Pat, Please tell us a little bit about yourself to start things off.
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| Patrick G Cox, author |
I've always been a bit of a dreamer.
Growing up in South Africa,
on the Eastern Cape coast, I spent a lot of time swimming,
sailing, boating, hiking - just about everything except homework for school. My father and his friends
taught me about boats, boat handling, sailing and seamanship, and my parents and
grandparents gave me a love of reading.
One of my teachers got me interested in
history, another in drama and performing arts, yet another in writing - though he despaired
of my abuse of commas and punctuation. So does my editor. I left school with a
head full of vague ideas about becoming a priest, making a million, owning a yacht ... Still
haven't managed any of those, but I did eventually find my way into the fire service and spent
some 20 years in SA and a further 15 in the UK getting paid to do the best job in the
world.
One day I'll write a biography, the title
will be easy - Soot, sweat, blood and laughter about covers it. I started writing technical
manuals in SA for training, continued in the UK at the Fire Service
College writing study guides, teaching notes and my first book, Marine Fire Studies for the Institution of Fire
Engineers. I've files full of magazine articles of techy stuff I've published and I always dabbled in
fiction, mainly for my own amusement, but always with an eye on perhaps getting something
published.
What genre, and what is
your latest novel A Baltic Affair about?
Genre. Hmm, that's a challenge. OK, the
latest book, A Baltic Affair, is straight Naval Historical Romance. I'd like to think in
the same sort of league as Reeman, O'Brien, Forrester or Kent. I plan a sequel to it as
well, but it is still in the embryonic stages. My earlier books are part of a series, the
Harry Heron Adventures and these really are a cross genre - one review called it
Asimov meets Hornblower. A Hornblower type character thrust into a Star Trek or Babylon 5 universe. I
really enjoy both good historical
fiction and believable science fiction. A
Baltic Affair is straight historical, set in the final years of the Napoleonic War, in a
theatre that was crucial to British interests and the economy, yet, probably because there was no
major commitment of the Army - they were in Spain - and no major sea battles,
despite the Royal Navy having a large and powerful fleet in the Baltic, gets very little
attention. Hopefully this will change that.
What sort/age of
readers would most enjoy it?
I'd hope A Baltic Affair would appeal to
everyone with a love of sea stories and history, essentially everyone who enjoyed Master and
Commander or any of the other historical naval stories would enjoy this one. I'm
always wary of assigning an 'age group' to my readers. I started reading this type of
story in my early teens and I know there are some young readers buying and reading it - but I
also have readers in their late seventies reading my Harry Heron series which was
originally aimed at the Young Adult market. It
all depends on an individual's taste. I
write 'adventure' stories - so perhaps the audience is anyone who likes adventure.
Did you always know
you would be a writer?
No, but
as I said earlier, I've always been a dreamer, and most of my school notebooks were full
of story ideas and attempts to write stories. I gave the fiction a rest for about twenty
years while I wrote the 'Tecky' stuff and a few other things - like regulations for storing
hazardous gases, a by-law or two and study notes for a Higher National Diploma course - but then
began to scribble stories again when I first got access to a computer and word
processing program. I've still got some on the big old floppy discs, the 5.25 inch jobs, but I
no longer have a machine capable of reading any of them, and anyway, I cringe at how
bad my dialogues and narratives were back then. It took me a while to get out of the
'technical/teaching' style of detailed descriptive in narratives and to work out how to write
readable dialogue - with the descriptions conveyed in 'conversation' rather than narrative.
Thanks to critiques, reviews and an editor or three, I think I've managed to get it, if not
brilliant, at least very much better.
What’s your
writing style, do you plan everything first, or write and see where the story
leads you?
My style depends to an extent on what I'm
writing. For fiction I find I map out an outline, then I create a timeline and plot in the
historic events and facts that I must work the story around. I may be an odd man out in
todays writing world, but I get really angry when I read something where historic events
have been twisted out of their context or turned into something they weren't. I like
the facts and the history straight, then let the
characters do their thing against that
background. I do a similar thing with my scifi stories, you can't ignore the rules of physics or
astronomy - apart from things like hyperspace and hyperdrives - you can't put a habitable
planet in the orbit of, say, Venus or Mercury.
So, yes, you do need a map, but it doesn't
have to be detailed, you can have spaces labelled "here be dragons" so you
can spring some surprises and take a slightly different line from the obvious. it also gives the
characters to lead you into areas or a storyline you may not have had in mind at the outset.
Sometimes an incidental character can develop in an unexpected way - you have to be
flexible.
Where did the idea
for the story come from?
