Author Interview - Joe Coates
What inspired you to write in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and how does that inspiration reflect in your stories?
Like most others, I suppose, it was just a general love of those genres myself that drew me to them. They’re the kinds of stories that I find myself jotting down random scenes about. Slowly, those scene coalesce into coherent stories. Sometimes. I also ghostwrite fantasy and sci-fi as a day job, so that probably has a lot to do with it too.
Why did you choose the indie author route to publication?
I actually have an agent in London who has been trying to get me a traditional publishing deal for my forst novel for a while now. I had a couple of other first books to series that I’d written and thought I’d throw them out online and see what readers thought of them while I waited for my agent to work his magic. I wanted to see what people liked about my writing and what they didn’t.
Can you share a bit about the world-building process in your series or novel? How do you balance creativity with consistency?
Two of the three novels I’ve written are heavily influenced by Westerns. My wife and I have developed this real love of watching moody, violent, beautiful Westerns with great dialogue in the evenings after we put the kids to bed. I think that they have played a big part in my world building, but in a more general, atmospheric way. I really try to not get bogged down in too much world-building. I think the best novels (for me to read, at least) are those that give you a sweeping sense of the place without getting too ridiculously detailed. I like a bit of scope to imagine and fill in the blanks. Plus, whenever I find myself getting too deep into my world I find my plot suffers a little in that moment.
What unique challenges do you face as an indie author in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and how do you overcome them?
With sci-fi I always second-guess my tech! I’m not super techy as a person, but I love to read about the different technologies and gadgets, science and stuff when I’m reading sci-fi. As a writer though, I always end up going back and thinking, ‘Does that make sense?’ or ‘Does that fit in with the world?’. I find it’s best just to crack on and remember that it’s my world and it can make sense if I want it to. Fantasy is easier for me. There’s more freedom to writing it.
Who are your favorite fantasy/sci-fi authors or works, and in what ways have they influenced your writing?
I love The Expanse novels. I feel like those guys nailed soft sci-fi. They write it in such a palatable way. It’s a rich, believeable, but not overbearing future they created. Terry Pratchett is a genius and I love all of his work. His audiobooks are bloody amazing and hilarious. I also listen to Joe Abercrombie’s audiobooks on repeat when I’m doing chores, cooking or exercising, as Stephen Pacey is phenomenal at bringing those bad boys to life. I read Lord of the Rings once a year as a kind of literary comfort food. Blimey, there are so many clever writers out there. Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novels for urban fantasy are great. My brother-in-law got me into Dan Abnett’s Warhammer novels. The list is too long!
How do you develop your characters, and who is your favorite character from your works? Why?
I defintely take inspiration and develop my chief characters from real-life people. Sometimes it might be friends, other times people you bump into and share a beer and ayarn with, sometimes pyschotic nuts that you hear about on the news. For me, it’s good to have characters that are rooted in something real.
My favorite character is of mine is probably Cormac Laterell, the villain from my Fantasy-Western Out of the Dust. He’s one of those really enjoyable, unpredicatable lunatics who I hope readers look forward to seeing what he does next. Apart from being a stone-cold psycho though, he is also relatable in a way. He’s definitely a product of his upbringing and environment. There’s a kind of ouroboros of destruction that he and the main character, Viggo Shaw, are caught up in and from which only one of them can escape. Latrell’s whole relationship with Viggo can be summed up in Nietzsche’s quote, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Baddies are the best.
Could you discuss the role of magic/science or fantastical/sci-fi elements in your stories? How do you create rules and limitations for them?
My magic systems are always really basic, vague and open, almost in the vein of Tolkien. There are no rules per say. You either can do it or you can’t, and if you can then there are varying degrees of power. I like to treat magic in my stroies like a muscle almost: if you have the ability in the first place then you can work it out and get stronger.
How do you approach the plotting and planning of your series or novels? Do you prefer to map everything out beforehand or let the story evolve as you write?
As a ghostwriter, it’s important to be able to write consistently day after day so I’ve learned to make a skeleton plot, then flesh that skeleton out with the main points that will carry my narrative through. Now it’s second nature, so I use that same method in my own writing. It’s good to have signposts, but that doesn’t always mean I write every scene in order.
What is a theme or message you hope readers take away from your work?
A nice positive one: That life isn’t fair and that it doesn’t care about you! I take a lot of inspiration from Cormac McCarthy’s work too, which is probably why this is such a cynical message. Nah, it’s more about the fact that I like to put characters into this world where they have to fight and suffer for what they believe to be right, that they have to deal with grief and hardship like all the rest of it, and, at the end of the day, they—like us—owe everything good in ourselves to the world. Not the other way round.
In what ways do you connect with your readers, and how has their feedback influenced your writing?
To be honest, I’m terrible at connecting with readers. It’s something I wish I was so much better at. Like marketing. Ghostwriting full-time and being a dad to two little boys makes it hard, though. The last thing I want to do is miss out on my kids growing up because I’m tied to a computer all day. I do read a lot of my reviews from my ghostwriting works on Amazon, though—there are thousands and thousands of them now, which is pretty cool. That helps me hone my craft and see what people like and don’t like about my writing. Being able to do that has definitely kept any ego I might have in check.
As an indie author, what advice would you give to aspiring writers wanting to publish in the fantasy/sci-fi genre?
Just write what you love. Just f*cking write it. Write your story. So many Facebook groups I’m in having people fretting about this and that about their novel, worrying about character names, world maps, and stuff like that. Just write it! People seem to be very worried, to the point of paralysis sometimes, about how their work is received. That’s fair enough, I suppose, but just get it out there. Let it get ripped to shreds if that’s its fate. Criticism is only going to make you better. And criticism is, at the end of the day, worth less than any work of heart and mind on Amazon.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an indie author?
Marketing in such a massively saturated market. Marketing is SO hard and time hungry. And, unfortunately, without marketing you’re going to be very lucky to get your work in front of that many readers, which is the whole point, no?
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