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The catch

2010-05-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

You might think, reasonably, that a writer's work ends when he, or she, finishes writing his, or her, book. This was the view of Maggie Gee. So it came as a shock when her editor at HarperCollins turned down her fifth book because not enough people had heard of her and this was an age when "profile" counted. Like many writers, Maggie had shown no special interest in the "literary set". She had concentrated on writing and her home life. Maggie's dismal encounter with her mainstream publisher is told in her new book, My Animal Life, and quoted in the Guardian. She is now published by a small independent publisher. Many writers who now find the world of mainstream publishers impenetrable have done the same. I am among them. The publisher of my new novel, Five Deadly Words, is Solidus. The book is sold either by direct order or though Amazon, which after all is the world's biggest bookshop. I believe the best publicity is by word of mouth. Distribute some copies of your book to people you know to be readers in the hope that they will like the book and recommend it to a friend. It takes time to show results but be patient.

My new book

2010-05-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

My new novel, Five Deadly Words, has just been published. This is the eleventh to get into print. The first, The Money Tree, was the easiest. I sent the ms off to Hamish Hamilton and three weeks later I had a letter inviting me to call in. I came away with an advance of £100, quite a respectable sum in those days. Getting published was easy, I decided. Silly me. These days mainstream publishers would rather receive a tax demand in the post than a ms from an author. Fortunately there is growing number of smaller publishers who retain the personal link with their writers. My publisher is Solidus, run by a clever woman called Helen Miles who uses new developments in printing to keep costs down. Five Deadly Words is sold though Amazon, the world's biggest bookshop, which thoughtfully also stocks almost every one of my previous books. More on this later.

Apology

2009-11-17T03:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a blog for some time. My only excuse is that I have been working on a new novel, my eleventh, called Five Deadly Words, due to be published by Solidus next year. More later. Hold your breath.

Reunited by a blog

2009-07-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

A blog produces surprises, usually pleasant ones. I had lost contact with Mike, a journalist, when we went our own ways back in the 1960s. He came across my name on the web and found my blog. Mike and I were sub-editors on the Daily Herald. It is not a publication much remembered now, although it was once the most popular newspaper in Britain. Its great days were between the wars. But by the 1960s it was losing circulation against the likes of the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror. While Mike and I were there it was relaunched as the Sun, but after a promising send-off it declined and was sold to Murdoch who turned it into the successful tabloid it is today.

Who reads books?

2009-06-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Andy Murray, Britain's brightest tennis hope, was asked what he was reading. He is said to have replied, "I don't read. I haven't read a book since the second Harry Potter", that is since 1998. Well, why should he read? Those who do read books sometimes find it hard to understand what life would be like without them. Pretty empty? Not necessarily. I think we may be moving into the post-literary era. To read a book requires some leisure time, and for most people their leisure time is already full up. Don't be snobbish about books. Is watching an hour of television less "cultural" than reading a book? It depends of course, but generally the answer is no. Culture exists in many ways: conversation, for example - the mobile phone encourages the long conversation; the cinema, even blogging. So who does read books? It is a minority activity. Quite small, and getting smaller. And yet there are all these books being published, seemingly more than ever before. A puzzle. I'd like to return to the subject when I've thought a bit more about it. I just want to turn on the TV to see how Murray has done today.

The last bookshop

2009-06-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

I will be sorry to see the end of bookshops. They have been friendly places: and brave too, stocking books the booksellers knew they would never sell, but giving them accommodation, heat and light before returning them to their publisher for a credit. I feel a bit guilty too that in a tiny way I may be contributing to their demise. It is not my fault that most of my books are now sold through Amazon, which is not particularly friendly but is efficient at selling world-wide. All the same, I have spurned offers to join the Organisation of Latterday Luddites, decent people though its members are, and consider that its slogan, Gutenberg Lives, is not really accurate. I agree that, looking around one of the great book supermarkets, say Waterstones in Piccadilly, London, conventional book marketing does have a look of permanence. How could all this disappear? But they said the same about the British empire. Sorry about that. But there will still be secondhand bookshops. Very friendly places.
Hot news. My publisher Solidus has entered my most recent novel, Beyond Reason, for the People's Book Prize. This is a new prize with entries restricted to books from independent publishers. So no conglomerates. You can read about it at www.peoplesbookprize.com and, if you are so inclined, vote for your favourite book.

