Book Publishing Secrets with Simon Dillon Author of PHANTOM AUDITION

The spirit of Simon Dillon took human form in 1975, in accordance with The Prophecy. He kept a low profile during his formative years, living the first twenty or so of them in Oxford, before attending University in Southampton, and shortly afterwards hiding undercover in a television job. In the intervening years, he honed his writing skills and has now been unleashed on the world, deploying various short stories and novels to deliberately and ruthlessly entertain his readers. He presently lives in the South-West of England with his wife and two children, busily brainwashing the latter with the books he loved growing up.

Website:

https://simondillonbooks.wordpress.com/

Blog:

https://simondillonbooks.wordpress.com/

Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/UncleFlynn

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/simondillonbooks/

Book Info:

Small-time actress Mia Yardley, recently widowed wife of renowned actor Steven Yardley, discovers

her late husband’s secret acting diary. The diary details appointments made with a psychic medium, who advised Steven on which roles to take. It also raises questions about his mysterious and inexplicable suicide. Seeking answers, Mia speaks to the medium, but in doing so is drawn into an ever- deepening mystery about what happened to her husband during the final days of his life. Eventually, she is forced to ask the terrible question: was Steven Yardley murdered by a vengeful evil from beyond the grave?

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1689624302/ 

Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?

Simon Dillon: Why I decided to be an author is lost in the mists of time. I’ve written stories for as long as I can remember, and never stopped just because I left full-time education. I’ve written short stories, screenplays (shorts and features), and eventually settled on novels as my preferred form of writing.

As for this novel, there were two main sources of inspiration for Phantom Audition. Firstly, the idea of an actor taking advice on roles from a medium comes from the late, great Peter Sellers, who did exactly that in real life. In the novel, protagonist Mia Yardley’s late husband Steven, a famous actor, took a film role playing famous abstract artist Edward Bingley, who like Steven committed suicide in mysterious circumstances. When Mia discovers Steven took this role on the advice of a medium, she comes to suspect her husband may have buried himself in the role a little too much, to the point where supernatural forces were involved.

The second source of inspiration for Phantom Audition is A Fantastic Woman. This Chilean film, which won Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Oscars, might at first appear an odd choice as an influence on Phantom Audition. Nonetheless, it actually provided the initial spark that launched the idea for the novel. The story concerns a transgender woman dealing with the death of her partner, finding herself isolated and ostracised by his family. The film has a dreamlike, magical realist quality to it, and even at times becomes a bit like a thriller (there’s a mysterious key which her partner left, for example). Moreover, there is something of a descent into the underworld/death and rebirth metaphor in the film, a story arc which is very much echoed in my novel. One image particularly leapt out at me – that of a ghostly vision of the dead partner staring out at her from a crowded nightclub dance floor amid strobe lights. It’s an image I actually nicked, sorry, “paid homage” to.

Is this your first book?

Simon Dillon: No, I’ve written several other novels, including four others in the gothic mystery thriller/horror genre.

With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?

Simon Dillon: This novel was published by Dragon Soul Press, which traditionally published my previous two novels Spectre of Springwell Forest and The Irresistible Summons. It seemed natural for them to publish this one too, as it was in the same genre.

Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?

Simon Dillon: I have tried many times to get a mainstream publishing contract. I have had three agents and three near misses, and then out of frustration self-published a number of my works - including six children’s adventure novels, and a couple of other gothic mysteries. I had varying degrees of relative success with this. In retrospect, I really should have had a better editorial eye on some of that work. Always hire an editor.

Dragon Soul Press came across my path when they were looking for short story contributors, and after that one thing led to another, and Spectre of Springwell Forest became one of the first novels they published. Having an editor has made a huge difference, and I’ve loved the covers they’ve prepared for my work. The right cover is extremely important.

What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?

Simon Dillon: I may know a thing or two about telling a story, but I know very little about marketing. It’s a fiendishly difficult art which I find difficult to get right. Marketing is particularly vital if you are with a small independent publisher, and authors need to be prepared to do a lot of it on their own initiative. It’s an uphill struggle but I’m gradually learning.

As for the publishing industry as a whole, it’s harder than ever to get noticed, so aspiring authors have to develop a thick skin and just keep at it.

Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?

Simon Dillon: First prize is always a mainstream publishing contract but going with independents has benefits too. I was pleased with the speed at which my last three novels have been released - all in less than a year! I’m not sure that would have happened with a mainstream publisher.

What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Simon Dillon: Find a great ending and work backwards from that point. Don’t waste your time on anything less than an ending that you personally are absolutely blown away by.

Be aware of genre conventions and master them. Don’t break an honoured convention unless for this reason: to replace it with something better. Working within a formula is fine, but don’t be predictable. Agatha Christie worked within a formula, with consistently unpredictable results. Give the reader what they want, but not the way they expect it.

Develop a very thick skin and be prepared to keep learning over a very long period of time. The first three novels I wrote will (rightly) never see the light of day. After that, books I thought were brilliant when I first wrote them, I now see as considerably less impressive.

Also, just because you have a good idea, doesn’t mean there isn’t an even better, great idea waiting in the wings. Tunnel to find those few gems. Ninety percent of your ideas will range from mediocre to rubbish, so it’s worth sketching out multiple versions of scenes, characters, outlines, and so on. In the end, you’ll hit gold, but you have to keep at it.

Try not to grind an axe by being overly concerned with the “message” of your novel. You are an author, not a preacher, politician, or activist. Instead, simply concentrate on telling a good story with no other agenda. Whatever is important to you will then be inherent in the text. What’s more, your beliefs will come over far less finger-waggingly and far more convincingly.

Finally, writing is 1 percent talent, 99 percent hard work. If you are serious, you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time and be ruthlessly disciplined. But success is possible, if you keep at it.