Best-selling author JoJo Moyes has shared a startling revelation: she was on the brink of abandoning her writing career entirely just before the publication of her global sensation, Me Before You.
The Brink of Giving Up
In a candid interview for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, the 56-year-old novelist explained she felt her career was ending. She was financially broke and deeply depressed after eight previous books failed to make a significant impact. "I thought my writing career was coming to an end," Moyes confessed. Her publishers at the time were supportive but losing faith, leaving Moyes feeling she was in the "last-chance saloon."
The Spark for a Global Phenomenon
The inspiration for Me Before You came from a news report about a paralysed rugby player whose parents supported his wish to end his life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Initially judgmental, Moyes' research led her to see the profound moral complexities. "I realised, like most things in life, it wasn't black or white, it was many shades of grey," she said. This exploration formed the premise of her story about Louisa Clark, a carer, and Will Traynor, a quadriplegic man.
Despite her commitment to the idea, her then-publisher was only lukewarm about the manuscript. Fortunately, a rival publishing house saw its potential. Even then, Moyes, who had a habit of abandoning novels after 20,000 words, considered giving up. It was the encouragement of her late friend and fellow author Sophie Kinsella that persuaded her to continue.
An Unimaginable Snowball of Success
The success that followed was beyond anything Moyes had experienced. The novel has sold a staggering 14 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a major film starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. Moyes described watching sales figures with disbelief as the book "achieved this momentum," becoming a bestseller from Brazil and South Korea to the United States.
"I kept thinking 'well, it's sold 3,000 copies this week, surely that's it'... and it just kept snowballing," she recalled. The scale of the success was so alien to her after years of professional disappointment that she admitted, "I don't think I could look at the success for about three years because I couldn't believe it was finally happening."
JoJo Moyes' appearance on Desert Island Discs airs on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds at 10am on Sunday.
