The Publishing Performance Show

Gillian Harvey - From French Farmhouses to 11,000 Book Reviews on Amazon

• Teddy Smith • Episode 49

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Gillian Harvey is a successful author of women's fiction with nine published books, including the bestselling "The Year in the French Farmhouse" and "The Bordeaux Book Club." Living in France for many years before recently returning to the UK, she brings authentic French culture and experiences to her novels. Her latest book "The Little Provence Bookshop" combines elements of mystery, humor, and magical realism in a French setting.

In this episode:

  • Journey from teaching to full-time writing
  • Experience of moving to and living in France
  • Writing process and plotting techniques using 40-point story outlines
  • Naturally incorporating humor into storytelling
  • Building successful author-reader relationships through reviews
  • Transitioning between publishers and working with Boldwood Books
  • Balancing social media presence across platforms
  • Importance of in-person author communities and events


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[00:00:00] Teddy: Hello everybody and welcome to the publishing performance show today. I'm really excited to be joined by Gillian Harvey, who is an author of romantic books, mostly set in France. Now, in this episode, we're going to be talking all about Gillian's inspirations, how she does her marketing for her books, how she's gained so many followers and so many sales through Amazon and all different types of sales channels.

[00:00:25] Teddy: She's a really, really successful author in this category. So if you are interested in writing romantic books or just learning All about how someone in the romance genre might be selling lots and lots of copies of their books. It's an unbelievable amount of copies of books. Then this is going to be the show for you.

[00:00:41] Teddy: Hi everyone and welcome to the publishing performance show. I'm here with Gillian Harvey, who's a writer and an author of eight books. And actually she's got her ninth book coming out next week. So welcome to the call Gillian. 

[00:00:52] Gillian: It's lovely to be here. 

[00:00:54] Teddy: Yeah, thank you for coming. So what's your book that's coming out?

[00:00:59] Gillian: So my book is called The Little Provence Bookshop and it's all about a woman who's kind of searching for her real family and finds a little bit more than she bargained for when she comes to work at a bookshop in Provence. So there's a little bit of mystery, a little bit of humor, a little bit of love and hopefully something for everyone.

[00:01:21] Teddy: Amazing. Are all your books sort of based on France? 

[00:01:26] Gillian: My first two novels weren't. They were both set in the UK and then I wrote The Year in the French Farmhouse. That was the first one I'd set in France because I was determined to not set a book in France until I had a reason to. I didn't just want to do it as a gimmick.

[00:01:39] Gillian: So, I Just happened to think of a story where a woman who was on eBay and had a little few too many glasses of wine Accidentally bought a house. I'd actually spoken to someone who'd done something a bit similar So I guess that sparked the idea off and I don't know about you, but I've I've made a few accidental purchases and things on eBay in the past, or thought I was bidding for one thing and found something else entirely.

[00:02:04] Gillian: So I thought it was a great idea where she could almost be plunged into this French adventure with no planning. And I love that, so that's when that started and the publishers want me to stay in France for a little while. We'll see what happens in the future. 

[00:02:18] Teddy: So brilliant. I'm very much a drunk eBayer.

[00:02:21] Teddy: I, the other day, the other day, a load of beer mats arrived at my home, which looks really cool. And I wasn't really sure where they'd come from, but yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I've never bought anything as big as a house, but 

[00:02:31] Gillian: no, no, but you know, there's always time. 

[00:02:35] Teddy: Yeah. I've always got one of those dreams of buying one of those small like huts in the mountains so you can just go and like live there every so often.

[00:02:42] Teddy: That'd be great. 

[00:02:43] Gillian: Oh wow. Yeah. That's really good. 

[00:02:46] Teddy: Have you, did you always want to be a writer? 

[00:02:48] Gillian: Yeah. I really, really wanted to be a writer ever since I could remember. I specifically remember being about five and being very, very set on the idea of being an author. And I, I was writing short stories and my, probably my first book.

[00:03:05] Gillian: I started when I was about kind of 15, 16, but it never became a full length book. But I was, I was trying, I was working towards that. But I think when you want to do something in the creative industry, there's lots and lots of well meaning people around you who love you and believe in you, but don't actually think you're going to get anywhere or be able to support yourself being a writer or being a singer or whatever it is you want to do.

