An Interview with bestselling author Joy Ellis

Check out the full interview here!

Upon the release of her new audiobook, One More to Die, Lincolnshire Today spoke with Joy Ellis, the Lincolnshire Fens-based crime thriller author. Having written more than 30 novels, including three series, Joy’s success can be seen in 12 UK #1 best-sellers, with her works selling over 3.7 million copies in English and translated into 14 languages.

Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey to becoming a published author?

We came to live in Lincolnshire from Surrey in the millennium and I started thinking about writing as soon as we got here and I saw the location. We were wandering around the lanes one misty evening, and I thought “this is the perfect setting for a crime novel.” I started writing in earnest around five years after that. We’d retired, were enjoying ourselves, and I realised that writing is what I really wanted to do, so I buckled down and got absolutely nowhere for years. I sent books off, got loads of rejections, and became very unhappy about it. I had two books taken by a publisher who mainly dealt with hardbacks for libraries which were very expensive and very short print runs, but I knew that wasn’t the way I wanted to go. As soon as I decided it was time to give up, as I was wasting my life and that of my partner Jacqueline, I had an amazing phone call from Jasper Joffe of Joffe Books. He had picked up one of my books that I’d put on Kindle. He said he loved it and asked if I would join them. From that moment I never looked back.

You’ve written numerous books, including three series. What keeps your creative cogs turning?

Oh, heaven knows! It’s as much a surprise to me as it is anyone else, believe me! It’s little things; some tiny thing that sows a seed. I’m one of these writers that doesn’t plot or plan very carefully or lay everything out and know where everything is going. I literally write chapter one with an idea in my head and off we go. It’s kind of organic, I think.

Do you have any other future book releases on the horizon?

I have another in the DI Nikki Galena series coming out later this year and I’m writing the next Jackman as we speak.

Is there anything else you want to add?

A thank you to everyone. We writers would be absolutely nowhere without the readers, and they have been so supportive to me. We’ve got a massive base of people who follow us. I love them all. I also want to give a huge thank you to Jasper Joffe, for trusting me and taking the books. We’ve been working together now for eight years, and he’s been a fabulous publisher. He really cares about his authors. It’s been a fantastic journey so far, and now I’m of an age I’m certainly not planning on giving up!