Muchamore - Author & Website FAQ

Are you rich?
Obviously the more books you sell the more money you make. So while I'm not in the JK Rowling or Bill Gates league I do earn a decent six-figure income as a writer.

Do you still work as a private investigator?
No, I gave that job up to write full time in late 2005.

Where do you get your ideas from?
I get asked this question all the time and it drives me nuts, because I don't really know the answer!

I usually start by picking a topic for a book - like cocaine dealing for CHERUB: Class A - and the ideas slowly come together as I learn about the subject.

What was your inspiration to write books?
I've always read loads, but when I was about 12/13 I got fed up with all the kids' books, but I was still a bit young to really get into adult books.

So my starting point for CHERUB: The Recruit was to try and write the book that I was searching for when I was thirteen years old.

How long does it take you to write each book?
It takes 4-5 months from starting my research to finishing the first draft.

The first month of this is research. I usually read lots of books, occasionally I also interview people (like retired police officers or swimming instructors), and I do research at the British Library, or the newspaper library at Colindale.

Next I come up with a detailed plan that says what is going to happen in every chapter. When everything is all planned out, I start actually writing the book, which takes around two and a half months.

How long did it take to get your first book published?
I finished writing CHERUB: The Recruit in early 2001. I then sent it to two agents and one of them took me on.

After doing some more work on the book with my agent, we sent it off to a bunch of children's publishers in September 2002.

After some rejection letters, the nice people at Hodder decided to buy it. Sadly they didn't give me one of those seven figure advances you're always reading about in the newspapers…

What is your favourite book?
I love Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. I've read it about ten times and it still cracks me up. My other favourite is In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

I was an Asterix nut when I was a kid. The best kids' book I've read recently are Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie and Just In Case by Meg Rosoff.

What books do you really hate?
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I read this for my English GCSE. By the time I'd spent four months reading, re-reading and writing essays on it I wanted to scream.

Also, Harry Potter 5 was pretty terrible. At least it was up to page 279, when I gave up.

I joined CHERUB, why don't I receive any messages or updates by e-mail?
We send out e-mails and information to everyone who joins CHERUB. There are several reasons why you may not receive them:

1. You have anti spam software that blocks them – try turning it off or playing with the settings, but ask permission first!
2. Your e-mail provider thinks they're spam – have a look in your spam folder.
3. Your e-mail provider is blocking our messages before you receive them – some providers (Hotmail in particular) block certain kinds of messages. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to prevent this.

If you can't get messages, remember to check out the latest issue of CHERUB News online. It goes online on the last Friday of every month except July and December at www.cherubcampus.com/newscurrent

You may need to press the refresh button to see the latest issue.

Who makes the CHERUB, Henderson's Boys and Muchamore.com websites?
All of the websites are made by me, Robert Muchamore. This means they don't have fancy features like Flash intros or games, but it means I can update them regularly.

Does Robert Muchamore really answer e-mails personally?
Yes, I read every e-mail I receive and reply personally.

So how come me and my friend got almost the same reply?
I get between 20 and 60 messages from fans a day. A lot of them ask the same questions, and rather than type the same answers hundreds of times I copy and paste standard answers to questions such as ‘When is the next book out?' or ‘Can I be in the CHERUB movie?'.

I live outside of the UK, why can't I enter the competitions in CHERUB news?
Unfortunately, different countries have different laws and it's impossible to make competitions that comply with all of them. Sorry!