The Bestseller is a suspense-filled domestic psychological thriller about a therapist who spills her client’s confidential secrets . . .
I’ve been an NHS hospital doctor for many years. I’m trained in science and never considered myself ‘creative’. The first time it occurred to me that maybe a doctor could write fiction was when I read Jed Mercurio’s first novel Bodies in 2002, which I loved. Still, the notion brewed at the back of my mind for another two decades before I really started trying to write myself.
Medicine is not just science and illness and treatment. It has human storytelling at its heart; some of the deepest, highest stakes, most innately emotional stories there are. So, my first ideas about writing were for medical fiction. But gradually I found myself becoming more interested in taking those emotions out of the hospital and into non-medical settings.
A Form of Escapism
Part of fiction writing for me is a form of escapism. I really started writing more seriously around the time of the pandemic. It was a period when many doctors struggled with their professional and personal lives. Burnout soared. People left the NHS, went abroad, went off sick. I believe getting involved in something completely new protected me from this.
I continued to work full time for the NHS (and still do), but doing something creative for the first time in my life, becoming involved in a totally different industry, benefitting from the incredible expertise of others and learning new skills myself – saved me from the experiences many of my colleagues were having in the realities of NHS service provision at a particularly difficult time.
I have many close friends who are psychologists and therapists, as well as in the publishing industry. I think I gravitate towards these people (actually many such friendships predate any of our career choices by years) because both professions have empathy at their heart. You have to be deeply interested in other people, and able to feel things from another’s point of view.
The Bestseller: Therapists and Books
So, perhaps it’s no accident that my debut novel The Bestseller is about therapists and books. I’ve always been fascinated by the therapist-client relationship. The subtleties of professional and personal boundaries and what might happen if they are crossed. In a life-mimicking-fiction circle, the idea at the core of this book was in fact my best friend’s, who is herself a psychologist. (Although, unlike the fictional novelist in my book, I did not steal it from her. She gave me permission to use it, and for that I am eternally grateful.)
Because her idea gave me an excellent, one-sentence hook. Which made this book a completely different proposition to previous projects I had tried to write, and was pivotal in getting an agent, being shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and ultimately getting a book deal. I have learned that, in an industry as competitive and brutal as this one, you can write the most beautiful story in the world but if it doesn’t pitch sharply (certainly in the thriller space), it’ll be very hard to get off the ground.
Major Edits
The final published book is probably more than 50% different to the original manuscript I submitted to my agent. I was inexperienced as a writer and had (still have) so much to learn about the craft. I did major edits with my agent and later more big edits with my editor. The book sold on a pre-empt and that moment was such an incredible high, it eclipsed all the preceding lows that are a universal experience in writing.
People often give a number: the number of agents who passed on the manuscript; the number of publishers who rejected the book on submission. I’ve never counted my rejections or dwelled on them too much. There have been many! One of the things I’ve learned is that rejection is absolutely a part of the industry and it will never go away no matter how many successes you have; all the way up to being passed over for the Booker Prize (I imagine).
The Bestseller
Being published for the first time has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. There have been so many mixed parts to it: joy, pride, excitement, anxiety, trepidation, self-doubt. But I think my overriding feeling has been one of gratitude. There is so much luck in this game. In meeting the people who will champion you; in writing a certain book; in hitting the right time. It could so easily have gone a different way and I’m unspeakably grateful for all the random small things that aligned to bring The Bestseller into being.
You only get to debut once. For the author it’s an avalanche of mind-blowing firsts that, no matter how your career goes, you will never experience again in anything like the same way. Even for the publisher, a debut is special. No sales track, no preconceptions; the future opening out onto a world of possibilities. Everybody wants to discover a new voice. It’s all too easy to find things to worry about when your book is published. But I think it’s important to hold onto the fact that being a debut is once-in-a-lifetime. And to enjoy the crazy ride.
(c) Jenny Knightsby
About The Bestseller by Jenny Knightsby
Therapist Helena Salve knows that client confidentiality is the number one unbreakable rule of her job. But the constant stories of coercive control and threat she hears from her client Belle about her dangerous husband have been wearing her down. One night over too many glasses of wine, she tells her best friend Tala everything that Belle has told her.
The problem is, Tala is a down-on-her-luck novelist who is looking for an idea for her new thriller.
Months later, Tala is excitedly telling Helena that her publisher is saying this is going to be her biggest book ever. The story is Belle’s story. Not only is Helena’s job on the line, but if Belle’s husband is as dangerous as she says, her life is too…
Why would Tala do this to Helena? She knows what’s at stake.
Your friends are meant to protect you… aren’t they?
Order your copy of The Bestseller online here.
And read more Meet the Authors of Crime Fiction on Writing.ie here.
