For the final part of this series, I would like to say a big thank you to my wonderful guests for their excellent contributions. Please find the links to Part 1 and Part 2 here.
Writing is the fulfilment of many people’s dreams (and being published even more so) but, as with any other area of life, there are those prepared to make money out of your dreams and rip you off doing so. When you start out, it is knowing what to look out for that can be tricky. Also, where do you go for advice? (Answer: The Society of Authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors, and talk to other writers. Word does get out about scams and the like).
The three questions I set my writing colleagues were:-
1. Which tip over the years has proved most useful to them?
2. What do they know now that, with hindsight, they wished they’d known when they started writing seriously?
3. What do you think a new author should most be wary about?
Allison Symes – Question 3 Answer and Top Tip 3
Avoid vanity publishers – just don’t go down that route!
Be wary of adverts calling for authors to send their manuscripts in. Genuine publishers are always inundated with manuscripts which I know sounds disheartening but they don’t need to advertise like that. Vanity publishers are known to lure writers in via adverts like this. Always, always, make sure you know what you are getting into and never be afraid to check a contract out with the Society of Authors before you sign it.
Now you will have noticed this topic has cropped up often during this series and for good reasons. Self publishing is fine. Vanity publishing is not. It is important to know the difference. Vanity publishers will charge you a small fortune and do very little for you.
If you decide to self publish, you are the one in control of what services you decide to buy in. The two you should invest in are for good editorial services and book design services. You want your work to be the best it can be. Unless you are a great book designer yourself, you do need to get someone else in.
As for editing, and putting aside my own editing hat for a while, I can confirm as a writer everyone needs independent eyes looking at their work. They will see things you as the author will not see, simply because you are too close to your own work and understandably so too.
Also if you self publish, you control all the rights in your book so you decide how and when and where to spend your money. While it is true all authors have to do their own marketing, vanity publishers won’t see the need to market. Why? Because they’ve got their money already, thank you, from you!
Top Tip
Do network with other authors. You will learn from them and they will learn from you. No man/woman is an island and all that. While writers do work alone most of the time, fellowship with other writers is invaluable. I’m often told about potential flash fiction competitions by writing pals. Some of those competitions I have a go at, some I don’t, but I wouldn’t have known about them at all had said pals not told me about them!
It makes sense to support the industry you want to be part of too. You will learn so much from online discussions with writers. They will be there to celebrate with you when things go well and commiserate when they don’t. We all need that at times.
Guest Writers
My guest writers come from Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, Bridge House Publishing, the Association of Christian Writers, Cafelit, Chapeltown Books, Authors Reach, the world of self publishing, and, of course, it is a great pleasure to welcome local writers here too.
Genres represented include YA fantasy, flash fiction, crime, children’s writing, paranormal/ghost stories, romantic fiction, short story specialists, horror, and non-fiction.
This week, I talk with guests from the world of independent publishing, Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, and the Association of Christian Writers. Some cross more than one of these categories!
Jacci Gooding – Amazon Author Central
Jacci Gooding is someone I’ve interviewed here before.We met at the Winchester Writers’ Festival and got on like the proverbial house on fire. Jacci has written A Collection of Unsettling Stories (and they so are!). Welcome back to Chandler’s Ford Today, Jacci.
1. Which tip over the years has proved most useful to you?
Find yourself a beta reader! And without doubt, get honest feedback and an editor. Don’t think the first or even seventh version of your work is wonderful. It takes a long time and many, many versions to get it right.
2. What do you know now that, with hindsight, you wished you’d known when you started writing seriously?
I think how much time it takes and how dedicated you have to be. And you must keep going. Just keep on going. When you think no-ones reading your work or no-one cares, just Keep Going.
3. What do you think a new author should most be wary about?
Paying to have your work published. There are too many ‘publishing houses’ out there which are in effect just money harvesting farms – your money – and you should stay as far away from them as possible.
And for two reasons:-
1. They will not offer you good editing, proof reading or copy editing. They will just take your money and you will be so delighted with your book you won’t realise/see/understand why it is below par.
2. If you do it yourself from beginning to end you’ll understand more of the process and hard work it takes to make a really good book. Sure, pay for a proofreader, pay for an editor, and pay for a cover design because it’ll be money well worth spending and in the end will cost you a lot less than a ‘publisher’ offering to do it all for you. IMHO, anyway.
Allison: I can’t echo this point enough. I walked away from what I found out was a vanity publishing contract years before I was published anywhere. It was the right thing to do. And I have good reason to be grateful to the Society of Authors. I can confirm directly how important the Just Keep Going motif is! You owe it to yourself to enjoy what you write and to be happy with what happens to it. Being ripped off will not make you happy.
