Richard Jay Parker – Writers Need to be Sociable to Succeed
Richard Jay Parker’s novel is entitled “Stop Me” which is ironic as he looks to have an unstoppable career ahead of him. Having worked as a television writer for twenty-two years, at age thirty he decided to try his hand at writing novels.
Ten years of disappointment followed, but his book “Stop Me” was picked up by publishers Allison and Busby and he has since achieved publishing success. In this interview he spoke about his writing and how he felt a writer could best market themselves.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Richard - I'm lucky enough to have the whole day for writing and I usually close myself in my office. I circle for a while - email, Twitter etc - but as I start pretty early I can afford to do this. I tend to write in concentrated bursts and then fizzle by mid afternoon. After that I'll work on edits etc.
Darrell - Do you plot your books in advance or do you let them go in whatever direction feels right?
Richard - I like to know where I'm going so have a start and a finish in mind but all the territory in between is fertile land. That was certainly the case with STOP ME.
Darrell - Can you tell us about the Curzon Group?
Richard - The Curzon Group was set up by Matt Lynn to promote British thriller authors although it's a very informal band of writers who meet up from time to time to promote their work. Our favourite gig so far was signing holiday reads in airport bookshops. We needed our passports to attend.
Darrell - It's quite a clever idea arranging for readers through your website to receive an email from the evil Vacation Killer. What sort of response have you had to this promotion?
Richard - The Vacation Killer email has creeped out a lot of people. When you send it via my site to a friend they receive a message saying a girl is about to die at a particular time - the time that they've just opened the email. The response has been good but I'd love to see it bouncing around even more. You can send it to your friends by visiting www.richardjayparker.com
Darrell - What do you think is the best way a writer can promote themselves?
Richard - I think all writers have to be sociable online now. It doesn't seem to be sufficient to just have a website. Interacting with readers is vital and you can get the sort of instant feedback that authors would have killed for a decade ago.
Darrell - How do you see the future for writers and publishers now that ebooks have arrived?
Richard - There are pros and cons re ebooks and they're being debated ad nauseum. I personally think ebooks are a great way for writers to find a readership. The industry is still feeling its way through at the moment and there are many creases to iron out. Broadly I think they can enhance the reading experience from the immediacy of being able to access the work to readers' desire to easily sample different books. I don't believe they'll outmode traditional books. I can see the two cohabiting very nicely and readers making up their own mind about which is the most convenient. I don't lose sleep over this though. Ultimately, I don't have any control over the situation. All I can do is continue to write and hope people will want to read my work however it's presented to them.
Important Links:
Return to the Table of Contents