The Girl You left Behind by Jojo Moyes - live webchat 11 December 1-2pm

GeraldineGransnet

Thanks so much to Jojo for typing away so furiously and answering so many questions. It's been absolutely delightful to have her here and we're already looking forward to the next book...

Thank you so much for having me! The questions were fascinating - especially the one about whether my children should be writers...If anybody has a question they forgot to ask, then do ask me on twitter or facebook. I'll always try to reply.

Thanks again

spotification

Hi Jojo, great to have you here. Do you think books written by women need to have unhappy endings to be taken seriously?

I am struck that Sebastian Faulks (for example) is treated as a really serious novelist though if some of his books were written by a woman, I suspect he might not be....

Hi Spotification.

Thank you! And that's a really interesting question. I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but yes, it's interesting that the book that far outsold all my others had a less-than-happy ending.
I think it's very difficult to compare like to like when it comes to writing. But if you compared, say, Nick Hornby with some of the women writing in the same genre, it's hard not to suspect that he gets more column inches/reviews. I just try to feel happy about sales and not get riled by the other stuff. I had a very interesting tweet discussion with another more literary writer the other day who said: "I might get a few column inches in the Observer, but you get all the sales!"

katykat

Thank you for answering -s ounds sensible to me. What did you do in those 13 years?

I have been a minicab controller, a market trader, a writer of Club 18-30 catalogues, a typer of braille statements for blind people, a barmaid and a journalist. All human life is there!

hopefulgran

What do you make of the mummy porn phenomenon? Have you come under pressure to put more sex in your books?

Hi Hopefulgran

No, I've come under no pressure at all with regards to sex scenes. In fact, I find them very hard to write - it's that balance of not sounding like either a 70s porn mag or a biology textbook. I've probably got a little more explicit with Last Letter and TGYLB (the scene with the Kommandant) but my impulse is generally to shut the bedroom door.

As for mummy porn, I don't think I'm very well equipped to comment, as I only read the first Fifty Shades. I personally thought the works of Nancy Friday or Anais Nin were better written and more 'effective' (makes Harry Hill face to camera), but the grey-covered books are obviously making a whole raft of women very happy - and who can argue with that?!

Hi Jojo, great to have you here. Do you think books written by women need to have unhappy endings to be taken seriously?

I am struck that Sebastian Faulks (for example) is treated as a really serious novelist though if some of his books were written by a woman, I suspect he might not be....

Thank you for answering -s ounds sensible to me. What did you do in those 13 years?

katykat

If one of your children said they wanted to be a writer too would you be happy or dismayed?

Hi Katykat

I'd be happy, but I'd encourage them to get at least five years of working life in first. I think there are very few writers who can write brilliantly about the human experience before they've lived a few significant events themselves. And I think doing other jobs gives you a sensible work ethic. If I hadn't done 13 years in other jobs beforehand I'm not sure I'd be as good at managing my own time...

Iwasframed

I thought it was so interesting in The Girl You Left Behind that the first part of the story was set in the First World War. I hadn't even realised France was occupied in the First World War (though thinking about it, I can see it must have been). Why did you choose to set the story then, rather than the second world war? Was there much material around to research?

Hi Iwasframed

Can I refer you to my answer to DavidH22? And no, to my shame, I hadn't realised the level of occupation either. There wasn't a huge amount of material around - especially compared to WW2 - but the internet now has amazing online resources of, eg, photographs. And sometimes they can be as powerful as the written word when it comes to describing situations.

What do you make of the mummy porn phenomenon? Have you come under pressure to put more sex in your books?

glassortwo

I cant put it down, my kindle is feeling rejected.

Its so different from your last two book I read Me before You then Last letter from my lover which was my best book of 2012 but I have not yet finished The girl you left behind. Each book seems to me to be very different was that something you strived for to keep the reader interested?

Hi Glassortwo

Thank you! And I don't strive to write different books each time - I just can't help it! In fact, I would make my publishers' lives much easier if I did write similar books, as they'd be easier for them to market. One of the things I loved about Penguin when they took me on was that they said: "We don't care what you write about - modern or historical - because we think the thread running through them is big emotional reads." And the fact that the last three have been so well received has given me the confidence to just keep on writing what I want...

If one of your children said they wanted to be a writer too would you be happy or dismayed?

DavidH22

Novels with the First World War as a background are usually based around life in the trenches but yours is set in a German-occupied civilian area. Is this something you researched or is it fictitious? Thoroughly enjoying it so far and as this is the first book of yours I have read will certainly look up some others.

Hi David

Thank you - yes I felt the trenches had been pretty well covered. And I was fascinated to find out about civilian life in the occupied area of France; to my shame I hadn't realised that so many towns had been occupied. I've referred elsewhere to the brilliant book by Helen McPhail which sourced many original documents about civilian life in that time. If you're interested, I'd highly recommend it.

extremesport

Do authors have to work much harder to sell their books these days? Do you have to be a public person with twitter and a facebook page and constantly working on building up a community? (If so, you have my sympathy - must be exhausting on top of writing all those books.)

