Internet Authors don’t need timing
Of all the useless advice given to would-be authors,
perhaps the most unhelpful is the idea that to be a
successful author you need ‘timing’. That is, your great
idea for a novel has to hit the public consciousness at a
time that makes your story relevant to them. An example
might be, for instance, that right now, in the autumn
months of 2007, I’m working on a thriller that starts from
the proposition that Princess Diana was deliberately
murdered in 1997 in Paris by a combination of national
security organisations. I started working on a synopsis a
couple of months ago, and I’ve got a number of chapters
under my belt. Now I look at the TV News and notice that a
new Inquest has started in London into the death of the
Royal lady. What luck! Well, no. If my book was in the
bookshop right now – at this moment in time –
then it might attract attention and, possibly, sales. But
it won’t even be finished for a few months. By the time it
gets to the publisher – even if they like it, which
they might not – it would take a Traditional
Publisher many months to get it ready for publication.
Judging by their usual timescales, they might get the new
book onto the bookshelves by, say, Christmas 2008. Woops,
the moment has passed. Timing is everything, say the
advisors. You should have got the book written last year,
then it would be ready for when it is really needed. Like,
now.

Great. Good advice. That is, if I could have seen into the
future or, more unlikely, guessed that an Inquest would
ever take place in England. Last year, no one believed it
was possible. After all, the idea had been around for
nearly a decade and the authorities kept refusing it. Who
could have foreseen it would happen? Worse, who would risk
their time and imagination creating a novel about Lady Di
just in case it became topical. Not many authors would bend
their creative will to such an eventuality. Better to write
the book you really want to write, not the one you hope
that the public will enjoy. After all, synchronicity is
very rare, very rare indeed. I know of only one real-life
example. An author in England, now famous for his Science
Fiction, wrote an adventure back in the 1970s about a war
in the South Atlantic. Publishers rejected it, but when the
Falklands War broke out in 1982, they dug it out, dusted it
off, and published it – to great success. Much money
was made with Thermal labels. So was the writer. His career was launched, from
that day.

Back to Princess Diana. Okay, so Traditional Publishers are
going to find it hard to ‘jump on the bandwagon’, but what
could an Internet Author do? The answer is quite a lot. It
seems, in fact, that the Inquest is scheduled to rumble on
for another six months. Plenty of time to finish the first
draft and get it published at an on-line, on-demand
publisher like Lulu. That means, yes, the Internet Author
could make use of the ‘timing’ advice and make their
‘Diana’ novel available while her name is still in the
news. Quite an opportunity! Anybody but me willing to give
it a go?

Well, maybe, not me. Because I’ve got an even more
interesting opportunity that has arisen recently. A friend
of mine took part in a TV documentary earlier this year.
The programme is part of a series that will be going out
soon. The date, for broadcast on national television,
hasn’t been agreed but will probably be in later October.
In August I got the idea of writing his biography, (or,
more accurately, his Autobiography, partly written with my
help). In terms of Traditional Publishers, this is a
ridiculous timetable. Not so for the Internet Author. The
first draft of the book was put together in September, and
loaded up onto Lulu at the beginning of October. My vision
is this: my friend will be interviewed on the ‘Richard and
Judy’ TV chat show later in the month. They’ll be keen to
hear about his TV programme. They’ll notice he has had a
pretty exciting and interesting life. ‘Yes, Judy,’ he will
say, ‘and I’ve written about it.’ At that point he will
hand her a brightly coloured paperback book. Richard and
Judy love books. They accept the copy being offered and
agree to read it. Later in the year, they review it. My
friend is invited back onto the show to discuss it. His
career takes off. The rest is history.

There is a theme here. It’s simply this: in the world of
Traditional Publishing, it’s a heck of a long timeframe
from the finish of writing a manuscript to getting the book
printed, distributed and on the bookshop’s shelves. In that
world, it’s sheer luck whether the new novel arrives at a
time that is in any way relevant to the readers. Those who
get the luck are said to have ‘good timing’. However, in
the world of the Internet Author, it’s a darn sight quicker
from manuscript to print, which means that timing hardly
matters. In real terms, a matter of months is nothing, but
that’s how long the internet publishing process can take
– from start to finish.

Another good reason for would-be writers to look first at
the internet, rather than the oft-advertised claims of the
Traditional Publisher. Think about it. You read the
newspaper, you watch the TV News. It gives you an idea for
a book. Great. You might just be able – maybe with a
bit of luck – to succeed in getting your novel
written, published and in the public eye before the news
item goes completely out-of-date. What an opportunity that
is!

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Mike Scantlebury is an Internet Author, with books, stories
and self-help tomes to his credit. If you want to sample
his proposed thriller about Princess Diana, go to his main
website and look under ‘Unfinished Novels’ for the title
‘Never Say Di’. It’s here: http://www.mikescantlebury.com