AUTHOR CHATS
Working with and without publishers.

Authors! Should you try to find a publisher or self-publish? Should you abandon your current publisher and go it alone? Author James Gault recounts his experiences and explores the options.
I self-publish my books. Mr Amazon puts them in his shop window and sells them for me. It’s my job to make sure people know about them, a task at which I am afraid I am woefully inadequate. I’m not making a fortune or setting the world on fire. So why don’t I bite the bullet, and crawl around the literary establishment, pleading until a publisher feels sorry for me and picks me up.
I’ve been published by the established press before. I’ve written some magazine articles. I also wrote some English language books for a major publisher in the field, and it was great working with them. I put the stuff together and they sold it. Sure, the editor was a bit of a pain, but she taught me a lot. No chance of getting away with second best with her; she knew her job inside out. And the publisher took on all the legal, technical and marketing tasks and left me free to do what I loved: use my imagination and create.
I thought that what I could in non-fiction I could also do for fiction. I was a bit hopeful. Non-fiction publishers have specific markets they seek to serve and may even seek you out to write for them if you have some special knowledge in the field. But there is no ready-made market for works of fiction. Each book has to find its own readership in an environment where supply drowns demand. Publishers need to make money. To say that they are fussy about choosing new authors is a big understatement. 'Still, worth a try,' I thought.
I diligently sent out copies of the three initial chapters and synopsis of my first novel to about a dozen selected publishers, although I was warned that most of them would go straight to the bin, and the very few that didn’t would go to ‘the pile’, where they would languish for months before being summarily rejected. Which is more or less exactly what happened. With one exception: a large and prestigious publisher wrote back to me (after a long delay, of course) and invited me to send the whole book. Celebrations! I had got to stage two.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to stage three. A whole year later, I got a very nice long letter from the publisher telling me they weren’t sure they could sell enough copies, but my work was very interesting. They gave me a whole critique of my work with lots of helpful comments on how I could improve and make my future writing more marketable. Although disappointed, I was encouraged enough to keep writing.
My problem is that I’m not young. If I have to wait three years between finishing a book and getting it to the market, I may no longer be around. I wanted to give the public the chance to read my work, so I decided to self-publish. It wasn’t a hard decision; I had the computer skills needed and literary-educated friends to help with editorial advice and copy-editing. I would have liked some sales and marketing support, but my author friends pointed out that, when it comes to marketing fiction, even authors with the big publishers are pretty much on their own. It made me wonder what a publisher would really do for me anyway.
So now I’ve got six books up on Amazon, and another on Smashwords. Three others are in progress. My work is there for those who discover it and want to read it. So would I recommend self-publishing to others? Yes, if you have the skills you need or can find the support. Self-publishing is quicker, more certain, you have control of your pricing and you can make better royalties, if making money is why you write. But you have to really work on the marketing.
But let’s suppose all new authors decided to start or continue their careers as independent self-publishers. Where would this leave the established publishing houses? Not in a very good place, and this is why I think fiction publishing will change.
First of all, I envisage them becoming even more selective and less likely to take a chance on authors. Already they favour well established names and sequels or look-alikes of successful works. To stay in business, they will need to find new talent, but they will be wary of innovation, because they won’t have the luxury of wasting resources on failures. It doesn’t bode well for unknown writers who are trying to expand the horizons of the written word; the ‘new’ will be too much of a risk for the bean-counters in publishing houses.
On the other hand, they will need to keep successful talent, and this is why I think they will be forced to beef up their marketing and sales teams, so that their brand dominates that of the authors themselves. The publisher will have to make significant efforts to sell the books, otherwise why would a best-selling author stay with them? But if that success is based on the author’s name rather than the imprint, the cash-cow writers will simply say goodbye and do it all themselves. So if an author is lucky enough to get a publishing contract in the future, it is likely to be better in terms of support but more stringent in term of conditions.
If any authors out there have any comments or experiences they wish to share about publishing or self-publishing, please send them via our contact form below and we’ll share them.
