Mike Artell, the author of SKULLS is featured today and you are
in for a genuine treat! Mike is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist with over forty books published. Despite his humble
claim that he's not profound you will find some wonderful nuggets of
encouragement while you're entertained by his sense of humor. Enjoy!!!
When did you first realize you wanted
to be a writer?
I’m
not sure. I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh and that led to me writing
jokes for magazines. Those jokes morphed into simple panel cartoons for trade
journals and that evolved into part-time freelance writing/drawing for greeting
card companies. One of the greeting card companies had a children’s book
division and the art director saw some of my greeting card work and asked me to
illustrate a book. After I did that, I asked if they’d be interested in seeing
some of my children’s book ideas. They did, liked what they saw and gave me a
contract for six books. That’s how I went from class clown to children’s book
author/illustrator.
What
do you learn about yourself in the process of writing?
Hmmm…I dunno. Nothing profound. I
guess the greatest insight I’ve gotten is that if I don’t stand up and get away
from the computer every couple of hours my hamstrings get tight. Is that deep
enough?
How
does your career as a writer influence other areas of your life and vice versa?
Wow. Another deep question. Let’s
see…my career success directly influences my income which affects my ability to
buy tickets to New Orleans Saints football games.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I
play music. I’ve been playing in bands since I was a teenager.
What
led you to write Skulls?
My personal interest in the subject
and my awareness that young readers (especially boys) like “edgy” non-fiction.
What would you like readers to take
from it?
A
receipt from the bookstore where they bought it. Yes! Writers do share that goal!
What are your
current/future projects?
I’m working on a funny graphic novel
and a how-to-draw book about military aircraft.
What motivates you?
I’m a little embarrassed to answer
questions like this because I know the question is sincere but I swear to you,
I just don’t take myself this seriously. The truth is I just like to make
people (especially kids) laugh and I’ve found a way to do it by creating funny
words and pictures. It’s my job – it’s not a hobby or an avocation – it’s my
job. I treat it like a job. I try to create wonderful books, but I want to
create wonderful books that SELL. What motivates me is creating a book that
kids love that sells well. Sorry if that sounds unromantic or mercenary, but I
think most aspiring authors/illustrators fail because they never understand
that publishing is a BUSINESS.
What is your writing
process? Do you follow a regular routine?
I really don’t have a “process” as
most people think of it. I’m working on a half-dozen projects at any time and I
jump from one to another. When I get deep into a project I may put everything
else down for a while and concentrate on it for a couple of weeks, but I do so
much traveling that I’m almost never able to work on a single project
uninterrupted for more than that. No special routine except that I tend to do
my best writing/illustrating in the morning.
How long does it take you to complete a
book?
Humor
books and drawing books typically take 4 -6 months. Drawing books a little
longer. Non-fiction science books and fiction books take 1 – 3 years depending
on how much research I have to do.
What challenges did you face in getting your first
book published?
Same
as anyone else – publishers receive thousands of manuscripts every year but
they can only publish a few dozen books. I had to learn to write something that
was “different” yet appealed to a broad market. That’s something all writers
have to learn. And ultimately writers have to find a way to get noticed. It’s
tricky. My background in sales and marketing was immensely valuable when I
started out because I understood that I was trying to market a product (my
book) to a customer (the publisher). I understood how to “pitch” an idea and
how to promote it once it was accepted.
What book(s)/author(s)
have influenced your writing and how?
My biggest influences were comic
book writers/illustrators and newspaper comics writers/illustrators. I’ve never
been a big novel reader and still mostly read non-fiction. I’m a student of
wordplay so most of the “book” writers I enjoyed were humorists such as Ogden
Nash.
What are the most
important elements of good writing?
Whew. I understand the question and
why you ask it, but I’m not the guy to ask. I’m convinced that most aspiring
writers don’t simply want to be good writers. What they REALLY want is to be
published. And if they have not been published they assume it’s because they
need to improve their writing skills. I just don’t think that’s true.
Again…publishing is a business. It doesn’t matter how wonderful your writing is
if you’re sending your work to the wrong publisher at the wrong time and you’re
marketing it in the wrong way. I don’t know much about how to be a good writer, but I’ve had more than 40
books published so I do know something about how to be a published writer. And I’ve sold a lot of books so I guess people
think my writing is pretty good.
Do you ever suffer
from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
Nope. Really has never been much of
a problem for me.
What's one additional piece of
advice about writing or publishing you'd like to pass on to aspiring writers?
Finish
your book, send it to a publisher and start a new book. Stop massaging it,
tweaking it, fine-tuning it or polishing it. You’re doing all that to avoid
sending it to a publisher and risking rejection. I get it; I know the feeling,
but publishers NEVER come to your house. You have to send your work to them.
And please stop showing your work to your friends and relatives. They will
ALWAYS tell you that what you’ve written is wonderful, even if it’s not. When
it comes to getting published, the publisher’s opinion is really the only one
that matters.
Anything else you'd like readers to
know about you and/or your book(s)?
I
have the cutest grandkids in the world. Please don’t doubt me on this. I have
photographic proof.
