'The Girl' is home again

When Hazel Gaynor's novel 'The Girl who Came Home' is published in Ireland and the UK this week by HarperCollins 360, it will be very much a case of deja vu — but with a difference, writes Brian Byrne.

The book from the Kilcullen-based Yorkshire woman has already been published twice. First as a self-published Kindle eBook in 2012, which was very successful. And again a week or so ago when HarperCollins launched it in the US, where it is already on the top picks of major book outlets like the gigantic Target and Costco supermarket chains.

With a copy of the US one in her hands last week, Hazel admits that she was surprised how much having the physical book meant. And that it was done so by one of the world's biggest book publishers. "I know that there are authors who want the independence of self-publishing, but that was never my dream," she says. "I always wanted the physical book in bookshops. And having so many people behind me in the publishing house has been an amazing experience. It really blew me away how meticulous they are, all the stages the work went through."

The story of 'The Girl' is fiction, but based in a west of Ireland village where 14 people left to join the Titanic on a voyage to seek better lives in America. Writing it was the result of a lifelong fascination with the Titanic from the time she was growing up in her native Driffield, Yorkshire. But it was the book she subsequently wrote which gave her the opportunity to get picked up by a major global publisher. Due for publication in January 2015, 'Daughters of the Flowers' tells the story of little girl flower sellers on the streets of 19th century London. It was that manuscript which a NY agent happened to find, loved it, and asked Hazel if she had any more? "So I got a two-book deal for books which were already written, and that's probably the reason that they are scheduled for publication so soon after the deal was signed in June 2013."

As part of the process, Hazel was assigned an editor who helped her tweak The Girl for print publication. There weren't really substantive changes, because it had already been through many edits by Hazel itself prior to the eBook. "My editor's approach is not to tinker with the author's 'voice', but obviously she has an eye for narrative flow and just tightening it up. In addition to sharpening the pacing and the dialogue, obviously some Americanisations needed to be put in for publication there."

Being part of a team of editors, designers and marketing people has given Hazel a real buzz, and a much better understanding of an enormous effort that goes into producing a book when the writer has done her initial bit. "Writing is a lonely profession, and having so many people behind me has given me wonderful confidence. It's all just phenomenal."

Friends have asked her if she had to go to New York to deal with all this, but the fact is that all of the process has been done across the internet and via Skype. "I'll be honest, I'd have bitten the hand off them if they'd offered to bring me to New York, but it wasn't necessary. That will come, maybe towards the end of the year or early next year, when there are people who want to meet me."

She's getting pictures from friends, of her books on shelves in various parts of the US. "They tell me they're quietly shifting them around so they're more prominent, and even onto the best sellers areas," Hazel says with a grin. "I guess I'll be able to do that myself when it's launched here on April 24." Meantime, all the same work is going on with 'Daughters of the Flowers', and Hazel also has another book done. Again it is in a historical setting, 'but it's not sold yet so I don't want to talk about it'.

From starting out a few years ago with a blog about being at home with her two little boys and baking for them, she has come a long way relatively quickly. She's entitled to be proud, and she is. But it's not the big publicity that's on the way which is important. "When the deal was announced, and I was featured on the front page of the Driffield Times, that's been the best. My dad doesn't have internet, and it was difficult for him to realise all that was going on. But seeing the piece on the front page of the local paper brought it all home."

Like The Girl. Home again.

This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.