Post by Maarya Abbasi
The world of publishing isn’t easy so Neil Griffiths explains; from being published by both mainstream house and small press, and being the founder of consciousness prize for small press, also not to mention he is an award winning novelist. Neil Griffiths has certainly experienced it all. The journey is tough; It may perhaps go as low as “feeling betrayal when realising your publisher only backs one book a month and this not being yours”; to “feeling a great gratitude as everyone involved works around the clock to give your book the best possible chance”.
Neil was very straight forward with his approach to the industry of publishing as he has given us an insight of all the essential guidelines of having his book published, and the struggles for selling the given amount of copies by a publisher. The importance of the book being published is one thing but there are also other aspects that lead up after it, such as the “tiny little profile from book one” and “a couple of not that great reviews” which I think is totally undermining having being your first book.
Other matters were addressed, where at one point Neil was stuck having no publisher, and no agent, so he started writing a book; spending 7 years, and finally he ended up with a high profile agent. Neil eventually went to see the first person who commissioned his book for penguin and he suggested Gally Begger Press; an independent publisher who Neil had no absolute clue about.
Nevertheless Neil strongly advised to always go with small presses for the first book you write, as you may be lucky enough to sell a few 100 copies. This already qualifies us into a writing career. Also a key factor in addition to this is to have another job whilst writing since Neil explains “you don’t really want that because, where is life in your life”. I totally understand this concept, in terms of being productive outside your writing career keeping you saner and having more to write about.
Maarya Abbasi, 16 November 2018
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It was really interesting to learn about the world of publishing and small presses. Very good review.
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It’s very interesting to see how two different writers talk about the publishing journey and how many effects could affect writer’s lives. Ella Dorman Gajic’s approach to getting published was different to Neil Griffiths as Ella was lucky as she was in the right place at the right time as she went to an event run by writers for stage and got the opportunity to read her work to the group to which the person running the event was very interested by Ella’s work and gave her contacts to a director. Whereas, as you say Neil struggles and shows the reality for most authors. They both give good insight on publishing, Ella states to get out there more and go to feedback groups and just network compared to Neil where he tells you the harsh truth and says its not gonna be easy and to go with small presses.
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This was very inciteful to hear from a well-regarded author about the ugly truths of publishing and the importance in building resilience to be successful. It’s also nice to know that small pres shouldn’t be overlooked by the bigger, well-known publishing houses as they offer a more personal relationship with the writer and even if they aren’t known by many, you will still be a published author!
Georgia
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