Who wouldn’t welcome such a generous review, and in the New York Times for added prestige? Not me, of course. THE ILLUSIONISTS is my most recently published book, and the US market isn’t an easy one to crack, and this write-up will help sales (I hope) no end. It’s just that, well, it isn’t for the book I have this week finished writing, which is different, and therefore if a critic likes that one, does it mean she won’t like this one?
Therein is the writer’s Catch 22.
The book everyone’s reviewing and reading (ideal scenario, obviously) is very much not the book that’s occupying your thoughts by day and keeping you awake by night. And sometimes it can feel like lose-lose, because if people didn’t like that one, then this one will surely go down like the inflatable leaden object. Take DAUGHTER OF THE HOUSE, which I completed two days ago after a year of work. This one won’t be published until next May by which time, whether it’s praised or slated, I will no doubt be immersed in something else completely at odds with it, see above. The discomfort goes with the job, I know, and I’m just sharing this perspective. There are plenty of compensatory upsides to the writer’s life. (Now, just remind me…)
A solution might be to take the book that readers seem to like best, and keep recycling it. Change the names and so forth. But that doesn’t work either, as we all know from novelists who shall be nameless here. You can do it once maybe, twice at most. After that even your biggest fan will be begging for a break.
DAUGHTER OF THE HOUSE has been particularly interesting to write because it’s the sequel to THE ILLUSIONISTS. It takes the next generation of the Wix family from 1910 to the 1930s, and although the setting is still London generally and specifically the rundown theatrical world, it’s totally different in tone and perspective. I’ve never done a sequel before and I had to work out how much of the backstory to include and how much to take as read. The second book has to stand alone but it also has to be a continuation of the first, and I really enjoyed steering the middle path. Time will tell if I’ve been successful.
The book cycle revolves again. I’ll wait now to hear from my agent and my editor.
Will they like it?
What about the edit, the jacket, the marketing plan?
What about….
Oh, what the hell. Time for a holiday.
PS Thanks to those who are still following this sporadic account. For the last couple of months I have been too preoccupied with the day job deadline to do much blogging, but I hope that will now change. Coming up: news of the scary territory between submission and publication, and some travel, long-distance walking, and I hope FUN.
Rosie Thomas 
It’s a glowing review but I do see your point. It would be far too easy to allow published opinions to sway your writing pattern to accommodate, particularly if you were reading them while you were writing a sequel, wouldn’t it? If that happened, yes – you might as well regurgitate one book over and over! :-(. However, I have never found a ‘common theme’ in any of your books! It has often filled me with total awe that each one is so totally different, and the effort you put into researching the background details of each one is truly astounding, so I don’t think you need to question yourself or worry! 🙂 Well done you, for getting to the finishing post with your integrity intact, Rosie. Time to re-enter the 21st century again now. Let your hair down, kick up your heels and let us all know where you will be off to next!
Congratulations on finishing the new book, Rosie – and sympathy, too. I understand the feelings!
Rosie, calm down and have faith in your abilities as a good author, go take that well earned holiday and the rest will follow.
Good advice, Francesca.