Thursday 18 April 2013

Afternoon Tea with Abbi Glines

On Sunday 14th April, I was invited to the Hot Key Books offices to have tea with US New Adult sensation Abbi Glines. The event was hosted jointly by Simon and Schuster and Hot Key Books as they are both publishing her New Adult novels this year. Hot Key Books recently published The Vincent Boys and The Vincent Brothers, while Simon and Schuster will be publishing all four books in the Sea Breeze series, starting with three of them coming out at the end of April.
It took me ages to get there and I ended up arriving half hour late due to a passenger being involved in an accident on the trains at South Croydon. I don’t think I have ever travelled in such packed trains before and I nearly turned back home as the journey was an extra hour. However I kept going and on reflection I am so glad I did as Abbi was an inspiring author to meet.
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The guests at the event were made up of competition winners as well as bloggers. The competition winners had all brought presents for Abbi, which she was delighted with; each giving her something to remember London by. Abbi was accompanied by her husband on this trip and it was lovely to meet him too.
It was quite an informal brunch and we all got the opportunity to  ask Abbi questions.
I asked Abbi how long it takes her to write a book and she told me that the first draft takes her a week to write! I nearly fainted at this. Abbi says she doesn’t come out of her study though. She works solidly on it until it is finished. Then once her critique partners have read it, it normally takes around three weeks of edits before she thinks about publishing it.  Last year alone, Abbi wrote seven books!
She told us that her husband was very supportive and looks after everything so that she can write without interruptions. She said that she can be really grumpy when interrupted.
Abbi buys about 20 books a week which she downloads to her Kindle. Out of those she says she often finishes about three, as she doesn’t like to read books where she recognises the story from another book. She also feels uncomfortable reading books that have a similar story to her own. She can normally finish reading a book in a few hours. I wish I could do that.
We talked about all the travelling Abbi does and she told us how hard it is on her children as she does spend a fair percentage of the year travelling to different events in America, although this is her first trip to the UK. She normally takes time off in the summer and plans to take a month this year while her kids are off on summer vacation. She always takes December off from writing as that is the time she likes to spend with her family.
We discussed the New Adult market and where it will go. Abbi felt that it might have a short shelf life. Personally I feel that the book buying public haven’t quite embraced the new trend for New Adult books yet  in the same way the book blogging world has. As bloggers we are at the forefront of the trend and I’m looking forward to recommending New Adult more and more as the general public discover them.
Abbi was delightful to talk to and happily signed all our books for us. Abbi is already a huge success in America and it won’t be long before the UK public have quickly embraced the Queen of New Adult!
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Thank you to Megan (Hot Key Books) and Kat (Simon & Schuster) for inviting me to such a brilliant event. Thank you to Abbi Glines for taking time out during her very short and fully packed visit to the UK to talk to us.

5 comments:

  1. A week to write a first draft? Are you serious?! I'm so envious of that superpower!!

    I have a feeling that NA might have a short shelf-life. I know I'm already tiring of it - a lot of the books I've read seem to follow a formula - then again, I haven't read any of Abbi's books yet. Must check those out soon!

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    1. I think the NA contemporary might have, but not sure about the NA title itself. I think it will generally cover books for 18 to 22 year olds.

      I know the week draft threw me too. I wanted to cry!You must read Abbi, she is fabulous.

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  2. Like Leanna I am stunned by the week for a first draft! This sounded like such an amazing event. I'm going to be reading my first Abbi Glines very soon starting with Because of Low, I can't wait!

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  3. (sobs that I didn't get to hug Abbi) (weeps) Sounds like a most awesome event (sigh)

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  4. This event sounds like it was amazing - but a week to write a first draft! :o That's staggering :)

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