Questions & Answers

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© Michael Ridpath 2004

Over the last few years I have received e-mails from hundreds of readers asking me about my writing. Here are some of the most common questions they ask. I enjoy receiving these e-mails, so please do ask any further questions I haven't covered here.

1. How long does it take you to write a book?

The whole process seems to take me eighteen months. That breaks down 3-6 months research and planning, 4-6 months for the first draft and 6-9 months for the subsequent drafts. I would have hoped that with experience I would be able to write books faster. In fact, while I can write more quickly, the planning seems to take longer. The reason is that I have become much better at identifying the problems with what I have written, but not much better at finding the solutions.

I could write books more quickly, but the quality would be lower, so I don't.

2. Do you write a synopsis? What does it consist of?

I tend to plan; perhaps over-plan. I like to write a synopsis with a paragraph on each character, and a paragraph for each scene in the book. There are usually 150-200 of these by the time I have finished, so the synopsis can run to more than 20 pages. I also do more thorough notes on each of the main characters. When I get stuck, I take a large piece of A3 paper and a pad of yellow post-its, each with a scene written on it. I shuffle them around until they "fit", in other words the story flows at the right pace.

3. How does a first-time novelist get a book published? Is it best to approach agents or publishers first?

I'm not quite sure how most people get published. I fought my way through the "slush pile", that heap of unsolicited manuscripts on every agent's or publisher's desk. I think I was lucky. I'm sure it helps if you know someone in publishing who can recommend you, or if you have written anything in the past (perhaps a non-fiction book or as a journalist). Signs of professionalism also help.

I think it is best to send a manuscript to agents before publishers, perhaps two to three at a time.

The most important advice I can give is not to send a book off to an agent as soon as you have finished it. It is actually a "first draft" and will look like one. It will therefore get rejected. If the book has promise, it is up to you to polish it before you send it in. This will take months or years (it took me three). Then, if it is a good book, it has the best chance of being published. Also, you will learn more from rewriting than from writing another first draft.

Carole Blake's book From Pitch To Publication has some excellent advice on this topic. My own experiences are recounted in the section Writing My First Novel.

4. You say you found some "How-to" books on writing useful when you wrote your first novel. What were these?

There were two: Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card and Plot by Ansen Dibell. Both books are published by Writer's Digest. Following the success of Free To Trade they were combined in an anthology with the supremely embarrassing title of How to Write A Million published in the UK by Robinson Publishing.

5. Why are your books no longer published in hardback?

A couple of years ago Penguin Books decided that most of their thrillers would be published initially in trade paperback under the Michael Joseph imprint, rather than hardback. Trade paperbacks are the big ones, priced at about £10. Then a year later, the books come out in mass-market paperbacks (the small, cheaper ones) under the Penguin imprint. They say that they sell more trade paperbacks than they sold hardbacks. As an author I wish that they still published me in hardback, but there's not much I can do about it.

6. Are your books still published in the United States?

Unfortunately not. My last book to be published in the US was Final Venture. If you live in the US it might be worth trying amazon.co.uk, and getting the books shipped to the US from Britain.

7. In which countries are your books published?

Free To Trade, my first book, was published in 32 countries, ie virtually everywhere. My current books are published in the UK, Germany, Holland, France, Russia, Greece, Portugal most of the Eastern European countries, Israel, Turkey, Australia and China. In other words they are not published in the US, Italy, Spain, Japan and Scandinavia (except by Reader's Digest)

8. What other financial thriller writers are out there?

There aren't many of us, and we are a small but select band. The ones I know of include Linda Davies, John Maclaren, Paul Kilduff and Harry Bingham. In America there is Christopher Reichs, Stephen Frey, Stephen Rhodes and Paul Erdman, who I remember reading when I was 17. Emile Zola wrote a brilliant book called Money in 1865, which could just as easily have been set in 1995. Martin Amis wrote a book called Money as well, which I know I ought to read, but haven't quite been able to bring myself to yet.

And of course the investment banks and stockbrokers produce hundreds of pages of financial fiction every day.

Feel free to send your questions or comments to comments@michaelridpath.com