[00:03:28] Gillian: So. There's always a lot of voices that say, yeah, but what's your, what's your backup plan? What is your career? What are you going to do? How are you going to make money? And, and I think I ended up becoming a teacher, which was fine. And I enjoyed until it exhausted me too much, but the writer, that was always my dream.

[00:03:47] Gillian: And it felt like something I would never achieve, but obviously I managed to in the end. Yeah, so were you you're a teacher before you became an author? Was that your only job or did you do another job as well? 

[00:04:00] Gillian: Well, when I left I had a bit of a meandering route. I left school at 16 mainly because I just did not enjoy my time at school Because of the, the school itself, I think.

[00:04:12] Gillian: It was wasn't a very nice school, there were some people that weren't very nice. So I just, I'd had enough, really, when I could leave. I wanted to leave. I got a job in a little office as an office junior. But then I went back to do my A levels at evening class, and I worked in London for a bit after that and then went to university.

[00:04:31] Gillian: So I did some work as a legal secretary in London. And it was great because it meant when I was at uni, I could do my holiday work and get well paid for it and pay off my overdraft. And it's also given me a lot of things to draw on when I'm actually writing. I have commuted, I have done different jobs in different places I now look at that period of my life as being a research for my writing career.

[00:04:53] Teddy: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. There was an amazing, I think there's a really good quote by Ricky Gervais when he was talking about how he wrote The Office and he was basically like, because he started so late in life, it was like, I could only have written it at this point because that is all my experience is up to now when I could have done it.

[00:05:09] Teddy: So you're right. You can't have those extra parts where it's like you haven't done the commuting. If you don't know what it's like, if you haven't been on the tube, how can you write about that? So I can totally see what you're saying. Yeah. So, so your book, your books the year at the French Farmhouse and and the Bordeaux Book Club, they've been done amazingly, especially on Amazon.

[00:05:26] Teddy: are they based on your experiences of living in France? 'cause I know you mentioned you've moved out there. No, I mean, I think aspects of them, of aspects of my experience come into them, obviously just, but they're fictionalized. I think I learned a lot about when I moved to France because it was very much on a, on a whim really.

[00:05:49] Gillian: We were just trying to find a different way of living and it wasn't that we loved France particularly. We just, it was close to England and our families and we found that we could buy property outright because they were very cheap. And we thought, well, why not have an adventure? We really felt like at the time we were on a treadmill where we were too tired to keep running.

[00:06:11] Gillian: But, We couldn't get off either. So it was a sort of a step off, all of that going to France for us. And so I really learned along the way, I learned how to kind of live with myself and sit with myself because we went quite rural, so there weren't all the distractions that you get in a more busy place and I found that really hard, but then I think it was almost like a fast track to working out who I was and what I wanted and Obviously we had to learn, we, we took a deep dive really into the deep end, with our, we didn't have very much French at all, we didn't really know about how anything worked, and it was kind of, when I look back, we, we must have been completely mad, but I think if we hadn't just done it, we'd probably never have done it.

[00:06:56] Gillian: So maybe going in a bit blinkered was a good thing for us. But yeah, back to the books. It's, so characters I've come across and situations, and there's a lot to create humor from as well in the way that the French see things and the way that the British Sea thing and the clashes that can happen in that too and I think I learned a lot from French people about what they value more in life and that comes across, I hope, in my books as well.

[00:07:25] Gillian: I think I've, learnt a lot from them as well. 

[00:07:30] Teddy: Yeah. Do you think there were aspects of France that you've, would only have been able to put in having lived, been, been living there? 

[00:07:38] Gillian: I think so. I mean, it's, it's, you'd certainly need to spend a significant amount of time in the country to come across some of the situations.

[00:07:45] Gillian: So if you, if you're on the tourist trail, obviously you, you might interact with restaurateurs and hoteliers and that sort of thing, but. When you start taking on French bureaucracy, it's a whole other, other game, and you might sometimes face I don't know someone official who's very, very stripped on language and looks down on your terrible French, or you get the really helpful people.

[00:08:07] Gillian: And I think also having, for example, having a meal with some French people, you see and learn a lot about their philosophy on life, which maybe you wouldn't, Learn just by visiting. 

