Self-Published Novel: The Shack June 14, 2008

A little novel written by an Oregon salesman and self-published by two former pastors with a $300 marketing budget is lighting up USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list with a wrenching parable about God’s grace.

First-time author William P. Young’s book The Shack, in which the father of a murdered child encounters God the Father as a sarcastic black woman, Jesus as a Middle Eastern laborer and the Holy Spirit as an Asian girl, is No. 8 on the list.

 

IDEA CLUB: Do you care about doctrine?

 

Published a year ago and promoted by snowballing attention on Christian radio, websites and blogs, The Shack ($14.99) is now in mainstream bookstores and Wal-Marts nationwide, and the trio behind it are talking to Hollywood about a possible film deal.

Aimed at the “spiritually interested,” the novel had an inauspicious start, says co-publisher Brad Cummings, who is still shipping books from the garage of his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and nearby mini-warehouses.

Young says that when he wrote the book in 2005, “my only goal was to get copied and bound at Kinko’s in time for Christmas as a gift to my kids.”

Until The Shack sales soared, he was a manufacturer’s representative for a technology company by day and did website design work on the side. But he had always been a writer, he says, who gave poems and stories as gifts.

He wrote the book to explain his own harrowing journey through pain and misery to “light, love and transformation” in God to his six children, ages 14 to 27.

Eleven years ago, Young says, he was hanging on by a thread, haunted by his history as a victim of sexual abuse, by his own adulterous affair, by a life of shame and pain, all stuffed deep in his psyche.

“The shack” was what he called the ugly place inside where everything awful was hidden away. The book is about confronting evil and stripping the darkness away to reveal a loving God within, he says.

Shortly after he finished the manuscript, Young read a parable book by Wayne Jacobsen, a former pastor who had turned to publishing his own spiritual titles.

When he discovered Jacobsen was doing a reading at a bookstore near Young’s home in Gresham, Ore., Young brought him the manuscript. “I was taken immediately,” Jacobsen says.

Even so, “Christian publishers told us it was too edgy, and secular ones said it was too Jesus-y,” Cummings says.

So Cummings and Jacobsen published it themselves, as Windblown Media, and all three embarked on a word-of-mouth, church-to-church, blog-to-blog campaign to get copies out.

Now, “there are 880,000 copies in print, 750,000 in distribution, and we’re talking to New York publishers,” Young says.

Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor for Publishers Weekly, calls the book’s success “most unusual. It’s every self-published author’s dream to start out this way and sell at this level.”

Why are so many heading for The Shack?

“People are not necessarily concerned with how orthodox the theology is. People are into the story and how the book strikes them emotionally,” Garrett says.

NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=90664444&m=90664392

Author’s website: http://www.theshackbook.com/

from page to screen: Inkheart June 13, 2008

For years Cornelia Funke has been one of the best-known and bestselling children’s authors in Germany. In fact, many people have called her the German J. K. Rowling. Americans, however, were not exposed to Funke’s work until 2002, when her book Herr der Diebe was translated into English and released by Scholastic Press as The Thief Lord. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Like their German counterparts, young American readers gobbled up the fantastic tale of two orphans set loose among the canals and streets of Venice, Italy. The book made every major bestseller list and won countless awards. It also established Funke as a storyteller on an international scale, since the book has since been published in nearly forty countries. In October of 2003 Funke released her second book in the United States, Inkheart. Publisher’s Weekly called it “delectably transfixing,” and readers were left clamoring for more of their favorite new author.

Illustrator becomes author

Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in Dorsten, Westphalia, located in the central region of Germany. Funke, who spoke with Sue Corbett of the Miami Herald, explained that her last name is pronounced FOON-kah. She also mentioned that in the United States “people say ‘Funky,’ and I rather like that.” Funke did not set out to be a writer. When she was eighteen years old she left Dorsten to study at the University of Hamburg, where she earned a degree in education theory. Not sure what to do after graduation, Funke decided to take a course in book illustration at the Hamburg State College of Design.

