We all have favourite authors but have you ever thought about how you first discovered yours? Every novelist begins as a debut author and they rely on readers to take a chance on reading new fiction writers as well as their old favourites.
Debut novels – and minimum wage
As a book publicist in the 1990s, I was lucky enough to work with and become friends with Iain Banks, whose debut novel The Wasp Factory was a huge bestseller. This was followed by a career alternating releases of mainstream novels and science fiction (as Iain M Banks) until his untimely death from cancer in 2013.
But very few debut novels are that successful and novelists with recognised names making a living solely from their writing are rare. The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) published a report in 2022 that showed the median income of full-time professional authors had fallen to £7,000 a year – below minimum wage. And almost half of author income was earned by just 10% of writers. No wonder so many authors have to subsidise their writing with other sources of income.
Supporting writers’ development
Writers often build on their success over a succession of novels, indicating how important it is for publishers to continue to nurture them and promote their work beyond the excitement of a debut.
International bestselling author Joanne Harris was working as a teacher in Barnsley when her third novel Chocolat hit the bestseller lists, later being made into an Oscar-winning film. A great supporter of her local Festival, Joanne is appearing this year at HuddLitFest to talk about her latest work Vianne, the long-awaited origin story of the protagonist of Chocolat.
TV tie-ins and film success
A TV drama tie-in can also help to boost sales. Bradford author AA Dhand recently adapted his detective novels for the hit BBC drama Virdee – and he will appear at our Festival this year for a Yorkshire Crime Fiction event with Sheffield-based crime writer, Russ Thomas, to talk about this experience and his latest novel. Both have an extensive backlist of novels under their belt, so if you enjoy the latest, you can go back and rediscover the rest.
Rachel Joyce, who is joining us on the final day of the Festival to talk about her long career as a novelist and latest work The Homemade God, saw success with her award-winning debut novel The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in 2012. Then in 2023, her writing was brought to a new audience when the book was made into a film starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton.
Celebrating Yorkshire’s fiction writers
The HuddLitFest programme always features and celebrates local authors, but this year’s Festival theme of ‘Yorkshire’ has given us even more reason to do so. Yorkshire fiction writers David Barnett, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Catherine Curzon, Linda Green Stephen May, Lesley McEvoy, Lisa Rookes and Michael Stewart, all appearing at this year’s Festival, have a rich backlist of critically acclaimed and often bestselling novels out in the bookshops. If you have read their work, you may already have booked a ticket, but if not, why not come along and discover a new voice to enjoy?
It can be difficult to attract Festival audiences to an author event when they are not familiar with the writer, but trying something new can be just as rewarding as reading your familiar favourites. Just like going to the early gigs of new bands, you get to be among the first to hear from new voices – and who knows, your signed first edition might turn out to be worth a fortune in years to come.
Shameless plug!
On a personal note, I am going to end with a shameless plug for my sister Antonia Hodgson’s latest novel. The author of the Thomas Hawkins historic crime fiction novels, the first of which The Devil in the Marshalsea won the CWA Historical Dagger in 2014, Antonia has now turned her attention to her first love, fantasy. The Raven Scholar, published on 17 April is the first in her new fantasy trilogy, is already garnering some fantastic reviews. It’s smart, funny and full of twists and turns – and I’m already looking forward to the next in the series!
Get booking
Find out more about fiction writers at this year’s Festival by clicking on the Fiction tab on our What’s On page.