Why write yet more books? By Cecilia Busby

Sometimes as a writer I feel a sense of despair about what I do. Can I really - should I really - continue to add to the vast quantities of books out there already?

I feel this as a twinge at the back of my neck when I read otherwise lovely and welcome posts on Facebook about friends' book launches and reviews and interviews; I feel it when I browse the reviews of new books online, or click through from Twitter to notices in the Bookseller about the latest signing or new shortlist; but most especially I feel it when I walk into a bookshop. What used to be a very pleasurable experience has become tainted by the fog of despair that descends when I stand in front of the bright and wonderful children's and YA bookshelves of almost any bookshop - but most especially Waterstones, which has limited space for kids' books and fills much of it with swathes of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson (to say nothing of Beast Quest and Rainbow Fairies).

The despair is a mix of: 'what's the point? there are so many good books out there already - from years ago as well as last week - and more piled on top of them every day' and 'what's the point? you'll never get your books on the shelves anyway because you're not a celebrity/haven't won any prizes/don't have a massive marketing campaign behind you/(and aren't any good anyway)'... (this last said in sepulchral tones by the doubter that sits on my shoulder and criticises everything I do - you know the one I mean, I'm sure...) 

Up to now this despair has been mitigated by the fact that I have to write a book, because I have a contract to do so, and the question of whether or not it's a sensible thing to be doing can be passed off on the publisher who commissioned it. But my latest book, The Amber Crown, was the last in a trilogy, and since my publishers, Templar, have closed their children's fiction list and their sister-publishers (Hot Key and Picadilly) are not currently in the market for MG fantasy, I find myself looking for a new home.

Which means I am considering quite seriously what to do if my current WIP (an MG fantasy involving a box of action figures purchased at a car boot fair who turn out to be the Norse gods) finds no favour out there in the harsh world of children's publishing. Do I persevere? Do I really believe the world wants or needs another children's book? Do I feel a burning desire to fight it out there with all the other excellent MG books in the pipeline or already published, many of them - good ones, too! - languishing unreviewed and unavailable in bookshops, with paltry sales figures and no marketing campaign?

In the UK, according to recent statistics published in the Guardian [here], we publish more than 20 new titles every hour. That means more books per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world. As Jamie Byng, at Canongate, noted:

 “I think we publish too many books ... and I think this impacts negatively on how well we publish books as an industry. It is very easy to acquire a book. Much harder to publish it successfully."

I think that's true in the children's book world as well as the adult. Just how many books can children read between the ages of 5 and 11? (Children, remember, with the competing demands of electronic media, organised activities and much more homework than we ever had to do...) I want them to savour the delights of C.S. Lewis, and Alan Garner, and Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper - as well as new delights from the likes of Frances Hardinge, Garth Nix, Jonathan Stroud, J.K. Rowling. And that's just the fantasy. I also think most kids enjoy Enid Blyton, do get a lot out of Michael Morpurgo, are going to want to try David Walliams or Wimpy Kid, not least because everyone is reading them - and I could go on for pages.

So what arguments could I bring to bear to justify continuing to write yet more books?

Hmm.

I'm not really sure. I am immensely proud of the books I have written, and I love them all. I treasure the reviews and letters from fans I have had, and I get a warm glow when I hear from people that their children have loved my books. The other day, in the library, I was accosted by an eight-year-old boy and his mother - he'd realised who I was and wanted to come and say my books were his absolute favourites but he was so overcome he was unable to speak until his mum had broken the ice first. These are very special moments and I'm so glad I've been able to experience them. I enjoy writing, I love making up stories, I have endless ideas bouncing round in my head, I can sense I am getting better as I write more, and when I'm not lost in the fog of despair, I do want to continue. 

I don't know if that's enough justification - but you know what? I don't care. I'm going to ignore that sepulchral voice. I'm going to hang on in there for a little bit longer. Because when I really think about giving up, I realise that I still love being a writer, and I still get a kick out of the idea that someone, somewhere, is reading and enjoying words I've written. And that's enough for me.

