The pay's terrible, but it's still a job...
NEWS:
Parallels is now on Good Reads. If you’ve got an account, click here and mark it To Read.
Had lunch with my publicist this week1, talking strategy for the upcoming. As well as helping me feel “proper”2.
Also had a great time interviewing Silvano Stagni for his online event. Fun and very interesting. Always fascinating to hear how others go about their craft. It was recorded, so sure it will emerge at some point.
Found out I won’t be spending a month writing in Slovenia at the end of the year. Second time I’ve applied for a Writer’s Residency, second time I’ve not made the grade. We’ll keep at it.
ON WRITING:
It’s around this time in the run up to a launch that we start thinking about publicity, the sometimes-fun-sometimes-onerous labour that goes hand-in-hand with the actual writing of the book. As we know, if writing a book is hard, selling one is gruelling.
The days of tapping away in solitude, posting your manuscript to your publisher and letting them get on with it are long gone. Approximately ten billion titles are published every month3 so if you’re going to make a splash, you need to be putting yourself out there.
I always say I treat this phase of the process like I’m an employee and Angel’s my boss. If she says do a thing, I do it. Deixis Press are, after all, the ones putting cash into this project. I stand to lose nothing, other than my pride4, but it’s my name on the front, so any success is seen as mine. I therefore consider it an obligation to play whatever part I can in making this thing work.
That means taking any opportunity to be public-facing. It’s why I write this newsletter - if someone reads a book of mine and likes it, it’s no use disappearing for two years and then popping up and saying “Hey guys, remember me? I wrote that thing? The one you liked? Well, I’ve got another…” No, these days you want to be keeping that connection going. Something to read every couple of weeks5 in your inbox, so when that next one comes out, I’m still hovering around in your consciousness.
It means making choices about social media. Like it or not, you do sort of need to be doing something. Pick your platform, sure, and don’t force yourself into something you hate doing, and therefore probably won’t do well. But find some way of being around. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve finally binned off Twitter and I’m weighing up my future on Meta, but I need to ensure I’ve got some presence.
It means writing articles. Publicist Hannah advised having a good half dozen articles ready to roll, written even, so that we can be approaching industry publications as well as mainstream media with pitches. And it can work - I found out I was on her radar even before she knew we’d be working together on Parallels, off the back of my article on celeb authors in The Bookseller back in December. Write something interesting, your name can stick and then when you pop up with a thing, people will remember you.
Sounds onerous, and sort of fake-y, wouldn’t be happier just writing books? In response, I’d say I guess that for a lot of writers, a lot of why we do this is about communicating, connecting with people. We have ideas, stories, thoughts that we want to share, so maybe sometimes it’s a novel and maybe other times it’s a Facebook post, or a newsletter.
It’s easy to think this other stuff is just getting in the way, it isn’t you, it’s a chore. But if you treat it as an extension of your writing, do it your way, and make sure it’s coming from the same place, you might find yourself enjoying it.
I have enjoyed:
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty - Frankly astonishing debut novel, about a white man, the stepson of a Penobscot Indian, watching his daughter grow up from afar. She doesn’t know him, but he’s reaching a point, with his own mother slipping into dementia, where he believes she deserves to know her own history. A deeply, deeply emotional read that I found really moving and had a level of authenticity like few other books I’ve read.
Morgan Talty The Brutalist - If there was any justice in the world, in five years time we’ll be sitting around talking about how 3 1/2 hour movies about architecture overtook comic book movies as the blockbusting genre. Guy Pearce has never been better, Adrien Brody does his thing, Felicity Jones is unrecognisable. The whole thing’s amazing. Please, see it on the big screen.
Amazing to think that Mike from Neighbours could get his first Oscar for playing a live-action Carter Pewterschmidt Yield to the Night - Decades before she became notorious for her adult parties and a punchline in the Two Ronnies’ The Worm that Turned, Diana Dors was a young actress who could have been a legitimate star. Great supporting turns in films like 1949’s A Boy, a Girl and a Bike and The Weak and the Wicked (1954) were followed by the 1956 film Yield to the Night in which Dors plays a female murderer sentenced to death. The film follows her in the dual narrative of her last few weeks in prison and the events leading up to her crime. There’s excellent support from the likes of Yvonne Mitchell and Geoffrey Keen, but Dors owns the film, every bit as compelling as the sullen, dowdy prisoner as she is as the glamorous carefree pre-murder Mary Hilton. Missed opportunities, a thieving first husband and her own foibles meant Dors’ notoriety ended up overshadowing what could have been a magnificent career as a legit. serious actor.
Not an ounce of irony - Dors is truly magnificent in Yield to the Night Cinnamon Bun flavoured Flipz - I’m mad for a chocolate-covered pretzel but these are incredible.
I don’t care if it’s selling out; Flipz, call me. My subscriber numbers are nearly three digits. I will post this pic at the bottom of every newsletter, just send me pretzels.
Greyskin (Deixis Press) and Playtime’s Over (Propolis) are both available direct from their respective publishers, as well as from all the usual places, online and off. You can also support my work by buying Ray Adams’ self-published books, or by simply buying me a coffee. You can also pay for this free newsletter, if paying for free stuff is your jam.
I also review books on my website, most of which are available through my affiliate book shop on uk.bookshop.org - it’s a great alternative to certain online leviathans, and supports independent bookshops. Affiliates also get a % of books sold through them, so go have a look.
I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal.
She was complimentary about my website which, given I’m self-taught at all that, I took as a huge win.
Factually inaccurate.
I lost that around 1994…
Ideally I’d be weekly, but I gots to write actual books sometime…
James, you are employee of the month. Don't let it go to your head.
I have uploaded the recording on the interview in my substack. https://authorsilvano.substack.com/p/video-and-podcast