IWU Blog Tour
Hi everyone! Today I've got in the house Tim Taylor. No, not that one. :)
Hey Tim, please have a seat and introduce yourself. :)
Hi, thanks for letting me loose on your site, Robyn. I'm Tim C. Taylor, originally from Colchester in England, the oldest recorded settlement in the country. I'm not quite as old as my home town, but after twenty years making software, I switched this year to making books full-time, both as a writer and as a publisher of other authors through my business, Greyhart Press.
I now live in a little village called Bromham with my wife and son. I'm still getting used to using that middle initial, but there were several other published authors called Tim Taylor who got there first. Unfortunately if you say my name with the initial quickly, it sounds kind of like a girl's name.
So, tell me about your book:
I'm not the first author to use the idea of 'portals' that move characters from their home to other worlds or other times, providing a setting for exciting adventures. Far from it. I recently read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my son as a bedtime story, one of my favourite examples of the genre. In Last Man Through the Gate, I wanted to shift the focus onto the journey between the worlds. What's it like to cross? What else lurks within the portal? How does the journey effect the character?
I've written novels and short stories before, but Last Man Through the Gate is the first novella I've written. In length, novellas are something between a short story and a novel. For example, my story would be about 90 pages in paperback. When I wrote the story (February 2011), I was still thinking only of a traditional print publishing route. As the story grew larger, it outgrew the size that would fit into a print magazine. So I let it run to the size that give the best and most natural storytelling, as I was unlikely to ever get it published. Not long after that I got a Kindle and began thinking of self-publishing, which of course has no artificial constraints on story size due to printing costs. In the world of eBooks, readers can enjoy stories at their optimum length. I think novellas are going to become very popular on eReaders.
So, what's your writing process like?
I generally like to flesh out ideas on paper before writing a book. Before writing a scene, I'll scribble some quick notes to remind myself of what I want to do. That tends to include snatches of dialogue, maps (so for action scenes I know how to choreograph everyone). I have a strange foible in that I always like to visualise the lighting conditions before writing the scene. I don't always describe the light, but I find that if I'm not clear enough on the lighting then I haven't vividly imagined the scene. Then I type.For novels, I keep a paper spiral-bound booklet for making notes on structure and revisions, but use a software tool called yWriter5 to enter the text and notes about scenes I've yet to write.
yWriter5 huh? I'll have to look into that. So, what do you do when you're not writing?
I worked in the software industry for twenty years until I was made redundant early in 2011. That accelerated my plans to be a full-time writer. At the time, I was still only thinking of printed publication. As a leaving present, my co-workers gave me a Kindle. It's a great piece of kit, and I got thinking about publishing eBooks. So most of the past few months has been spent setting up a publishing business called Greyhart Press.
It's not all writing. I've got a five-year-old son who's a bit of a handful at times. We love building Lego. He's got a tremendous imagination. I read James and the Giant Peach to him, which finishes up with the Empire State Building. So of course, he decided to build it in Lego. We built it together, as you can see here.
What made you decide to self-publish your work?
At the start of 2011, I knew I was going to be published in a print anthology due to be launched at Easter (Further Conflicts by NewCon Press). In order to extend my profile a little, I decided to raid my back-catalogue of short stories previously published in magazines, rewrite them, and issue them as eBooks. By the time I'd published my first one, I'd already had the idea of publishing other authors. So far, I've published nineteen books from six authors. The irony is that I now also produce eBooks for traditional print publishers. The print anthology that I was a part of back in Easter has since been launched as an eBook that I made. And here it is. I've built eBooks featuring some really cool authors, such as Neil Gaiman, Liz Williams, and Stephen Baxter. I could never have done that before the Kindle. Thanks, Amazon!
Have you ever submitted your work to a traditional publisher? Would you consider doing so in the future?
Yes and yes. I've had short fiction published but not novel length. I submitted a novel to Solaris Books last year. They said 'no', but invited me to send them another one. So I wrote one, but it's not really the right size (too big). Now I'm writing another one that I'll definitely make the right size! It's a space opera series called Slave Soldiers of the White Knights.
