Today The Blonde Plotters have met up with Nicola May , #1 bestseller and author of The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay.
Thanks for popping by to visit us.
Please can you tell us a bit about The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay.
The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay is my ninth romantic comedy novel and I am delighted to say that so far this year it has spent 23 days at #1 in the whole of the Amazon Kindle store.
It is about Londoner, Rosa Larkin who inherits a corner shop in Devon from a mystery benefactor.
That’s a huge achievement, congratulations! Can you tell us about the inspiration behind it.
My dad is a talented artist and painted a sweet shop that used to be on a corner in a village local to me. It used to be a sweet shop in the 70’s but is long gone now. He gifted it to me and as I looked at it I had a eureka moment. I thought back to the novel Chocolat and thought what a great focal point for a novel, a seaside corner shop would be. On the book cover, the actual painting is incorporated into the illustration.
Can you tell us a little about your route to publication?
With no agenda, I started writing over twenty years ago. However, what remained the same, was the dream that I would eventually sell enough books to be able to give up the day job and become a full-time writer.
After securing an agent, but then failing to get a publisher for many years, in 2011 I decided to go it alone and self-publish. I did OK, even winning a couple of awards at the Festival of Romance for Best Author Read. But, still despite a spike in sales, I couldn’t take the chance financially to jump ship and solely write.
It was when I had written five novels, that another agent noticed me, I signed with them, then almost immediately got a seven-book deal with a traditional publisher. I jumped for joy… but this was short-lived. I’d always thought that having a publisher would be a guaranteed pathway to success but no – still my dream wasn’t realised!
So… in April 2018, I decided to go it alone again and publish The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay. I planned my marketing approach commencing with a 50 strong social media blog tour. I also promoted the book as a great holiday read and then it happened. The sales started flowing, the reviews flying in and now I’ve been enjoying the success of being #1 in many charts and more importantly I can now class myself as a full-time author.
What have you learnt that you wished you’d known when you started writing?
That having a traditional publisher isn’t a guaranteed route to success.
That a lot of marketing, whether self-published or published is paramount to success.
What would be your biggest tip for a new writer?
Keep writing! It has taken many years to hone my craft and I am still learning every day.
Find yourself a good editor.
Be prepared for many rejections and criticisms and although it’s easy to lose heart, don’t. Take on board everything anyone says as more often, than not, it will help you.
Buy your copy of The Cornershop in Cockleberry Bay
Bio
Nicola May lives in Ascot, near the famous racecourse, with her black-and-white rescue cat, Stan. Her hobbies include watching films that involve a lot of swooning, crabbing in South Devon, eating flapjacks – and, naturally, enjoying a flutter on the horses.
She classes her novels as ‘chicklit with a kick,’ writing about love, life and friendships in a real, not fluffy kind of way.
Book Blurb
Rosa Larkin is down on her luck in London, so when she inherits a near-derelict corner shop in a quaint Devon village, her first thought is to sell it for cash and sort out her life. But nothing is straightforward about this legacy. While the identity of her benefactor remains a mystery, he – or she – has left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it.Â
Rosa makes up her mind to give it a go: to put everything she has into getting the shop up and running again in the small seaside community of Cockleberry Bay. But can she do it all on her own? And if not, who will help her succeed – and who among the following will work secretly to see her fail?
There is a handsome rugby player, a sexy plumber, a charlatan reporter and a selection of meddling locals. Add in a hit and run incident and the disappearance of a valuable engraved necklace – and what you get is a journey of self-discovery and unpredictable events.
With surprising and heartfelt results, Rosa, accompanied at all times by her little sausage dog Hot, will slowly unravel the shadowy secrets of the inheritance, and also bring her own, long-hidden heritage into the light.
Links:
The Corner Shop is out now and is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
Twitter @nicolamay1
Instagram author_nicola
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