The Jewel in the Crown?

Mike Bodnar ponders the frustrations of gaining an endorsement for his debut novel while facing the big problem of all self-publishers...

Caution: Analogy Ahead!

I have been given a valuable jewel, a shining faceted trinket, worth - in certain circumstances - a great deal, and yet also possibly worth nothing. I am in a dilemma. But let's do a quick recap first so you can better understand where I'm coming from...

I self-published my first novel (through Amazon KDP) in April this year. It's a spy thriller in the classic Cold War genre. I may have made a mistake tying it into a popular 1960s British TV series that even today, 55 years after it first screened, enjoys cult status. The series is called The Prisoner. Why a mistake? Read on...

My book - Unity: Peace for All, Freedom for None - takes the flipside of the television series and aims to give a fictional yet plausible behind-the-scenes story to make sense of the enigmatic offering on screen. Problem is, I don't own the rights to the series, and ITV (who do) won't enter into negotiations with me. So, it's published, sadly, as a work of what's called 'fan fiction' (a term I loathe, and a major mistake).

Being a self-publisher I don't have a marketing budget (and because the work is fan fiction I'm not allowed to profit from it, so there's another mistake). Therefore my marketing to date has been limited to a book launch, and lots of social media posts. But I have tried to get endorsements from other well-known authors in the hope their encouraging words might help people decide to purchase.

Fishing for compliments

I have had limited success. Robert Harris's publisher returned the book with a polite no, sorry. Most others didn't even respond. But I did get a lovely endorsement from one of the few remaining actors who starred in The Prisoner, Derren Nesbitt (also of Where Eagles Dare fame, and more), and although he described me as 'very talented', and a 'fine writer', he felt I'd made a mistake tying the book to the TV programme (biggest mistake endorsed by famous actor!)

I have, more recently however, received a glowing testimony from an author rather than an actor, one David Pinner, who wrote the novel Ritual that was turned into a film called The Wicker Man (also a cult classic). His full summation of Unity was thus:

"Unity is very well-written and shows good political nous. A fine thriller: it is also a work of sharp prose and great economy. ‘Art is the gift of saying the most with the least’ and Mike Bodnar knows this.’ "

Author David Pinner

Lovely. From that I have chosen 'A fine thriller' as the key takeaway, and it now adorns the cover of all versions: the eBook, paperback and hardcover. (And before you ask, yes it does pay to 'know people'. One of my oldest friends just happens to be acquainted with Pinner, so he acted as a go-between for me and cleared the way for Mr. P to read the book and comment on it. I am lucky.)

My main problem however remains: I still don't have a marketing budget, nor a publisher with a distribution network, nor any major literary platform on which to showcase Unity. Yes I now have a wonderful endorsement, but all I can afford to do is continue to bombard my (very) limited following on social media with it.

I do have a few other ideas up my literary promotional sleeve: I plan to send a copy of the book to ITV with both the endorsements in the hope they'll consider Unity as a potential screenplay. (It is in fact written very much in a filmic style). On the other hand they might just take me to court on some basis of copyright infringement, but let them try; the publicity could be invaluable!

Another is to send it to mainstream book reviewers (ditto the endorsements) in the hope that David Pinner's support makes them at least take notice rather than bin it outright. Guardian, The Times et al, you have been warned.

Reviews for the asking (and paying)

Whenever I post on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) I get inundated with offers from soi disant reviewers saying they will review my book for their 10k, 100k, 250k followers in return for a certain amount of money - so far anywhere between US$30 and $45 plus cost of the book. Well no thanks; I don't hold with the ethics of paying for reviews which, to my mind, renders them worthless.

One thing I can hope for perhaps is that when I've finished writing my next novel (12k words so far but slow progress) which is not tied to any TV programme I can approach mainstream publishers with the endorsements I got for Unity as evidence that I at least know how to write. It might help.

But in the meantime I need to find a cheap (read: free) way of capitalising on David Pinner's wonderful words. I've done virtually everything I can using social media including even trying to give the book away for free (no takers, go figure). It's like finding a dropped diamond after a robbery of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London: it's worth a fortune but you can't do anything with it.

Any literary gemologists out there?