What has your experience of self-publishing been like so far? Would you recommend it to other writers?
Definitely. It's a real buzz, and you get to meet lots of people you otherwise wouldn't. One of the delights of self-publishing is for established authors because of the flexibility it gives you. For example, if you are contracted for a conventional series of novels, you can write short stories and background bibles, or whatever you would like to write and readers would like to read. Your publisher might not be interested in them directly, but you can easily publish them as eBooks.
What have your marketing strategies been so far? How successful were they? Any advice for new indie writers?
I'm still learning!
One of the reasons for setting up Greyhart Press to publish other authors is to cross-sell. I've published nineteen books in seven months, and I'm proud of every one of them. I couldn't write nineteen books in that time! If you've only written one book, I would concentrate more on writing the next one than one promoting the hell out of the first.
Oh, and get yourself on Twitter, but don't repeat tweets that say 'Buy my book!' because that's very annoying.
Great advice!
How would you respond to those who argue that self-published books are of inferior quality to traditionally-published ones?
I think it's true that there are more badly written and badly produced self-published books than traditionally published ones. Sorry, but for all the rubbish that traditional publishers undoubtedly produce, there is still the gatekeeper mentality that checks whether they really want to press the print button and commit all that money to a book launch.
That still leaves a large number of self-published books produced to a higher quality than traditional. And with eBooks, you can usually sample the first 10-20% and tell whether the book is a dog. And they are (usually) cheaper. AND you can get your money back (with Amazon).So, really, despite the books self-published carelessly, or by authors who aren't yet ready, as a reader, I feel self-publishing to be a delight that has already provided me with gems I would not otherwise have read.
And with eBooks in particular, some of the production quality of the rubbish coming out from traditional publishers is truly appalling. There's a lot of badly scanned print books. I read anthologies and get really angry when a traditional publisher expects me to pay twice as much as a self-published work (or more) and can't even code proper navigation. I mean, I expect to be able to flick between stories with a single button press; have an active table of contents, flick to the author's notes and back. It's not difficult to code and yet I have still not seen a traditional publisher who can actually be bothered to provide this.
For me, a massive advantage of self-published books is that most of them try to tell a traditional story. You get fewer examples of authors trying to be clever at the expense of good storytelling.
What type of genres do you like to write and read?
I like stories that are set in another world. That could be a historical setting as much as science fiction. I like a big idea behind my science fiction, preferably one that spans multiple stories. I can't think of a better example than Stephen Baxter's Xeelee books and short stories.I write what I like to read. So all the novels I've written or have planned, the Last Man Through the Gate novella, and the short story published in Further Conflicts... are all connected. That's not at all obvious. There are several big ideas running deep in the background, and one day all will become clear. Until then, they appear to be standalones.
Who is one of your favorite characters and which book and why do you like him/her?
My favourite character is an intelligent dinosaur-descendent called Karypsic. He features in a novel I'm publishing next year (the one that got too big for Solaris Books and so I'm splitting into two) called My Future in the Past. The novels feature a human character and Karypsic who live parallel lives in parallel universes, going through a spiritual journey inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. At the end of the second book, only one reality will have existed, utter nullity for the other. Karypsic is the hero for his story but the villain for the human's (and vice versa).
Since most of my readership will be human rather than dinosaurs, the ending might not work in Karypsic's favour. Writing a heroic character, who is simultaneously a villain, and with an increasing aura of doom, was great fun.
Okay, let me have it. I want any bit of promo you've got!:
There's a sneaky way you can get Last Man Through the Gate for free (or, indeed, any Greyhart Press book). There's a promotion called READ! REVIEW! REPEAT! The first 100 people to post a review of any given Greyhart Press book to one of the listed sites (such as amazon.com) can claim another book of their choice for free. Since some of the Greyhart books are free anyway, you could pick a free book, review it, and then claim Last Man Through the Gate for free. Sneaky!
You can find more information, including reviews and interviews, at the Greyhart Press page for Last Man Through the Gate.
