Art Samples

Music

Nightingale's original soundtrack by James Guymon, Vice President of the Composers' Guild of America, is available now for sampling and sale on iTunes and CD Baby.

About David Farland and Writing

Not only have you been a New York Times bestseller, but you’ve also won your share of awards with your writing.  Can you tell us a few?

With my first big short story, I won the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Gold Award for the best story of the year. That’s what got my career jump-started. My first novel, a curious blend of Latin American fantasy realism and cyberpunk, won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for “Best Novel in the English Language,” a title that I have always thought was a bit embarrassing. My latest novel won the Whitney Award for best novel of the year.

You always have quite a variety of experiences to talk about and it shows in your writing too. What kinds of jobs have you held?

When I was young I did all kinds of odd things. I picked crops, raised pigs and calves, caught night crawlers for fishermen, delivered newspapers, and sold produce door-to-door, all before I was eleven. Back in those days, it wasn’t illegal for a kid to work his tail off.

At eleven, I began bucking hay, moving irrigation pipe, and working for my father in his meat company. By the time I was sixteen, I was a journeyman meat cutter, then began helping to manage my parents’ grocery store. At nineteen, I went off to become a missionary, and the age of 22, I became a prison guard as I worked my way through college.

After that I became a prize writer, an editor of nonfiction, a fiction editor, a contest judge, a writing instructor, a video game designer and scripter, a film writer, and a movie producer.

I think I’m going to quit taking on new jobs, but the variety of experiences and perspectives has contributed to my writing.

What made you want to be a writer?

Reading great books. That’s how most of us writers start: we read a book that changes our life, and suddenly we want to begin creating them, too.

For me, the book was Lord of the Rings. I read it at age 16, then went down to the Grassroots Bookstore in Corvallis, Oregon and began reading anything similar. Within a few months, I ran out of fantasy novels, and I began to read science fiction.

About that time, I bought a typewriter and began creating my own works. I used to hide the manuscripts under my mattress so that my mother wouldn’t find them.

I understand you were a writing professor at Brigham Young University. Do you still teach writing at all?

I wish that I had more time to do it. I don’t have a major university nearby. I’ve been offered jobs, but I don’t want to have to travel too far, so I mostly teach seminars nowadays.

You can learn about them by going to my website at www.davidfarland.com. I teach a big seminar with some other New York Times bestsellers—Kevin J. Anderson, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint, Rebecca Moesta. We also invite in guest speakers. You can learn about that one by going to www.superstarsofwriting.com. Additionally, I’ll be putting out some of my writing manuals for sale online soon.

What is your writing day like?

I get up in the morning and go straight to work. I find that I write best in the early mornings—at say 5:00 A.M. I like to write in an easy chair, something comfortable, with my laptop in my lap. I try to take care of business, then zone in on my writing.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Collapse, mainly.

I also work out twice a day, and I like to fish and camp on occasion.

I still enjoy reading for fun, though I don't get to nearly as often as I like and I enjoy great films. But I can't turn off my consciousness. Even as I'm enjoying a great scene, I'm analyzing it, thinking about what makes it great, or how it could be better.

When I’m working out, fishing, or driving, I’m also thinking about my writing. So in a way, I'm always working until I collapse in bed.

The truth is, it's rare that a movie or a novel is so captivating that I lose consciousness of my surroundings and stop analyzing and start to enjoy it like I did when I was a kid. That's what I strive to create . . . a work so enthralling that even the most critical of us forget ourselves and let the story take us over in a childlike way.

Is it true that you set the Guinness Record for the World’s Largest Book Signing?

Yes, I did that on July 3, 1999, with a book called A Very Strange Trip. At the time it was the world’s largest book signing by a single author for a single novel. I can’t recall the exact number, but it was over 2000 copies in about four hours.

Other than sweating all over everything, it wasn’t too bad. Since we did it in Hollywood, I got kissed by a couple of beautiful television stars. That Kathryn Bell is much more beautiful in person than she looks on television!

A week after the signing my index finger suddenly cramped up and went straight. I couldn’t bend it for a couple of days. So I actually injured myself doing this.

Unfortunately, someone broke my record a few months ago. I’ll have to go see if I can set it again.

You’ve worked with some of the biggest franchises in the world: Star Wars and the Mummy in film, Starcraft and Xena in videogames.  But your connection to Twilight and Harry Potter is a bit more subtle.  Can you tell us about that?