A Baltic Affair started as a challenge. I
was challenged by my wife to write a 'romantic' story. The idea for the
setting came from reading an article on the subject of Napoleon's "Continental
Blockade" and the changing alliances involved. I wonder how many people today even know how
important the Baltic Trade was to the British economy? Not many I would suspect, yet it
almost brought Britain
to its knees. If the
Tsar hadn't broken ranks, and the Prussians
wanted revenge for Jena,
or the Swedes actually engaged the British instead of
declaring war and then carrying on trading as if nothing was happening ... And in the middle
of it all was the quiet 'diplomacy' of a fleet of 'ships of the line' supported by many
small craft who actually did most of the fighting. It made the perfect setting for a story which
involved all the politics, all the struggles and the opportunity for a 'boy meets girl;
overcomes lots of difficulties and finally marries her' type of story.
Which character do
you most identify with and why?
Which character do I most identify with?
I'll give you a clue, his name is the Cornish version of a well-known saint's name, and
his surname is a colour. Funnily enough, the love of his life just happens to have the
same first name as someone very close to me, and her 'home' is in fact a real place not
unknown to my late father-in-law.
What was your
favourite and least favourite part in researching for the novel?
I don't think I have a 'least favourite'
part in the research for this novel, it was all fascinating and opened up some insights I hope I've
been able to put into the story accurately. I love history, and in particular, I love the
naval history of the 18th and early 19th Centuries.The sea was the prime enemy for the men
who, as the psalmist wrote, "... go down to the sea in ships, and do business on great
waters ..." There are many accounts of 'enemies' risking life and limb to save each other
from storm or shipwreck. On the coast of Denmark there are memorials erected to men lost in
British ships wrecked there during the Napoleonic war, and men saved from those
same wrecks by the Danish 'enemy' often settled there. As I said, it was
fascinating, I wish it could be taught in our schools.
Why did you decide to
venture into self-publishing?
The vexed question. Why 'self-publish'? It
certainly isn't an easy choice. A Baltic Affair was rejected by two major publishers and
I'm still waiting for responses from a couple of agents. That may be my fault. I'm no
good at 'selling' myself and I sometimes find the 'submission requirements tricky or even
restrictive. I know why they have them, after all I'm not the only author bombarding them
with the next 'best-seller'.
Janet Angelo, an Independent Publisher spotted the work and
wanted to work with me on it. Our agreement
is more a 'Joint Venture' than a
'self-publish' affair. Yes, I've paid for the editing and for some of the publishing costs, but I have to
say, it is worth the effort.
I doubt I'll ever see the sort of sales of,
say, Sir Terry Pratchett (I won't be sorry if I do!), the book is finding a niche and logging
sales. This is the fifth book I've published myself, the other four are my Harry Heron series,
but that is another story. It would be true to say that I ventured into 'self-publishing'
the first of those because I was terminally naive, and honestly believed I had found a way to
get published and sell books. It was quite a learning curve from there, and though I
wouldn't do it quite the same way again, I would still, in all likelihood, go down that same
path - but differently.
What tips would
you give to others considering self-publishing that you wished you knew when
you started?
I think the first part of that is never ever publish your first
draft. It'll be rough, even if you don't see it, it will have silly glitches in the plot and lots of grammar
and other 'little' problems. My own experience with the first story I published makes me
cringe now. The basic story was good, but I'd told it like a technician. I eventually withdrew
it and republished a completely revised version, but I hate to think what I did to my
credibility as a writer with it.
The second part is two fold. Always get a
critique of it by someone who knows about writing fiction. Then revise the story to
address all the criticisms. A good critique will tell you what's missing as well as where you've
got too much or perhaps introduced something which is at odds with the plot, or lost
something that breaks the continuity. The other half is get a line editor to go through it and make
sure all the typos, all the stray apostrophes and commas are round up and put in the right
place. One of my tricks is to read my manuscript aloud. That very quickly shows up my
penchant for 'run-on' sentences, or sentences where I've managed to lose the subject or object.
It also shows up where there are problems with punctuation. When I've done that and fixed
the problems, then I send it to my editor ... and she invariably finds a whole lot more.
With self-publishing you, and only you, are
responsible for the final product. Proof-reading is a painful process, and again it needs
someone really good at spotting the little things that go adrift, and most authors are so
involved with their work they miss them. I certainly do. One of the more annoying things is that
different versions of Microsoft Word often have small differences in their code - and these
introduce spaces where there shouldn't be, or remove them where they should be, when you
transfer your manuscript from your version to the publisher's type setting version. In
one of my books the Galleys went back and forth six times to get those sorted out - and
there are still some I and the proof-reader missed.
Finally keep the expectations realistic. A
lot of new authors seem to think they are about to become millionaires now their book is in
print. In truth, with self-publishing, you're lucky if you recoup your outlay. There certainly are
people who have made it into the 'big league' but they have almost all of them started
out with the capital to buy in promotion on a scale most of us can't. I was recently told
that one self-published author spent $120,000 promoting his book before he was 'noticed'
by a traditional publisher. Even so, it will be several years and a number of books before
he recoups that outlay.
