What is your most cherished childhood memory?
In terms of writing, it has to be Christmas when I was twelve, when my aunt and uncle (who seemed to understand me far more than my parents) bought me, of all things, a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus. Who buys a twelve-year-old a thesaurus for Christmas? Bloody good aunts and uncles, that’s who! They understood my love of writing far more than my parents did who wanted a boy who spent all day outside rolling around in mud and getting into fights with the neighbourhood hoodlums. My parents did relent for my next birthday though and bought me a typewriter.
Since how long have you been living in North Devon?
I moved here in 2015. It’s a completely different world to my upbringing, which was in the Midlands. As a child, I rarely saw the sea as we could only afford a holiday (and a UK one at that) every two years. As an adult, my dream was to live on the coast, and in 2015 I finally had the power to realise that.
What encouraged you to be a YA novelist?
I spent an entire year building the world of ‘Hikariuchuu’ – it’s geography, history, flora and fauna and even the politics! I had no idea what kind of story I was going to set there, but when the idea finally came (‘rescue the princess from the dragon … except that the princess is the dragon’) it was most suited to a YA novel.
Your thoughts on conventional vs. self-publishing? What route did you choose and why?
Traditional publishers and agents are the gatekeepers to quality, but they are also – with understandable reasons – the gatekeepers to what will make money for them. With self-publishing, there is no quality control which can be both a plus and a minus. I have read self-published books that are simply outstanding, and I have ready self-published books that are utterly terrible. It’s a bit of a minefield, and you can see why self-publishing has the reputation it does, even though that reputation is not completely deserved.
I got the best of both worlds with a hybrid publisher. I know enough about my writing to understand I’m never going to be a best-selling author (even though I make a very nice living from writing) but I think I am a decent story-teller. At least some people have now read my book and the greater percentage of them have enjoyed my tale. I found the hybrid publishing journey to be an absolute delight, although the publicity journey is an absolute nightmare!
At what age did you begin writing? Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
I think I was seven or eight. My school had a rewards system and as the second tier of the system for reading you had to write eight book reports and a short story. The story I wrote involved the first manned space mission to Mars. I was annoyed as I wrote dialogue in an American accent for one of the characters and my teacher marked me down for bad spelling! In the story the mission went awry when the pioneering space folk found Mars to be populated by dinosaurs. I don’t think this is scientifically accurate, but as these were the days before Google I don’t think I can be blamed.
How did you come you with the title of your book, "Hikariuchuu: The Realm of the Lights"?
All the place names and family names in the book are based on Japanese, and a lot of the folklore is based on Japanese mythology. I adore mange and anime and most things Japanese so that was the route I took. ‘Hikariuchuu’ is a portmanteau of two Japanese words – ‘hikari’ meaning ‘light’ and ‘uchuu’ meaning ‘universe’, so basically ‘Hikarichuu’ does mean ‘realm of the lights’.
When creating a character do you tend to focus more on their physical attributes or characteristic traits (like their personality, intelligence, background, etc)?
Definitely characteristic traits. I only ever hint at their physical traits as I let the reader decide. As soon as you start reading a novel your picture the characters as you see them, based on what they say and how they act. If, as a writer, you describe how someone looks before showing how they act it can be quite off-putting for the reader, and then if you go too heavy on the physical description later on that too can be quite off-putting as the reader has to redefine how they’ve pictured the character so far.
I only describe physical characteristics if they are pertinent to the plot. For example in Hikariuchuu there is Hunter being overweight (as he has neglected his personal health), Sam being skinny (because he is not getting enough food), Elliott looking older than 13 (because he is much more mature than Adam) and Jack being small (because despite his diminutive size he is full of bravado).
What is your ideal setting to write in?
In bed! I have a desk and a Mac but that’s for my day-to-day writing (I am a copywriter) and I dislike sitting there when writing for myself. For the creative stuff I have a very small yet very convenient laptop and I love going to bed and writing from there. Being 54, it’s the only exciting thing that happens in my bed these days!
How many hours in a day do you write? Have you ever pulled an all-nighter writing?
Writing is my job! I can write anything between 6 and 10 hours per day. Unfortunately, once I have completed my daily copywriting tasks I am in no mood to start writing again, even if it is the stuff I want to write! In my early days of copywriting I wrote a lot as newbie copywriters do not get paid much (my rate-per-word is now 16 times what it was compared to when I became a copywriter) – I once wrote every day, at least 12 hours per day for 72 days in succession, including two days when I wrote from 8am to 3am just to get everything done. I could never pull an all-nighter writing as my brain eventually turns to mush!
Which one do you prefer: writing a series or standalone novel? Why?
I really have no preference. The book I wrote after Hikariuchuu (which did not get published although I may revisit it as I feel it’s a stronger work) was standalone. Hikariuchuu: The Realm of the Lights was envisaged as part of a trilogy and the sequel is already plotted – it’s just finding the time to write it. My current work-in-progress (aimed at younger children) may become a series if it is successful, but again, generally I have no preference.
What are the best strategies for social media marketing?
It’s a full-time job if you want to be successful, and I do not have time to do it, so if you seriously want to sell a ton of books you just have to maximise your engagement and I feel that means handing it off to someone else, which of course costs. I have almost 14,000 followers on Twitter but it still feels at times that I am talking to nobody. My engagement has improved since I set up my website (ethankenyontate.co.uk) but maintaining content for that is also time-consuming.
Word-of-mouth is still the best engagement tactic, so if your work is good enough people will recommend it to others via various social media platforms and hopefully something will emerge from there.
If there was anything you could say to your younger self, what would you say?
I did not have the happiest of childhoods. My father wanted a different kind of son, my mother obviously preferred my sister to me by a country mile and I was bullied for much of my school life, if not all of it. If I could meet my younger self I would give him and cuddle and tell him to hang on in there as eventually, everything will be alright. It has taken me a long time to find a happy place, but I’m here now and have been for a few years.
How do you handle criticism as a writer?
It does not affect me at all. You cannot expect everyone to absolutely love everything you do. A friend of mine recommended their ‘favourite book’ which was by a very, very famous writer – I hated it and gave up a third of the way in. There are very successful writers I cannot bear (Jeffrey Archer, Dan Brown, E. L. James). It makes perfect sense that some people who read my work are going to think it is terrible and I’d be an idiot to think otherwise. It might be different if everyone who read my work thought it was terrible, but I’ve had enough positive feedback to know that that is not the case.
How many plot ideas are just waiting to be written? Can you tell us about one?
I do have one plot idea that just won’t go away but I think it is more of a screenplay than a novel. It’s about an absolutely terrible footballer who scores one goal, without fail, in every game he plays. Every single one. He is discovered in non-league and ends up playing in the EPL and even for England in the World Cup final, even though he is rubbish (but wouldn’t, say, Liverpool sign a striker who is 100 percent guaranteed to score them 38 goals in an EPL season, even if he is absolutely dreadful?). I love this idea and hope I’ll get around to writing it one day.
How has your experience of being associated with AllAuthor been?
It’s been great! I particularly like the networking (I found an author I really like via AllAuthor) and the auto-generated images you can share to Twitter with the single click of a button. It’s a very convenient and easy-to-use tool that’s essential for any author who is struggling to make themselves heard!