Funke started out designing board games and illustrating books for other authors. After illustrating for several years, however, she began to lose interest in her job. “I was, I have to admit, bored by the stories I had to illustrate,” Funke explained in a Bookwrap video interview online. Instead, she wanted to draw pictures for books that were exciting, books about dragons and adventure. She recalled that one night, at the age of twenty-eight, she started to write her own story. The illustrator-turned-author did not suffer the usual trials of first-time writers. She sent her manuscript out to four German publishing houses and all four wanted to publish it.

“If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids. A library book, I imagine, is a happy book.”

Funke’s earliest books, most of which she illustrated herself, were short and aimed at younger readers of about eight years old. Her first longer, chapter book for older children was Drachenreiter (Dragonrider), published in Germany in 1997. It was followed in 2000 by Herr der Diebe (The Thief Lord). The book was a phenomenal success in Germany, but Funke was not satisfied. She was determined to take a shot at the English-language market, where she knew her stories would have a chance to be read by a wider audience. Funke turned to her cousin, Oliver Latsch, and asked him to translate Herrder Diebe into English. With manuscript in hand, she made the rounds of the top English publishers.

Thief Lord steals the hearts of millions

Several companies showed an interest, but at the same time the fates were actively at work at The Chicken House, a new book publisher in England. The Chicken House was founded in 2000 by Barry Cunningham, who had a long career in publishing and was known for taking chances on new writers. In fact, it was Cunningham who first decided to publish the Harry Potter series after British author J. K. Rowling (c. 1966–) was turned down by countless other publishers. In this case, Funke did not go to Cunningham. Cunningham went looking for her, after he received a letter from an eleven-year-old girl in England named Clara, asking why her favorite author (Cornelia Funke) was not published in English. Clara was bilingual, she spoke both German and English, so she had been enjoying Funke’s books for several years.

Cornelia Funke’s Favorite Books

In many of her interviews, writer Cornelia Funke describes herself as a passionate reader. And, as she revealed in an AudioFile interview, one of her goals as an author is to “try to awaken the passion for reading in children and adults.” In Inkheart, one way Funke accomplishes this goal is by introducing her audience to classic works of fiction. Each chapter begins with a quote from a book, and there are references to books such as The Wind in the Willows by Scottish author Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) sprinkled throughout the text. In an article posted on the Guardian Unlimited Web site, Funke revealed her own “favourite bedtime stories,” many of which are mentioned in Inkheart.

1. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
2. The BFG by Roald Dahl.
3. What Witch by Eva Ibbotson.
4. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.
5. Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende.
6. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.
7. The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren.
8. The War of the Buttons by Louis Peraud.
9. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
10. The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

Cunningham tracked down Funke’s agent, read the manuscript, and immediately bought the English-language rights for Herr der Diebe and for Drachenreiter. In July of 2000 The Thief Lord was published in England. It sold out in just ten days, an unheard-of phenomenon for a children’s book. Two years later Funke’s story debuted in the United States. Critics heaped praise on The Thief Lord, calling it an immediate classic. Readers agreed, and the book reached the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained comfortably perched for twenty-five weeks. The Thief Lord was named a best book of the year by many publications, including School Library Journal and Parenting Magazine. It also won a slew of awards, including the prestigious Mildred L. Batchelder Award, which is presented annually by the American Library Association to the best book originally published in a foreign language and then translated and published in the United States.

Part Peter Pan and part Robin Hood and Oliver Twist, The Thief Lord is set against the backdrop of Venice, Italy. Rebecca Sinkler of the New York Times called the book a “love song to the city and its splendors.” In fact, Venice is one of Funke’s favorite destinations, and she was inspired to write the story during one of her many visits. “I wanted to tell children that there is a place in this world that is real and full of history, but also contains magic and mystery,” she explained to Trudy Wyss in an interview on the Borders Books Web site. The many alleyways and canals of Venice were perfect for the story because, as Funke told Wyss, “there are hundreds of hiding places.”

