Your road to publishing might be long and winding 🛣️
Today's guest is author Christopher J. Yates.
Publishing is full of unexpected beginnings.
You never know when your next story or big break will materialize. Maybe it comes after a gutting rejection. Maybe it starts with an overseas deal you didn’t see coming. Or maybe it only arrives once you’ve hit rock bottom.
No matter the path, progress often begins where you least expect it: in the failures, in the waiting, and in the uncomfortable.
It helps to broaden your toolbox.
That might mean leaning on people to support you, nurturing a personal passion like hiking or painting, or expanding your process to include voice memos or intentional breaks. Because while writing is hard, publishing can be even harder. Whatever helps you to keep showing up for the work — and for all the strange new beginnings that could follow — is worth honoring.
In today’s interview, author Christopher J Yates shares the unusual path that lead to his breakout debut, the feedback that brought clarity to his characters, and the importance of not writing.
OUR SPECIAL GUEST TODAY IS…
Christopher J. Yates
Novelist/Puzzle Writer
Latest dark academia novel, THE RABBIT CLUB, is available now!
What’s been the toughest moment in your publishing journey, and how did you get through it?
The toughest moment was having my debut novel, BLACK CHALK, turned down by the entire US publishing industry—which might seem like an odd claim, considering the fact that said novel has been out in the States for ten years in August this year, and is well on it's way to selling 100,000 copies. But my debut had an intensely odd journey—total rejection in the US was followed by publication in the UK; after that, it was sold as an export in the US and then picked up by Picador for US publication. It was publication via the back door. THE RABBIT CLUB is a kind of follow-up—not a sequel, exactly, but a tale that overlaps with BLACK CHALK in the Venn diagram.
I dealt with the total rejection phase by drinking far too much whiskey, which led me into the arms of good therapy. I can heartily recommend the latter.
What’s one thing about the publishing process no one tells you, but should?
Free lunches are increasingly rare. As are book tours, unless you're as famous as Stephen King, or a glutton for punishment. (Every writer I know has an "only one person turned up" story; and "one person" is a good version of the story.) Wait, that's two things about the publishing process. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. What else? Yes, there's been inflation in the world of agents fees—it's no longer ten percent. Oh, and publishing houses are not real businesses—real businesses are predicated upon making a profit and decisions are therefore made on that basis!
What’s the best piece of feedback you ever received? How did it change your story?
I have a friend who has made movie shorts and works in video editing. (Getting early reads and insights from pros in other story-telling mediums is invaluable.) Having read an early draft of my debut novel, BLACK CHALK, he suggested to me that I was trying to introduce too many new characters at once. He was right! Not only that, but he added that each character needed a "what do they bring to the table" moment early on in their introduction. For example, "he's the funny guy with a dark past" character." "She's the poetic type who uses coolness to hide her insecurity." Bearing this in mind helped me clear up a lot of mess, and define my tale and its inhabitants with far greater clarity.
Ready for feedback that takes your story to the next level?
“Having Alyssa edit my manuscript was truly one of the best decisions I could have made. Her suggestions absolutely made my story better. Then, the very first agent I queried requested to read the whole manuscript after reading the revised pages we worked on!”
—Laura Geraghty, historical fiction author
What’s one thing you do (creatively, mentally, or physically) that helps you stay in it when writing gets hard?
I'm an avid hiker—the aforementioned good therapy helped me discover that this was the single most important thing for my mental health. (It's the thing that works for me, but others might have different serotonin boosters that work better for them.) Hiking also helps me plot my novels. I can't plot a novel at my writing desk, I have to be doing something that's not writing to have good ideas. Many of my my best ideas happen while I'm hiking, so I take a lot of voice notes while up in the Shawangunk Mountains of New York.
What’s a myth about publishing or being an author that you wish more people understood?
That writers spend a lot of time alone in a room, banging away at their stories without receiving any feedback or discussion. Now, I realize that may seem blindingly obvious. And it is. But most people don't realize the corollary to this fact. Almost all the writers I know absolutely love discussing their work—not just in interviews like this one. No, if someone wants to talk to me about my work, I will drop everything I'm doing and start wagging my lonely puppy dog tail. If you want to talk to me about my novels, I will turn up at weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs. And bat mitzvahs. Oh, and bat caves, bars, book clubs, coffee hours, cafés, knitting circles... You get the idea. Preferably via zoom, however.
ICYMI… this week, I reread my cringey short story from college and reflected on my biggest writing lessons.
Since you sold in the UK first, does that mean you did a UK book tour? Did the marketing and publicity there seem similar to the marketing and publicity plan you might have had in the US?
About the number of characters and what they bring to the table.
In real life people often have a few or several freinds which aren't involved in their work, love life, disputes or whatever is happening to them. But in fiction it is easier if the main character has few freinds with a clear purpose in the story. Nancy Drew has two close female freinds and a boyfreind, her family is her father and his housekeeper. I remember her as a likeable woman whom should have a larger social circle, but that would have complicated things, that is likely also why she lack siblings, cousins and so on. I feel tempted to create a realistic social circle for my main characters, but that means lots of text about people whom don't to much or anything that contribute to the plot. Such friends are good to have in real life, but not in a story.