darlings.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:57
Speaker
And I think if you're adapting for a film or a television series, there's got to be an awful lot of that.
00:21:05
Speaker
And you've got to look at it dispassionately.
00:21:09
Speaker
And I think if you're very close to your characters and your story, that would be quite hard.
00:21:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:19
Speaker
Maybe, um, maybe like a consulting role on the next adaptation would be, so you could just sort of give some input, but be like, actually, you know, you guys, you guys know what to do here.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that would be probably quite nice.
The Author-Agent Relationship
00:21:33
Speaker
Um, and you mentioned that you lived in LA for some, for some years.
00:21:39
Speaker
I was curious because I saw that, am I right in thinking your agent is us based?
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's really interesting, actually.
00:21:47
Speaker
I've had the same literary agent since the beginning.
00:21:51
Speaker
And she was originally based in London at William Morris.
00:21:58
Speaker
And then she moved to America.
00:22:02
Speaker
And I just moved with her.
00:22:04
Speaker
I actually was living in America at the time, but it didn't really make a difference to
00:22:09
Speaker
where my literary agent was based.
00:22:12
Speaker
And now she actually works for an agency that has an office in New York and one in Paris and one in London.
00:22:20
Speaker
So she moves around a lot.
00:22:22
Speaker
But I don't think, I don't really think it matters where your agent is based, especially not now when there's so much remote working.
00:22:32
Speaker
You know, they can still have meetings.
00:22:34
Speaker
They can still speak to people on the phone.
00:22:36
Speaker
They can still do deals.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:38
Speaker
So I don't really think it matters, to be honest.
00:22:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:41
Speaker
It's always interesting to me because there's lots of authors that do have agents and that relationship works internationally.
00:22:49
Speaker
But yeah, it's always interesting because I think people's first thought, if they're aspiring writers looking to reach out and query agents, is that they need to get someone who is in the same country as them.
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think at the beginning that's nice because obviously you want to, it's nice to go in and see your agent.
00:23:07
Speaker
It's nice to be able to sit in their office.
00:23:10
Speaker
It's nice to go and have a nice lunch that your agent pays for.
00:23:14
Speaker
It's nice to, it's definitely nice to have that face-to-face relationship.
00:23:22
Speaker
But actually, I think once you
00:23:25
Speaker
once you've been published and once hopefully you get another book deal, it doesn't really matter where your agent is and if you're seeing your agent a lot.
00:23:37
Speaker
And to be honest, there are vast periods of time where you don't have much contact with your agent.
00:23:45
Speaker
If you've got a book to write and you've got a year to write it,
00:23:50
Speaker
You might get a few emails, but really you're on your own.
00:23:55
Speaker
And it's the same with your editor.
00:23:56
Speaker
You are left for vast amounts of time by yourself writing.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:05
Speaker
And I guess also if you're on contract, so the book has already signed, that kind of stage that people would have with their agent, which is the kind of editorial phase, you wouldn't have that because you would just go straight to your editor.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yes.
00:24:20
Speaker
As opposed to your agent.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yes.
00:24:21
Speaker
Well, some people, some authors I do know, I actually send my manuscript, my first draft to both my agent and my editor, and they both read it.
00:24:31
Speaker
I do know some authors that send it to their agent first and get their feedback before they send it to the editor.
00:24:39
Speaker
And I know some people that don't send it to their agent and send it straight to their editor.
00:24:43
Speaker
So there's all different ways of doing it.
00:24:46
Speaker
I think it's whatever works best for you and how involved your agent is.
00:24:55
Speaker
Probably at the beginning, definitely the beginning stages of your career.
00:24:58
Speaker
And I know with my first novel, my agent was heavily involved with really shaping the manuscript to be the best book it could be before we sent it out to publishers to try and sell it.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, they're really, really hands on at that stage.
00:25:17
Speaker
So I think that's why you need to get an agent that you feel that you can work with closely and who has, you know, has the same view as you about the book and is hugely enthusiastic and is and is a real cheerleader for you.
00:25:34
Speaker
Because I think at that initial stage, you know, you've you've never been published before.
00:25:39
Speaker
You don't know how it works and you want somebody to hold your hand.
00:25:43
Speaker
Yeah.