At the story’s center are two orphans, twelve-year-old Prosper and his five-year-old brother, Bo, who run away from Hamburg to Venice because their aunt and uncle want to separate them. When they arrive in the strange city, they are taken in by a band of young pickpockets and thieves who are led by Scipio, the thirteen-year-old masked Thief Lord. The boys live comfortably enough with their new-found friends in an abandoned movie theater until they discover they are being tracked by an investigator hired by their aunt and uncle. They also run into trouble when the gang is hired to steal a wooden horse’s wing that long ago was broken off a magical carousel. The carousel has the power to make “adults out of children and children out of adults.”

Written from the heart

Readers were spellbound by the many twists and turns in the plot of The Thief Lord, and Funke left her audience wanting more. They were rewarded in October of 2003 when Scholastic Press, her American

Cornelia Funke poses with her book, Inkheart.

© 2004 Landov LLC. All rights reserved. Repoduced by permission.

publisher, released Inkheart. There is a gleam in Funke’s eye when she talks about this book, which she believes to be one of her best efforts. As she explained in the Bookwrap video, she put the “blood of her heart” into writing it: “There are those people who love books and are greedy for books and the rustling of paper and the printed letter and I wanted to write about this. This lust for the printed word. And I think Inkheart is all about that. The enchantment that comes from books.” 

Good authors make books come alive for their readers. In Inkheart, twelve-year-old Meggie loves books so much that she regularly falls asleep with them. Her father, Mo, teases her, saying, “I’m sure it must be very comfortable sleeping with a hard, rectangular thing like that under your head.” But Meggie enjoys taking her books to bed because the books whisper their stories to her at night. Books are also important to her father, who earns his living by traveling across the country repairing and caring for old volumes. He does not, however, read to his daughter because of a secret power he possesses: if Mo reads a book aloud, its characters leave the pages and enter the real world. Mo discovered his gift several years earlier, when he released characters from the book Inkheart. One of them, named Capricorn, is so evil that his heart is said to be made of ink. Capricorn hunts down Mo because he wants to destroy Inkheart, ensuring that he will never return to its pages.

The success of Inkheart followed that of The Thief Lord. The book debuted at number nine on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list into 2004. It also received rave reviews. Publisher’sWeekly enthused that “readers will be captivated by the chilling and thrilling world [Funke] has created.” James Neal Webb of BookPage went so far as to call it “a magical, life-altering volume.”

Funke on film

To promote her books, in November of 2003 Funke left Hamburg and her children, Anna and Ben, and went on a U.S. book tour. (The character of Bo in The Thief Lord was based on Ben.) She was interviewed on television and radio and visited many bookstores across the United States. In her Bookwrap video interview Funke commented about the American children she met on tour, and how open and curious they were. “It was great fun to meet them,” she said. “I was especially enchanted by the book maniacs in America. I didn’t know there was so many here…. And I have to confess this kind of book passion I have only met in America.”

Funke revealed to the Miami Herald that there are two sequels planned for Inkheart. The second in the series, called Inkblood, has already been written and is being translated from the German, with an expected release date of 2005. In addition, there are movies in the works based on The Thief Lord and on the Inkheart trilogy. Once her books hit the big screen, Funke, already a beloved writer, will no doubt become a writing phenomenon. And there is also no doubt that there are many more books to come from her pen. As she told Wyss, “Writing is my passion…. I couldn’t live without it.”

Author’s website: http://www.corneliafunkefans.com/

For authors with drive and a good story, self-publishing can be the ticket June 8, 2008

For authors with drive and a good story, self-publishing can be the ticket

By CECELIA GOODNOW
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Once there were two fathers in two kingdoms who spun fabulous stories for their young daughters.

Stories in which the creatures were magical, the danger fierce and the day saved — by brave and idealistic girls.

		I

One of the dads grew up to be Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, now a self-published author eyeing, on the far horizon, a possible career as a children’s writer.

The other, Patrick Carman, is a Walla Walla entrepreneur whose self-published children’s fantasy, “The Dark Hills Divide,” already has propelled him across the threshold of success.

In an auction that ended March 12, Carman clinched a three-book deal with Scholastic worth between $200,000 and $350,000, according to his agent, Peter Rubie.

The message? Self-publishing, historically the poor cousin of the book world, is becoming a more respectable route to an audience, despite the risks and expense.

