Byres Road Book Festival at Hillhead Library – Helen Sedgwick Industry Q&A

What You Wish You Knew as a Debut Author - and Beyond

From advances to author resilience, from sales figures to difficult conversations, Helen Sedgwick will demystify the publishing process, explain the jargon, face the reality - and answer all your questions with the honesty often lacking in the industry.

Helen Sedgwick is a cross-genre author of literary fiction, science fiction and crime. She writes about human connection across time and space, juxtaposing science with the supernatural and realism with ghost story. Her debut, The Comet Seekers (Harvill Secker 2016), was selected as a best book by The Herald and her sci-fi The Growing Season (2017) was shortlisted for the Scottish Fiction Book of the Year. Most recently she has written a folk horror crime trilogy, The Burrowhead Mysteries (Point Blank 2020-2022): When the Dead Come Calling, Where the Missing Gatherand What Doesn’t Break Us. In 2021, she was awarded the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship to write an interplanetary science fiction series about rebuilding after environmental collapse. Before becoming a writer, Helen was a research scientist with a PhD in physics from Edinburgh University. She lives in the Scottish Highlands with her partner, their daughter, and six chickens.