Indie publisher – The Stoneslide Corrective

The Stoneslide Corrective is based in the states of California and Connecticut, in the United States. They welcome unsolicited submissions and read them blind, so that the work is judged, not the author’s reputation or publishing history.

What made you decide to set up your own independent press?

We believe writing can be a reaching out to what’s best inside all of us, and simultaneously not ignore what’s worst and middling. We want to attract authors who make great demands of themselves in terms of the quality of what they write, and how they write it. We want readers who seek the best that writing can offer.

What makes Stoneslide Corrective unique?

We have a funnel.

How many manuscript submissions do you receive a month and how many of these may be of a publishable standard?

We've just started, but already we're seeing around 50 submissions a

month. Many of those have been very high quality, but we've found only a handful

have really worked for Stoneslide.

What advantages does a smaller press present for authors over larger publishing houses?

Stoneslide can give an author greater attention.

What kind of manuscripts are you currently looking for?

We look for manuscripts with strong character development and narrative thrust,

brought out with writing that’s clear and expressive. We like books that are serious,

comic, brooding, lighthearted, dark, touching, poignant, satirical, humorous,

acerbic, warm. We want good books, period, books whose every word propels

readers forward toward greater pleasure, understanding, and depth.

What are your predictions for the publishing landscape over the next 5–10 years, and what does this mean for authors?

We believe that predicting the future of publishing has the same chance of success

as predicting the future! A few trends are obvious, such as the move to

increasing digital dissemination and the increasing ease of publishing, but

where exactly these trends will go is anyone's guess. We are trying to stay on

top of these developments, while retaining our focus on creating and curating

the very best content possible.

The Stoneslide Corrective

http://stoneslidecorrective.com/

The Rejection Generator

The Stoneslide Corrective have developed an online Rejection Generator, through which you can send yourself some of the nastiest, dream-crushing rejection letters imaginable. Build up rejection immunity now: http://stoneslidecorrective.com/?page_id=441

Publisher Joel Naoum on Momentum Mondays

Following on from my recent post about manuscript submission days, I contacted Joel Naoum publisher of Momentum, Australia’s first major digital imprint – of Pan Macmillan. Momentum is open for submissions, but only on Mondays between 12am and 11.59pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time). I wanted to find out more…

Why does Momentum only accept submissions on Mondays each week (Momentum Monday)?

The reason we picked Mondays is because of the alliteration! We only accept submissions on one day of the week because we are a small team and we don't have the administrative capabilities to receive, file and assess submissions 24/7. We've also found that restricting submissions in a meaningful way raises the quality. People who submit to Momentum Monday don't just send a random submission on a whim – they have to follow strict guidelines and plan to send it on a particular day.

How many submissions would you generally receive each Monday, and out of these, how many may be of interest to you?

I think the most we've received on a Monday is about 15 submissions. There are generally at least one or two per week we like enough to request more to read (but that's an average – sometimes we don't see anything we like, one week we asked to see more of every single submission).

What do you think is the most important – the cover letter, the synopsis or the manuscript? And do you ever not even look at a manuscript, based on the cover letter or the synopsis?

The manuscript is always the most important part. The letter might be ordinary and the synopsis might be crazy but if the manuscript is good, we'll want to see more. Having said that, it doesn't hurt not to scare off the publisher in the first couple of pages with an absolutely insane covering letter (trust me, we get them all the time!).

Joel Naoum

Publisher, Momentum

http://momentumbooks.com.au/

Indie publisher – The Rag and Bone Man Press

The Rag and Bone Man Press, publishers of stories short and long, fiction and non, founded in 2011 in the lamplight of youth.

What made you decide to set up your own independent press?

The Rag and Bone Man Press began as a group of writers meeting in bars and parks across Melbourne, sharing their recent works over a few beers. These sessions became more frequent, the writing more celebrated, and the plans more elaborate. Eventually, as members travelled the globe, a splinter group began in Oxford, UK as The Bargoyles, heralding a new era of incredible story-writing. However, we soon discovered that while these writers were fabulous at composing sentences that can change the world, they oftentimes lacked the ultimate drive to take their writing any further. It was frustrating to see such talent wasted. So the idea for an online forum (and more!) emerged – a publishing collective that demanded no more than quality writing and a desire to have it aired. The Rag and Bone Man Press would then do the rest. Encourage, re-work, share, market and then turn these words into compilations, ebooks, future novels, or at least an online platform to provide writers with a space to introduce themselves as authors.

How many manuscript submissions do you receive a month and how many of these may be of a publishable standard?

