"Rosemary looked at the pages and saw a line saying 'Rosemary looked at the pages and saw a line saying 'Rosemary looked at the pages and saw a line saying 'Rosemary looked at the pages and saw a line saying 'Rosemary looked at the pages and saw—'"
In that hall of mirrors, Bow's character gets lost in the self-referential Land of Fiction. Bow knows this Land well, as his wife and his mother are both published authors. Before his novel, Bow wrote volumes of Doctor Who fan fiction and worked as a journalist in Canada. His website has become a community center for Doctor Who fans, fantasy readers, and more recently, Harry Potter fan fiction readers.
For all these reasons, I picked James Bow for a special fan fiction edition of my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
On your website, you mention a few published writers who started out writing fan fiction. In your opinion, who are the most successful fan fiction writers working today? Who are the up-and-coming fan fiction writers we should watch?
James Bow:
Well, Russell T. Davies is perhaps the best example. He came up through Doctor Who fandom, and then made a name for himself writing a number of the BBC's biggest recent hits, including the series Queer as Folk, the acclaimed Casanova mini-series and, of course, the revival of Doctor Who...
Stephen Moffat is also a Doctor Who fan, known for the acclaimed British comedy Coupling. He's also a staff writer in the new Doctor Who. Peter David, one of Marvel Comics' best writers, came up through American Doctor Who and Star Trek fandom.
It's hard to predict who will come up next, because fan fiction has just about exploded, and most people do not write with an eye to getting published professionally. I was floored by the number of fan fiction stories that existed around Harry Potter on fanfiction.net -- it outnumbered the number of Doctor Who and Star Trek stories combined by a factor of ten.
With literally tens of thousands of stories out there, and about as many writers, and with no editors in sight, you get a lot of people who write simply for the joy of it, and more power to them. But there are people who take their craft seriously and practise and practise, and who will get a professional commission, and stun people with their fan fiction history.
Jason Boog:
I can imagine your The Unwritten Girl promotion is keeping you busy. How are you promoting the book? In your opinion, what are the crucial steps all writers should follow while promoting their writing on the Internet?
James Bow:
The Dundurn Group is a small but growing and well-respected Canadian publishing house. They don't have the resources of the big players to promote their catalogue, so they spend those dollars as wisely as they can. This means no big book tour, which really isn't all that effective unless you're already a big-name author (a chicken-and-the-egg scenario).
Dundurn will be sending out review copies to a number of outlets, and they've had success with that strategy in the past. They're also looking for ways to provide media outlets with an interesting hook that will get them to write about me. My fan fiction past, or the fact that I'm a blogger-turned-writer might prove interesting enough to some outlets, forcing them to pay some attention.
I'll also be using blogs to help get the word out. I've spent four years using my blog as an online journal, jotting down my random thoughts and impromptu political commentaries, and I've generated a modest readership from that. I'm arranging to have a few other bloggers receive review copies, and they may provide reviews or interviews -- sort of an electronic book tour.
If you don't have money or similar resources, the only thing you can do is be persistent and take time. My readership was generated over four years of blogging and more more years writing fan fiction. It takes time, but it snowballs eventually.
Jason Boog:
You also work as a journalist in Canada. As a journalist, what are the best resources you use on the Internet--what sites, blogs, or writing resources do you use most often?
James Bow:
Most of my freelance assignments have been for a print publication called Business Edge, and most of these have been profiles of local businesses or business projects. The best resource I have is to talk to the people involved in the story, which takes time. Fortunately, most of the people I talk to have access to e-mail and can conduct the interview online that way. It saves me from having to transcribe a tape.
I've performed research for a transportation columnist, and most of my work has been through Google, and trolling through various government websites. The Internet may be the biggest library in existence, but the card catalogue system needs a bit of work. Fortunately, I enjoy the hunt.
» Five Easy Questions: James Bow, Part One from ThePublishingSpot
Most readers of ThePublishingSpot haven't heard of James Bow yet, but he can teach us more about fan fiction web publishing than a week of interviews with some bestselling author. Bow's first genre-bending novel is still almost published and his... [Read More]
Tracked on: March 17, 2006 10:11 AM | Permalink to Trackback