The Hippo Hangs Out . . . . with Sue Bordley

A couple of years ago I welcomed an author called Jess Molyneux to The Hippo. We go to know each other and talked about her debut novel, X,Y,Z, (You can read that post here.) Today, I'm delighted to welcome Jess back to my blog, but this time as the lovely lady behind the pen name, Sue Bordley.

Photo courtsey of Sue Bordley

Sue Bordley is an author from the Wirral. Having achieved amazing success with her first book, ‘X Y, Z’, a realistic YA romance that she wrote under the pen name Jess Molyneux, her first novel under her real name was published in 2018. ‘Rescue Me’ got into the top 3,500 of all Amazon books, before she released ‘SE6’, a follow-up to ‘X Y, Z’ in 2019. This book reached the Amazon Top 10 against mainstream names such as John Green and Louise Rennison. ‘SE6’ was also given Hot New Release status, confirming Sue as a real indie author success story. 

 

'So, I'm 19, bossing uni and living in London with my boyfriend - who just happens to be the UK's hottest young actor. Living the dream, right? Only if it's one of those weird dreams you have after too much cheese... ' Zoe and Alex have got it all : a flat (complete with vestibule), they're not living on instant noodles and their relationship is unbreakable. Basically, the road ahead looks clear... or has the city where the streets are paved with gold got a few potholes lying ahead? 'SE6' is the second book in the 'X Y, Z' series. Recommended for age 15 and over.

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Welcome back to The Hippo Sue, it's so lovely to host you again and I'm so excited to find out about your other books. Please do pull up a chair and make yourself at home, I can't wait to get started.

 

Which book made you cry?
Before becoming an author, I was an English teacher for twenty years. After two decades of dissecting often less-than-cheerful literature, when I read for entertainment in my own time, I prefer uplifting, lighthearted books. However, one book that sticks out in my memory is ‘Ways to Live Forever’ by Sally Nicholls, a novel I read with my students. It’s about two boys who meet on a cancer treatment ward. They’re under no illusions about what their futures hold, so they embark on a mission to complete as many of the adult experiences they won’t get to have in the time they have left. Although heartbreaking, it’s still enjoyable and even humorous in places - but you need a big box of tissues to make it to the end.

I love a good tearjerker Sue so I'll definitely have to check this one out. Did you know that it was made into a film in 2010?

Which authors are you friends with? How do they help you become a better writer?
I’ve met many great authors since I began writing, but for one in particular, it was a case of going from best of friends to best sellers! Sarah Davis was my housemate in my university student days, and we’ve been friends ever since. I remember us sitting in a café on one of our meetups, and telling her, ‘Guess what? I’ve finally written a book!’, only for her to say, ‘Guess what? So have I!’ We’re not in competition though, I’m delighted to see the success she’s had with her book, ‘Baby Daze’.

Another author friend is TL Clark. I met her via Instagram, after reading ‘Self Love’, one of her ten novels. We live at opposite ends of the country and have never actually met, but we often bounce ideas around via email and help each other spot the author’s nemesis - the typo!

Wow what a small world as Sarah will be a guest here on The Hippo very soon!

Do you hear from readers and what do they say?
I love receiving feedback from readers, both for my books written as Sue Bordley and Jess Molyneux. I’ve had comments ranging from ‘Refreshingly realistic teen fiction at its best!’ and ‘Genuinely the best book I have read’ for ‘X Y, Z’, through to readers asking for a follow-up to ‘Rescue Me’. I think Nikki, the heroine of ‘Rescue Me’ got an end to her story, but when a lot of readers also told me they felt Nikki’s best friend, Laura, deserved a book of her own, I couldn’t disappoint them. My next novel, ‘Sort Your Life Out, Laura Bishoprick’ will be released soon, and I’d describe it as a ‘spin-up’ (cross between a spin-off and a follow-up, this needs to be a thing!) from ‘Rescue Me’.

Where did your love of reading come from?
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t an avid reader, having been a real-life Matilda as a child, moving to the adult area of the library when I was about seven because I’d read everything in the children’s section. I was also lucky enough to have two wonderful English teachers during my time at secondary school, who fostered my love of literature and encouraged me to write. 

I always loved English at school as well. It was my favourite subject and I have many fond memories of my teacher Mrs Carroll.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
I have got a pleasure, but I don’t feel any guilt whatsoever! I love quizshows, especially watching them with my son, who has autism. The bright lights, colours and numbers really catch his imagination and he loves pretending to be a host, asking me questions. I brought my love of quizzing to my next novel, even applying to be a contestant on one as part of my research. You’ll have to read it to see what happens!

Which literary character is most like you?
I’m going to cheat a little here and refer to my own books, because many readers assume my best-loved character, Zoe from ‘X Y, Z’ and ‘SE6’, is based upon my own life. She isn’t... but one of my heroines is, a little. Laura Bishoprick is probably most like me of all of the characters I’ve created, and I’ve even used one or two events that have actually happened to me in her story. What are they? Well, let’s just say, there’s a certain French restaurant I can never return to...

What’s your favourite motivational phrase?
If you don’t believe in yourself (or your writing), how can you expect anyone else to?

