Australian writer, Belinda Pollard, is a published author of meditations and a Varuna
Fellowship winner for fiction. A
former journalist, she has been a specialist book editor for 17 years, and the
owner of Small Blue Dog Publishing for 10 years. She is currently working on self-publishing several books of
her own.
Belinda founded Small Blue Dog Publishing to help writers find their own
path to either traditional or ‘indie’ publishing. She lives in Brisbane.
What
have you written so far?
As a journalist, I’ve written a lot of
strange things, many best forgotten. As a spiritual writer, I’ve been writing
meditations for a UK Christian publisher since the late 90s, including a
stand-alone short book called Meet the Real Jesus. I’m currently reworking that
one for self-publication in a different style, plus writing a (hopefully)
humorous dog memoir, and a business writing book. I’ve also done some
ghostwriting.
My fiction career commenced with an
illustrated romance novel I wrote, aged 9, for a school project – no doubt to
my teacher’s surprise and possibly alarm! Can’t remember much about it now,
except that someone caught a plane. (Air travel was the height of elegance when
I was 9.) My thriller Poison Bay is
about a bunch of old friends who go out into the wilderness and don’t all come
back. It has been “under construction” for years. I keep thinking I’ve finished
it, and then someone else asks me to do another quick round of 500 revisions.
What does writing mean to you?
Over the years,
a number of people have asked me that Life Goal question: “If money and
people’s expectations didn’t matter, what would you do?” My answer always
includes: “I’d live near the sea and write.” I love to communicate and connect
with people about things that really matter, and my spiritual writing stems
from that. I also adore fiction – both writing it and reading it. I can’t
resist the allure of imaginary worlds. It’s odd that I can be so enamoured of
writing, and yet avoid it so easily when I’m procrastinating and feeling
intimidated. ;-)
What situations/environments inspire you?
I’m inspired by
gorgeous wild places, and that’s why Poison
Bay is set in a remote part of New Zealand (think: Middle Earth). Future
novels in the series are set in other gorgeous wild places, like the Great
Barrier Reef, Cape York, Central Australia, Antarctica and Alaska. Lots of
research trips needed. Lots.
I also love the
way people interact with each other, and how “good” people have bad in them,
and “bad” people have good in them. People fascinate me. So there’s lots of
people in my books, all trying to work out how to get along. And, of course,
survive assassins and the environment!
Were you writing creatively when working as
a journalist, and if so, how well did it work going from one to the other?
I mostly wrote
hard news in the early days, and later did some feature writing. The journalism
background helps when it’s time to research a book. I automatically start evaluating
sources and looking for the best person to interview. The background DOESN’T
help when it comes to deciding if I’m “allowed” to write. Because I’ve always been
paid to write, spending hundreds of hours writing fiction that may never pay
its own way seemed wasteful and indulgent. And that stopped me writing fiction
for ages. But now I just say, “Oh, what the heck. It’s no worse than watching
television.”
What has been your highest moment
writing-wise?
I’d probably
have to say it was the day I went to varuna.com.au to check the shortlist for
their publisher fellowships (after entering lots of times and getting nowhere
and feeling miserable) and actually saw my name there on the webpage. I had to
read it about ten times, hyperventilating all the while, to really be sure it
was me and my book in that list. And then I bounced around the room like
Tigger. Strangely, being shortlisted was even more exciting than when I later
won one of those fellowships. I think it was because that shortlisting was the
very first time someone other than my mother said my fiction might be worth
reading.
How did/do you teach yourself to write?
I studied journalism
at university, which taught me useful things about research, writing and
editing. Later I became a specialist book editor, and polishing other people’s
books taught me how long works are put together, and important things about
structure. I attend seminars and short courses whenever I get the chance. I’m
always reading writing blogs, and weighing up what they’re saying, to see how I
can adapt it to my own writing. I entered my novel in a variety of
competitions, and the one I eventually won gave me a mentoring relationship
with a manuscript consultant, which was priceless. That novel continues to be
my apprenticeship in fiction, and I’m a much better fiction writer now than
when I started, but also have plenty of room to continue to grow! I have savvy
beta readers give me feedback on what I’ve written, which helps me step outside
myself and see my writing from a different perspective. It’s a never-ending
process.
What aspect of the craft do you think is
most difficult to learn?
For me, it was
silencing the inner critic. I’m still working on that one. Man, she’s noisy!