I self-publish my books. Mr Amazon puts them in his shop window and sells them for me. It’s my job to make sure people know about them, a task at which I am afraid I am woefully inadequate. I’m not making a fortune or setting the world on fire. So why don’t I bite the bullet, and crawl around the literary establishment, pleading until a publisher feels sorry for me and picks me up.
I’ve been published by the established press before. I’ve written some magazine articles. I also wrote some English language books for a major publisher in the field, and it was great working with them. I put the stuff together and they sold it. Sure, the editor was a bit of a pain, but she taught me a lot. No chance of getting away with second best with her; she knew her job inside out. And the publisher took on all the legal, technical and marketing tasks and left me free to do what I loved: use my imagination and create.
I thought that what I could in non-fiction I could also do for fiction. I was a bit hopeful. Non-fiction publishers have specific markets they seek to serve and may even seek you out to write for them if you have some special knowledge in the field. But there is no ready-made market for works of fiction. Each book has to find its own readership in an environment where supply drowns demand. Publishers need to make money. To say that they are fussy about choosing new authors is a big understatement. 'Still, worth a try,' I thought.
I diligently sent out copies of the three initial chapters and synopsis of my first novel to about a dozen selected publishers, although I was warned that most of them would go straight to the bin, and the very few that didn’t would go to ‘the pile’, where they would languish for months before being summarily rejected. Which is more or less exactly what happened. With one exception: a large and prestigious publisher wrote back to me (after a long delay, of course) and invited me to send the whole book. Celebrations! I had got to stage two.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to stage three. A whole year later, I got a very nice long letter from the publisher telling me they weren’t sure they could sell enough copies, but my work was very interesting. They gave me a whole critique of my work with lots of helpful comments on how I could improve and make my future writing more marketable. Although disappointed, I was encouraged enough to keep writing.
My problem is that I’m not young. If I have to wait three years between finishing a book and getting it to the market, I may no longer be around. I wanted to give the public the chance to read my work, so I decided to self-publish. It wasn’t a hard decision; I had the computer skills needed and literary-educated friends to help with editorial advice and copy-editing. I would have liked some sales and marketing support, but my author friends pointed out that, when it comes to marketing fiction, even authors with the big publishers are pretty much on their own. It made me wonder what a publisher would really do for me anyway.
So now I’ve got six books up on Amazon, and another on Smashwords. Three others are in progress. My work is there for those who discover it and want to read it. So would I recommend self-publishing to others? Yes, if you have the skills you need or can find the support. Self-publishing is quicker, more certain, you have control of your pricing and you can make better royalties, if making money is why you write. But you have to really work on the marketing.
But let’s suppose all new authors decided to start or continue their careers as independent self-publishers. Where would this leave the established publishing houses? Not in a very good place, and this is why I think fiction publishing will change.
First of all, I envisage them becoming even more selective and less likely to take a chance on authors. Already they favour well established names and sequels or look-alikes of successful works. To stay in business, they will need to find new talent, but they will be wary of innovation, because they won’t have the luxury of wasting resources on failures. It doesn’t bode well for unknown writers who are trying to expand the horizons of the written word; the ‘new’ will be too much of a risk for the bean-counters in publishing houses.
On the other hand, they will need to keep successful talent, and this is why I think they will be forced to beef up their marketing and sales teams, so that their brand dominates that of the authors themselves. The publisher will have to make significant efforts to sell the books, otherwise why would a best-selling author stay with them? But if that success is based on the author’s name rather than the imprint, the cash-cow writers will simply say goodbye and do it all themselves. So if an author is lucky enough to get a publishing contract in the future, it is likely to be better in terms of support but more stringent in term of conditions.
If any authors out there have any comments or experiences they wish to share about publishing or self-publishing, please send them via our contact form below and we’ll share them.
Researching for a novel
In the previous article in this series exploring the sources authors exploit for their inspiration, we looked at the use of philosophical theories. This time, we take up the topic of research, and we asked three writers of historical novels for their views. Novelists all base their writing on their imagination and personal experience, but often this is not enough; they have to dig deeper in search of inspiration and accuracy. Our authors’ insights will be useful both to other writers and to those readers who, inspired by what they have read, want to find out more.
