This Writer’s Creative Leap Forward
- in which a
mid-list writer takes control of her professional life.
Like many
writers who enjoyed a wide and responsive readership during two decades, I was
more than crestfallen to discover that I was part of the great mid-list cull of
the Noughties. It dawned on me that I had been abandoned for more sensational, genre-distinct
and lucrative novelists.
Since then
it has taken me a year or so to get my creative breath back. I have used some
of this time to learn the process and re-issue some titles from my back-list
using the rather magical Kindle and Createspace processes.
The processes
proved not to be as complex as brain surgery. Referring to some useful sources.
I embarked on republishing some of my early novels. Of course I made some mistakes
and corrected them, learning a lot among the way.
As they had
been refereed in their original form by skilled major company editors I was
quite confident about the interior content of these re-issues. I re-read them, brought
the content up to date with some revision, some fresh writing and was happy to
re-issue them.
The covers
were a bigger problem. Amazon have a whole range of credible template into
which you can slot your original design notions. I relished this process and found
myself liking the look of these books
both in Kindle and paperback. I thought I could tolerate for the time being the
fact that they were not quite responsive to the creative stuff that was going comforted
myself with the though that my big publishers had whole departments and design experts dealing
with this same challenge.
In the meantime – continuing my lifelong creative compulsion to write fiction - I had written this brand new novel about which I was very excited. I passed the manuscript to experienced, informed and insightful acquaintances who offered very positive and constructive commentaries which inspired me to nudge the novel into its very best form.
Inevitably
the problem of genre reared its ugly head.
To one very informed commenter I
replied: As you know genre was always a
bugbear with me. All I ever wanted to do is write novels which are
psychologically, emotionally, sociologically and historically ‘true’. Sometimes
my novels would indeed fall neatly into the ’saga’ slot ( although they never rigidly adhered to the
narrow prescriptions of that form). I always preferred writing about life to
writing romance. Other novels meandered
away from the strict saga form and would be more readily described as
psychological novels, crime novels., domestic dramas etc. (I once made a list
under these categories. See HERE) By not repeating the same formula time and
again I think I managed to keep my writing and my ideas fresh.
This might mean spitting in the wind of Fifty Shades of Literary Fashion but still I believe in writing novels which reflect and possibly further inspire the complex, authentic lives of many of my readers. I keep the faith with them.
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RoomToWrite |
So I have taken
a really big breath and decided to take this Independent Publishing bull by the
horns. With the creative support of our independent
support group Room To Write I have now
at last got my new novel Writing at the
Maison Bleue to the point of publication. (See sidebar here...)
Hooray! This brand new novel is now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback version. The paperback will be launched at Lafkadio Hearn Centre in Durham on May 1st. Watch your Inbox for your invitation to the launch…
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Kindle Cover |
(NEXT POST: The
creative process of designing of the cover of Writing at the Maison Bleue.)
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Paperback Cover |
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