There’s not much to tell. Stephenie Meyer took my writing class at BYU. That was about 2001, if I recall. We talked a bit outside of class about her goals as a writer, and her views, so a couple of years later, when she wrote Twilight, I was glad to see how well she had captured her vision. She was a brilliant young woman, very likeable, and she had a terrific, unique voice for a writer. I suspected that if she ever got engrossed in her writing, she’d do very well indeed.

With Harry Potter, I was writing for Scholastic back in 1998, creating little books for middle-grade readers. One of the senior editors loved my work and knew that I was a contest judge, so she asked me to look over their line and give my opinion on which book that they should push for the coming year.

They sent about thirty-five books and I looked them over. My wife and daughter both began reading and fighting-over Harry Potter, so I picked it up and began to read whenever I could sneak a peek.

I realized instantly that Rowling was a genius at audience analysis, so I urged my editors to push it hard. Apparently, the marketing department was worried that the book was “too long” for the middle-grade audience. It was also written at a grade level that was too high for its intended audience.

Neither of those things really mattered. I could see that this was a book that would appeal to an enormous demographic—male, female, old, and young. It wasn’t just for kids. I’m glad that Scholastic did put some muscle behind it.

You also seem to meet a lot of interesting people like George Lucas. Who else have you met through your writing?

Actually, I’ve worked for Lucasfilm, been to George’s ranch, and I’ve even gotten notes from him regarding works in progress, but we haven’t met.

I know plenty of writers, of course. I met Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov a few times, and I know a lot of people in the science fiction and fantasy field—Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson.

I’ve met a few people in film. One of my biggest thrills came last year when I went to China to work on a screenplay for a fantasy trilogy. I got to meet Jackie Chan, whom I’ve admired for decades. Then of course there was Mark Hamil (Luke Skywalker, from my favorite movie of all time).

Really, though, I don’t get to hobnob with the stars much.

I understand you like to go to Baja to write your novels and that you've just been to Germany to discuss a writing proposal. Do you have any stories about some of the places your writing has taken you to?

Too many to tell! I’m a strong believer that an author needs to see the world, so I’ve gone to China and England, Alaska, and Scotland to research novels. I also spent time in Tazmania and Australia with a movie. One book had me trekking with the pioneers across America.

For Nightingale, I took tours of the school at Tuacahn, visited the town where I have Bron living, Pine Valley, Utah and even based his home on a ranch there.

I also set part of this novel in the bayous in Louisiana, and of course I took a trip there and spent a couple of nights in the swamp. It was a blast. I couldn’t believe how many frogs were out croaking at night. It was as if someone had scored a touchdown at a football game, and tens of thousands of frogs were cheering at the tops of their voices. Alligators were everywhere. I even grabbed the tail of one as it swam by, and nearly capsized my boat.

But of course the wildest place I’ve ever been was Hollywood! Don’t let the glamour fool you, that place is as dangerous as a gator-infested swamp.

So, you’ve trained a lot of very successful authors, a lot of New York Times #1 bestsellers like Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson.  Do you have any tips for new authors?

Reams of it! About four years ago, a writer said, “You know what I need? I need you to come over to my house every day and kick me in the pants so that I can keep inspired to write.”

That sounded absurd, but then I realized . . . well, I could do it, sort of, and after a few months, I’ll have enough material to write my book on storytelling.

So every day, or sometimes every few days if life gets too busy, I send out a little snippet of writing advice by email to thousands of people around the world . . . maybe one or two pages. It's called The Daily Kick in the Pants.

Recently I found that I had some 4000 pages of text. It’s not a book on writing; it has turned into an encyclopedia!

How can I get the Daily Kick?

Simple, all you have to do is sign up on my web site at www.davidfarland.com. It’s free.

This is a three-part question: First, if you were an emerging author today, what would you do to break into writing?

Learn to write well enough to establish credibility. You do that by winning contests and writing awards, getting cover quotes from reviewers, or publishing in traditional venues, such as magazines or with book publishers. But you’re going to have to write fast in this new market if you’re going to build an audience.

Second, most new writers are focused on just getting a book accepted by a publisher, but they soon find out there is a huge difference between being published and becoming successful enough to make a good living at writing. So my question is, what are some of the secret strategies you've tried over the years to become highly successful?

