BAYONETS AT DAWN: My interview with Laurence Thompson
I recently did an interview with fellow writer, blogger, and good friend Laurence Thompson, based out of Liverpool. Here is an excerpt from that interview:
Implicate Disorder: Your novella, The First Bayonet, was e-published last year. What was it about mainstream publishing that caused you to take this route instead? Was there something inherent in the work that made it more suitable?
Steven Hildreth, Jr.: Well, I don’t think it was the content, in and of itself, that caused me to take the self-publishing route, though I’ve known a couple of authors who have done that for exactly that reason. Really, what it is is that the publishing industry has become something of a good old boy network. For ordinary people trying to break into the writing game, it’s an enormous catch-22: you can’t be published mainstream unless you’ve been published mainstream before. If you know somebody who knows somebody, then the doors open, but most people—myself included—don’t know those people. So, my options really became either to attempt to break mainstream and repeat the same action with hopes for a different result, or jump in on self-publishing.
ID: Did you attempt to find an industry publisher or agent, or opt for the e-pub route from the beginning?
SH: I opted for e-publishing from the onset. I’ve witnessed colleagues of mine trying to break mainstream and saw the struggle they had to go through to market their work. I was not looking to go through the same process. I circumvented that and figured I would find a way to make up for the lack of advertising later.
ID: Yeah, the disadvantages of this approach I assume speak for themselves – having to self-edit, self-promote and so forth. On the other hand, has there been anything about self-publishing you’ve found particularly advantageous, that wouldn’t be the case if you’d sought a more traditional route?
SH: It has afforded complete autonomy in just about everything—my pricing, my cover, my marketing scheme, and so on. That does come as a double-edged blade, as you mentioned, but it also serves as a hell of a learning experience, taking control of all aspects of the writing and publishing process. Also, it kept me from wasting time looking for a publisher, which allowed me to roll right onto other projects.
You can read the full interview here. Warning: the interview does contain some strong language. Reader discretion is advised.
Implicate Disorder: Your novella, The First Bayonet, was e-published last year. What was it about mainstream publishing that caused you to take this route instead? Was there something inherent in the work that made it more suitable?
Steven Hildreth, Jr.: Well, I don’t think it was the content, in and of itself, that caused me to take the self-publishing route, though I’ve known a couple of authors who have done that for exactly that reason. Really, what it is is that the publishing industry has become something of a good old boy network. For ordinary people trying to break into the writing game, it’s an enormous catch-22: you can’t be published mainstream unless you’ve been published mainstream before. If you know somebody who knows somebody, then the doors open, but most people—myself included—don’t know those people. So, my options really became either to attempt to break mainstream and repeat the same action with hopes for a different result, or jump in on self-publishing.
ID: Did you attempt to find an industry publisher or agent, or opt for the e-pub route from the beginning?
SH: I opted for e-publishing from the onset. I’ve witnessed colleagues of mine trying to break mainstream and saw the struggle they had to go through to market their work. I was not looking to go through the same process. I circumvented that and figured I would find a way to make up for the lack of advertising later.
ID: Yeah, the disadvantages of this approach I assume speak for themselves – having to self-edit, self-promote and so forth. On the other hand, has there been anything about self-publishing you’ve found particularly advantageous, that wouldn’t be the case if you’d sought a more traditional route?
SH: It has afforded complete autonomy in just about everything—my pricing, my cover, my marketing scheme, and so on. That does come as a double-edged blade, as you mentioned, but it also serves as a hell of a learning experience, taking control of all aspects of the writing and publishing process. Also, it kept me from wasting time looking for a publisher, which allowed me to roll right onto other projects.
You can read the full interview here. Warning: the interview does contain some strong language. Reader discretion is advised.
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