Lucy Brazier Author interview

Top blogger and great author Lucy Brazier kindly agreed to visit my blog and answer a few question. I meet her fairly early on in my blogging journey and she has always been very supportive and helpful. She has recently re-released her first book.

You had quiet an interesting journey with your book. First published through a self-publishing company then picked up by a more traditional publisher.Can you tell us something about using a self-publishing company was it a good experience?

It was a fairly straightforward experience, certainly, and I was happy with the quality of the end product. But what you have to remember is that they are not interested in you or your book, only how much money they can extract from you for additional services and advertising. Fending off weekly sales calls became a little annoying, but these people are not your friends or colleagues, so don’t be afraid to tell them to go forth and fornicate. There is no genuine support or relationship with them – which I actually quite liked as I didn’t have to worry about upsetting anyone!

What are the differences with your new publisher?

The main difference is that they are endlessly supportive of both myself and my work – they wouldn’t have signed me if they didn’t believe in the product. If you are an insecure creative – as many of us are – this is quite comforting. However, it does mean that I am now faced with not only the protracted processes of the professional publishing world, but also a host of people from editors to publicists to appease. Each tiny step is perpetually frustrating and negotiations and compromise strip most of the shine from the creative endeavour and invariably you end up with a finished product that isn’t really what you wanted. But they do take care of all the tricky technical stuff and the yawn-fest that is marketing, so for that I am eternally grateful.

Did you find re-writes hard after already publishing it?

The re-writes were absolutely great – until the editor got involved and then it became like pulling teeth.

Something I’ve always want to ask you, do you worry you give too much of the books plot away in your blog? I always worry about reading it just in case it ruins the book for me.

It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? On the one hand, you don’t want to give away all your best stuff, but on the other you need to draw people into your world and hope they will buy the book. As my book started life as a blog, it makes sense for me to continue in that manner. The blogs serve as a first draft, so I feel that the readers get an insight into the process rather than the finished product. Of course, there will be spoilers and plot lines that cannot help but be revealed, but through blogging I get instant feedback and suggestions from readers which is absolutely invaluable. And the main thing about blogging, is that it is a whole lot of fun. I get to write, people get to read and we all have a bit of a laugh about it all. So what if people don’t buy the books? We’re here for a good time, not a long time.

Lucy Brazier Author Bio

Lucy Brazier is in her 30’s and lives in the university city of Cambridge, England.

She started writing from the age of ten when her primary school teachers were at a bit of a loss as to how to contain her effervescent personality. They tasked her with writing stories for the younger children in a bid to keep it from disrupting her peers.

Lucy developed her skills throughout her teenage years, when she was inspired to read the words of Homer, Livy and Virgil. These formative years also saw her develop her other great passion of music, where she heartily threw herself into several years of misbehaving and playing bass guitar in unsuitable rock bands.

She widened her literary horizons through the works of Terry Pratchett, Flann O’Brien and Oscar Wilde – the latter of which remains to this day her favorite writer.

Lucy developed a penchant for the unusual and the absurd, something which was exacerbated by her time serving in the Police where the many varied experiences and characters she met had a profound effect on her outlook on life.

After seven years on the front line and driven by fascination with Inspector Morse, on a whim Lucy applied for the job of Deputy Head Porter at one of the foremost colleges of Cambridge University. To her great surprise, and that of many others at the time, she landed a role as the first female to don the iconic bowler hat in the college’s six hundred year history. Having left formal education at the tender age of sixteen with little to show for it, being thrown amongst the academic elite was something of an eye opener. Documenting the quirks and fables of College life on social media, Lucy was soon persuaded to start a blog – Secret Diary Of PorterGirl. Acutely aware of the dim view taken by College officials of any slight upon their reputation, she wrote anonymously and in such a way as to disguise the true identity of the now notorious Old College.

However, being quite possibly the worst Deputy Head Porter of all time made her decide to hang up her bowler hat and peruse her dream of becoming a writer. Lucy considers this is the best decision she has ever made.
Blurb

PORTERGIRL: FIRST LADY OF THE KEYS – Is the story of the very first female Deputy Head Porter at Old College.

It follows her adventures in this male dominated, antiquated world and the bureaucracy she has to endure. Head Porter, makes it clear right from the start when he says: ‘Porters are not the carriers of bags, they are the keepers of keys.’

First Lady Of The Keys is a touching, at times laugh out loud funny glimpse into a world that is so unique and special people will fall in love and be enthralled in it.

Her days are packed with action and adventure, if it’s not chasing after naked students, drinking extraordinary amounts of tea, it’s getting embroiled in a murder.

Lucy’s blog
Amazon link
Amazon US link