Jennifer C Wilson – Amazon Author Central
I met Jennifer C Wilson at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. We were newbies in 2016 and taken under the wing of another Swanwicker, Val Penny. Jennifer writes romantic fiction but is best known for her Kindred Spirits series which crosses ghost stories with historical fiction. Different – and spooky!
1. Which tip over the years has proved most useful to you?
“You can’t edit a blank page.” I hadn’t long lived on Tyneside, and was heading (nervously) into my first writing workshop at the Lit and Phil in Newcastle (a stunning building, you should visit!), and happened across a conversation on Twitter about NaNoWriMo, as well as another person heading to the same workshop.
Writing tips came up during the workshop, and I felt brave, so mentioned what I read, and it turns out, the other lady was sat right next to me! It resulted in a long discussion about the importance of ‘just writing’, because it’s absolutely right that nothing you write is a waste.
If it isn’t perfect first time (and what is?), then it can be edited later, and even if you really hate it, there might still be some gem of an idea hidden within it, or, absolute worst case, you’ve learned that you don’t enjoy (or aren’t great at) writing whatever it was. But none of that can happen if you don’t write it in the first place. Because you can’t do anything with a blank page.
2. What do you know now that, with hindsight, you wished you’d known when you started writing seriously?
That it doesn’t end with ‘the end’. I think everyone has this wonderful notion that ‘being published’ is something which simply happens, and that really isn’t the case. But actually, it can be really exciting. I love learning new things about getting the most out of social media, meeting new people, or discovering some great new website.
It’s a lot of hard work at times, but worth it. Oh, and I wish I had opted for a more sensible Twitter handle! I have a lot of affection for @inkjunkie1984, but if I’d known I would see it all over postcards, in biogs etc., I might have opted for something with my actual name in it!
3. What do you think a new author should most be wary about?
People who might take advantage of those who don’t know some of the basics. I’ve heard terrible stories of writers being offered publishing deals by vanity presses, and not knowing not to be excited at this, almost handing over huge sums of money. At the start, I’ll admit I didn’t know the difference between vanity presses and self-publishing, but having gone through the latter a few times now, it really is clear, and there’s no shame in it, as there perhaps used to be.
Luckily, the vast majority of writers are always happy to ask those ‘silly questions’ people might be worrying over, because none of us wants to see somebody hurt or lose a large amount of money. Whether it’s about a publishing deal which seems fishy, or a new writing programme/course you’ve seen advertised, asking questions is the best way to check something is ‘safe’ or not.
Allison: I know I can speak for everyone taking part in this series that if these three posts stop one person giving thousands of pounds to a vanity press (and that is effectively what you would do), then we would all be very pleased! Please, please don’t go down that route. There are so many other options available to writers now. Always ask!
This leads nicely into talking with my next guest, Val Penny, who talks about options available to writers in her recently released Let’s Get Published! It was great talking about this with her in a recent CFT interview.
Val Penny – Amazon Author Central
I met Val at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, well more accurately at Derby Railway Station on my way to Swanwick and I was looking lost when she took me under her wing! I’m pleased to say since then she has ventured south to meet up with me at the Winchester Writers’ Festival too. Val is best known as a Scottish crime writer with her DI Hunter Wilson series, but I recently interviewed her due to her change of direction into non-fiction with Let’s Get Published.
1. Which tip over the years has proved most useful to you?
The most useful comment rather than advice, came from authors, Simon Hall and Peter Robinson – “You can write. You tell a good story.”
On the days when I feel I am writing rubbish and am in the middle of creating the worst story ever written, I hear their voices, have a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate and crack on with my work.
2. What do you know now that, with hindsight, you wished you’d known when you started writing seriously?
The thing I wished I had known is how much time has to be spent promoting your book. It was you who said to me – “You better like your first book because you’ll be promoting it for the rest of your life.” This is so true, but a well kept secret from would-be authors.
Allison: And it’s also true for your second book, your third and so on! You have got to like what you write. If you don’t, why should anyone else?
3. What do you think a new author should most be wary about?
Vanity publishers. Most new authors know nothing about the industry and are anxious to be published. They find vanity publishers at the top of the Google list offering to accept manuscripts and before they know it, they are being asked for money to have their books published.
No reputable publisher will ask for any money from the author. You have created the work. They publisher creates a book from your work and takes the financial risk. They pay you, not the other way round.
Wendy H Jones – Amazon Author Central
And now from one fab Scottish crime writer to another. I met Wendy H Jones thanks to the Association of Christian Writers. Wendy has recently stepped down from her webmaster role there. I am its Membership Secretary. I’ll also be interviewing Wendy shortly about her change of direction with a special book called The Power of Why. There is a lot of this change of direction in the air right now!