At the moment, the Press receives several short stories each week – many of which we publish on our website – along with samples of novels and ideas for future projects. The current motto of the Press is 'boutique until further notice', as we track the level of interest and look forward a couple of years. Our ultimate aim is to continue publishing shorter works and poetry on our website, while building up larger collections of stories and anthologies such as our Soup Van Project, and keeping an eye out for other new ideas that stand out. The Press runs regular Salons, encouraging authors to write a short piece based on a specified topic or theme – such as crime, gothic fiction or haiku – from which we derive fantastic writing to add to the website on a continual basis. There is no project too small or too large, and basically if it makes our eyes bulge over a nightly rum, then it's a part of the Rag & Bone family.

What advantages does a smaller press present for authors over larger publishing houses?

A personal touch and unabashed joy for the 'job'! As an independent press we can take the author's style and ideas into account, without worrying, as larger publishing houses do, about corporate lists and the bottom line. The Press is our passion, which makes our time spent on each project time we enjoy. It's such a pleasure to receive stories from anyone – young, old, professional, retired, or ghosts of the literary past (such as Branwell Brontë) – and if the writing is not suitable for Rag & Bone, we happily provide tips for revision. With our industry knowledge, we have a lot to share and a desire to do just that. We hope to publish ebooks in the near future, and are investigating print on demand, which will allow authors to hold tangible copies of their works and celebrate writing on all levels.

What kind of manuscripts are you currently looking for?

Anything in German. We just wont be able to understand it.

Actually, The Rag and Bone Man Press is happy to receive any short stories, short story anthologies, contributions to our writers’ salons (check the website for news on each one), poems, children’s books, ideas for social history publications, environmental publications or proposals for works sponsored by government or organisational grants. We are open to chatting about ideas you have, or manuscripts that were buried in the 1840s and rediscovered on your recent picnic to Beechworth. We'll either jump for joy or advise you on another route. We're like a real rag and bone man, collecting the wild, the beautiful and the bony, and distributing it all over the dusty paths of the world.

What are your predictions for the publishing landscape over the next 5-10 years, and what does this mean for authors?

It's a tough gig right now as technological change rattles publishing window panes like a ghost on the moors, but it's the format and forums that are changing, as people still need new content. Publishing is rapidly moving online as most books are now formatted specifically for digital as well as print sales. Unfortunately many publishers can no longer rely solely on general bookshop sales to make projects economically viable. They need authors with strong platforms from which to promote and sell the books, for example through their own blog or business, their industry links or through the public speaking circuit. This means authors need to have a lot more time on their hands, as well as knowledge of the industry and marketing. A lot of the time this means the loud ones, the kinky ones, the ones with cash and the intensely driven ones get seen and heard, while some great wordsmiths with a cave-like existence remain undiscovered. The best thing about independent presses such as Rag & Bone is that we pick up these quieter talents, and wheel them into places they should be. We don't expect knowledge of the market, which is what we provide, but we harness what writers have and drive it where we can, so one day they might be snapped up as the next [insert Marquez/ Dickens/ Elliot/ Murakami here].

The Rag and Bone Man Press

http://www.ragandboneman.org/

April's approaches to writing

This month I asked 5 of my favourite out of print writers how they approach their writing. We all approach our writing differently, but most of us write on our own - so I thought it would be interesting to get a glimpse of how other writers write. 

A big thank you to all the 5 writers who kindly agreed to contribute to my blog: Michael Dale, Neil Randall, Paul Beattie, Kate Braithwaite and Dave Ocelot. It has been awesome working with each and every one of you and I sincerely wish you all the best with your outstanding manuscripts. Keep in touch and I'm keen to hear how your novels progress and I look forward to seeing them published, some time soon!

Approaches to writing - Dave Ocelot

Dave Ocelot

The Baggage Carousel

Dan Roberts has a troubled past, anger management issues and a backpack named after an abducted heiress. A chance encounter with a free-spirited Australian girl seems to give his solitary, nomadic life a new sense of direction. But when she doesn't respond to his emails, the only direction he's heading is down...

What inspired the idea behind your story?

I went travelling in Africa a few years ago and lent money to two fellow travellers I met at different points along the trail. When I returned home strapped for cash I contacted them both and politely asked for the money back. Neither of them responded to my requests and they both proceeded to remove me from their social media. Two people I had liked and trusted decided it was better to hang onto relatively modest amounts of money than ever acknowledge my existence again. Even with the two amounts combined it appeared my worth as a human being totalled less than £70.

The Baggage Carousel was borne out of the sense of hurt and frustration this experience engendered. It seemed a logical progression to transfer these feelings into a medium where I could be ignored by a much broader spectrum of people!

How long did the first draft take to write and how would you describe this process?

I don’t remember how long it took, but it certainly wasn’t long enough. I uploaded a ropey first draft to Authonomy where it received some rightfully excoriating reviews. I kept those comments in mind as I re-jigged the text. As a first time writer I would perversely look forward to negative comments, as they always gave me more to work with.

