Simon Rose

Making It As a Writer

July, 2009

 

Simon Rose, author of children’s fantasy and SF, is a hardworking writer who is supporting himself, doing what he wants to do.  Simon  graduated from university in England with a degree in history in 1982 and moved to Canada in 1990. His is also a graduate of Long Ridge’s sister school, the Institute of Children's Literature and has  been a prolific writer of children's fiction for many years. His  first novel for young readers, The Alchemist's Portrait was published in 2003, followed by The Sorcerer's Letterbox in 2004 and The Clone Conspiracy in 2005. The Emerald Curse arrived in 2006 and The Heretic’s Tomb in 2007.  Simon  lives in Calgary with his two children, dog and cat. He writes  every day, whenever the idea or inspiration strikes and  he is  always hard at work on my new projects.  He also does visits to schools, workshops, and offers a host of services that help support him as a writer.  
Check out his website:  http://www.simon-rose.com   

 

Mary Rosenblum: Simon, welcome!  This is a bit different than live chat, eh?  But more people have time to drop in and meet you.  Tell us what you've been up to since your last visit with us! 

Simon Rose:  I have been busy with school visits and author in residence programs and am currently working in summer camps locally for July and August. I've also been doing more things online in the last twelve months. I now offer online workshops for children and adults, as well as manuscript evaluations and editing services and have been running monthly workshops for adults locally, entitled Writing and Publishing your Children's Novel. I also now offer virtual author visits for schools and libraries via video using Skype and have some bookings in the fall and into 2010. In September, I will begin teaching creative writing courses with home schooled children, as well as working as an instructor in Continuing Education with the local school board and the university. I'm also making a return visit to a literary festival in the UK in October. I have served as a juror for various book awards in the last eighteen months as well, reviewing both adult and children's books
My sixth novel, The Doomsday Mask, has just been published and you can learn more about the book at http://www.simon-rose.com/doomsday.htm. I am currently working on a seventh book with the same publisher too. I've also been working on some picture books for younger readers with a local illustrator, which have been submitted to publishers, and have a novel for young adults doing the rounds of publishers as well. I write regular articles for Dark Roasted Blend, an online magazine,http://www.darkroastedblend.com/,  have over fifty articles for writers on Ezines at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Simon_Rose and write a column once a week at the National Writing for Children Centerhttp://writingforchildrencenter.com/index.php?s=simon. 
I am producing an event locally in November, the Calgary Children's Book Fair and Conference, which you can read about athttp://www.calgarybookfair.com/. I am also the creator of Children's Author's and Illustrators on Facebook, which you can take a look at here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45035902458 

 

Danielle:  Hi Simon,
Happy to 'meet' you.     I'm a student at LRWG and currently on leave of absence from ICL (2 more assignments to go.  yay!).
From everything I've read, it's indicated that the author does not hire the illustrator..the publisher does.
Did you and the illustrator of your seventh book begin working together before submitting to the publisher or after?
If before, how did you find the illustrator and how did you convince the publisher to do it?
Also, how long had you been writing before attending ICL?   How long after attending ICL did you become a published children’s' novelist?
What did you learn by attending ICL?
Thanks a bunch!

 

Simon Rose:   I am not an author of picture books, but yes, the publisher selects the illustrator. This has been the case with the covers for all my books as well. I decided earlier this year to work with a local illustrator, who has also been previously published, and who I have known for a while, to produce a book dummy for some picture book ideas. This has been sent out to publishers, with admittedly very little response so far, but obviously there is always going to be a lot of competition for an editor's attention. On the other hand, if a publisher likes out collaborative work, we have plenty of other projects to send them very quickly.
I had been writing for two or three years before attending ICL and finished the course in 2000. I attracted the interest of a publisher at the end of that year, but the book was not published until 2003.

 

Pam Out West:  Hi Simon, Thanks for visiting with us, it is great to talk with a grad from ICL. How many magazine publications did you have before your first novel caught the eye of a publisher?

 

Dale Ivan: Hello Simon.  Thanks for being on the forums this week. I really appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences and advice with us

 

Simon Rose:   You're very welcome.

 I contacted every publisher in Canada that published books in the age range and genre I was targeting. That was probably around twenty or so back then. I had replies from three - two form letters and one who expressed interest. The others never responded. I had address labels already printed for every suitable publisher in the USA as well, but never used them since I found a publisher in Canada. My next step would have been publishers in the UK.

 

Mary Rosenblum: So there you go, folks.  Yet another example of the fact that you have to query a lot and expect no response or rejections if you want to sell what you write.  Perseverance pays!   Thanks, Simon!  A lot of aspiring writers don't realize just how tough it can be to get a response when they start submitting work.  But you're a great example of what that perseverance means.....sales!

