Matt Reilly Stories (29 page)

13.
What makes a novel a best-seller?

Do
you really want to know? The secret, I think, lies in the wonder of books themselves.
Thrillers like
Ice Station
make it to the best-seller list, books like
Longitude
make it (what a wonderful book),
Angela’s Ashes
, John Marsden books,
self-help books, cooking books, the list goes on and on and on. Now, what do
all these books have in common? Well, I think it’s this ‘they all write about
something that people want to read about. Call me naïve, but I think that’s the
key. The beauty of it is that people want to read about lots of different
things. It’d be a pretty boring world if everyone wanted to read only
thrillers.

14.
What is the most important element of a novel?

Good
story and great pace. As you can imagine, I’m a big fan of narrative drive. The
story must propel a novel if it is going to hook me in. I must want to know
what is going to happen next (and I guess, attached to that, I should say that
I must care about at least one of the characters involved in that story; if you
don’t care about the characters, why keep reading?). No, I really hate it when
a novel I’m reading gets bogged down. And if the story doesn’t interest me to
begin with, then I put it down very quickly.

15.
What advice would you have for anyone thinking of writing a novel? Especially,
re: dealing with rejection by publishers.

Do
it. Write your book and send it out there. Dare to fail. Publishers can be
something of an enigma, and sometimes they get a bad rep for rejecting so many
writers — they tend to be seen as rather snobbish people ensconced in their
ivory towers, not deigning to cast their eyes over new manuscripts. This view
is a little unfair, in my opinion. The root of the problem as I see it, is
this: any business which seeks to profit from an “art form” (and I classify
novel-writing as an art form) is going to disappoint many people. Publishers
have to make profits, for the simple reason that they are, first and foremost,
a business. I think a lot of people don’t understand that and they wonder why
their book about their life story doesn’t get picked up. Publishers don’t want
someone who can write one book. They want the person who can write five or ten
or twenty.

How
to treat them? Difficult question, that. The story about the way I got picked
up by Pan Macmillan is somewhat unique. I was rejected by all the major
publishers, so I self-published my first book,
Contest
. It was seen in a
store by an executive from Pan Macmillan who bought it, read it, and rang me up
(and now, I’ve sold the movie rights to it, so to all those publishers who
rejected it first up — well, I guess they missed the boat; a publisher who
doesn’t read everything that comes across his/her desk risks missing the next
big thing and that big thing could be your book!). Pan-Macmillan has since
bought the world-wide publishing rights to
Contest
(very satisfying
that!).

Publishers
get 2000 unsolicited manuscripts every year. My suggestion on how to treat them
if you have a manuscript is this ‘in some way, somehow, make your manuscript
get noticed. Wrap it in flowers! Bind it in wooden planks! Send a letter saying
that it is the best damn book anyone’s ever seen! Make them notice you! Make
them see you ahead of the other 1,999 manuscripts they get every year. My
philosophy with
Contest
was simple. I thought I had what they wanted ‘a
highly commercial book. And I still believe that if you’ve got what they want,
all you have to do is get them to read it. Somehow.

________________

2002

(Note
from Flyboy707: No spelling, punctuation or grammar was changed by me in the
following chat. It is presented to you as it originally occurred in 2002).

Thurs,
10th October 2002

5:00pm
AEST.

Moderators
Present:

Roy
Govier

Matthew
Downey

Sam
Chen

Question:
Are you working on a New book Yet?

Matthew
Reilly: No. I’m exhausted. Thinking on some ideas though. One screenplay. One
new book.

Question:
Is the Screenplay for an Aussie Produced Project?

Matthew
Reilly: Screenplay is based on my short story The Mine, and will hopefully be
produced by me in the near future.

Question:
Is it a broadway musical? No-one would expect that.

Matthew
Reilly: Broadway musical? don’t laugh. I may just give it a go. I loved Moulin
Rouge, remember.

Question:
Is S3 in the final stages?

Matthew
Reilly: As for S3, it has been delivered and read by my publisher at macmillan.
They love it. Now awaiting their editorial comments which will take a month or
two.

Question:
Any hints on the Title?

Matthew
Reilly: The Title is still up in the air. Have contemplated “Scarecrow” or
something more global. This book bounces around the world at warp speed.

Question:
Has the cover been designed yet? How long until we see some cover designs?

Matthew
Reilly: As for a cover, no, it’s a fair way off. That happens far closer to
publication.

Question:
Who gets whacked in Schofield 3?

Matthew
Reilly: Who gets whacked? Not telling. Maybe everyone gets whacked. I suppose
if you asked me that about Ice Station I could legitimately say that Schofield
got whacked. (his heart did stop beating)

Question:
Who do you see playing the giant rats in The Mine Movie?

Matthew
Reilly: I’d like to see some Gymansts in suits!!!

Question:
If your screenplay is made in Aust. Can I be a stuntman in it?

Matthew
Reilly: Stuntment will be necessary, write to me through the website.

Question:
Any news about the Ice Station movie?

Matthew
Reilly: Ice Station movie continues to tick along. The Screenplay is in its 4th
draft, but still moving forward. I’m going over to LA for some meetings in
early November. Matthew Downey: As long as you get Ali Larter to play Gant,
I’ll be happy

Matthew
Reilly: Who is Ali Larter? I like Christine (Marcia Marcia Marcia) Taylor
myself!

Juliana:
I’m still voting on Hugh Jackman for Schofield.

Matthew
Reilly: Hugh Jackman would be awesome. Did you know he was once part of the
humble Willoughby Musical Society? (Where I once acted on stage)

Question:
Anyone who wants to play a dead body, bloody or otherwise, raise your hand.