[00:08:20] Teddy (2): Yeah, great 

[00:08:21] Gillian: comes across I mean we all laugh I suppose a little bit about French and they're kind of they like to take their set hours for the week and they like to Have a set lunch time and all of these things and then you go there and you think Why are we so blinkered that we think we've got to work harder to be better than people when actually?

[00:08:42] Gillian: The French have got really strict rules to protect their life. And I think we lose sight of that in the UK sometimes. And yes, they have these two hour lunches, but that's amazing, really, isn't it? They sit down, they have a meal, they talk, they enjoy their food. And definitely we've forgotten how to do that here.

[00:09:01] Gillian: And yeah, 

[00:09:01] Teddy: definitely 

[00:09:02] Gillian: something I learned or try to learn. I'm still only getting there. Really. 

[00:09:07] Teddy: It's hard to get over how much useless paperwork there is though, living in France. I remember I was there for six months and everything's got a random form. You've got to fit in for, for seemingly no reason.

[00:09:17] Gillian: Absolutely. And what we found as well, I mean, when we first moved over the internet. Was around obviously it was 2009, but it wasn't what it is now So they'll there were forums that was about as close as it got and there'd always be people going Have you completed your d109 and you'd be like, what's that?

[00:09:36] Gillian: I don't know It's it's terrifying every time someone did it you you constantly felt as if you were getting it wrong And there didn't seem to be there seemed to be very much an assumption from the French You bureaucrats, I guess, that you would know everything. You'd know what to do in this situation and why haven't you got this.

[00:09:54] Gillian: And so that, that was kind of scary at first. And they do like their admin for sure. 

[00:10:00] Teddy: In your books, how do you approach getting the plots together? Do you have a particular method that you follow to getting the plots to follow exactly where you want it to go?

[00:10:09] Gillian: So, when I was writing A Year at the Thames French farmhouse. I would plan a couple of chapters and, and write them and then plan the next couple.

[00:10:16] Gillian: And it was a good way of moving my character through the journey. But what you find sometimes is when you go back, there's a lot of edits to do, tying things up. And if you're thinking about, I don't know, putting an image of something through the book, then sometimes you have to kind of insert it later on, shoehorn it in.

[00:10:34] Gillian: So there are pros and cons with that. I do love writing. And I'm always itching to get started and that can sometimes be my downfall. But the problem

[00:10:47] Gillian: Yeah, so the problem the problem I also had was when you're first writing a book you don't know if anyone's ever going to read it beyond chapter three because you're you send off chapter the first three chapters to your agent and if if you get accepted by an agent then they You Send those first three chapters off, et cetera.

[00:11:05] Gillian: And so it's hard to keep motivated in the same way about a whole novel. When you've got a deadline, and you know you've got, you expect to produce a novel by that deadline, that does help you to plan it, I think. It certainly helped me to know that there was a reason to write the whole thing, and it wasn't just my, kind of, whim or dream or anything.

[00:11:25] Gillian: So, I began to plan, and I think I do find it a lot easier. I keep my plans quite loose. Thank you. They often change as I go through, but I like to know maybe have 40 bullet points, 40 key points that are going to happen in the novel. And I tend to write, when I'm writing a novel, I'll write a chapter a day, because if not you lose the thread and you have to re read everything you've done, which just makes it, you Really kind of dull and you lose your momentum.

[00:11:52] Gillian: So I wouldn't say a plan. Sometimes I see these writers on tick tock or whatever, and they've got post it notes everywhere and these boards and that, that makes my brain hurt or spin or something. I can't, I wish I could, I would love to be able to plan like that. Cause it looks amazing, but I'm not like that.

[00:12:09] Gillian: So I just kind of hop off these little bullet points and it seems to work. 

[00:12:13] Teddy: Yeah. Do you create like an outline for the, for the whole structure that you want to follow, or do you create like a chart for those bullet points you want to hit or something like that? 

[00:12:23] Gillian: It's more that that, that will be it. I think Once I'm, I've got those 40 points, I will start writing and then I'll sort of note around the edge if I want, need other things to happen within those points.

[00:12:35] Gillian: there's still a lot of editing to do at the end, but it means I can sit down in the morning and look at a bullet point and think, okay, this is where they've got to go. This is what's going to happen. And I can create the chapter around that one idea. So it doesn't have to be any more detailed than that.

