Jennie Kermode - FAQ

I'm using this as a concise way of responding to some of the questions I am most often asked about my writing career and about writing in general. If you want to find out more about me as a person, check out my personal pages.

How did you first get published?

Throughout my early life, I had been interested in language and creative work. I first began to write fiction on a serious basis when I was fourteen and confined to the house by illness. This was in the early days of home computing, when word processors were beginning to make the practical aspects of a writer's job much easier. It was a big mental leap for me to consider writing a novel instead of just short sketches. Many people will tell you "I have a novel in me", but what makes the difference between these people and real writers (good or bad) is effort.

I would never consider publishing my first novel. It was a learning exercise, and it was also full of the concerns of a fourteen year old, which I imagine most adults wouldn't be very interested in. The first work I published was non-fiction writing. When I was fifteen, I took a job researching and writing articles for an anti-racist campaigning newsletter. I wasn't paid, but the experience was helpful to me, and I felt that I was doing something useful. My first piece of fiction was published when I was sixteen. My English lecturer at college knew I was a keen writer and asked me to submit a short story for a competition, which I won. After that I began submitting stories to magazines.

Why do you write science fiction, fantasy and horror instead of mainstream fiction?

As it happens, I write some mainstream fiction too, but my genre work is what tends to attract the most attention. Fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror tend to be very dedicated, enthusiastic readers. Contrary to popular belief, they're quite discriminating, and they're interested in exploring new work for themselves. This means that they are less likely to settle for reading what they're told is fashionable by the popular press. It's easier for a writer in these genres to be genuinely creative and break the rules. I think that such genres often provide a greater opportunity for examining the important social and moral questions of our time. Although I hope my work is entertaining and accessible, it is also important to me that it has something to say.

Do you consider your writing pornographic?

I understand that there are elements in some of my stories, including The Orpheus Industry, which many people wouldn't want their young children to read; but I don't write them to shock, and I don't write them purely to titillate, so I'm not sure I'd call them pornographic. Sex is an important part of most of our lives; it's part of what drives us, a crucial factor in the way we interact with others. I'm interested in people as emotional and physical beings, so I'm interested in sex. Aside from my fiction, I've written about sexual matters for several different publications, including Utah-based CopyRight NewsMagazine, where I had a long-running column on sex through history. It amused me that, when I visited the 'States a few years ago, I was advised against taking in my luggage anything which might be considered pornographic (including an academic book about hermaphroditism which I was reading at the time); yet I was already publishing explicit material in the heartland of Mormon morality!

The other reason why I include sexual topics in my work is that I don't consider them to be immoral, in any real sense. I think it's important for people to be well informed about such matters so that they can take care of themselves. I also think it's emotionally healthy for people to be aware of the variety of options available in the world - sex is not just a single act, and it's not all about boy meets girl.

You refer to yourself as 'an intersexed author' - what does your sex have to do with your writing?

I didn't find out that I was intersexed until I was in my late twenties, and I think that the adjustment which I was then forced to make was enormously advantageous for me as a writer. Relatively few people, in the modern age, have experiences which force them to re-evaluate everything they've concluded about themselves and the world. I'd spent the best part of three decades denying or trying to explain away my physiological differences, and often resenting women because of my failure to fit in with them socially. My revelation made me more cautious about my approach to self-analysis and more wary about evaluating the psychological experiences of others based on my own experiences. It renewed my curiosity. I think we all tend to think of ourselves as 'normal' and use that as a starting point from which to investigate the rest of the world. This can blind us to the complexity of other people. I feel that my forcibly altered perspective has helped me to develop something of the insight which every good writer must aim for.

What other kinds of writing do you do?

Besides my fiction, I'm probably best known for my film reviews. I've reviewed for several different publications over the past fifteen years and now work as content director at Eye For Film, the UK's biggest online film magazine. I'm interested in film on a lot of different levels. I want to be able to provide the essential information for those who only really care about tits and explosions without failing to explore and appreciate good technical work and complex literary storylines. Throughout my career, I have refused to take jobs which would require me to praise films regardless of their quality - I'm not afraid to let my readers know when I hate something. I believe that my first duty is always to provide an honest report to the readers themselves. Even if they don't agree with me, they can use my opinion as a yardstick. (My partner Donald used to say that he'd eagerly go to see any film that Barry Norman hated.)

