It’s
always interesting to here from new members of the RNA - in fact any member of
the RNA! Today we welcome author, Julia Roberts.
Like a lot of people, I always believed I
had a novel in me but it was a case of finding the time to write it. I have
worked full-time as a presenter at QVC, the shopping channel, since it went on
air in October 1993 while also working as a freelance for a local cable
television channel and for Sky Sports. I should perhaps mention that my
children were five and six when I started at QVC so I was trying to be a
hands-on Mum too… there was a lot of ball juggling going on! I have huge
admiration for Mums with small children who can concentrate sufficiently to be
creative. It wasn’t until both of my children
had left university that I stopped pontificating and started writing.
My first book was a memoir, called One
Hundred Lengths of the Pool, which was published by Random House and
was initially sold exclusively on QVC. Shortly after that was published, I went
away on holiday to Mauritius with my ‘other half’ to totally relax after a very
demanding year, which included a diagnosis of leukaemia, but things didn’t
quite go to plan. On the first morning I sat on the beach, under the shade of a
palm tree, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the reef, and I had
an idea for a novel. Over the course of the next ten days, I scribbled copious
notes and talked non-stop about my characters and the plot to my long-suffering
partner and by the time we were heading home on the plane, I had the Liberty
Sands Trilogy mapped out.
The first book in the trilogy, Life’s
a Beach and Then…, took me around fifteen months to write. I then spent
another five months deciding whether I should go down the route of finding
myself an agent and/or publisher. I did
submit to half a dozen agents but without success, although one or two
commented that they liked my ‘voice’. I have left it quite late to embark on a
new career as a writer so I didn’t really have the luxury of time to submit to
more agents and wait for their response. A friend of mine had self-published
and was generous in sharing her cover designer and formatter, and I tracked
down and used the copy editor that Random House had assigned me, as we had a
great working relationship. Three months later my first novel was available as
an ebook and a month after that the paperback was in some independent bookshops
and to order through Waterstones.
I was really thrilled to be able to join
the Romantic Novelists’ Association in January and look forward to meeting some
of you at the Summer Party in May.
Links:
Twitter: @JuliaRobertsQVC
Thank you, Julia and good luck with book
three in your trilogy. We hope you have a fabulous time at the RNA Summer Party.
The RNA blog is brought to you by
Elaine
Everest & Natalie Kleinman
If you’d like to write for the blog
please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com
5 comments:
Thank you for a lovely blog post, Julia. See you at the RNA Summer Party!
Lovely post, Julia - hope you to say hello at the RNA Summer Party! :-)
Your name must be a plus in marketing terms, Julia?!
Best of luck with your writing.
Fantastic post, Julia and thank you for sharing. It was insightful & inspiring and good timing for me as I'm now embarking on self-publishing myself. It's exciting and daunting but it's great to hear about your positive experience. Best wishes. :)
Thanks for your comments ladies - the name is sometimes a hindrance, Gabrielle, in fact someone suggested I changed my writing name to J G Roberts but I decided to stick with the original.
Good luck with your self publishing journey Suzi - if I can be any help at all leave me a message on my webpage www.juliarobertsbooks.co.uk
Thanks again for having me Elaine x
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