Journalist and author Peter Travers tells us about writing TOP 10 HITS
Pete Travers
Peter Travers is a British author and journalist who writes for The Sunday Times, BBC magazines and many other bestselling publications. TOP 10 HITS is his first novel, and is available at a discounted price and including free delivery from www.petertravers.co.uk
How does it feel to have published your first book?
Great. Unreal and amazing. For me, writing TOP 10 HITS was a bigger deal than publishing it. Writing a novel was easily the most difficult and challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life, and also the most enjoyable and rewarding.
Self-publishing it afterwards was easy compared to writing it, although self-publishing is still a huge amount of work; it’s a big responsibility, like launching your own little business.
Why did you decide to self-publish?
I actually managed to get a literary agent last year who believed in TOP 10 HITS and me as an author. My TOP 10 HITS manuscript then got sent out to his contacts at around 15 various-sized book publishers. I liked the guy, and we got on well, but he developed secretive working practices, and unfortunately, in hindsight, I don’t think his contacts were up to scratch.
He’d only ever really got his authors’ books placed with small, independent publishers, and his contacts at the big publishers weren’t up to date. A fair few of the publishers we tried didn’t even deal in novels…
I tried to get a new, more established agent earlier this year, but as many new authors know, it’s harder than ever these days as less agents are taking on first-time authors! So, as I believed in TOP 10 HITS, I thought I’d self-publish instead.
I must admit, I hadn’t really thought about the amount of work needed to get a book printed and published - book cover design, ISBN nos, barcodes, printers specs and jargon, finding the money, typesetting the words, Nielsen Bookdata, distributors, 60 per cent non-negotiable discounts from the likes of Amazon, domain names, web hosting, email accounts, website design and html code, Paypal payment gubbins, sorting out book costing, working out postage, packaging, the list goes on. And this is after flogging yourself writing the thing… in your spare time!
But perhaps blindly entering a new arena of work is the best way to go into some things, otherwise you’ll never do it!
Tell us a bit about TOP 10 HITS
TOP 10 HITS is a modern-day tale of music, murder and mayhem. It’s a wickedly entertaining story about a cynical music magazine journalist and pretty pop photographer who jump from hit parade to hit list when they get drawn into a creative Hitman’s sadistic plot to kill off his Top 10 most-hated pop star wannabes.
I originally came up with the idea of killing off rubbish boy bands, as I can’t stand that sort of ballad-led drivel and the constantly bad cover versions they feel compelled to spew out. Then that developed into knocking off dumb girl bands, talent show losers, punk posers, rock clones, hip hop wannabe gangsters and R&B divas. There’s so many stupid, celebrity-seeking, talentless, deluded pop star wannabes ripe for the picking!
I didn’t plan that much more at all at the beginning. The title, TOP 10 HITS, came early on, and after that I simply decided on ten chapters, with the possibility of a ‘pop star hit’ every chapter. I then thought about the option of having dual narration from the Hitman and the music magazine journalist, Hardy. That was pretty much all I planned, just the bare bones, and then I got on with writing.
The other characters followed later. Sophie the pretty pop photographer and Hardy’s love interest; Hardy’s reliable tabloid journalist friend, Fat Pat; and DCI Johnson.
Somehow, it all began to flow naturally and I couldn’t stop typing. The plot started to build and I began to totally believe in the characters, and they really did take on a life of their own, which helped the book, in a terribly clichéd way, write itself.
So you must hate X Factor and other talent shows?
I actually don’t hate X-Factor. I enjoy laughing at the auditions at the start - even if it is the modern-day equivalent of a Victorian Freak Show - but with TOP 10 HITS I wanted to remind people that these talent show twerps aren’t talented at all, they’re just glorified karoke singers.
They can’t write songs, play a musical instrument or read music, they’re just parroting someone else’s songs - and the bottom line is they’re not trying to break into the industry to make music, they’re in it for the money and fame.
There may be 10 million tuning in to watch X Factor every week as another set of desperate fame-seekers do glamorised karoke and ruin song after song with their naff cover versions, but that also means there are 50 million British people with decent music tastes still out there, so I’m hoping that a few of them might like and be entertained by reading TOP 10 HITS!
What inspired you to write the book?
I just felt like writing some fiction. I was writing (and still write) lots of magazine features and I wanted to just write something fun for myself for a change, not following strict mag styles and commissions.
To begin with, I just thought I’d play around with a rough story idea, and maybe have a go at writing the sort of novel I’d like to read, it all grew from that little seed…
Essentially I wanted to write a ‘romantic black comedy thriller’ as I love romantic comedies and thrillers in equal measure.
Did you have dreams of musical stardom yourself?
Not at all. But I am quite passionate about music and felt strongly enough to write about knocking off crap boy bands and other manufactured artists…
It wasn’t hard though really - there are a lot of rubbish bands and fame-seeking singers around these days, aren’t there?
When did you first start writing?
I was a late developer. I was rubbish at English at school - got an ‘E’ in my GCSEs, didn’t do A-levels or go to uni - and I didn’t read books for pleasure until about four years after I’d left school and I went travelling for a year in Oz, NZ and Asia back in 1994. After that, I couldn’t stop reading novels, which lead me to writing a travel diary of sorts.
Back in Bristol, I retrained and got a job at Future Publishing in Bath, as a sub-editor at first, but I started writing magazine features and reviews of everything and anything to get my eye in - and because I just really wanted to write. I remained a senior sub editor but always wrote mag stuff (a fair bit of freelance too) when I could.