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?

I was in the Phillipines recently and discovered that the best place to write is an empty waterfront bar at 5pm, with a neglected bottle of San Miguel warming on the table and a waitress singing in the back room. That’s the real magic hour, before the sun sets and some senior citizen from Wisconsin parks up at the next table and starts chewing your ear off about a house he’s building on the next island.

Unfortunately, now I’m back home I usually sit in front of the PC in a boxroom with one leg against the radiator.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? How has it changed from the initial draft?

I imagine that I’m painting a trompe l’oeil on the wall of my boxroom. If certain parts look patchy I give them another lick of paint, hoping to create greater depth. I started out rendering an image of a duck pond, but maybe when I’m finished it’ll be a lagoon.

When is a book finished?

I’ve changed my mind. My book isn’t a trompe l’oeil. It’s a scab that I keep picking at. When I realise that the best thing for it is to leave it alone – then it’ll be finished.

To view Dave’s book on Authonomy visit http://www.authonomy.com/books/33664/the-baggage-carousel/

Approaches to writing - Kate Braithwaite

Kate Braithwaite

The Licenser

When Titus Oates stuns Restoration London with fictitious tales of a Popish Plot, only Nat Thompson, The Licenser, has the courage to find the truth.

What inspired the idea behind your story?

I came across Titus Oates in a newspaper article about the 'worst Britons'. He was the winner for the 17th century. I'd been writing a story set in 17th century Paris and I was enjoying the period so I wanted to know more about Oates and the Popish Plot. I was quickly fascinated by the fact that this virtual nobody could have the whole country in crisis. The more I read, the more I felt he was a villain I'd love to write about.

From there (slowly) came the fictional story of Nat Thompson – a writer who becomes obsessed with proving that Oates is a liar. And I began to explore how his pursuit affects his young wife, Anne. She has left her rich family to be with Nat, only to find him putting their safety on the line with his public attacks on Oates, the so-called Saviour of the Nation.

How long did the first draft take to write and how would you describe this process?

A long time! I had several false starts and struggled to get the structure right. I was workshopping chapters as I wrote and that was great for putting pressure on me to make my writing as sharp and as strong as it could be. But it also meant that I kept re-writing the beginning rather than making it through to the end and then sitting back and making level-headed decisions. For my next project, I'm doing the whole draft before sharing it with anyone (well maybe one fellow writer – but that's it!)

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?

I write wherever I can access a laptop. I can't write with a pen anymore. It's too slow. I like to write in the morning best of all and can easily sit for three hours. When the writing is flowing, time seems to vanish. I have three kids so I write when they are at school. During holidays I can research and proof read, but new writing has to wait.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? And how has it changed from the initial draft?

I started writing The Licenser as a first person narrative with some third person sections for scenes Nat couldn't have seen. That didn't work for readers so I went all first person. I tried a non-linear approach with Nat telling the story from a place 10 years later. That was really the first draft I finished. I submitted to agents but more than one commented that the frame pushed the reader away from the drama. There was also a need for more of a sub-plot with Nat's wife, Anne.

That's when I went right back to the beginning. I have two narrators now and I re-cast some scenes from Anne's point of view but also wrote a whole lot of new material. And cut a lot too. Oh – and I changed it into present tense, really trying to make the drama as alive as possible.

When is a book finished?

Ha! I'm not sure I can answer that. For the moment, The Licenser is finished. But I'd never say never. I've had some feedback on Authonomy that's made me think about some minor revisions/editing. And if I was lucky enough to find a publisher, I'm sure there would be some further editing to do. I've done the best I can so far though!

To view Kate’s book on Authonomy visit http://www.authonomy.com/books/42104/the-licenser/

Indie publisher – Rough Draft

Rough Draft is a small Melbourne publisher, started in 2011 by Michael Hanrahan, with the aim of publishing high-quality fiction and non-fiction by Australian and international authors. I asked Michael some questions about Rough Draft and the advantages of publishing with a small press…

What made you decide to set up your own independent press?

Starting a small press is all about producing high-quality books that you and the author can be proud of. As a small publisher we can take our time and find books that really interest us, and take the time necessary to get them right. We do of course have commercial motivations as well, but most small publishers I know do it simply because they love books and writing. If we just wanted to make money there are plenty of easier ways to do it.

How many manuscript submissions do you receive a month and how many of these may be of a publishable standard?

We receive around 15 to 20 submissions a month. Most of them are quite good, but unfortunately ‘quite good’ won’t get you published. Like most small presses we only publish a few books a year, so something has to really knock us out for us to publish it. So far this year we’ve given serious consideration to two or three manuscripts, but ultimately knocked them back. We already have our next two books planned, so we’re not in any hurry.