“I think this is part of a trend that started several years ago with ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ and ‘The Christmas Box,’ among other books,” Rubie said, adding that it’s easier than ever to do a self-published book with a quality look.

“What most writers forget,” he said, “is that the key to publishing is distribution — getting someone to take the book and get it into stores or the hands of your intended audience. The majority of self-published authors fall down badly in this department.”

Of course, it’s the dazzling exceptions that spur writers on. “Eragon,” a self-published fantasy by Montana teen Christopher Paolini, was picked up by Knopf in a three-book deal worth a reported $500,000. Republished last August, it became a No. 1 best seller.

Then there’s Michael Hoeye, who self-published “Time Stops for No Mouse” after sketching out his ideas on a napkin at a Portland cafe. The book rallied enough grass-roots fans that Putnam gave him a $1.8 million deal for three books.

Those successes don’t come easy. Paolini, who reportedly turned down a full scholarship to Reed College in Oregon to promote his book, made 135 appearances in 2002 and sold 10,000 copies before signing with Knopf.

Carman, a self-made businessman, has followed Paolini’s playbook. He poured more than $25,000 into “The Dark Hills Divide,” the first volume in his planned “Land of Elyon” trilogy. He hired top-notch pros to do the artwork, design, editing and publicity, then set up school visits and bookstore signings to stimulate sales.

“We just started creating all this buzz,” Carman said, “and an agent contacted us from New York.”

Judith Chandler of Third Place Books said she was astonished when Carman drew more than 400 kids to an unscheduled appearance in late January, just from the excitement he had generated through school visits. For self-published authors, she said, marketing is half the battle.

“We sold about 180 copies that night,” she said. “That is stunning. I think it could be another one like “Eragon,” easily.”

Fittingly, Carman was speaking to a gym full of school kids when the call came that Scholastic had made a deal. By then, he already had made back most of his money, with nearly 6,000 books sold and a third print run — of 10,000 copies — in the works.

He also had been invited to speak to booksellers attending the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association conference, guaranteeing even more buzz.

“The Dark Hills Divide” grew out of stories Carman told his young daughters, now 7 and 9. It focuses on 12-year-old Alexa Daley, who explores what lies beyond her walled kingdom and stumbles onto a plot to destroy the Land of Elyon from within.

“It’s probably one of the better children’s books I’ve seen in a long time,” said Michelle Price, events coordinator at the Tri-Cities Barnes & Noble, which has chosen Carman’s book as the main selection of its summer reading program.

Scholastic, which plans to unveil the re-edited “The Dark Hills Divide” in hardcover around Christmas, will let Carman reprint it in paperback until November. Then he’s out of the self-publishing business. Fans will have to wait until December 2005 for the sequel.

Licata has taken a more low-key approach. He has done some interviews and a major bookstore appearance, with more in the works. But his real ambitions as an author appear to lie further down the road.

His immediate goal was to revive a 15-year-old manuscript based on taped stories he sent his daughter when she lived in China for a year with her mother. After their return, Licata sought local mentors and spent several years revising and packaging the story. (Karin McGinn, features copy desk chief at the Post-Intelligencer, was hired to do a first edit.)

The result, “Princess Bianca and the Vandals,” is a fast-paced, if still unpolished, eco-wizard story about a girl who rescues her mother and saves her pristine kingdom from marauding, anti-green Vandals.

“When I finished it 10 years ago,” Licata said, “I naively threw it into the mail to some East Coast publishers. But that doesn’t work too well, unless you have an in. I didn’t have the energy to do a full-scale (publicity) campaign. And because so many themes are common to the Northwest, I wanted to have some control over the presentation.”

He said he promised to publish it himself if his daughter graduated from college and he won a second term on the city council — “and those things happened.”

He has sold several hundred copies since October, mainly through his Web site, http://www.princessbianca.org.

The Elliott Bay Book Co. has moved a respectable 20 copies since Licata’s signing there in November, and Amazon picked up the book this month. (Daughter Eleanor, now in Ankara, Turkey, already has plugged it twice online.)