I write articles on a variety of topics for newspapers and magazines. There are the aforementioned issues relating to sex and sexuality; also literature, history, language, social and political matters and certain areas of science. I only write on subjects which I believe I know well, and I think it's healthy for a writer of fiction to have a wide range of interests. I think it's healthy for anyone to keep on learning throughout life. Our brains only slow down drastically with age if we let them.

At something of a tangent, I also write about business and economics. For several years I tutored Writing for Business at Suite University online. I used to run a fashion design company (which I had to give it up because of practical difficulties caused by my disability) and I have since written on various aspects of the fashion industry. I try to use my writing talents to help other small business owners. Teaching basic writing skills is something of a vocation for me, as I have a passionate hatred of misplaced apostrophes and misused semi-colons. 'Decimate' does not mean 'wipe out', and 'unique' is not a gradeable adjective! I try not to scare my students, however, and I'm patient when I'm working as an editor. I have no problem with people who realise their writing is flawed and genuinely want to improve.

Where do you get your ideas?

This is the question every writer dreads! I've included it here because it is just about the most common question we receive. It's actually quite a difficult question, because I have to work hard to understand what prompts it. I suppose that imaginative ability is one of those things which varies from person to person. Ideas are not something which I struggle to find. Rather, I find myself sorting through a lot of possibilities to determine which ones are worth crafting stories about.

My mother is a great fan of travel. She feels a compulsion to visit new places in order to be emotionally and intellectually stimulated by different environments, and I believe she finds it hard to understand why I can quite happily spend most of my life in one place. I think it has to do with a difference in how much we notice about the world around us. I can spend hours in one room without running out of information to absorb and consider. When I'm lying beside my sleeping lover, not wanting to disturb him by moving, I'm counting the bumps on his wallpaper, looking for patterns, assessing what they tell me about the history of the room, its climate and its furnishings. I'm thinking about the people who used to live there. When I see a discarded item of clothing in the street, I always wonder if someone has been murdered, and I think about how it could have happened. On a stormy day, I think about where the weather fronts are coming from and what they tell me about conditions across the sea. The world is one big puzzle, just buzzing with possible stories.

Do real people and incidents from your life feature in your work?

As a short story writer, I naturally use a lot of different character names; since I try to use ordinary names for ordinary people, every now and again they'll coincide with the names of friends, and then people can get paranoid. But my characters are not based on people I know. They grow inside my head as whole beings, and usually I spend quite a bit of time getting to know them before they appear in fiction. I examine many details of their lives which never appear in print. In short, I know them much more intimately than I know most of my friends.

Occasionally, I base incidents in my stories on my own life experiences, but these usually take the form of small asides, not major plot points.

How important are the mythological elements in your work?

Mythology is only relevant to a small part of what I do, but, since the publication of The Orpheus Industry, I've received a lot of interest in this area. Given my longstanding interest in anthropology and in traditional storytelling, it's an area which I find academically appealing, and I have been delighted that this situation has given me the chance to discuss the subject with academics who specialise in it.

In The Orpheus Industry, I wanted to explore the way in which classic myth patterns are reflected in modern storytelling, both formally and in the way that we chatter about celebrities. These larger-than-life interpretations of people take the place of heroes and gods in ancient myths. We use them as archetypes through which to understand the world. In this regard, I think that mythology is as important today as it ever was.

Why publish ebooks?

Many writers, and certainly the big publishing houses, dismiss ebooks as an inferior form of publication, something which will never amount to anything. There are some sound reasons behind this. Many ebooks are vanity publications (which the author actually pays for, rather than being paid for!) and are therefore unlikely to be of good quality. Often, ebooks only sell a few dozen copies, and many ebook publishers are unscrupulous. However, my own publisher, Double Dragon, is well rated within the industry - Piers Anthony considers it the best in the ebook market - and offers decent contracts with decent average sales figures. The available royalties are much higher than those on most paperbacks, which often end up selling at a loss; some authors make more money with ebooks even while selling fewer copies.

