About William Couper:
In the deep wilds of Scotland, hunkered down in a sylvan bunker, William Couper churns out works when he’s not hunting and foraging. Well, he claims ‘deep wilds’ — all evidence points to him being somewhere in the Greater Glasgow area. Although there are reports of a lot of cats, so there could be some veracity to the ‘wild’ thing. There’s a possibility his ‘hunting and foraging’ are over-long visits to the supermarket. He does churn out works. Much of his output is fiction, with strange stories in science fiction, fantasy and horror floating around in print and online.
What inspires you to write?
Lots of things inspire me to write. Something I’ve read about in the news, a particularly odd or vivid dream or walking around being struck by a thought. Sometimes it’s seeing people be creative in other fields, like music. That makes me think, I should be doing my own thing.
Tell us about your writing process.
My process depends on the piece I’m writing, whether I have a deadline or how strong my idea is.
Sometimes I have an idea that just needs an outline. Other times the story just comes. It’s a little haphazard, although, without fail, I’ll do a lot of preliminary work on a novel. I end up with hefty support documents for novels made up of an outline and pages of character sheets.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t talk to my characters as much as live in their heads. I create the characters and plonk them in the situation and determine what they’re going to do. I’m more of a puppeteer than a psychiatrist.
What advice would you give other writers?
Write. Don’t constantly talk about it, just sit down and do it. For some people that blank page is a terrifying prospect, but get a sentence on there and you’ll be amazed what happens.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I decided to self-publish because I want my work to get out there. The die you have to roll in order to get published traditionally is just too big and I’m not that lucky. I’ve managed it a few times in my writing career, but I didn’t feel it was enough. I needed to strike out on my own.
Having said that, I’ll never discount the possibility of submitting work to traditional publishers. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but there’s always that frisson of doubt before you get the final verdict.
For new authors, I say keep your options open. Don’t ever completely discount anything, because you don’t know when an opportunity will come along.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
That is a big question.
I’ve thought for a long time that traditional publishing needs to be a lot more forward thinking. Larger publishers need to look at investing in newer authors. Give modest advances to a stable of new writers to allow them to live instead of blowing huge advances on a few celebrities.
Ebooks are not going away either and as long as there are platforms like Kindle and Smashwords people will keep turning to them. There has to be a nice median space where print and digital, traditional and independent publishing can co-exist.
What do you use?: Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: horror, sci-fi, crime, fantasy, action
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Link To William Couper Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