“I don’t expect this book to be a huge critical or commercial success,” Licata said, “but I did want to share a bit of fantasy with others, particularly children, with regards to the world we live in. … Time permitting in the future, I’d like to write more for both children and adults. I have a small drawer full of short fiction pieces and eventually I’d like to get them out as well.”

Even if “Princess Bianca” isn’t destined for the big time, it reveals a lively storytelling talent, honed by Licata’s childhood experience as a campfire raconteur.

“I had dyslexia and I didn’t read until I was 9 years old,” Licata said. “So I made up stories for my peers.”

It also demonstrates a drawback of self-publishing: Without a book editor’s steady hand, do-it-yourselfers are hard-pressed to get the story and packaging details just right. Even Carman’s book, which is unusually polished, has some misspellings, grammatical errors and anachronisms.

As Chandler put it, “Usually when you get a first-time author with a book they have self-published, the quality is suspect, the art isn’t quite right and it ends up with a loving-hands-at-home quality.”

So, is self-publishing the way to go? If you have a good story and a ton of hustle — maybe. Carman said his experience has been “very positive,” partly because of the help he got from Northwest booksellers.

But note this warning from Judith Haut, Random House publicity director: “It really comes down to the book,” she said, “and the talent the writer has.”

 

MEET THE AUTHORS

 

Both Patrick Carman and Nick Licata have local bookstore appearances lined up.

Carman will talk about “The Dark Hills Divide” at 5 p.m. March 26 at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E.

Licata will read and sign copies of “Princess Bianca and the Vandals” at the following locations: 1 p.m. March 27 at Wit’s End Bookstore, 4262 Fremont Ave. N., and 6 p.m. May 1 at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E.

 

P-I reporter Cecelia Goodnow can be reached at 206-448-8353 or ceceliagoodnow@seattlepi.com.

UPDATE

How to sell your debut novel: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/01/how_to_sell_your_first_novel.html

Author: Ted Dekker June 5, 2008

Focus:   Ted, can you tell us how many books you have in print in the Christian market?

Ted Dekker:  Seven

Focus:  You’ve received tremendous positive response about your most recent book, Thr3e, but rumor has it you’re pushing forward to even greater things next year.  Can you tell us why 2004 is being called your “Year of the Trilogy”?

Ted Dekker:  The Trilogy, Black, Red, and White, is a huge step for me creatively.

It’s my masterpiece if you will allow me that term. When I first received my call to writing fiction, it was for this story which brings to light salvation history in a very unique way. The reason the publisher is calling it the “year of the trilogy,” is simply because no one has ever brought an entire trilogy out, all in hardcover, in the same year before. Needless to say, I’ve had my head buried this year.

Focus:  Your father is Dutch-Canadian, your mother is from Montana, you grew up as a missionary kid in Indonesia, and now you live and write in Colorado.  How has this incredible background affected who you are today?

Ted Dekker:  I’ve never been rooted in any particular culture, and this has allowed me to peer into various cultures from the outside. They say that a good writer is first of all a good observer — my background has forced me to observe well. What insight I have comes in part from being bounced around the world as a child.

Focus:  Our lives have all been touched and challenged by various people.  Is there one person who has most influenced your life?

Ted Dekker:  My father, whom I really didn’t know well until I was in my twenties since I went to boarding school. He is a true follower of Christ.

Focus:  What motivated you to become an author?

Ted Dekker:  A specific calling to write stories that reveal the character of God. I was in a time of worship and I felt God impress on me his desire that I write a particular story that filled my mind. I’ve been learning how to do that ever since.

Focus:  Can you describe your average writing day?  Do you have a set schedule, or just work like crazy when the “muses” strike?

Ted Dekker:  I believe that inspiration comes on the back of discipline. My day starts at about seven. After a quiet time and some reflection on what I will write that day, I spend an hour editing the previous day’s writing. I then write roughly 3000 words, which usually lands me at six p.m. The evenings are for family only.

Focus:  Is there a particular book among those you’ve written that you would especially recommend to our readers?  If so, why?

Ted Dekker:  If you want to sink your teeth into a story that will challenge your notion of God and his love, try When Heaven Weeps — but I warn you, it’s not for the timid. If you want a lighter read, try Blink or Thr3e. If you want traditional Christian Fiction, there are plenty of other gifted writers to choose from.

