The Beatles are the inspiration behind one of the UK’s most individual (and funny) novelists self-publishing his new book because he’s fed up with the year-long wait between finishing writing a book and the book being published traditionally.
When The Professor Got Stuck In The Snow by Dan Rhodes is set for ebook and hardback publication in early March, less than two months after the author finished writing the book.
Rhodes has written nine books, mainly published by Canongate, including the darkly hilarious Timoleon Vieta Come Home, Gold and last year’s Marry Me.
On his website, Rhodes says: “There’s always an interminable wait between finishing a book and it finally coming out – usually a year, give or take a few weeks.
“For a long time I’ve been interested in the idea of publishing a lot faster than this – writing a book then slamming it out as soon as it’s ready.
“It goes back to me reading about The Beatles’ recording history in Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head. Often, they would write a song, record it straight away, and a few weeks later it would be riding high in the hit parade.
“Admittedly, if-The-Beatles-did-it-why-can’t-I? isn’t a very sensible way of looking at anything, but for years I’ve been wanting to speed up the process and make it just a little more Beatlesque.
“Every time I’ve mentioned this plan to a publisher they have looked to the floor in dismay. If pressed, they’ll mutter something about catalogues and marketing. It’s always been a resounding ‘no’.
“So I’m going rogue with this one and publishing it on my own label, Miyuki Books. I finished writing it on January 11th, and since then I’ve been working towards getting it ready to go. If I was just going down the ebook route, it could have been out within a fortnight, but as I’m a hopeless sentimentalist when it comes to paper books I’m getting some printed up too – a run of hardbacks to come out simultaneously.
“I don’t necessarily think this is the future – in the long run a writer’s time is better spent writing than ringing round book shops and stuffing jiffy bags. But this time around it’s something I’m happy to do – for the first time in ages I’m looking forward to a book coming out.”