I'm told that 200,000 books are published
each month. Unless you are already a 'known' author, getting your book noticed is going
to be tough. Even the likes of Sir Terry Pratchett, Stephen King and Dan Brown have
to work hard on the marketing of their books. Just having one in print does not
mean its going to be in the bookshops or even reviewed in the newspapers. I recently
discovered that one 'Booker Prize' nominee sold
a total of 140 copies worldwide. There are
no guarantees of sales or even of success.
The 'publisher' is just what they said on
the label, they'll prepare your book for printing and get it printed, no more. Yes, it will
be listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingrams and so on, and yes, you'll find it listed
in the W H Smith and Waterstones catalogues, but it's unlikely they'll stock it unless
you can get in there and convince them that they'll not be wasting expensive shelf-space. Bear
in mind that 'print on demand' also means the book will be more expensive then
something printed in thousands, so there is a price disadvantage to overcome as well.
What has been the
hardest part with promoting your work?
My toughest challenge is promoting my work.
I'm not a natural salesman, I wish I was. I make use of the 'social media' and I'm
building up a presence on a number of websites, I run my own as well -
http://www.harryheron.com and I promote my work through my blogs, through writing technical articles for
trade magazines and, whenever I have a chance, persuading a bookshop to give me a little
shelf space on 'sale or return'. So far I've not had any books returned, but the trick is
convincing them to re-order!
At present I try to follow up every lead I
get for new ways to promote my work. I've finally managed to get a contact list of people who
do newspaper reviews so I'm working my way down that and I'm also following up a
suggestion that my books would make good movies or television series. It all takes
up time, it takes a lot of courage - especially after the first fifty or so 'sorry, but ...'
responses. It isn't easy, but then, each little triumph makes it more worthwhile and moves you one step
closer to that magic moment when someone
says, "Hey. I read your book! Where
can I get another?"
What else have you
had published, and what is coming up?
I've a long list of Conference Papers,
articles, technical notes and two books, Marine Fire Studies and A Guide to Fire
Investigation in my professional role, but my 'fun' list includes my Harry Heron adventures. It is
best described as a 'mixed' genre since it is mainly 'scifi' but with a strong historic
twist in that the the three main characters are from the Napoleonic period Royal Navy. They are
fun to write and, I hope, to read. The main thrust is an exploration of the way someone
from the 1790s - 1800s would respond to a whole range of things. I got into
'self-publishing' through them, since most UK based 'trad' publishers and agents don't seem to like
scifi with a 'military' theme - one actually told me that anything that made the military look
good wasn't what the 'industry' wanted. I'd love to say I've proved them wrong, and I'm
working on it. Sales are regular and, hopefully, building up. There are four titles so far -
Their Lordships Request, which introduces
the characters, and let's the reader gain an insight into how Harry Nelson-Heron
and his friends develop the knowledge and attitudes they have, while introducing the
future that lies in store for them as a parallel story.
Out of Time, which sees Harry, Ferghal and
Danny sucked into the future where they are subjected to a tussle between their
relatives, 'research' interests and bureaucrats. In the process they are forced to adapt
fast, meet aliens, are subjected to an illegal genesplice and develop some unexpected
abilities - but it is, in the end, their old-fashioned approach which swings the balance ...
The Enemy is Within! takes the trio on a
new adventure as they settle into a future that holds more challenges than they
dreamed possible. They are still the target of researchers, but now, as part of the Fleet, must learn to become officers in that service. They get marooned on a strange world where
the main predator is a vegetable, fight off enemies of the state and finally bring home
a captured 'prize' on their own.
On the Run has the trio once again in the
thick of an ongoing interstellar war, but Harry and Ferghal find themselves once
again marooned a planet where the are saved by an alien intelligence and it's
surrogates. Their actions, again influenced by their 'old-fashioned' approach to life, leads to the
final climactic battle between the opposing forces and the near ruin of everyone's plans.
A fifth book is currently being overhauled
and will, I hope, be published later this year. The title is The Outer Edge and once again the
trio bring their talents to bear.
I've another historic book I'm working on.
Based on the life of St Patrick, I'm revising it yet again to meet the critical suggestions
I got from the last appraisal. It is one I really do want to see get a wide readership, but to
do that I need to make sure it is as good as I can make it.
For the rest? I've lots of outlines and
another Harry Heron taking shape slowly.
Where can we buy your
books?
I've links on my
website to the majority of sites selling them, but they can be ordered from any reasonable
bookshop anywhere. Amazon has them all, and there are Kindle editions as well. Barnes
and Noble list them and I know that Waterstones and W H Smith in the UK will order
them in - might even stock them if enough of your readers rush in to place orders!
Thanks Pat, I'm sure everyone will really appreciates how helpful and generous you've been in sharing your insights. You're clearly dedicated to your craft, and I wish you lots of success.
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