Hi Extremesport

I think they probably do. Most publishers today want to feel that you will help promote your own work online. Luckily I love being on twitter, and I would do it even if I didn't write books (most of my tweets are not book-related). But I can't pretend there aren't evenings where I've put the children to bed and I know I've got a ton of emails and tweets and requests to respond to where I don't feel a bit tired. It has been suggested that I should get someone to do it for me, but the thought of that makes my toes curl. If someone has gone to the trouble of buying my book - and then contacting me about it - the least they should be able to expect is a quick 'thank you!'.

I thought it was so interesting in The Girl You Left Behind that the first part of the story was set in the First World War. I hadn't even realised France was occupied in the First World War (though thinking about it, I can see it must have been). Why did you choose to set the story then, rather than the second world war? Was there much material around to research?

doubletrouble

I loved The Girl You Left Behind but I wondered if it was difficult to follow up a real breakthrough book like Me Before You? Did you feel the stakes were higher all of a sudden?

Hi Doubletrouble

Thank you. And luckily, I was already halfway through The Girl You Left Behind when MBY came out, so there was no pressure to replicate it. But I would be fibbing if I said I didn't feel the stakes were higher. I'm sure the reason TGYLB was such a tough book to write was because I kept asking myself: "Is this up to the same standard? Will people like it, despite the fact that it's so different?"

I'm actually happy now that it is so different - personally I don't like it when people just replicate the same books again and again. The writers I really admire - Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Chabon, Kate Atkinson - tend to strike out and do something different, even if it doesn't always guarantee sales.

Do authors have to work much harder to sell their books these days? Do you have to be a public person with twitter and a facebook page and constantly working on building up a community? (If so, you have my sympathy - must be exhausting on top of writing all those books.)

crosspatch

Is Me Before You going to be made into a film? It would be a wonderful weepie!

Hi Crosspatch

Thank you! And it was going to be a film, and then the Weinsteins announced an English-language remake of Untouchables, a film about a quadriplegic and his carer - and that put a stop on it. But the book is coming out in the US at the end of this month, and there has been a fair bit of TV interest, so I'm hoping it will end up on a screen one way or the other...

Alphafemale

I am interested in this whole chicklit question. Have you suffered from being pigeonholed? Your books seem to me just terribly good. Why is there this urge to place writers into a genre? You must feel rather pleased that you've been a genre-buster recently?

Hi Alphafemale

Thank you! And I'm delighted you think I'm a genre buster! I think that would be a very nice place to be.
I don't think I've exactly suffered from pigeonholing - I'm not sure until recently that people knew WHERE to place me. What's been lovely about the last two books is the wide variety of people that have been reading them. I'm selling an awful lot via ebooks - sometimes 1:1 - and that has meant a lot of men or people who wouldn't have read a pink cover are now happily reading. My favourite email recently came from a welder who said he had to take time out at work to have a little cry - and that when he gave the book to his friend, another welder, he did too...

I loved The Girl You Left Behind but I wondered if it was difficult to follow up a real breakthrough book like Me Before You? Did you feel the stakes were higher all of a sudden?

thickofit

I read somewhere that you used to be a journalist. Is writing fiction easier or harder?

Hi Thickofit

Interesting question. I'm not sure there's a clear answer. Fiction is easier on those days when it's going well and the characters are singing in your ear and the plot is tying itself up neatly. On the other days, when it's you in your back room in your onesie, lonely, with the dog whining to go for a walk and your book won't work but you're unable to talk about it to anyone because it all lives in your head and only you can solve it, then I'd say journalism!

Is Me Before You going to be made into a film? It would be a wonderful weepie!

threesugars

Hi Jojo

Haven't read you before so this was a very welcome introduction!

I have to say I was a bit put off from the cover though which was a bit girly for my liking and I didn't think 'fit' the book particularly well. I know we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover but with all the millions of books out there you have to make a decision somehow! Glad I overlooked it on this occasion though (I trust Gransnet's recommendations you see ) so I didn't miss out.

Do you have much input on the cover design? Did you like this one?

Or, so as not to upset your publishers who may be listening in , which is the favourite of your cover designs?

Hi Threesugars

The covers thing is a MINEFIELD. It's so hard to get it right. I do understand your misgivings about the cover, but I also understood why my publishers pitched it that way. A book about a quadriplegic who wants to end his life is not an easy book to jacket without sending potential readers running for the hills...!
I think my favourite cover design is actually for The Girl You Left Behind, which I thought was striking and beautiful. But I also love a photographic cover for Silver Bay - a girl underwater. Unfortunately lots of readers were put off by it!

I am interested in this whole chicklit question. Have you suffered from being pigeonholed? Your books seem to me just terribly good. Why is there this urge to place writers into a genre? You must feel rather pleased that you've been a genre-buster recently?

firenze

Your books often have an 'issue' at the heart of them. Is that how you get your ideas?

Hi Firenze

It often is, yes. With Me Before You it was hearing a news item on the radio about a young quadriplegic man who had persuaded his parents to take him to Dignitas. With The Girl You Left Behind it was a newspaper report about a stolen artwork that was at the heart of a restitution case. But occasionally it's just eavesdropping on other people's dilemmas (writers are VERY nosy) or ideas that won't leave your own head. At the moment I'm mildly obsessed by the growing difference between rich and poor, so that's at the heart of my new book.