Remote Control

             Today I used the webpage Everyone Who Is Anyone ... to email four or five publishers about my crime book/thriller Remote Control. Nobody wants to deal with authors anymore. You have to have an agent, I think.

             You won't find email addresses on publisher's webpages, but you can get at practically anyone through Everyone Who Is Anyone .... an invaluable resourse.

              I started writing Remote Control about thirty years ago and finished a final re-write a year ago last Christmas. Serpent's Tail, who published me before, have had it for ages, but it's been impossible to get anything out of them either way, so ..

              In 1989 Remote Control was adapted for the stage and had a very successful production at the Traverse under the title of Bomber. I re-wrote it at the time, but didn't send it out to many publishers because while the play was still running at the Traverse, I went to live in Australia for a year.

              I think I started writing it in 1979 and did so at the instigation of Ursula Mackenzie, who at the time was working as an agent with International Scripts. Now she's the CEO of Little Brown. I finally finished it last year. Using my previous connection with Ursula Mackenzie, my friend who's been helping me with agenting managed to get Dan Mallory of Sphere to have a look at it. He didn't want it, but here is what he said.

Hi, David –

Following up on Remote Control. Short version: I’m going to pass. Longer version: I do so fully aware that you’ve got a very talented author on your hands. The writing is crisp and clean, the dialogue distinctively edgy, and the plot very smoothly engineered. That said, I wasn’t especially taken with the protagonist, who seemed to me rather difficult to like, and I worry that some of the book’s more serrated edges would rub a broad readership the wrong way.

While I’m going to pass, I wish you much luck with the project, and I can’t wait to see where John lands. Thanks again very much for letting me take a look.

Yours    

Dan

          Although I expect all my unpublished books (eight of them!) to end up on Kindle, which is why I'm doing this blog, I think I'll have to make an effort with Remote Control. It's one of the few books I've written in a recognisable genre.

          The book I have on Kindle at present is Ancient Futures.