What advantages does a small press present for authors over larger publishing houses?

Smaller publishers usually have more time to dedicate to each author. When I was a Managing Editor in house I had to manage around 60 books per year, now I do two or three. This means we get to work more closely with each author developing, editing and promoting the book. We’re also not tied to a big marketing and publicity machine that can enforce somewhat arbitrary deadlines on a project, so we have more flexibility to work on a book until it’s ready to come out.

What kind of manuscripts are you currently looking for?

So far we’ve published a photography book and a diet and health book, and our next book is a memoir, so we’ve already covered a wide range. We’ll look at almost anything – that’s another advantage of being small. We haven’t published any fiction yet, but we will when we find the right book. We’re also considering doing some short stories.

What are your predictions for the publishing landscape over the next 5-10 years, and what does this mean for authors?

Obviously the big issue at the moment is ebooks. Everybody is still trying to figure out how to manage them properly. I think most publishers’ sales are around 10% to 15% ebooks at the moment in Australia, but that is going to grow rapidly in the next few years. I love producing printed books so that’s a bit sad, but from a business point of view ebooks offer great opportunities for authors and smaller publishers. They eliminate our two biggest hurdles – print costs and distribution.

Amazon and Apple now offer great facilities for authors to self-publish ebooks, and Kobo will be doing so soon. The downside is it may be too easy now – there’s no quality control with these services. Books should still be professionally edited, designed and proofread, but now there’s no need for that. You can just upload everything yourself. I think readers will sort it out though. A poorly produced ebook isn’t enticing, even if it is only $2.99.

Michael Hanrahan

Publisher, Rough Draft

www.roughdraft.com.au

Manuscript submission days

Lately, I have been noticing that a handful of Australian publishers are accepting unsolicited manuscripts, but only on certain days of the week, or month. I had to find out more about this new trend in publishing, so I asked a friend of mine, who works as an editor for a major Australian publisher.

Let’s call her the Publishing Insider. She said:

We had a publisher start here a few years ago and part of her remit was to start commissioning for her own imprint – one that focused on commercial literature and okay, a bit of chick lit and farm lit. So she started the weekly submission day. It worked so well that they opened it up across the whole list.

The way it works here is that we have a couple of dedicated staff members (normally publishing assistants) who will scan through the submissions and pass anything they think requires another look to the relevant publisher. This might not happen on the day the book was submitted – the designated submission day is really just to limit the flow of submissions to one day so that it is manageable.

If the publisher likes something and wants a second opinion, they might then ask an editor to read it (in our own time, usually over the weekend and unpaid). It is rare, however, for an editor to get involved until much later. Usually after the manuscript has been accepted, reviewed by the publisher, possibly had a bit of a structural edit and some other refining and rewriting done, then eventually it will be officially handed to the editor to organise an actual copy edit.

We have had a few successes through the manuscript submission day. I worked on one book last year that came through that system and it has been reprinted several times already and we are bringing it out in a new format. I'm not sure how many get through – as the publisher doesn't always tell us how the author was discovered.

I don't know how it works in other publishing houses but I'd be really surprised if an editor got to clear their desk for a day to read through the slush pile. And it isn't something they'd hire an extra person to come in and do for a day each week (at least, not here in Australia with the industry being so dire!) If they have an intern for a few weeks they'd probably give them the job.

In terms of what gets through to a publisher, having an agent is still a much safer bet. Unless you are a celebrity (even D-list). Then it doesn't even matter if you can't write as long as you have a profile.

Oh! And if there are submission guidelines on the website (for example: word file, double-spaced, first two chapters, summary, author bio – whatever) then the person submitting should follow it! This sounds like really obvious advice, I know.

So it seems that publishing assistants are the ones we writers need to please. I myself have worked as a publishing assistant, but in educational publishing, in my mid-twenties. From my experience, it’s an administration job one only wants to stay in for one year, maybe a max of two years, before getting a proper publishing job. I had to do lots of photocopying of page proofs (for the people with real publishing jobs), analyse market research and badger Maths authors for their manuscripts.

Australian manuscript submission days:

Penguin –  Monthly Catch, 1st–7th of every month

Allen and Unwin – Friday Pitch, every Friday

Pan Macmillan –  Manuscript Monday, every Monday

Momentum (ebooks) – Momentum Mondays, every Monday

Indie publishers

While many publishing houses' doors are shut, with door bitches demanding entry only via a literary agent, there are a number of independent publishers that have a friendly 'submissions are welcome' sign on their door.

Somehow, late last year, I came across Transit Lounge press http://www.transitlounge.com.au/ - an independent publisher in my home town of Melbourne. It was the first time I had read the term 'independent press' and after some further Google searching, I discovered that there are loads of these small presses operating around the world. What especially piqued my interest was that when reading submission guidelines on these independent publishers' websites, they often stated that they were willing to take on new writers and sometimes had the capacity to publish books that mainstream publishers would not usually take on. Eureka!