 

Danielle:  Did you contact them one at a time or a few at a time?

 

Simon Rose:    I speak to many people who give up after a few rejections, but perseverance certainly won't pay off if you stop submitting. Even if you do get a response or even a contract, the publishing world moves very slowly at times and you have to be prepared for that. 
We are all familiar with the number of rejections J K Rowling had and we know how that saga ended. The Beatles were rejected numerous times by record companies, one executive telling their manager that guitar groups were on their way out and would never make any money in the sixties. John Lennnon's aunt also told her nephew that 'a guitar is all very well, John, but you'll never make a living with it'. The Beatles often seem like an overnight success to people in North America, but had spent years in obscurity before arriving on this side of the Atlantic.
It is true that some people, might never be published at all, like an athlete in the minor leagues who never breaks through, no matter how many times they submit or how good their work is. There are no guarantees with this process, just the same as everything else in life. However, the surest way to never be published is to stop writing altogether or cease sending your work out. That is guaranteed. 
I contacted all the Canadian publishers at once. With the American ones, I would probably have done around twenty at a time, simply due to the volume of letters I had to send and the cost of the postage.

 

Dale:  Do you have an advice for coping with the "sting" of reputed rejection, aside from of course rejection being a part of the process  I try to focus on my current work and let go of the stories that are now out in the world.

 

Simon Rose:    Well, it is part of the process, but I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing that.  Your story is never going to be to everyone's taste and it is unrealistic to expect it to be. If it has been rejected a lot of times, maybe you should take another look at it, try another angle, even if you thought it was perfect. You can't let it get to you, but if it does, take a break, put it aside for a while and work on something else or do something else.

 

Danielle:  Thank you for spending time with us this week. I've enjoyed reading your responses and appreciate your insight.
Happy writing!   

 

Mary Rosenblum: So, Simon, what was your 'first step' down this path as a writer?  Did you decide you were going to be a writer at some point, or did you just start writing? 

 

Simon Rose:    Looking back now, I think I probably always want to be a writer, although I was never sure if anything would come of it. One of the first things I began to write was a sprawling science fiction/fantasy epic that I still tinker with from time to time. I began to write portions of it down as a teenager and have never really stopped. It has changed its focus over the years, but the basic premise and plot remains the same. Life intervened, as it often does, but in the early nineties I often travelled for work and spent a lot of time on the road, where there was little to do in the evenings, so I started to write - ideas for stories, for children and adults, even some poetry, but was never intending to do anything with it. 
When I had children, I came into contact with kids books again for the first time in many years. Some were very good and some were very poor, in my opinion, and it made me wonder if I could do better. I began jotting down a few ideas and around that time read the first three Harry Potter books. I had no desire to write stories about a school for wizards or even about classic fantasy, but found myself drawn to topics that interested me at nine or ten years of age - science fiction, time travel, history and so on. I also took a writing course with the Institute of Children's Literature. By the time I finished the course, around 2000, I had several well formed outlines for novels for children and was accepted by a publisher the following year.

 

Danielle:  hmmm...I should've read this before submitting my post in the welcome thread.  That last sentence answered one of mine.  But, alas, I have another!  Did you submit any of the novel ideas as part of the last assignment for ICL?  I don't know what the last assignment was when you attended, but currently it involves writing the first three chapters of a novel and I think a synopsis as well. 
Did you also take one of their advanced courses (novel writing).

 

Simon Rose:    Yes, I believe I did send in the first three chapters and a synopsis of what became the first book as my last assignment.
No, I did not take any further courses with ICL.

 

Danielle:  Did you submit any manuscripts prior to taking your ICL course?

 

Simon Rose:    I sent out numerous ideas for articles to children's magazines, as suggested by ICL, while doing my assignments, and got a lot of rejection letters, so quickly abandoned that approach. I starting contacting publishers towards the end of the course with synopses of stories, just to see if there was any interest.

 

Pam out West:  You wrote "some were very good, some were very poor" when reading children's books. You also mentioned that you also work as a judge in contests. Could you give us a few thoughts on what criteria falls under very poorly written? (I'll try the back door since you already spoke of criteria for well written/successful in another reply.) What are common mistakes?

 

Simon Rose:    I see glaring errors with point of view issues quite a lot, plus grammatical mistakes that should not be getting through the editing process. There are other books that make you scratch your head as to why they were published, since it's hard to imagine how the book would sell at all. Plus others that are thinly veiled copies of something that has been successful, such as Harry Potter or Twilight, or seem to be the same old stuff, especially in classic fantasy. 
In terms of unpublished work, common errors are point of view, grammar, punctuation, a lack of knowledge as to how dialogue should be correctly written, too much or too little description, poorly developed characters and so on.

