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Interview with Author – Ian Campbell

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Author Bio:
I have led an interesting life and fitted quite a variety of occupations into it and this has given me a variety of interests which I enjoy writing about.

What inspires you to write?
Ideas. New ideas pop into my head every so often and I wonder if other people would be interested in reading about them. These may be fictional or non-fictional.

Tell us about your writing process.
Apart from school, college and university, I have always written on the computer. I start with a blank screen and begin writing. It doesn’t matter if it is gibberish as long as you view it like the piece of stone from a quarry before the artist starts sculpting it. It is very easy to make changes on the screen; to change a few words, sentences or paragraphs and to save different versions in sequence and it isn’t nearly as messy as with pen/pencil and paper… all those crossings or rubbings out.

For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Sometimes it takes a long time to get a book to market. I have a novel which is available now on Amazon which I wrote back in 1984/5. I resurrected it a few years ago and had quite a bit of difficulty getting its format changed from one computer system to another. Finally, when I could see my words on the screen I was able to compare different versions of my electronic manuscripts. I would prefer one and then a couple of days later, I would change my mind to another version. The author is too close to his/her work and that doesn’t make things easy.

Then I had a brainwave. I would read and record my book as the narrator and this process reveals the weaknesses of the spoken word; it trips you up and works especially well when it is used for dialogue.
Gradually I narrated the whole book and this evolved into creating separate ‘voices’ for the different characters and it was great fun!

I tested the first two of my novels out on a long drive to the south of France – one book for the outward journey and the sequel for the return trip. My passenger loved them and that inspired me to do more.

What advice would you give other writers?
When, as a young man I thought about writing I visited my local library and investigated the idea of becoming a writer. I discovered this exciting definition of a writer:-

“A writer is someone who writes”

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Many if not most people talk about what they want to do with their lives and never do it. Then you have the few people who you bump into accidentally every few years and when you ask them what they have been up to, they nonchalantly mention that they have just been around the world during the last few years. The world is divided into talkers and doers and it is the same with writers. “A writer is someone who writes”. It doesn’t matter what you write and it will either be good, bad or indifferent. The world will soon let you know what sort of writer you are. Market forces do that to you.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
I asked my friend and colleague to submit my first manuscript to a publisher while I was on holiday. I was fed up with the book; too close to it; and bored with veering from one version to another. So, while I was on holiday he sent the manuscript to Hodder & Stoughton, a very distinguished publisher indeed. I remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach when he told me about it.

I knew that if the publisher thought the script was rubbish, that I would receive a stereotyped ‘thanks, but no thanks’ slip within a week to ten days. I also knew that if I didn’t hear within a month, that my script was probably having a few chapters read ‘in house’. Still nothing from the publisher. After waiting for six weeks and not hearing anything, I took it as an indication that the book was being read from start to finish which surely was a good sign.

Eventually, after 10 months, the postman delivered the manuscript back to me. I opened it nervously and took out the ‘headed’ slip of paper from the publisher. It read ‘Thank you for forwarding your manuscript but we have decided not to proceed with it.’ In other words, ‘thanks but no thanks’. I was disillusioned and a hollow numbness started in the pit of my stomach. There were no criticisms; there were no words of encouragement. Even my school reports stated ‘Could do better!’.

So, i threw the manuscript in the drawer and continued with the sequel which I also threw in the drawer as soon as I had finished it. I didn’t even think to submit it to a publisher and then 20 odd years later, the computer took over and Amazon publishing was born. CreateSpace (Amazon) enabled print-on-demand and Kindle enabled authors to publish directly to Amazon and have their work bough and downloaded straight to Kindles and their kith and kin. What a revolution for the independent author. Their is a downside to this opportunity. the technology allows everyone to publish and there is no way to sort the wheat from the chaff. There’s a lot of rubbish about.

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
The future is coffee or rather Espresso – which is the name of a desktop machine that can print and bind any book that is in electronic format within five minutes and these Espresso machines will revolutionise the book industry. Print on demand will feature on every High Street and book-shops will no longer have to order and destroy hundreds of physical books every week.

What do you use?
Co-writer, Professional Cover Designer

What genres do you write?
How To

What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Author Page On Amazon

Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Ian+Wallace+Campbell
https://www.facebook.com/campbellgeneset
https://twitter.com/geneset1


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