Originally posted on March 18, 2011.
Interviews with writers have always fascinated me. I enjoy reading interviews almost more than I enjoy reading blogs. Almost, but not quite.
Today, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Berit Ellingsen. Berit has dived into the world of self-publication. Her book, The Empty City, will debut this spring.
In the busy days ahead of her publication date, Berit has taken the time to answer a few questions for me. Below, you will find the interview in its entirety:
Hi Berit!
It is very interesting how global tragedy can bring people together. I first met you as a result of the earthquake that devastated Japan. The scope of this disaster is often hard to understand. Many of us are struggling to cope at just how much can be destroyed within a matter of minutes
Yet, in all of the confusion and mayhem, you made the time to join the Authors for Japan project. What can you tell us about Authors for Japan?
Authors for Japan is a charity auction with more than 150 items donated by authors from all genres. Among the prizes are signed books, chapter or short story critique, book swag, membership in writing circles, being written in as a character in a story or let the winner choose a character’s name, even a meeting with a literary agent.
The auction proceeds will go to the Red Cross UK, the winners will receive instructions how to donate their bid.
Authors for Japan was organized by Keris Stainton and friends. They did an amazing job in getting the website up and running just 48 hours after Keris made the first call for participants on her blog and on Twitter.
I think everyone who watched the devastation in Japan after the tsunami and the following problems with the nuclear reactors, all the people that were evacuated, and the concern of the people of Tokyo, felt that they wanted to do something to help.
When you put your book and critique up for auction on Authors for Japan, what were you expecting?
Some of the authors donating to the auction have large followings and most of them write in genres like romance and chick lit. I wasn’t sure whether anyone would bid for a literary fiction book and critique, so I’m very happy to see that all three of my auctions have received bids.
Your Book, The Empty City, will debut in Spring 2011. How long did it take for you to write this book? Can you tell us a little of your writing process and the things that you had to endure to make this book a reality?
The first draft for The Empty City took about 4 months to write. Then there’s been 8 months of revisions and edits, from global to line edits.
The final version is very different from the first draft, which was much longer. I really didn’t know what it should look like or what style it should be in or what market it should be aimed at. I wrote the first draft and then learned a lot during editing.
I got feedback from a few beta readers and a lot of help from my line editor, Toni Rakestraw, who’s a professional editor. She’s great to work with and I recommend her warmly.
During the final rounds of edits, I took up again short story writing and reading and that really changed and improved my writing overall. It changed the book a lot.
What inspired you to become a writer?
I started out as a non-fiction writer in science journalism. I wrote a novel and submitted some short stories a couple of years ago, and then took it up again now.
I have had a longer time as reader than as a writer, but have dabbled in it since childhood. I tried to avoid writing The Empty City for about two years, but then I couldn’t resist it anymore.
There are so many options for publication. You can self-publish or go through traditional venues. What did you pick and why?
For The Empty City I will self publish. The book is about contemplation, self awareness and becoming comfortable with silence. I may be wrong, but I don’t think many agents or publishers would take a chance on fiction about that in today’s tight publishing market.
I would have liked to work with a small press, but doing that requires that the author does a lot of marketing herself. I thought I could just as well publish it myself and do the marketing, since I’m used to working freelance already.
What is your favorite aspect of self-publication?
That I can choose my own editor, beta readers and cover designer. That’s a luxury, I believe, but also demands stringency and professionalism.
For me indie doesn’t meant not having to use an editor or not having to revise a lot. I’ve probably edited and revised as much as I would have done with a publisher, and it’s maybe taken just as long time.
Your most disliked aspect?
That there are less people to bounce ideas off and discuss questions and approaches with. It’s probably much more of a solo flight than working with an agent or a publisher, although I hear that can be lonely too, if things go badly.
It’s the dilemma of the freelancer, you have a lot of freedom but that freedom can be difficult or counter-productive at times. But since I have worked as a freelancer for a few years, I felt I had some useful experience with it.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone who is considering self-publication, what would it be?
Only do it if you really don’t want to go traditional. It’s probably not less work or that much faster than traditional, only different. Always use a professional editor and cover designer.
It is a long journey from deciding that you want to be a writer to actually publishing your book. What were the most difficult challenges that you had to endure as a writer?
When I took up again writing for The Empty City, after a few years of absence from fiction, my writing was unrefined. After the first drafts I participated in NaNoWriMo 2010, started writing short stories again and reading various literary magazines online. I learned a lot and I think it made my writing better. At least it got more accurate and specific. But it also meant a huge amount of edits for The Empty City. I’m a constant reviser and always find something I want to change.
If you could have changed anything about how you learned how to write, what would it be?
I would have angsted less over trying to fit into a genre and trying to write like the mainstream, and I would have read less writing tips that turned out to be not very useful for me. I learned a lot more about writing from reading literary fiction, and things that I liked and had to stretch for a little to understand.
I have a fondness for asking weird questions at the end of an interview. If you had to be a character of a novel, which character would you want to be and why?
That’s a really fun question! I have loved all of your questions so far.
A few months ago I read an extremely well researched Science Fiction book named Blindsight by SF author and marine biologist Peter Watts. It’s about first contact with an alien species, it’s very hard and scientific SF. Watts has so many great ideas about how an alien species would be, most of them based on biological principles. It was really fun to read, since my background is in biology too.
For his meeting with weird aliens, Watts needed an equally weird crew of humans. They are all genetically or biologically altered but that doesn’t mean they are perfect. They are all quite dysfunctional.
The captain and protagonist of the crew is Watts’ version of vampires, genetically recreated from ancient parts of human DNA. Watts describes the vampire so well and why he’s the right (and wrong) person to face the aliens, that he would be my fictional character of choice. I would have liked to be Peter Watts’ edgy vampire Jukka Sarasti that has a dangerous and chaotic run-in with aliens in space, together with a bunch of weird and dysfunctional scientists. (Smiles)
Thanks a lot for the questions.
If you want to get to know Berit Ellingsen, you can follow her on twitter.