Discussing a successful factual author’s rough road to publication of his first novel via mentoring from Brit Writers…
Who is Jeremy Walton and what inspired you to become a writer?
I am a serial factual author with over 30 titles published and an experienced motoring writer, but my first novel [The Test] was only recently published. Just as my older brother always wanted to be a farmer, I always wanted to write, creating plays for a hapless captive adult audience from the age of five. However, many of life’s realities intervened before I could make the transition from facts to fiction.
What happened?
I became an unfashionable married teenage father, which concentrated my mind on earning a living that provided for two offspring when I was 21. Fortunately, I had a life-long fascination and enthusiasm for faster motoring, fighter planes and motorcycles—anything you could harness to a powerful engine. The fortunate part was that other young men [and an increasing number of today’s women] also admire such anti-social devices.
Following an NUJ apprenticeship as a trade journalist I was lucky—and well mentored by my late mother in law—to land a job on a magazine that catered for those who wished to make their cars go faster. It was officially titled Cars & Car Conversions, but jealous wits swiftly dubbed it Car & Car Perversions. It was fun, but it also doubled my earnings and profitably saw circulation bound from 30,000 to over 100,000 within two years.
My job as Associate Editor ended in tears, when the booming magazine hired an older man during my absence on an assignment to drive to Sicily and back. Yet the grounding it gave me as a writer and competition car driver underwrote most of the factual work I undertook throughout a 40-year career.
When did fiction re-emerge in your life?
I tried to write fictional material as a sideline to an amazing working life, busily scribbling notes from Venice Beach, California, to Venice proper. I enjoyed masses of travel, often-superb food and some sensational hotels, although there were plenty of nights sleeping in the car or at a grandstand desk during sports coverage. Memorably unusual were privileged accesses to St. Paul’s Crypt before the annual carol service and visits to private music recitals attended by the late Queen Mother. A stark contrast with my preferred rock royalty concerts from Eric Clapton, The Eagles, Genesis and Tina Turner.
I learned that succeeding in another competitive endeavour, without focussing on it fully, is folly. That did not stop me entering writing competitions and completing a screenplay using Israel as an action thriller backdrop during the 1990s.
So, are you a fulltime fiction writer now that The Test has been released?
I wish!
I devote more time to fiction, particularly rewriting and refining The Test pre-publication. Yet I still have contractual obligations in motoring journalism including supplying a monthly column to America, the second volume of a factual book for an Anglo-American publisher and freelancing in the classic car world as well as writing road impressions of current cars.
What advice would you give to new and Unpublished writers?
Very little as I am a newcomer to novels. I can say that my website www.jwarthog.com has proved a useful writing assistant along with Facebook. I will see if my novel can earn a commercial place in the market before I start pontificating!
For factual books, I do have over 30 years experience with 31 titles commercially published in UK, USA, France and Germany. To enter any factual area I would advise that the outline/pitch is the vital weapon to getting a deal. It is your knowledge that matters alongside total clarity in factual writing. I lacked a clear writing style—amusing yes, easily comprehensible no—so it was unique knowledge that sold me, alongside a passion for the subject.
Why it has taken since 2006 to produce my novel? Simply because I had to tackle a new genre. I also found my dialogue sections were puny, so I entered writing competitions to try and get some fiction feedback. More useful was my screenplay calling card, which received good ‘No-thank-you-but-I-like-the-chat’ comments in my rejection slips.
I did not create factual automotive books for the money, but back in the heyday of print I could earn the price of a new family car for titles that exceeded 10,000 sales. I see no reason why an expert in fashionable factual areas could not do the same today, although competition is fiercer and royalties savagely reduced. Any hint of a TV tie-in—such as TV chefs or Jeremy Clarkson-Richard Hammond and James May with their BBC Top Gear association enjoy—kicks in serious cash. Money delivered on a scale that is way beyond anything seen by earlier factual authors, especially if a DVD, book or download can be offered.
Factual books in hard copy are promising and represent the majority of the print future, while novels surge toward an online monopoly. It is difficult to make technical stuff compactly reader-friendly to a Kindle or similar device, particularly if illustrations—artwork or pictures—are integral to the title. The BUT in the room is that I plan– with my web and production partner–to rework for iPad and tablet some of the titles I authored in the 1980-1990s. Books that now demand £40 to more than £240 secondhand.
I want a slice of those dealer profits!
How important are initiatives such as Brit Writers?
Brit Writers and the Awards system were crucial to pitching my work. I had become lazy in my pitches and synopsis were a mystery that took many rewrites. I went through BW’s 1-to-1 mentoring system, paid £250, and still feel I had value way beyond that original deal.
What else would you like to say to anyone reading this right now?
Keep your flame of belief alive! Keep trying and go for originality, rather than cloning 50 shades of nothing…
Thank you Jeremy
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