Allaboutwriting

Writer, journalist, teacher and foodie, Mandy Collins, gives us her take on traditional versus self-publishing and a recipe for a delicious and quick chicken tagine.

Officially speaking, I’m a Published Author. And my book is one of those rare things – A Solicited Manuscript. Out of the blue one day my phone rang, and a perfect stranger (albeit one who worked at New Holland) asked me to write a book about teeth for him. More specifically, the art of caring for your teeth. And the book is called… wait for it… Good Teeth.

I can see the gloss of Published Author has rubbed off a bit for you now. For me, however, it was a landmark moment. A book. An actual book. It was the Holy Grail as far as I was concerned. (And I’ll stop with the capital letters now, I promise.)

The trouble is, once I held that beautiful, glossy, hardcover book in my hands, the bug had bitten. My background was – and is – in magazines and newspapers, those short-lived, quickly read items that are soon consigned to the waste paper bin and never thought of again. The only people who read journalists’ bylines, they say, are journalists and their mothers. But a book is a different animal altogether.

I loved the heft of it, the feeling that it was truly a body of work. I loved being consulted on changes to the text – this never happens in journalism, I assure you. And I felt sure that being a Published Author already (I know, I did promise) would help with all the other book ideas buzzing around in my head. Surely that would add an extra bit of cachet to my next manuscript; help it rise to the top of the slush pile.

Perish the thought. Getting another book published has been a long, hard slog, one that has reaped no rewards yet. The organising book probably needs a rewrite now, but has been bounced around from publisher to publisher. The cookbook is currently doing the rounds. The novel isn’t finished yet, but that’s another story…

Several people have asked me why I haven’t gone the self-publishing route. The bald truth, I suppose, is that it doesn’t feel like real publishing to me. Perhaps I’m a snob and I cling to that stigma of self-publishing as being vanity publishing.

But I also relish the challenge of writing something that a publisher will deem worthy of selling to people outside of my immediate family. Perhaps I just have low self-esteem and crave the validation that a publishing contract might bring. And quite honestly, I quite like the idea of having an already-in-situ team of people who are experienced at compiling and selling books to do the slog for me.

But I admit the process of finding a publisher is exhausting. The constant waiting, wondering and hoping can take its toll. Publishers don’t move fast. They don’t come back to you as fast as you’d like them to. Some days it feels as if they live in an alternate universe, one that we would-be authors are seldom granted the keys to.

And I hate following up. I hate seeming whiny or needy, and I live in fear of pissing off a publisher – after all, the power in this relationship is all theirs.

And yet, and yet. I’m not ready to self-publish. So for now, I’ll just keep writing my books and sending them off to unsuspecting publishers in the hope that one day, one of them will once again bestow that esteemed title on me: Published Author.

Mandy Collins is something of a one-stop writing shop who has been writing professionally for two decades. She has worked in the mass media as well as the corporate world, and has spent a lot of time training other writers as well as writing everything from magazine articles and below-the-line advertising copy to strategic corporate documents. One of her passions is training people from all spheres of business in the art of writing well, so that they can produce effective business communication that reflects well on both them and their companies. Read more about the Business Writing Course. 

And here is a bonus  - a quick, delicious and perfect recipe for a week night supper from Mandy.

Quick chicken tagine

1 T olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 T ground coriander

2 cloves garlic

3cm x 3cm fresh ginger, peeled

2 tins chopped tomatoes

8 to 10 skinless chicken drumsticks and thighs

A good handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method:

1.  Heat oil in the bottom of a saucepan or casserole and gently sauté onions until they are glossy and transparent, then add cumin and coriander and grate in garlic and ginger.
2. Add tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil.
3. Add chicken pieces and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is tender. If you have more time, allow to simmer gently for longer, either on the stovetop or in the oven, until the chicken is falling off the bone.
4. Sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve with couscous.