Always telling me that sentence is no good, or I won’t be able to write this
thing effectively. Working fast, and giving myself “permission to be average”
seem to be the best ways to get her to go away for a while.
What advice would you give someone wanting
to become a writer?
Everyone will
tell you this or that or the other makes you a REAL writer. They usually don’t
mean any harm by it, but it can make you miserable. If you truly want to write,
just get started. Always be open to learning and improving and growing, but
also respect and value yourself, your dreams, and the story that only you have
to tell.
You set up Small Blue Dog Publishing to, quote, ‘ help writers
find their own path to either traditional or ‘indie’ publishing.’ It seems that you could be the dream answer
to a writer’s problems with your knowledge of writing, editing, publishing and
marketing.
What made you set up the
business?
Initially, I was providing a variety of services to specialist
publishers, developmental editing to authors of non-fiction or memoir, and
publishing consultancy to self-publishers writing as part of their business. Nowadays
that has expanded to include encouraging fiction authors and smaller
self-publishers through my blog and social media, and I’m developing some
online courses to help authors of non-fiction, fiction and memoir make their
books the best they can be.
In such economic times, it
seems that many publishers are no longer able to provide either an editing or
marketing service. Do you think
this is true?
I can’t speak for the whole industry. However, I am aware of
cases where publishers not only expect their authors to take a key role in
marketing a book, but also ask them to arrange (and pay for) their own
pre-editing before the book is signed, and even buy a portion of the first
print run. These are not “vanity” publishers, but the real thing. This shocked
me when I first heard of it, but it seems to be becoming more common.
Do you believe that
authors can become skilled at marketing their work?
Absolutely! The
trick is finding the forms of marketing that suit you and your book and your
target audience, and not just slavishly following what everyone else is doing.
It’s like getting fit – if we force ourselves to go for a run even though swimming
is the exercise we actually love, we’re setting ourselves up to fail. The
marketing options we choose have to be sustainable, and part of that is making
sure it’s something that matches our temperament and skills.
If
you were asked for the top five most efficient ways of publicizing work for a
writer without a marketing budget, what would these be?
Because each
book, author and market is different, the most effective marketing plan is
unique to the project. However, I’d make two broad suggestions.
a. Make
intelligent use of social media and blogging, because it’s free or cheap, and
has a global reach. “Intelligent” means going where your readers are hanging
out, and talking about things that are interesting to them. It also means being
selective, and not spreading yourself too thinly across too many social
networks, or a blogging schedule that sucks the life out of you. Don’t “sell”,
truly engage. (I recently blogged about the Two Golden Rules for Twitter: http://www.smallbluedog.com/twitter-two-golden-rules-for-writers.html ) Those new friends can become your champions,
gossiping your book to their networks, and the ripples spread.
b. Don’t invest
too much hope or energy in the traditional marketing methods, like book
launches or seeking book reviews from major newspapers. They tend to have very little
success when they’re not backed by the power of the big publisher. Sure, pursue
them if you love them, because excitement is important to keeping the
motivation going. But they can consume a lot of time and resources for very few
sales. Reader reviews on Amazon or GoodReads are a lot more powerful for most
self-publishers.
Where do you see the publishing market going?
It’s anyone’s
guess. But I have a hunch the changes will be less radical than many pundits
would have us believe. Just as video didn’t kill cinema forever, I wonder if
print books and ebooks will learn to live together much better than everyone
says. And the huge rush to self-publish will probably moderate, as people who
aren’t really suited to it drop out, and the people who are good at it get even
better. But then, I could be wrong! And either way, we’ll adapt and make the
most of the new world when it settles.
How
can readers connect with you?
I’m on Twitter as @Belinda_Pollard and I
blog writing and self-publishing tips at www.smallbluedog.com
I also blog wildernesses, spiritual
thoughts, and silly stories about my dog at www.belindapollard.com
Thank you, Belinda, and the best of luck with the publication of Poison Island, and your dog memoirs.
The book of meditations can be purchased from Amazon UK:http://www.amazon.co.uk/
or on Book Depository:http://www.bookdepository.co.
For more information about Belinda's forthcoming novel, Poison Bay, go to:
http://www.belindapollard.com/
Hi Jane, thanks so much for interviewing me for your blog. It was fun! Belinda :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Belinda. It was a great interview.
ReplyDelete