Seventeen-year-old Kat Hartland loathes Unrequited, the world's biggest boy band. Is she the only girl in Sydney who can't be bothered with perfect-looking Angus Marsden?
Give her 5 Seconds of Summer. Now.
Or maybe the seriously-hot med student who rescued her on a train—and who could be Douglas Booth's twin! Perfect formal partner, much?
But when Kat comes face to face with Angus Marsden himself, things start to get complicated. Very. Throw in a deranged female popstar, final exams, a part in the musical and a mum who just doesn't get it—and where is her best friend?
When did life get so crazy? Kat's just an ordinary schoolgirl.
Isn't she?
Read the first three chapters at: www.unrequited.com.au
About the Author
Emma Grey has two teenage girls, a three-year-old boy, a couple of businesses and another teen novel in the pipeline. Her first book, 'Wits' End Before Breakfast! Confessions of a Working Mum' was published in 2005.
Interview
What does being an author bring to your life?
It’s really about the magic of escapism. The world is a scary place at times and we all have problems to deal with and things that we find difficult. It’s nice to have somewhere to ‘go’ (even if that place is inside your own head) where you can really ‘play’. It’s similar to reading or getting lost in a great movie—you just forget who you are for a while.
Your two books couldn’t really be more different. Your first was based on your real life (auto-biographical) and written for an audience predominantly made up of mothers. Your second is a novel for teenage girls about a topic close to many of their hearts. What are differences between writing for two such different audiences and on such polar topics?
The old advice is to ‘write what you know’. When I wrote my first book, I was a frantic mum of two little girls, working, studying and totally over-committing my time. With this book, I’m the mum of two teenage girls and their world and language and challenges are very ‘real’ to me (and remind me of feeling the same way when I was their age).
No matter what you’re writing, I think it’s really important that you understand it closely, and you’re able to be right in the ‘headspace’ of your ideal readers. Otherwise they’ll call you out on it!
When your first book was published, social media wasn’t really around. For your second, is it almost a necessity to use it? Could you reach your target audience without it?
It has completely changed since 2005 when my first book was published. The big focus for marketing then was radio and magazines. Now it’s social media and blogs, which is much more immediate and there’s simply more ‘of it’, so way more opportunities to reach new readers. It’s interesting to ponder how the situation will look in another ten years, and what that will mean for authors and readers.
Your first book was published, your second self-published. What are the pros and cons of each?
I chose to self-publish Unrequited as a bit of an experiment, and didn’t approach any publishers with the manuscript. The main differences are control and timing. With self-publishing you have much more of a say in things like the cover design and date of release. Of course, there’s way more for you to coordinate too, which means finding editors, typesetters, designers, printers etc — all the stuff that a publishing house usually does for you. You’re also fully in control of marketing and promotion, and that’s an ongoing task, although with a publishing house they only really focus on new titles for a few weeks, before focusing on their next set of new books.
My advice to any budding self-publishers is to ‘Go Pro’ in certain areas. DO engage a professional editor and proof-reader and have the cover designed by a graphic artist (unless you have that skill yourself).
Read the first three chapters of Unrequited here.
Interesting premise
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