Industry Changes Over 25 Years
00:25:44
Speaker
Whilst we're talking about your kind of early years and what it was like with your debut when you first started getting into the publishing industry, I'd love to know, like you said, almost 25 years doing this now, you must have seen, and we touched on it earlier with the newspaper stuff and the social media stuff, but you must have seen a lot of evolution within the industry.
00:26:05
Speaker
Are there any like
00:26:07
Speaker
big changes that stand out to you as an author from when you first debuted up until now.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's some big changes.
00:26:16
Speaker
E-books.
00:26:17
Speaker
E-books weren't really a thing when I started at all.
00:26:21
Speaker
And I remember there was a whole sort of scary thing about e-books were going to come along and print books would disappear, which hasn't happened.
00:26:33
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of kind of scaremongering about that.
00:26:35
Speaker
And I definitely think they were...
00:26:40
Speaker
There were a lot more bookshops around.
00:26:42
Speaker
I remember things like Borders was a huge bookshop chain where I actually had my first book launch on Oxford Street.
00:26:51
Speaker
That's gone.
00:26:53
Speaker
So, you know, we still have the Waterstones and WH Smiths and some of the high street branches and obviously all the, yeah, Foils, Daunts, and a lot of the independent bookstores who were just amazing.
00:27:07
Speaker
But I think the sort of,
00:27:10
Speaker
I see Amazon.
00:27:12
Speaker
Amazon.
00:27:13
Speaker
Was Amazon even around?
00:27:14
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:27:15
Speaker
I don't think Amazon was even a thing 25 years ago.
00:27:19
Speaker
I think it was, but it was not what it is.
00:27:21
Speaker
Because Amazon originally just sold books, right?
00:27:24
Speaker
Did it?
00:27:25
Speaker
That's how it started.
00:27:26
Speaker
Did it?
00:27:26
Speaker
I'm not sure.
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:27:27
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:27:28
Speaker
I think that's why it's called Amazon.
00:27:30
Speaker
Of course.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
No, I didn't realise, but I do know the way that we buy books has changed.
00:27:38
Speaker
You know, there was no social media.
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
There was no way that you could promote your own book as a writer.
00:27:48
Speaker
There was no way that you could get any feedback from any readers unless they wrote a letter to your publishers and your publishers forwarded it to you.
00:27:57
Speaker
I mean, now it's fantastic because people...
00:27:59
Speaker
People can share posts of your book reviews.
00:28:02
Speaker
They can direct message you.
00:28:04
Speaker
So that's really nice as a writer because it can be quite isolating.
00:28:08
Speaker
You sit in your bedroom or you go to the library, but you're not ever really having contact with the people that are reading your books.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I think that's a really positive change.
00:28:18
Speaker
And I think when you've just been around for so long and I've seen...
00:28:23
Speaker
I've seen the highs and the lows of the publishing industry.
00:28:25
Speaker
I've had some books that have sold really well.
00:28:27
Speaker
I've had some books that just haven't.
00:28:30
Speaker
I've seen some writers come along and they've been hugely successful and then they just disappear.
00:28:36
Speaker
I've seen people reinvent themselves from writing a certain genre to something completely different.
00:28:42
Speaker
And I think you do.
00:28:44
Speaker
I've seen how the business works more.
00:28:46
Speaker
I didn't ever really understand it much when I first started writing.
00:28:51
Speaker
I just wrote a book and then I kind of the magic happened somewhere else.
00:28:58
Speaker
You know, how do they get the books on the shelves?
00:28:59
Speaker
How do they promote?
00:29:00
Speaker
And I think I think I've learned a lot.
00:29:04
Speaker
So yeah, things have definitely changed, but people still love reading books, which is what I love.
00:29:10
Speaker
And what I saw during the pandemic is that the book sales went through the roof.
00:29:17
Speaker
People went back to books, not just for something to do, but I think that they offered them, which books always have done, an escape from real life.
00:29:29
Speaker
And it just showed how important books are to people.
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
Which was a really nice reaffirming thing because books are so important.
Desert Island Book Choice
00:29:44
Speaker
You know, people love reading.
00:29:48
Speaker
I was on the tube the other day and everybody thinks that everyone's always on their phone.
00:29:52
Speaker
Well, they are, but there were plenty of people reading books I saw, which I thought was a really positive thing.
