Experiences of a Hybrid Author - Katherine Roberts Shares her Wisdom
I recently had the pleasure of meeting children's author, Katherine Roberts. This was a fascinating experience for me because, as well as being a very interesting person, Katherine has a wide variety of publishing experience. I asked Katherine if she'd mind giving me a written interview, so that I can share what I learned with my readers, and she kindly obliged.
Katherine is what's known as a hybrid author, meaning that some of her titles are traditionally published and others self-published.
You have written a variety of children's books over a number of years. Have all your books belonged to the same genre?
Yes and no. Yes, as in they all contain an element of fantasy - but this varies from book to book. I am the Great Horse is essentially a historical novel about Alexander the Great told by his horse, but touches on the legend of the Amazon warriors etc. The Seven Fabulous Wonders were a deliberate mixture of history and myth/magic - think Percy Jackson in a historical setting! The Echorium Sequence is genre fantasy, and Spellfall mixes a fantasy world with our modern world. The Pendragon books are obviously based on a legend, which is somewhere in the middle between history and fantasy and that's probably where I feel most at home.
The covers of your Pendragon series are beautiful. Where did they come from?
The artwork is by a New York artist called Scott Altmann, who does quite a few fantasy book covers.
The cover for Sword of Light, the first in Kaherine's Pendragon Legacy series
'Pendragon' sounds very Cornish and the area's rich in Arthurian legend. Has living in the West Country influence your work?
I think it must have done. I grew up in Cornwall, and we moved back to Devon when I was seven. Even when I left home, I only made it as far as Bath to go to University, and then I lived on the Welsh border for a while... and now I'm back in Devon. Driving past Glastonbury Tor so many times, and exploring Tintagel Castle as a child, means King Arthur and Merlin were always going to appear in my books at some stage. I'm only surprised it took them so long!
How has publishing changed since you saw your first book in print?
For a long while the industry didn't change much at all. Recently, ebooks have seized it by the throat and dragged it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. But the basics of publishing are the same... the author writes a story, and eventually that story reaches readers, who either love it or hate it. Books still need editing, proofing, great covers, distribution and promotion, and of these I think distribution is the biggest change. When I started in 1999, if the big chains did not stock your book you were pretty much dead as an author. Now, it is possible to reach thousands of readers online without ever having a book touch the shelf of a shop. Not saying it's easy... but certainly more possible than it was ten years ago.
What are the main differences between self and traditional publishing? Are they as distinct as indies tend to think?
See above. it's essentially the same process. But if you go it alone, you have to do all the other things as well as the writing, and this obviously means you write fewer books (unless you're superwoman).
I've heard it said that traditional publishers don't promote their authors unless they're already international megastars. But that's a myth, isn't it?
Well, I've heard it said that the amount of promotion a book gets from its publisher is in direct proportion to the size of the advance... but that might be a myth, too.
A publisher goes to a lot of expense when they take on a book - author's advance, editing, design, printing, warehousing, distribution, etc - so they're not just going to sit back and do nothing. It is true some books are more equal than others on a publisher's list, but I still think two lots of promotional effort (publisher and author) is better than one (author alone).
To what extent have you had creative control over the final text of your books?
Quite a lot. I have always been consulted closely during the editing process and have final say on the proofread. I think that's normal.
However, the author doesn't usually get much creative control over the cover, which can cause frustration in some cases.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am busy converting my Echorium Sequence titles into ebooks - actually only Crystal Mask and Dark Quetzal at the moment, since a small publisher bought the rights to Song Quest a couple of years ago and reissued the paperback but so far has not done the ebook. I have been promised that this will happen before the end of the year, (another form of frustration for traditionally published authors!)
If you could go back in time and give yourself some publishing advice, what would it be?
Hmm, I have a feeling any advice I could give my younger self probably wouldn't help her very much at all. Experience is not necessarily a good thing in this business. But I'd probably tell her "keep going - it'll happen" when she was contemplating burning Song Quest after yet another rejection letter.
Katherine in Malta, promoting Seven Fabulous Wonders