[00:12:50] Gillian: I'm working on my characterization at the moment, really trying to. Get to know my characters a bit more rather than learn about them as I go along, which is another step. I'm hoping will enhance my writing. So is, I mean, I'm always learning. I think that's an important part of being a writer. Yeah, definitely.

[00:13:08] Teddy: It's been interesting having this podcast so far because I've been speaking to a lot of mostly novel writers mostly who have, I've talked about their structure and some people have really in depth like charts about what's going to happen when a bit like that J. K. Rowling poster that you've probably seen where it's like a spreadsheet.

[00:13:24] Teddy: Yeah. And some people have just, and some people have just been like, yeah, I just start writing and just see what happens. Completely different. Because, I mean, I think I read recently that Hilary Mantel who wrote Wolf Hall, she was literally someone who just sat down and wrote and saw how it went.

[00:13:41] Gillian: And for her to, to write that way makes me feel that there, there can be no wrong way to write. Because sometimes I thought the more you planned, the more meticulous your brain was, the better the novel, perhaps. 

[00:13:53] Teddy (2): But 

[00:13:54] Gillian: I think it's just It all depends, doesn't it, on who you are and what, what, what you're comfortable with, I think.

[00:14:01] Teddy: She must have so much research done before the novel's written to be able to 

[00:14:06] Gillian: just write like that, because her books are so detailed, so surprising. I don't think I could ever write historical fiction because, I'm just not, Someone who can deep dive into that kind of research. Maybe that's just because that doesn't particularly interest me.

[00:14:19] Gillian: Maybe if it did, I would do so, but I'm always really impressed with historical novels. 

[00:14:24] Teddy: Yeah. It's probably my favorite genre overall, I think. Really? Yeah. I think so. Yeah, I think so. If I had to pick just one writer, it'd probably be Robert Harris. Probably. But I'm, you know, it's, there's lots out there. 

[00:14:35] Gillian: Of course.

[00:14:36] Gillian: Yeah. I think I mean, I was thinking about setting a novel in the 90s at some point, because that's historical now, isn't it? Yeah, I did all my research back then. So yeah, yeah, amazing. 

[00:14:49] Teddy: In your books, you've got quite a lot of funny parts to them. And you add elements of humor. Do you actively do it on purpose?

[00:14:56] Teddy: Or is it a case of just seeing what the characters you think they would say? 

[00:15:01] Gillian: That's interesting, yeah, because, I mean, my first published novel wasn't my first novel, that I wrote, like a lot of writers, but that was a very much a comedy novel, Everything is Fine, and but I never really thought about it being particularly humorous until my editor said it was, and I thought, oh, okay and I think it's just something that I do, I don't know, as I ridiculousness in them, whether that's my own life or a character's life, so I do, find it just naturally goes into my books and then sometimes my editor will say, well, you know, you could dial up the humor a bit here and I'll put a bit more in.

[00:15:36] Gillian: But yeah, it's something that seems to just fall naturally. I wrote a A kind of thriller type book before I wrote everything is fine. And I look back at that and there's comedy in there too. So I think it's just somehow it just seems to come out when I write. 

[00:15:51] Teddy: Oh, right. Okay. That's interesting. I spoke to Dave Cohen a couple of weeks ago and he is a, he's a, he's a sitcom writer, but he also writes books and we talked all about adding the comedy characters in and he sort of plans his comedy characters to be like, this is going to be the funny part and different parts of that.

[00:16:09] Teddy: Yeah. Yeah. So it's a slightly different approach. 

[00:16:11] Gillian: Yeah. That's really interesting. 

[00:16:14] Teddy: You definitely are funny though, because lots of people in the reviews for your book say that they're funny and they laugh a bit long at the parts of the book, so. 

[00:16:19] Gillian: Yeah. Yeah. It's always nice to read that. 

[00:16:23] Teddy: Yeah. You've got so many reviews for your book.

[00:16:25] Teddy: So you've got Year at the French Farmhouse has got over 11, 000 reviews on Amazon. Was, is that something you've actively been trying to get those reviews or has it just been naturally through people reading the books? 

[00:16:36] Gillian: That's, I would say, 99 percent naturally, Drew, people reading the books. I think we do a lot, most, like most writers, I'll put the odd thing out on Twitter saying, oh, don't forget to leave a review.