But that is how it should be. Writers seek to develop. None of us want to stay still. Even if we stick to writing in one genre, we want each successive book we bring out to be the very best we can make it. Inevitably with that, the more we write, the more we learn, the more we can develop.
Wendy is best known for her DI Shona McKenzie series set in Dundee though she has written across the age spectrum with her Bertie the Buffalo proving very popular with young children. (There is a colouring book and a soft toy to go with the book).
1. Which tip over the years has proved most useful to you?
The main one, and this is huge, is that you do not have to wait for your muse to appear in order to write. Whilst writing is creative, it is also an action and a process. Sit down every day and write. Write something – anything. If you have no inspiration write about the adventures of the paperclip on your desk. Your creative brain will then kick in. Another tip to kickstart your creative brain is to use paper and pen rather than computer and vice versa. Or, finish for the day in the middle of a sentence. Your brain will then finish the sentence and will carry on writing when you get to it the next day.
2. What do you know now that, with hindsight, you wished you’d known when you started writing seriously?
That networking and supporting other authors is a large part of success. As is building up a network of possible readers. Be nice to people, join readers groups, and talk about the books you are reading. Join in conversations naturally, so everyone knows who you are. When your book releases readers will then be more amenable to investing in your book as a new author, as they already know you.
3. What do you think a new author should most be wary about?
Publishing houses who say they love your work and that they are willing to publish your book but you need to pay them thousands of pounds to do so. These publishing houses are charlatans and only after your money. They will do little to ensure your book is as good as it can be and will offer you more and more services. At a cost of course.
Allison: Always be wary of over-praise. One thing that led to me walking away from what was a vanity publisher (as I found out via the Society of Authors) was their letter to me was full of fulsome praise. Now, as a newbie author, I thought this was lovely and all that but I was also suspicious. Even I knew then that the genuine publishers do not do that. If they take you on, they are very matter of fact about it! And one thing that makes me smile now, given my change of direction into freelancing editing, is it was the fact the vanity publisher’s letter was also full of grammatical errors which led me to checking things out with the Society of Authors!
Many thanks once again to all of my fabulous guests. Whatever you are writing, enjoy the process. Enjoy making supportive writing buddies. And never be afraid to ask what might seem to you a daft question. Daft questions generally are not. From my experience in writing classes etc., someone else is always glad someone asked it! And one day it may well be you sitting there, listening to a newbie writer asking a question you can answer because you found out the answer yourself so many years before!
Related Posts:-
Local Author News – Allison Symes – Podcast Interview by Wendy H. Jones
Hunting Out a Career in Crime Fiction – Allison Symes interviews Val Penny
Ghosts, History and What Might Have Been: Introducing Jennifer C Wilson
Stepping Back in Time: Part 2 of Jennifer C Wilson Interview
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Thanks you for inviting me to your blog, Allison.
Many thanks for taking part, Val. I hope people find this series useful. I know I would’ve done when I was starting out.
Some good advice here about vanity publishers, Allison. Stay clear of them. They used to be a nuisance with academic publications, as lecturers, researchers etc. need a good record of publications in order to survive and win promotion. However, research assessment criteria now specifies quality publishers. I usually publish with Cambridge Univ Press and Routledge. The latter re-published two of my books this week.
Many academics appear to be less friendly than fiction writers – probably because of pressure to publish in a competitive field. I recall one unpleasant incident when an International publisher of considerable reputation invited me to edit a series of leading textbooks in philosophy. I gathered some prestigious authors and published their work. But one day during a dinner with other academics I offered to include a colleague’s book but she yelled at the entire table that she would not lower herself to publish with a vanity press. I was embarrassed as it was far from a vanity proposal, but I did not respond. Obviously her book was not included and it eventually died and I cannot even remember it’s title.
Many thanks, David. That does sound like she was miffed at not being included. Not a lot you can do there. I’ve only come across instances like this rarely, thankfully.
Thanks Allison and your interviewees. Their messages are consistent.
I am finding it liberating to write what I want instead of something to an academic formula.
I have been reading this book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-History-Poetry-Histories/dp/0300232225/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=SHort+history+of+poetry&qid=1596960972&s=books&sr=1-1
I wish it had been around years ago. John Carey adds a new dimension to poetry.
Many thanks, Mike. The book looks great. Poetry, for me, is like fine art. I know what I like when I see/read/hear it! (Oh and I will always have a very soft spot for the good old limerick!).
Enjoy your writing! That IS crucial.