Want To Be A Successful Author? Then Burn Your Career To The Ground.

If there was a special formula to writing a best-selling book publishers would already have bottled it. Yet, there does seem one way to give yourself a fair shot.

At the book launch for Nussaibah Younis‘s Fundamentally she talked about how she could not write her, now best-selling, Women’s Prize shortlisted debut, until ten years later when she was ready to ‘burn my career to the ground.’

See, I also wrote a burn-your-career-to-the-ground novel, Where The Light is Hottest, based very loosely on my time as an actor, casting director and producer in the film industry. In fact, I wrote a scathing piece about my former life in the film industry in The Sunday Times. On the Sunday it came out I read both the paper and the online version. ‘Well,’ I said to my husband, ‘if my acting career wasn’t over before, it certainly is now.’ Zero regrets.

I.S Berry also write honestly and bravely about her time as a CIA agent. Thankfully, the CIA loved her book, The Peacock and The Sparrow and she was invited to speak at the CIA's internal creative writing club, Invisible Ink

I have to mention Adam Kay, of course. Who wrote an absolutely brutally honest and downright terrifying account of his time working as an obstetrician in the NHS in This is Going to Hurt. It was also made into a television show. I would have paid good money to see the reaction of his former work colleagues when they read the book.

So if you’re a writer looking for inspiration then look no further than your career. Maybe it’s time to start a little fire.