INTERVIEW
With Born under a good star (Mazarine), published Wednesday, Aurélie Valognes signs her sixth novel. His name may not tell you anything, and yet his books sell millions of copies. The writer has been in the top 5 most French authors for three years. Last year, she sold more books than Marc Lévy. In "L'Équipée sauvage" on Wednesday, she returns to her journey as a novelist, started in self-publishing and her method of writing a novel without being afraid of the blank page.
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The "extraordinary" springboard for self-publishing
When her husband is transferred to Italy, Aurélie Valognes decides to resign and follow him. She has just had a baby and comes out of a baby blues. "It wasn't going well, I had more work, my cousin had just been diagnosed with breast cancer ..." At 29, she "realizes that everything can stop" and becomes obsessed with this dream where she imagine his tomb engraved with the epitaph: "Aurélie Valognes, writer". A sign ? Perhaps. Except that the young woman then never wrote a line in her life. "At that time, the click began to be made," she explains. "If everything stopped tomorrow, I wanted to have fulfilled my dream of little girl which was to write a novel. Not to be published. Just to write it, to put an end to it and to be proud", says the novelist.
In 2014, Aurélie Valognes launched. She has her loved ones read her first novel, and decides to put it online because she had only one "scare": "send it to publishers and receive the standard letter of refusal". "I didn't want to put my dream in someone else's hands, so I sought the neutral opinion of readers and I found self-publishing which was just beginning," says Aurélie Valognes. She puts it online on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. Granny in nettles is then in the top 20 of the best sales.
"It gave me more confidence, I printed it and sent it to publishers," she recalls. It will then be published by Michel Lafon and sold over a million copies. "The ultimate goal is to see her book printed and have it in bookstores," acknowledges the novelist. "I absolutely do not deny this extraordinary springboard that has been self-publishing and I recommend it to those who are looking for solutions. But my pride today is to see my son who says to me 'look mom, your book it is there. "And not just in a somewhat virtual world," she says.
Bernard Werber's advice or the importance of the plan before writing
Aurélie Valognes owes a lot to Bernard Werber and her "practical and incredible generosity" writing advice that she finds on YouTube. In a video, the writer of the Ant trilogy, gives ten tips to people who want to start writing a book. Aurélie Valognes was then in Italy and followed the advice of Bernard Werber to the letter. The first piece of advice concerns the question of the urge to write. "If it is to tell your troubles with your spouse or your mother, that will not interest anyone," advises the writer.
The second piece of advice, which Aurélie Valognes continues to apply for each of her novels, is to prepare a plan: reflect and work on your story for months before you start writing it. "Remember to open a computer like that you wouldn't be afraid of the blank page. It gave me the keys because I really needed to know in a practical way how we get started in writing" , emphasizes the successful novelist.
Aurélie Valognes says that she works every day from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. after taking her children to school, listening to the radio and reading the newspapers. "My writing phase is divided into two main parts. I have about four months of reflection, readings, interviews, research to support my characters and then I have a part of two months of writing from the first draft to the computer, "she explains. In this way the writing phase is "not at all scary". Thanks to this preparation, when she puts herself in front of her computer, Aurélie Valognes explains that she knows "exactly" what she has to write. "I unroll the film in my head and type it on the computer so it's not at all stressful."