Nicola Morgan

Who are you and what do you do?

Good question! I'm supposed to be a writer. But I seem to spend a lot of my working time not writing. (Unless you count emails, tweets and blogposts.) I always have a load of different projects on the go and my main task just now is to decide which ones to steam ahead with. I write and have written books in various genres for all ages; am probably best known for my teenage novels and non-fiction about the brain; I also blog (helpineedapublisher) and write (writetobepublished)for adults trying to become published. And I do a lot of public-speaking to children, teenagers, parents and writers, which takes up more of my time than I should let it- but I love it!

You are a very prolific writer, author of no less than 90 books. What keeps you motivated to write and do you have a foolproof writing routine?

Routine??? *Falls around laughing* What keeps me motivated? I don't need anything at all to keep me motivated. Words are what I do. It's like talking.

What inspired you to write your latest book, Write to be Published?

I'd been blogging for a couple of years for writers - aspiring and published - and people kept saying I should write a book. When the blog became so huge and unwieldy, I decided they were right. I emailed a publisher and said, "If I were to send you a proposal for a book based on my blog, what would you say?" And she said, "Forget the proposal - I'll publish it!"

Basically, I wanted to prevent good writers from making the mistakes I did - I failed for 21 years to have a novel published. (Though I did have other things published in that time.) There's so much bad advice as well as good out there but it's hard for writers to know who to believe. I believe they can believe me - as well as my own years of struggle and the 90 books I've now had published in various genres, I'm in touch with many agents, publishers and writers, as well as other industry professionals. I also see a lot of manuscripts through my consultancy - pen2publication- so I see the repeated problems in unpublished work and remember that I used to do the same. I don't believe everyone has the right to be published but if they have the raw material and are determined to succeed, I want to help them if I can.

Write to be Published gives lots of useful advice on the whole writing process. What do you hope an aspiring writer will learn from your book?

Everything you need to know about why publishers say yes - and why they more often say no! It's all about writing the "right book" (and I define that) in the "right way" (I define that, too) and sending it to the "right" publishers (I think you get the picture) in the right way and at the right time. There’s everything from having the right idea, through writing it, to sending it out. And dealing with rejection, too. You will also learn about my own struggles.

Did you ever have any of your writing rejected by publishers and how did you deal with the disappointment?

Oh yes! How did I deal with it? By jumping up and down and screaming a little bit (but not where anyone could see), then crumpling onto the floor, picking myself up and re-writing. Often. The problem was that it was very hard to find out what I was doing wrong.

Authors are traditionally seen as shy and retiring yet nowadays a lot of authors keep regular blogs and are on Facebook and Twitter. Do you think online presence is important for writers?

Yes, it really helps. But I'd also like to point out that you can be shy and retiring and have an online presence. Facebook and Twitter are great for shy people.  I'd also want to say that you should only do what you are comfortable with and you should never forget (as I often do) that you are first a writer, not a marketing bod. I am utterly sick of publishers telling authors they must be on Facebook, for example, when a) the publishers have no idea exactly what the author is supposed to do once there and b) publishers are actually not always great at using social media themselves. Blogging is very hard work and not easy to get right but it's definitely not necessary - a simple website is perfectly good enough; just somewhere where people can go to find out about you and your books, and contact you. Twitter is much easier - and if you want help, I can help you! (I recently created the world No1 trending topic on Twitter - the game #lessinterestingbooks!)

Finally...if you could invite any author (living or dead) to tea, who would you invite and why?

I'd like to ask Vivian French. Because she's a good friend, a very lovely person and a fabulous author, and I recently forgot her birthday so I could make up for it.

Links

Get in touch with Nicola via twitter: @nicolamorgan

And check out her blog