We had a great time in Dirty Leeds last night, launching ‘Disrepute: Revie’s England’. Thanks to Iain at the Northern Monkey and Waterstone’s for all their support for the event.

Robert is signing books at Waterstone’s Leeds on Saturday, 12-2pm and will be on Calendar news (not the Crimestoppers section) on Wednesday 16 promoting the book. Then at Waterstone’s York on 17 for an author event starting at 7pm, signing at Sheffield Orchard Square Waterstone’s on 19 from 12-2 and Bradford Waterstone’s 12-2 on 26 June.

Following on a bit from yesterday’s post, with the mention of a Manuscript Critique service, I read this feature this morning: The Rejection Letter of the Future Will Be Silence (And Why This is a Good Thing).

I agree with Nathan on a few points: rejection letters are a horrible thing to have to send out. I’ve mentioned it a few times on here. It’s usually not about the writing (‘It’s not you, it’s me,’ Ziggy, BB8), it’s usually that the genre doesn’t fit the publisher. There are a few of the rude and silly ones where it’s difficult to tell if the writer is serious, but those don’t come in all the time. I’ve had a few recently that would fit in the ‘misery memoir’ genre and, as it’s not something I’m looking to publish, find it difficult composing a rejection letter. If someone has poured their ‘daily struggle’ onto paper it never seems right that it has to then be knocked back because it isn’t commercially viable. But that’s what has to happen.

Recently I’ve had a few submissions from people who have already self-published, vanity published, etc, etc and are looking to be re-published and repackaged by a real publisher. A big mistake a lot of writers make is that they can do it themselves. This could be true for many elements of the process, but can one person (probs a bit of a novice) do it all? I’m no expert myself – that’s why I bring freelance people in to do things I know I can’t. I also weigh up whether the things I know I can do myself are doable in the time I have. Eg, doing everything is never easy. If I’m designing a book cover, am I using up X number of hours, costing £X when a freelance designer could do it quicker and for less or around the same price?

* Needed to add here: And better. A big thing about trying to do everything yourself, and to quote Dirty Harry, is that you’ve got to know your limitations. Why bother arsing around for a week on something you know is at best going to look like something a child produced at school? Eg – look at all the other self-published books out there – Shirley you can see how bad the majority of them are.

*Back to original post …

Or any other aspect of the process? It’s an expensive business to be in and most of your running costs are all upfront payments before – or if – you see any profit. This is another ‘mistake’ in self-publishing: ‘What do they know? I’ll do it myself. I’ll show them! I’ll be the next JK Brown.’

And then when it looks expensive, you cut corners. Everyone does. How many self-published / vanity published books have you picked up with good covers that sell the product? Time spent on getting the blurb right? Testimonials from known writers? How many have been typeset nicely, how many are copy-edited and proof-read by a professional … and how many are commercially viable in the first place? But you do all that, print them up, get bits of it wrong, and then you find you have to sell them. Worse still, you find you should have been selling them six months before receiving them from the printer / vanity publisher. Oops. And what about amazon? Why doesn’t it appear there magically, why don’t Waterstone’s stock it? Why is the publisher asking me to edit and proof my own book? Why did I put all my savings into this?

Last year I received a call from a writer asking me how much Tonto charges for publishing books. It’s mental. He told me how many thousands other publishers were charging. But people pay. It’s an alternative route to seeing your work in print. Even the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook has adverts for vanity publishers in it.

E-books, i-pads, i-phones, apps, Kindle, and every other technological breakthrough in the last year is suggesting it can all be done electronically and we’ll no longer be reading traditional books in the future anyway.

How do you escape the rejection letter?

There are a million ways. All are obvious:

Find the right publisher. Even get a name for who you are sending it to. Ask if they are looking at submissions and if you can send your synopsis, etc.

Then – make sure it is right. Is it worth getting opinions from industry professionals in advance of this? Absolutely! If you want a pat on the back, let your friends read it. If you know someone who will give you an unbiased opinion – go for it. If they’ll do it for nowt, even better. Of course, everyone is in it for the money … no one works for free and professional time usually costs. There are regional writing agencies that may offer free advice or could pay costs for you. NWN paid for a manuscript critique for me once and I’d imagine similar places still offer such help.

And remember – even if you’ve done everything right, it still needs to get read by the right person or you’re still knackerd. Publishing is all based on a hunch and hunches aren’t always right. I can’t stand books about vampires and sea monsters, zombies and androids, but look at how they are selling. Someone somewhere decided the time was right for them. There was a piece in The Times the other week about a bloke who self-published Shakespeare’s works into ‘chav speak’ and sold 10,000. Does this mean that we have to abandon our high art ideas and look at selling a concept? I think we do. And I’ll stop here while it’s bordering on the positive end and before I start rambling on about John Blake.

The World Cup started an hour ago. Go get drunk and worry about writing on Monday.

This time tomorrow night I’ll be at Subway on the Headrow in Leeds necking a ham and turkey melt to line my stomach for a night of heavy drinking. I mean … I’ll be making final preparations at the Northern Monkey bar for the book launch.

Robert Endeacott’s ‘Disrepute: Revie’s England’ will be launched there from 7pm … perfectly timed for the eve of the World Cup thingy. It’s a ticket only do, so none of the plebs can get in, but we’ll be posting up photos and seeing if we can get it in the Bookseller mag. Not sure we’ll get it in (‘We’re not from London, you know!’) … always worth a stab though. There’s some Leeds United players coming along, local press and Sky TV will hopefully be there too.

The book is available on the website on a ‘World Cup Price’ – whatever that means. Basically a reduced price to celebrate the release and keep it reduced over the course of the WC. There’s also a ‘Special Offer’ section been added with a ‘Dirty Leeds’ and ‘Disrepute’ offer, as well as posters on sale to help support a Don Revie statue appeal.

Sheila Quigley’s paperback is officially out on 17 June. It is also on spesh on the website at the moment and pre-orders are doing well on H-amazon. Look out for reviews and stuff coming soon.

Robert was in the newsrecently and will be on t’wireless on BBC Radio Leeds at 9.15am.

All website orders are going out tomorrow for both books.

Oh, and look out for another new section: Manuscript Critique. Two scary words to writers and probably just as scary as the usual two. To sing the praises of the service a bit, your manuscript will be read by an experienced editor and publisher and constructive criticism and advice offered. Manuscripts can be any word count and any genre other than stuff for kids or poetry.