TALK ABOUT HIGH CONCEPT! The amazing Samantha Bailey

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We’re always taking about “high concept” here—how to come up with that elusively fabulous original idea...the one that will grab readers from moment one and immerse them in your story.

How about this:  

 A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.”

She places her child in your arms. She says your name.

Then she jumps…

Irresistible, right? Brilliant, right? And the amazing Samantha Bailey’s WOMAN ON THE EDGE hit number one in Canada! (And the print version is now also available in the US for those who didn’t already grab the e-version.)

But how about Samantha’s own story? Is it high-concept? Nope. It’s high inspiration. High determination. High persistence. High friendship. And high hopes.


A LONG AND WINDING PATH

       SAMANTHA M. BAILEY

If you met me now, at almost forty-seven, you might be surprised to learn that I was a very quiet child. Small for my age, awkward, shy, and insecure, I found my voice in stories—reading and writing them. 

At the age of ten, I wrote and submitted my first story to publishers, a tale about a flame named Freddy who had no friends because everything he touched burned to the ground. But Freddy found his way by becoming a fire starter on a coal train. Of course, trains had stopped using coal by then, which is perhaps why the book was rejected. Or maybe it wasn’t the right story at the right time.

Through my childhood and teenage years, I kept writing. Sinister plots about secrets and suspicion. Though I had a fairly idyllic upbringing, I was drawn to the dark side and danger, fascinated by adventure and rebellion. But it wasn’t until I was twenty-nine, doing my Master’s in Education in Applied Linguistics and taking a course on imagination that I decided to attempt a full-length novel.

Being an author was all I ever wanted, but I was scared to actually sit down and try what seemed so daunting. At the same time, I’d just closed the last page of the book I was reading, inspired to finally do it. That book was Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner, and it changed my life. Her remarkable talent to create fleshed out, sympathetic, hilarious yet also deeply emotional characters and plots motivated me to write my first novel, a romantic comedy that took a year to complete.

I signed with an agent. Giddy and naïve, I imagined myself as Carrie from Sex and the City, strolling through Manhattan in my five-inch heels, signing my debut at a bookstore with a cosmopolitan in hand. Well, it didn’t work out like that.

I could never wear five-inch heels because I’d fall on my face, and the book didn’t get an offer from a publishing house. I forged ahead and wrote another rom com, edgier this time, and that, too, was universally rejected. My agent and I amicably parted ways and I decided I wanted to be published more than anything. So, I did it myself. In 2012, I self-published the second of those romantic comedies.

While it didn’t sell in the millions, it did introduce me to the most incredible authors, readers, and bloggers, many of whom have remained in my life, by my side, until today. The very first blogger I reached out to was Melissa Amster of Chick Lit Central, who has been my champion and friend ever since. I also met the women who have become like sisters to me. Three of us—myself, Meredith Schorr, and Francine LaSala—banded together to create BookBuzz, an author-reader event to cross-promote and interact in person at a big party held in New York City and Toronto. We’ve had three parties so far, and are certainly hoping to plan another, because each event has included more and more authors, which is wonderful. Through BookBuzz, I not only found Meredith and Francine, but also Eileen Goudge, Julie Valerie, Josie Brown, and Jen Tucker. We call ourselves the Beach Babes, because every January, we spend a gorgeous, magical week together writing, eating, laughing, and talking in a beach house in Santa Cruz, California. I also formed a beautiful friendship with Toronto-based author, Lydia Laceby, and blogger Kaley Stewart.

Though self-publishing brought me so much joy, I never wavered from my ultimate dream, which was to find a home with a traditional publisher, a partner, and a team.

Over the next few years, I wrote two more books and tried to find a new agent. No dice.

Then six years ago on a cold winter afternoon, I was waiting on a Toronto subway platform for the train. I saw a woman holding a newborn. She was standing close, too close, to the edge. She seemed frazzled and exhausted, as I was as a new mother.

I wondered what she was thinking; how she was really faring with this shocking life change that happens the moment our babies are put in our arms. Like a lightning bolt, a story idea hit me, and I scribbled the premise on an empty gum pack I found in my very messy purse. That idea became Woman on the Edge.

