Dorothy Koomson doesn’t like the term Chicklit, she much prefers the name Heartlit as she feels that it represents her books a lot better. Growing up in London she always wanted to be a writer and after grafting away at many a temp job she decided to take the plunge and try her luck writing for a variety of women’s magazines. She continued to write short stories and in 2003 her first book, The Cupid Effect was published which she followed up by The Chocolate Run but it was her third book, My Best Friend’s Girl that really put her on the map. It sold a whooping 90,000 copies within the first few weeks and was selected for Richard and Judy’s Summer Reads Bookclub. Dorothy is now on her seventh book, The Women He Loved Before which is about a happily married woman who discovers a dark secret that her husband has been hiding. I caught up with her to find out about the life of a best-selling author.
The Women He Loved Before sounds pretty intense and rather like synopsis for a thriller drama – how did you come up with the idea?
I recently came up with a new name for the types of books I’ve been writing – emotional thriller. This is because my books have a crime/thriller element but are more focused on the relationships and emotions involved rather than solving the crime. There is a thriller element to The Woman He Loved Before, but when I came up with the idea for it I wanted to write about a woman who feels second-best in her marriage and how, when she has a traumatic experience she is forced to re-evaluate her whole life. As I planned out the story, the idea of telling the first wife’s story grew. This also involved unravelling what was going on in the first wife’s life that influenced her husband so deeply that he found it hard to get over her. When I hit upon her big secret, I knew I’d found one of the core elements of the book. I find, when I’m writing, as soon as I find one of the core elements, the story pretty much reveals itself to me.
How did you land your book deal?
In 2002, while I was working on the book that would become The Chocolate Run, I went to visit a friend in Leeds and came up with the idea for The Cupid Effect – the story of a woman who inspires others to follow their heart . . . basically like a modern-day Cupid. I went back to London, wrote the first three chapters and sent them to various agents. They all told me to go away. So I carried on writing, and when I had completely finished writing The Cupid Effect, I again sent it off to a few agents . . . and they all rejected me again. So I sent it to a publisher who accepted it as part of a two-book deal three months later.
How much input do you have in the marketing of your books?
If you mean do I have input into the cover, posters, etc then I’m very lucky because I do have some say. Publishers ultimately want you to be happy so they will ask your opinion and if you hate something they will generally change it, but the final decision is always the publishers.
You have such a fantastic body of work – how do you keep coming up with different ideas for your stories?
I often have several ideas on the go at the same time, but not all of them are ready to become books just yet. I’ll often talk my ideas through with my agent and editor and will start investigating them – only to decide on something completely different. Or to decide to work on a piece I started writing years ago, or to have a bolt-from-the-blue idea that I need to work on there and then. With the way I write, a novel is an organic process that grows up from the original kernel of an idea, the research and the plot and characters that the story brings up.
What other authors do you admire?
As long as an author’s work isn’t misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, etc I admire anyone who can sit down and write a book, even more so if they manage to get it published because that is hard. (The writing it and the getting it published.) I also try to read as wide a range of books as possible because writers need to keep abreast of what is being published, so I like quite a lot of very different books.
What advice do you have for budding authors?
The advice I always give to people is to write a story because you love it, you believe in it and you want to tell it. It’s easy to be tempted to write for money, or because you think you can do better than another author, or because you think a certain genre of book will sell. If that sort of thing motivates you, that’s great but they won’t be very comforting when you start receiving rejections. Writing a story you believe in will help keep you going when no one seems interested and will also feel all the more sweet when it’s published. I also think you should find a writing system that suits you – even if it means writing the end first and working your way to the beginning; always write the best book you can and if it doesn’t turn out how you expect, it’ll be the better for it. Oh, and write.
Describe a typical day in your life?
There are no typical days in my life. There’s general the attempt to get from one end of the day to the other without damaging myself or other people, and hopefully laughing a bit during those 24 hours. Generally, if I’m not actively writing, I’m reading and researching and working through the next story. I have a to do list that has stuff crossed off if someone has nagged and nagged for it, and I try to write down any scenes that come into my head, as well as researching the next book. All that goes out the window when the deadline is close – at that point I will cancel virtually everything and concentrate – night and day – on finishing, then editing and rewriting the book.
Where do you do most of your writing?
I don’t need perfect conditions to write – I can pretty much write anywhere. Since I’ve moved I do have a sort of office with my desk, desktop computer, books, research notes, post-it boards and magazines, but the truth of the matter is – I mostly write in or on my bed. Partly because it’s easier to pick up the laptop if I’m working at 3am after a few hours’ sleep, and partly because I love my bed!
Check out Dorothy’s website.
The Woman He Loved Before is out now!
thanks for this interview ~ i love that dorothy writes in bed! have been reading her work for a while. glad she has some input into the covers as they are ways great and draw my eye to them and the stories inside are never dull!