The Joy and Pain of Publishing

Sometimes it's interesting for readers to discover the background of books and the origins of storylines. One of the questions writers are most often asked is about their imagination - 'where did that story come from or how did you think of that?' they ask in amazement. Here we discover the truth behind the fiction.

In our guest post this week, North Wales based author JAN RUTH reveals the close-to-home story behind her upcoming Christmas novella.


Away for Christmas is a novella about the joy and pain of fractured relationships, the joy and pain of Christmas itself – because the festive period is not always fun for everyone – and the joy and pain of publishing books! But perhaps most of all, this is a story about staying true to oneself and looking for the real Christmas spirit beyond the baubles and the glitter. 

Regular readers will know that my characters tend not to be in the first flush of youth, and that the joy and pain of relationships are often par for the course. Christmas is very much a family time and can unearth a multitude of unwelcome emotions and in the case of my character, present plenty of troublesome hurdles before the festivities can be enjoyed. His ex-wife doesn't always make life easy, but Jonathan is determined to be a better dad, against all the odds.

And finally, the joy and pain of publishing books. There are some great publishers out there, ones who achieve results, look after their authors and understand the industry from the ground up. This story isn’t based on them.

It’s no secret that I’ve been round the houses and back again with regard to writing and publishing. Thirty years ago I used to believe that a good book would always be snapped up by a publisher regardless of genre, style, and content. In the real, commercial world, this just isn’t true. After several years of agents and self-publishing, a turning point came for me when a small press offered a contract for Silver Rain. This is it, I thought. This is the change of direction I need… but be careful what you wish for! Don’t get me wrong in that I had huge delusional ideas at this stage. I was simply seeking greater visibility and some respite from the nuts and bolts of self-publishing.

And all the outward signs were good: they took five back-catalogue titles and one new title, to make six contracts. This material represented several years of my life, several thousand pounds’ worth of investment in terms of editorial advisory, editing, proofreading, designing, formatting for ebooks and paperbacks, advertising… I could go on. Producing a quality product and promoting it to its best advantage doesn’t happen by accident. If you don’t have these skills yourself, then one needs to employ freelance professionals, as I’ve reiterated many times. Of course, we know there are a lot of ‘home-made’ books out there which don’t quite cut it, but this is certainly not the case for all self-produced work. What is slightly disconcerting is that I discovered (and so does my poor character Jonathan Jones) that this isn’t necessarily the case for traditionally produced work, either!

The process of trade publishing has less to do with the quality of material than you might presume, but it has a lot to do with what is or isn’t marketable at any one time. This isn’t bad business, it’s about making money to stay afloat. Small publishers are in exactly the same boat as the independents, but with far more overheads and problems with staff. Some of these staff may be inexperienced or learning ‘on the job.’ These small companies are up against the same fast-moving on-line industry as any independent but perhaps without the resources to manage it effectively, let alone build a lively following on Twitter; a following which has the power to engage. Traditional publishing, by its very nature, is painfully slow and this produces a massive clash with the shifting sands of on-line business. We perhaps don’t realise how fine-tuned independents have become in this respect.

Worryingly, new authors are often excited by offers from vanity publishers, or those who operate under the guise of assisted publishing, not realising the implications until it’s perhaps too late. Even contracts from those real publishers with seemingly no pitfalls or upfront costs, can dissolve into a horribly disappointing experience. Of course, my poor character thinks he’s landed lucky when a small publisher offers him a three-book deal. What could go wrong? If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book or maybe you’ve just typed THE END to your manuscript, you might think twice about your next step…

Away for Christmas is set over three Christmastimes, and because I feel sure you’ll be looking for a few hours of warm and cosy escapism at this time of the year, I can assure you that there’s a happy ending by the time Jonathan makes it to 2017.

NEW SERIES - My Publishing Journey ... with Jan Ruth

By Gillian Hamer.

Every author has their own unique route to publication, with highs and lows, success and failure along the way. And every author is always curious how other writers reached their goals - was it easier for them, what mistakes did they make, how many rejection slips have they accumulated?

In our new series, we will be asking the questions other writers would like to ask. How? Why? When? And what they'd do differently next time.

First up we challenge Welsh-based contemporary fiction author, Jan Ruth, to reveal all about her own unique writing journey.

How did your writing journey start, was it just a hobby to begin with for you?

I’d still prefer to call it a hobby. I’d rather be motivated by pleasurable creative exploration, than strive to be a commercial success by forcing my slightly misshapen ovals into a succession of unforgiving circles. Perhaps I should call it a serious hobby, as I am seriously committed to producing the material to the best of my ability; something which was lacking in me when I was eventually signed to a publisher.

When did you know you were ‘good’?

