New James Barclay interview

There's a very interesting Q&A with fantasy author James Barclay over at Falcata Times. Here's an extract:

How would you say that your perspective has changed about selling your own work with multiple novels under your belt?

It’s funny because my immediate reaction was to assume that I was more relaxed but that isn’t the case. When Dawnthief was published there was massive excitement and plenty of hope. Ten books later, I have a little less excitement and a whole lot more expectation. I have developed a fairly accurate gut feel about how well a book will do as well. That’s both a blessing and a curse, I find.

Then there’s the internet and marketing. It’s completely exploded in the last ten years and authors need to be aware of the sheer number of forums, blogs, review sites and stores there are out there. Selling a novel is a global (or certainly trans-Atlantic) operation from day one. Authors need to be able to respond to the live nature of the internet so it isn’t just doing the interviews and writing blog posts on their own websites. Being available for live podcast, forum chats and there to respond on individual forum threads... all of this and much more is part of the author’s job. This is not a complaint, by the way. I absolutely love it.

With Chronicles of the Raven (Dawnthief (Canada, USA, Europe, Noonshade (Canada, USA, Europe), and Nightchild (Canada, USA, Europe)) now published in the USA by Pyr, you might hear more and more about James Barclay. . .