If a genie gave you three wishes, what would they be?
As an author, I’d like to stop celebrities automatically bagging all the publishing deals, to give real authors more of a chance. As a person, I think I’d devote my other two wishes to ending the pandemic and creating a world in which no-one feels under threat. 

While you're here Sue it would be great if you could tell us all a little bit about being an author. 😃

                                         My Publishing Journey

When the lovely Hippo asked me to talk about an aspect of being an author, I decided I wouldn’t bore you with the ins and out of writing: every author has their own method, from initial inspiration to the final edit. Besides, writers talk about writing all the time. What we don’t talk about enough is the publishing process: what the options are, and if you’re a budding unpublished author reading this, which one might suit you. 

That said, I’m not sure I’m the best person to tell you, because I knew a big pile of nothing when I started, and I’ve added to that pile as the years have gone on... however, I can share with you a few of my experiences, and you can decide for yourself the route you might wish to take. Or point and laugh, I’m not bothered. 

After completing ‘X Y, Z’, my first novel, I wasn’t sure what on earth to do with it. At the time I was working as an English teacher, so I can only compare it to a nurse not knowing where babies come from - or at least, I knew there were these mystical beings called publishers, but I had no idea where they were.

So, I did the only logical, rational thing and, rather than do some research into how to get a book published, I sat on it for several months... until one of my colleagues, whom I had bored to death with the ins and outs of my writing process, asked to see it.

Two days later, she slapped a thick tome on my desk. It was something called ‘The Writers and Artists Yearbook’ because, in her words, ‘You have got to get your book published.’

As I prised the pages of my new Bible apart that evening, I was full of hope. This book was going to tell me everything I needed to know about getting my book out there - except, all it did was make me aware of an obstacle I hadn’t even considered. 

Agents. Apparently none of the big publishers will look at you without one. Okay, I thought, let’s see how I get me one of those, and continued to read on. It was then I came to the next stumbling block.

Before I was an author, even before I was a teacher, I was an agent myself. An estate agent. The reason I’m telling you this is that I had to deal with anything: bungalows, end-terraces, fifth floor flats and even a cottage with a thatched roof. In short, if it had bricks, I’d work with it. No matter what, it was someone’s home and it was my job to see the potential.

Literary agents aren’t the same. Far from seeing the potential, they’re all about the hole and not the doughnut. In an agent’s world, authors must fit into boxes, and only boxes of the agent’s choosing. Sci Fi author? Boldly go... and don’t come back. Crime writer? Case closed. Romance? You’re dumped.

Alright, I’m sure you’re thinking at this point, all you’ve got to do is find the one who deals with your genre. That’s a great idea, as long as you’ve written something that’s easy to shove in a box, and I don’t know about you, but if I could shove something in a box that easily, I’d probably leave it there. 

‘X Y, Z’ didn’t fit into any of their boxes or play along with their can’t-do attitude. I discussed ‘X Y, Z’ when I was a guest on The Hippo Hangs Out in January 2018 so you can see my full MO there, but in short, it was an educational book with sex scenes for older teenagers, designed to stop them looking for sex scenes in books with less healthy messages. My books had too much story and emphasis on responsibilty for erotica, but for YA, sex scenes that didn’t so much push the envelope, more scrunch it into a ball and boot it out of the window. Try fitting that into one of your boxes!

Since agents looked like a non starter, I sat on my manuscript a while longer, all the time worrying that my references to Beyonce and Instagram in ‘X Y, Z’ were going to be completed outdated by the time this book ever saw the light of day.

So you know what I did? I made my own box and joined the self publishing revolution. From that point on, I was an independent author. 

Reading a poem that was included in the anthology 'The Quality of Mersey' at Waterstones

There are options such as companies that will produce the book for you, or if you have a reasonable amount of tech know-how, you can upload your book yourself using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Your book can then be bought for people to read on Kindle, as paperback and you can even order discounted copies to sell face-to-face at literary events (or, in the case of my second book, ‘Rescue Me’, at swimming pools). True, your book will only be available on Amazon (unless you can get an independent bookshop to stock your books) but if you can only be in one bookshop, it’s probably best to be with the biggest in the world.

Chatting with presenter Jermaine Foster at BBC Radio Merseyside

Occasionally, when I tell people I’m an author, I get asked which publisher I’m with. When I say I’m independent, they give me the pitying face: as though I’m doing it because I wasn’t good enough to get chosen by a publisher, but the landscape is changing. Thousands of authors are choosing to self-publish because they enjoy the complete freedom it gives them, and when I saw my most recent book, ‘SE6’, published under my penname Jess Molyneux in the Top 10 of its category and listed as a Hot New Release next to James Patterson, I’d like to think that shattered a few prejudices. 

So, three books under my belt and with another one coming soon, I’m an independent woman and proud. We’re the future. 

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Everyone here at The Hippo loves Indie Authors and feel that they are very underrated. Some people just don't know what they are missing by writing them off unfairly Sue. 😢

You can find out more about Sue ( and her alter ego Jess), her books and connect with her using the links below:

Amazon UK  (Sue Bordley)         Amazon UK  (Jess Molyneux)

Amazon US  (Sue Bordley)          Amazon US  (Jess Molyneux)

Instagram

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Sue for taking the time out from her busy schedule to stop by and chat today. It's been fabulous to host you again and I wish you lots of luck and success on your Indie journey. 😉