Galley Beggar scoops Litt's hit Substack diary novel

Galley Beggar has acquired A Writer’s Diary, a novel by Toby Litt—who has written an entry on writing platform Substack every day since January.

Publisher Sam Jordison acquired world rights, excluding audio, from Catherine Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. 

The novel is based on his fictional Substack diary, which has now reached the Top 15 of the platform’s international fiction rankings.

"A Writer’s Diary is a novel unlike any other," the synopsis reads. "In these, Toby apparently details his daily life – his thoughts on writing, the desk he is sitting at, the writers who have inspired him (including Virginia Woolf and her own journal). But the diary is not what it seems: it is actually a carefully plotted and constructed hybrid – encompassing several years of Toby’s real experiences as well as flights of imagination and fiction.

"As A Writer’s Diary progresses, readers come to see that Toby is conveying far more than his day-to-day routine. It gives a startlingly intimate insight into Toby’s world, his creative process, and his family. It is a warm, compassionate, and generous assessment of what it means to be alive."

Jordison said: “A Writer’s Diary feels almost miraculous to read. The entry for each and every day is new and separate and holds its own fascination – but they also all add up to something far greater. As a reader, you come to realise that Toby is steadily building an increasingly urgent narrative and the novel becomes a compulsive page turner. It feels like a magic trick. Toby makes us feel the huge importance of the human stories he tells, not to mention the vital artistic and creative questions he addresses – but he also makes the quest for the ideal pencil sharpener feel like its own dramatic story – bursting with tension, not to mention an entirely satisfying resolution. It’s a book we just have to publish. I can’t wait to share it.”

Co-publisher Eloise Millar added: “Toby has always been an incredible talent and we’ve loved working with him for quite a few years now – and it’s wonderful to know that we’re going to be publishing this new work with him. A Writer’s Diary blends fact and fiction, invention and memoir with joyful creativity and remarkable literary ambition. It’s fun. It’s funny. And it’s also deadly serious. Toby takes on some of the biggest questions of life and death, not to mention literary as well as human mortality and the steady march of time. The result is a book that is singularly moving – and enlightening.”

The novel will be published on 1st January 2023.