Six Questions for Jamie Hodder-Williams: Meet the Faculty of How To Be A Happy And Successful Writer

Six Questions for Jamie Hodder-Williams: 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 publisher Jamie Hodder-Williams to talk about what gets a manuscript noticed, what he learned selling books over the counter, and the trend he was completely wrong about.

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 Jamie Hodder-Williams

You spent thirty years at Hodder & Stoughton, twenty of them running the place, and then you left to start your own publishing house. What did you know on day one of Bedford Square that you didn't know on day one at Hodder?

The biggest challenge for Publishers is getting a book noticed.  There are a lot of good and interesting books written that don’t find a readership – and even a review in The Times doesn’t mean people will race to the bookshop.  So developing an author’s writing career can be a long process with lots of highs and lows.

You started your career at a small chain of Scottish booksellers. What did selling books over the counter teach you that the corner office didn't?

Most of the public buy the book they have heard about from their friends and colleagues.  Recommendation trumps everything.

At the retreat you'll be talking about what gets a manuscript noticed and acquired. What's the gap between what writers think publishers want and what they actually want - and is it getting wider?

Every editor wants something different – that’s the joy of the industry, but also what makes it challenging to navigate.  One editor will be looking for something truly ground-breaking in their genre; another editor will only want books that conform clearly to a genre’s protocols. Writers sometimes think that Editors want an exact repeat of what’s gone before, but mostly they want some that is recognisable, but it surprises as well.  

You've seen every side of the business - bookselling, management, publishing, and now running your own independent press. If you could change one thing about how the industry discovers new writers, what would it be?

We would all have a thousand more hours to read the books and proposals.  Editors would read deeper into a script; booksellers would have time to read the proofs.  But actually we spend most of our time on our existing author stable, or trying to find readers.

Bedford Square Publishers is an independent house in a market dominated by the big five. What can a small publisher do that a big one can't - and does being small make you braver or more cautious?

A small publisher can get everyone aligned behind a book, and take great care over the details.  We can experiment - or just publish a book because we love it and really want to - though we can’t take the big financial risks.  

You've been in publishing long enough to have seen trends come, go, and come back again. What's the one publishing trend you genuinely thought would never catch on - until it did?

I never thought Romance would get quite so huge and merge into so many genres.  It used to be a good publishing niche, with a loyal readership.  But the mash-ups with Fantasy and other genres, backed by Tiktok, have made it the biggest Fiction genre, with the biggest successes sometimes coming from fanfiction, and that still surprises me.

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 on this retreat