Frequently Asked Questions 💬

I do heaps of events and interviews. Here are some of the questions I get most often:

Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: From boredom, mostly. If I don’t give my brain any entertainment, it tends to make its own fun.

Q: What’s your favourite book you’ve written?
A: Not sure. But I like the new ones more than the old ones. I think I’m getting better with practice.

Q: How long does it take to write a book?
A: Depends on the book, but as a general rule of thumb, I write about 7,000 words per week, so a 90,000 word first draft might take me three months, and each subsequent draft might take half as long as the previous one (because I’m fixing smaller and smaller problems). There are always at least six drafts, and at any given time I have five to seven projects at various stages. The whole process might last one year or ten.

Q: How many people are involved?
A: Lots.

Q: How are you so productive?
A: It's easy to be productive when you love your job. Having said that, I'm not as efficient as I seem. My first book was published in 2006, and on average I've only written about 2.5 books per year since then. That may sound like a lot, but most of my novels are less than 40,000 words long. I write about 500 words per hour (for context, the world's fastest typist can do 300 per minute). Including editing, a book might take me 400 hours on average. That means I should be writing five books per year, not 2.5 ... but I'm easily distracted, and those distractions cost me about half of every work day. I've learned to forgive myself for that, though. I think distractability and curiosity are correlated, and if I wasn't curious, I wouldn't be a writer at all.

Q: Why "exciting books for reluctant readers"?
A: I've written in many different genres over the years—it's hard to find something they all have in common. But readers often tell me my book was exciting enough to get them (or a family member) into reading, or to bring them back to reading after a long break. I'm always thrilled to hear that. When I had to choose an SEO-friendly tagline for my website, "exciting books for reluctant readers" was the obvious choice.

Q: Do you use AI?
A: I tried, thinking it would speed me up. I had fantasies of making ten, twenty, fifty books a year. But it actually slowed me down, because AI just isn't very good, and I had to delete everything it wrote. Lesson learned; there are no shortcuts.

Q: Who’s your favourite author?
A: I don’t have favourite authors so much as favourite books. Here are some books I find myself reading over and over: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, First You Write a Sentence by Joe Moran, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, What the Hell Did I Just Read by Jason Pargin, Science Fiction 101 by Robert Silverberg, and There Is No Anti-Memetics Division by qntm.

Q: What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
A: Career-wise, most of my advice is twenty years out of date (and the rest is highly dependent on your personal circumstances). Nevertheless, here are three tips: read things you don’t think you’ll like, write things you don’t think anyone else will like, and get as much negative feedback as possible. Watch out for scams. If you're in Canberra, join MARION. (I have some more detailed writing tips here).

Q: Where can I buy your books?
A: Ideally, at your local bookshop. If you’re lucky enough to have one, you should support them. But if not, just search “Jack Heath books” and you’ll find plenty of options. Ignore anything about witches—those books are written by a different Jack Heath.

Q: What order should I read [series] in?
A: In theory, it doesn't matter. When I'm writing a sequel, I always try to include any necessary context from previous books without spoiling any of the twists (though that gets harder the more prequels there are). But if that's not your style, I've listed them in series order here.

Q: Are your books suitable for [age range]?
A: Reading level is more important than age. I recommend doing a vibe check on the first few pages (or a sample of the ebook/audiobook) to get a vibe. But please note that the Hangman series, the Kill Your... series and Choppy Water are not suitable for children.

Q: Why do some of your books have two titles?
A: It’s confusing, I know! Sorry. I have different publishers in different countries, and sometimes they say the original title won’t work in their market. I’ve learned to trust them.

Q: Have any of your books been turned into movies or TV shows?
A: Not exactly. I’ve sold the rights to a few, but screen adaptations are big, expensive, complicated projects that almost always fall apart—that’s one of the many reasons I prefer books. Having said that, there was a very cool VR film called 30 Minutes of Danger, based on one of my stories. Look for me as a newsreader in the background.

Q: What does a typical writing day look like?
A: I’ll let you know if I ever have one! Today I woke up at six-thirty, wrote for 45 minutes, then went for a bike ride with my kids. After that I went to the gym, and then to a cafe, where I wrote for another hour or so before getting distracted by the sudden desire to write an FAQ for my website. I should go soon—people are starting to stare.

Q: Any hobbies?
A: I play a few instruments, and I like boxing—but I don't have a lot of free time these days.

Q: What tech do you use?
A: I've had a few different setups over the years, but right now I'm using an Android tablet and a Dvorak keyboard. I write the first and second drafts of each manuscript in Novlr, usually while listening to Brain.fm. (The last two links have referral codes in them, so you can get a free trial if you're interested.) When the manuscript comes back from the publisher for the copy edit, I'm usually forced to use Microsoft Word (because that's what they've used to post the comments on the manuscript). For the final proofread, I'll either be checking a PDF in Readest, or going through a hard copy with an eraseable red pen. (Pen and paper works well for outlining, too.)

When it comes to the non-writing side of my job (which is substantial) I use Ecosia, Ecosend, Signal, and a lot of Wikipedia.

Q: What's Novlr?
A: It’s the app I write my novels in. (I liked it so much that I became a co-owner.) It doesn’t clutter my screen with unnecessary options, but isn’t missing any of the functions I actually need. For example, I'm the sort of person who would waste hours looking for the perfect font—but Novlr only gives me three options: serif, sans, and mono. (Just now I tried to change each of those words to the font in question, but Novlr wouldn’t let me do that, either.)

Q: Who’s your agent?
A: I have a few different agents, but Curtis Brown manages me (not an easy job) for most things.

Q: Do you do school visits?
A: Sometimes! Contact Booked Out.

Q: Will there be any more books in the [Timothy Blake/Spy Academy/Other series]?
A: Maybe. I have plenty of ideas, but I try not to get too attached to them. I can’t afford to write sequels to books that weren’t bestsellers—that’s another lesson I learned the hard way. I love my job, but it’s still a job.

Q: Will you please—
A: Let me stop you there. I’m glad you thought of me, but whatever you need help with, I promise you I’m the least qualified person in the world to do it. In the extremely unlikely event that you’re asking me about something I actually know how to do, I still can’t do it. My inbox is overflowing, and so is my poor brain. I barely function. Ask a friend instead! They love you. They’ll be happy to help.

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