Author interview - L. E. Bendon

I was being asked for advice on how to write a book during the covid lockdowns. It wasn't because I'd had any experience at that point - just because I was good at looking things up and regurgitating online advice into something that people can actually follow. And when I understood it well enough to explain it, I decided to follow it myself too, use the free time forced upon me, and discover if I really could create the type of novel I wanted to see on shelves - my favourite genre complete with interesting characters solving puzzles, and representing me and my interests in a way that didn't yet exist in print at the time.

My latest book is a departure from the two I already have published (the first two books of The Weapon and the Fruit - my whodunnit series featuring a quirky Aussie detective solving murders in contemporary west London while refusing to wear footwear). My newest book, currently in the editing stages, and aiming for publication before Christmas 2025 is a comedic fantasy set on another planet where magic exists and racism doesn't features an innkeeper and failed magician fortuitously placed as the only person who can lead a team of trainee adventurers up a mountain and through a dungeon campaign to save the population of a nearby city from being slaughtered by recently unleashed and extremely dangerous magical hybrid animals. The Dungeon Campaign for Animal Rites is essentially Discworld meets Knightmare with all the humour of my previous work, but with magic instead of murders. Suitable for all ages, but more likely to appeal to adults and particuIarly intellectual teens, it makes fun of the fantasy adventure and RPG traditions, while exploring some serious ethical considerations along the way.

I start with a need that the plot has to fill, and then think of the most unlikely of ways to fill it. I come up with nationalities, appropriate names (always making some room for silliness) and personality traits and then I think about logical skills, interests and perspectives that would follow. Finally I take the needs of the plot and bend them to fit that character, with the character having some give along the way too, which is how the character is able to grow through the story.

I make sure I'm fully awake first, and not hungry. The warmer the temperature is the sooner I'll get in the right frame of mind to write, but now that I've moved to South India, the temperature is something I can take for granted. As are the snacks and drinks readily available in the cafes where I work. If I have an idea of what I need to do, words will just pour out. If I don't, I will lie down, and shut my eyes until either something comes to me (more often than you might think), or I fall unconscious, and wake up a while later far better equipped to find those missing ideas. If I really can't come up with anything, I'll write any old nonsense on the page because it's far easier to look at that and figure out how to make it decent, than it is to stare at a blank page and decide what might be a worthy line to begin with.

Creating my own brand as an extension of my writing style. I have a name, a logo, ISBNs, two websites, and it makes everything feel that much more significant than when I simply had one manuscript, a lot of belief in it, but not much else. Being an indie author means being an author and a publisher and each role feeds into the other, motivating you to keep going and keep building.

It's a big world out there and everyone's trying to get noticed. Finding other authors is easy. We are doing our best to be as visible as possible. Finding readers is much more difficult, because readers are something else first, and that something else is the label under which they file themselves. So the challenge is to make it so they find us instead. Indie authors working together makes that more achievable, but even then there are always bad actors in the form of bots and scammers flooding every online space and making everything that much more frustrating for authors and readers alike.

I do most of my work in Microsoft Word. For ebook formatting I use WordToEpub and Calibre. If there's something that I don't know how to do I much prefer to find a solution in the software I'm familiar with than to get used to a whole new programme.

Remember to get some life under your belt as part of your development. Practising your writing is essential. Reading other work across many genres is just as important. Those two will help you master the skills involved in writing well and finding your own style, but they're not enough on their own. You also need to take some inspiration from life that will give you something new and interesting to say. It's not enough to re-tell stories you love, or replicate the tropes from stories you love. Those books still exist. Use your life to find stories to tell that don't yet exist.

I do it myself. I have experimented with outsourcing promotion to other people for reasonable fees but the results were no better than the modest achievements I've managed myself. I think if you have a five or six figure sum to invest in a tried and tested marketing strategy in the hands of people with a track record of delivering, you might make 10% of that in profit, and have a big name to boost your future books as a result. But three or four figure investments probably won't get you very much back at all, or indeed the numbers of readers champing at the bit for your next book to justify the expenditure. You're better off spending that money on editing and cover designs so years and decades from now, whenever your books get discovered, the product will be top quality.

I've got three more books planned. After The Dungeon Campaign for Animal Rites, my next book will be a portal fantasy involving a religious themed boardgame. I won't say any more about it just yet, except to say that I'm very excited about it. After that will be the third book in The Weapon and The Fruit series. That will be followed by a spinoff to the Dungeon Campaign, set on another part of the same magical world, featuring a character who had a small part in the previous book leading her own story.