Exploring this Writing Life.
But first, an introduction.
Who am I? And why are you here?
The answer to that first question is easy. I’ll introduce myself.
My name is Dylan H. Jones, I live in Oakland, California. Originally from Wales (that lovely patch of rolling green hills and wild ocean to the west of England), I’ve lived in London, Slovenia, and San Francisco before settling here in Oakland with my family back in 2004.
I’m the owner and creative director of Jones Digital Media, a video content agency. We work with some of the brightest tech companies in the Bay Area and beyond helping them get their message out through animation, video, and copy.
I’m also a best-selling crime fiction author with four books published so far and a new one on the horizon in early 2024. My first three books are set on the Welsh island of Anglesey and feature my sardonic, and rather brusque, Detective Inspector Tudor Manx. Last year, I took a long detour, gave Manx the year off, and wrote a stand alone thriller, What Follows, set here in Oakland.
To be honest, none of this publishing lark has been easy.
The hundreds of agent query letters sent out and the flood of rejections and resounding silence made me feel like I was screaming into a bread bin, the hollow echo of my own voice ringing back in my ears. Once I did land an agent, two in fact, they proved to be duds. I’ll write about this in a future post.
Going the indie publishing route was far more successful, at least for a time, until my publisher was taken over by a large media distribution company and things went very pear shaped, or ‘tits up’' to coin a favorite turn of phrase of mine. Ironically, this ‘global media distribution company’, failed to distribute my books with any success. I wasn’t the only author in our stable to suffer this ‘gelding’, not that it was much comfort.
My publisher, all credit to them, did give me the rights back to all my books, and I will be forever grateful for the chance they took on a debut author. But at the end of the day, we writers have to take charge of our own careers and if the relationship just isn’t working any more, make a bolt for the exit, look after yourself because no one else will.
Lesson learned, I should have bolted much sooner, but hope is a fickle mistress. And there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, which I’ll get to later.
The answer to the second question, why are you here? Is harder to answer.
I hope you’re here to be entertained, maybe learn from my mistakes as well as my success. Maybe you’re here killing a few minutes before your next Zoom meeting or need a distraction during your lunch break.
Look, I know, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there proffering writing advice, and I promise I’ll try to make these posts as different from those as I can. No easy task, but I’ve had thirty years of writing for a living, from scripting TV promos and movie trailers to book writing, and hopefully I’ve learned a thing or two along the way.
The goal of ‘Writing for a Living’ is to spread a little hard-won knowledge and share some personal stories that will hopefully make your life a little richer. Also, I’d love to hear your stories, after all by sharing we all become better people, better writers.
They’ll be no affiliate links to clutter the stories, just a simple request to subscribe, like this one right here.
My intention is to post once a week, on a Friday. The posts will vary, be a little eclectic at times, but will all written with the aim to entertain and inspire.
And while we’re on the subject of inspiration, that bright light I mentioned earlier? Recently, I signed a two-book deal with a new publisher, Lume Books, who will also republish all my backlist books, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. A week after signing with Lume, they were bought by the UK’s most successful independent publisher Joffe Books. I’m nothing but excited as to what the future holds for my books.
As I work with Joffe/Lume Books, I’ll be posting the progress on my new thriller, I’ll Let You Go, to give you some insight into the publishing process. All names will be changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.
I hope this gives you some insight into what to expect. I look forward to interacting with you all in some capacity; all comments and questions welcome.
And here again is that pesky subscribe button.