Today my guest is Traci L. Slatton, author of the novel Immortal, published by Bantam Dell. Traci, can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to write about a boy who hardly ages, and therefore seems immortal, during the 14th and 15th centuries in Florence, Italy?
Immortal is a rags-to-riches-to-burnt-at-the-stake story. It’s a journey of faith, an education of the heart, and an exploration of the deepest reaches of love.
My husband Sabin Howard (www.sabinhoward.com) is a classical figurative sculptor. Think Michelangelo. He is obsessed with the Italian Renaissance and it’s a regular topic of conversation with him. We’ve made some trips to Italy and I fell in love with Giotto and Fra Angelico and Botticelli and fresh, savory Italian food…. So I wanted to write a story that would include my heroes, from Giotto to Da Vinci. That meant my protagonist had to live a long time!
Also, in world mythology, there is a vein of tales about people who live for centuries, barely aging. I read an article in the alternative Aussie magazine NEXUS about two brothers in the south of France who seem to keep popping up in photos through the decades, looking exactly the same.
Then there is my fascination with Elaine Pagels and early Christianity. I have to wonder--and I must acknowledge Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code in articulating this question: How much of what we accept as true gospel has been edited by the early church fathers for the purpose of controlling the populace? That is, how were the original stories and sayings of Jesus’ reconfigured to give the church power and authority? There is so much in Jesus’ words about love, tolerance, helping people without judgment. Then there’s a judgmental overlay that wants to condemn anyone who isn’t Christian in a certain way--feels like it didn’t come from the same being who said, “Let he who is perfect cast the first stone.”
The main character Luca Bastardo ultimately studies alchemy. Since I was guided to learn about a 17th century alchemist on my spiritual journey with rock ‘n’ roll, I’m very curious if this is a topic of personal interest. Why might alchemy be important for those of us in the 21st century to study and explore?
I remember that you deeply researched an alchemist named Robert Fludd. Interesting. Alchemy is ultimately about the transformation of the self. It’s about liberation from the dross of the material realm and knowing ourselves to be “golden,” that is, eternal spirit. That’s a journey, not an endpoint. It’s also not immediate. It takes time and work and patience. In a world where instant gratification is idolized--we have a lot to gain from alchemy.
A character named The Wanderer at one point says to Luca, “It’s simple fact that the soul’s presence in the body means it hasn’t completed it work, and that it must transmigrate until the work is finished, until all is repaired, until it has wound through every branch of the tree of life.” My blog is called Rock ‘n’ Reincarnation, and that sounds like the basis of reincarnation to me. So I have to ask….what are your thoughts on reincarnation, and do you have any sense if you’ve lived before?
Reincarnation makes sense to me. I grew up with alternate sets of memories--fragments and flashes with deep emotional charge--I didn’t know what they were until I started researching consciousness and reincarnation in grad school. Alas, I was no one famous or important, best as I can figure out, but lived some lives as an ordinary person learning lessons about love. I also recommend Dr. Brian Weiss’ books on reincarnation.
You graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and for several years had a hands-on healing practice. Did that work influence some of the subjects you explore in Immortal, such as the Cathar’s transfer of spirit through the hands called consolamentum? Are you still doing any healing work?
Healing is a part of me; the BBSH is a mystery school, and once you emerge from one of those, you’re never the same. Luca has a healing gift. He’s the archetypal wounded healer.
Healing work comes up from time to time. Sometimes my husband or my little daughter will ask me to put my hands on a part of their body that hurts and “make it feel better.” I find myself doing healing work during meditation. I no longer have a formal practice. Now I’m an author, which is the longing that leads me through my life. The universe was very clear with me when it was time for me to put aside my practice and to pursue writing exclusively. I had never advertised but people came to me, and I had as full a practice each week as I wished. Then, over the course of one week, after many years, all my healing clients ended their work with me. I said, “Ok, ok, Universe, duh, I get the message!”
Getting a novel published for a first-time author can be a challenging process. Can you briefly describe how you came to Bantam Dell?
This was complicated and included me upsetting my former literary agent. Not a good thing to do. My editor at Bantam had read an earlier novel and liked it, but her boss said, “No.” Then, after I wrote a few chapters of Immortal, I gave it to my oldest daughter, who was then 14 and is now 19. She was always a gifted reader and in the 6th grade read at the college level. She loved those few chapters. I was pleased but thought nothing of it. A week later she came to me and said, “Mom, I can’t stop thinking about your novel. I have to know, what happens to Luca? Write the rest!” That’s when I knew I had something. I spontaneously emailed those chapters to the editor, and she loved Immortal too….
Any recommendations for authors who are trying to publish their novels?
Here’s the thing: publishing is a mess right now. The system is broken and no one knows exactly what’s going to save it. E-books? Print on demand? Vampire fiction? No one really knows where it will all end up. Everyone’s got a theory.
Last year was a disaster in the publishing industry, with massive layoffs. Harcourt stopped taking submissions for almost a year. Bantam went through a major re-structuring and went through not one but two rounds of firings. Twenty percent fewer books were published all around.
And this has been hardest of all on authors, particularly mid-list authors like me. One major, massive publishing house is, in my opinion, foundering like the Titanic. They’ve stopped paying advances in the traditional ways but now pay in small installments, quarterly. The last installment comes one year after publication. This same company is really screwing book packagers, too, paying them half of what their traditional pay has been.