Cecilia Busby writes fantasy adventures for children aged 7-12 as C.J. Busby.

Her first series was the Spell series, an Arthurian knockabout fantasy aimed at 7-9. Her latest book, The Amber Crown, was published in March by Templar.

www.cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

"Great fun - made me chortle!" (Diana Wynne Jones on Frogspell)

"A rift-hoping romp with great wit, charm and pace" (Frances Hardinge on Deep Amber)

Three years on. By C.J. Busby

I have just had the second book of my second series for children published. It feels like a bit of a milestone.

It's called Dragon Amber, and it's part of a multiple worlds adventure trilogy that started with Deep Amber last March. The cover's lovely, as all of them have been (thanks to David Wyatt), and there's nothing quite like holding the physical copy of your new book in your hands (or even clutching it to yourself as you do a little dance...!!) But it being the second book of the second series made me stop and think. It's my sixth book to be published. While I'm far from being 'established' (whatever that means), it certainly means I'm no longer a total newbie.

Which feels ever so slightly weird, as I still think of myself as a novice, pretending to be an author.

This business of feeling as if you're pretending seems to be something quite a few children's authors suffer from. (It may be related to the fact that very few of us are actually making enough money to feel writing is a 'proper' job, but that's another story...)

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity - as someone who can no longer consider herself a novice - to try and sum up what I have learnt over the last three years of being part of the world of children's publishing.

1. First and foremost: other children's authors - whether well known, just published or still hopeful - are almost all lovely, warm, friendly and modest (and there are not many professions you'd be able to say that of.) Getting together with them, at festivals, conferences, retreats or book launches is a wonderfully affirming thing to do - and helps quite a lot with that feeling of being a bit of a fraud (I AM a children's writer - because I am accepted by all those other lovely children's writers!!)

2. I have almost no control over whether my books do well or not - so I should just relax and maybe cross my fingers occasionally! Being open to opportunities like school visit invites or festivals is fun and part of getting to know the publishing business - tweeting and face booking have been similarly good for getting to know other writer friends. And sometimes opportunities have come from that. But none of it has turned my book into a best-seller, and I don't think there's any magic way of doing so!

3. If I don't want to become mad and bitter, I have to try not to compare my book sales/prize nominations and festival invites with others - and must remember NOT to check the Amazon ranking of my books more than  once a week! There is a great deal of luck and randomness in this business and then there are the unfathomable whims of publishers, reviewers and the reading public (Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?). Generally (but not always: see aforementioned Fifty Shades) it's Very Good Books that get attention and prizes - equally there are thousands of Very Good Books that don't, and which category mine end up in (even  if they were to be considered Very Good!) is mostly down to serendipity.

Oh - and marketing spend.

Which brings me to no. 4.

4. Publishers put serious time, energy and money behind only a select few of the books they publish. These books are plastered all over websites, magazines, 'hot new trends' lists, twitter, reviews, front window billing at Waterstones and W.H. Smiths.

In the absence of this push, you are lucky if your book ends up in a select few Waterstones branches, or garners an online review from a kind blogger. This is no reflection on the quality of your book - I've met too many other brilliant people with fabulous books who can't get them noticed to think it's entirely a meritocracy. Publishers are scrabbling to find the next Wimpy Kid or Hunger Games, and even they don't know what will trigger that response. Often it's something they have all roundly rejected as too dire to waste ink on (cough, Fifty Shades...) So they put money behind a few, and publish a hundred others in a kind of scattergun approach, in case any of them builds a following by chance. I've learned to treat having a book out as a bit like having bought a lottery ticket - whether it does well or not is as random as whether I win the jackpot or a £10 prize for three numbers.