[00:16:47] Gillian: But you find that there's some people that will review every book they read, and some people don't. And even though I know how important reviews are to writers, I don't find myself leaving them that often myself. Because I just, life gets in the way, doesn't it? And you're on the next book, and then you're, but. They really are. I think if I was a reader and not a writer and I was leaving reviews, I wouldn't expect that the author would read them, but most of us do. And it does really make a difference to your day. Sometimes if you get a really lovely one it can keep you going sometimes. So it is lovely.

[00:17:19] Gillian: And it's lovely to know that people are responding to your, to your book. 

[00:17:24] Teddy: Yeah, definitely. Well, whatever you're doing is working because you've got, you know, a lot of reviews more than the very successful other authors I've, spoken to as well. So whatever you're doing, keep doing that because it's working.

[00:17:35] Gillian: Excellent. 

[00:17:36] Teddy: the reviews are also good for your overall brand online. Do you, what, what sort of work do you do with your, with your own brands in order to promote your books? 

[00:17:47] Gillian: So I think I've done, I've done various things and I think the thing is with books, you never really know which is the thing that worked.

[00:17:56] Gillian: But one thing I did find that when I moved to my second publisher, Boldwood, they're very, very, active in supporting their authors, not just on the one book, but really in all sorts of different ways. And I think with that behind you, you can use that as a real springboard. So when you do some PR of your own, it has more of an impact.

[00:18:18] Gillian: But I do all the things a little bit and I, it's something I'm always struggling with a bit because I think I don't, I sometimes write a social media strategy plan thing and then after a week I'll just be winging it like usual. And It's a funny, it's a funny beast, social media, because I always feel you've got to try and use it with honesty, and you can't just go, please buy my book all the time, although sometimes you wish you could.

[00:18:44] Gillian: And you don't want to be a slave to it, so it's, It's strange. So I wouldn't say I, I mean, I'm basically, I keep my author page on Facebook relatively active because I think that's where my readers probably are. That's the sort of demographic, demographic of my readers. Instagram, I'm not so good at, sort of, just not something that's really always appealed to me.

[00:19:07] Gillian: I, I pop things on there, but then we've got TikTok, which I had a great time with for a while and then ran out of steam a little bit. I wouldn't say I'm, I'm a great one for doing much of value online. I think being there is helpful and I think just sometimes it's those quirky moments where you want to post something silly that get you the most results or really connect you with people.

[00:19:34] Gillian: And I guess that's a nice way. I suppose you've got to use it as much as it's fun because I think if not, you just You just feel depressed about it, really, and you think, Oh, no one liked my joke, and, well, it doesn't really matter. And that kind of thing. It's a, it's a funny, it's a, I, I'm really having a wrestle with myself about social media at the moment, because I'm not sure whether I feel, not that it's working for me, but that I'm really, I've run out of interesting things to say.

[00:20:01] Gillian: I've got, I think, a lot of interesting things, but, Sometimes I go to put something online and I think, I don't know. I'm basically not very good at it, is my answer. But, I did run a quite a successful blog once and I am looking into Just in the back of my mind, I've got Substack, because I'm thinking maybe I can do something a bit more meaningful that gives value to the reader and showcases my writing a bit, but that I enjoy, and that might be a bit more my kind of platform, I think.

[00:20:30] Gillian: It's just finding the time to do it and learn about yet another platform and how it works. 

[00:20:36] Teddy: Yeah, if you are thinking about doing Substack, there's a really good Mahoud and he's a self published author, really, really good. He's really funny. He writes kind of semi biographical books, but he basically just does this Substack about his life.

[00:20:50] Teddy: And every so often you just see like a recipe or a picture of his dog or something, but then also he'll have short stories that he's written and they're really good. I think they're a good platform for authors to, you know, firstly make money, but also to make a connection with their authors, their customers or their readers.

[00:21:05] Teddy: So, yeah, so check out his one. And also Dave Cohen, the person I spoke to just now, he's got a great newsletter as well about comedy. So I think it's a good idea. Yeah. They're really nice. 

[00:21:16] Gillian: Yeah. It's, it seems like it's got to be more in the writer's comfort zone, hasn't it? Then And I don't know posing somewhere near the sea and saying, yeah, whatever it is you may do, although there's value in that too, obviously.

