An Interview with Children’s Author Simon Rose

I am totally thrilled to have gotten “air time” with Canada’s prolific and successful author, Simon Rose. He has written several fantasy/sci fi novels for our younger audience and I can tell you from having read his work myself, it is no wonder that he is successful. His work is exemplary.

Simon has included the web addresses for both his website and blogsite at the end of the interview. Also, it’s important to note that Simon presents a teleclass every month for members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club.

Before I post the interview, I would like to thank Simon for the time that he took to do this. I totally appreciate it!

Linda: What is one bit of advice that you would give to beginning writers?

Simon: Writing is in some ways the easy part. It can be a very long process not only to write a book, but also to get it published. A book is a marathon measured in years rather than weeks or months. Don’t be afraid to revise and revise over and over again. Most authors go through many revisions before their work reaches its final format. Remember too that your book will never be to everyone’s taste, so don’t be discouraged. A firm belief in your own success is often what’s necessary. After all, if you don’t believe in your book, how can you expect other people to?

Read as much as you can and write as often as you can. Keep an ideas file, even if it’s only a name, title, sentence or an entire outline for a novel. You never know when you might get another piece of the puzzle, perhaps years later. You also mustn’t forget the marketing. You may produce the greatest book ever written. However, no one else is going to see it if your book doesn’t become known to potential readers. Be visible as an author. Do as many readings, signings and personal appearances as you can. Get your name out there and hopefully the rest will follow. Especially for newly published authors, books don’t sell themselves and need a lot of help.

L: Where or how do you get your creative ideas for your stories?

S: Anywhere and everywhere. Out walking the dog, in the car, something in a conversation, a newspaper story, a billboard, an item on the evening news, TV, movies, books of all kinds, song lyrics, historical events, ancient mysteries, long lost civilizations, the supernatural, ghost stories, the paranormal or something completely out of the blue. I often find myself wondering ‘what if?’

Sometimes the challenge is to stop having ideas. Some may never be used, but I try to record as many as I can. I never know when they might fit in with a story I’m writing. Even ideas that don’t seem to work right away may have a use in the future.

I became immersed in science fiction as a boy. The original Star Trek series springs readily to mind, along with many other influences. I read a lot of science fiction novels and collections of short stories, as well C S Lewis, Tolkien and other fantasy writers. I also read a tremendous number of comic books as a child. Pure escapism perhaps, but comic books were great for the imagination. I leapt headfirst into those tales of superheroes in what was probably the golden age of comic books in the 1960’s. The stories took me across the universe, into strange dimensions, into the land of the Norse gods or had me swinging from the New York rooftops. At high school, I studied a great deal of history and have retained my interest in the subject up to the present day.

L: How did you decide which publisher to send your work to?

S: There are lots on resources on line and elsewhere with regard to publishers, but a good thing to do is to research which houses are publishing the same type of material that you are writing. If you are writing fantasy for ten year olds, see who is doing that and then check their website to see if they are accepting submissions. Similarly, if you are writing teen fiction, see who is doing that and again be sure to check out their submission policies. There are also publishers who only deal with non fiction, prefer to specialize in
regional issues, those who only do picture books or who do picture books, but don’t accept stories about animals and so on. It can be a long process, but is well worth it.

L: Do you think that all writers, beginners as well as well-known should have an agent?

S: I have spoken to writers who have had wonderful agents for years and think very highly of them. However, I have also had conversations with writers who have seen no benefit whatsoever from having an agent, despite having been associated with an agency for some time.

There is good and bad in everything, I guess, and as useful as a good agent can be, there are also doubtless many mediocre ones and a lot of bad ones ones out there, too.

L: What are your feelings about self-publishing, POD’s and/or e-books?

S: Self publishing can be good or bad and I have seen numerous examples of both. Some books are extremely well done, while others appear to be very much the work of an amateur and do little to enhance the reputation of authors in general. Self publishing often seems to look like a great option, but of course does entail a lot more work once the book is printed, provided you want it to sell in good quantities, particularly in terms of distribution. I’m not as familiar with the pros and cons of POD. E books are here to stay and time will tell how popular they become, but I have no problem with my novels appearing as e books on i pods, for example.

L: Can you give us some ideas about how to self-promote our book for sales, in addition to what our publishers may be able to do for us?

S: A lot of this depends on what your publisher is actually prepared to do for you, although you shouldn’t expect them to look after everything for you. Some put a lot of money and effort into marketing and promotion, while others do very little at all. However, no matter what the size of their operation, they are usually dealing with other authors and can’t devote all their time and energy to you. Consequently, all authors have to be prepared to do as much as they can to promote their own work and this is almost a completely separate interview topic.

Get a website or blog or both, even before your first book is published, forge a good relationship with your local bookstores in order to secure book signing events, look into ways to talk about your work at festivals, other events and especially schools and libraries. You may produce the greatest book ever written. However, no one else is going to see it if your book doesn’t become known to potential readers.

L:How do we go about getting “traffic” to come to our blogs and/or websites?

S: Promote your site as much as possible on business cards, bookmarks, a vehicle, t shirts, in short anything you can think of. Make sure all possible keywords are included in the text of all the pages on your site to increase your visibility with search engines and get your site’s coordinates linked from as many places as possible.

L: Are you currently working on a novel? If so, could you give us a brief glimpse?

S: Yes and it will be published in spring 2009. It is within the science fiction and fantasy genre and a fast paced, exciting adventure, concerning ancient civilizations, mysterious artifacts and shadowy secret societies. A short synopsis will appear later in the spring on my website at www.simon-rose.com and on my blog at http://simon-rose.blogspot.com/.

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Linda Kuzyk is a contributing author of the book, How To Use the Internet in Your Classroom, published by Teachers Network. She also wrote two state level award winning WebQuests, one in 2000 and the other in 2001. Her story “Anvil Floats,” appears in a student literary magazine, Sneakers, Stilettos, & Steeltoes, published by Curry Printing and Mailing of Maine in 2006.

Kuzyk is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, and the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club of the National Writing for Children Center.