British horror writer and lawyer A.N. Donaldson released his richly crafted and very unsettling novel Prospero’s Mirror, which chronicles the last days of the celebrated ghost story writer M.R. James, in April this year, in print and e-book editions from Endeavour Press. I talked to him about the difficulties of getting its peculiar strengths accepted by a publisher, and how the print and digital releases complement each other.
TeleRead: Has e-publishing helped you produce a distinctive work that might otherwise never have been picked up by a print publisher?
A.N. Donaldson: E-publishing has certainly proved a life-saver for my book Prospero’s Mirror. After months of being messed around by the big publishers, my agent was beginning to despair of getting it out there. That said, quite a few of the big publishers said they had had internal arguments about the book because they loved it—and would in previous years certainly have published it—but are under such pressure from e-books that they have cut back heavily on publishing new high-end or literary books by debut novelists. So you might say that there’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation going on, with e-publishing solving a problem it has helped to create.
In general, though, I personally am very excited about the possibility of a new world where writers can get their stuff out regardless, and traditional publishers may perhaps come along afterwards and pick up e-books that have got excellent reviews or generated lots of sales online. When you think about how many of the great writers of history couldn’t get published for years, the new technology is a potential game-changer. The downside is that it potentially pushes things down-market and rewards marketing over content, as there is now simply too much choice presented to readers. There needs to be better critical gatekeepers to help discerning but busy readers sort the wheat from the chaff.
TeleRead: How has your relationship been with Endeavour Press? What have they contributed?
Donaldson: My relationship with Endeavour Press has been excellent, as they have come to the rescue and allowed me to bring out the novel as an e-book with a professional presentation and a canny online marketing campaign. They also have an excellent understanding of the online distribution channels and a sophisticated pricing strategy that comes out of that. Finally, they have generously allowed me to self-publish a hard-copy version, which they have even been happy to support, even though I take 100 percent of the profits. They take the view that it is not in competition with the e-book and rather increases its profile. It would certainly be quite possible to do it all yourself. But I have found it helpful to have a publisher behind me while I have been marketing the book.
TeleRead: Your book makes strong and effective use of various voices, both of historical individuals and of other periods. How useful is the Internet in gathering material for these?
Donaldson: I had to do lots of research for the novel, particularly for the historical detail. I would say that that research was split about 50/50 between book-research and research online.
TeleRead: Do you have current plans for more books? And if so, how would you publish those?
Donaldson: I have just been in discussion with Endeavour about my next projects and it looks like we will hopefully be bringing out more works by A.N. Donaldson (including more horror) over the next few months, so watch this space!