Focus:  Your book, A Man Called Blessed, fueled my longing for a deeper walk with God in a way few stories ever have.  Can you tell us a little about what God was doing in your heart as you wrote this story?

Ted Dekker:  A Man Called Blessed is a story of an adult rediscovering child-like faith. It’s one thing for us to watch a child and see what we might want to emulate, it’s another thing to watch a man uncovering the passion and faith resident in most unspoiled children. Like all of my novels, this was a journey of my imagination, an ideal drawn in full color. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite novels. It’s one I would do well to read frequently.

Focus:  What do you feel is the greatest message with which God has entrusted you, and why have you chosen fiction as the medium for that message?

Ted Dekker:  In essence, my books boil down to God’s pursuit of man, and man’s pursuit of God. My protagonists are rarely Christians, but rather people thrust into extraordinary situations that ultimately lead them to God. Fiction allows me to put flesh on dogma and make this pursuit real.

Focus:  What response do you hope to stir in the readers of your stories?

Ted Dekker:  I would like my readers to close the cover at the end and say, “Wow, I never thought of it like that before.” I would love to give readers fresh ideas of God’s incredible love and the struggle we all face in receiving that love.

Focus:  The Christian fiction field has rapidly expanded over the past few years.  What would you like to see happen in this field in the years to come?
 

Ted Dekker:  I would like to see the tag “Christian” fiction fade away. When a novel is given this tag, it’s automatically put into a very narrow and often misunderstood box that does it and the gospel of Christ no favors. In general, the term “Christian” has much less to do with following Christ and much more to do with being part of a social institution. So it goes in the literary world as well. Most Christians don’t even read “Christian” fiction, preferring instead general market fiction primarily because of the stigma associated with the Christian fiction tag. They think of Christian fiction in terms that no longer accurately represent it.

Focus:  We’ve heard tales of starving artists and writers selling their cars to fund their careers.  Did writing have a negative impact on you financially, particularly at the beginning of your writing career?

Ted Dekker:  I wrote for three years, full time, living off of our savings before I was published. We sold the Suburban. We sold my motorcycles. We sold anything we thought we could live without. And then we sold my first book. You have to understand, writing was a calling for me and I followed it religiously.

Focus:  Many writers are also avid readers.  Do you have any favorite authors?  If so, could you name a few?

Ted Dekker:  Philip Yancey. John Piper. Dallas Willard. Dean Koontz.

Focus:  How can readers and fans encourage you as you pursue what is sometimes a challenging and solitary job?

Ted Dekker:  Hearing positive feedback through my website is the highlight of each day. Connecting with readers through my stories is what my life is all about. Nothing is more encouraging than knowing I’ve done so.

Novels

• Blessed Child (2000) (with Bill Bright)
• A Man Called Blessed (2000) (with Bill Bright)
• Heaven’s Wager(2000)
• When Heaven Weeps(2001)
• Thunder of Heaven (2002)
• Blink(2003)
• Thr3e (2003)
• Black (2004)
• Red (2004)
• White (2004)
• Obsessed(2005)
• Showdown (2006)
• Saint(2006)
• House(2006) (with Frank Peretti)
• Skin(2007)
• Blink of an Eye(2007)
• Chosen(2007)
• Infidel(2007)
• Adam
• Renegade
• Chaos

 

 

 

Author’s website: http://www.teddekker.com/site.php

Source:http://www.focusonfiction.net/teddekker.html

Self-published novel: Shadowmancer June 2, 2008

                                                                  

Audio from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1900481

Video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/5012852#5012852

Graham Taylor has enjoyed an interesting and varied life so far. From being involved in the promotional side of the Punk Rock scene in London in the 1970’s, to becoming a policeman (not a natural progression), to becoming a vicar (an even more unlikely progression) and from there becoming a number one best selling author! What made Graham initially put pen to paper?

