This blog is going to be long...The Black Library... Customer Service

Last year I attended the Black Library Weekender. For those of you that don't know they are the writing branch of Gamesworkshop.

I discovered the books when my son first got into Warhammer 40k 5 or 6 years ago. I bought him a starter kit and bought myself a space marine trilogy.

I loved it!

Since I've probably bought every single book I could find. I like the writers, I like the stories. The language can be a little clunky and difficult to read at times, but over the years I've adapted and I enjoy reading them.

2 years ago I made the decision that long term I want to be a writer. I've had loads of great ideas over the years and I think I have something to give. Writing would give me a supplementary income and still allow me to be a personal trainer.

My idea was to start small and learn to express myself in words. Writing this blog is part of that. Short 1000 word stories, then move up to 2000, 5000, 10,000 and then towards novellas and novels.

As part of that I bought a ticket to the first Black Library Weekender. The ticket was around £200/£250. The first day was a fan day where we'd get the chance to talk one on one to an editor, then have small group seminars with some authors, and finish off having dinner with a large group of writers.

I was fortunate to have Graham McNeil, James Swallow and Dan Abnett in my small group setting, and even luckier to be sitting next to Dan at dinner.

Awesome day in that regard.

My writing meeting didn't go so well. I was told I was good writer, but they couldn't work out if I was mad.  Apparently I had too many things going on and I broke too many IP rules.

I'm going to start sharing my stories soon, so this might become more apparent, but you can decide for yourself. My readers so far have said they like my writing style, it's very distinctive and interesting.

I felt a bit dejected. But followed the editors advice and started writing 1000 word stories.

I had this idea... two dice, 11 genres of writing. I ask my friends for a title and then throw the dice, whatever number comes up I have to write the story in that style.

I must admit I had a lot of fun with this and the only way to get better at writing is to write. Some of these stories included:

The Counter - Warhammer 40k
We've come to save you - War
Dominion - Erotica
The Purple Shoes - Horror
Dodge Right! - Children's story
15 minutes - Detective Story

When the chance to attend the second weekender came up the offer was different, this time an entire day would be offered as a writing workshop. Giving us a chance to bring our stories up to the standard Black Library are asking for.

Here was the feedback I sent them after that day:

Background

Last year I had a Golden Ticket, I thoroughly enjoyed the day, but there was a lot of sitting around doing nothing. The highlights were meeting the authors for an hour, the meal, and the 30 minutes with an editor; Graeme Lyon was invaluable and helped me immeasurably with some tips and pointers going forwards. But after attending the session over the weekender many of my mistakes in my writing could have been avoided. I came away frustrated but with a plan of things to do. 

Golden Ticket Weekender II

I purchased the ticket before Christmas and heard nothing, no ticket, no information. I chased and was assured I had a ticket and that information would follow. This didn’t arrive until October after I’d chased again. 

That’s too long. More information and just keep us in the loop. It doesn’t have to be a lot you could send out little monthly exercises to prepare people for the writing day. Encourage them to set up a Facebook page etc. Doesn’t have to be a lot of work, 10 monthly exercises. One sentence each. 

This would have meant 25-30 people arriving prepared and in the right frame of mind to write. 

The Writing Day

Introduction - Was fine

Seminar - The writing process

This was enlightening. All three of the authors had different approaches, but all tried to write a certain word count every day. 

Two full time authors, one part-time. 

All seemed to give the message that writing is underpaid, and even if you’re good it might not last long. 

Process seemed to be more - here is the draft, then what happens from the draft through to buying

Insight:

Authors see themselves as only writers. I think this is a mistake. Dan Abnett is probably one of the most successful and prolific writers out there. As aspiring writers we should use him as a guide. He uses social media: Facebook, Blogs, Twitter etc. 

Suggestions

What’s the creative idea generation process? How can this be used to build story structure? How do we make our stories interesting and people want to buy them?

Publishing houses are under threat from authors self publishing, smaller more versatile publishing houses doing a half self-publishing half traditional route. So why use this as an opportunity to change the expectations of new aspiring authors? 

I've heard the term 'Story Architect'. I think in the changing commercial environment this is more apt. An author should be creative, technically skilled at writing, good at self promotion and have the depth of skills similar to those of an architect, but within a writing context. This instantly sets up a different set of expectations. I’m not JUST a writer, I have other roles to fulfil to get my books out there.

To succeed in the future we need a combination of traditional and what the self-publishers are doing. 

