‘I had no idea debut would be a bestseller and translated into 10 languages’

Melanie Blake has told The Book Insider about how she found herself writing a trilogy when she was originally surprised that she would be writing a sequel.

She released the second in a series of three stories, titled Guilty Women, and the the success she has enjoyed has pushed her to pen a third instalment – but it was a long road on which Melanie refused to give up.

As most authors experience, it is not the first publishing house that picked up her novel, so it was with determination that Melanie waited until the 39th to get an offer that would send her on the road to being a bestseller.

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Speaking about her experience, Melanie said: “To be honest when I wrote Ruthless Women I had no idea that it was even going to be a Sunday times top ten bestseller, let alone be translated into ten languages.

“My first book The Thunder Girls had only been a success on amazon nowhere else, so when Ruthless blew up and there was demand for a sequel I think I was as surprised as anyone.”

Melanie went on to describe her journey and the rocky road she took to becoming a widely recognised author.

She said: “I say surprised, because 39 publishers turned Ruthless Women down and said no one would buy it!

“When I turned to the sequel Guilty Women, I found it the hardest challenge of my career, the reason for this was it was sold at auction so expectations were high but what I wasn’t told until the last min was that I had to write the book so that it could appeal to a brand new reader as well as a return reader – that absolutely blew my mind and I didn’t think I was capable of doing it.”

Melanie told The Book Insider that with support and rewriting the manuscript up until the 11th hour, she finally got to a place where she felt happy that the story was where she wanted it to be.

Melanie said: “Luckily I had a very encouraging editor, Phoebe Morgan who believed I could. I remember doing massive rewrite of the entire manuscript just days before it went to print and only then at the very last minute did I feel I had really cracked it.

“The next thing was seeing if would sell. I had told myself if I was only going to be a one hit wonder, than I was okay with that as Ruthless Women continues to sell all over the world and shows no sign of stopping, so if Guilty Women was going to flop I would have felt that that had undermined what I had achieved.

“The day the charts came out and I found out Guilty Women had officially made the Sunday Times top ten, I felt so much relief, immediately followed by panic that I know have to match it one more time.”

It was then that Melanie turned her attention to writing a third instalment, when she never expected to brought a second onto bookshop shelves.

She continued: “So I never expected to write a trilogy and I think perhaps that’s why it’s been so successful – it’s such an organic story, with real characters who come to life off the page and stay in your brain.

“Fans of the books all have favourite characters and want happy endings for them, being able to leave book two on a cliffhanger was a very powerful decision by the publisher Harper Collins, personally neither me or my agents believed they would do that – but it showed how much they believed in the series – beyond the sales of the books – it’s probably the best compliment I’ve ever been given as a writer – belief I have an audience and a future.”

With the ideas in her head, Melanie said that this would be her “most ambitious” story she has ever written.

Melanie said: “I know exactly what I’m doing with the final part, I’ve already completed what for me is always the most important section, the opener.

“My books come in four parts, so although you still get the traditional chapter breakdown, you get it in four parts, like a TV show, once I’ve nailed part one, which I have, the rest of the book flows.

“Book three is the most ambitious yet – it’s the biggest and definitely has and will stretch me as a writer – whenever its published I will be very proud to look on my book shelf and see that somehow against all odds, and at the age of 45 – I became the author of a best selling trilogy – I honestly would never have imagined it in, and I think it will probably takes years after the fact, to sink in.”

Ruthless Women is available to buy HERE.

Guilty Women is available to buy HERE.