I’m now deputy editor on photography magazine PhotoPlus, and get to write more and more these days, which I still enjoy. As a freelancer I’ve recently written for The Sunday Times and do stuff for BBC and travel mags among other titles.
I didn’t actually start writing any fiction properly until TOP 10 HITS. It’s my first novel.
How long did it take you to write TOP 10 HITS?
On and off, about two years. When I knuckled down - and when I’d secured an agent but had only written half the book - I bashed out the last four-to-five chapters (and final two thirds of the book) in about three months. I really motored near the end.
It must have been challenging fitting it around a full-time job. How did you manage your time?
Challenging it certainly was. I just poured myself into writing the book but really looked forward to getting home from work every day and diving straight on my laptop to write the bugger. Weekends and my social life also revolved around my writing.
Every day I’d wake up thinking about the book, making notes or typing sections and changes I’d thought about in my sleep before work. Some lunchtimes I’d proof read printouts of my stuff, and after work I’d come home, and get stuck into writing, stopping briefly for dinner, then typing away until midnight most days. It’s surprising what you can get done when you don’t slump in front of the TV every night!
I became pretty obsessed with the whole thing - just ask my very understanding and beautiful fiancée - and talked about little else for far too long. I still do bang on about it too much probably, although it’s about the publishing side of things these days. But I think it does help to become incredibly dedicated and driven with your book, as that’s what it needs to get it finished.
I’m naturally no quitter so, if you’ve got that side to your personality, you may also have what it takes to write a book.
How many drafts did you go through before you decided it was ready to publish?
A fair few… TOP 10 HITS was in fairly good shape when my old agent sent it to publishers. I was fortunate as I’d had a couple of experienced magazine editor friends who read it and gave me honest/harsh feedback - which is what you need, you can’t improve it if people just tell you nice things about your writing.
After I’d edited it according to their suggestions, I’d then sub it again myself, then I’d get my fiancée to edit it too. She’s a completely natural sub editor and having a Masters in English Literature meant she was far knowledgeable about my use (or lack of!) of the English language and brilliant at pointing out ways to improve the plot and dialogue and so on.
After getting no joy with publishers last year, I left the manuscript alone for six months or so. Then I re-read, re-wrote and re subbed it twice all the way through. I chopped off about 11,000 words then, stuff I wasn’t as close to and knew it would help the plot flow better if I ditched it. The finished article’s about 155,000 words. Finally, before sending it to the printers, I got my fiancée to proof it one last time!
Proofing your book takes twice as long as you’d think, I found. Especially when you think, ‘Right, let’s change or remove this bit… aah, that means this happens here, and earlier he wouldn’t know that, and later he doesn’t need to do that.’ There’s always a bloody knock on effect, and it can really test your brain power and patience late at night, but it’s actually quite fun trying to remember how it all ties in together when editing bits out.
I was a sub-editor for five years so I know how to rewrite and sub stuff, but, I won’t lie to you, it’s ruddy hard subbing your own writing. My advice is: write a chapter, then sub it a month or two later. If you write it, then sub it a week later, you’ll be thinking ‘I can’t chop this bit out because I spent all last Wednesday night writing it!’
Are you a member of any writers’ groups or online forums?
Not really. I guess some people like having the support and group understanding of going through the same challenging process, but for me, I was happy with what I was doing and didn’t really seek any support through forums and so on.
There’s a lot of very helpful people out there online. That said, from working on magazines, I always take forums with a pinch of salt - there’s a hell of a lot of self-professed experts who want to be seen to be imparting their wisdom on forums, regardless of how inaccurate their advice might be.
Or from the brief exploration of writers forums I noticed there seemed to be a fair few frustrated, angry and bitter wannabe-published-authors out there ranting away! This is why proper writers’ websites like www.EssentialWriters.com are more important than ever.
Do you have to do all your own publicity?
Yep, and it’s part of the whole publishing wheel that I’m enjoying. It’s pretty full-on, but I just starting to get some coverage in local magazines. I’m about to start sending press releases and review samples of TOP 10 HITS to all the national papers, music and lifestyle magazines that might be interested as well as radio stations.
What’s next for Peter Travers?
I’m still up to my eyes in promoting the book, and I’m also going to approach a few publishers directly to see if they’re interested in TOP 10 HITS.
After that, have a break and enjoy reading the pile of novels I’ve been meaning to read for ages! Then, depending on how well TOP 10 HITS goes down, and if a nice, big publisher picks it up and runs with it, maybe, a bit later, I’ll pour some energy into carrying on the second novel I started writing a little while ago.
What advice would you give upcoming novelists?
Crack on. When people hear I’ve written a novel, so many journalist friends and people say to me ‘I’ve always wanted to write a book, I’ve this idea, but I’ve never… blah blah’. People are quick to put up their own barriers for reasons why they can’t write a book. Smash ‘em down and get stuck in.
Once you start writing you’ll find it’s not as hard as you thought - it’s at least twice as hard! But the bigger the challenge the bigger the rewards.
Come up with a story, an idea or just a premise you really believe in, with rounded characters (who will hopefully take on a life of their own) then just bosh out your book. Just go at it, and enjoy it all, the ups and the downs, the times when it flows and the times when you get stuck. If it’s meant to become a book, the rest with follow… if you’re lucky.
For more see www.petertravers.co.uk
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