What does this mean for authors? A few things. There is no room for beautiful, self-indulgent literary novels, unless you are Faulkner or Nabokov. If the only people who are going to buy your book are your mother, your spouse, and your five best friends: self-publish it.
Self-publishing no longer has the same big stigma it used to. HOWEVER, and none of the print-on-demand places like Lulu and Createspace and iUniverse will tell you this, it still has a small stigma. Self-published books are still viewed with a little bit of suspicion. They have to prove themselves.
Nonetheless, self publishing is an option. If you do that, be careful with those companies. They like to pretend that they aren’t vanity presses: they are. Also, they will try to sell you a lot of services because that is how they make money. You won’t need all the services they will try to pressure you to buy. Think used car salesmen: you need a vehicle but you MUST filter the salesman’s pitch.
If you self-publish, market the hell out of your book. Try to make sure that someone is tracking those sales figures. If you have really got something good that the scared, risk-averse traditional publishers missed because they collectively have their heads up their nether parts, the sales figures will reflect it. If you sell enough copies, a traditional publisher will get interested. After all, YOU have taken the financial risk, and you have a proven commodity.
The bottom line is: there is a bottom line. Publishing is a business. Artists of all ilks want to express themselves. Writers who want to be read by the masses have to keep in mind that their self-expression must be tempered with a thorough understanding of the market.
Because it is a business, and a traditional publisher is going to invest a lot of money in paying you, editing the book, marketing the book, printing and distributing the book--if you want to go the traditional publishing route--KNOW YOUR MARKET. Who is going to shell out cold hard cash, which is in hard supply, for your story?
Get an agent. That’s the first gate. Approach your agent with this pitch: “Here’s my novel and here’s who will buy it.” Know your demographics.
If you want to go the traditional route, your book had better hook your reader and fast. Be willing to revise, revise, revise until your novel is COMPELLING.
If you get a contract, don’t expect the publishing company to do your marketing. They won’t. The best you can hope for is that they won’t actively thwart your attempts to sell copies of your book. (They will get in your way and this is one of the reasons that the big publishing conglomerates are in trouble.) I spent my advance on a PR company, and I’m glad I did.
Above all, remember: you are not just in the business of writing books, you are in the business of selling them. If you keep that in mind, it will help you understand the traditional companies.
Thanks for that really thorough response Traci. Have you done anything unique to market Immortal?
As I said, I spent my advance on a PR firm. They are a great company out of Austin, Texas and they hustled like crazy for me. I did radio interviews and a lot of blogtalk radio (internet radio) interviews. Immortal was also frequently reviewed on the internet. Internet presence is important. I wrote articles for magazines. I contacted my alumnae associations. I tracked down everyone I’d ever met, ever, and sent them a postcard via snailmail. I sent emails. I canvassed the internet and sent emails about Immortal to all the professors of art history at colleges around the world who teach Renaissance art--there are a lot of them!--because Immortal features Giotto, Botticelli, and Da Vinci. One of those emails got me a lecture at a college.
Everyone is a potential reader. I carry around cards for Immortal and give them to everyone: the mailman, the video store clerk, my neighbors, the deli store lady, the drycleaner, my kids’ teachers, my kids’ friends’ parents, etc. I am shameless. My kids were sometimes humiliated, but, hey! I am not just in the business of writing books, I am in the business of selling books.
Two of the most fun events: My husband Sabin arranged for me to have a launch party at the Salmagundi Club in NYC (see www.salmagundi.org). This is a venerable art club that hosts art shows, lectures, workshops, etc. They’ve been around since 1871. My husband brought in a bunch of his sculptures and we did a joint sculpture show/book reading. We had an amazing turn out, the Salmagundi club sold lots of copies of IMMORTAL for their library conservation fund, and we all had fun!
Then I was invited to read at the Sundance Film Festival, under the auspices of the New York Film Lounge. That was a blast!
What was the most exciting moment for you throughout the entire book publishing process (and marketing process too).
It’s been a great ride. The most fun? Probably when the film rights for Immortal sold!
You have a very young daughter (and older daughters as well). How do you find time to write?
My little one is now almost 5. The two oldest girls are in college. So I only have two at home now.
I’ve had a babysitter and fortunately the little one now has a solid day in pre-K. I’ve been lucky because discipline is easy for me. I can shut the door to my little office and write. If I have three hours, then I write three hours. If I have 5, I write for 5 hours. That’s a blessing.
Plenty of time is spent multitasking. With a big family there is plenty of correspondence, planning, school events, volleyball games, dance recitals, chorus recitals, holiday parties, assemblies, summer camp planning sessions, piano lessons, clothes to be laundered….. It is absolutely endless. Not everything gets done every day. I try to be efficient but stuff just falls through into the ethers. My kids have to be able to forge my signature for school trip forms. I give them a sheet of paper and make them practice until they’re pretty good at it.
Every day is a little different, but the time that is available is well used. Also, like a lot of writers, I get up in the middle of the night and write, when I can’t sleep.
I’m really enjoying your blog Traci. Where can readers get more information about Immortal, your book signings, blog, and other recent news in the life of Traci Slatton.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Laura!! My website is www.tracilslatton.com and the blog is www.tracilslatton.blogspot.com.
My husband Sabin Howard and I are working on a sculpture book that will be published through a packager; look for that in the fall. It’s about why beauty is the point of art and reads easily. There’s a vampire novel making the rounds and I’m also working on the sequel to Immortal. It will all be on the website!
Thank you again for sharing your wit and wisdom with us Traci. Good luck with Immortal and all of your other fascinating projects.