The perils of fame

2008-10-31T03:59:00.000-07:00

I have always been aware of the perils of fame. Years ago, while I was waiting for my first novel to be published I offered the editor of the newspaper where I worked an article on this notable event. The danger to a young writer of instant success, the corruption of money, the pain of fame. He declined. Funny business, literature, he said. So it turned out to be. The event passed unnoticed. Five kindly lines in the Observer for The Money Tree did not impress my publisher, Hamish Hamilton (Jamie to his friends, Mr Hamilton to me).
However, the threat of fame did not go away. For my second novel, Point of Stress, Mr Hamilton primed some of his better known writers who also reviewed books that he expected some enthusiasm for this promising recruit to their trade. They did not fail him. It has the cleansing sanity of Candide and of the the best of Bernard Shaw, wrote John Raymond, then a critic of some eminence, sadly dead now. One is left in better heart for reading it, he insisted. Voltaire, Bernard Shaw? I turned the pages of Point of Stress with new admiration, smiling at the jokes, Voltarian ones presumably, although I had not read him. I awaited the summons, the four-column photograph, the agonising questions from the Paris Review, the need to preserve my privacy. But I was spared. The next two novels gave me no anxiety. No one much liked them except my editor at Chatto & Windus, Dennis Enright. I have had several more novels published, all well received, as they say; succes d'estime is the polite and meaningless phrase. This year I have another novel published, Beyond Reason (Solidus), and Profile Books has published The Economist Book of Obituaries, part of which I wrote. Good reads both, but best not spread it around.

A book party

2008-09-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Apologies for neglecting my blog over the past month. I have been away. On my return I went to a party to give a send-off to the Economist Book of Obituaries, published by Profile. It had a rather old-fashioned atmosphere about it. These days publishers tend not to have send-off parties, or if they do they are usually modest ones. They cost money and may not result in much in the way of sales. But this one was pleasantly lavish with champagne and high-class food. I did my best to play author (I am the joint editor of the book), signed copies and made a little speech. Have you published anything else? someone graciously asked. Well, I have, ten novels. The latest, as noted in earlier posts, is Beyond Reason (Solidus). Why not buy them both, the quick and the dead?

Strange titles

2008-08-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

The titles of novels seem to be getting stranger. A novel submitted for a recent Guardian competition is called A Case of Exploding Mangoes. If it does well, as I hope it does, I suspect that may be despite the fashionably quirky title.

A matter of luck

2008-07-31T06:02:00.000-07:00

I see the new Booker prize longlist contains five first novels, or at least five first-published novels. One wishes the writers luck. Luck is a big element in a writer's success; that is, success in making a living as a novelist rather than succes d'estime, although that is very nice.

No one knows just how many published authors there are. But there must be a lot of them. More than 10,000 authors are registered with the office of Public Lending Right, which pays them a fee when their books are borrowed from public libraries. The Society of Authors publishes a list of several hundred new members in its quarterly magazine, so the profession, if that is what it is, continues to thrive. What nearly all these authors have in common, apart from being published, is that they are unknown. They do not have the instant recognition granted to the relatively small number of authors of bestsellers. You’re a writer? How interesting. Do you write under your own name?

Unknown writers sometimes become known, like the five in the Booker longlist, but usually only briefly and to a small audience. After a few flattering reviews, they mostly return to normal obscurity. And there are writers who, while not unknown are only vaguely known. Didn’t he/she write ..? Anything else? Don’t think so. Books by the vaguely known may linger hopefully in bookshops long beyond their sell-by date, libraries are reluctant to throw them away and they may have an afterlife in charity shops. But it has to be said that most unknowns, and even the vaguely known, make little money from their books. But somebody loves them, or did love them and, possibly, will love them again.

