Behind the Bestseller

Behind the Bestseller

Behind the Bestseller: what makes a book a success? Bestselling author Sam Blake talks to authors, editors, publicists and agents to find out exactly what that magic ingredient is. Join crime author Sam Blake as she chats to bestsellers from every genre to find out what makes a book fly off the shelves. Discussing concepts and ideas, where stories come from and how authors develop them into what you see on the page, Sam also chats to agents, editors and publicists to understand their part in the process. Behind the Bestseller is part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network (https://headstuff.org/headstuff-podcast-network) Sam started writing fiction in 1999 when her husband went sailing across the Atlantic for 8 weeks, she was convinced that first (terrible) book would be a bestseller – but it took her a bit longer than she expected to get published and it was her actually the fifth book she wrote that became her debut novel. Little Bones hit the number one slot on release and launched detective Cat Connolly into the world, as well as launching Sam's writing career. Little Bones kick starts the trilogy when Cat Connolly finds a baby’s bones hidden in the hem of a wedding dress, In Deep Water moves her story on and focuses on the disappearance of her best friend Sarah Jane Hansen, leading Cat deep into the Dublin underworld. The third in the trilogy No Turning Back delves into the Dark Web. Featuring locations in Dublin and London, Cat’s world is complicated by her relationship with her Detective Inspector, Dawson O’Rourke. Cat Connolly is a kick boxing champion, and is a fit and feisty protagonist often in trouble herself as often as she's investigating it. The Sunday Independent says of 'Little Bones': ‘Connolly, for whom the word “gutsy” might have been invented, is a terrific character . . . a compelling debut; the author keeps her complex storyline going all the way to its incredible ending’. Along the way to writing 'Little Bones', to improve her writing and to try and find out exactly what those magical ingredients are for success, Sam set up The Inkwell Group, first bringing bestselling authors to intensive one day fiction writing workshops and later developing a publishing consultancy. She is also the founder of Writing.ie, the multi award winning online writing magazine that is now one of the biggest in Europe. With all this experience she is well placed to quiz authors on exactly what made the difference for them, to get into the detail of how brilliant stories are born and how they grow. Described as Strangers on a Train meets Dial M For Murder, Sam’s first psychological thriller Keep Your Eyes on Me arrives on bookshelves in January 2020 - tune in to hear to hear her uncover the secrets of success.

Episodes

June 5, 2020 39 mins
Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, ER Murray is the  author of the One Book One City Dublin City Read The Book of Learning, the first in her Nine Lives Trilogy.   Elizabeth Rose Murray, represented by Sallyanne Sweeney of Mulcahy Associate, London now lives in West Cork where she fishes, grows her own vegetables and enjoys plenty of outdoor adventures. Originally from a working class British family, where writing as a career ...
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International bestseller Carmel Harrington writes issue-driven popular fiction and is the author of Cold Feet The Lost Years, which accompanies the ITV series.  Carmel's uplifting and inspiring books have all been regular chart-toppers, and have captured the hearts of readers worldwide - she is translated into eight languages to date, in eleven territories. Published by Harper Collins, her books have been described by the Daily ...
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May 8, 2020 31 mins
Jane Casey is one of the strongest voices and most successful voices in Irish crime fiction - living in London but Irish to the core, she straddles both countries perfectly, bringing a gritty realism and authenticity to her character DS Maeve Kerrigan.  Married to a criminal barrister, who also works as a Sepcial Constable with the Metropolitan Police, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life, from the smel...
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April 24, 2020 51 mins
Research is one of the keys to Alex Barclay’s incredible success, with ideas developing from chance conversations with experts. Sam Blake quizzes her on her unique process, character building and how she tackled her first stand alone. Finding out how she writes and why isolation is so important to her,  Alex Barclay is a former Irish journalist turned crime writer who was the first Irish female crime writer to get a significant d...
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April 10, 2020 31 mins
Being taken on by a high profile literary agency should have been the start of Hazel Gaynor’s career, but unfortunately they couldn’t place her Titanic novel The Girl Who Came Home. With the Titanic anniversary rapidly approaching, Hazel decided to self publish and opened the door to the career as an international bestseller. Drilling into how Hazel achieved this, Sam Blake discusses how she created her own opportunities and the be...
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Non-fiction is a different beast to fiction, and in this episode Sam Blake chats to Darach Ó Séaghdha, the Irish writer, podcaster and Irish language activist. The author of Motherfoclóir: Dispatches from a Not So Dead Language (Head of Zeus, 2017), and Craic Baby (Head of Zeus 2018) Darach won Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the 2017 Irish Book Awards with Motherfoclóir. Revealing how his Twitter account @TheIri...
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March 13, 2020 32 mins
From piling up the rejection slips Sinéad Moriarty joined a writers group and wrote the book that was closest to her heart. Drawing on her personal experience The Baby Trail immediately hit the bestseller list and kickstarted a career that is still growing. Sam Blake discusses how Sinéadgot her first break with that book, and how it spawned a series. Sinéad's books are issue driven, and research is vital to that process. Sam Blake ...
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February 28, 2020 52 mins
In a double length episode Sam Blake quizzes Literary Agent Sallyanne Sweeney from MMB Creative on what she looks for in a new manuscript and how she wades through often 300 submissions a week. Sallyanne answers the age old question of what agents' are looking for, what an agent's role is and how they work with authors. Discussing the importance of your covering letter, what works and what doesn't, what a difference a good title ma...
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February 14, 2020 40 mins
Romance is the biggest selling genre worldwide and award winning author Ruth Long, in all her various incarnations as RF Long, Ruth Francis Long and Jessica Thorne, writes romance combined with fantasy - from parallel worlds to sci-fi space opera, for both young adults and adults. Discussing what romance is and why it's so popular, Sam Blake explores how Ruth develops character, the secrets of world building and what makes a succes...
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January 31, 2020 30 mins
From her life as a journalist in Northern Ireland to her first women's fiction book, Claire Allan's publishing journey was punctuated by key life events. In Behind the Bestseller she reveals what made her take that first step into fiction and how she moved from women's fiction to crime.  Sam Blake delves into what makes Claire's books bestsellers across multiple platforms and all over the world, and how she comes up with her ideas....
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January 20, 2020 50 mins
From critically acclaimed non fiction that has spawned a movie in production, to beselling fiction, and now an exciting audio adventure, Shane Dunphy's career started with a book he needed to write. In this episode of Behind the Besteller Sam Blake delves into Shane's path to publication, his experience as a child protection worker and the issues surrounding using real life, extremely sensitive stories, to his fiction writing proce...
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Catherine Ryan Howard is an internationally bestselling crime writer from Cork.  Her debut thriller, Distress Signals (2016) was an Irish Times and USA Today bestseller. It was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger and the Books Are My Bag Irish Crime Novel of the Year, and it won Best Mystery at the Independent Press Awards (USA).   Catherine’s second thriller, The Liar’s Girl, was a finalist for the Mystery Wri...
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December 19, 2019 45 secs
Behind the Bestseller: what makes a book a success? Bestselling author Sam Blake talks to authors, editors, publicists and agents to find out exactly what that magic ingredient is.
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