Writers discuss the future of publishing – Biographies

Publishing is in the throes of a revolution, and all the old rules are being put to the test. As CEOs, senior editors, agents and booksellers all scramble to guess at how they’ll participate in the future market, Lauri Shaw asks a panel of writers where they see this business going – and how they each expect to contribute to the wave of change that is, for the time being, the only certainty in sight.

Erik Hare

Erik Hare is the Internet Marketing Consultant for Scarletta Press, a small publisher in Minneapolis. He’s also a grant writer and a consultant for non-profit companies. He previously worked as a research engineer for ChemE.

Erik is currently working on his first novel, Authenticity, about “the middle class fantasy life falling desperately in love with the reality it can never have.” He says that writing is a hobby, and he does not plan to quit his day job. He keeps a blog, Barataria, where he posts essays about culture, politics, art and more. You can find some of Erik’s work at erikhare.wordpress.com.

Jason Pettus

Jason Pettus owns and operates the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. He has been involved with self-publishing and basement presses for 25 years, since he was a teenager in the early 80’s, Midwestern punk/zine scene. He spent ten years writing, publishing, and marketing his own novels, creative nonfiction, and slam poetry.

CCLaP released its first original book in November 2008, a story cycle called Repetition Patterns by local author Ben Tanzer (www.cclapcenter.com/patterns). This is an electronic book, released on a “pay what you want system” inspired by Radiohead, and Tanzer will be touring after the holidays to promote it.

CCLaP plans to put out another book this year, then four more in 2009, when Jason will also publish CCLaP’s first book on paper. More information is available at www.cclapcenter.com.

Max Dunbar

Max Dunbar is the Manchester Regional Editor for Succour, a new UK journal of fiction, poetry, and art (www.succour.org) that is now looking at submissions for its 2009 edition.

Though he has a background in policy and regen, Max has also done bar work, warehouse work, call centre work and other “drifting-writer type” jobs.

Max’s short fiction has appeared in print and web journals including Open Wide, Straight from the Fridge and Lamport Court. He’s written articles on politics and religion for Butterflies and Wheels. Max is currently seeking representation for his novel, Professionals, “a tale of chaos and corruption in local government.” He blogs at maxdunbar.wordpress.com.

Debbie Bennett

Debbie Bennett has been involved in the UK small press scene for many years. She has edited and published magazines, newsletters, and anthologies on behalf of the British Fantasy Society. She freelances for a small UK independent publisher, doing order-processing, occasional slushpile reading, and editorial work.

Debbie’s short fiction has been published in the small press, in women’s magazine, and has won several competitions. She is now shopping two novels. Hamelin’s Child, “a thriller set in the seedy world of London’s drug rings,” was long-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award. The other book, Edge of Dreams, is a young adult contemporary fantasy.

Debbie’s past and colorful day jobs include tax inspector, debt collector, drugs investigator, and brewery controller for UK beer duty. She now works in IT for the Police. You can find her on the web at www.debbiebennett.co.uk or www.debbie-bennett.blogspot.com.

Alexander McNabb

Alexander McNabb is the group account director at Spot On Public Relations, working in the Middle East markets, particularly in telecoms, media and entertainment. He’s been in PR for twelve years, and has spent over twenty years writing as a journalist, editor, and publishing director of a Middle East magazine publisher. He lives in Dubai, having moved there “to escape the rain, the dole, and the tea” in England.

Alexander’s body of work includes news stories, features, white papers, and other research work on computing and telecommunications, as well as features and columns for newspapers and lifestyle magazines. He has worked with pop stars, celebrities, and ICT industry leaders, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and King Abdulla II of Jordan.

Alexander is shopping two novels. Space, “Innocent man pitched into desperate race across Europe against unfeasible odds to save world from shadowy cabal. Except this is darkly, wickedly, scabrously, relentlessly funny.” And Olives, “Paul Stokes must decide whether the woman he loves is a killer or an innocent. But he must betray her, regardless.” He blogs at fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com.

Simon A. Forward

Simon A. Forward is a professional writer living in Cornwall. He is the author of two Doctor Who novels, Drift and Emotional Chemistry for BBC Books, plus a Telos Novella Shell Shock and a number of other Doctor Who works, as well as (under a pseudonym) the first two books of Puffin’s Fright Night series. Before this, he worked as a computer programmer and a part-time lecturer.

Simon is currently shopping two novels: Evil UnLtd, a sci-fi comedy, and Kip Doodle, a kids’ fantasy adventure series. You can find him on the web at www.simonforward.co.uk, or blogging at prefectjournal.blogspot.com.

Lexi Revellian

Lexi Revellian is a writer and a self-employed jeweller/silversmith living in England. She received her Masters from the Royal College of Art, and has previously held a job organizing the distribution of a free magazine.

Lexi is currently working on a novel, Catch a Falling Star, a romantic thriller. You can find her on the web at lexirevellian.squarespace.com/welcome/ or blogging at lexirevellian.blogspot.com.

Paul Fenton

Paul Fenton is a “corporate hooker” in the UK – in other words, he’s in banking.
Paul has previously published a few short stories in zines. He is now shopping a novel called Punchline, “a black comedy about plagiarism, paranoia, and the sticky mess that results when the protagonist tries to solve the mystery on his own.”

Elizabeth Jasper

Elizabeth Jasper lives in Spain. Her professional background is with UK university administration, as well as UK National Health Service (NHS) administration.

Elizabeth is shopping a novel called Lying in Wait: “1974. The decisions made by a naïve young Irishman in Dublin devastate the lives of a womanising Northumbrian dairy farmer and his family.” You can find details and some of her other work at www.elizabethjasper.com.

Carl Thomas

Carl Thomas lives in the UK and works in IT/Sales. He’s published one copy of a small press magazine, which published horror fiction and book reviews; most of which were from Harper Collins. He’s a voracious reader. You can find some of his work at www.goodreads.com/story/show/28909.Dark_Dreams?chapter=1.

Hannah Davis

Hannah Davis is a British ex-pat living in Spain, and a former English teacher in Central America and Madrid. She has worked as PA in a top UK literary agency, Casarotto Ramsay (repping film/tv writers & directors), and a freelance reader for Robert Fox & the Almeida Theatre. Her job was at ICM, London office, as a PA.

Nowadays, Hannah is a freelance offering manuscript critiques, and she co-owns an ex-pat magazine in Spain. Her first novel, The Voices of Angels, is YA supernatural story: “Lizzie Fisher is an ordinary girl with an extraordinary gift. She can see when people are about to die.” Hannah blogs at streamwriting.com/blog.

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2 Responses to “Writers discuss the future of publishing – Biographies”

  1. norah Says:
    April 13th, 2010 at 11:25 am

    I find this serious of articles on the future of publishing interesting. Thanks for publishihg it.

  2. Lauri Says:
    April 14th, 2010 at 8:30 am

    You’re welcome. :-)

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