on writing | RTE Arts Show
So the interview with RTE went well last week. Colm and I both answered a few questions for the soundbytes and were done in half an hour. (We even had time for a celebrity hunt in the canteen. No luck finding anyone though)
No one in RTE was quite sure if our ‘bytes’ would be broadcast but we told our Mammy’s and Gran’s to listen anyway. And they did.
The guests on the show, Fergal Tobin and Anne Haverty, disagreed with what I had to say. It was both unexpected and unfair and I would like to respond.
Anne Haverty’s opinion that the business end of writing is of no interest to writers seems nonsensical. Publishing, as both guests agree in the interview, has changed over the last 10 years and publishers, editors and agents look upon it from a much more analytical level now. I think the business of writing is very much the business of the writer, literary fiction or otherwise. That includes the general administrative aspects of writing – how to make a submission, where to submit work, help with making contacts as much as the financial ends.
Anyone with an interest in writing/publishing is aware of the market conditions – and Fergal’s suggestion that if I knew the numbers involved with publishing fiction I would probably stop writing is daft. All new writers speak to publishers in Ireland and the UK – each with varying degrees of pessimism – and most people submit manuscripts with the full knowledge of the difficulties.
I am looking at making a career in children’s writing – an ambition that is driven by the same need as Anne Haverty’s, as ‘someone who needs to write books‘. What I mean when I say career in writing, is that I want to continue writing and develop it with audiences and readers through as many outlets, technologies and books as possible for as long as I can. To reach that goal I need as much information about writing, including the business aspects, as I can find.
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Relevant link: American authour John Scalzi offers business advice to writers. (more)
Relevant quote: A friend, who has been submitting fiction for more than 15 years, sent this by email:
Every publisher/agent I’ve ever met has always begun the conversation with: ‘You know you’ll never get a book of short stories published, don’t you?’
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It’s the Old Guard, man. They hate us handsome young fellows.
Ha,
I love it. It is a tough market for short stories in Ireland which is odd because we are famous for them! For record we are publishing a really fine collection of short stories in June: In Exile by Billy O’Callaghan, the website hasn’t got it yet and amazon has no cover for some reason but f anyone wants to read a sample story or two I can provide them.
I disliked Haverty’s point enormously. You have to know the market and the business side of it. How else can you choose to reject that and write what you like or choose to go with the flow and write what people want?
It’s like everything, you try and see what happens. You tweek your writing to the market where you can and hope people like it.
Scalzi’s advice is well given I think. Although I have only just started reading his stuff, i really like it!
Eoin
Colm – Somehow I always knew the blue eyes and boyish good-looks would come back to haunt us.
Eoin – The points made on the show seemed dated. The market has been forced to change with it’s readers, and technology. As a result, writers have developed new approaches.
In some ways, it might be easier for new writers to adapt.
(I’ll pass on the info re: short story collection. Wouldn’t mind having a read of the collection either!)
God they really ate into you David.
Fergal Tobin: “…relative ignorance. At his age he’s probably better off..” (ouch!!)
You have a good point though, of course writers have to understand the business end of things, cause you have to eat/drink etc
Your just being sensible about the whole thing, especially for someone of your age! (The cheek!:P)
Blue eyes my hole, I rock the hazel like there’s no tomorrow.
Re: the market changing with technology, I think we owe it to ourselves to know the business all the more so because of the opportunities the internet offers. It annoyed me how he stressed the extent to which the internet had changed publishing but didn’t consider what that means beyond “Yeah, people can buy things without leaving their houses now”. At the very least he might have conceded that MAYBE the industry isn’t done changing.