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Interview with Stewart Ferris, Director, Summersdale Publishers Ltd.Interview
by Mehroo Siddiqui
You have worked as an editor and a publisher and you have quite a few works to your credit as a writer. What do you most enjoy doing and why? Writing gives me the most
satisfaction. I actually find the process of writing quite arduous, but after a
couple of hours of successful creativity I feel great, so the satisfaction comes
from having done the writing rather than from actually doing it. If a day goes
by when I haven't written something then I feel I've wasted it because it only
takes four paragraphs a day to write a novel in a year. It's so easy to let
those days slip by with nothing to show for them.
What
inspires you to write? Is there any particular theme/topic/issue that you look
forward to working on, something that can be called your dream project? If so,
can you tell us a little about it? I love reading and writing about
alternative historical theories and constructing stories around the what-ifs? My
dream project is a novel and screenplay which I've been working on in my spare
time for about eight years and it concerns theories of early advanced
civilizations and the latent threat they pose to the world today. The
original inspiration for this was a book called Fingerprints of the Gods by
Graham Hancock which really set me thinking about how little we really know
about ancient humans. We haven't evolved in over 60,000 years, therefore humans
living 12,000 years ago were just as capable of building aircraft and cities
and weapons as humans today. We've benefited from a spurt of technology
lasting a few hundred years: how do we know that it hasn't happened
before, only to be destroyed and all traces erased by time and Ice Ages,
etc.? I can't say more without giving away the plot, but it's a kind
of Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code and it's called The Sphinx
Scrolls.
As
an editor, publisher and writer, what have you considered the worst and the best
part of your jobs? Why? The worst part of editing and
publishing is rejecting authors, especially when I've been initially keen on a
project and have worked a little with the author as they develop their
early drafts, only to have to reject it in the end. The best part is discovering
a rare gem of a manuscript in the slush pile: a book with obvious commercial
appeal, well written, and well presented. It only happens once or twice a year--
the rest of the time we make do with best we can find. With my author's hat on,
the worst part is the nervous feeling when my words are read for the first time
and wondering what the reaction will be. But you can't beat the feeling of
opening the printer's box and seeing a pack of books with your name on hot off
the presses.
How
did you start writing? And how did you get into the publishing business? I've been writing since school,
starting with the usual teen-angst poetry and almost tuneless songs, and moving
to sitcom scripts and a play while at university, plus a couple of unfinished
novels. This was followed by several tours of Europe busking in the streets. I
made enough money from this to be able to open a French bank account (so I could
off-load all those heavy coins that were weighing me down), then I came home and
wrote my first book, The Busker's Guide to Europe. I sent this to one
publisher, but when they spent months trying to make a decision I became bored
of waiting and decided to publish it myself using my busking money. It wasn't a
success (1,000 copies were printed and it took about seven years to sell them
all), but it taught me how to publish books so I started looking around for
other manuscripts to publish. Initially they came from friends, and after a year
or so I started to get submissions from all over the world.
Most
of your books are the “how to” kind; do you think they have helped a lot of
potential writers in actually writing their first books, and others in getting
their works published? Have you ever thought of making a foray into fiction?
Could you elaborate on that? I hope my “how to” books help
people. With How to be a Writer,
my focus was on inspiring people to believe in themselves, to realize that they
can actually write an entire book and to understand how wonderful that feels.
Some of my “how to” books are tongue-in-cheek, especially my chat-up guides
which are not designed to be taken too seriously. I'm not yet published as a
fiction writer, and I won't publish my own novel because I think a book like
that needs objective criticism and editing before publication. I'll be looking
for a publisher for The Sphinx Scrolls fairly soon, but I won't limit
my search to English language publishers-- it might be that I can find a foreign
language publisher first. I'll see what happens.
As
a publisher, what do you look for in a book? If I were to ask you some of the
common major reasons why you reject a book, what would you say? I'm looking for commercial
viability. I can't publish books that are great literature if they don't sell.
