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What do you think of when you imagine an author?

Perhaps someone sitting churning out their next best seller, whilst sitting on a sun-lapped shore with minions bringing the evening cocktail before dinner is served? I wish!

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The reality is more likely to be someone with a passion they can’t ignore, apprehensive, knowing nothing about the publishing world, juggling a full-time job, children, grandchildren or possibly with baby-sitting or carer’s duties, but who never gave up on their dream. 

The story running through their mind won’t let them rest until they get it down on paper, or save it as a file on their computer. At what stage should they admit they would love to get their book published? Would family and friends be encouraging, or laugh at their efforts? It takes a lot of courage to ‘own up,’ and if they had any idea what was ahead of them, I have the feeling very few books would be available.

 

How old is an author?

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It’s difficult to generalise, but often authors are from an older generation, who perhaps use life experiences and begin writing as a hobby once they retire. If chick-lit is for the young, why shouldn’t Autumn Chickens have their own niche?

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Would a writer of children’s books typically be a young Mum?

You might think so, and I have known some in that category, but I’ve also known a single lady who is an autistic author, an elderly childless, single man, and several others who don’t fit the typical mould.

 

How about an erotic book?

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Perhaps an author needs to have a little more experience of life to be able to titillate the imagination if a story has an eighteen plus tag. I’m reminded of a neighbour many years ago who I didn’t know well, but we would pass pleasantries of ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Hello, lovely day, isn’t it?’ I never did learn his name, but he was a respectable looking, rather boring ‘Mummy’s boy,’ bachelor type in his forties, so I wasn’t surprised when he indicated he was a teacher in a well-respected local school.

One day we started chatting about books, and I mentioned I was an author. Rather shyly he admitted he was too, and I think he assumed I would be shocked when he admitted not only was he gay, but he made his living from writing porn! His published books and articles brought him in a good income, and he only kept up the part time teaching to provide a veneer of respectability.

 

It just goes to show you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, although it does help to have a striking jacket as the first stage in attracting someone to buy your book. Until around a hundred years ago, books were in a plain binding, with an outer dust jacket which functioned as protection for the expensively printed or hand-made pages. With the gradual introduction of techniques for mechanical binding, by the mid eighteen hundreds book covers became works of art in themselves, with beautifully designed, foil stamped, coloured covers acting as a form of advertisement. These days, paperback covers are more practical, designed to not only hold the pages together, but keep the sheets clean and safe from tearing.

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Even if you’re traditionally published, authors are expected to do their own marketing – the thing I hate most! ‘Buy my book, buy my book’ is against the nature of many authors, so it’s likely a great deal of time is spent listening to the Gurus podcasts on what to do, and how to do it, when they should be putting words down creatively.

If you self-publish there’s even more to learn, but at least you have some control. With my first book I didn’t know you were supposed to leave it to the publishers, and told them what should be on the cover. That was many years ago and it actually worked, apart from the bottom half being too dark, and a relative asking if it was a history book. (It was romance.) Which bring me nicely into my next topic – inspiration.

Although I’m English, Malta is my ‘home from home’ and despite changing drastically over the years, a friend who holidayed with me when we were young, and reads all my books commented privately, ‘I remember that happening.’ Something as ordinary as tablecloths can appear in different guises from memory banks, and become part of a story.

I love writing short stories and have a folder with about a hundred or more story ideas which might eventually see the light of day. A news headline, a throw-away comment, anything and everything gets my creative brain ticking over. You can find one of my short stories ‘An Author’s Tale’ in my book ‘Simply Spooky.’ It’s one I really enjoyed writing, so I hope you like it too.  https://mybook.to/SimplySpooky

 

Does giving away free short stories entice people to buy your books?

Probably not but I have made many online friends through readers and writers’ groups which is a positive in itself. One of my favourite challenges was when I was given five random words, and had to come up with a story including them all. Not as easy as it sounds, but being stubborn is a good trait for carrying on writing when it seems you’re wasting your time, and your books are not selling well. Some of the most successful authors will be nodding in agreement, having bought the same T-shirt, and struggled in their early days.

An author also has to keep in touch with current trends, know enough IT to share information on social media, and be a mathematician to calculate sizes for uploading to fit parameters, (a metre measure three foot three, it’s longer than a yard you see.) It helps if you are also a creative artist, a marketeer, a cover designer, a proof reader, an editor and have a rich backer who has friends in the appropriate places.

Val Portelli

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Val Portelli is an experienced writer who has created many books and short stories. You can discover more about Val's books  here. 

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