Take Pantera Press http://spunc.com.au/members/pantera-press - they say: 'We welcome unsolicited submissions. We don’t have a slush pile. Instead, we see unsolicited manuscripts as a diamond mine. And we are finding a few gems.'


I spent a few evenings trawling through SPUNC http://spunc.com.au/ the website of the Small Press Underground Networking Community in Australia. I went through every members listing, looking for publishers that publish fiction. I then visited their websites and made a shortlist. If they had a daggy, badly designed website, they were out. And who said they didn't judge a book by its cover?

I sent my manuscript off to Transit Lounge http://www.transitlounge.com.au and Sleepers Publishing http://sleeperspublishing.com/

A few weeks later, I received a standard rejection email from Sleepers, and a few months after that a lovely email from the publisher at Transit Lounge saying that while they weren't able to publish my book at this time, he believed that it certainly does deserve to be published.

I also made a shortlist of independent publishers in the UK from the Independent Publishers Guild website http://www.ipg.uk.com/. I sent my book to Citizens House Publishers http://www.citizenshouse.com/ (although they have a pretty ugly website, I really liked the name 'Citizens House Publishers' - it sounds so sophisticated. It was actually the most random submission of mine yet - as they are a Czechoslovakian press based in London ... go figure), still no answer from them, and unlikely there will be one! I also submitted to Rickshaw Publishing http://www.rickshawpublishing.co.uk/ (received standard no way email), Holland Park Press http://www.hollandparkpress.co.uk/ (thumbs down email again) and Snowbooks https://snowbooks.bibliocloud.com/webs/home (failed to respond).

Today I have discovered a couple of new Australian indie presses that look interesting (thank you Twitter, Facebook and Google):

Rag and Bone Man Press http://www.ragandboneman.org/ (Extra points for their beautifully designed website)

O&S Publishing http://oandspublishing.com/

MidnightSun Publishing http://midnightsunpublishing.com/
I loved their introduction: 'MidnightSun Publishing has grown out of a disenchantment with the established publishing houses in Australia. We know there are plenty of fabulous manuscripts about unusual topics floating around, but publishing new and unknown writers poses a big risk. MidnightSun is prepared to take that risk.'

So its good to keep an ongoing list of publishers to target. As who knows, as one door shuts, another one may open...

Approaches to writing - Paul Beattie

Paul Beattie

Filthy Luca

A boy, a Nazi and a dead body in the dining room.

What inspired the idea behind your story?

I’m a huge fan of psychological thrillers and coming-of-age stories and thought it would be fun to combine the two. I had a vague notion that it would be interesting to write a book that was both dark and disturbing but also gently nostalgic and imbued with moments of melancholic comedy. I came up with a number of scenarios but nothing really fired my imagination. Then, one afternoon, I heard my neighbour’s sons playing in their garden. The eldest boy is called Luca. It was at this point that the novel finally began to take shape.

How long did the first draft take to write and how would you describe this process?

I wrote the first draft of Filthy Luca four or five years ago while I was studying for a master’s degree in creative writing at Bath Spa University. I had a rough draft of another novel which I was working on for my degree but, enthused by the terrifically supportive creative atmosphere at Bath, I also wanted to write something completely new. Filthy Luca was the book I ended up writing.

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?

I can write anywhere that’s quiet. Fuelled by coffee and toast, I usually write first thing in the morning and tend to write for between three and four hours, after which my brain has pretty much turned to mush. If I’m writing a new novel, I like to write every day until I’ve completed an initial draft. If I’m rewriting or editing, it’s much more of a piecemeal process and I tend to fit it in whenever I’ve got a spare hour or two.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? And how has it changed from the initial draft?

I’m pretty sure I’ve spent ten times longer rewriting Filthy Luca than I ever did writing it in the first place. For me, it’s a question of slowly chipping away at the work until, eventually, you end up with something you’re completely happy with. I don’t think I’ve reached that point with Filthy Luca yet. It’s still a work in progress. The only major, plot change Filthy Luca has undergone is that, initially at least, there wasn’t a secondary narrative set in Italy. I believe it was over a year before I decided to introduce the Italian chapters. I’m glad I did. They contain some of my favourite scenes in the book.

When is a book finished?

When it hits the printing press or the author drops down dead. Hopefully not both.

To view his book on Authonomy visit http://www.authonomy.com/books/41570/filthy-luca/

Approaches to writing - Neil Randall

Neil Randall

The Butterfly and the Wheel

A second-rate Russian writer passes off a stolen manuscript as his own, and rises to the summit of Soviet society.

