Sort Of Books signs Marche's 'no-hold-barred' account of what it takes to be a writer

Sort Of Books has signed Stephan Marche’s "no-holds-barred" account of what it takes to be a writer in On Writing and Failure.

Publisher Nat Janz acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from independent Canadian imprint Biblioasis. The book will be published in November 2023.

On Writing and Failure is a "tight" exploration, in 112 pages, of the challenges of being a writer. Novelist Jonathan Coe has described the book as a "sparkling cocktail of bittersweet jokes and fizzing truth bombs".

Marche cites writers such as Samuel Johnson to Jane Austen and Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ernest Hemingway, writing "success is only ever an attire".

Janz commented: "This is a book we want to hand out to everyone we know. With its mordant humour (prize ceremonies are ’like the Oscars for lumpy people…’), its pitch-perfect aphorisms and advice (’Be scrupulous in your envy’), it will send you laughing back to your desk, both chastened and heartened. There’s a touch of David Foster Wallace meets Geoff Dyer in Marche’s writing. We found it irresistible. And a reminder to us to stay grounded after our Booker win with Shehan Karunatilaka."

Marche added: "The great joy of publishing this book has been how many writers have reached out to me to tell me how useful it has been. I wrote it originally as consolation for myself. Sad stories of other writers are so much more enjoyable than triumphant ones. But it’s been wonderful to find other writers seeing themselves in it."