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:01
Speaker
A lot of my friends who, um, for their commutes will not necessarily be reading a book, but they'll be listening to an audio book.
00:30:08
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:09
Speaker
Or do you see audio books are huge now?
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
I've been very lucky.
00:30:12
Speaker
I've had a great narrator in Sally Phillips to do my confessions books.
00:30:16
Speaker
And, um, I think audio books are just fantastic for listening to when you're commuting or you're doing stuff, or I listened to a whole one once when I was painting the living room.
00:30:27
Speaker
It was fantastic.
00:30:27
Speaker
That's perfect.
00:30:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:30
Speaker
That's what that, yeah.
00:30:31
Speaker
When you're doing something that's like, uh, requires your, your hands and things, but doesn't necessarily require too much, uh, thought it's, it's a great, uh, it's a great thing to, to, to have at your disposal.
00:30:41
Speaker
Um, and that brings us to the point in the episode where we ask, um, if you were stranded, Alexandra, on a desert Island with a single book, which book do you hope that you would be stranded with?
00:30:55
Speaker
Am I allowed to say, it was the single book, am I allowed to say a collected?
00:31:02
Speaker
Well, I've had someone go online and show me that they found a bound version of Lord of the Rings, which comes as like one edition.
00:31:11
Speaker
So theoretically, if it could be bound, I'll allow it.
00:31:14
Speaker
Okay, a bound version.
00:31:15
Speaker
Well, I was thinking today that was a very difficult question and I gave it a lot of thought because there are so many books that I love.
00:31:22
Speaker
And then I thought if I was on a desert island, I would want something that gave me a lot of comfort.
00:31:29
Speaker
And for me, it would be like the collected works of Enie Blyton because it was something, they were the first books I ever read as a child.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:39
Speaker
I mean, I will just never forget reading The Famous Five or The Magic Faraway Tree, all those books.
00:31:48
Speaker
And they are the books that got me into reading and wanting to write because I just entered this world of imagination and met all these different characters.
00:32:01
Speaker
And I...
00:32:04
Speaker
It was just unbelievable for me.
00:32:05
Speaker
I remember as a child, I had quite bad allergies.
00:32:09
Speaker
I used to have terrible hay fever and we lived near hay fields.
00:32:13
Speaker
And my sister used to play out with all her friends and I had to stay in.
00:32:17
Speaker
And I used to sit in my bedroom and read.
00:32:20
Speaker
And instead of feeling like I was missing out, I felt like actually my sister was missing out because I was the one reading all these fantastic stories about all these wonderful adventures.
00:32:28
Speaker
So that would be my one book
00:32:32
Speaker
It would be a very big book, but that's the one that I would take to the desert island.
00:32:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
The sort of the book that inspired it all, that made you what you've sort of, your career has become today.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
I mean, I really, yeah, definitely.
00:32:48
Speaker
My childhood reading those books completely set me on the course that I'm still on today.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's amazing.
00:32:57
Speaker
A great choice.
00:32:58
Speaker
Something that really resonates with you.
Conclusion and Social Media Links
00:33:00
Speaker
And I've got some more questions about writing process and how Alexandra tackles it.
00:33:05
Speaker
But we are at the end of the regular episode and into the extended cut exclusive to Patreon subscribers.
00:33:10
Speaker
So anyone listening who hasn't yet joined the Patreon, please do think about it.
00:33:13
Speaker
It goes a long way towards covering the cost of running this podcast.
00:33:17
Speaker
keep effing up with uh with now and on that note uh yeah exactly thank you so much alexandra for coming on the podcast and chatting with me and telling me all about um your your books and your adventures in publishing and your approach to writing it's been really really cool and fascinating chatting with you oh thank you so much it's been my pleasure thank you
00:33:42
Speaker
And for anyone listening, if you want to keep up with what Alexandra is doing, you can follow her on Instagram at Alexandra Potter, on Facebook at Alexandra Potter Author, or on her website, alexandrapotter.com.
00:33:53
Speaker
Remember to like, follow, and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice and follow along on socials.
00:33:58
Speaker
Join the Patreon for extended episodes ad-free in a week early and check out my other podcasts, The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes.
00:34:04
Speaker
Thanks again to Alexandra and thanks to everyone listening.
00:34:06
Speaker
We'll catch you on the next episode.