Normal People author Sally Rooney reveals why she ‘isn’t comfortable’ being famous

Bestselling author Sally Rooney “isn’t comfortable” being famous and reveals why she struggles to “market” her own books.

Sally Rooney “isn’t comfortable” being famous.

The 33-year-old author was propelled to global notoriety with her novel ‘Normal People’ – which was later adapted into a hit miniseries starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal – but admitted that she doesn’t enjoy the side of marketing her work once it is done.

She told The Sunday Times: “I don’t have any interest in marketing my books. And I certainly don’t answer interview questions with the intention of selling my book to readers. Whenever I publish a novel I feel obliged to answer questions about it —as if it would be poor form not to. A lot of people seem to want to ask me questions, and if I refused to answer I would feel like a politician refusing to do a press conference. Which is obviously silly. Maybe I ought not answer any questions at all. But I feel like it’s a way of remaining loyal to my work and not shying away from it.

“I wouldn’t say that I enjoy publishing books. I enjoy writing them. I understand I am lucky to be in a position where my books are published and allow me to earn a living.

“I absolutely know and feel how blessed I am to be able to spend years working on a single book with no one bothering me about when it will be finished. But the publication period is a source of stress for me.

“And I think that’s because I’m not comfortable in the public eye and I worry that I’m not a very good ambassador for my work.”

The ‘Conversations With Friends’ author also noted that anything that she put into the public domain via an interview is a source of embarrassment for her but she would feel “guilty” if she were to publish her work without any promotion.

She said: “If I ever have to read back over an interview I’ve given, I always want the earth to swallow me. Whereas when I read over my fiction, I feel like it stands up. I like my books. I just don’t like the version of me who appears in the newspapers every three or four years to talk about them. But if I didn’t do that I would feel guilty, like I was sending my book out into the world alone. Like a bad parent. That’s the conundrum I find myself grappling with when it’s time to publish a book. Which is a relatively rare occurrence. The vast majority of my working life is devoted to writing — and I am truly grateful for that.”