What makes you happy? By Jon Rance

Handwritten Girl is delighted to welcome Jon Rance to the website to talk about his own writing journey and what inspired him to write his latest book,’Happy Endings’.

Unusual is the word I use when describing my route to being published. I didn’t have an agent for a start and I wasn’t really trying to get published. Considering I’d spent the previous five years pursuing the ‘traditional’ way into publishing without success, it wasn’t looking promising. Although when I think about it now, I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend either when I was halfway through my GAP year in Australia and met my wife.

This Thirtysomething Life’, my debut novel, was picked up by Hodder and Stoughton after I self-published and somehow managed to get it into the top ten Kindle charts. People ask me all the time, how did you do it? What’s the secret? The truth is I have no idea. I used to get annoyed when I’d read an interview with an actor who claimed they just, sort-of, fell into it. People spend their lives striving, working their socks off, making sacrifices to become actors and you just, sort-of, fell into it? How dare you be so bloody blasé about it? I didn’t just fall into being a writer. I’d been trying for years and I had made plenty of sacrifices, but the truth is, when it finally happened I had stopped trying.

The problem now is when I get asked for advice about getting published; I’m not quite sure what to say. Give up? It worked for me. The truth, of course, is that there isn’t a massive secret, a quick guide to being successful and ultimately it always (unless you’re famous) comes down to the same thing; you need to write a book that lots of people want to read. At the end of the day, publishing is a business and as a writer we have to shift books. It sounds a bit callous, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not a soulless drone knocking out books for money, I love what I write and it’s the genre I chose, but no matter what you’re writing, it has to sell.

So this brings me onto my second novel, ‘Happy Endings’, which comes out on August 15th (he says excitedly). It’s the first book I’ve written with the help of a publisher and agent. It’s a book I started a few years ago, but then put down for a while, came back to and then finished just before I got my big break. Once I started working with my editor at Hodder and my agent, they took it to the next level. I may have got a bit lucky getting my publisher and agent, but having them has transformed my work. Writing with professional editors and agents is like working out with a personal trainer as opposed to going to the gym on my own. They push me and get more out of me than I ever could alone. When I think I’m done and I can’t get anything more out of the book, they push me to make it just a bit better.

So what is ‘Happy Endings’ all about? The idea behind the book is a simple one. What makes us happy? It follows four late twentysomethings; Kate, Ed, Emma and Jack, all searching for their own version of a happy ending in modern day London. It’s about that time in all our lives when we’re searching for the perfect career and the perfect relationship, but as in real life, sometimes what we think will make us, isn’t necessarily what does. On one level it’s a romantic comedy/drama following four people and the ups and downs of their lives over six months, but on a deeper level it’s a book about happiness and how each of us tries to find it. It’s a book I’m extremely proud of because I worked so hard on it and in many ways, to me at least, it sort of feels like my debut – published the traditional way. It’s also written from four first person perspectives, and so it’s my first time writing from the point of view of a woman. The women who have read it so far seem to think I’ve done a good job, but I’m still nervously waiting on the reviews, hoping I’ve done the female characters justice.

‘Happy Endings’ is published by Hodder and Stoughton [amazon_link id=”B00B27ECK4″ target=”_blank” ]and you can buy Happy Endings from Amazon[/amazon_link] from 15th August 2013.

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