I think I’ve been quite fortunate with the timing of the book’s release there’s been a surge in interest in dystopian novels since The Hunger Games, and fantasy has retained its popularity. Why do you think The Bone Season had such a strong and immediate attraction this time around? There was a period after Aurora when I was convinced I wasn’t a good writer and there wasn’t any point in trying again, but eventually, when I got the idea for The Bone Season, I made myself pick up my pen again – and it paid off. I think the most valuable lesson was simply ‘don’t give up at the first hurdle’. It was really my ‘trial novel’, and writing it allowed me to learn a lot about the industry: how to submit to agents, how to put a novel into proper manuscript format, what worked and what didn’t. I’m not at all sad that Aurora was rejected – it wasn’t a great book, and its rejection eventually led me to write The Bone Season. What was the most valuable lesson you took away from that experience that helped you with The Bone Season? You wrote your first novel Aurora at age 15(!), which was sadly rejected by every publisher you submitted to. There were a few other publishers interested, but the Bloomsbury team were so passionate about the book and knew it so well, I had to go with them. I was fortunate that I submitted The Bone Season to my agent just before the London Book Fair 2012, where it was spotted by Bloomsbury. It’s actually a three-book deal, but with the hope of four more.
Tell us about how you landed this insane seven-book deal! How did you decide to go with Bloomsbury as your publisher? I chat with Samantha (did I mention she’s 21?) and she reveals how she got the idea for her ambitious book(s) and how she feels about being called the “next J.K. In real life, Samantha Shannon may be a kindred spirit herself, as she navigates through her dark, apocalyptic universe for the next several years to come. Her heroine Paige Mahoney is smart, courageous, and resolute, cut from the same cloth as The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen. (Now pause for a moment and try to remember what you were doing at her age.) The Bone Season world feels both old and futuristic with elements of a bygone era interwoven with modern, almost steampunk-y details. She scored the deal as a student at Oxford University and the rights have already sold in 20 countries. Samantha is the much-talked-about 21-year old author of The Bone Season, the absorbing debut about clairvoyants struggling against a totalitarian government in dystopian England in 2059, the first installment in a projected seven-book series. If the name Samantha Shannon isn’t already on your radar, it soon will be.
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