Ebooks are, of course, tricky things to get used to as a reader. Many people prefer a book they can curl up with in bed, and I quite understand that. I think there are sections of the market which ebooks will never penetrate. However, I've been surprised by how popular they are with others. Perhaps they work nicely because they appear as text on a screen, so people can read them more discretely at work when they're supposed to be doing other things. At any rate, I think they have an important place within the literary environment as a whole. With lower initial publishing overheads, they make it easier for publishers to take risks with new authors and with more unusual literary ideas. Obviously, this means that a lot of meterial will be published which won't amount to much, but it gives readers a chance to seek out new voices and to determine for themselves what is of value. Those who make it as ebook authors will make a valuable contribution to a literary establishment always on the verge of stagnation. However, this does deprive the big publishing houses of their advantage as managers of the big names in the industry, so it's not surprising if they dislike what's going on. They took a similar attitude to the boom in pulp science fiction paperbacks in the 1940s - a boom which gave us many of the great authors whose works we enjoy today.

Who are some of your favourite writers?

People always seem surprised when I don't answer this with a long list of science fiction writers, but the truth is that I enjoy writing of many different sorts. I like Alice B Sheldon, James Joyce, Hanif Kureishi, James Hogg, Jeffrey Eugenides, Octave Mirbeau, Salman Rushdie, John Wyndham, and early JG Ballard (before he descended into self-parody and simultaneously became a darling of the literary establishment). I like Theodore Sturgeon, Alexander Exquemelin (who wrote at least as much fiction as fact, whatever he may claim), Virginia Woolf, James Blish and HP Lovecraft.

How can I learn to be a writer?

People often follow up this question by asking "Which books do you recommend?" To which I can only answer: all books, and none of the ones you're thinking of. Ditch those How to Make Millions Writing (Writing How-to Books) and Be Creative! (by following this precise formula) books right now. There are a lot of people out there trying to make money out of starry-eyed beginners, and you don't need them. You may need some basic help with grammar, sentence construction, and so forth, but there are good free resources on the web to help you with that, or you can go over your work with a good professional editor (who should be prepared to take the time to discuss areas where you have difficulty). Once you have mastered the basics of good English (or whatever your language is), the rest is down to you.

The art of using language well comes from familiarising oneself with the many different ways in which it is used by other people. As a writer, the best thing you can do to improve your skills is to read. Read as widely as you can. Read Thomas Hardy, Umberto Eco, Roald Dahl, Terry Pratchett, even bloody JK Rowling if you have to. Whatever appeals to you, but lots of it. And listen. Keep your ears open for other people's conversations. Think about the way they speak and the things which matter to them. Pay attention to the language which is all around you. Let the disparate voices of the world give you your voice.

The final piece of advice I can give is that you must be prepared to work. You must set yourself goals and accomplish them. You must finish (at least most of) the pieces of writing you start. You must then be prepared to edit that work (even if you need help doing it) and to market it. Writing is not a means of getting money for nothing - it's real hard work, and, if you're not prepared to put that work in, you might as well forget it.

How can I get my work published?

If you think your work is of publishable quality, it's time to start looking for a publisher who might be suited to it. Don't send it out to everybody at random - that'll only make you enemies in high places. Use writers' directories (printed and/or web-based) to find out who is looking for the sort of thing you've written and whether or not they're currently accepting submissions. In the vast majority of cases, you should send a query letter before you submit any larger piece of work. Make sure you address that letter to the appropriate person, and keep it brief. Be prepared for rejection - in most cases, this is primarily due to the quantity of submissions received, and shouldn't be taken personally. If some publishers aren't interested in your work, you can try others. You might also consider approaching agents who can try on your behalf, though you should note that this will incur fees (usually as a percentage of your income from the work) and that most agents won't help you with shorter pieces of work. If you do get offered a publishing deal, think it through carefully. Consider the copyright you are surrendering (which publishing formats and locations it applies to, and how long for), and make sure you are being offered reasonable returns (in the form of a flat rate fee, an advance, royalties, or some combination of the above). As a new writer, you may feel strongly tempted to take the first deal which comes your way, but do be wary, as there are a lot of people out there ready to exploit that. Good luck!

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Last updated 8th January, 2009.