Deja Vu in Waterstones

Late in the week I received word from Stephen Palmer that some copies of Deja Vu will be sold my local Waterstone's. To be frank, a few copies in the science fiction section of a single bookshop will make little difference to sales, but my real intention is to get Deja Vu considered alongside other novels in the respectability stakes, and having a bookshop presence is an important part of that. That's not to say I don't appreciate Stephen's efforts; he had to do jump over some paperwork hurdles to get even a couple of copies into this one shop.

For an author published by a small press (and remembering that this particular author intends to be in the game for the long run), it is probably best to view these things as a gentle introduction to the ways of the industry. It certainly doesn't hurt to chat people on the frontline - i.e. bookshop staff - to get a feel for motivations behind who and what is published, and how much effort is put into pushing those books. I guess this is the 'bottom up' approach.

The error of my ways

Despite the mounting administration and backstage jiggery-pokery associated with my teaching job, work continues with getting Deja Vu into local bookshops. This week I have been mostly in Waterstone's and W H Smith. Imagine my surprise at finding a science fiction author (Stephen Palmer) working in my local Waterstone's. Unusual? Ask David Mitchell. Stephen's a friendly chap and reassured me that, though Deja Vu languishes somewhat as a POD book, it isn't impossible for a POD book to get onto a Waterstone's shelf: exhibit A, Stephen's own POD novels staring back at me. It turns out that Stephen has a good following in America, where his books are brought out through a major publisher, but not yet in England, where POD is the order of the day. He thinks there is a possibility that two or three copies of my book could find its way into the Exeter Waterstone's as long as I keep up my local publicity. Willdo - Radios Cornwall and Devon have expressed an interest, and this week I was interviewed by books editor of that stalwart student newspaper, Exepose.

The local manager of Smith's was also friendly and upbeat. No promises, of course, but my book should get a fair crack of the whip. I have noted elsewhere that to have the opportunity for your work to be considered on its merit (not its source, i.e. solicited versus unsolicited, urban versus rural, genre versus nongenre; and certainly not based on five per cent of the manuscript) is virtually all a writer asks. A writer never expects his or her work to be overvalued or, worse, undervalued; a simple settling into the literature at its warranted level would be sufficient.

Today I've got two reasons to thank the science fiction author Ken MacLeod, who kindly read my book after receiving my cold-calling email. I pasted his flattering comment (look under the graphic to the right if you want to read it) onto the Advanced Book Information (ABI) sheet that a bookseller reads to pick up information about the distributor, etc. Since I print these ABIs myself (my publisher lacking the funds to do so), I made sure Ken's words were prominent on the ABI. Both Stephen in Waterstone's and Ben in Smith's said, "Ooh, Ken MacLeod, eh?" and their faces brightened.

The second reason to thank Ken is for his observation that my novel's genre is really 'technothriller' (a la Michael Crichton). Ken is obviously more expert in dealing with bookseller and audience expectations, and I've found that people are much more receptive when I explain that Deja Vu is a technothriller. For the reader, this improvement probably stems from specifity: 'science fiction' could mean anything, whereas 'technothriller' is very much a known quantity. For the bookseller, this means both specificity and crime. Yes, crime fiction is a hot ticket these days. While I agree that Deja Vu contains a bit of crime and police procedure, I confess that I hold a small prejudice against crime fiction: I've read only one or two books in this genre and they were, unfortunately, awful. Anyone recommend a good crime novel to show me the error of my ways?

Meanwhile, another book needs to be written. Anon.

Busy Busy Busy

This weekend has a been a busy one, book-wise. The first draft of my second novel conitnues apace - I'm trying to implement one of the lessons I learned in writing and editing Deja Vu, which is to make edits where they are required; i.e. do whatever is necessary to make the text work without waiting for an invitation from my editor.

I've also been into some of the shops around Exeter with copies of Deja Vu. The usual response is often one of immediate sympathy. But my local Smiths and Waterstones were both very helpful. They were fairly encouraging, and provided they can set up a relationship with my publisher's distributor (and provided they like the book), then Thunderbirds are Very Much Go.

FAB.

Light reading

For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes' by Robert Louis Stephenson. Stephenson's use of language is absolutely cracking, but that's not the only reason I'll miss it. Finishing the book also means that I'll need to get back to Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' (I'm finding it extremely dense and tedious; however, countless individuals have told me it is fantastic, so I'm soldiering on in the hope it will turn my opinion) and 'Anna Karenina' (an impressive, but seemingly cold novel; almost a Russian 'kitchen sink' effort, but Tolstoy has thrown in far more than that). Like most people, I think, my reading is combination of entertainment and desperation - at the thought of the great, classic novels I haven't yet read.

The Difficult Second Novel

The first was difficult enough. Now I've embarked upon the second. Normally, a writer will crack on with their second novel immediately after the first; in my case, I'm starting a second novel almost two years after I finished the first draft of Deja Vu. Why the delay? Basically, I wanted to get Deja Vu published. I knew it was good; a work of literature, no. It's a straight genre piece. But I knew that the story was compelling and, even if I had to swap every badly-chosen word for a well-chosen one, I would eventually arrive at a piece of work that I could be proud of. So instead of writing a second novel, I did another draft of Deja Vu. Then I did another, then another, and another. I was still fiddling with it on the day I sent the final proof to my publisher for printing.

As a part-time writer, this squeezed my time so much that I had none left for a new novel. I contented myself with short fiction and other journalistic or scholarly pieces. But now that Deja Vu is out the door, there is no excuse!

I'm trying to keep to a schedule: 500 words a day, seven days a week. This means I'll have a first draft complete by July. Things have been running fairly smoothly, but the spanner in the works is the genre: humour. I've written a number of humorous pieces in the past and they've worked out OK (i.e. they raised a smile). Writing a humorous novel, though - cripes. It's bloody hard work. We'll see how it goes, but this one could take even longer. God knows how much humour I'll have left in me after a day's teaching. However it turns out, I'll make progress reports on this blog.