I signed with an agent, a fierce, dedicated goddess who loved my voice and the idea of what was then a dark women’s fiction story. She suggested turning it into an intense, fast-paced thriller. It was like she’d seen into my soul. I devoured thrillers and my deepest desire was to write one. And though I was terrified, I knew that I had to take a huge risk and try.

My agent promised to be with me every step of the way. She was and still is. Over the next three and a half years, we worked on draft after draft, tearing the manuscript apart and re-building it maybe twenty times. I had the most honest and toughest beta readers and critique partners give me invaluable feedback. Together we created the thriller that would ultimately sell in seven European territories, the UK to Headline, and in North America to Simon & Schuster Canada.

But I wasn’t done, and I was so ready for the editing that was to come, because what I’ve known all along is that revising is a gift. The brilliant insights of my editors transformed the book even further, and in November of 2019, my dream came true. I could walk into a bookstore, with my children beside me, and see my book on a shelf.

Today Woman on the Edge is a #1 bestseller in Canada—unbelievable and stunning to me. Never in my wildest imagination could I have conjured that. And if not for my agent, my author community, incredibly supportive family and friends, readers, bloggers, bookstagrammers, librarians, booksellers, and Simon & Schuster Canada, the publishing house that is truly my home with the most phenomenal team of people I could ever know, none of this would have happened. On March 3, Woman on the Edge will release in the US.

At any point I could have given up. I could have walked away from my dream because it would have been much easier. I didn’t because I always knew that if I stayed focused on my own goals, and no one else’s journey, believed in myself and my book, and really listened to the critiques and feedback, I would get there. And I did. If there is anything I can tell a writer struggling with the wait, worry, rejection, and self-doubt, it is this: It might not be fast, and it definitely won’t be easy. But it is so worth it, as long as you just keep going.

HANK: Reds and readers, this is SUCH a terrific book. I truly could not put it down.

(I’m fascinated, too, about what Samantha says about all the re-re-re-re-writes. Someday, I’d love to see the very first version, an compare with the fabulous final one.)

Most of us are not going to get a great idea in the subway station, not any time soon at least. But do this—look out your window. Any window. What do you see? I see ..the house next door just turned out the porchlight. Who--or what--are they expecting? (And I could make a story out of that!)

In celebration of Samantha’s big idea—tell us what you just happen to see. Could you make a story out of that?

(And we are all one edge right now, right?)


A copy of WOMAN ON THE EDGE to one lucky commenter!

(Samantha’s in a big different time zone, but she’ll be stopping by to say hi!—and share all your visions! Plus? She is--amazing. Amazing! A joyful, loving, generous, terrific person. )




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“[A] nail-biting debut. . . . The tension becomes unrelenting . . . Fans of psychological suspense are in for a treat.”
— Publisher's Weekly (Starred review)


  WOMAN ON THE EDGE 
A moment on the subway platform changes two women’s lives forever—a debut thriller that will take your breath away.

A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.”

She places her child in your arms. She says your name.

Then she jumps...

In a split second, Morgan Kincaid’s life changes forever. She’s on her way home from work when a mother begs her to take her baby, then places the infant in her arms. Before Morgan can stop her, the distraught mother jumps in front of an oncoming train.

Morgan has never seen this woman before, and she can’t understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life. She also can’t understand how this woman knew her name.

The police take Morgan in for questioning. She soon learns that the woman who jumped was Nicole Markham, prominent CEO of the athletic brand Breathe. She also learns that no witness can corroborate her version of events, which means she’s just become a murder suspect.

To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically retraces the last days of Nicole’s life. Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia or was she in danger? When strange things start happening to Morgan, she suddenly realizes she might be in danger, too.

Woman on the Edge is a pulse-pounding, propulsive thriller about the lengths to which a woman will go to protect her baby—even if that means sacrificing her own life.



ABOUT SAMANTHA M. BAILEY
Samantha M. Bailey is a Toronto-based novelist, journalist, and freelance editor. She is also the co-founder of BookBuzz, a promotional and interactive author-reader event held in New York City and Toronto. Her #1 bestselling psychological thriller, WOMAN ON THE EDGE, is published by Simon & Schuster Canada and Headline UK, and will be translated into seven languages.