“A frustration with what was being published at the time.” he says. And Graham believed he could do better, a thought that probably many of us have had ourselves. From this premise Graham wrote “Shadowmancer”, a gripping tale that takes the reader into a world packed full of history, folklore, magic, and smuggling. Faber and Faber paid Graham £3.5 million for the publishing rights to Shadowmancer and his next six books after strong sales from his own self-published books and the film rights were sold for an additional £2.5 million. Shadowmancer went on to be on the top of the British book charts for an amazing 15 weeks. Not bad for a self-published, first time author!

The Times newspaper described his book “Shadowmancer” as “The biggest event in children’s fiction since Harry Potter.”

We are privileged that Graham has agreed to become a director of Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd. and lend his invaluable experiences and knowledge to help new authors to become published at a reasonable price. We asked him a few questions about how he managed to become the best selling author he now is even though he self-published his first book.

 

Q. Graham, once you had written Shadowmancer did you try to get a literary agent or publisher to read your book?GPT. No. I’ve heard of so many writers who have gone through so many rejections over such a long time that I decided to self-publish the book straight away.

 

Q. How did you go about publishing your book by yourself?GPT. I hunted around to find a printer who would print my book for a reasonable price and after finding one I then looked for a proof-reader who would proofread the manuscript at an equally reasonable rate.

 

Q. Once the book was printed how did you go about marketing it?GPT. Firstly I managed to get the book available through all the major book wholesalers and also though the main Internet retailers. I then went to all my local book shops and offered to do book signings and got the local papers to write articles about “the local author” and mention the signings. From these activities people started to buy, read and enjoy the book and most importantly of all to recommend the book to their friends.

 

Q. What advice would you give to an unpublished author who is looking to get their work into print?GPT. Self publish! You keep control of your work, you are in control of the marketing of your book and you’re not working to anybody else’s timetable but your own. You also keep all the ancillary rights to your book such as TV and film rights.

 

Q. Where do you see the future of book selling going?GPT. I see the Internet continuing to grow rapidly as an important force of retail book selling. The major book retail chains are limiting their titles more and more thereby offering the buying public less choice. I also hope there will be a resurgence of locally owned and operated book shops that are prepared to offer a greater range of titles.

 

Q. How do you perceive a self-published book versus a traditionally published book?GPT. I, and an increasingly growing number of people, see self-published books on an equal footing with the books published from the big publishing houses. You just have to make sure that the end product is produced professionally and the manuscript has been proofread to correct all the silly little mistakes that inevitably are present in an author’s original manuscript.

 

Q. Finally Graham, what was your motivation to become a director of Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd.?GPT. I accepted the invitation to become a director in Grosvenor House Publishing because I have wanted to encourage self-publishing ever since publishing “Shadowmancer” by myself. It is a difficult project to publish a book, and then organise the distribution and promotion of that book without any “guiding light” to help you through the process. The whole procedure can be daunting and seem quite unachievable to the uninitiated. Grosvenor House Publishing has put together an effective vehicle that enables an author to become fully published with all the distribution and registrations organised for a very reasonable price. Also Grosvenor House Publishing gives the author a very helpful marketing package which covers all the basic necessities of how to actually get their book sold to the reading public, which after all is why we write books.

 

Graham Taylor has since written two more books, “Wormwood” another compelling adventure of sorcery, treachery, intrigue and supernatural struggles, which has recently been one of only five books to be nominated for the prestigious American writer’s award known as “The Quills”. Graham’s third and latest title is called Tersias and promises to maintain the tremendous successes of his fist two books on both side of the Atlantic.

How did Graham achieve the success he now enjoys?

He obviously has a great talent for conjuring up wonderful stories and the energy and discipline (not to mention the talent) to be able to write those stories in a very readable fashion, but Graham also possesses one vital ingredient, without which his marvellous books would still be just ideas. That ingredient is self-belief. His self-belief is so strong that he even sold his beloved Harley Davidson motor bike to fund the printing of his first book Shadowmancer!

 

Author’s website: http://www.gptaylor.info/

source: http://www.grosvenorhousepublishing.co.uk/graham_story.php? PHPSESSID=d06582f173eecfe5fbead0098e3b

More on g.p.taylor: 

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2. http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=9412

3. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4954605/