For example this Year I read Chris Wraight’s Blood of Asaheim. I loved it. I was excited and couldn’t wait to read the next book… which comes out…? No one could tell me. So I’m adrift. What a wasted opportunity. Books should be released in batches. John Locke, a internet phenomenon, sold all of his first 5 books at the same time. His rationale was why waste energy promoting one book, when if my reader likes it they’re already looking for next ones (so true!!). This makes sense to me. When I first discovered BL books I went throughout the Ultramarines series, then The Soul Drinkers, and so on. 

It’s about consumption and books are consumables. Since the Kindle and the iPad I’ve read 4-5 books a week, before it was 1-2. They don’t take up space and I can read them over and over or refer to another book in an instant. But the pricing is important. Too close to a physical product and I won’t buy the e-book. It’s about perceived value. Same with MP3. I buy the hard copy because it feels better value. 

Workshop: Pitching Your Story

I enjoyed this a lot but I’d gone over and over my conversation with Graeme last year and studied how to pitch movies. Specifically I’d used Jen Grisanti’s StoryLIne book. Listening to other people, I started to see what was meant by the difference of pitching an idea vs pitching a story, HUGE AH HA! moment. This is so important you need to highlight it more. Lots of people repeated this mistake at Pitch Factor as well. 

Perhaps a little more instruction on how this can be laid on succinctly would have been helpful. 

Workshop: Reviewing others’ Work

This session was so informative. Listening to other authors reading out their pieces you could hear the language and pace change as they switched between passive and active language. 

So information was transferred in this session I’m sure things were missed, and I’m sure that other rooms had equally good information. 

Suggestion:

Video the session and make available as a learning tool, or allow one of the attendees to video each other, so we have access to the what was said. 

Workshop: The finishing Touches

This was more of a revising your work session. The room was crowded and I personally found this isn’t the environment I work well in. But many people were. I spent time talking to Gav Thorpe about an idea for a story and got him to pick it apart which was a much better use of the time. Progressed my idea forwards very quickly. 

I really enjoyed this day. I got the chance to talk to a lot of authors and really felt it was valuable in terms of what I got out of it. 

Suggestion: 

If you are doing a longer writing workshop why not brainstorm and come up with a concept first thing and work it through the processes in a day. A 1000 Word story should be able to be conceptualised, pitched, then written within 6 hours easily. If you can’t do it then the authors are right you won’t make money.

It’d also be interesting to see how it might work as a collaboration or a group writing a story. 

Reading lists or suggested websites. 

Really liked the opportunity to buy The Collected Visions and Graphic Novel the night before, took the stress out of having to get at the stand early. Please make this a feature of Golden Ticket, private purchasing session. Awesome. 

What next? Last year Graeme gave me a list of things to go away and do, this has made a massive difference to my writing in a year. I don’t know if there are any plans to do the same. But it worked with me. 

The Weekender II

After the Horus Heresy I used a specific strategy: Attend the sessions I found interesting, then skip the next ones and spend time talking to the authors who had just presented, it meant I got to spend a lot time with them which was gold dust. 

In design school I would give a lecture then have a small seminar group afterwards, perhaps this might work in this environment. 

Overall the weekender felt much easier, more relaxed and more accessible. Last year it felt more exclusive and less inclusive. This year the staff were friendlier, remembered your name and talked openly. 

That was important and as a result i definitely spent more. Last year my total spend was £150, this year £535 (obviously visions of Heresy and the Graphic Novel bumped this up). 

This might have been more had I known what was going to be available, I would definitely have bought 1 or 2 of the Graphic Novel Pages but hadn’t budgeted for them or bought more copies of the Graphic Novel as Christmas presents. 

We were also given an opportunity to submit our stories we'd written on the day with a promise of individual feedback and assistance on bringing it up to the right standard. Additionally on the Saturday night I'd been a finalist on the Pitch Factor evening entertainment, and we were all told that we'd have the chance to work with an editor to bring our stories up to scratch. 

I had the opportunity for possibly two stories being taken forward. Wow

We were given a week to submit. So both my stories were sent in on the 7th/8th November. 

Then nothing. 

I joined a Facebook group called Disciples of Gold, and over the months different people would email Black Library and see what's going on. 

Then in March I went to Black Library live. I asked questions and the answers were deeply unimpressive. 

Errrr no one seemed to know if our stories had even been looked at. When I raised it during the Writing for Black library seminar, I was told they were publishers and aren't a teaching school, that they were a commercial organisation and not some people willing to bring authors along. 

I was stunned at that comment. 

So I waited for my feedback and my editorial assistance. 

