by Mel (Fri Mar 12, 2010)
Judith O'Reilly
has had the sort of success that makes bloggers salivate with envy. Towards the
end of 2006 she agreed to follow her husband from London to Northumberland in
the North East of England. In part because her husband came from there and
wanted to return, in part to fulfil a promise they made to each other to try
and ‘be happy' after their first child was stillborn.
Once in
Northumberland Judith started a blog, ‘Wife in the North' and
six weeks later signed a book deal to the tune of £70,000. It was the fastest
blog-to-book deal ever in the UK. The book was published in July 2008 and was
one of the top 10 bestsellers in the UK and Germany.
Wife in the North, in the
UK
I first read
about Judith in the Sunday Times in February 2007.
I was on a train and some of the excerpts from her blog made me cry. I've been
a regular visitor to ‘Wife in the North' ever since and I spoke to her recently to find out what her
rollercoaster blogging, publishing journey has been like and to see what comes
next.
I've always
wondered if starting her blog was an attempt to land a book deal. It turns out
I am wrong.
‘No, it was a
form of therapy. I had things to say and no-one to say them to. I'm not a
chatty person but friends are important to me and I didn't have any up here
when I first moved.'
She admits that
the success took her by surprise and was, ‘a complete fluke,' adding that,
‘people who write blogs to try and get a book deal, well, it's like buying a lottery
ticket; it's a long shot. I wrote for myself and I had to remind myself that I
was writing for myself. I was telling a story, writing down the day-to-day
narrative of my life. By blogging about it I did want an audience, but I didn't
want to be swayed by what they thought of my writing.'
Wife in the North, in
Germany
After the article
in the Sunday Times, readers flooded to her blog. Most of the comments were
supportive, some of them hurtful and insulting. I ask her why she thought people
had been so cruel,
‘I think it's
tall poppy syndrome. As soon as you are taller than the rest, someone wants to
cut you down. I think women are particularly at risk from that. There are lots
of unpleasant people out there who because they can comment anonymously on a
blog and get away with saying things they would never say to your face. I'm a
journalist, I'm used to criticism for my writing, but I get e-mails from other
women bloggers who are very upset by the comments left on their blogs. I feel
outraged by the tossers that exist in cyberspace.'
So the
unpleasantness didn't really affect her personally? ‘God no, I didn't lose any
sleep over it.'
At times the
furore over her blog got a little close to home, particularly when she
described how her son was being bullied at school. Without mincing her words
she wrote down the details of the bullying and how it made her feel. The comments box filled up with supportive messages,
but also insults. Did she wish she hadn't been so honest?
‘It would have
been disingenuous not to write about what was happening and I was careful to
avoid identifying anyone. I understand why they got their knickers in a twist,
but I maintain that the bullying was the issue and not me blogging about it.'
So to her overnight
book deal and the publicity that followed it, what was that like?
‘It was
fantastic! And then it went viral! You can't predict that happening, it's
either going to or it isn't. People e-mail me asking me how I did it, as if I
have some magic formula, but no, the publicity had a life of its own.'
Wife in the North, in the
US
Although ‘Wife in
the North' was a bestseller in the UK and Germany, by her own admission, it
‘...sank like a
stone in the US.' They didn't get why I just didn't leave my husband if I was
so unhappy or why I didn't learn how to fill my car with petrol (in one blog
post she runs out of petrol and blames her husband for not putting petrol in
the car) they might have been right about that last one! Also, the book has a
black, dry, ironic tone which didn't go down well. And it went to a very
high-brow publisher, it wasn't marketed as a mass read.'
Now that ‘Wife in
the North' is published, what comes next?
‘Well I'm working
on a novel and I've just finished the first draft. Unfortunately, it's
rubbish!'
Well, it might be
rubbish, but what is it about? At this point Judith becomes almost
monosyllabic. I finally prise out,
‘Well it deals
with themes important to women, relationships really.' And that is all I'm
getting on that particular subject. She says it is ‘nowhere near finished' and
at this stage doesn't have a publisher.
‘Wife in the North' was responsible for a huge
surge in Mummy blogging in the UK. After the article in the Sunday Times there
was a rush of Mummy bloggers to her site, many of them brand new. Some were
hoping for similar publishing success, but many had simply been inspired to
write and to have an online place where they could vent and be creative. Whether
you love her writing or hate it, Wife in the North has given women's online
writing a huge kick up the backside. I wonder what effect her next book will
have?