I wish that I knew of some “secret” strategies. You work hard. You write well. You market what you write. Then you start over again.

I teach writing workshops that are a week long, and there I might advise you on outlining a book, or how to rewrite it. But to cover everything that I know about writing—that’s a course that would take eight hours a day and would last for months.

Writing as an art is sort of static. There’s a certain body of knowledge. There’s been a lot written about the craft of writing, and if you search long and hard you can learn it all.

But when it comes to marketing your work, that’s trickier. The marketing world is always changing, and a strategy that made someone millions last week won’t work at all tomorrow.

And finally, recognizing that the world of publishing for tomorrow is going to be very different from what it was even three years ago, what would you do to shortcut from new writer to super success today? 

The average writer takes seven years of practice from the time that they begin writing to the time that they publish.

You can cut that down to just a few months if you throw yourself into it wholly. I’d begin taking writing workshops from people who know what they’re doing, and also begin networking with other writers.

I believe that most people can do it, but it requires a tremendous amount of dedication, and the writer who tries it has to have a lot of faith in himself or herself. Having a support structure—parents or a spouse—is also really valuable.

You've had your books published in dozens of languages, mentored some of the great authors of our day, been praised by critics, received some of the highest honors an author can be awarded, but like all people you must have some dreams that have not been fulfilled. So what drives you to do better? What goals have continued to elude you?

I’ve done well as a bestseller, but of course I’ve never sold in numbers like some of my students have. In part, that’s because I’ve always written books that were for smaller audiences. If I wanted to write for money, I might have tried thrillers by now.

In a way, I suppose I do what I do because I love the kind of stories that I’m telling, not out of any desire for wealth.

Even if you’re only writing out of love for the art, though, with each book you struggle to become better. You keep setting the bar higher, until some day, you’re out there jumping in the field and you realize that no one else can leap as high as you can.

Ultimately, I think everyone wants to succeed, to be the best that they can be. I’d like to write a book that people will read for enjoyment fifty or a hundred years from now, or maybe two hundred years from now.

With the videogames, I still have a few minor dreams. I have a company that wants me to create a big MMORPG, and I’ve agreed to work on that.

But the big thing is film. I just finished writing the screenplay for The Runelords, and I’m very jazzed about that. It could be a huge film if it’s done right.

Out of the 50 novels and anthologies you've had published, eight or more of those have gone on to become NYT Bestsellers. I'm curious to know if the books you've liked the best were the ones the public liked the best.

I have remarkably mainstream tastes. The books that I’ve liked best—things like On My Way to Paradise, The Runelords, Of Mice and Magic or In the Company of Angels, have all done well—either as bestsellers or award winners. But now, far and away, my favorite book is my new book Nightingale, which has just been released. This is embarrassing to say, but when I read the book the funny parts still make me laugh. I cry when the story cries. I sweat when the plot is tense. I think it will resonate with everyone else who reads it, too.

About Nightingale

I understand that before you ever started to write Nightingale, you set out to write a book that would be considered a classic forty years from now. Did you achieve your goal?

I hope so. We’ll know forty years from now, when the people who read it today look back and say, “Gosh, you know one of my favorite books of all time was Nightingale.”

The truth is that great works aren’t recognized immediately. If you look back at the reviews for Dune, no one at the time raved about it and called it the greatest work of science fiction ever. That happened twenty years later. The same is true of Lord of the Rings. It sold poorly at first, with a print run of only 1000 copies in hardcover here in America. It took more than 55 years before anyone attempted to make a real film based on it. 

What is Nightingale about?

That’s hard to answer without giving spoilers. It’s about a boy named Bron, who dreams only of becoming a great guitarist.

He was abandoned by his mother at birth, then raised in foster homes. Throughout his life he’s been recognized as both “gifted” and “strange,” so much so that he’s rejected by one foster family after another.

But Bron is more determined than broken by all of this. So when he’s ejected from home at the age of sixteen, he finally gets a chance for a normal life with a woman who teaches guitar at the Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts, in Southern Utah.

His teacher recognizes Bron for what he is—a creature not quite human, something that she calls a Nightingale—and suddenly Bron is thrust into a strange and deadly conflict as he begins to unravel the mystery surrounding his birth.

