Glen Cook Interview

[Ankari]

Greetings All,

I stumbled upon this Glen Cook interview. In it, he discusses a wide range of topics. He gives great insight into the inner mechanics of publishing as well as personal philosophy of writing.

Here are a few exerts I liked:

A publisher asking him to resurrect an old series of his:

“Well, I tell you what I’m gonna do then. I’m gonna have Steven Erikson write it. He’s willing to write it.” And I said: “No, even though I love Steven Erikson and love his work, nobody’s gonna write my stuff but me.” And so I finally agreed to write the book.

On North American appetite for purple prose:

But his style in English was very florid and for a while I tried to imitate that style. And I basically discovered that it doesn’t work in North America. People want you to get on with it; they don’t want to see you use this beautiful language.

On the effects of e-books on traditional publishing:

I’m pretty positive that the mass market paperback will be completely dead in the USA in another few years.

On his mastering of Facebook:

Every once in a while, someone comes up to me and says “Hey, I saw your thing on Facebook and yada yada yada”, and I say “What the hell are you talking about?”. I wouldn’t even know how to find it.

The whole interview can be found here

[SlimShady]

Great find. Always been a fan of his.

[zizban]

It was Glen Cook who changed my mind about publishing maps. It does limit possibilities and set boundaries, so my novel doesn't have a map published with it.

[Steerpike]

It was Glen Cook who changed my mind about publishing maps. It does limit possibilities and set boundaries, so my novel doesn't have a map published with it.

Interesting you say that. I used to be in to maps, and I'd refer to them while reading a story. Now I never even look at them anymore, even in novels that may have four or five of them at the beginning of the book. I've also decided against using them.

[korabas]

Thanks for the link. I prefer to have maps in the novels I read, although a lot of the time they aren't very good. I will occasionally refer to them, but I never find them particularly useful. All the same, I prefer to have them!

[zizban]

I make exceptions for books that toss around of people and places. If I ever write a big bloated epic fantasy, I'll include a map.