It’s a simple fact: Most self-published writers have trouble getting the time of day from booksellers and media alike, making it difficult to attract attention from anybody but POD-dy Mouth (one of our favorites, by the way). But Meg Tilly (right) isn’t like most writers, so even though she’s chosen to put out Gemma, her first book in a dozen years, on her own, as well as reissue Singing Songs (originally published by Dutton), she’s making a full-on national tour, including an intense 10-minute segment on The View with Rosie O’Donnell. I met with Tilly shortly after that TV appearance, tucked away in the mezzanine of a deli across the street from her hotel for an hour’s conversation.
Tilly recognizes she’s in a unique situation compared to other writers, both because of the recognition she gets from her previous acting career and her shrewd financial planning during those Hollywood years. “I have things I have to say, and I try to say them the best that I can,” she says, “but I don’t have to publish anything I don’t want to. I’m not going to write what other people want me to write or what the market will buy.” Gemma is definitely not for everyone: It’s a brutal, unflinching account of the sexual abuse of a pre-adolescent girl, from the raw, unpolished voices of the victim and the man who kidnaps and rapes her, and her slow path to recovery. It was the predator’s voice that came to her first, she recalls, prompted by an exercise in her writing group. She didn’t want to get into it at first, but finally confronted her fears and produced a short story. When her literary agent, Charlotte Sheedy, saw that story, she pushed Tilly to “finish” it, then to turn it into a novel. It’s was only then, she says, that she was able to find Gemma’s voice and find the balance she needed to complete the book.
“I know some people think Charlotte can be a bit strong,” she reflects, “but thank God for that. I wouldn’t be on this tour if she weren’t.” And Sheedy fought hard for Gemma in mainstream publishing circles; Tilly says that editors at Simon & Schuster and the London offices of Bloomsbury wanted to acquire the book but couldn’t get the editorial and sales support necessary to clinch an offer. Smaller publishers wanted Tilly to surrender too many rights, until she decided upon Syren Book Company, a “hybrid publisher” that promises authors significant control over their book’s production and, perhaps more significantly for sales, distribution through Ingram & Baker & Taylor .
Starting her tour with The View had great results for Tilly; even now, two weeks later, Gemma is hovering just below Amazon’s top 1,000 titles, and Singing Songs is squarely in the top 400. And her literary comeback continues apace: Next year, she’ll publish a YA novel with Tundra, an imprint of Canada’s McLellan & Stewart. As we talked, I observed that she didn’t seem to miss acting much. “Every once in a while I miss being creative with other people,” she admitted. “The Two Jakes sucked as a movie, but acting with Jack Nicholson was like the most beautiful dance in the world. I don’t miss it enough to go back, though—you’re not supposed to say never, but I can’t forsee it in my future.” Instead, when she gets back home, she’ll pick up where she left off with her writing, trying to get something on the page every day, the same struggle every other writer faces.