In Nightingale you talk about a lot of interesting types of people—“Memory Merchants,” “Draghouls” and “Dream Assassins.” You have a wealth of extraordinary ideas for this book. Where did they come from?

I often feel that too many books lack imagination. The novels aren’t “novel.”

When I read, I like to be wowed, to be transported by a story that takes me to another world, fills me with a sense of wonder. So I wanted to create something very robust for this book, a whole new world, in a way.

As a child, I lived in the woods in Oregon, and I loved to read about mammoths, and bigfoot, and all kinds of oddities. I remember thinking when I was eight, “Wouldn’t it be neat if there were really Neanderthals still alive? I mean, imagine it: a tribe of Neanderthals living in the remote wilderness of Siberia, or high in the mountains of Tibet!”

Of course, we know that Neanderthals and humans lived side-by-side for hundreds of thousands of years, and recently we’ve found evidence that at least two other groups of humanoids lived with them at the same time.

So the questions became, “What if there are some other kind of humanoid creatures already among us?” “What if they are more powerful than us?” “

After that, I began to think about what kinds of abilities such people might have, and the story just took off.

The character of Bron in this book, how did you create him?

To some degree, when a writer creates a character, that character is always a piece of himself.

Most teens go through a period where they feel like outsiders. When I was Bron’s age, I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere at all. I had my artistic tendencies—my painting, sculpting, and the novel manuscript hidden under my bed.

But I felt so . . . emotionally distant from the world. I used to watch people and think to myself, “You know, those humans have some interesting habits. . . .”

So that’s the genesis of Bron, I think, my own feeling as if I were outside of humanity, looking in.

You’ve had a lot of success writing for adults, why write for young adults?

I’ve always believed that great stories are for everyone—toddlers, teens, grandparents.

My very first award-winning story was told from the point of view of a teen, and for some reason I keep feeling that I want to get back to my roots.

Besides, on one level, I’m not an adult. I’m a teenager trapped in an aging, rotting body. Even though I’m maturing and aging physically, I haven’t grown old emotionally.

Our minds trick us into thinking we’re eternally young.

Beyond that, many of the best novels of our time are written for teens. I loved Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, and many others. Even classics like Lord of the Rings and Dune were written with younger readers in mind.

So I think I’ve always wanted to sort of “join the literary conversation.”

As a writer, what did you have the most fun writing about in Nightingale? What would you think the reader will have the most fun reading about?

I had so much fun on so many levels, that I really just “zoned out” on this novel. I started writing about Bron’s mother, and her back-story practically created itself.

When I began to create Bron, his own story was so powerful that I felt stunned. I’ve had a couple of people who were raised in foster care tell me that his tale was “too hard” for them to read.

Then I began to work on Olivia’s first chapter. She’s an amalgam of some of my favorite teachers and mentors. Really, for me, the characters came alive so quickly that it was just a joy to work with.

Usually, when I create a novel like this, it’s the world that comes alive initially. But I find myself even now realizing things about “Bron’s people” that didn’t come out in the first nine drafts. Now that the world has taken shape, I feel like it has become a really powerful novel.

So reaching the point where everything gelled was fun for me.

Each reader is different, though. I’m not sure if they’ll love the adventure more, or the sense of wonder, or the budding romance. There’s a sort of manic energy that develops in the novel, and I’m sure that a lot of people will respond to that, or the horror.

I’ve already had people write to me to tell me about their favorite lines and characters, and it seems that each reader finds something different. I look forward to seeing how it all settles out.

Do you think Nightingale will turn into a major franchise?

I believe that if you write well and promote well, eventually your work will gain an audience. I believe in this novel—and its future—with a passion.

I did have one of the major literary agents want to take it out and sell it in New York, so I could have gone with a huge publisher, but in the long run, that looked like a bad proposition.

Nightingale has already received high praise, and I’ve heard that there is a movie offer before it was even released. Do you think a film will be made?

A wealthy producer who read the novel immediately wanted to pick up the film option. However, we haven’t signed any paperwork yet. I’d like to give it a few months to begin building an audience before making a commitment.

You see, in order to get a movie made, you need to establish an audience. A lot of books get picked up as soon as they’re released and then the producers hold on to the rights for a couple of years and see if the book takes off. It’s sort of like investing in stock to a startup company.