So, where can we find you??? For more on Tim C. Taylor, follow him on Twitter (@TimCTaylor) or his blog (www.timctaylor.com )
Hey Tim, please have a seat and introduce yourself. :)
Hi, thanks for letting me loose on your site, Robyn. I'm Tim C. Taylor, originally from Colchester in England, the oldest recorded settlement in the country. I'm not quite as old as my home town, but after twenty years making software, I switched this year to making books full-time, both as a writer and as a publisher of other authors through my business, Greyhart Press.
I now live in a little village called Bromham with my wife and son. I'm still getting used to using that middle initial, but there were several other published authors called Tim Taylor who got there first. Unfortunately if you say my name with the initial quickly, it sounds kind of like a girl's name.
So, tell me about your book:
I'm not the first author to use the idea of 'portals' that move characters from their home to other worlds or other times, providing a setting for exciting adventures. Far from it. I recently read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my son as a bedtime story, one of my favourite examples of the genre. In Last Man Through the Gate, I wanted to shift the focus onto the journey between the worlds. What's it like to cross? What else lurks within the portal? How does the journey effect the character?
I've written novels and short stories before, but Last Man Through the Gate is the first novella I've written. In length, novellas are something between a short story and a novel. For example, my story would be about 90 pages in paperback. When I wrote the story (February 2011), I was still thinking only of a traditional print publishing route. As the story grew larger, it outgrew the size that would fit into a print magazine. So I let it run to the size that give the best and most natural storytelling, as I was unlikely to ever get it published. Not long after that I got a Kindle and began thinking of self-publishing, which of course has no artificial constraints on story size due to printing costs. In the world of eBooks, readers can enjoy stories at their optimum length. I think novellas are going to become very popular on eReaders.
So, what's your writing process like?
I generally like to flesh out ideas on paper before writing a book. Before writing a scene, I'll scribble some quick notes to remind myself of what I want to do. That tends to include snatches of dialogue, maps (so for action scenes I know how to choreograph everyone). I have a strange foible in that I always like to visualise the lighting conditions before writing the scene. I don't always describe the light, but I find that if I'm not clear enough on the lighting then I haven't vividly imagined the scene. Then I type.For novels, I keep a paper spiral-bound booklet for making notes on structure and revisions, but use a software tool called yWriter5 to enter the text and notes about scenes I've yet to write.
yWriter5 huh? I'll have to look into that. So, what do you do when you're not writing?
I worked in the software industry for twenty years until I was made redundant early in 2011. That accelerated my plans to be a full-time writer. At the time, I was still only thinking of printed publication. As a leaving present, my co-workers gave me a Kindle. It's a great piece of kit, and I got thinking about publishing eBooks. So most of the past few months has been spent setting up a publishing business called Greyhart Press.
It's not all writing. I've got a five-year-old son who's a bit of a handful at times. We love building Lego. He's got a tremendous imagination. I read James and the Giant Peach to him, which finishes up with the Empire State Building. So of course, he decided to build it in Lego. We built it together, as you can see here.
What made you decide to self-publish your work?
At the start of 2011, I knew I was going to be published in a print anthology due to be launched at Easter (Further Conflicts by NewCon Press). In order to extend my profile a little, I decided to raid my back-catalogue of short stories previously published in magazines, rewrite them, and issue them as eBooks. By the time I'd published my first one, I'd already had the idea of publishing other authors. So far, I've published nineteen books from six authors. The irony is that I now also produce eBooks for traditional print publishers. The print anthology that I was a part of back in Easter has since been launched as an eBook that I made. And here it is. I've built eBooks featuring some really cool authors, such as Neil Gaiman, Liz Williams, and Stephen Baxter. I could never have done that before the Kindle. Thanks, Amazon!
Have you ever submitted your work to a traditional publisher? Would you consider doing so in the future?
Yes and yes. I've had short fiction published but not novel length. I submitted a novel to Solaris Books last year. They said 'no', but invited me to send them another one. So I wrote one, but it's not really the right size (too big). Now I'm writing another one that I'll definitely make the right size! It's a space opera series called Slave Soldiers of the White Knights.
What has your experience of self-publishing been like so far? Would you recommend it to other writers?