The unknown tend not to love the well-known. Human envy, course. Each story of some fellow writer’s fabulous earnings feeds the envy. But famous writers you may encounter at literary parties grumble about their deals, about the pittances they are paid for writing book reviews to keep their name known, and how much they pay in tax. It is all quite cheering to an unknown writer who has a proper job, with a cheque coming in every month, paid-for holidays and is at peace with the taxman.

Mysterious ways

2008-07-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

According to the Guardian, the next bestseller in Britain is going to be The Shack, which has done well in the United States. It apparently deals with God's mysterious ways. As I noted in an earlier post (July 3), God seems to be one of the themes that sell books. God though, being almost human in some ways, likes books that praise him. I have doubts that he will entirely approve of my own novel with a religious theme, Beyond Reason (Solidus). But read it anyway, bless you.

A woman's place?

2008-07-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

The Anglican church is in a tizzy about whether God would approve of female bishops. The church is no longer a male club. A woman who believes she has a calling is no longer told, Hamlet-like, 'Get thee to a nunnery.' Yet its problems over the treatment of women attached to the church are more urgent than whether they should wear the mitre. Pardon me for mentioning my new novel, Beyond Reason (Solidus Press). Florence, a vicar's wife, is thinking of getting a paid job. Such a revolutionary idea is a blow to the running of a vicar's household. True, some parishes are run by bachelors, but church people prefer there to be a wife to be lured into the unpaid womanly activities in a parish; to be eternally on hand, at the end of the phone or behind the front door, an unpaid round-the-clock servant in cardigan and pearls. Some wives are happy with this disgraceful system, or if they aren't they are kept going by their faith. Florence, though, has no faith.

What's the question?

2008-07-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Some of the questions people may ask you, politely, when they find out you are a writer: Do you write under your own name? What sort of books do you write? What are they about? If you happen to write thrillers, say, you can confide, reasonably, that your write thrillers, or murder mysteries or whatever, and a pleasant and undemanding conversation may follow. Other genres may be less conversational. I have recently written a novel in which the theme is 'belief''. 'Oh, really?' says your conversationalist, looking over your shoulder in the hope that there is someone more promising to talk to.

So how do you sell a book about belief? The Guardian a few weeks ago (June 26) carried an article by Stephen Moss that deserves a repeat:

The humourist Alan Coren once complained to his agent that his books weren't selling. There were only three subjects guaranteed to shift copies, the agent told him - golf, cats and Nazis. Coren called his next book Golfing for Cats and put a swastika on the cover. But this publishing holy trinity is no longer enough: the new hot topic is God.
Sales in the US for Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything have been phenomenal. The book, published just seven weeks ago, is already in its 11th printing, and Hitchens has been commissioned to compile a companion volume, The Portable Atheist.
God Is Not Great was published in the UK by Atlantic Books a fortnight ago, with the somewhat more considered subtitle The Case Against Religion. It sold 4,000 in hardback in its first week, and stands at number six in the Amazon bestsellers chart. "It's a hell of a good start," says Atlantic's sales director, Daniel Scott. "I think we're likely to end up with sales of 35,000 to 40,000. It's starting to be talked of as 'the Hitchens God book', and when that kind of shorthand takes hold, the sky is the limit."
Hitchens has some way to go to match Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, which last year chalked up sales of half a million in the US and 300,000 in the UK. It used to be just the Bible that sold in vast quantities; now the anti-Bible bibles are doing the same. Why? "There remains a lot of faith and belief," says Scott, "but people find it increasingly hard to marry organised religion with their own view of the world and want a more intellectual, contemporary take on the subject."
The God (and anti-God) market is expanding fast. Current titles on Amazon include The Case for a Creator, God's Politics, Conversations With God and Searching for God Knows What. The philosopher Daniel Dennett last year published Breaking the Spell; AC Grayling chipped in with Against All Gods; and Pope Benedict is leading the counter-attack on the militant atheists by bringing out a book most weeks.
The last time tracts about religion did this well was probably the Reformation. My own effort, How I Found God and Lost Weight on Life's 18th Hole, will be out shortly. Look for the picture of a cute tabby on the cover. Next to the portrait of Hitler.