If the publishing decision was based purely on the quality of the writing we'd
be bankrupt within a few weeks. There has to be a market for the book. It has to
fit a single, clear genre and it must have a title and concept that grabs
attention immediately. There are dozens of reasons why I reject books. The items
in the following list won't all cause a rejection in themselves, but they will
be factors in the decision. Reasons for rejection:
When
you had started writing, was there anyone to give you guidelines on how to
write/how to get published? How did you manage? I would assume that there are a
lot more people in this field now than before; would you say that has led to an
increase or decrease in good writing; or if it has led publishers to raise their
standards? Any particular reason for that? I used to read writing magazines
and any books I could find on writing. I read John Braine's book on writing a
novel in my early twenties and he said you shouldn't try to write a novel until
you're thirty so that put me off somewhat. Other books were more helpful, and
like any other skill writing gets better over time anyway. There are certainly
more self help books and gurus for every kind of writing these days and it has
certainly led to a raising of standards amongst the authors who submit to my
company. It's quite rare now to receive a submission that is not in a format
that we request on our website so it shows that most authors are paying
attention to the advice, and that makes our jobs easier. But even if everyone
raised the quality of their writing to absolute perfection we would still reject
most books on the basis that we don't think the basic concept is sufficiently
commercial for us.
How
did you get your first book published? Do you think people who have been
rejected by a publisher once should send their work to her/him a second time? The first book I had published by
a company other than my own was actually a Hungarian edition of How
to Chat-up Women! Many of my books have been published in corners of the
world ranging from Mexico to China, Italy to India. I'm very big in Portugal,
apparently-- there's a publisher there who keeps on translating my stuff. These
sales came about because I exhibited the English editions of my books at the
Frankfurt Book Fair each year. I do think that people should re-submit their
books after rejection, but only if they have a valid reason. A good reason would
be that a new bestseller has hit the shops which is very similar to the rejected
book and that therefore the publisher should reconsider their decision. Or maybe
changes have been made that will substantially improve the book. But don't send
it in again without good reason otherwise the publisher will lose patience.
How
do you deal with writer’s block? I stop worrying and just write,
no matter how badly. At least then I have something to polish. If I don't write
anything then I have nothing to work with, so it's important to free yourself
from the constraint in your head that says, “Don't write anything unless you
can think of something that will be perfect.” It isn't necessary-- that's what
the redrafting stage is for. Just write, even if you simply write about why you
can't think of anything to write... before you know it, you're writing! To avoid
writer's block in the first place, you need to live and breathe your project.
Think about it when you're not writing it. Keep it in the forefront of your
mind, never file it away at the back because you may never retrieve it again if
you do.
As
a writer, is there anyone you admire and whose style you would like to emulate?
If so, who and why? If not, why? I admire many writers. The late
Douglas Adams was a huge influence, as is Stephen Fry, whose control of the
English language is second to none. When it comes to emulating a style, the
interesting thing is that you will never achieve the same style but in trying to
do so you end up with a voice that is original and it belongs to you. When The
Beatles tried to make a Beach Boys song with “Back in the USSR” it didn't
really sound like a Beach Boys song, despite some obvious elements, but the
sound they achieved was something fresh. It's the same with writing, and I
recommend anyone to try emulating the style of someone they admire because the
result will be a fascinating hybrid.
Where
do you see yourself going from here? What are your plans for the future? I've recently developed a passion
for screenwriting, with three completed feature films and a few more I'd like to
write. It's a great genre because every word has to be justified, whereas in a
novel you can afford to be far more wordy, so it teaches minimalism and economy
of dialogue and description. I also enjoy writing for animation, having written
14 episodes of “Pokemon” last year, so I'm keen to develop an animated
movie.
What advice would you give to young people who wish to enter this field? Don't listen to any advice! Write
from the heart in your own voice and your own grammar and be true to yourself
and your passions and ignore anyone who says it can't be done or you shouldn't
waste your time trying. Writing is a craft and anyone can achieve professional
quality output if they put in the hours and keep at it. Because it's an art form
there will always be room for something entirely new that hasn't been done
before, so don't let wizened old writers tell you you're doing it wrong. They
made the rules, you can break them and change the world. Stewart Ferris
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