Name: JosephB. Atkins
Book Title: Casey’s Last Chance
Genre:
hardboiled crime/mystery
Publisher:
Sartoris Literary Group
Find out more on Amazon
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?
Joe: As stated below, this is
not my first book so I’ve been an author for a while. However, I’ve wanted to
be a writer since my eighth-grade English class, when my teacher, Bill Watson,
a published writer and playwright himself, inspired me with tales of Edgar
Allan Poe, Jack London, and so on. After school, I’d go home to my room and churn
out Poe-like tales of horror, and they were pretty horrible all right, but it
was a start!
Is this your first book?
Joe: This is actually my third
published book. The first two were non-fiction, however. This is my second
novel although the first novel was never published.
With this particular book, how
did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you
choose this method?
Joe: I’ve published with a
small, independent publisher that specializes in books with Southern themes like
mine. I figured my book was probably too dark to be a candidate for a major
publisher, and besides I don’t have an agent. I looked for publishers with
interests in books like mine, got a few rejections and a couple close calls along
the way before finding my publisher.
Can you tell us a little about
your publishing journey? The pros and
cons?
Joe: I’ve been a journalist for
nearly 40 years, publishing in newspapers and magazines since the 1970s, and
getting a few short stories and a couple poems into print, too. Like most
writers, I’ve also got drawers full of rejections slips! Books came later in
life. My two non-fiction books were published with university presses, which in
turn put price tags on them that made them hard to sell commercially. I decided
I never wanted that to happen again. My first novel, actually a novella, was a
finalist in a national fiction contest, and I was sure that was my ticket to
publication and fame. After 40 rejections, however, I shelved it and started on
my second novel. That’s what many writers have done, including a good friend of
mine who’s a New York Times best-selling author. With
What lessons do you feel you
learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing
industry as a whole?
Joe: This may sound like a
cliché, but you’ve got to just keep hammering away. If you want to be a writer,
then you’ve got to be able to pick yourself up off the floor a thousand times,
dust yourself off, and go at it again. If you’ve been serious about your craft,
I feel there’s a publisher out there for you. You don’t want to be two ships
passing in the night, however. Study the publishers’ interests and rules, and,
by all means, make contacts. That’s what gets you off the over-the-transom pile
and onto the publisher’s desk!
Would you recommend this method
of publishing to other authors?
Joe: I’ve got writer friends
who all somehow found their own way to a publisher. My way was pretty long and
tortuous, but that’s not that unusual. For some it’s easier than for others. Living
in New York might help, but I don’t. Some good writers fall to the wayside
because they’re too stubborn, too fragile, or their egos get in the way. Be
open, willing to learn, and on the lookout for opportunities.
What’s the best advice you can
give to aspiring authors?
Joe: I just read this from
Charles Bukowski: “There is nothing more magic and beautiful than lines forming
across paper. … No reward is greater than the doing.” You’ve got to love
writing and in your heart know you’ve got no choice but to do it. I wouldn’t
trade the joy I’ve felt at my desk on certain early mornings or late nights
when some insight came shaping a character or a twist in the plot, and I just
knew it was right. In those moments, you say to yourself, “To hell if this ever
gets published, that’s just damned good!”
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