Find out about Ben Trovato and you could even meet him at this Book Launch
Date - 5 June 2014
Time - 17h30
Venue - The Book Lounge
RSVP - booklounge@gmail.com
We managed to interview this strange man. Here is what he had to say in our exclusive interview.
|
1. How did you get into writing?
When I was around five years old, I was sent to this
building that had lots of rooms. A strange woman gave me and some other
children coloured pencils and made us copy the alphabet. It just kind of
snowballed from there. The army went some way towards helping me choose a
career in writing. As a signalman, I had to learn how to type. When I came
out of the army, the only thing I could do was type. That's not strictly
true. I also learned how to drink and how to shoot a gun, neither of which
helped me much when it came time to choose a career. Being able to type like
a demon meant that journalism was an obvious choice. I knew writing was for
me because it's one of the few professions you can do while lying in bed
drinking beer.
2. Why did you decide to use a nom de guerre ?
I needed a pseudonym when I began writing satirical
letters to the rich and famous back in 2001, mainly to avoid lawsuits and
people banging on my door wanting to break my legs. I needed to be untraceable
for my literary scam to work. And it did. For three years. The letters, and
the replies, were subsequently published in three volumes. They did very well
and, once the publishers had made a tidy profit, they went out of print,
denying future generations the pleasure of reading my early work. I use the
word 'work' lightly.
3. How many words do you write in a day?
It all depends on whether or not I have a deadline. I am
not one of those writers whose heads will explode if they don't do ten
thousand words by lunch. I write for money. I am a complete whore and I can't
believe I'm doing this interview for free.
4. Describe a day in your life?
They're all the same, really. Wednesdays, for instance,
are no different to Sundays. That's one of the curses/blessings of being
self-employed. That's a euphemism writers use. It sounds better than
'jobless'. I wake up early, around 10am, and look out the window to see which
way the clouds are blowing. This tells me if the wind is offshore at
Muizenberg or on the other side of the peninsular at Kommetjie. I will then
put on my wetsuit, strap my surfboard to the roof of my car, and head out in
search of waves. Surfing helps keep me sane. It also helps me to avoid doing
any work. I'll surf for a couple of hours, then go for a pub lunch. That
takes me up to sunset, at which point I go somewhere else for sundowners. I
prefer to start writing just as the sun has sunk below the horizon. There is
something in that soft light that I find very inspiring. There is also something
in the beer that I find inspiring.
5. Advice for people who want to become writers?
They don't need advice. Everyone is already a writer.
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, websites. Everyone old enough to figure out a
computer keyboard is a writer. Some are good. Most are appalling. If you want
to become a serious writer and make serious money, you will need to emigrate.
Or, at the very least, find a publisher overseas. There are only seven people
left in this country who read, and four of them would rather buy a case of
beer than a book.
6. How is writing a column different from writing a book?
A column takes four hours to write. A book can take
anything up to four days. That seems to be the case with some of the drek
I've seen on bookshelves lately. Also, writing a column is a lot more fun.
You can play loud music, carry on a conversation and drink heavily. Columns
are written by the attention deficit for the attention deficit. Books are
utter bastards to write. You need to concentrate for long periods of time and
work in complete silence and isolation. If you are an alcoholic misanthrope
who knows how to spell, the odds are you'd make a great writer.
7. What does Ben Trovato think of social media?
Antisocial media suits me because I prefer communicating with
people from a distance. It's also a voracious consumer of one's time and has
the capacity to turn bright, ambitious people into dribbling vegetables in an
alarmingly short period of time. One does on occasion stumble across nuggets
of moderate genius, but trawling Twitter and Facebook is by and large an
overwhelmingly depressing experience because one is constantly reminded that
the world is populated almost entirely by ill-informed halfwits not bright
enough to realise how dumb they are.
8. What do you think of all these literary festivals?
I think they should be banned. If you want to know what's
in a writer's head, buy his or her books. That's where you will find the
valuable stuff. People too often mistake writers for performers, for
celebrities. We're just conduits. Words pass from our brains, through our
fingers and into our computers. If they're good enough, they get published.
On the other hand, I might just be saying this because the Franschhoek
Literary Festival decided not to allow me to launch my memoirs at this year's
event. They wanted the festival to have a more literary flavour. I suppose
they couldn't risk having someone like me lowering the tone of their elitist
little gathering.
9. What does Ben Trovato think of Lauren Beukes?
I think she's hot. I haven't read any of her books, but as
a woman, she's quite a fox.
10. It is all very well writing a book but how do you
market it, how do you get those sales rolling in?
“Rolling in” might be pushing it. Unless you write a book
about rugby or a kid at a snooty private school in the KZN Midlands, it's
going to be more a case of royalties trickling in. Publishers are meant to do
the marketing, but all too often their budgets are limited to three bottles
of wine and a plate of snacks at the launch. Authors are increasingly
expected to help with the marketing. That's why I'm doing this interview.
Hopefully tens of thousands of people will read this and rush out to buy my
new book. It's not easy marketing a book in a country where most people are
only interested in things they can drink, drive, eat or wear. We need to find
a way to turn books into status symbols. Or authors into celebrities. I know
I said earlier that authors shouldn't be regarded as celebrities, but I've
changed my mind.
11. How can people buy your book?
The best way is with money. Cash or credit cards, I don't
mind. They can find it in bookstores. If they're not sure what a bookstore
looks like, it's the shop with nobody but the staff inside. They can also
order it online, either in book form or as an ebook. It's probably safer than
going out.
12. Will you be at the South African Book Fair?
Apparently I will, much against my better judgement. It's
bound to end badly.
|
Links where you can buy Ben Trovato's new book 'Incognito'
http://www.kalahari.com/Digital-Downloads/Incognito-eBook_p_48859310
http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-memoirs-Trovato-Mark-Verbaan-ebook/dp/B00KIJKISW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1401084819&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+verbaan
You can find him on Twitter - https://twitter.com/BTrovato
Ben Trovato was interviewed by +Fred Felton
No comments:
Post a Comment