Q&A with Jamie Wilson

Q&A with 2014 Wordfest Writer in Residence

Jamie Wilson is a communications and IT support professional with first-hand knowledge and experience in e-book self-publishing. He is the 2014 Wordfest Writer in Residence, and is available to consult with aspiring writers on the process of creating, editing, formatting and publishing original work in digital form such as e-books and other new media (from February to April 2014). In this short Q&A, Jamie shares his outlook on self-publishing, new technology and the writing life.

Jamie, tell us about what it’s like to self-publish a book electronically.

Having both print published under contract and self-published electronically, I can say there’s more of a learning curve with the latter. E-publishing is still in it’s infancy, and there isn’t a lot of help out there to guide you through it. There are a lot of people offering to help for a high price! I found myself navigating the web days on end for information and resources.

If you’re at all web-savvy, you should be able to identify the legitimate sites. I think the biggest part was being self-reliant. Writers are generally pretty independent people, so it’s not a stretch to move from the keyboard to the publisher role. If you have a background in marketing or advertising, then it’s going to help. I found there are many ways to get the word out there, without having to drop a lot of cash on a professional marketer or campaign.

What do you like about writing? What do you not like?

I enjoy the construction of the work very much. I enjoy it in the same way a gardener enjoys seeing his efforts pay off with beautiful plants, or an architect see his building take shape. Seeing a germ of a story idea grow, flesh out (often in unexpected ways!) and mature gives me a lot of satisfaction. The part i love best, however, is the reaction of others to the finished work. A great part of art is in the experience of the audience. I suppose I don’t like how little we get paid! As a society, we undervalue artists. Society is focused on monetary return, and doesn’t see the value of investing in the collective psyche. The plough horse is discouraged from looking at the stars.

Tell us about your experiences with new technologies and how you apply these when writing, editing, publishing and promoting your work.

I’ve always been a tekkie person, so a lot of my experience has been applying what I already know, but in different ways. During the writing process, they’re just tools to get words on the page. Beyond that, the biggest learning curve was on how to use social media to market and build an audience base. I found it as helpful at the pre-writing stage (e.g., I used Twitter as a public notepad of sorts), and it allowed me to discuss themes and ideas from the book after it was published. I think it would have been more effective to build up a Facebook presence before publishing, as it creates a client base before the product is ready.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on a sort of mystery novel. It’s not a police procedural. The first chapter is the aftermath of the event, and the final chapter reveals the killer and victim. In between, are three stories, with characters growing up and showing their evolution into the roles they each play in the event. It’s as much about how society creates victims and victimizers, and the role of nature vs. learned behaviour. I’m also working on a second edition of my last book. Doing updates, more edits, and adding illustrations.

How do you combat writer’s block?

I don’t worry about it. I think writer’s block is a learned behaviour. We’re used to writing for deadline in school and succeeding with last-minute pressure work. So we’ve trained ourselves to block out any other process. The more pressure we put on ourselves to write on a schedule, the more it resists. If I don’t feel like writing (or am having trouble deciding what to write), I’ll take a break and do something else. Bake a cake, work on a painting, even just go for a walk.

Most of my foundational writing (the basic outline and facts) takes place in my head before I sit down. Doing other activities usually will get me past a block, because it allows my subconscious to work on the problem while my conscious self focuses somewhere else. One other trick I’ve used is to take a laptop out in pubic, watch people, and imagine the story of their individual lives. Where are they going? Why do they have that expression? What were they like as children and what made them the adult they are? My project may never use the little stories this creates, but it gets my brain on track.

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