“I emailed my publisher telling her I just felt burnt out and heartbroken … that I felt my time might be better spent with my family and friends.”

So she retreated – for 2½ years.

But the story she’d intended to write next wouldn’t let go.

On a trip to Venice, she’d walked hidden lanes, tried recipes passed down generations, experienced a vibrant marketplace, watched gondoliers navigating tourism traffic jams. Hotel owners and gelato sellers confided in her about the hopelessness of trying to compete with Airbnb and about how Venice’s magic was causing its downfall.

Back in Perth, she could not forget the reality of life in one of the world’s most iconic cities.

So she began work again, telling no one.

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Her agent was unconvinced by the completed manuscript and sent it to a professional reader, whose report was “scathing”.

“I was completely shattered,” Woods said.

“I just really gave up.”

Then: a fairytale. A Penguin publisher messaged her on Instagram, simply saying a mutual friend had praised Woods and could they have coffee?

Woods offered the publisher her manuscript. The publisher loved it. The result has exceeded Woods’ “wildest expectations”.

In week one it reached #6 on Dymocks’ charts, weeks one to three it was in the top five Australian print novels.

Woods’ advice for other burnt-out authors? Remember why you began writing, and pare things back to that.

“My faith in my own writing was what it came down to,” she said.

“All you need is a good story you believe in; eventually someone else will come along who believes in it too.”

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