Interview with Deborah Durbin

Freelance writer, journalist and author Deborah Durbin has taken time out from her busy schedule to chat to 'Strictly' about her career and her new book So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer, which is out today (March 29)

Q: WHEN AND WHY DID YOU BECOME A FREELANCE WRITER?
A: Up until I had my second daughter I pretty much flitted from one job to another – I don’t much like working for other people because it’s always in the back of my head that they are earning more money than me! When my second daughter was born I decided I wanted to work for myself, so enrolled with the London College of Journalism and took a diploma with them. Once I had qualified I started out submitting articles to local newspapers and then to magazines. That was almost 17 years ago and I haven’t stopped.

Q: YOU ALSO WRITE NOVELS, SO WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF WRITING?
A: Because I trained as a journalist, journalism writing is what I’m best at. I love the whole process of researching a subject that I know nothing about, interviewing people and submitting. I also love pitching to editors. It’s almost like having a challenge every day – will they accept, won’t they? Having said that I have had two novels published which have both been in the Amazon top ten and I enjoyed writing these enormously. It’s a lot harder for a non-fiction writer to change their style to fiction, because in journalism every word must count and you’re trained to write short and sharp copy to tight deadlines. You have more space and time to work on a novel, but this can often be more of a hindrance.

Q: WHY THE FREELANCE BOOK?
A: So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer is based on my years and experience of working in the industry and details not only what to do, but most importantly, what not to do if you want to become a freelance writer. The reason I wrote it was because so many people have asked me for advice on what to do when they start out, that I thought I would jot down what I had learned in the form of a blog. This was then picked up by Compass Books and turned into a handy pop-in-the-handbag paperback.

Q: IS THE BOOK SUITABLE FOR SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT?
A: It certainly is. So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer covers everything from starting with the basics such as writing reader’s letters to learning how to pitch correctly and how to get a book deal. All the information has come from my own experience, whether it’s submitting an article to a magazine or persuading a publisher to publish your book. It also details the mysterious world that is the publishing industry.

Q: WHY ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO WRITE SUCH A BOOK?
A: I’ve written for most of the women’s national magazines and newspapers in the UK and the States – from The Sun to The New Scientist and everything in between. I have also had 13 books traditionally published and although I have had agents, I have secured all my own publishing contracts, including foreign rights. Writing is my full time job.

Q: WILL THE BOOK HELP PEOPLE GET PUBLISHED?
A: Yes. Everything within the book is from my own experience, so if you follow the advice in the book you stand every chance of getting published, whether that be in newspapers, magazines or books. I explain in the book that getting paid for your writing depends on a lot of different factors, such as an editor might have already run a similar piece, or be holding one in stock etc, and that very often it is a numbers game, but if you know how to approach a commissioning editor, you’ve won half the battle.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST BIG BREAK?
A: My first published piece was a reader’s letter for a parenting magazine. This led to me being commissioned for an article with the same magazine and then my first book. Once I had something to show editors that I could write to a publishable standard, my career really took off.

Q: WHERE DO YOU WRITE?
A: In the attic! It’s not as bad as it sounds! Our attic is a fully functioning bedroom and office. I have to have either the TV or the radio on when I work. I don’t like to work in silence. I have two white regency style desks; one with my laptop on and the other with magazines, newspapers, clippings, printer, a tub of Twiglets and a tin of Quality Street on it. I also have a mini fridge in the corner of the room, filled with chocolate and soft drinks – it’s a long way down to the kitchen!

Q: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?
A: All sorts of places. I tend to specialise in mind, body and spirit or health and wellbeing features because those subjects interest me, so I’m always reading about them. Having said that, one day I had written features about cell regeneration, white magic, the function of the kidney and dating for the over 50’s, so there are a lot of subjects that interest me and if I think I can make them interesting to a reader and get a commission then I will write about them.

Deborah Durbin’s new book, So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer, is out on 29th March. You can find her at www.deborahdurbin.com or blogging at http://soyouwanttobeafreelancewriter.blogspot.co.uk/

We have one copy to give away to one blog reader - all you have to do is leave a comment below and we will pick one at random.

From Kindle to publisher by Deborah Durbin, freelance writer, journalist and bestselling author

When I decided to publish my novel, Oh Great, Now I Can Hear Dead People on to Kindle in March of last year, it was more of an experiment for an article I had been commissioned to write than anything else. I had written my novel four years earlier and since finishing it, it had done the usual rounds of agents and publishers, had secured an agent twice and very nearly got signed by one of the ‘Big Six’ publishers, but for one reason or another that elusive publishing deal was always just out of reach.

I was commissioned to write an article about the new Kindle that had hit our shops just in time for Christmas and I decided to upload my novel to see just how easy it was for someone to publish with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing system. Within four weeks my book had hit the number one slot in the supernatural category and number 37 in women’s fiction and I started earning 70% in royalties – a much bigger percent than any of my 11 traditionally published books.

My digital sales are around 150 copies per week, but I still wanted to see my book as a proper paper book, so when I spotted an announcement in a writing magazine, just before Christmas last year, announcing that Soul Rocks, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing were looking for new titles in the paranormal romance genre, I sent Oh Great to them.

At the beginning of February I received an email from John Hunt offering me a publishing contract for my novel. Part of the contract included digital rights, but because my ebook sales were already doing well for me I managed to negotiate to keep those rights and signed for just print rights. My novel should be out in print at the end of the summer. The fact that Oh Great had good digital sales helped I think, in the publisher’s decision to take it on under their wing and I can’t wait to see it in print form.

The moral of this story is if you have a book that has done the usual rounds of publishers and agents in the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook and has come bouncing back faster than a boomerang, try it on Amazon Kindle, market it on social networks, price it under the £1.99 mark and it’s highly likely that you will generate good sales, which you can then show to a mainstream publisher.

The key to remember is that agents and publishers do not always know what will sell. Each agency or publishing company can only take a chance on a small amount of new titles. The people that do know are the readers and if your books are available to a worldwide audience, waiting to read new titles, you can prove that your books are being read and enjoyed, which in turn might persuade a mainstream publisher to take you on.

Deborah Durbin is a freelance journalist and author. She writes for many of the women’s national magazines and several national newspapers and has 11 non-fiction books published.

She is also a mum to three lovely daughters, eats far too much chocolate to be considered good for her health, is addicted to gadgets and avoids cooking as much as she possibly can.
Oh Great, Now I Can Hear Dead People is available as a Kindle download for £1.53 and will be available in print at the end of the summer.

Samantha Ball is not only broke, she's £22'000 in debt and soon to be homeless if she can't get the money together for her rent, so when she's offered the chance to earn some money for a hotline to the heavens by giving tarot readings, she jumps at the chance, despite the fact that she doesn't have a psychic bone in her body - or does she? When Sam starts to hear voices of real dead people her psychic career really takes off and she soon becomes a psychic to the stars with her own slot on a prime time TV show. Someone however doesn't share Sam's joy and it's only when they set out to destroy her reputation does Sam really need help from the other side...

'I knew I would love this book from the title, but even so, it still had me giggling out loud. You'll love this book. It's laugh out loud funny, yet warm and touching and very modern. Well done Deborah, can't wait until the next one.'
Mary Cummings - Editor, Work Your Way Magazine.