interviews and flying back and forth to Canberra trying to work out
who was going to make this agency amazing.”
The Dark Lake was a bestseller here, in the US and Canada. It won the
2018 Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for Best Crime Debut and the Ned Kelly
Award for Best First Crime.The Dream
Writing a book is a common one-day-soon desire in the advertising
industry, many of who studied the arts at university.
“I definitely know quite a lot of people who are writing books in the indus-
try,” says Bailey. “Once my first book was published, there was an inf lux of
people who grabbed me at drinks saying, ‘I’ve actually got this idea that I’d
been working on’.”
She studied media and communications at Swinburne University of
Technology in Melbourne with journalism at top of mind. But to get a break
into reporting, she would have had to work in regional Australia on a small
country newspaper.
“I had zero interest in moving away from Melbourne back then and I
discovered I really liked all the marketing subjects so I started to consider
a different career path,” says Bailey.
“I did an internship at the Herald Sun, at Channel 10 and then at a mar-
keting agency, and I ended up liking the marketing more.”The Story
The most used excuse for not writing is that there’s too much to do with
the weighty chains of daily life — the demanding job, family commit-
ments, the dog who needs walking, the weeds excised — squeezing
creativity into a cul de sac.
Bailey writes whenever she can: early mornings; over a coffee on the
weekend; late at night. Whenever she can fit in a burst of words.
“It is a bit of a messy, non-structured approach because it is more around
fitting it in around what I do,” she says.
Bailey writes without a detailed plan. “It’s kind of in my head as a bit of a
loose plan, but it’s fairly vague with a start, middle, end, plus characters, a
few key, interesting ideas,” she explains.The suit who
writes crime fiction
The advertising industry is known for its creative side, with many
pursuing their own style outside the day-to-day commercial creative
miracle. AdNews seeks out their stories.W
ritingisanexercisein
maybe.Maybesomeonewill
readit.Maybetheywon’t.Maybe
theywilllikeit.Maybetheywon’t.
Youwon’tknowuntilwords
appearonpaper(orpixels).And
that’sthething— gettingthewords
down,andintherightorder.
Sarah Bailey had always
wantedtowritea bookandshe
setherselfthegoalofwritingone
bythetimeshehit35.Shewas
sickoftalkingaboutit andfanta-
sisingaboutit.“Ijustwanttodo
it,”shetoldherself.
Herfirstbook,crimethrillerThe
DarkLake, waspublishedtheday
afterher35thbirthdayin2016.
Baileywasappointedmanag-
ing partner at VMLY&R
MelbourneinFebruary2019.Her
thirdbook,WheretheDeadGo, a
crimethrillerset in regional
Australia, was published by
Allen & Unwin less than six
monthslater.
HerfirstpriorityatVMLY&R
wastohire 30 peopleinfiveweeks
toworkon the DefenceForce
RecruitingDFRaccount.
“Myinitialtaskwastohitthe
groundrunningwhentheDFR
contractbegan,”shesays.“The
firstfewweeksI washerewas
justa totalblurofspeed-datingI don’t actually
think I’m that
good at writing.Sarah Bailey has juggled
her career in the advertising
industry with writing
fictional crime bestsellers.CHRIS PASHWORDS BYCreative Sides