5. So, finally, after a few years of trying to find the 'magic key' to making a go of this publishing lark, I've learned to just enjoy the moment: to hold my new book in my hands, and do a little jig at having pulled it off one more time. In the book I'm currently reading (The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie) one of the characters is a Northman, hard, battle-scarred, always getting into more impossible fights. At the end of each one, he repeats, as a kind of mantra: 'Still alive, still alive...' I think I feel a bit like that about writing - 'Still there, still there...'


C.J. Busby writes funny fantasy adventures for ages 7 upwards. Her first book, Frogspell, was a Richard and Judy Children's Book Cub choice for 2012. The series is published in Canada by Scholastic and the UK by Templar and has been translated into German and Turkish. Deep Amber, the first of a new trilogy, was published in March 2014. The second instalment, Dragon Amber, came out on 1st September.

"A rift-hopping romp with great charm, wit and pace" Frances Hardinge.

Nominated for the Stockton Book Award 2015.

www. cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

Title Horror: Ruth Symes

Coming up with a title:

Some authors don't write a word until they’ve thought up a title for their work, whilst others spend weeks chewing their pen’s end and pulling tufts of hair out trying to come up with just the right one, only to have their publisher announce that they've thought of something much better.

My first children’s novel to be published (back in 1997) was a gritty urban school based story with an extremely elusive title. Whatever I suggested my publishers, Puffin, didn't like. At one point there was a class of thirty or so 10 year olds being read the manuscript and trying to come up with something suitable but my publisher didn't like any of those either.

Finally my then editor, the lovely Lucy Ogden, told me they'd decided my book would be called 'The Master of Secrets' and later I found there was also going to be a picture of my anti-hero, Gabriel Harp, on the cover rather than the story’s real hero, Raj.

Much as I loved working with Lucy I found the publisher’s title to be confusing for readers who assumed, quite naturally, that they were going to be reading a fantasy novel.

Do titles make a difference to book sales?

Yup: When 'Dancing Harriet' was about to be published by Chicken House my editor told me the feedback from Scholastic in the USA was that they would prefer it to be Harriet Dancing.

'Of course it's up to you... but the potential for thousands of copies...' she murmured.

Harriet Dancing the book became.

'Chip's Dad' was originally ‘Colin's Dad’ until the publisher asked for it to be changed (I really should have realised it was going to be aimed at the US - which is the only place it sells and asked for a larger royalty than the pittance the educational publisher - who seem to have now gone bankrupt - thought was fair).

‘Little Rex’ started off as a crocodile with another name not just a title but a whole species change (I think – although crocs and dinosaurs must be related....) Then my publishers in the USA asked for the title to be Little Rex, Big Brother which was a brilliant idea because now I could have Little Rex and the Big Roar, Little Rex and the Big Mud Monster, Little Rex and the Big Egg even Little Rex's Big Day....

And finally my 2010 memoir written under the pseudonym of Megan Rix was originally 'The Puppy Mum' (my title) then ‘Puppies from Heaven’ (my agent’s title) before becoming ‘The Puppy that Came for Christmas’ (publisher’s choice). I liked this one – although with it’s pink cover the book does very often get mistaken for a children’s book rather than an adult one.

What title horror stories / experiences have you had?

And speaking of HORROR I wanted to let you know that I am going to be onstage around a cauldron talking about my Bella Donna books at SCAREFEST 3 on Saturday the 6th October at The Civic, Crosby from 1pm. Please come along if you can. It should be WILD. Tommy Donbavand, the writer of Scream Street, is hosting an interactive game show. There’s a budding author's workshop from 10-30-12, an exclusive staging of the 'Spook's Apprentice' and the 'Doom Rider' show from 4-5.30, and a 'Spook-Tacular Extra-GORE-Vanza' in the evening.

More info from the wonderful Tony Higginson at www.formbybooks.co.uk

PS Have just spent all weekend re-vamping my websites so if you have time to click by it’d be nice to see you at www.ruthsymes.com or www.meganrix.com