The Story of Darkstone - Dave Rigby

The title – Darkstone - came to me first.

What I had in mind was something mysterious, something set a few years in the future, something about a powerful security service… I’d started writing fiction just after I retired. I had to unlearn my report-writing habits and think about plots, characters and dialogue. Two creative writing courses helped me greatly and the first short stories began to appear on my laptop.

Short stories gradually became longer stories. I wrote a couple of these before I had the Darkstone idea. When I started writing it in 2013, I had a rough plot in my head and a few character outlines. I never do much planning. I’m always eager, probably too eager, to start writing. The plot developed, more characters were added and I began to feel I might actually finish the book.

I’m a regular at the Yorkshire Writers’ Lunch, weekly sessions held in a Huddersfield café. We’re a group of writers who are, or have been, involved in Gale Barker’s creative writing courses. We talk about our writing, about reading, about trips and holidays, food and drink. When I mentioned Darkstone, people in the group asked me what I was going to do with it, once it was finished. I told them I hadn’t really thought about it, but I didn’t get away with this answer for long. Someone mentioned self-publishing, which I’d vaguely heard of, but knew little about.

So I decided to attend a self-publishing conference in March 2014. By this time I’d finished writing and editing Darkstone. The conference was organised by publishers Troubador, who do a lot of self-publishing work under their Matador name. That day spent in Leicester told me what I needed to know, in order to set off down the DIY publishing route. When I reported back to the Writers’ Lunch Group, they asked me when I was going to get started. I was hesitant. Then, Emma, one of our Group members, very generously offered to copy-edit and proof read the book for me.

This was just the stimulus I needed. She sent me a copy of the Darkstone manuscript highlighting her suggested changes. I spent a good while going through these and learning more about ‘show and tell’, ‘foreshadowing’ and ‘point of view’ in the process. At first it was difficult to respond to these comments. I asked myself - what was wrong with the original?  But I quickly realised just how helpful it was to have this objective viewpoint. Once I’d incorporated the changes, I re-read the book again, hunting for any stray errors that might have escaped our combined scrutiny. 

It was time to get a self-publisher lined up. I requested quotes from two firms – Troubador, as I already knew something about them and another firm, whose details I’d read about in Writing Magazine. Troubador provided the lower price and I made my choice.

Self-publishing is really a pick-and-mix menu. The publishers can do it all for you or you can choose to pay for some of their services and not others. You’re the one who’s paying and you’re the one who decides. They can do the copy-editing, the proof-reading, the conversion of your manuscript into a book, the printing and a whole range of marketing services – not to mention the production of an e-version!

In September 2014, I signed a contract for the preparation of my manuscript into a book format and the printing of one hundred hard copies. I dealt, mainly, with one person at Troubador, which was really helpful from a continuity point of view. They sent me proofs of the book which they’d prepared and my job was to read these through, mark any changes required and return only the proof sheets that needed amending. This process continued until all necessary changes had been made.

I told them what I had in mind for the front cover and the first proposal they sent turned out to be just what I wanted. We agreed the author details, acknowledgements and a blurb for the back cover. After a final check, I signed the ‘send to print’ form!

When fifty books arrived at my front door, at the end of January 2015, I had to contain my excitement as I slowly removed the outer packaging. Yes, they were all there and yes they looked great. It was a relief when my first reader reported back that the book was readable and he hadn’t spotted any errors! Of course the questions from the Writers’ Lunch Group haven’t stopped. Now it’s all about marketing – but that’s another story!

Darkstone is available now from Troubador and from Amazon Just click the link!