I think that this book will take off, but ultimately that decision comes down to the readers. If enough people like the book, if they tell their friends about it and convince them to read it too, then the book gets noticed. It builds.

At a certain point, the decision becomes a no-brainer for the studios. In fact, at some point the studios begin fighting over who “gets” to make the movie. That’s the position I want to be in as an author.

Will there be a sequel to Nightingale?

There will be four books in the series. The next one is called Dream Assassin. I'm not allowed to reveal what happens in it, but I can’t wait to get to work on it!

At the end of the day, when a reader closes the book on Nightingale, what do you want them to take away?

As an author, when someone finishes one of my books, I want the reader to feel fulfilled for having read it. I want them to understand the world more completely, to feel . . . elevated, giddy, excited. If it's not too much to hope for, I'd like the story to stay in their mind, affect them for months or even years to come and even change their lives for the better.

I think ideally, that's what every writer ultimately wants—to contribute something good to the world consciousness. That's what I'm trying for here. It's more than just a great story.

Have you ever read a book and wanted to tell the world about it? I once went out and spent all of my money to buy hardcover copies of a novel by Gene Wolfe so that I could give them to my friends. That’s how I’d like my readers to feel. I’d like them to want to go out and celebrate for having read the book.

About the Story Writing Contest

You’re starting a writing contest, why is that?

I started writing for prize money in college on the advice of my university writing professor, Eloise Bell. I entered a story and won 3rd place in a contest. That inspired me to try harder, and within about 18 months, I won the grand prize for the Writers of the Future. That led to a three-novel contract with Bantam books.

So writing for contests launched my career, but I don’t see many of them being sponsored lately.

I love writing. I think that it’s one of the most exciting and interesting jobs a person could have. So I want to help inspire other artists to create.

What kind of writing contest is it?

This is a short story contest, just ten pages. It can be set anywhere, any time, though it would be nice if it were set in the world of the Nightingale.

How is this contest different from others?

First, I’d really like to promote it to younger writers. I’d like to see teens enter the contest who may not have thought that writing can be a realistic choice for a career. I’d like to help them make their dreams come true.

What opportunities will the winner receive?

The winner will get $1000 cash, and will have his or her story published in the electronic versions of Nightingale. More importantly, East India Press will invite the top authors to submit novels for publication. East India Press may choose to release these as enhanced books with illustrations and soundtracks, audiobooks, e-books, and as hardcover novels.

If the winner does publish with East India Press, I’ll help them push their books toward bestseller status by giving them guidance on a level that other editors aren’t trained to do.

Where can I find out about the contest?

You can learn all about it, and even find an article on how to win it at www.nightingalenovel.com.

How does one become a successful prize writer?

First, you have to be aware of the contest deadlines, and then enter before the contest ends. You’d be surprised at how many people want to win contests that they never seem to enter.

Beyond that, you need to familiarize yourself with what makes a good story, how it can be told well, and how to analyze your audience. A lot of those concerns are addressed in an article on my website at www.nightingalenovel.com. I don’t believe in just telling you that I’ve started a contest. I want to tell you how to win any writing contest.

A New Kind of Publishing Company

You've been a full-time professional writer for twenty-four years. Where do you think the future of publishing lies in order for new and even established writers to be successful?

The real future of publishing is in enhanced novels—books that combine text with illustrations, music, videogames, movie clips, and so on.

They’re more powerful than the written word alone, more interesting. As my agent put it, “Enhanced novels are the total future of publishing.”

E-books will sell, but since anyone can create one now, everyone will. It’s estimated that three million people will self-publish next year.

So readers are going to have to try to discover ways to identify the good novels from the poor.

That’s where “enhanced book publishers” will come into the fore. With my work in bestselling books, games, and movies, it gives me some unusual qualifications for doing this. My partner at East India, Miles David Romney, is a musician, artist, technologist and producer, and has been a major player in making online publishing profitable over the last decade. He founded a company called Radiate Media (formerly Matchbin), which now publishes over 1,500 print newspapers online. They've been known to create over a million dollars in new revenue in a single year, for a print paper moving into digital. In fact, they've just purchased a piece of Nokia : they are growing quickly. Another one of his companies, a new-media production company called Spork Labs, handled production of the enhanced novel. East India is a natural extension of his experience in online publishing and new media. Between us, we have complementary expertise that make an effort like East India possible.