Where do plots come from?
The philosophical novel
This is the first of a series of articles exploring the source of ideas that inspire writers to produce their works. In each article, two or more authors will discuss their books and how their imagination was stimulated to produce them.
This is the first of a series of articles exploring the source of ideas that inspire writers to produce their works. In each article, two or more authors will discuss their books and how their imagination was stimulated to produce them.
James: In your novel 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop Thinking' you introduce the idea that the ‘unconscious mind’ is a myth. Could you explain this further?
Timothy: The popular portrayal of the famous 'unconscious mind' is that it is an area of our brains to which we do not have access but where thoughts are formulated that we do not even know about! This has led to the absolutely absurd situation where people accuse others of not actually knowing what they really think! "Ah, but that's not what you think unconsciously," they say blithely. Or, "unconsciously, I probably think this and feel that." And such like. For me, this is a confusion and a contradiction. If a thought is not accessible to you, it is not a thought. You have no reason at all to believe that it exists. The question is rather elsewhere: to what extent are you aware and thinking about what you thinking? James: So are you suggesting that the concept of the unconscious is some kind of hindrance to understanding ourselves? Timothy: Since I believe that this thing is a pure misunderstanding, all I can say is that the failure to be aware of what you think is certainly a handicap, for you and, above all, the others. I would like to think that all men could be aware of, and be able to articulate, everything they believe, think and feel, in which case the 'unconscious mind' would disappear into thin air as a concept. All it means for now is that many people are blind to their own views, incapable of hearing them, barely know what they are, because they do not ever reflect on them. Research by psychologists actually confirms this. James: This is an interesting idea. In my own work, OGG, I make the case that the inability to grasp what one knows and believes is the cause of many of the problems of humanity. It’s based on my understanding from epistemology that true knowledge can only come from deductive logic, and that deductive logic cannot lead us to truth, it can only illuminate the consistency of different statements: If x is true, y follows. So to have any view on anything, it is necessary to have some of the ‘x’s: fundamental beliefs that we consider self-evident. In my book, I send an omnipotent and omniscient ‘Great Being’ to teach his (or her) followers how to think logically and question their fundamental beliefs. So I think I am arriving at your conclusion that people are blind to their own views from a slightly different direction. But to take the argument on, do you have a view on the implications of this, both at an individual level and at the level of mankind as a whole? Timothy: I have only ever been interested in philosophy inasmuch as it addresses the actual questions we humans face when we confront 'reality', whether within us or in the external world, and, of course, in their interaction. This requires a certain good faith and acceptance that we largely share the same perceptions and, if we don't, that there are identifiable causes for any such discrepancies. Questions like, 'Are we actually living in reality or is this all a dream?', or 'Does truth really exist?', I have to leave to others. They don't interest me in the slightest and are a waste of my time. I live and think on the basis that we as humans have a brotherly pact to discuss and explore our existence and our condition on the basis of a fundamental common understanding of its elementary nature. But, to address myself to your question ... Two things: I do not have your scepticism or disbelief in the absolute value of 'deductive logic'. Of course it leads us to truth! The 'fundamental beliefs that we consider self-evident', as you put it, all arise, it seems to me, from 2 + 2 = 4. Dostoevsky made a very good joke about the charming nature of 2 + 2 = 5 - but it doesn't! If we admit that it might, we are just lost for ever as a species. No quantum physicist (whatever that might be), will ever convince me, nor ever should, that when my mother gave me two crayons one day, then another two the next, that I then had four crayons. Anyone who says the contrary is not worth talking to. So, my point: I think that our notions of justice, of equity, of ethics, of truth, all arise, basically, out of our recognition and acceptance that 2 + 2 does indeed equal 4, something our brains could see and test in our very early days. And anyone who tells me that this conclusion is 'subjective', or individual to each of us, will have a fight with me on their hands! You ask about the 'implications' on individuals and on humanity of the incapacity of many people to be aware of - or, more importantly, to question - their own views. This is the most important question of all! I don't want to sound too dramatic, but the future of mankind depends completely on man's ability to be aware of his biases, his prejudices, his hatreds, his lies to himself. And thus possibly capable NOT of changing them - I never ask for so much - but of refusing to act on them, of refusing to join the lynch party on the tail of those who disagree with him. Very little else matters at the end of the day! This is the central lesson, I must say, of my novel, 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop Thinking.' James: Looking at your two ‘things’, I don’t totally accept the first but on the second I’m completely in agreement. I’m very aware that philosophers are often accused of being removed from the real world and self-indulging in ‘yoga for the mind’, but I do think a lot of it is relevant to understanding our thoughts. When you seem to suggest that ‘2 + 2 = 4’ is some kind of fundamental truth, I disagree. I understand that ‘2+2 = 4’ follows by logical deduction from what we mean by ‘2’, ‘4’, ‘+’ and ‘=’. Knowing this is of little consequence in itself, but what it does is demonstrate that if we search for the real truth behind our assumed true beliefs, we can be surprised to find how little justification we have for them. My whole comic novel, OGG, repeatedly emphases that point in an ironical and hopefully amusing way. On your second point I agree completely. We may believe, for example, that God exists and our version is the only true one. But when we look at why, we come to understand that such a belief is very hard to justify rationally, and this, I would hope, leads us to be more tolerant of others. I suppose all my writing challenges these kind of beliefs people have, which are to some extent only opinion or even prejudice. Ah, I say, you may believe that, but what if you’re wrong? And then I go on to show them some of the implications of holding such unfounded opinions. In A Flower in the Wind, for example, I say this: I know you think that there are unthinkable bad deeds that could never be done by my country, only the ‘enemy’, but….. But, to wind up this discussion, can I ask you this? In your writing so far, what would you choose as the most significant philosophical point that you want to get across to readers? Timothy: We are indeed some ways apart. If you do not accept that 2 + 2 = 4, or rather that you do not feel that this is a fundamental truth, then, unhappily, dialogue between nice and intelligent and friendly gentlemen like the two of us, is unlikely to end in a conciliation of views on this question. I certainly possess a large number of very stupid and unjustifiable biases and prejudices, but I consider them to be of no importance at all, to be 'false' inasmuch as they are neither right nor wrong, and to be merely objects of my own mockery and laughter, never to be taken as a serious basis for any action. For they are precisely NOT 'beliefs', not rational conclusions and arguments from my inner dialogue, which is entirely built on reason. You seem to suggest that some of your beliefs lie in the realm of magical phenomena, or something. I don't suffer from any such illusions. I know very well where all my beliefs originate. They have been crafted out of the simple observation of reality from my 2 + 2 = 4 standpoint. The 'most significant philosophical point' of my writing? First of all, and above everything else, I want to make people laugh - as you do too - and embrace the joy of life. (It is not for nothing that Nietzsche is my real hero as a philosopher, because he too aimed for these ends). Beyond that, I have tried to illustrate the evolution of the human species towards complete consciousness of self and, thus, complete objectivity. Practically no one accepts that this evolution is taking place. Among my few allies are Shakespeare - the first writer to illustrate on stage the personal, solitary inner dialogue - and Nietszche, with his brilliant perception that the Greeks and the Romans, when they thought 'the gods' were speaking to them, were actually hearing themselves - for the first time in human history! Yes, we have come a long way and are entering, one by one, a new era of man. This is the discussion I hope to provoke with my writing. James: Let’s agree to disagree amicably on esoteric matters of epistemology. Suffice to say I am a confirmed and severe sceptic and it often leads me into troubled waters. More important, in the realm of practical matters, is that I am 100% with you on the importance of objectivity. I don’t unfortunately have your optimism that all of mankind will achieve such objectivity. I’m struck by the similarity between Socrates and Nietszche, and wonder if perhaps there will also be the ‘ubermencsh’ or ‘philsophers’ whose insight into their own thinking far outstrips that of the ordinary man. But, for the sake of mankind, I hope you will be proved to be right. Thanks for talking to me. |
LINKS TO THEIR BOOKS
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