My guest today is bestselling author, Sue Moorcroft. Sue is going to talk to us about her writing journey, and her latest book. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Sue.
Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her novels have been #1 on Kindle UK and Top 100 on Kindle US, Canada, Germany and Italy. She’s won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Novel of the Year, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award, two HOLT Medallions and the Katie Fforde Bursary. She’s the president of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Her novels, short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.
Welcome to my blog, Sue. Delighted to have you with us today. Your books are popular all over the world and have been translated into many languages. Can you share your writing journey with my readers.
My latest book, Over the Sea to Skye, is my twenty-sixth published novel. I sometimes say it took me twenty years to be an overnight success – the interval between my first short story being published in 1996 and The Christmas Promise reaching #1 in the UK Kindle chart in 2016, which meant I finally felt able to make a by living writing novels. Until then, I’d also been writing short stories, serials, columns and writing how-to, running workshops, appraising manuscripts and working with students alongside novels that attained only modest success. Luckily, I have a supportive husband.
I didn’t even sell a novel till 2005, which was the eighth book I’d written. The first seven weren’t all wasted as I went back and sold some of them, and also chopped one up as a serial.
My then-agent sold my first book – Uphill All the Way (later A Home in the Sun) – to a small independent publisher called Transita. It went into large print and audio, and I was even interviewed on the radio. I thought my trajectory was upward bound. Unfortunately, it went down.
The second book, Family Matters (later Want to Know a Secret?) didn’t sell until four years later and to an even smaller publisher. Then I had a bereavement and I didn’t really care.
I left my agent, concentrated on short stories, serials and the rest, and thought my novel-writing days were over. But then I had the opportunity to sell two of those earlier books to a new independent publisher, Choc Lit, began writing novels again, and eventually published seven books with them. Side note: Joffe Books acquired Choc Lit a couple of years ago and have done wonders with my backlist. As you can see from the fact that some books have had more than one life and more than one title, success can breed fresh opportunity.
I paired up with my current agent, the awesome Juliet Pickering from Blake Friedmann, who sold The Christmas Promise and Just for the Holidays to Avon HarperCollins. Over the Sea to Skye is my nineteenth book with them. They’ve made me a Sunday Times best seller as well as the success in the Kindle charts. Blake Friedmann has sold my novels into thirteen different languages. Now I’m changing publishers to Renegade Hachette and my first book with them, Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse will be out in summer 2026.
Writing two books a year means a busy life! It’s more than a full-time job. I met an old banking friend recently and she said she was working a forty-hour week, and I grinned. My week – including promo, events and all the stuff a self-employed person must do – is more like fifty or sixty hours. Lots of that work is fun, I must confess – like research trips to the beautiful Isle of Skye. But most of the time, I’m sitting here at my desk under a skylight, working. And it’s the best job in the world.
What an inspirational writing journey, Sue! Thank you for dropping by today to share that with us.
Sue’s latest book
One summer on a beautiful island could change everything…
Valentina Taylor’s life has been upended. With her marriage over, and unsure of what her future holds, she heads to the Isle of Skye for the summer with her young son, Barnaby.
But the journey there sets her on a new path, when she meets Xander Courage on the train – a charming American, running from problems of his own. After sparks fly, they go their separate ways. But on this small island, they’re never far from one another…
Skye offers Valentina the refuge she needs as she whiles away the long summer days at her beachside cottage, enjoying visits from her sisters, Thea and Ezzie. But when bad news from home throws her Scottish idyll into turmoil, Valentina finds herself pulled away from the place – and people – that she loves.
Valentina knows she must confront her heart’s desires – but can she let go of the past and embrace the future she deserves?
Lose yourself in a heartfelt story of second chances, love, and self-discovery, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Isle of Skye. Perfect for fans of Sarah Morgan and Karen Swan.
Follow Sue
Amazon page: Sue Moorcroft
Audible page: Sue Moorcroft
Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
Facebook author page SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter: @SueMoorcroft
Instagram: @SueMoorcroftAuthor
Linked in: Sue Moorcroft
Link Tree: linktr.ee/SueMoorcroft
Bookbub: SueMoorcroft1
The first two books in the Skye Sisters series.
Karen King 