What inspired the idea behind your story?

I'm a big fan of Russian history and literature. I read a story about a meeting of the Commissariat of Enlightenment just after the Revolution, and how they argued about the true direction of proletarian culture, and whether to literally destroy all the old books and art forms and start all over again. One proposal was for leading figures in the Commissariat to be accredited with writing books, plays and poems by people like Pushkin and Blok, to give the impression that all great literature had working class origins. I really liked the idea of someone not necessarily talented or very worthy being elevated like that, becoming a figurehead, in the same way some writers today sell millions of books that are not necessarily all that good. And I suppose there's a subtext to the novel in that sense: talented writers struggling to get published in a cultural vacuum, where agents and editors become kingmakers, disregarding quality for anything that will make money.

How long did the first draft take to write and how would you describe this process?

All in all, the novel took about 3 years to write. The first draft was over 250,000 words in length, and, as you'd expect, required a lot of editing and refining. Huge chunks of the book, entire chapters, characters, have been left out of the present draft. The opening scene took the most time to get even close to right. And the more I write, the more I realise that the first few pages constitute part of the planning process more than anything else, and are there for my benefit as the writer, to get things clear in my own head – plot-wise, characterisation, backdrop, etc – rather than for the reader, and therefore, have to be discarded as the editing process continues. 

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?

I took some time out of work to concentrate on The Butterfly and the Wheel, and I write from home. I don't have any ties as such, so, for the last few years, I've been concentrating solely on trying to develop my skills, and, ultimately, get something published. So I pretty much put in an 8-hour day.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? And how has it changed from the initial draft?

I think there's a lot to be said for leaving a manuscript on ice after the first few drafts, and then going back to it with fresh eyes, even if that's only a few days or weeks afterwards. It's incredible the amount of things you notice when you've stepped away for a little while. In terms of rewriting and editing, it's helpful if you've got someone you trust to read and make a few suggestions along the way. Writing sites like authonomy or youwriteon can be helpful, too. Ultimately, my own novel hasn't changed all that much, structurally, from the original plan, mainly because it's a historical novel with a set timeline to guide me – from the Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union.

When is a book finished?

That's a hard one to answer. I suppose the more times you go through it, and the less changes you make, the closer you get to the finished article. Perhaps a writer starting out can only ever hope to get 90–95% along the way, and a good agent or editor at a publishing house can help to give it that polish which will get it into the bookstores.

For more about Neil visit http://www.narandall.blogspot.com/ 

To view his book on Authonomy visit http://www.authonomy.com/books/27680/the-butterfly-and-the-wheel/http://www.authonomy.com/books/27680/the-butterfly-and-the-wheel/

Approaches to writing - Michael Dale

Michael Dale

Rude Awakening

This breakthrough novel takes an unflinching look at London's cubicle-driven society. Junior accountant Lucas Swink blows up a window and leaps out the office block, in an attempt to awaken the masses.

What inspired the idea behind your story?



At the end of 2010 my business had failed and my baby daughter was due in three months time. Out of sheer desperation, and after lengthy discussions with my wife about how far our savings would stretch, she convinced me to follow my crazy dream and to actually try to make a living out of something I really loved: writing. On 1 January 2011 I sat down with an idea in mind. After graduating with a life-coaching diploma at the beginning of 2010, my teacher had suggested I expand on my thesis on personal development. Now I thought I would write just that. I was sick of encouraging others to follow their dreams in coaching sessions; I felt I needed to take my own advice.
But I could not get further than the first paragraph. I was completely blocked. Why add another book to the piles of invariably useless potted wisdom that suffocate so many bookshops and when bought sit unread and only make us feel worse about ourselves? So I rebelled. I started writing a filthy, bullshit, trashy novel. Suddenly I couldn’t stop – I was addicted! The story started flowing out of me like runny fecal matter. At the end of 2011 I had come full circle and completed a semi-autobiographical story. The novel acts as a powerful platform to share my insights into improving the human condition in a more real, funny and meaningful way than I ever could have hoped for.

How long did the first draft take to write? 



Around 7 or 8 months.

And how would you describe this process?



Grueling! Some days it flows and other days it doesn’t! Those are the difficult ones. Self-doubt can really suck me in sometimes but I just kind of follow my heart. I know it sounds cheesy but in my opinion you need to have a hell of a lot of heart to write well. Editors can help with technical stuff but heart is what really counts. Heart is what connects a reader with your work and for me connection is key. As for how I got in touch with my heart, I chose to face my fears. In a lot of ways writing Rude Awakening was a deeply cathartic therapeutic process.

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?