My own modest novel, Beyond Reason (Solidus Press), has not yet caught up in sales with Hitchens or Dawkins. But I am hoping that God, if there is a God, will accept that at least I am being fair, and see that it gets space on a heavenly bookshelf. Do you believe or not? That is the question. Paul Schnidler, an American critic, wrote this of the book: 'The phrase "can't put it down" is frequently bandied about, but I used it here without reservation because it is literally true. Once I picked up this novel, I dev0ted full time to it... Well-written, fast paced, entertaining and, like his other works, endearingly eccentric. If you are interested in a good novel that doesn't read just like every other novel, and some thoughtful chatter about the state of religion, wrapped into an entertaining package, you'll like Beyond Reason.' So there.

Curious behaviour

2008-06-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

A visit from Virginia (Jinny) Duigan, an old friend. Her second novel, The Biographer, has recently been published. Like her first, Days Like These, it is a compelling read, a real page-turner. Curiously though, her publisher, Random House, is selling it only in Australia, where Jinny lives. The ways of the conglomerates can be mysterious. Australia is no doubt a lovely country, but The Biographer deserves an international audience, not a parochial one. Random House could pick up some tips from smaller, independent publishers, such as Solidus, my publisher, which gratefully sees the world as its market place.

Another book

2008-06-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

I worked for the Economist, a weekly news-magazine, for about ten years. My main tasks were writing about Asian affairs (I had lived for a time in South-East Asia) and producing an obituary page each week. No one much wanted to be the paper's undertaker, but a job is a job, and the editor's word is final. You couldn't interview the subject of the obit, as you would with an ordinary article. On the other hand the subject was not in a position to complain about anything you wrote. You had the world's dead to choose from; and not ncessarily the obviously great and good. All the editor asked for was someone interesting. The editor once met Bill Clinton, then American president. Clinton said he read the Economist. What did he think of it? Clinton said he always read the obituary. Bill Emmott, the editor, took it on the chin that the world's most powerful person did not immediately turn to the Economist's leading article to find out what he should do. He stoically told the story at the paper's weekly editorial meeting. The obituary page acquired a sort of respect among the staff as they dealt with mere mortal matters. Ann Wroe runs the page nicely these days, but I don't know if George Bush is among her readers.

Anyway, what this is leading to is that the Economist is publishing a book (with Profile Books) of obits later this year, so that an eager world can find out what it was that grabbed Clinton's attention. I am happy to give it a first review. My verdict: 'Brilliant, not to be missed.' As I mentioned in an earlier post, the other big publishing event of the year is of course my novel Beyond Reason (Solidus), now flying off the bookshops' shelves.

Rejected novels

2008-06-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

An interesting article in yesterday's Guardian about Joanna Kavenna who has won the Orange prize for her novel 'Inglorious'. It was her eighth novel. No one wanted to publish the previous seven and she appears to have abandoned them. Two were lost in her computer and the others "are just lying around somewhere".

There are probably many more unpublished novels than published ones. But should they be thrown away? J.L. (Jim) Carr, a friend, sadly now dead, always persevered. He is probably best remembered for 'A Month in the Country', which won several literary prizes and was shortlisted for the Booker. I don't know whether it was snapped up for publication at once as it should have been, but he told me that one of his novels was rejected by 17, or it may have been 18, publishers. It was eventually published with success. "Never throw anything away," Jim said.

First review

2008-06-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

A review for my novel Beyond Reason. The Times Literary Supplement gives it about a column. The reviewer, Philip Womack, says I write with wit and a nice sense of the absurd. Nice man. My publisher, Solidus, will be pleased. The TLS has influence.

Under cover

2008-05-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Douglas Adams once wrote, ‘Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever.’ Plum’s grateful publishers used the endorsement generously. It went on the cover of every subsequent edition. It couldn’t be bettered as a puff. Its praise was unconditional. It was the greatest not merely ‘of the century’ or wimpishly ‘of his generation’, but ever. And it came from the writer many regard as the funniest ever, although only in the galaxy.
More earthbound writers such as myself may find that the search for a flattering tag to put on the cover of a book a spiritless task, as I found with my new novel (Beyond Reason, published by Solidus, since you ask). What may be a reasonable, even sensible, review of a previous book in a respectable paper turns out to be singularly devoid of a phrase recognising the genius of the author. Do you then, with artful editing, extract a few telling words from the unhelpful review and link them by dots? Probably. Will it look convincing? Probably not. Readers, real readers, that admirable minority who browse in bookshops and belong to libraries, tend to distrust reviews, believing them to be fixed by publishers. They are unlikely to be moved by the edited phrase with its nasty lying dots.
However, fortunately for the trade of publishing, most books are not bought by real readers. They are bought on impulse, because it would be nice to buy something, even a book, or as presents or because a book has been mentioned on the telly and everyone is said to be reading it. So for the great book-buying public the tag will probably not be noticed, even if it is of Wodehouse quality. But it will pander harmlessly to the author’s vanity, and ease the publisher’s fears that the book may be a turkey. It will give the cover designer something to grumble about because it doesn’t fit the design. But it won’t do any damage.
More important is what else goes on the cover, the encomium, usually unkindly called the blurb. Not many readers, even real readers, get as far as the back cover. The title of the book and the name of the author will have convinced the majority that this is not something that will change your life, even in a three for two deal (cheapest is free). But those who have not actually rejected the book and seemingly seek more information deserve your particular attention. What can be said to retain their trust? What about ‘prize-winning author’? If you must, but as the Dodo told Alice, ‘Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’
William Safire, an American who writes about the English language, has provided useful tips for those who work in the ‘blurbosphere’. Drawing on research into publishing’s language of hagiography, he says that ‘acclaimed’ has come to mean that the author received at least one good review. ‘Widely acclaimed’ means two or more reviews plus a plug on TV. ‘Critically acclaimed’ means the book was decently reviewed in a specialised publication but didn’t sell. To this category may perhaps be added ‘succès d’estime’, but foreign words risk confusing the potential buyer.
Safire is also helpful about blurbs for forgotten authors whose previous books went out of print years ago. ‘Long-awaited’ is the appropriate adverb. Even dull books need not defeat the resourceful blurb writer. ‘Meticulously researched’ will come to the rescue. ‘Definitive’ and ‘insightful’ should get you out of real trouble. Or you, the author, could simply write your own blurb. Lauri Lee did. ‘Sure to become a classic’ he advised perusers of Cider with Rosie. A handy word, ‘classic’.
The cover often contains a picture of the author. Bad idea. It would be a shame if, having got so far, an ugly mug proves to be a turn-off.
This is my second post. The first, under the blog system, follows.

First words

2008-05-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

Beyond Reason, my new novel, is published today. The typescript was delivered to my publisher, Solidus, about a year ago. I started writing the book about two years ago. Turning what started as no more than an idea into a story that you hope may beguile a reader for an hour ot two takes some time. Even a human being only takes nine months to make.

Looking at the finished product, neat in its jacket, do you get a feeling of satisfaction? Of course not. WH Auden said that a poem is never finished, only abandoned. The same can be said for a novel. Your only excuse is that it is the best you can do.

Will the book be reviewed? Some books are, most are not. Luck helps. Contacts help. Hamish Hamilton, the publisher of my first novel, The Money Tree, said he was disappointed by the small number of reviews it attracted, although I was thrilled to see it get any reviews at all. When my next book, Point of Stress, came out he told those of his authors who were also book reviewers in various papers to provide a bit of support to this newcomer to their trade. They responded like good soldiers and gave the book super reviews. Embarrassingly so. The book did reasonably well and went into a second edition, but it never took off. There are various theories why some books sell well and others don't. Word of mouth counts. 'Try this one, you'll like it' is the best review an author can get. Think of the recommendation doubling all the time as it is passed from person to person. It works like compound interest. So try 'Beyond Reason', you'll like it. I think.

This blog is not really intended to be a puff for the book. I see it as the start of an exchange between writers, published or unpublished, or indeed anyone interested in writing. I have had a few adventures in the course of writing ten novels over the years and I'd be interested in hearing of others' experiences.