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Commercial fiction writers

5 November 2018

‘They are authors who are unique, they are brilliant at what they do. For every company, there are must-haves. Lesley is a must-have. (Commercial) authors are, in fact better off than ever because people can see how good their books are now, they can read reviews on Amazon, and the way we can spread the word - using newsletters and Facebook pages - is fantastic. It used to be that you could package a not particularly good author and pay for promotion, get it out there, and it would sell. You can't get away with that anymore...

The word "commercial"... I never know what I mean by that. I think it's an every-blurring line but it's that book where the narrative drives you through. You can find that with very literary authors as well - David Mitchell, Ian McEwan or Donna Tarrt, for instance - but you have to keep reading. We're not in it just for the love of the language, let's put it that way.'

Louise Moore, MD of Michael Joseph, in a joint interview with her author Lesley Pearse (who has achieved 10 million sales worldwide) in the Bookseller.