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Thursday 13 December 2018

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Retiree who wrote novel for fun joins world-famous authors on bestseller list

A retired businesswoman whose debut novel was rejected by agents has been crowned the 14th bestselling author on Kindle, beating the great and good

Rachel Abbott is now on her fifth thriller
Rachel Abbott is now on her fifth thriller 

Many dream of finally penning their first novel for fun when they retire. Only one has beaten Booker Prize-winners, celebrities and Britain’s best-known authors to be among the most-read writers in the UK, despite having her book rejected by ten agents.

Rachel Abbott, a former businesswoman, has been named the 14th bestselling author in the last five years on Kindle, after self-publishing her first novel.

She joins a list of some of the best-known books of this century, including E L James’ Fifty Shades series, Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn and cult authors including George R R Martin, Suzanne Collins and Stieg Larson.

She has beaten Yann Martel, the Man Booker Prize winner, Jojo Moyes, and Jeffrey Archer, after releasing four novels on the Amazon e-reader.

Abbott's first book cover

Abbott, who now writes full time, said she was “stunned” to hear she had made the list, published on the fifth anniversary of the launch of Kindle.

“Since the day I published my first book to Kindle, my feet haven’t touched the ground,” she said. “In 2010 I had retired and I thought the future was going to be one of relaxation—except that I wanted to write a book for my own pleasure.

“One day I decided to publish it to see what might happen, and that decision was life-changing. I’m now writing my fifth novel, have sold well over a million copies of the first four, and have a new full-time career as an author.

“Nobody, least of all me, could have seen that coming—but I’m loving every minute of it.”

Author EL James, pictured at a New York book signing for her new novel, Grey

Abbott, who splits her time between the Channel Islands and Italy with her husband, founded an interactive media company, developing software for the education market, before selling it and eventually retiring in 2005 aged 53.

A lifelong reader, she told the Telegraph she had initially settled into retirement happily, with projects including renovating a 15th century Italian monastery.

“I was sitting at home one particular day, snowed in, and I thought: ‘I can’t do any gardening, I was never a great fan of housework so I suppose I could start that book,” she said.

“Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”

She spent months writing and editing, before her family encouraged her to try and get it published.

After unsuccessfully writing to around ten agents, receiving some positive feedback but no deals, she decided to publish it online herself in 2011/

Her first novel was priced at £1.99 – not cheap by Kindle standards – and began to get noticed after Abbott used her marketing experience to get exposure through social media and forums.

Gillian FlynnGillian Flynn  Photo: Peter Hoffman

By November 2011, Only the Innocent was number one on the UK Kindle chart. It was later joined in the top ten most-read self-published novels by Sleep Tight and The Back Road.

Now 62 and writing full time, with an agent, publicist and part-time PA, she is on her fifth thriller.

She is one of hundreds of thousands of authors who have chosen to self-publish with Kindle, and is the number one bestselling independent author in its charts.

The author in second place, Tracy Bloom, comes in at number 47 in the overall chart, once all authors are taken into account.

Unsurprisingly, the top ten bestselling books are dominated by film adaptations and Fifty Shades.

Kindle is now celebrating its fifth anniversary, after growing from 400,000 titles to more than four million.

Analysis of its sales figures, released yesterday, showed Huntingdon, Cambridge, buys the most books per capita, while Yorkshire was crowned “the romance capital of the north”.

Top-selling authors on Kindle

  1. EL James
  2. Lee Child
  3. Stieg Larsson
  4. Suzanne Collins
  5. George RR Martin
  6. Gillian Flynn
  7. Diane Chamberlain
  8. James Patterson
  9. Peter James
  10. Sylvia Day
  11. Daniela Sacerdoti
  12. Jo Nesbo
  13. Hilary Boyd
  14. Rachel Abbott
  15. Jonas Jonasson
  16. Jojo Moyes
  17. David Baldacci
  18. Jeffrey Archer
  19. Yann Martel
  20. Karin Slaughter

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