An Interview with Robert Muchamore - Part Two

The SCBWI interview with best-selling teen author Robert Muchamore (author of the Cherub series) continues…

What, in your opinion, are the three most important qualities needed to be a successful teen/YA author?

1) Be prolific. When I speak to an adult and tell them I write two books a year they say, 'how do you manage that?' When I speak to a child and tell them I write two books a year they say, 'why have I got to wait six months for your next book?'
2) Communicate with your audience. Your fans are your best friends. If they send you an email, answer it – there are safe ways of doing it. A lot of my early fan-base came out of really nice, loyal fans. Value them.
3) Be professional. Everyone involved with books is busy – the librarian and teachers you visit are busy, the people at your publishers are busy. Make sure you deliver your manuscript on time, make sure you arrive at meetings on time. That way everyone is happy to do things for you because you're easy to work with. There are some crotchety children's writers around – and I've met a fair few – who just epically don't get that.

Do you do school visits?

I used to do a lot of them and they're definitely something I'd recommend new authors do. They’re hard work but they’re a really great way to connect with kids. And they’re also a source of income. When I first quit my job, school visits are what paid the rent.

Recent research carried out on behalf of the Author’s Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) showed that the average income for a professional writer had fallen from £15,450 in 2005 to £11,000 in 2013. What are your thoughts…

I’d say don’t be discouraged by the £11,000 figure. People who’ve got a publishing deal with a reasonable publisher and are writing one, maybe two books a year and are moderately successful will be earning significantly more than that. For a new writer the best figure to keep in your head is that you should be making 50p for every book you sell, so for every 10,000 books you sell you're probably going to make £5,000.

Your latest Cherub book, Lone Wolf, is about drugs – are there any topics that are out of bounds for YA?

In the context of the Cherub series I try to make it realistic but not extreme. There are a few 'craps' and 'shits' in my books because I don’t think that will warp any teenage minds. But I don't use sexual swear words, and we're not allowed to use the 'N' word. There are rules and guidelines and I stick to them.

Writers’ block… does it exist? Are you affected by it? And, if so, how do you overcome it?

Yes it exists, although I do like the saying, 'only wealthy writers can afford writers’ block, the rest of us just have to deliver the work on time.' I've never had writers’ block for a prolonged period of time but I do have days where the words get mushed up in my head and I can't get them down. It's horrible. What I tend to do is something else work-related instead, whether it's answering fan-mail or updating my website or just doing my accounts. I’d feel quite guilty if I stopped writing and buggered off and went shopping. I've always got other stuff I could be doing.

Describe your typical writing day…

I get up, have a bit of breakfast, try to be at my desk by nine and carry on until five. Sometimes, if I'm in the mood and I want to finish a long chapter, I'll work late. But, on average, it's pretty much a nine to five job.

Where do you write?

My office in my house. I can read and do research anywhere but the only place I actually write is at my desk in my office – it’s like a shrine to writing.

Can you describe the view from your writing space?

It overlooks the music room of the local primary school. When it gets hot, like at this time of year, they open the windows and I can hear them playing music. But I always know when the teacher goes out of the room because suddenly there's loads of banging and clanging. It’s hilarious. It’s quite a nice noise actually.

Might it inspire you to try writing for a younger audience?

I've actually tried that. I've tried it three times and never been happy with the result. I’m currently toying with the idea of writing an adult novel. It's fun to do something different.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Not having to commute. I live and work in London and I really appreciate the freedom of not having to travel back and forth.

And what’s the worst?

It can be very isolating, especially for me because I live on my own. You can get into this thing where you're in your house, on your own, and you’re really getting into your book and it can be quite scary. You end up living in your head and not getting out enough. I've actually got some techniques that I use now if I feel myself getting to that stage – I have people I go and see and I make sure I arrange to do stuff.

Book-wise, what have you got coming out next?

I’ve just delivered the second book in my Rock War series (about a group of teens who enter a rock music reality TV show). The first one came out in February and the new one’s due out the middle of next year. There’ll also be another book in the Cherub series, but I haven’t written that yet.

CHERUB: Lone Wolf was published on Friday 1 August 2014 by HODDER CHILDREN’S BOOKS Price £12.99
ISBN: 9781444914092
For more info on Robert and CHERUB go to:
www.muchamore.com
www.cherubcampus.com

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Jo Dearden spent 15 years writing about other people’s stories – as a reviewer and feature writer for various TV listing magazines. Three years ago she attended an Arvon course on writing for children. She loves writing didactic rhyming Picture Book texts with copious illustration notes. Despite this, her story ‘Betty’s Bellybutton’ was recently placed third in the Winchester Writer’s Competition and she has previously had a story shortlisted for the Mumsnet/Walker Books Book of Bedtime Stories. Jo lives in Rawtenstall, Lancashire along with fellow SCBWI-ers George Kirk and Steve Hartley (only in the same town though, not in the same house… that would just be weird).

An Interview with Robert Muchamore - Part One

Robert Muchamore is best known for the CHERUB series of books. He wrote the first instalment CHERUB: The Recruit in 2001 after his 12-year-old nephew told him that he couldn’t find any books he wanted to read. Thirteen years on and Robert has just launched Lone Wolf, the 16th Cherub title – so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about what makes a good story, and a good series… 

Robert, you were recently a guest-speaker at YALC (the Young Adult Literary Conference) which was part of the London Film and Comic Con – how did that go? 

Booktrust hosted an ‘in conversation’ thing with me and my friend (Girl, Missing author) Sophie McKenzie. It was the first time I've ever given a talk while people were walking about in the background waving lightsabers. It was quite surreal, and certainly different to the kind of audience I’d get at the Edinburgh or Hay Festival.

