The Role of Luck - talking about writing for boys with Robert Muchamore
Robert calls his genre ‘attainable fantasy’. He talks about how quickly he writes, how important structure is, how he tries to make each chapter work as standalone excitement, and how the series grew by word of mouth. In fact, he says ‘it almost survived through benign neglect’. His first advance was small for the times, but he has since become a millionaire through writing. His latest Robin Hood series will be out in 2020.
View the show notes here: https://www.prepublished.net/episodes/the-role-of-luck-talking-about-series-with-robert-muchamore
Robert happened to be writing his first children’s book at a time when Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series was about to make child spies the next big thing. He didn’t know this at the time, but he describes how useful Alex Rider was in getting his story noticed. He then went on to sell 13 million books – and counting – of the Cherub series starring James Adams, which are the most successful books I know for getting pre-teen boys avidly reading. That said, 40% of the people in Robert’s queues are girls, and he can write strong female characters too.
Thanks as always to Christopher Pett for production and editing.
Links to resources:
Robert’s website: https://www.muchamore.com
Eddison Pearson literary agency : https://www.eddisonpearson.com
Join the Prepublished newsletter
Get reminders about new episodes and news about upcoming guests straight to your inbox