Author Interview – Neil Trigger

1) Ghostly Publishing is a relatively new company, but can you tell us something about how you have developed so rapidly, and your plans for the future? As the Managing Director of Ghostly Publishing, how do you find time to also write books?

a. There are two questions there, so I’ll try to answer both. Yes, in under a year, we’ve gone from having one author (me) to taking on over 30 titles by the end of 2013.That’s very rapid growth, but I think we just need to focus on the way we’ve done it and that all comes down to the Ghostly Publishing ethos. We will never release the same thing as anyone else. We saw that traditional publishers seem to like copying the “freak successes”, so we decided that we’d do it differently. We prefer to be the risk-takers and offer something of genuine quality and originality rather than just trotting out copycat books. I think people have really bought into the idea and that’s how we’ve grown.

b. Regarding my own writing, I took some time during November to start my latest book, but as things get busier, it’s become increasingly hard to find time for my own writing. Therefore, I had a look around for some support and thankfully we have a solid plan for future expansion that will allow me a little time to write too. The first year or so of any business is always very hard work – especially if that business is going to be successful and so I needed to make a few sacrifices.

2) Have you always wanted to be an author, or did some time or event in your life set you on the path?

a. My daughter asked me for a bedtime story and as we’d read all the ones on her shelf, I decided that I needed to either buy another book or write one myself. She had no room for another book, so I thought that writing one might work. I whipped out my iPhone and started writing. I read the un-finished first part to her that night and in the morning she wanted to know what happened next. This continued for a few nights, every day I wrote a new section. Eventually it got too long to keep the whole thing on my phone, so I started uploading it section by section (later to be called “chapters”) to my blog. People read and enjoyed it, so I edited it and self-published. I printed 100 copies and sold about thirty. I tried to sell the remainder to Waterstones and they said “we love the story, but the size, paper, design, thickness, font, layout and spine need to be changed. Most people would give up at that point but all I heard was “we love the story… redesign it and we’ll sell it”. So I did. I then launched in Waterstones in Plymouth and sold more than twice their best projection and that launched my small publishing house. The rest is history.

3) Do you always write in the same genre, or do you sometimes like a change of theme? If you haven’t already, is there another genre you would like to write?

a. I’ve always written fantasy. Nothing else really does it for me. I do enjoy reading some other genres, but it’s always been fantasy ever since I wrote a 24 (a4) page story as an eight year old child. My teacher punished me for copying it because he said it was “impossible” for me to write so much. A similar thing happened at secondary school where I submitted an 84 A4 page novel to my school’s writing competition. They thought I stole the story from somewhere but never worked out where. It’s because it was original but nobody believed me. Perhaps that was why I hid from writing until my thirties.

4) As a writer, what is the best thing that has happened to you, and what is that most exciting thing that could happen to you?

a. It’s always very cool when someone looks at my books and says “that looks really good” and then actually parts with their own hard-earned money. That’s always special and I don’t think that glow will ever fade. Selling so many books during my breakout launch was awesome and the press coverage from that was great, but it’d be even better if I got a film deal.

5) How do you view the promotion, book signings etc. Is it something you enjoy, or do you prefer the writing stage?

a. I love the writing stage, but it’s all fantasy and in my head until I see it reflected in the eyes of the audience. One never knows how well a book will be received, and after writing so diligently for such a long time, to see it being enjoyed is priceless. Having said that, living in a fantasy world while writing is a very enviable profession.

6) Could you tell us something about your published books, and let us know what they are about?

a. My own books are called The Midnight Chronicles and each one is orbiting the subject of Mr Midnight – a fairy lord who appears in various different forms in the books.

b. The first book is The Weird Case of Mrs Etherington-Strange and it’s really hard to explain anything without giving it away, but essentially it’s about journeys. Each story tells a deep moral story. The first is “be careful which parts of your personality you let develop into maturity”. The second (The Mobile Monster Zoo) states the bonds of friendship and the importance and virtues of each stage of life. The third (The Wizard’s Reflection) is “you don’t need magic to be special”. The next book (The Forest of the Dream Beast) will be all about bonds of trust, love and betrayal… That’s the one I’m most excited about, but then again, authors always like their latest books the most.

Wonderful, Neil! Thank you. Wishing you the very best of luck with Ghostly Publishing, and your career as an author.