Darrell Pitt – What Does it Take to be a Successful Author?
Darrell Pitt is a writer of young adult novels. He is the author of The Steampunk Detective, The Last Days of Earth, Diary of a Teenage Superhero and is now the editor of Secrets of Successful Writers.
Today he talks about how he became a writer and what he believes are the best ways a writer can succeed in this ever changing environment.
Darrell - Does it feel strange interviewing yourself?
Darrell – Yes, but I often talk to myself and I’ve never had an argument yet!
Darrell – So, how did you become a writer?
Darrell – I can trace it back to when I was twelve years old. We had to write a story a week as part of our class work. I had only ever written stories of half a page in length. On this occasion I was inspired to write an adventure story along the lines of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
As our work was handed back to the class, the teacher stopped, held up my story and announced, “It has finally happened. Darrell has written a story three and a half pages long”. She then proceeded to read it aloud to the class.
That was one of the happiest moments of my childhood. Now when I look back on it, I realise that positive reinforcement was probably the stimulus for my desire to become a writer.
At high school I received support from another teacher. I also won a writing competition, published short stories and submitted many articles to our local newspaper. My initial goal was to become a journalist, but, things did not work out that way.
Darrell – So instead you worked diligently day and night to become a successful author?
Darrell – I wish I had. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you. I got into a relationship, became a father, got out of a relationship, got married, studied some more, helped to raise a wonderful daughter and veered wildly in all sorts of directions.
During these many years I was still writing, but not as much as I should have done. I wrote short stories and had many of them published in small press magazines. I also wrote a novel called Kaotika which was rewritten about nine times and still remains an unpublishable train wreck.
But you know, every step in a wrong direction is still a step forward.
Darrell – What was the turning point?
Darrell – My wife and I owned cafes for a number of years. Hospitality is hard work. Just ask anyone employed in it. The hours were long, the stress was through the roof and there were times when I thought I might just have a heart attack and die.
After we sold our business I began to look to the far horizon to work out what to do next. By this point my daughter had left school and for the first time in many years I realised I could focus on my life long dream of becoming a writer.
I applied to go to university (yes, they accept old people like me) and I got in. At the same time I started producing young adult novels. A number of those have since been published.
Darrell – What are the lows and highs you’ve experienced as a writer?
Darrell – There have been plenty of both.
I once paid a manuscript appraisal agency a lot of money to have a novel critiqued. Their response was five pages in length. They commended me in my efforts at wanting to become a writer.
Everything after that was negative. Characters, plot, theme, genre, even the title were criticised. You know those horror films where people get stabbed twenty times and beaten to a pulp before finally expiring? That’s how I felt.
It took me about two days to rouse myself from my depression. It took me a lot longer to see their assessment in a critical fashion. These days I can make jokes about it. (You know you have healed when you can make a joke about a painful situation.) That book is still sitting in the drawer waiting for a rewrite. It’s actually not all that bad, but it will be a better novel when it appears because I’m now a better writer.
As far as highs go, every time I sell a book, it’s a high.
Darrell – Would you recommend that people become writers?
Darrell – Only if they’re happy to work for free. I’m serious when I say this. I don’t mean they will always be working for free, but they will be working alone without recognition for many hours and days. They won’t earn a cent. They will suffer rejection and criticism. There is a lot of pain involved.
Keep in mind, though, that you become a writer because you don’t really have a choice in the matter. You love creating stories. That’s why you do it.
Darrell - What do you think is the best way a writer can market themselves in this era of ebook publishing?
Darrell – I think Facebook and Twitter and all the social media methods mentioned by all the other writers in this book are part of the equation.
I think one issue that doesn’t get mentioned enough is that you need to have a number of books out there. One book isn’t enough. Unless you’ve written the next “To Kill a Mockingbird”, you need another book ready for your reader to purchase. As soon as you finish writing one book you need to start on the next. And the next.
Let me say this again. I think you need about three or four books out there before you really focus on marketing your work.
Darrell – Any last words?
Darrell – Just a couple. Support the authors. Buy their books. They gave their time freely to be interviewed and to share their secrets of their writing success with you. Buy their books and send them an email to congratulate them on their hard work.
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