 

Dale Ivan:  Have you written much short fiction, or has it primarily been novel-length works? 

 

Simon Rose:    Novel length work, except for the picture books I keep trying to sell.

 

Mary Rosenblum: On the picture books, Simon, did you do the illustrations, too, or are you just marketing the prose half of the project?  

 

Simon Rose:    I had the picture book ideas before I had any themes in mind for novels, simply because I was assessing a lot of picture books at the time. I am not an illustrator, so just sent out the text for stories, since the publishers all have illustrators that they have worked with before and will choose one that fits with your work, if you get a contract with them. 
The odds of being accepted by doing it that way seem very long to me though, so my illustrator friend and I worked together to produce the book dummy, which we sent out earlier this year. You can see examples of her work at http://www.letterboxcom.com/ We've had two or three responses, I think. One was very nice and personally signed by an editor at a major publisher, while at the other end of the scale one was not only a form letter, but it was photocopied, off centre, on a copier that needed toner. They had probably never even read the submission, which I'm afraid to say does seem to happen.

 

Pam out West:  Thanks for all your shared insight this week! Could you give us a range of how many words/book for different children's age groups, including your youth books?
Wishing you continued success.

 

Simon Rose:    Mine average about 20,000 words and are for eight to twelves. YA would be maybe twice as long as that, picture books obviously less. The later Harry Potter books are an exception.

 

Mary Rosenblum: Simon, you work really hard making ends meet as a writer. That really impressed me when I first interviewed you.  A lot of folk enjoy the lovely myth that you write a book, sit back and collect lots of bucks.  Want to tell us how you make the checkbook balance with your writing? 

 

Simon Rose:    It would be nice to just live off royalties from books and you can do that if you sell enough and keep selling them. However, if you want to be a full time writer, you have do other things as well to generate income, all related to your creative work. The marketing and promotion never really stops and I find I have to plan a long time in advance. 
I conduct workshops, make presentations and do readings at schools, libraries, festivals and literary events all through the year, including virtual ones via video and work in camps offering writing and drama programs in the summer. In September, I will begin teaching creative writing courses with home schooled children, running writing workshops with some after school programs, as well as working as an instructor in Continuing Education with the local school board and the university. I have also served as a juror for various book awards in the last eighteen months as well, reviewing both adult and children's books.
I write regular articles for an online magazine called Dark Roasted Blend and occasionally for print media as well. I write website copy whenever I can too, although this is usually very corporate in nature and far removed from writing novels. It does however help pay the bills. A new venture this fall is the Calgary Children's Book Fair and Conference, which you can read about at http://www.calgarybookfair.com/. This may become an annual event if the 2009 edition is a success.

 

Ambthecreative:  Hi. Wow, I'm really impressed that you do so much and die from exhaustion. But I wonder...
Is it possible to pay the bills with just writing novels and short stories? 
It's just I don't like the idea of teaching, though I won't mind doing presentations or participate in seminars and conferences. But honestly, all I want to do is write stories and am willing to do whatever it takes to make those stories sell...except take detours selling non-fiction articles (unrelated to writing), copy writing and teaching.

 

Simon Rose:    I would doubt it with short stories, but if novels sold well enough, in vast numbers, you could do it. However, you would have to do a lot of promotion and remember how much an author's royalty is for a book. At around 10% at the most you have to sell 50,000 books to make $50,000, on a regular basis, for years, if you do nothing else to generate income. These 'detours' as you refer to them are what the vast majority of authors and writers do, if they consider themselves to be full time. Only the best selling ones do not. I would prefer just to write but have to be realistic, hopefully at least for now. Even Mozart and Beethoven had to have students.

 

Mary Rosenblum: A lot of writers diversify, too. It really is quite doable to support yourself writing nonfiction. The market pays much better than fiction and you can expect regular sales. Editors call you for filler pieces and you pitch features for better money.  A number of my fiction writer friends pay the bills doing NF.  I would be doing that, too, but I prefer to teach writing.

 

Simon Rose:    And of course web copy and anything corporate pays more than fiction as well.

 

Dale Ivan:  How do you balance your fiction writing time with your teaching and other writing jobs? Do you have a set fiction writing schedule?

 

Simon Rose:    Not really. I do set time aside for it and indeed am spending several hours a day on the next novel at the moment, since I am not working outside the home much this week. However, much of the fiction writing tends to get done at night, often very late, while marketing stuff, promotional work, e mail etc gets done in the day. In August however, I will be in camps all day for three weeks, so may not get much writing done at all.

 

Danielle:  Do you belong to SCBWI?

