Six Questions for Sophie Hannah: Meet the Faculty of How To Be A Happy And Successful Writer
Six Questions for Sophie Hannah: Meet the Faculty of How To Be A Happy And Successful Writer
This September, eighteen writers will arrive on Naxos with laptops, notebooks, half-finished manuscripts, and the idea that won't leave them alone. They'll spend six days at Lianos Village Hotel with three people who've spent their careers on the other side of the desk - and who are very good at helping writers get to the right side of it.
It's called How To Be A Happy And Successful Writer, and it's the retreat for writers who need structure, guidance, and honest industry insight without the bootcamp mentality. Mornings are for workshops. Afternoons are yours. Evenings are for long meals and longer conversations.
Before we all head to Greece, we sat down with retreat lead Sophie Hannah to talk about the week ahead - what makes it different, what gets in writers' way, and why happiness might be the most underrated tool in a writer's kit.
Meet the Faculty
Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times, USA Today and Amazon Kindle No. 1 bestselling crime writer whose books have sold more than five million copies and are published in over 50 countries. She's the author of the new series of Hercule Poirot mystery novels, winner of the Dagger in the Library Award in 2023, and the UK National Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year in 2013. Sophie is the founder, CEO and coach of Dream Author Coaching Ltd, where she's helped thousands of writers since 2019. She helped create the Masters Degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College. Her murder mystery musical movie, The Mystery of Mr E, is available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Elly James is a literary agent and sole director of HHB Agency, where she's worked since 2007 alongside founder Heather Holden-Brown before taking the helm in 2024. Before publishing, she worked in television and film development - finding great storytellers and people with original voices, which is still what drives her as an agent. She represents quality commercial and literary fiction, thrillers, memoir, and non-fiction that opens up worlds readers don't know much about. At the retreat, Elly leads sessions on the role of the literary agent and gives every writer a one-to-one pitch session.
Jamie Hodder-Williams spent over thirty years at Hodder & Stoughton, twenty of them as Managing Director and CEO, before founding Bedford Square Publishers in 2022. He started his career at a small chain of Scottish booksellers and joined Hodder as a management trainee, working his way through every part of the business. Now running his own independent publishing house, Jamie brings a publisher's perspective to the retreat - what gets a manuscript noticed, what gets it acquired, and what happens after the deal is done.
Six Questions for Sophie Hannah
You've said that lasting happiness as a writer is possible and nobody should tell you it isn't. In an industry that runs on rejection, that's either deeply reassuring or completely bonkers. Which is it, and how did you get there?
Sophie: It’s deeply reassuring, and completely true - and I’m going to be explaining why, and how to do/achieve it, at our get-together in Naxos soon! For now, here’s a clue/spoiler: your question presents the idea that publishing is ‘an industry that runs on rejection’ as if it’s a fact. Happily, it isn’t! Or rather, it’s every bit as true to say that publishing is an industry that runs on great literature, exciting and lucrative book deals, and regular new and extraordinary successes. Our thoughts create our results and our reality. And we can choose what to think, no matter what the circumstance. There’s so much more to it, but understanding this small part is the first step.
The retreat covers everything from "Fulfilling Your Book's Promise" to "Going the Distance." Which session do writers consistently dread - and then come back afterwards and say it was the one that changed everything?
Sophie: Haha - er, I teach and coach in an incredibly positive way, and make sure there’s never anything to dread in any of my sessions! Some of the things I teach that I’ve been told over and over again are life-changing for writers are the following concepts: How to Avoid Success Resistance; the CTFAR Model and how to use it to improve your life; The ‘Gnocchi Method’ and ‘BookAhead’ Writing Technique; How to Carry Out ‘Thought Auditions’.
You've got Elly James and Jamie Hodder-Williams in the room all week - an agent and a publisher. What can a writer learn from spending five days with them that they can't get from a book or a Twitter thread?
Sophie: Oodles of first-hand wisdom and experience!
Dream Author Coaching has been going since 2019. What's the thing writers do that makes you want to shake them – ever so gently and with much affection - and say "stop doing that"?
Sophie: Believing ‘Thought Errors’, and giving up on their dreams as a result.
How much of a retreat's success is down to where you are versus what you do? And has a beautiful setting ever distracted a writer from actually writing?
Sophie: Beautiful surroundings and lovely food (not to mention excellent hotel service!) can only help a writer’s progress towards success. I don’t believe that writers need to be starving in a horrible garret in order to be authentically artistic. That’s just a silly cliché.
You've written new novels starring Poirot - one of the most famous detectives in literary history. Did you ever catch yourself imagining what he'd make of something you'd written, and did you care?
Sophie: Of course I care! I write every single word in the hope of winning his approval. Which is interesting, actually, because I quite enjoy being disapproved of by many real human beings - but I definitely would like to have Poirot’s good opinion and so I work very hard on his behalf!
How To Be A Happy And Successful Writer runs 20-26 September 2026 at Lianos Village Hotel, Naxos, Greece.
Find out more and reserve your place at naxoscreative.com. We have one place come available due to sickness