Then on the 25th April this arrived:

Dear Denzil,

Thank you for attending the one-day writing workshop at last year’s Black Library Weekender. We have now had a chance to review all the submissions, plus those of the four pitch factor finalists.

You submitted two stories to us – 1307 – which was the 1,000 worder – and Rage, which was one of the pitch factor finalists. The story ideas for both were interesting, but the quality of English doesn’t meet our standards. Additionally, there were some weaknesses in the logic of the plots, and the sequence of events was confusing.

We’re afraid to inform you that we’re not interested in taking either of these submissions forward at this time. If you still wish to write for Black Library, we would recommend continuing to practise your writing, and keeping an eye out for the next open submissions window, which will be announced soon.

Regards,

The Black Library Editorial Team

This email was virtually word for word the same as all the other rejects. Nothing individual baring the mention of my titles. What exactly does it mean by the quality of English doesn't meet our standards?

So after all that. What's my point?

Business. He opened that can of worms...

Business is built on relationships, on maintaining those relationships over and over again. Especially if you exist in a niche market. 

So 25-30 of us turned up last year with the expectation that we were doing a writing workshop. A workshop implies you're going to teach me something, I paid £275.00 for my ticket. 

So this wasn't Black Library teaching me out of the goodness of their hearts, it was a business transaction, where I am the customer. The weekender was £70.00, the remaining £205.00 was for this day. 

As a personal trainer and I regularly do courses to update and upgrade my knowledge a one day course running from 0900-1800 with an hour break is usually around £70-£110.00, a 2 day £179.00 upwards. 

So for a one day course this is already on the expensive side. Last year we were given free anthologies, this year nothing. 

Then you have the promise of the attending authors. Now I didn't have a problem with the three authors and because I'd received no information that expectation wasn't one way or another. The authors we had gave me useful advice which I have used. 

Overall the weekend cost me:

Loss of earning (I'm Self-employed) - £400.00

Petrol                                                - £120.00

Food across the weekend                - £150.00 (my wife came too)

Ticket                                                - £275.00

Purchases                                        - £593.00

Hotel                                                 - £150.00

Total: £1688.00 for 3 days

So when someone gets shitty with me and starts saying I don't understand business, then he is obviously totally clueless sitting in his Ivory tower. I AM HIS BUSINESS. 

I choose where I spend my money. I choose how I spend my money. If I think I'm getting good value, I enjoy the buying process. If I feel like someone doesn't give a monkey's about me. I will not spend money there ever again. 

That afternoon in March rather than spend my normal £100s of pounds, I bought one book. It cost me £25.00, and for the first time I felt disgusted at myself for buying it. Don't get me wrong it's a great story. But £25.00 for a hardback book? Really???

David Baldacci, Lee Child, J K Rowling... I could keep going. I think the most expensive hardback fiction book I've ever bought was £12.99. 

By the kind of rule of thumb every product is twice the 'reasonable' price point. So you better be exceptional at maintaining value by looking after me as a customer. 

The above email came 5 and a half months after my submission. The average person reads at the rate of 200 words a minute, a 1000 word story wold take the average reader 5 minutes. A professional editor? 

I'm assuming less. 

As a customer taking 5 months to get back to me is unacceptable. The level of detail promised and delivered are worlds apart. Then the sheer arrogance astounds me. 

I felt I needed to write about this in my blog for the other guys (I'm going to call them Black Library Customers), that don't want to burn their bridges, and are scared that if they said something they would instantly scupper their future chances. 

I don't come from that world. 

I exist in a world where I try to treat people with respect and compassion, I hate bullies with a passion and I hate companies that treat their customers badly. 

Black Library you overcharge. You take expensive to a silly level. I used to forgive that. Not anymore. 

In this instance you dropped the ball badly. No attempt to apologise, no attempt to actually deliver on your promises. Total lack of integrity. 

My message for those guys who are holding out for the chance to work for Black Library and not expressing themselves out of fear....

Stop being stupid. If they can treat you this badly as a customer, that isn't someone you should even consider working with or for. I have no evidence to offer but in my 46 years I have come across many examples where a lack of integrity (being your word), is a VERY true indicator or CHARACTER. 

Walk away. 

There are many small companies starting up in this niche market and that WILL explode once 3D printers become mainstream. 

Find one of these companies, offer to write for them. Learn your trade. If you want copy the Black Library growth model and build your own version, with new aspiring authors, do it!

Personally the more publishing houses behave in this way, the more I hope writers go the self publishing route. 

As a reader, I would love to try your books. As a writer I don't want to be tied to someone else's IP. I want to create interesting fun stories that people will pick up and look instantly for my next book.