Julia is a former director and publisher of Element Books, and has also worked with Penguin and as a publishing consultant for Random House. Our man from the website caught up with her in Bristol to pick her brains. | "Email any questions you may have for Julia on getting published to dickon.hooper@bbc.co.uk: we'll ask her and publish the responses" | |
MG: What are the aims of The Writer’s Journey? JM: When I set up Firefly, I discovered that I'd taken for granted the information I'd accumulated about publishing. I realised was that there was a huge gap in people's knowledge between getting to the end of a creative writing course, or having their ideas about a book that they wanted to write, and actually knowing how to approach publishers. I realised that I'd like to give people more information than I could deliver in a workshop or a one-to-one session, so I thought I really could just sit down and write up all the information I've gained over the years. Also, I thought that after all these years of helping other people write their books and publishing other people’s books, I really should put my money where my mouth and sit down and write my own. So I did!
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MG: So the book is aimed at getting published, rather than writing itself? JM: The opening chapter is all about getting started, which is important. If I'd been given an acorn for every time someone said to me "I'm going to write one day", I could have planted a forest by now. That day never comes for a lot of people.
I think that getting started and building up a good writing practice, and addressing any issues of confidence of fear or whatever comes to the surface when people start writing, is very important; so I have started there.
But after that, the other seven chapters are all about publishing: what it's all about, how the decisions are made and how writers can take steps to enhance their chances of success.
The reality is that it's very tough out there because there are so many books being published. There is fierce competition out there, and if you're not going to prepare your work professionally, then it's going to be very, very hard work.
MG: What are your top five tips for getting published?
JM: First of all, be absolutely clear about your message. Second, research the market and increase your awareness of the market. Third, write an outstanding publishing proposal. Fourth, practise your pitch. Fifth, be prepared to promote. Fierce competition
MG: So, getting your message across to a publisher is the most important part?
JM: Whether you want to be a best selling author or just get one book published, you still need to be clear about the message you're communicating, because people in publishing have got very short attention spans. You need to be able to communicate your message in 60 seconds, whether that’s in verbal or written form. You've got to be able to come up with a key sentence describing what your book's about, who it's for, and what its key features are.
Include that key sentence as part of the publishing proposal, but work on it as an identifiable sentence in its own right.
I advise people to put their one key sentence at the very top of the synopsis page, so that literally within 60 seconds the publisher who's reading that page has an idea of what the book's about. Proactive authors
MG: I'm surprised to hear promotion being considered when you're still looking for a publisher. I had the impression that the publicity machine rolled into action after the deal was struck?
JM: It used to be that authors wrote books, publishers published them, and sales and marketing people sold them. It's not like that any more.
The competition for shelf-space is fierce, and every author has to create a platform for themselves in one form or another.
Publishers are, of course, prepared to take a lead role in sales and marketing, but a huge factor in their minds is whether or not an author either already has a profile, or is in the process of building a profile: something that the publisher can work with to draw the media in, to tell the story of the author’s life or the message they have to convey.
Publishers are looking for authors who are prepared to be proactive, writing articles, doing talks and so on - whatever it might be to contribute to that sales and marketing process.
I'm not saying that every author has to do a media course, or try to get themselves on television or radio. But if authors are trying to launch a career as a best selling author, than that is a road that they will need to consider very seriously.
MG: This interview, of course, will be published on the internet. How do you see publishing changing because of the internet over the next five years?
 | | Going from book browser to author is not easy... |
JM: I think we will see an increase in writers who are frustrated with the traditional publishing route actually using the internet to publish their own work. There are an increasing number of viable alternatives to the traditional publishing route. More of that's going to happen with technology advances and the opportunity to sell and market via the internet, with authors not necessarily needing a distributor.
Also, for self-publishers and traditional publishers, there's the use of the internet to market and promote.
It's still quite early days, and publishers tend to concentrate on quite a lot of the traditional routes of marketing and promotion, with the internet as an add-on. It think that's going to shift over the next few years and I think the internet's going to become a much more important and significant player in the whole marketing game.
MG: Do you think these changes will make it more or less easy actually to make a living out of writing? JM: It’s not that easy to make a living out of writing, full stop. It's the minority that make a good living, and very, very few who make an exceptionally good living.
Definitely the majority of people in non-fiction, say, write alongside other ways of making a living. 'Just do it!'
Increasingly these days, people have more than one income stream and I think that's likely to continue. I think it'll take a while for the internet's marketing, publishing and sales process to develop sufficiently for there to be a significant shift in people’s earning potential.
Where the internet and self-publishing works best is where you have a very focused, target audience. That is most obvious in non-fiction.
MG: If you could give one piece of advice to a budding writer, what would it be?
JM: Just do it! I would hate to think that there are people who will look back on their lives and think "I wish I had, I wish I'd tried, I wish I'd had a go".
Do the writing, do the research, and just have a go! Life is too short to sit around thinking about things that you would like to do, and thinking "maybe one day", or "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow".
You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring you; the present is all there is. Get connected, get engaged, and do what you feel you need to be doing! | 