Lone Wolf – the latest in your Cherub series of books – is out on August 1. Can you tell us about the idea behind Cherub? 

CHERUB is a secret organisation that hires child orphans as spies. Everyone’s familiar with the basics of spy fiction, but I didn't want to make Cherub like James Bond – all slick and over the top. Instead I made it as gritty and believable as possible. The thing I most wanted was for kids who read the books to come away thinking 'this could really happen to me'.

Where did your inspiration for the Cherub series come from? 

About 15 years ago I went to visit my sister in Australia for a month and I got to know my nephew – Jared – really well. He was the classic kid who was bright but regarded books as naff and boring. Harry Potter was huge but he just wasn’t into fantasy, so I decided to try and write something he’d actually want to read… that's why I made Cherub very grounded and set in the real world.

Did your job as a private investigator help? 

When you say ‘private investigator’ you’re probably think of a guy hired to follow someone who’s up to no good. Most firms don't do much of that sort of work because it’s very expensive. If you’ve seen the TV series Heir Hunters (BBC show following the work of probate researchers who attempt to track down the distant relatives of people who have died without making a will) well, that was the mainstay of the work I did. The great thing about that job was that most of my work colleagues were ex police officers. When I was writing my second Cherub book, Class A, instead of doing my research online I'd have my tea break with the guy who used to be Head of the Manchester Drugs Squad, and I’d just ask him instead. It was a useful environment to be in.

Can you tell us more about Lone Wolf? 

There are 12 books in the first Cherub series, and Lone Wolf is the 4th book in the second series, so it's the 16th Cherub book. It’s about Fay, a girl whose mother and aunt are both drug dealers and are killed by a drug baron, so she sets out to seek revenge. Meanwhile the Cherub agents try to get close to Fay so they can infiltrate the drug gangs.

Was writing in the voice of a teenage girl a challenge? 

No more of a challenge than writing for teenagers in general – you’re writing for a group of people who have fundamentally different thought processes and attention spans to adults. The thing I think I would find challenging would be to write a teenage female character in the first person. I'm not sure I'd have the confidence to do that. Maybe I'll try it one day.

Who reads your books, who’s a typical Cherub fan? 

They’re aimed at boys from year 7 up (age 11+). But when I do a book signing I find that, these days, the ratio is probably 60/40 boy/girl. There are quite a lot of girls who reject those really girly books and are into things that are typically seen as more masculine. Female Cherub fans don't turn up in dresses and sparkly pumps, they wear jeans and hoodies.

Is that why you’ve got a girl on the cover of Lone Wolf…?

My books are still primarily aimed at boys, and my publishers think they're being quite bold because there's this fear that, if you have an image of a girl on the cover of a book, boys won't pick it up. My take on it is, as long as the girl looks cool, it doesn’t really matter. If you ask a boy of 9 or 10 if he likes girls he'd probably be embarrassed but if you ask a boy of 13 or 14 ‘Would it be good to have a really cool girlfriend to hang out with?’ he'd probably go ‘yeah’.

What’s the secret to writing a really good story? 

There are a lot of 'how to' books out there that claim there's a formula for writing a great novel or screenplay. They say things like 'in the third act so-and-so has to happen' but, to be honest, I don't really agree with that. What I always try to do is get to a point where you can take any chapter from any of my books and pull it out and read it as a standalone and it will still be interesting and compelling. You can't always do that, because sometimes you need a certain amount of exposition to move the story along, but, as a writer, I think that should be your goal.

What’s the secret to writing a really good series? 

The short answer is a quote from the folk singer Malvina Reynolds: 'If I knew where my inspiration came from I'd go there every day.' But the slightly longer answer, or the way I do it anyway, is to look everywhere. I tear things out of magazines, I print things off the Internet, I tape documentaries. I've got a tray full of ideas on my desk. When you're looking for ideas for your next book you're not just looking three weeks before you're due to start writing, you're ALWAYS looking.

Which contemporary teen/YA writer do you most admire and why? 

I'm quite a fan of John Green’s books which is odd because I don't massively like the subject matter. I think he has an amazing way of getting into the head of a teenage girl, which is something, as I mentioned earlier, that I've always been a bit intimidated by. I admire him because, as a writer, I think he’s done something really clever.

Who was your favourite author when you were a kid? 

I used to love a series of books called The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. I read them over and over. Then, about 18 months ago, someone from my publishers who knew I was a sci-fi geek, found out they were being reprinted and got hold of them for me. I was so excited… and then I read them… and they were awful. The 12-year-old me couldn’t get enough of them, but when I was re-reading them as an adult all I could think was 'ah, that's such a cliché!'.

CHERUB: Lone Wolf is published on Friday 1 August 2014 by HODDER CHILDREN’S BOOKS Price £12.99 ISBN: 9781444914092

For more info on Robert and CHERUB go to:
www.muchamore.com
www.cherubcampus.com 

Look out for the second instalment of our interview with Robert where he tells us: how he deals with writer’s block; what he thinks are the best and worst things about being a writer; and the three qualities you need to a succeed as a teen/YA author.

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Jo Dearden spent 15 years writing about other people’s stories – as a reviewer and feature writer for various TV listing magazines. Three years ago she attended an Arvon course on writing for children. She loves writing didactic rhyming Picture Book texts with copious illustration notes. Despite this, her story ‘Betty’s Bellybutton’ was recently placed third in the Winchester Writer’s Competition and she has previously had a story shortlisted for the Mumsnet/Walker Books Book of Bedtime Stories. Jo lives in Rawtenstall, Lancashire along with fellow SCBWI-ers George Kirk and Steve Hartley (only in the same town though, not in the same house… that would just be weird.)