Definitely. It's a real buzz, and you get to meet lots of people you otherwise wouldn't. One of the delights of self-publishing is for established authors because of the flexibility it gives you. For example, if you are contracted for a conventional series of novels, you can write short stories and background bibles, or whatever you would like to write and readers would like to read. Your publisher might not be interested in them directly, but you can easily publish them as eBooks.
What have your marketing strategies been so far? How successful were they? Any advice for new indie writers?
I'm still learning!
One of the reasons for setting up Greyhart Press to publish other authors is to cross-sell. I've published nineteen books in seven months, and I'm proud of every one of them. I couldn't write nineteen books in that time! If you've only written one book, I would concentrate more on writing the next one than one promoting the hell out of the first.
Oh, and get yourself on Twitter, but don't repeat tweets that say 'Buy my book!' because that's very annoying.
Great advice!
How would you respond to those who argue that self-published books are of inferior quality to traditionally-published ones?
I think it's true that there are more badly written and badly produced self-published books than traditionally published ones. Sorry, but for all the rubbish that traditional publishers undoubtedly produce, there is still the gatekeeper mentality that checks whether they really want to press the print button and commit all that money to a book launch.
That still leaves a large number of self-published books produced to a higher quality than traditional. And with eBooks, you can usually sample the first 10-20% and tell whether the book is a dog. And they are (usually) cheaper. AND you can get your money back (with Amazon).So, really, despite the books self-published carelessly, or by authors who aren't yet ready, as a reader, I feel self-publishing to be a delight that has already provided me with gems I would not otherwise have read.
And with eBooks in particular, some of the production quality of the rubbish coming out from traditional publishers is truly appalling. There's a lot of badly scanned print books. I read anthologies and get really angry when a traditional publisher expects me to pay twice as much as a self-published work (or more) and can't even code proper navigation. I mean, I expect to be able to flick between stories with a single button press; have an active table of contents, flick to the author's notes and back. It's not difficult to code and yet I have still not seen a traditional publisher who can actually be bothered to provide this.
For me, a massive advantage of self-published books is that most of them try to tell a traditional story. You get fewer examples of authors trying to be clever at the expense of good storytelling.
What type of genres do you like to write and read?
I like stories that are set in another world. That could be a historical setting as much as science fiction. I like a big idea behind my science fiction, preferably one that spans multiple stories. I can't think of a better example than Stephen Baxter's Xeelee books and short stories.I write what I like to read. So all the novels I've written or have planned, the Last Man Through the Gate novella, and the short story published in Further Conflicts... are all connected. That's not at all obvious. There are several big ideas running deep in the background, and one day all will become clear. Until then, they appear to be standalones.
Who is one of your favorite characters and which book and why do you like him/her?
My favourite character is an intelligent dinosaur-descendent called Karypsic. He features in a novel I'm publishing next year (the one that got too big for Solaris Books and so I'm splitting into two) called My Future in the Past. The novels feature a human character and Karypsic who live parallel lives in parallel universes, going through a spiritual journey inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. At the end of the second book, only one reality will have existed, utter nullity for the other. Karypsic is the hero for his story but the villain for the human's (and vice versa).
Since most of my readership will be human rather than dinosaurs, the ending might not work in Karypsic's favour. Writing a heroic character, who is simultaneously a villain, and with an increasing aura of doom, was great fun.
Okay, let me have it. I want any bit of promo you've got!:
There's a sneaky way you can get Last Man Through the Gate for free (or, indeed, any Greyhart Press book). There's a promotion called READ! REVIEW! REPEAT! The first 100 people to post a review of any given Greyhart Press book to one of the listed sites (such as amazon.com) can claim another book of their choice for free. Since some of the Greyhart books are free anyway, you could pick a free book, review it, and then claim Last Man Through the Gate for free. Sneaky!
You can find more information, including reviews and interviews, at the Greyhart Press page for Last Man Through the Gate.
So, where can we find you??? For more on Tim C. Taylor, follow him on Twitter (@TimCTaylor) or his blog (www.timctaylor.com )
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