I see any story as simply a framework for a greater truth to find form and really secondary to that truth. The key for me is creating enough space for it to emerge. Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk, entitled A New Way To Think About Creativity, was a huge help. Watch it! It really takes the edge off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA%E2%80%A8

My inspiration comes in waves I just try to ride them while they're around. I tend to write anywhere I can find a bit of peace of quiet. My office or cave, as it’s affectionately known in our house, is a favoured spot, but literally anywhere. I often write on my Blackberry while I'm waiting in the car or even in the queue at the supermarket. Usually some concept just gets stuck in my head and won’t leave me alone until I scribble it down. There is actually no rhyme or reason to my writing, which is unsettling at the best of times. If I am on a good run I can write for days on end. My wife often has to tell me to stop and eat or take a shower or something; I go into a kind of trance. When I'm very lucky I capture an idea perfectly in minutes. That is such a beautiful feeling, but scarce. One particular paragraph in Rude Awakening springs to mind.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? And how has it changed from the initial draft?



After the first draft of Rude Awakening was finished I tried to take breaks between my edits and rewrites. That's the most important thing for me. Like any relationship, both partners need space, no matter how much you love each other. If you're in each other’s faces all the time things just get stale. Live life large and there is a lot to write about. Writing is not a substitute for living.

The actual rewriting process itself comes naturally to me, I read something I’ve written and if it doesn't feel right I change it, and keep changing it until it hits the spot. Though I’m always weary of overdoing it. 
On completion of the first draft I subsequently went over Rude Awakening with a fine toothcomb about ten or fifteen times before I was satisfied. Some chapters must have been rewritten fifty times. Paragraphs and sentences I had slaved over for hours were brutally sliced away –heartbreaking! Mind you, I always stick substantial deletions in the trash file (a blank word document) for future reference, nothing is wasted. Just because something doesn’t fit in one book doesn’t mean it won’t work in another. 
When I could really do no more and was at risk of harming my manuscript, I gave it to my editor. She is technically brilliant to the point of obsessive and complements my creative madness quite beautifully. What she loved about working on my book was how tidy it was already. The less work your editor has to do, the more attention to detail you will get.

So in terms of changes from the initial draft, Rude Awakening just got tighter and tighter as the process unfolded, finally emerging into the seamless twenty-four hour read it is for a lot of people. Without ego, I can honestly say it’s hard to put down and even harder not to pick up again...

...The next thing will be getting it made into a movie. You know how it goes; I know someone who knows someone, who knows someone that might have the contacts to make it happen. A couple of independent filmmakers are interested as well, so we shall see. 



When is a book finished?


A book is finished when it’s out there doing its thing – when people are reading it and loving and hating it. The stronger the reaction the better! For me Rude Awakening felt finished when I got my first review, which I simply cannot resist sharing with you. Peace!
“Definitely not for the faint hearted!!……Hunter S. Thompson channels Ron Jeremy in this pornographic Odyssey of ballistic prose, assaulting the norms of fiction and blending amazing story telling with hilarious hard hitting ejaculations of literary originality! Mr Dale refreshes with an unapologetic tale of modern hedonistic/masochistic corporate cubicle love/hate reverse fairy tale adventure interspersed with astute psychological observation….my read of the year!”

Anthony Chemaly, Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0072WD4LG



Rude Awakening by Michael Dale is available on amazon.com in hard copy and e-book formats. 


Visit http://www.mrmichaeldale.com/ for more info on the author. 


Connect with Michael on Twitter: @michaeldale9


Support Michael on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Dale-Contemporary-Urban-Fiction/247979545238097

Approaches to writing - April

I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to find out how other out of print writers write. I’m not talking about plot, character development, setting etc – although all of that is interesting too. I want to know how other writers manage their manuscript? How do they take it from draft stage, to something that is polished and will hopefully shine for the reader?

There is no guidebook for the process of writing. If I was studying to be an editor, I would be taught some common steps of what to do when, such as: read the manuscript through once and make note of only the things that jump out at as incorrect. Copyedit the manuscript and send corrections back to the author for approval. Review the corrections and finalise the manuscript to send to the designer. Within each of these steps, there are further checklists to assist editors.

But what about writers? How do they take a systematic approach to their work? How can they manage their time so they don’t get overwhelmed and get lost in all those pages of text?

Every writer seems to write and rewrite differently. Philip Roth writes standing up at a lectern in his living room. He says that he paces half a mile for every page. Raymond Carver said he would often write the first draft of one of his short stories in one sitting, but he loved to revise and would sometimes rewrite that story twenty or thirty times. Leo Tolstoy’s wife Sophia Tolstoya, famously transcribed his almost illegible drafts of War and Peace seven times.

This month, I am hoping to ask some other out of print writers how they approach their manuscript. Searching for Von Honningsbergs is the first novel I’ve ever written. I enjoyed writing my first two drafts, but after that, I found the rewriting really hard. It was something I had never tackled before on such a large scale. I’ve learnt a lot along the way, but I am keen to find out how other writers do it.