[00:21:29] Gillian: I think also a lot of my, My promotional stuff, because I started my, my writing career, my published writing, freelancing, and I still do write short stories for magazines and, pieces like that, I tend to write short stories around the time of a release and they'll tend to put a, a link to my book at the end of the short story.

[00:21:52] Gillian: So that's a, quite a good way that I'm able to promote myself. And it's, again, it's somewhere that's in my comfort zone. 

[00:21:59] Teddy: Right. 

[00:21:59] Gillian: Which always helps. 

[00:22:01] Teddy: Yeah, brilliant. Do you do any other marketing for your books as well, or is it all handled mostly by your publishing house? 

[00:22:09] Gillian: It's mostly handled by my publisher, but I do, now I've moved back, obviously we were talking earlier, I've just moved back to the UK from France, and I did a few online events from France, but it always felt that I wanted to be more in the community, which is what I do.

[00:22:26] Gillian: probably one of the reasons why I started wanting to live back in the UK again. and I'm connecting since I've been here. I've done one little bookshop event and I'm doing something at Waterstones for my next book. And also I've met up with some other authors Jenny Kerr and Claire Marchant and a couple of others.

[00:22:45] Gillian: And There's quite a few. I didn't realize I'm in Norfolk and there's a Norfolk and Suffolk. There's a cluster of authors and we'll meet up. So I'm going to hopefully get involved in more events. I really, I'm not naturally an event person, but I want to be, I want to do these things because I look at people online doing it and you think, Oh, that looks fun.

[00:23:08] Gillian: I should be doing that part of being an author. So, yeah, not so far, but I, but I'm going to be, and I'm looking forward to it. 

[00:23:16] Teddy: Oh, good. Do the Norfolk and Suffolk groups clash? No, not 

[00:23:19] Gillian: that I know of. There's no big there's no big fights so far. Yeah. 

[00:23:26] Teddy: A lot of the authors I've been speaking to on the podcast have talked about the importance of having that network.

[00:23:31] Teddy: Firstly, for like what the reasons you've just said, like making a community, like not loneliness, but you know, making sure there's other people who understand what you're going through. But also it's a great way to exchange ideas and get those first reviewers and readers because a lot of. Writers, they find it hard to get those advanced reviews, you know, so people can give them feedback on their books and they can get those first reviews.

[00:23:53] Teddy: So I think it's a really good idea and there are, there are lots of those groups in, in the UK and, you know, us as well. So I think that's a really good idea. 

[00:24:02] Gillian: Definitely. 

[00:24:04] Teddy: Are you planning on going to any conferences or anything like that to promote your books or just to learn? 

[00:24:10] Gillian: I'm hoping next year to just attend a few literary festivals.

[00:24:14] Gillian: I haven't sort of pinned myself down to any yet, but not really to be in them, but just to go and experience them. see what really goes on and, see what bits I enjoy before I commit to actually participating. I haven't got any plans to participate yet, but I'm really looking forward to going.

[00:24:29] Gillian: I know a lot of authors go and they meet up with people, because you do tend to Get to know people online quite well and think of people as friends and it's nice to have the opportunity to really Properly put a face to a name so I will try to go to two or three next year if I can it can be difficult with with the kids and everything to travel too far, but That's the plan at least.

[00:24:55] Teddy: Yeah, nice So your next book, you mentioned at the beginning, that's coming out next week. So do you want to give us a bit of a, give us an overview about that what was it like to write that book and then a bit of a summary of the plot and, and where it's going. 

[00:25:10] Gillian: So I feel like, I don't know if it's just I don't know if I'm deluding myself, but I do feel that I like each book I write more than the last, when I'm writing it at least.

[00:25:20] Gillian: And I really enjoyed writing this latest novel, because it was slightly different perhaps from some of the other books I've written. It's set in a bookshop, and there's an element of the magical there, and there's an element of a bit of mystery. And there's, there's a little nod to Chocolat by Joan Harris in there as well.

[00:25:40] Gillian: So, I had a great time. writing it as much as, as much as you can. I still have the, the 40, 000 word breakdown and and where you think, how, how is this a book and what's going to happen? And then you get over that. And now I know it's coming each time. Like I can cope with it better. Yeah. So I think it's, it's, it's good.

[00:26:03] Gillian: Overall, it's got this theme of family, whether we find our family, what makes someone a family member and the kind of connections as well that we might feel with people who we're related to, but maybe meet for the first time, like sometimes when you see them on those programs where they reunite relatives and I always think, I wonder what that feels like if you've got that instant recognition or whether there's something deeper going on.

[00:26:29] Gillian: And so the book's all about Adeline, who Finds out that she's adopted shortly after her adoptive mum dies, that's when all the truth comes out, and it throws her And it's, she's at a point in her life where she, she'd given up work to be a mum's carer towards the end of her mum's illness, and so she's, she's sort of a single mum of a little five year old girl, and she doesn't know what to do next, and what she decides to do, because there's some connection with her birth mother in France, but very little with her mum.

[00:26:58] Gillian: information. It's just, just to go to France and not necessarily find her mother, but to feel a little closeness there and think about what she's going to do next. So it's almost like a running away and a running towards at the same time. And she ends up in this bookshop where there's a, an owner, Monique, who has certain powers and certain beliefs and they all get caught up in a kind of.

[00:27:26] Gillian: mystery where they're all looking for something. And there's a lot about the magic and the power of books and the way that books can really speak to us from hundreds of years ago and things like that. And well, the rest is, is obviously in the book, but it was a great, a great book to write. And there's a lot of Emily Dickinson in there as well, which It just came in very spontaneously and surprised me because it wasn't on my plan.

[00:27:52] Gillian: But yeah, it was, it was great fun and it was, it was me sort of pushing the boundaries a little bit more of what I write well, hopefully it paid off. 

[00:27:59] Teddy: Yeah. Brilliant. I'm looking forward to that coming out. So I'm sure it sounds like a great book. 

[00:28:04] Gillian: Thank you. 

[00:28:05] Teddy: Now, if people want to get in touch with you if people want to get in touch with you or they want to follow you, where's the best place for them to do that?

[00:28:12] Gillian: Probably on my Facebook page, which is Gillian Harvey author. That's where I'm most active. I'm also on Twitter at Jill plus five and you never know, I might pop up on substack at some point, but not yet. 

[00:28:24] Teddy: Great. And are you working on your next book already or are you taking a break? 

[00:28:28] Gillian: I'm working on my next book which is quite well, it's all set in Paris and there's some, some scenes in Cambridge as well, so it's a bit of a nod to the fact that I'm back here as well and it's the novel about, it's, it's a love story with a twist, let's say.

[00:28:48] Teddy: Yeah, great. Well, looking forward to hearing about that too. So thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate your time. Just before we go, what's the book that you recommend everyone should be reading at the moment? 

[00:28:59] Gillian: Okay, so, The book I've been diving into a lot recently myself is a book called Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody.

[00:29:08] Teddy (2): Yes. 

[00:29:08] Gillian: This was recommended, you may probably have come across this one. It's a, it's a really a writer's bible and it's been great for me in terms of planning my books and structuring my books. You won't necessarily. Use it all kind of exactly as it is. But it gives you a lot of idea of the beats that the writer needs to put in for the reader to take them through a story in a really satisfying way.

[00:29:34] Gillian: And the cat thing, which always confused me before I actually read the book, is all about the fact that if you've got a character who's unlikable and you want to give them a personality. A redeeming feature, it might be that they save the cats, because anyone who might save a cat or an animal can't be all bad and that's where that comes from.

[00:29:53] Gillian: So it's, it's a really great book, and it's very, it's very user friendly, so it's, if you're writing your first book, it's real, it'd be a real help, I think. 

[00:30:04] Teddy: Brilliant. Yeah. James Blatch recommended that exact same book. So that's two really good recommendations now. So yeah, 

[00:30:10] Gillian: yeah, 

[00:30:10] Teddy: exactly. Well, brilliant. Well, thank you so much for coming on.

[00:30:14] Teddy: It's been a great show and looking forward to speak to you again soon. 

[00:30:17] Gillian: Thank you. It's been lovely speaking to you. 

[00:30:20] Teddy: Thank you so much for tuning into the publishing performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring I love chatting to authors writers and people in the publishing world now just before we wrap up Let me tell you about publishing performance the number one platform for authors who want to increase Amazon book sales But I'm not really sure where to start.

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