"The 7 Lessons I Learnt When Getting My Book Published."

Sarah Tucker is a novelist, journalist, broadcaster, and biographer of Love Laterally, the new biography of Edward de Bono. PLUS link to Writing Hour starts at 9 a.m. [Link below]

[The Heart Leap Writing Club hosts two writing hours a week, and Sarah Tucker is one of our very own Heart Leaping writers, and I am delighted to announce that Sarah will be giving us a masterclass on becoming a published writer on 28th January at 1pm. Please put this date in your diary.]

Sarah Tucker is the bees knees! She’s an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, a best-selling author of women's fiction, and has written books on yoga and travel, been published in several poetry and short story anthologies, and most recently written Love Laterally, a biography of Edward de Bono, the person who invented the concept of lateral thinking. Launched at the House of Lords in September 2024, the book “hopes to act as a catalyst to trigger the introduction of lateral thinking lessons into the school curriculum in the UK.”

Here Sarah has written us an article on the 7 lessons she learnt on the journey to getting her book published.

1. Just allow.

   I'm an accidental novelist. I met a lady at a party, and we chatted about life, and she suggested I write a book based on a story I had told her. At the time I was only writing non-fiction (my second travel book, Have Toddler Will Travel) and was going through a (horrid) divorce. She gave me her card. I looked at it. All I could see was 'Mills & Boon'. I returned it to her, commenting that at the moment I didn't think I would be able to write a 'romantic' novel. She looked back at me and pushed the card back into my hand. 'We're looking for something edgy,' she said. 'I'm the commissioning editor of Harlequin Mills & Boon. You never hand a commissioning editor her card back.' Lesson. Sometimes a book deal strikes when you least expect (and want) it. Following this chance meeting, I wrote three chapters, sent it in, forgot about it, got a request for six more, sent those in (I knew what I wanted to write and I am a fast typist) and on the morning I received a call from my divorce lawyer telling me the date of my decree nisi, I received a call from the editor offering me a two-book deal.

2. Be your own PR

   There are a lot of book PRs out there with incredible CVs, but the best person to PR your book is YOU. The publishing world is very formulaic and linear in its thinking, and the same goes with PR strategies. I used lateral thinking to promote a book on lateral thinking and invited people who I knew would not only be able to do something with what was discussed at the launch (I have five speakers there as well) but also act upon it. Nurture journalists and broadcast contacts. Journalists are interested in human angles, gimmicks, and attacks. My book The Playground Mafia, published in 2006, tapped into all three and was an easy sell into the tabloid and broadsheet media and TV and radio. This was prior to Motherland, and yet when I pitched the idea to several TV companies, I was told 'people aren't interested in mother’s meetings! I spent £400 on a one-day PR campaign, and the PR produced nothing. You genuinely can do better yourself—and save money.

3. Write something every day.

   Even if its only a sentence, just write.The Heart Leap writing hours each week are excellent because they discipline and focus the mind, but we all have different times when we are at our most creative. I have a notepad by my bed when I wake up at two in the morning and have an idea and must write it down. I have lost too many eyeliners in the search for a pen!

4. Walk in nature every day.

   I do. By myself, in silence. I teach the practice as part of yoga, but I find it really works. It boosts my energy and creativity, and even if it is only for twenty minutes, I find it calms and clears my thoughts.

5. Try writing dialogue

   I love writing dialogue as a way of forming characters and moving action forward. My first novel, The Last Year of Being Single, was a mix of internal and external dialogue—so much of what we think is left unsaid and what is said is not what we are thinking. Again, it was unusual in that it had very few edits from the first draft.

6. Use your books as literary trampolines.

   One book generates another, and usually into something bigger and better. It took three publishers and several years to get the de Bono biography published. I wrote a book for 5- to 7-year-olds called Size Six, encouraging readers to think about their thinking. The manuscript was sent to three publishers, and in the first week, it was taken up and is to be published this September. Some books are merely there as a trampoline to better and bolder things.

7. Pop your professional bubble and take risks.

   I spent the last decade in academia, by chance more than by design (most of the things in my life happen this way). In 2013 I had just started a BSc Psychology, then took an MA in Creative Writing, then an MPhil Childrens Literature, then an MA in Children's Publishing, and a PhD in Education. It introduced me to authors and genres I would not have considered reading and also taught me a lot about the value of the cover (and back cover), what is commercial is often not considered 'good writing' (especially in children's literature), and how linear and risk-averse the publishing industry is. I met loads of fascinating people I would not have met before. I found it very healthy to go out of my 'professional bubble' as a writer.

Sarah has taught yoga in schools for the past decade, specialising in Year Nines (13-14 year olds) and has written a yoga and meditation book just for this (considered challenging) year group (Fourteen). A travel journalist and broadcaster for over three decades, working for the likes of Classic FM, Jazz FM, BBC Holiday Programme, Discovery Channel, BBC London, and Share Radio, Sarah is now the academic lead for the British Guild of Travel Writers, teaching travel writing in schools, and most recently has joined the advisory board of Montessori Global and a Fellow of Cambridge College Homerton, where she took my MPhil in CACL (children's literature) and where she now lectures on lateral thinking during residentials.

I will be interviewing Sarah in a live masterclass at 1pm on the 28th of January 2025. Do put the date in your diary.

Here’s the link for today’s writing hour