To start Approaches to writing, I’m going to answer these questions myself…

R. Wiseman
Searching for Von Honningsbergs
One exhibition, three paintings missing overseas, a frustrated artist and a difficult boss. Will they pull the show together?

What inspired the idea behind your story?

I was reading The Age newspaper and came across an article about a Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Victoria going overseas to locate paintings for an exhibition of Sidney Nolan’s desert series of paintings. The article made me wonder about the stories behind these paintings, how had they ended up overseas? How was this curator going to find them and persuade the owners to lend them for an exhibition in Melbourne? And what is it like to reunite a series of artworks? I sat on the idea for a few months, before I got the chance to start writing.

How long did the first draft take to write and how would you describe this process?
I started my book in a little notebook while on a holiday in North Stradbroke Island. I remember sitting at a little glass coffee table, sipping coffee and hand-writing my first paragraphs about Lawson and his journey, while my husband went on walks around the island in the late afternoon. I think I churned out most of the draft while on that holiday, which wouldn’t have been more than a week long. I wrote it quickly, using xxx’s for areas that needed to be filled in later.

Where do you write and how often and how long do you spend writing?
I usually write at my laptop in our study. We have no blinds on our windows, so in the winter I freeze. Having two young children and a household to run, I have to steal snatches of time whenever I can. I’m lucky to get a two-hour stint writing. When I’m on a roll, I might get the chance to sit down and write maybe four or five evenings in a week. I drink cups of green tea, eat dark chocolate and chew on my fingernails when I’m trying to avoid eating more chocolate.

How do you go about rewriting and editing your book? And how has it changed from the initial draft?
When I returned from North Stradbroke Island, I typed up my story – adding in details and further characters and dramas. I took what was really a skeleton in the notebook and fleshed it out on the computer. Then I think I would have re-read and rewritten again. But I never had a plan, or some type of structure to my rewriting, I usually just worked on a chapter at a time. I have probably reworked the first half of my novel, more than the second half. I don’t know if that is because the first half needed more work, or because I can never be bothered by the time I come to the second half.

When my novel was longlisted for the Vogel Award and then read by Allen & Unwin, but ultimately not picked up, I knew that it needed more work. I also had a paid manuscript assessment done on it – that was very detailed in the areas that needed improvement. So I spent the next couple of years rewriting it. I made Lawson far more neurotic and went on about a blushing problem of his a lot. I re-submitted it to the Vogel Award and to Allen & Unwin and to another publisher in 2009 and it all fell flat. I also had a friend of mine who is an editor for a trade publisher read the first section of the book. She didn’t actually say whether she liked it or not, which made me rather nervous. But she wrote very detailed feedback on the manuscript which was very insightful and she picked up on a lot of the areas that I knew were muddy, but I had hoped I could get away with. The truth is, if the author feels something is muddy, so will the reader. Don’t try to bluff your way through it – fix it!

I finally realised, that all my rewriting had actually made my novel worse, not better. Somehow, I had lost some of the spark that was in the second draft. In the last year, I have undertaken another major rewrite. Lawson now tells his story to a curator, whereas before, he wasn’t really telling his story to anyone, and everyone questioned me, why is he even telling this story? I have also structured the story so that each chapter is based around a work that Lawson painted, it’s a better way of telling the story, it helps me jump from place to place, it also helps me to introduce a bit of light and shade in my writing.

I cut out about 20,000 words from the previous draft that I realised weren’t actually adding to the story but were detracting from it. I have travelled to many of the places that Lawson travels to, so I realised that I was putting in too many of my own anecdotes from travelling. While they were nice little stories that were special to me, like the wheels on the train being changed when entering China from Mongolia, these little asides weren’t doing anything to move my story along. They were just kind of annoying. Also, the Allen & Unwin reader’s feedback made a comment about some of the characters in my book. He or she said that if they weren’t there to do something, then why were they there at all? So I merged some characters, made some others do something, and deleted a fair few more.

When rewriting, I look out for things that aren’t reading well. If something is clumsy or unclear I try a couple of times to fix it. I often find that if I can’t fix it after a couple of tries – there is something fundamentally wrong and it needs deleting. I am also wary of anything that sounds too contrived, anything that is clichéd and areas that have too much description, rather than dialogue or action. I always read back over the previous chapter before starting on the next.

When is a book finished?
For me, my book is finished when I can’t bare to look at it another time. It seems that my book has been finished three times already. When it has been finished I have sent it to publishers for consideration. When my book gets rejected, it means that it is not finished and I start rewriting again. At the moment, it is finished again, and I am sending it off to publishers to consider. But who knows, I might be revisiting Lawson and his journey again some day soon.