Ellie Pilcher is nothing if not multi-talented - Marketing Manager for Avon (part of publishing giant HarperCollins), a freelance journalist who counts Huffington Post, Glamour and The Telegraph among her clients, and a novelist whose fabulously funny debut, What Planet Can I Blame This On?, was published in June 2021. 

A mightily impressive CV, we’re sure you’ll agree, and so we were delighted to talk to Ellie about her route into publishing and her writing for this month’s Industry Insights feature. Oh, and Ellie also shares some great book recommendations and writing tips.

What was your route into publishing? Did you always want to work in the book industry?

I started working in the industry when I was at university. I undertook an internship at a literary agency in my final year and worked with the small team for six months. Initially, I had been looking for an agent to send my creative writing to but when I went on the contact page I saw the internship advertised and thought it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. As such, I accidentally fell into the industry and quickly realised it was for me. 

Why marketing? 

I tried different areas of publishing when I first started in the industry, including agenting, publicity and recruitment. But what I discovered in all my roles was that social media and talking about books with other book lovers was what I excelled at and enjoyed, and that is the basic premise of marketing. 

Describe a typical working day in the life of Marketing Manager, Ellie Pilcher

Well, I’m early bird so I tend to start dead on nine o’clock and do all my most important time-sensitive work in the morning. I then answer as many emails as I can whilst jumping in and out of meetings with the wider team and authors. In the afternoon I tend to do most of my admin, social media and planning work. And then in the evenings after work I will read upcoming books – both published by my imprint but also more widely published as well.

What are your career highlights to date? Which campaigns are you most proud of having worked on?

I was named a London Book Fair Trailblazer in 2020 which was a massive career highlight for me. Also, winning the Adult Fiction Award from the Book Marketing Society for my marketing campaign of The Heatwave by Katerina Diamond was a particular high, as I had worked on that book during the height of lockdown when everything we had planned for the campaign had to change last minute, so I’m very proud of that achievement. 

Switching now to your writing career. Have you always written? What was the first thing you had published?

It’s a cliché, but ever since I could hold a pen I’ve been writing. I wrote on my childhood walls, any paper I could get a hold of (notebooks, menus, napkins). The first thing I had published was a short story with The Student Wordsmith which was a start-up working out of Loughborough University. I won their student short story competition and was included in their annual anthology, and even had to travel to Loughborough to do a reading which was terrifying and brilliant in equal measure. 

How has being a publishing insider affected your approach to your writing career?

Before I worked in publishing, I wrote entirely for me and what I wanted to read, not what the consumer or a general reader might want to read. But from the moment I entered the trade publishing industry I naturally picked up an understanding of audience and trends, which definitely impacted my writing.

Where did the idea for What Planet Can I Blame This On? come from? Did it take you long to write it alongside your marketing day job and freelance writing commitments?

I worked closely with an editor on the idea for What Planet Can I Blame This On? She recognised my niche for writing about quarter-life crisis’ and a Saturn Return – which is the focal point of the book – is the astrological version of a quarter-life crisis so the idea was perfect for me. I wrote the novel in three months, from October to December 2020 entirely at the weekends – I don’t write during weekdays as that’s too much screen time even for me! 

The lockdown was beneficial too as I had no weekend commitments to stop me from writing and I write quickly and edit slowly, so I would send chunks of my writing to my editor who would send back her feedback as I was writing the next chunk so that we got through it all quite quickly. Now we’re out of lockdown my social life is somewhat getting in the way of my writing routine, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s good to have a break. 

Are you working on a second novel? Can you give us a hint of what readers can look forward to?

Even though I am currently having a break, I am also at the early stages of book two.  I’m currently working on a story that follows a social media influencer who’s been in the business for ten years and is no longer sure if that is what she wants and decides to reconnect with herself and her passions.

I’ve been inspired by a lot of the recent stories of YouTube influencers from my teenage years suddenly leaving the industry for other careers, to start a family or purely because of mental health. Social media is something that fascinates me – as you can tell from my Marketing role and a lot of my freelance journalism – and I wanted to incorporate that into a quarter-life crisis, romantic comedy.

What’s your number one tip for aspiring novelists?

Even when you feel like you can’t write a single word, write something on a page. Be it a shopping list, a list of your favourite books or even things you see around you. As soon as you start writing something your creative mind will naturally follow and you’ll find you can write that novel, novella, short story, poem etc you’ve always wanted to.

Which authors (living or otherwise) would you invite to your dream literary dinner party?

Ooh… I would invite Daphne Du Maurier, Sally Rooney and Stephen Fry. A good mix of wit, deep conversation, and a bit of a boozy evening. 

Which books do you return to most often? Any beloved books from childhood?

I read the Harry Potter books every summer and have done so for eleven years. They encompass my entire childhood from the age to 6-16 (movies and books) and every time I re-read them it’s like returning to my happy childhood. They’re very comforting reads. 

Who are you favourite all-time authors?

I have a lot. I’ve recently discovered Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton’s series and I’m addicted – I’ve read twelve of her books in the last seven months! – but I also love Sally Rooney, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Sparks, to name a few. 

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year?

My favourite book of the last year was Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron It’s been a while since I read any young adult and I read this is one-sitting during a particularly tough week and it was the perfect choice. Fun, light-hearted, easy, unexpected… a great read.

Tell us a secret about books.

It takes a lot of people to create a single book. 

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Check-out Ellie’s social media accounts for more lively bookish content:

Twitter: @ElliePilcher95

Facebook: EllesBellesNotebook

Instagram: @ellesbellesnotebook

Bloglovin: EllesBelles

Pinterest: EllesBellesNotebook

Head here to read the rest of our Industry Insights articles, and for more writing tips, take a look at our Aspiring Authors series.