‘Every year I think I’ve blown it’
Prolific author Lee Child sells a Jack Reacher book somewhere in the world every nine seconds according to his publisher, but the accidental novelist is already plotting the perfect exit.
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Prolific author Lee Child sells a Jack Reacher book somewhere in the world every nine seconds according to his publisher, but the accidental novelist is already plotting the perfect exit.
Child, who is about the release his 23rd Reacher novel, Past Tense, still has a hunger for his eponymous character. Packing away the keyboard isn’t something yet on his radar, but he does want to ensure a dignified departure when the day does come.
“I still love doing it, absolutely, but I am a bit obsessed with timing it right and Australians will understand this because it’s a sports mad nation,” he tells Insider. “It’s the same thing when you’re an athlete or a cricket player — you don’t want to be the embarrassing guy who sticks around one season too long. So I’m a little concerned — I don’t want to do a book that is bad and people say ‘oh the poor old guy, he’s lost it’. I’d rather pick a spot and get out before that, but obviously that’s a difficult thing to do.”
The British-born writer, who has called New York home for two decades, gets anxious just before a new book comes out.
“Every year I think this is it, this is the end, I’ve blown it, I’ve been found out, I can’t do it, but every year the book gets done,” he says. “But it’s usually pretty good and I’m usually pretty happy with it.”
It’s evident the self-doubt isn’t debilitating or particularly worrying for Child and just something he takes in his stride. It may have something to do with the manner in which he found himself one of the world’s most successful authors.
Child, who turned 64 last week, had been working at a television network in England for almost 20 years when management swung the axe and he found himself unemployed at 40.
The retrenchment came as a shock to the former presentation director, who says he had been completely content with his place at the network and would happily have kept working there until he retired.
But the move forced him to make some life-altering decisions and soon after Jack Reacher was born.
“It was an absolutely huge turning point and at the time it felt extremely scary and worrying and confusing,” he says. “(But) I was not the idiot I was when I was 20. I was grown up and ready to do something new, ready to use the previous experience so it felt huge.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t lost my job,” he adds.
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Where many writers toil behind the keyboard for years before enjoying even modest levels of success, things moved quickly for Child. Books started to roll off the shelves as readers became enamoured by the dark, angry drifter that is Reacher.
But when did Child realise he’d hit the big time?
“It happens the very first time you see someone who isn’t your wife, your daughter or your mother reading your book,” he laughs. “That happened to me within a few months. We took a vacation and were sitting by the pool and there was a complete stranger on holidays reading my book. At that point you think ‘yeah OK, this is kind of working’.”
While the temptation was there, the new author didn’t approach the reader for a quick poolside review.
“I’m never too sure about doing that because you hear the horror stories,” he says.
“A friend of mine is a famous writer and he was once on a plane and the guy next to him was reading his book and he couldn’t resist so he nudged the guy and said ‘Are you enjoying that?’ and the guy said ‘No it’s shit but it was all I could find at the airport!’ ”
Another good yard stick of success is when major Hollywood studios line up to option one of your books and turn it into a big-budget film. And having someone of the calibre of Tom Cruise cast as your protagonist must be a pinch-me moment in an author’s career.
But Cruise’s casting in 2012 and 2016 was met with a backlash from the book’s fans. In the novels, Reacher is six foot five and built like a tank. Cruise might be a giant of Hollywood, but at a lean five foot seven (roughly), it’s purely in a metaphorical sense.
Child had relinquished creative control of the movies and saw some positive in the blowback.
“(Fans) were very upset about the Tom Cruise thing which was, in a way, a huge bonus to me,” he says. “If someone had said to me 20 years ago you’re going to invent a character where people get mad about who plays him in the movies I would have said ‘yeah that’s a deal I’ll certainly take’.”
But he does want to see Reacher portrayed on screen as he is in the book and is turning to television to realise it. Currently in advanced talks with Netflix about a possible series, Child sees an opportunity to capitalise on the Cruise debate.
“I’d be kind of interested in using the selection of the actor as part of the promotion of the series,” he says.
“We could say to people you were really upset before, now you get a chance for some input.”
Past Tense, by Lee Child, available November 6, Bantam Press, $32.99
Lee Child will speak at the Dymocks literary lunch at the Hyatt Regency, Sydney, November 29, 12.15pm, $100, trybooking.com
An Evening With Lee Child, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts centre, Penrith, November 19, 7pm, thejoan.com.au