Creating audience participation in the writing process

There's nothing better than happening upon a novel that so thoroughly absorbs you that you feel part and parcel of the world that the writer has created. Not only do you empthasise with the characters he has created but your senses work overtime as you can almost see, smell, touch, hear and even taste the environment which they inhabit.

How more involving would it be if you, as the putative reader, could have input into the lives of those characters at an earlier stage in their development; a chance to work with the writer to shape the way they act and feel. Of course, writing will always be a largely solitary process and the plot and characterisation could not become the work of a committee, but if a writer is able to involve his readers at an earlier stage then the ability to create a community for his work could become a real possibility as well as delivering a finished piece that already tapped into the interests of a reading group.

I have just pressed the button on a crowd funding project for the publication of my new novel, Micah Seven Five. The process intrigues me; not just for the obvious reason of helping to support the costs of bringing the novel to publication and, therefore, a wider audience but because, hopefully, it will make anyone who becomes involved feel they have a sense of stake in its success. But there's more to it than that. My hope is that anyone interested enough to pledge to this project could form part of a community to feed into and feedback on future projects. I don't anticipate a stage where we have "writing on demand" - where the community suggests plot ideas and I merely get on with them because as a writer there needs to be an emotional attachment to the subject if the end piece is going to be authentic. But there has to be a way of utilising this digital world to bring writer and reader closer together. 

If you would like to take a look at the crowd funding page for my new novel, click here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2051400933/micah-seven-five-a-new-novel

Let the reader be the arbiter of quality

Most writers, if the truth be told, continue to pursue acceptance of their work by the world's literary agents because being published in the traditional way continues to infer some suggestion of quality and legitimacy upon the work. The reality, of course, having read as many disappointing books as I have inspiring ones - all published conventionally- is that there is little that guarantees quality purely because of the way the novel has been brought to market.

Indeed so diverse are our collective tastes for art, culture, music and literature, it is an odd notion that we should leave those decisions in the hands of a comparative few, albeit very well qualified individuals, around the world. Not only that, it stifles creativity which, by any measure, we should be encouraging to flourish. As many an agent's email or letter has said to me, their decisions are subjective. This being the case, surely the only arbiter of quality must be the reader and our work, as writers, should live or die according to how well we please, thrill, amuse, inspire or otherwise engage our readers.

Terri Giuliani recently wrote a really interesting piece in The Huffington Post on the explosion in self-publishing and the rise of the ebook, sales of which most expect to overtake the printed form this year. She speaks, rightly, of how self publishing has come of age,of how independent authors take more seriously their responsibility to deliver work of a certain standard and quality. She speaks also of how the infrastructure of the self-publishing sector has developed at a faster pace than traditional publishing and threatens its position of hegemony. In what is becoming in all aspects of life a rapidly changing, digitally-led world, the notion of working through the agent process, the majority of whom still won't accept submissions by email, suggests that publishing could go the way of roll-film cameras that didn't see, or didn't want to see, the advent of digital cameras staring them in the face. Too many authors have now established themselves through the independent sector to believe that its rise will continue to be relentless. 

Traditional publishing needs to find a way of embracing and encouraging the many very talented independent authors across many many genres if it is to remain relevant. As soon as the marketing infrastructure available to independent authors has greater reach and becomes more accessible, it will be difficult to see the appeal of the traditional route.

And to those who would argue that the market would be flooded with sub-standard work, I say this: at the end of the day, the reader will be the arbiter of quality. If we produce work that appeals and entertains and deserves to be read - however it has been published - it will be so, and if it doesn't then the market will quickly find it out and it will fade quietly away. All we need is for the stigma of self publishing - which is propagated by a minority in the conventional sector seeking to preserve a vested interest and retain a sense of superiority - to be lifted and the opportunities open to both writers and readers would be truly transformed.