Bestselling Author
www.barbarataylorbradford.com
How did Barbara Taylor Bradford www.barbarataylorbradford.com become one of the world’s most influential fiction writers, with sales of about 76 million books, published in more than 90 countries in 40 languages?
Entrepreneurial minds want to know.
Bradford’s first novel, A Woman of Substance, published in 1979, went on to become one of the top 10 bestselling fiction books in history. Currently on tour with her 21st novel, Just Rewards, Bradford is starring as the Ladies Who Launch featured speaker at the Avon Salon & Spa in New York City on January 25th.
Here Bradford shares just a few of her secrets about being a bestselling author and businesswoman…
Ladies Who Launch (LWL): You have written 20 bestselling books in the 20 years since A Woman of Substance was first published. How have you sustained such incredible success through the years?
Barbara Taylor Bradford (BTB): “Through a lot of hard work. A lot of people are talented, but they don’t have discipline. To stay on top of any job, I think you have to have discipline, doggedness, determination, a desire to do it, and dedication. Did I say discipline? Another D, distraction, is to be avoided at all costs.
“People say to me, ‘Oh I want to write a book and be a bestselling author.’ That’s not what you can say. You have to say, ‘I want to do this work because I love the work,’
“People ask me, ‘ What do you think about those authors who use people to write their books for them?’ It’s their choice. It has nothing to do with me. But I couldn’t do that. I do the work because I want to write the book. I could no more have someone write a book for me than I could fly to the moon.”
LWL: Not only are you a prolific writer and energetic promoter, but also you have seen 10 of your novels turned into TV mini-series, and are active with several charities. How does one person do so much?
BTB: “I’m well organized. To be a novelist, you have to have imagination, but you also have to have the ability to organize the people in the books. I didn’t just sit down and start typing. I developed the characters and had to know where everything is going. You have to have a blueprint.
“I get up early. I work all day. I work all year-round except when I’m on vacation or on the road. Even then, I will take the books I need to read for the new series that I’m writing. Most days I’m up by six o’clock, sometimes earlier. I have my coffee, glance at the British papers, and then I go to work. I might not be writing all day. I might be thinking or doing research.”
LWL: You started writing for the Yorkshire Evening Post at a very young age. How did you deal with the challenges you must have faced as a girl in a male-dominated industry?
BTB: “I was lucky. I joined the Yorkshire Evening Post when I was 15 and a half as a typist. I was very ambitious and did stories for the paper that got published. I got myself moved to a position as cub reporter.
“There might have been, with some of men, some resentment that a young girl was here and so they couldn’t use four-letter words or felt that they couldn’t. But most took me seriously because I was very serious about my work. Many helped me. I never had to cope with men making passes at me. Because I took it seriously, it somehow all worked. I was willing to get coffee or make a cup of tea or run an errand, and do all of the things that you need to do as a kid, so in the end, many of the men were very affectionate toward me and helped me.”
LWL: Your biography says that at first you failed at fiction writing. Tell us how you conquered that hurdle.
BTB: “I didn’t really fail, because I never submitted anything. I would start a novel, get through a few hundred pages, decide I didn’t like it and put it away. My first four novels didn’t work for me because they were suspense novels. I never showed them to anyone.”
LWL: What has been your greatest professional challenge?
BTB: “I suppose the greatest challenge was to finish writing Woman of Substance because I hadn’t finished writing a novel before. It’s always a challenge to come up with new ideas. I think that’s the greatest challenge I’m facing at the moment.
“Right now I’m writing a trilogy about a new family, and it’s a challenge because it’s going back to 1904 and writing about a great conglomerate, the men who are running it, and the women in their lives. Now I have to envision a trilogy and know every book.”
LWL: What has been your greatest professional success?
BTB: “You always love your first book. It became a yardstick in a way for a lot of women who want to start their own businesses. I didn’t mean to send a message to women with A Woman of Substance, but I did. The message was, ‘If Emma can do it, you can, too.’ ”
LWL: What words of advice do you have for women entrepreneurs?
BTB: “You have to take chances sometimes. I take a chance every time I write a book. What if everyone hates it? I think it’s having courage as well as all those Ds. Believing in yourself, not giving up and going on, even if you don’t get it right the first time. I didn’t complete my first books because I didn’t like them. Maybe I was afraid of failing.”
Sold Out
Barbara Taylor Bradford is the Featured Lady Speaker at the Ladies Who Launch Speaker Series this week in New York City at the Avon Salon & Spa. The event is now full. Please stay tuned for future Speaker Series events with Ladies Who Launch!
Located in Washington DC?
The first Ladies Who Launch Speaker Series is coming to Washington DC on February 15th, featuring Annie Lou Bayly from Daily Candy! Don’t miss her riveting tale of a career in one of the most successful new media companies in the country. Click here for details and to register online
To register by phone, call 703-465-5118. Event is limited to 100 people.
Date: February 15, 2006
Time: 6-8:30p.m.
Location: Mazza Gallery, Club Cinema; Metro: Friendship Heights
