The Hardest Sell

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 12, 2008

Heather Jacobs

David Rollins's first novel was rejected by publishers 78 times, Heather Jacobs reports.

Australia's deployment of peacekeeping troops to East Timor in September 1999 coincided with a slow day at the office for advertising executive David Rollins.

Inspired by the event, Rollins mapped out a novel called Rogue Element, in which Indonesia took revenge on Australia for what it considered a hostile invasion. He started writing as soon as he got home and for the next six months, worked on his book by night and spent his days at Sargant Rollins Vranken Terakes, the agency he co-founded in 1994.

Last month, Rollins's fifth political thriller, Hard Rain, was released in Australia. His previous titles Sword Of Allah, The Death Trust and A Knife Edge have been sold in New Zealand, the Philippines, Canada and Japan, as well as all US territories and military bases.

Despite his success, Rollins's literary career did not start well: his first novel was rejected 78 times.

"As each letter arrived I was like, maybe this one, but after number 30 I knew it was going to be a rejection letter before I even opened it," Rollins says.

Realising his book was getting buried in piles of unsolicited manuscripts, Rollins sent it to literary agent Rose Cresswell.

Within a fortnight she'd secured him a two-book deal with an advance of $20,000 from Pan Macmillan, Australia, even though the publishing house had rejected his direct approach.

Rollins began his working life as a motoring journalist then moved into advertising in 1981, when he was 23. He worked at Harris Robinson Courtenay Advertising, where he answered to Bryce Courtenay, another adman turned author, then moved to The Campaign Palace before starting his own agency, which he sold in 2000. He stayed on as creative director but accepted a voluntary redundancy in October 2001, after assisting the company through two mergers.

"Once you go into meetings and find yourself rolling your eyes, not outwardly, but inwardly, at pretty much everything that is said, it's time to get out," he says.

Aged 40, separated from his wife and in the throes of a mid-life crisis, Rollins was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Manly and spending 12 hours a day writing his second book. His health suffered and after a pulmonary embolism later that year, he patched up his relationship and moved back in with his wife and four children.

Rogue Element went into bookstores in 2003. The same year Rollins returned to advertising full-time to work at George Patterson Y&R. He loved writing but the income from his books was not enough to support his family.

"I was doing all the things everyone says you should do in order to succeed," he says. "I'd had the epiphany, I'd crashed through that and found what I really wanted to do and I was really going for it. Yet, it felt like it had failed."

Six weeks later, on December 21, 2005, a US publisher offered Rollins a six-figure, three-book deal.

The date was particularly significant for Rollins. Years earlier, a fortune-teller had approached him on the street in Bangkok and predicted that on that very date "something amazing will change your life".

In November 2006, Rollins became a full-time writer. He enjoys the creative freedom but he misses the camaraderie of advertising.

"I spend a lot of time in my own head having conversations with people who don't exist while writing for eight hours a day," he says. "One of the best parts of advertising is the conversations you have in the hallways because agencies are usually populated by highly individualistic people."

But as a writer of political thrillers, Rollins gets to meet plenty of interesting people including SAS personnel, fighter pilots, military strategists, forensic scientists and politicians.

Then there are research trips to the locations that feature in his books, including southern Egypt, Turkey, Thailand and Burma.

Most recently, he spent a month in Russia and Siberia for his latest novel about the Cold War. So far, he's written 85,000 words and the book is due for release in the US next February.

"If they sell, that will be a huge moment for me because then I'll be able to seriously relax and chill out," Rollins says.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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