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Jun
3
Martin Millar on his new novel, Lonely Werewolf Girl
Posted in: UKSFBN Talks To on 3rd June 2007 by UKSFBN admin
Martin Millar, author of a number of novels, including Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me, The Good Fairies of New York and Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving - as well as the Thraxas novels (under the name Martin Scott), the first of which won him the World Fantasy Award - has just released his new novel, Lonely Werewolf Girl, under the self-managed publishing imprint Meadow and Black.
The novel's cover has been drawn by 2000AD artist Simon Fraser, and the book is available from all the usual outlets, including Amazon.co.uk, as well as from the author's website, www.martinmillar.com.
We got in touch with Martin to ask him a few questions about the new book and to quiz him on his decision to handle the publishing side of things himself.
UKSFBN: Can you give us a quick introduction to Lonely Werewolf Girl? What was
your inspiration for the story?
Martin Millar: "Lonely Werewolf Girl concerns the troubling events in the life of Kalix MacRinnalch, a 17 year old werewolf. Kalix's family are the rulers of the MacRinnalchs, a very large clan of Scottish werewolves. Having attacked the Thane of the clan, Kalix flees to London where she's pursued by her family, and also a guild of werewolf hunters.
"So it's a werewolf book. But it's largely concerned with loneliness and friendship, the same as much of my other writing. The MacRinnalch werewolves are not given to mindless violence, or losing control of themselves, even when they transform, so they can integrate with society. Kalix, unfortunately, because of her family history, is too troubled to integrate with anyone.
"Having an entire clan of werewolves to write about, the book has a lot of characters in it. At 560 pages it's the longest book I've ever written, by some distance. By my previous standards it's an epic. And in case I've made it sound to peaceful, there is quite a lot of werewolf-on-werewolf violence in the book.
"At 560 pages it's the longest book I've ever written, by some distance.""To some extent the book was inspired my grief over the ending of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After seven years of very dedicated Buffy watching, I missed it badly. Lonely Werewolf Girl doesn't take any story or character inspiration from Buffy - and there aren't any vampires in it - but it does take place in a similar sort of world."
UKSFBN: We understand that you've published this title under your own Meadow & Black imprint? What advantages do you think there are for an established author in publishing their own work?
Martin Millar: "More money and more control. If I was offered a huge advance by a very large publisher, I'd probably still go for it. But as that seemed unlikely to happen, I didn't see the point, any longer, of going with a small independent publisher. I like these small indie publishers. They've done me good service in the past and worked hard on my behalf.
"However I now feel I can do everything they can do myself, and make more money. If the book sells at all well, I stand to make a good deal more than I would have by selling it to a publisher for a standard royalty.
"On the matter of editorial control, I've never been heavily edited. After sixteen books or so, I think I have as good an idea of what is required as any editor would have (others may disagree...) So I've had complete control over the content, the cover, the layout, everything, and I like that.
"An unexpected problem I encountered, when talking to some large publishers, is that certain editors considered it a problem as to whether the book might be 'adult' or 'young adult.' Which makes a big difference to them, apparently. I think this is quite foolish. I don't really believe it's a distinction at all, these days. This is exactly the sort of tiresome thinking you can avoid when you take control yourself."
UKSFBN: How have you solved the main problems of distribution, sales representation, marketing etc?
Martin Millar: "Everything has been helped because a new edition of The Good Fairies of New York was recently published by Soft Skull, in America and Britain. This is doing well and it's made life easier.
"I wouldn't advise anyone to self-publish if they don't have a distribution deal."""Distribution hasn't been a problem because Turnaround are doing it. They've distributed most of my books published by other people so they seemed quite happy to distribute this one. This is important. I wouldn't advise anyone to self-publish if they don't have a distribution deal.
Another thing that's made the process not too difficult is that I still have a good agent. They've made some foreign sales of Lonely Werewolf Girl already, though I won't name the publishers, as I haven't signed the contracts yet.
"While the distribution and representation is fine, publicity is something that's not so easy to do on your own. I don't have a great many journalistic contacts. Still, I've managed not badly, and done some press interviews which will be appearing soon.
"Also, I'm a great enthusiast for internet publicity. Say what you like about MySpace, I've found that in terms of feedback, getting in touch with people, selling books, advertising and so on, it's a really big help. With MySpace and Blogger, my internet sales and publicity have grown in a way I've never managed before in ten years of having my own website."
UKSFBN: Will we see any more Thraxas books in the near future? If any of the original series went out of print and the rights reverted to you, would you consider bringing them out as Meadow & Black editions?
"If Lonely Werewolf Girl goes well, it's possible I'd publish Thraxas myself."Martin Millar: "Thraxas is a problem. It was supposed to happen that Baen, the American publisher, was going to publish three new Thraxas books. (I have a draft of the first of these written) However, this deal has become jammed somewhere between my agents and the publishers. They can't come to an agreement, and I'm starting to doubt they ever will. If Lonely Werewolf Girl goes well, it's possible I'd publish Thraxas myself."
UKSFBN: Judging by your blog, and the Simon Fraser cover for Lonely Werewolf Girl, you seem to be a bit of a comics fan. Is this a medium that you'd be interested in writing for?
Martin Millar: "I was a really big comic fan as a youth. While I've never stopped liking them, I'm not really in touch with the modern comic world. I did do a short series of comics - 9 issues - some years ago, with Simon Fraser - Lux and Alby Sign On and Save the Universe. That was collected into a graphic novel. I still get positive feedback about that, and so does Simon. We have continual plans to bring it back into print, and also to do something else together, but we both seem too pre-occupied with other thins to actually bring it about.
"Really, I'd like to write another comic, and I will do it some time, either with Simon or somewhere else."
UKSFBN: What other projects - written or otherwise - are you working on at the moment?
Martin Millar: "Possibly Thraxas, and possibly not. At the moment I'm working on another book about Kalix, my Lonely Werewolf Girl. Also, I recently wrote a story for Skin Two (well-known fetish magazine) and that came out so well I'm wondering about writing more. Millar the sex-author would be something of a departure, but I feel I may have a talent for it.
"These projects, however, may have to be postponed for a little while. The new Tomb Raider game, the anniversary edition, arrived in the post today, so I have to play it. Work is temporarily suspended while I get to grips with Lara's new adventure..."
Martin's website, www.martinmillar.com and his MySpace page contain everything you might want to know about the author and his work, and he writes a blog over at martin-millar.blogspot.com, wherein you'll learn all about the trials and tribulations of an avowed rhubard crumble addict and Arsenal fan.
Lonely Werewolf Girl is available now from the aformentioned Amazon.co.uk and discerning bookstores everywhere.
Source: Martin Millar
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Tagged With: book news | fantasy | horror | indie press | interview | Martin-Millar | Meadow-and-Black | self-publishing | Thraxas
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[...] him up: In an interview about his latest book, Lonely Werewolf Girl, Martin Millar talks about wanting to write some comics: UKSFBN: Judging by [...]
iv read this book and its really good when i was reading i found it hard to put it down :) i love the way martin millar told kalix storey through different characters :):)
was really good