Monday 19 October 2015

Island by Nicky Singer




A new book is always a treat, but I was more than usually pleased to receive this one ...











  ... especially when I looked inside.



When I came across Nicky’s story about Island on the Notes from the Slushpile blog several months ago, I went into full Victor Meldrew mode.

 I don’t believe it!

Nicky Singer is a successful author with novels for adults and children published by mainstream publishers. She was commissioned to write a stage play for the National Theatre and came up with the idea for Island. The play was produced at the Cottesloe Theatre (now known as the Dorfman Theatre), was also taken on a tour of London schools, and received very good reviews.

After the play finished, Nicky decided to turn Island into a novel in the hope of spreading the story to a wider audience. But when she presented it to her publishers they said – No. Their reason for rejection? They thought the novel was ‘too quiet’ and ‘too literary’.

Fortunately, Nicky thought there might be some people ‘out there’ who like quiet, literary books. And she was right. She set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to publish Island, and I was just one of 100’s of people who were happy to be able to help. (One of the other helpers was the Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell, who offered to supply the illustrations for the book.) I think we all gave a great, big cheer when Nicky announced she had reached her target and Island was going to be published.       

Island will be officially launched on 6th November. Do look out for it!

5 comments:

Suzanne Furness said...

Wow, what a great story. So pleased to hear the book is being published. Congratulations and best wishes to Nicky.

Nicola said...

How fantastic. Well done Nicky for not submitting to the mainstream publishing opinion and congratulations to all those that made it happen. I will most definitely be getting a copy. Thanks for the post Linda.

Patsy said...

It's good there are now more options for making our stories available. It'd be a shame if only those the big publishers were sure would make money were the only ones to be published.

Linda D said...

Thanks, everyone
Pleased I'm not the only one who thinks good books deserve to be published. I really hope the publishers who turned down Island will soon be kicking themselves - hard!

Jan Baynham said...

What a lovely story, Linda.