Matthew
Reilly: I’d play a dead body myself, actually! Hell, if I just get a photo on
the set of Wilkes Ice Station, I’d be pleased. To think, it just came out of my
head.

Question:
Are you coming back to the US on your next book tour??

Matthew
Reilly: Not sure about that yet Anna, but I promise you’ll be the first to
know. (Anna tried to meet me in Texas when I toured the US earlier this year.)

Question:
What news of Contest Movie?

Matthew
Reilly: The Contest movie seems to have stalled. Haven’t heard from the
producers in a while. I think they call it “development hell” in Hollywood.

Question:
Don’t the rights revert back to you soon?

Matthew
Reilly: The Contest rights would revert to me after a set period. That’s still
some way off, though.

Question:
When is Schofield Three being released?

Answer:
It is released in Australia in November 2003

Question:
What do you think of Dark Angel being axed?

Matthew
Reilly: The axing of Dark Angel: Hmmmm. I kinda liked it. Kinda. Just didn’t
keep watching it. Which it seems is what happened for a lot of other people.
Something about it just didn’t gel for me. The heroine though, was seriously
sexy!

Question:
What can you tell us about S3 beyond what you’ve written in your thoughts
section?

Matthew
Reilly: Can I tell you more? Not sure what I’ve said already. Let me just say
this: It countains a Bounty hunt, and a price of $18.6 million is put on
Schofield’s head (and the heads of several other top soldiers of the world) And
that’s the first 3 pages.

Question:
Why $18.6 million? anything specific about that amount?

Matthew
Reilly: 18.6 was chosen for a reason.

(Various
fans) Please don’t kill Mother.

Matthew
Reilly: Mothers death? Hmmmm. that was another potential title for S3. “The
Death of Mother” …….. Just kidding.

Roy
Govier: I fowarded the Area 7 project to a game developer who is an MR fan.
Should be good. Just waiting for feedback.

Matthew
Reilly: Roy – I loved the A7 game demo. Hope the computer dude likes it. Let me
know what he says.

Question:
Any killer penguins or other creatures in S3?

Matthew
Reilly: Yes. Of course – it IS a “Matthew Reilly” book after all! Some sharks
might make an appearance.

Question:
Can you tell us one of the new locations in the book?

Matthew
Reilly: Locations in the new book. I’d rather not give away too much. (I know
that sounds so cliched, but the book won’t be out for a fair while.) It pretty
well goes all the way around the Northern Hemisphere.

Matthew
Reilly: I should probably explain the delay in releasing the new book. If I
could have finished it by July, it would be out now. But I realised in January
that I couldn’t finish it (to my standard of quality before then.) Pan were
great and said, “Take your time. Make it good.” So I took two more months, and
turned in a cracker of a book. Unfortunately that means it won’t be released
until August, 2003. (Since books seel more in the lead up to Christmas)

Question:
When is the US release of S3?

Matthew
Reilly: It’s after the Aussie release. Probably in January 2004. But US readers
can go to Aussie online bookstores and get it when it comes out here. I kind of
like the fact my books come out here first, since that is not what normally
happens!

Question:
Have you taken any trips lately? You went to Nepal earlier this year.

Matthew
Reilly: No, no trips lately. Nepal was a much needed break. been writing the
new book non-stop since I got back in April.

Question:
Did you drink Yak milk? apparantly its quite good.

Matthew
Reilly: Didn’t drink Yak milk — but I did eat Yak burgers. Very tasty. Like
beef only with more tang.

Question:
What do you think of Wilbur Smith?

Matthew
Reilly: Never really did read Big Wilbur. I tried River God, but was busy
writing, so never finished it. Funny, I make comments about some other authors
in my new thoughts section that went up today.

Question:
Have you heard of Peter McCallister? He is a Brisbane Writer who has recently
released Cosmonaut…

Matthew
Reilly: yes, I have heard of him. Penguin sent me a copy of Cosmonaut. I was
writing at the time, so I haven’t read it yet. Now that I have some time, I
might give it a go?

Question:
What about Robert Ludlum, the author of the Bourne Identity, if you read the
book were you dissapointed with the movie?

Matthew
Reilly: Yes, I read The Bourne Identity years ago. I liked it, but it was,
well, a bit slow. I found the movie pretty poor actually. It had exactly ONE
plot. Which is just not good enough these days.

Question:
What do you think makes a book Good?

Matthew
Reilly: What do I think makes a book GOOD? Hmmmm. I personally like a story
that makes me forget about the real world. I remember reading Michael
Crichton’s ‘Rising Sun’ when I was working at a law firm in Sydney. I couldn’t
wait to get to the bus after work so I could read it undistracted. A book whose
story demands your attention.

Question:
At the latest Brisbane Writers Festival they talked about you, and stated that
you were perhaps “The Most successful” writer to have ever self-published. Does
it make you proud when you hear things like that?

Matthew
Reilly: They talked about me, huh? You know what Oscar Wilde said, “The only
thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.” As for being a
successful self-published author — yes, I am very proud of how “I made it
happen”. I wasn’t given any favours in the publishing industry, I really had to
bust in. So yes, very proud.

Question:
What is the latest on your Brother’s book?

Matthew
Reilly: Stephen’s book (funny how that came up just after I said I never got
any favours getting published!!!) Yes, as Roy says, it’s called “Ninety East
Ridge” and it’s kind of like Carl Sagan’s Contact. Someone attempts to build a
city in the middle of the Indian Ocean and it investigates the personalities
involved and the International Consequences.