Podcast: KOBO Writing Life interviews Hugh Howey

[fjtorres]

With all the waves Mr Howey's been making lately through his Author Earnings reports and now the Open Letter, his visit/interview at Kobo seems timely:

http://kobowritinglife.com/2014/06/2...-conversation/

Here are some highlights from the discussion.
Introduction of Hugh Howey and Mark Lefebvre by Tracy Nesdoly, Senior Director of Communications at Kobo
Hugh talks about how interesting it is that history re-writes itself to fit the model of what people think happened – his first book was actually signed to a small press before he made the decision to try the self-publishing route
Hugh also reflects on how, in 2009, he was only concentrating on print books and traditional contracts for the first book, but then noticed his eBook sales were overtaking his print book sales
How Hugh was pressured by friends and family to get his book out to publishers so they could see it in bookstores
How Hugh’s Mom had been a great critic, early reader and editor for his work (and Hugh’s joke about how his wife and his mother have spent years telling him about all the mistakes that he makes, which ensures they are perfectly suited for this type of role in his writing)
The twenty years it took Hugh to complete the first novel (and how it wasn’t the same novel)
Hugh’s first manuscript, started at age 12, which was, essentially an homage to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
How Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue, the first novel he completed, was written in a week
How Hugh acquired “sequelitis” after finishing that first novel, and how, when you keep writing sequels you’re left always promoting your first book
How Hugh met his wife when he was living the boating life (and how she pulled him ashore and inland)
The constant daydreaming and stories kept in his head while he worked at various other jobs
How he used to get in trouble in grammar school for that “writing daydreaming”
Where the darkness that surrounds the novel WOOL comes from (particularly from a writer whose persona is friendly, outgoing and positive)
How Hugh felt sick to his stomach when he was out at a fancy restaurant to celebrate signing the contract for his first book because it was something he had worked so hard on and he was now signing it away (despite the fact it was a positive experience because someone was paying him for something he had written – ie, it was “the dream”)
Even though he still has a physical reaction thinking about that moment, it wasn’t a reflection on the publisher – he still loves them and has a great relationship with them, but he quickly saw how he had too much energy for them and was driving them crazy with all of the things he wanted to do.