Welcome to episode 165 of the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt
My guest for this episode is the author, James Blatch. Some of you will know James as one half of the team who present the hugely popular Self Publishing Show with Mark Dawson.
James is a former radio and television journalist, he has worked for the BBFC, the British Board of Film Classification, so the organisation here in the UK the UK that decides what certificate a film gets.
James’ family has a long relationship with the Royal Air Force, his father was a test pilot with the RAF and James has a passion for the planes, which he has carried over into the subject of his first novel, called The Final Flight, which is set on an RAF base in the 1960’s.
In this episode we talk about respecting the material you are working with in your novel, the challenge of marketing your first book, and the importance of building an email list.
I would also say, I am aware that not all of you listening to this want to self-publish your work, you want to get a traditional publishing contract and that’s a good aim to have, but I would suggest that all of the writing advice and a good part of the marketing advice you here in this episode and on the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Podcast generally is useful and applicable to you. Even if you do get a traditional publishing contract, and congratulations if you do, you should still be thinking about how you can market your books and your brand, and in particular as it applies to this episode, how important it is for you to build your own email list, however you are published.
I had a great conversation with James, I hope you enjoy it and find it useful, here it is
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In episode 64 we looked at what we can do to build and enhance setting in a current project, and in this episode we look at some of the practices and habits we can adopt to help us invest as writers in future projects. We look at how, like the magpie, we need to be on the lookout for the 'shiny things' around us, the unusual the intriguing, the noteworthy. We also look at why it's good to put our research into the writer's equivalent of a compost heap where it can settle and mature into something truly useful for our writing. ...
In this episode we explore the unavoidable truth that writing is really hard work. We look at why that is the case and think about ways to acknowledge this truth, and keep writing anyway. We learn the one fundamental truth about writing that everyone from the most obscure writer to the likes of Stephen King will tell you, and we identify three 'tools' for the toolbelt to help us keep going with our writing even when it's tough going. ...