With that, we hope to create a new art form, one that has more depth, one that’s more engrossing, than the traditional novel.

For example, my enhanced book version of Nightingale has a 45-minute soundtrack inspired by the book, written by James Guymon, Vice President of the Composers' Guild of America. It’s awesome, and I think it will really help readers connect to the story on an emotional level.

The illustrations are done in a way so that readers can try to decide which professional illustrator most closely catches their personal vision. There are more than a hundred illustrations and animations in the book, provided by a variety of artists each with his own vision, so as to provide fodder for the reader's imagination, without providing a singular, authoritative aesthetic that may short-circuit the imaginative process.

Then of course there’s the audiobook feature. We have an actor who is fantastic with character voices and accents. Add in the sound effects and the background music, and you’ve got a really great audio version.

The enhanced novel will be much more powerful than the written book, and in three or four years, I expect that most of our bestsellers will be in this new form.

But there’s one more feature that’s intriguing. The enhanced novel gives readers the ability to connect with the author on a whole new level. For example, I’ve got interviews videotaped that go on for an hour, along with notes on how I created the story that can be accessed at strategic points in the book. This annotation feature is like having the author in the room while you’re reading, so that if you want, you can learn more about the book. We've even included reader comments, so that readers can share their impressions.

As an author, that lets me develop a closer relationship with a reader than ever before. I have a lot of fans in South Africa, India, Australia, and Europe that I’ve never had a chance to meet. Now, in a sense, they get to meet the author, just as if they went down to the local bookstore for a signing.

Why would a multiple New York Times bestselling author choose to leave the New York Publishing Industry and start his own company?

The publishing industry is a mess right now. The major publishers are having a hard time figuring out how to make money with paper books, when everyone is beginning to go digital.

That alone wouldn’t entice me to leave New York publishing. I feel a lot of loyalty toward my publishers, but with the publishers losing money, they have only one place to get more—from us authors.

Given this, the deals that New York Publishers are offering right now are ugly. For an electronic book, they’re offering only 25% of the “net” monies received. This means that they can charge the author for overhead, so that the “net” they define might turn out to be nothing at all.

Added to that is the fact that a lot of publishers are being accused of holding onto the money that they owe, either by falsifying sales records, or claiming rights to out-of-print books, or whatever. I’ve seen evidence that would lead me to believe that some publishers are only paying for 5% of actual sales. Other publishers are using dirty accounting tricks to wrest money from authors in ways that have been used in Hollywood for years.

So even if the publishers owe money, some aren’t paying. In that kind of environment, who would want to publish with them? No, the better question is, “Why in the world would you want to?”

The agents aren’t helping the matter. Many of them are offering to become their authors’ publishers. But that would be illegal. It creates a conflict of interest with your would-be agent, as pointed out by super-agent Robert Gottlieb in Publisher’s Weekly in July of 2010. Surprisingly, though, some top agents in the field are still adopting this tactic.

So at East India Press we’re creating a whole new business model, one that will allow authors to bypass both traditional publishers and agents.

In this economy, it’s going to be tough, but we’re going to offer the authors much, much more than traditional publishers do.

You see, my goal isn’t to be the world’s richest publisher. My goal is to force the industry to change, to begin treating writers as partners instead of as throwaway widgets.

What is going to make your company, East India Press, stand out from other companies?

We’re starting a publishing company that promotes books in multiple formats. Old-style publishers just sell paper books.

With our enhanced novels, we’ll be investing in art, animation, film clips, videogames, sound tracks, and commercials for each book, much the way that publishers in the past had to invest money for printing and advertising for a major release. But these books will be released onto iPads, tablets, and smartphones instead of into stores.

But we’re going much further. We’re going to put the books out as electronic novels, audiobooks, and into hardcover paper formats, too.

We’re going to put a lot of energy into marketing in new ways, without forgetting the old.

In short, we’re going to promote the novel in every way possible. In the past, a lot of authors have had great books saddled with ugly covers, poor distribution, and no marketing campaign. We aren’t going to have “lead authors” who get lots of push and “mid-list authors” who get nothing. Every author that we accept—which will be limited, of course—will be promoted to the best of our ability.

We intend to lead the industry in this new era.

Is East India Press currently accepting manuscripts?

Yes, you can go to www.eastindiapress.com to find out about our submission guidelines.