 

Simon Rose:    Yes and I am the ARA for Western Canada. We have about twenty members locally and meet every second month.

 

Mary Rosenblum: What's the ARA, Simon?  

 

Simon Rose:    Assistant Regional Advisor, sort of like second in command, but it mostly means at the moment that I am the local rep here in Calgary.  And of course we meet at the pub, which is always inspiring.

 

Mary Rosenblum: Simon, care to share some writing tips with novice writers here?  Your books are very successful, they connect with your young readers. So what is important, in your opinion?  Strong characters?  Simple plots?  Interesting settings?  Share some craft tips with us, eh? 

 

Simon Rose:    There are lots of important things to consider when creating a good story. Well developed characters, realistic settings, relating the story to the reader's own experiences, allowing the young heroes solve their own problems without assistance from adults, exciting beginnings, cliffhanger chapter endings and page turning action. 
Pacing is very important. The length, page count or the number of chapters or words certainly isn't carved in stone, but the story needs to be tight and very fast paced. Try and grab the reader at the outset with an exciting or thought provoking first chapter, especially since a young the reader's attention span is often considerably shorter than that of an adult. Children's books need to encourage the reader to turn the page and not be able to put the book down.

 

Danielle:  Do you ever encounter people who don't think you're a "real" writer because you write for children?
Sometimes it seems that way.  I don't think people, even other writers, realize that it's harder to write for children than for adults.
At least it is for me.  

 

Simon Rose:    Yes, I did encounter some writers for adults, journalists, non fiction writers etc like that when I attended a festival once. Also I remember before my book was published when someone remarked about J K Rowling making 'all that money, just for writing a kid's book'. With all the other things I do and despite the number hours that I work, the fact that I work from home also means that some people don't consider that I actually 'work' for a living.

 

Danielle:  Thanks. I've heard the same comments about Stephanie Myer.  I think some of the negative comments are from those who are a bit jealous.

 

Simon Rose:    That could be a factor, but let's not forget that there are some very poor books that make it into print, for adults and for children, as well.

 

Pam out West:  Could you give us some tips on creating and threading strong characters through a story? Thanks.

 

Simon Rose:    Without people there is no plot and characters are at the heart of any story. You have to invent your own unique characters, complete with occupation, career path, friends and family, likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams - in short, anything that makes them come to life. They need a personality, featuring aspects which we can identify with and sympathize, mannerisms, quirks and so on, all of which serve to make them unique as individuals. 
Think about what it would be like to interview your character or spend a day with them to really get inside their head. The best writers create characters that you feel you would recognize if you saw them on the street. Think of your favourite characters from books you have enjoyed. Did the characters come alive for you? One of the most famous examples is possibly Sherlock Holmes, who is often mistaken for a real, historical person.
The lead character in a story can be a regular boy or girl who has incredible adventures, but they are also depicted as having a busy school life, overdue homework projects, overly protective or distant parents, irritating siblings, best friends, pets, and all the rest. The reader will have a much deeper interest in the story if the characters are people they can easily relate to, even if they have fabulous adventures. Well-crafted characters, in whatever setting they may appear, are rarely forgotten and always remain popular with readers.

 

Dale Ivan: Characterization is something I've been working hard on lately in my fiction writing. You mentioned interviewing your characters or "spending a day with them" so to speak, do you have any other techniques you might share with us to help us create and visualize compelling characters? 
Also, how extensively do you work out your storyline in advance of writing?

 

Simon Rose:    Some writers get at least part of their inspiration from pictures, paintings or photographs. Photographs of people are easy enough find online and another good writing exercise is to take two people and imagine a situation were they might meet. They could be stuck in an elevator for ten minutes and have to strike up a conversation or a have minor car accident on a deserted road, then have to exchange insurance information.
It could be anything, entirely based on whatever you think the characters might be like, from the impression you get from the photographs. Then to make it particularly interesting, you can have the two people discover that they have an unexpected connection, in which they learn they are long lost siblings, have the same type of dog, are both looking for the same treasure or whatever idea you come up with. If you handed the same pictures to two different writers, they would doubtless invent widely differing personalities for their imaginary person, but whatever you come up with will be unique to yourself.
Another idea is to set up an imaginary dinner party at your house. The guests could be celebrities, movie and TV actors, characters from books, comics, cartoons or movies. These could be characters you like, admire, find irritating, or even detest, it's really up to you. What would they have in common, what might they talk about, agree on or argue about? You choose the guests based on the dynamics that might occur from having them all in the same place, at a truly fascinating imaginary party.
I spend a lot of time working on a full outline of a novel before I actually start work on the book itself. This can sometimes be as long as 10,000 words, with at least one paragraph for every chapter.