I wrote my second novel at work in about 70 company notebooks. I managed to acquire another typewriter (electric this time) and purchased my first copy of The Writer’s & Artists Yearbook. The novel was called Summer in October and Anne Dewe – of Andrew Mann Literary Agents – immediately took a shine to it, and I think this was the first defining moment for me; confirmation that I’d got something right.

In her words: ‘It’s got something.’

She suggested some minor rewrites, some slight structural changes and the cull of a secondary character. Dewe wore two hats at the time and as well as acting agent for Mann, she was setting up her own publishing company called Love Stories Ltd. It was a project aiming to champion those books of substance which contained a romantic element but were perhaps directed towards the more mature reader and consistently fell through the net in traditional publishing. This was 1986 and chick-lit took the biggest slice of the romance market. Sadly, the project failed to get the right financial backing, but from a personal point of view a seed had been sown…

I never did find an outlet for that book but perhaps this illustrates how random the traditional world of publishing was, and still is. I didn’t view it like this at the time though. I was still naive enough to believe that if I wrote something good, then it would be published.

There followed a long barren time for me until I started writing again in 2001 when I discovered the joy of writing on a word processor. The result was a novel called Under Offer. This was taken on by Jane Judd on the proviso I worked with an editorial company to ‘tighten it up’. The company she suggested was Cornerstones. I had no idea such a service existed but what an excellent investment. I learnt so much, my manuscript was polished to a professional standard and most importantly, I understand why and how they’d took my 90,000 words to another level. Jane Judd happily took it back on as Wild Water. Despite this book never finding a publisher either (because it was out of genre, it didn’t fall into a specific category and it was narrated from a male viewpoint blah blah…) I think this was perhaps the biggest turning point for me and one which confirmed that I knew how to write, I could create engaging characters and strong settings.

I just didn’t write commercial fiction.

More on those rejection letters here: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/my-rejection-letters/

Jan's Wild Water series

When and why did you decide you wanted your writing published?

I think I wanted a readership more than the idea of being published, but then I still craved some sort of validation that I wasn’t writing drivel.

What were your first steps towards publication?

I’d had fantastic success with agents and positive encouragement from professional editors, but actual publishers remained elusive. But then the Amazon publishing platform happened, and it seemed I didn’t need them after all…

What has been your proudest writing moment to date?

Making my mum laugh at Jimmy Tarbuck’s biography which I wrote at six years of age!

Any mistakes you wish, in hindsight, you had avoided?

I’ve made so many mistakes I’ve lost count but then I’d never have learnt anything without making them in the first place. I guess my biggest mistake and one which has cost me dearly in terms of reputation, cash, and time, was signing to a small publisher in 2015. I can honestly say the experience almost destroyed me, both creatively and emotionally. Given that I’d self-published my work up until that point and discovered a quiet success with sales and small awards, I found the experience was much like going back in time. It was almost as if everything I’d been aware of as an individual author and publisher had been wiped away and I was back to being beholden to a group of people who knew next to nothing about my material, didn’t appear to know how best to market it and most concerning of all; seemed to know less than me about the nuts and bolts of the various publishing platforms out there. The books they produced for me not only contained a lot of errors, but failed to sell. I was angry and disappointed.

For a while.

More on my traditional publishing experience here: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/publishing-a-lot-of-smoke-and-mirrors/

What do you know now you wish you’d known at the start of your journey?

I guess it’s always easy to be wise in hindsight, but if I’ve learnt anything it’s to take virtually everything with a pinch of salt and avoid the lemons. I should have trusted my gut more and stayed true to the spirit of the books, rather than be sidetracked by what was going on in the commercial world.

What top 3 tips would you offer new and up-coming authors hoping to publish?

A) Don’t self-publish until your book is ready. It’s actually slightly less important when it comes to sending out to agents or publishers because your work will (hopefully!) go through rigorous editing and proofreading stages if it is accepted. They will be looking for saleability, not correct comma placement. On the other hand, if you choose to produce your own book it pays to take your time with each stage.

B) Always seek reliable professional bodies for advice. If you are unsure where your material sits in terms of marketing or whether it conforms to a good general standard of writing in the first instance, consider contacting companies such as Cornerstones, who have a long proven track-record and work alongside agents and publishers. They know what the industry is looking for. If you intend to self-publish, their editorial advice is solid and supportive. It costs, but so do early mistakes. Better to get the basics right at the start than accept incorrect, conflicting, or even manipulative advice from an on-line forum. It goes without saying that you must never take advice from friends and family.

C) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and sign everything away to a publisher. Times have changed, the snail-like speed of the traditional publishing world is struggling to keep up with the ebook explosion, and it has created huge areas ripe for exploitation. All authors should self-publish at least once, if only to understand the process from ground level, and to witness what can be achieved by an individual. The commercial bubble of traditional publishing may work for you, but it might not. It’s more likely to work if you can produce a lot of material in a strong commercial theme. Even so, there are no guarantees to success, however you quantify it. Writing a good book is not necessarily a pre-requisite to break in, either. What you must consider is that you may well want to break out before too long…

To learn more about Jan Ruth and her books, follow the links belows:

WEB: http://janruth.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/JanRuthAuthor/

TW: https://twitter.com/JanRuthAuthor

Blog: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/ 




 

60 Seconds with Jan Ruth

Jan Ruth lives in Snowdonia, North Wales, UK.

This ancient, romantic landscape is a perfect setting for Jan’s fiction, or simply day-dreaming in the heather. Jan writes contemporary stories about people, with a good smattering of humour, drama, dogs and horses.

Her full-length novels are currently being re-published by Accent Press. She has also self-published two sets of short stories.


Hi, Jan. Tell us a little about you and your writing?

I live in rural North Wales on the fringes of Snowdonia. Love books, horses and wandering about the countryside in a daydream.

You’ve recently moved from self publishing to Accent Press. Why the change?

I began writing seriously about 30 years ago. I thought I’d ‘arrived’ when I quickly attracted a London agent - but it came to nought, and then I went through a failed publishing venture with another London agent and some pennies began to drop. I gave up for a while because the traditional route was all we had back in the old days, and with only one title to my name I realised that I’d actually done pretty well to attract a passing glance in the first case. I received tremendous support and advice from Jane Judd and Cornerstones Literary Agency, and they did encourage me to write another book. Then Amazon and Kindle came along and I self-published the first two and wrote another one, plus a sequel to the first book and two sets of short stories... phew, this game was full on! Formatting, advertising, editing, The Media. I learnt a huge amount from the ground up, which has been a good foundation to improve because I’ve met some great, like-minded people who are experts in their own field. I’m not sure whether I reached a stage of burn-out or whether I simply came to realise that my books were drowning in a sea of genre wars and sheer numbers. Something happened to my self-belief and the drive to continue. And somewhere along the line, any individual such as me who has writing skills only, needs to consider the cost of publishing books to a professional standard. My pleasure comes from improving my writing and in producing a quality novel. I write when I’m inspired or have something to say. There’s nothing wrong with the opposite objectives of course, but I do think that self-publishing falls roughly into two camps. I write more fully about that here: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/my-affair-with-john-hudspith-and-why-i-had-to-leave-self-publishing/

The wonderful discovery for me was that Accent Press are not only Welsh based and champion a lot of Welsh writers, but they are pretty savvy in a constantly changing world. I was expecting a long, long wait for a decision, and maybe problems because I’d self-published all of my material. This has not been the case. And I’m enjoying writing again! I have clear objectives, uncluttered with the nuts and bolts of the publishing process. Their validation of my work has resulted in renewed motivation to do more and I’m working from a quieter place in my head. Technically, I’m a hybrid author as my short story collections will remain self-published, and if I venture into children's books then these will also be self-published.

If you had to swap to a different genre, what would it be and why?

I think it would be historical or young adult because I could still write about relationships, horses and the Welsh countryside! I know where my comfort zone is and I don’t think Id stray too far from my original roots. Having said that, I do enjoy adding a hint of crime into my family-saga genre as it blends perfectly well with the dynamic and adds another dimension to a series.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Expression through the written word, living in a dreamscape of my own making. Readers telling me that they were right there with me ...

And the worst?

The solitary existence, the endless blank pages when nothing will come together. It’s par for the course but no creative vocation is perfect. No pain, no gain.

Where do you write?

I write in a cosy corner of the kitchen close to the coffee machine and the wine rack. My desk used to be in our conservatory, which has stunning views of the Welsh mountains but not only was it distracting, it was invariably too bright, too hot, too cold…

What does your love of Wales and your Welsh locale bring to your writing?

I think my spiritual roots are here in the hills. I wasn’t born in Wales but I do feel an affinity with this area. I love the history, the big outdoors, the wild ponies, the general lack of pretension. I spent a lot of time here as a child and a teenager and I think those early impressions are always powerful. When the books started to come together a brand began to emerge and I was happy to go with that flow as it pulled all the loves of my life into the same place somehow, and as a writer, that’s no bad thing.

Which 3 books would you take to a desert island?

The Lord of the Rings, (for the sheer magnitude of escapism and lets face it, it’s an adventure on horseback). Mist, by Mary Fitzgerald, (to remind me of home). The One Plus One, by Jo Jo Moyes, (to make me smile).

What are your future writing plans?

I’m currently working on the third book of the Wild Water series, then I’d like to write a third for the Midnight Sky series. That should keep me busy for a while! After that, I think some new characters are called for but I’ve also had a hankering to write a children’s book…


Web: http://janruth.com/

Blog: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanRuthAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanRuthAuthor