Self-publishing author lands major contract
Writersworld Newsletter, August 25, 2002

AREA 7 is without doubt the most far fetched novel ever to arrive at Writers' Forum. Yet for sheer pace and non-stop action there's no reason it shouldn't follow Matthew Reilly's previous books into the international best-seller lists.

As thick as a brick in a glossy cover, the book is the literary equivalent of one of those Hollywood blockbusters where the machine guns never run out of bullets, the walk-ons never stop getting blasted to bits and the hero barely suffers a scratch as he charges from plane crashes to speedboat chases to spectacular explosions armed only with American grit and a ready supply of quips.

The plot involves a madman who has fitted a miniature transmitter to the President's heart. If he dies, off goes a nuclear bomb in every American city. The trouble is, he's trapped in an impenetrable US airforce bunker with five bands of crack troops trying to kill him and only a handful of barely armed marines to protect him.

"Whoever wins gets the country," announces the baddy. And from there on not a hint of reality is allowed to get in the way as the book plunges into nearly 600 pages of chases, shoot-outs and state-of-the-art weaponry, with a cliff-hanger on every page and an ever more incredible escape on the next.

Reilly's prose is as hysterical as the plot - full of italics, exclamation marks and double takes, as if even he can't believe some of the stunts.

It was a torpedo! He fairly yells from the page. And he's happy to confess: "I want to write about action and thrills and adventure... and if developing characters slows down the action then developing characters gets the chop!"

But if the against-the-odds escapades of Area 7 hero Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield seem bold, they are no more audacious than the way his resourceful creator leapt over the slush pile in a single bound to become one of Australia's most successful writers.

He wrote his first action thriller, Contest, when he was just 19. It set the pace and tone for his later work, pitting its hero, Dr Stephen Swain, against tremendous odds in a fight to the death while trapped in the claustrophobic labyrinth of the New York State Library.

"I was in my first year at university, studying law and arts. Quite frankly, I found that the thrillers I was reading were becoming too slow. I wanted to read a novel that was action all the way, with no 'down time' or rest breaks. I realised no-one was doing that, so I would have to write it myself.

'The starting point was the idea of a sporting event not unlike the Olympics or the World Cup that is used once every 1000 years to determine the best species in the universe. Competing would be an: honour but would mean certain death. I wanted to create the ultimate contest - something that was valued everywhere else in the universe but here!"

Among Reilly's literary influences were Michael Crichton ("Pace, pace, pace"), Tom Clancy ("for the geopolitics") and Jeffrey Archer ("the sheer joy of telling a good story"). To an even greater degree he was influenced by movie blockbusters such as Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Die Hard and the James Bond films. "You can't take yourself too seriously in the action genre these days, and I think you can see my sense of the outrageous in all my books."

With all those high octane influences bubbling away in his head, Contest took Reilly a year to write.

Unfortunately, it was rejected by every publisher in Sydney. Not because it was no good, Matthew deduced from the pristine manuscripts that returned through his letter box, but because they hadn't even read it before tossing it back in an envelope with a rejection slip.

Every frustrated author has suspected that, haven't they? But like one of his all-action heroes, Matthew was not a man to give up. Instead, he decided to self-publish his book. Not with the goal of selling thousands of copies, which he knew as a one-man band he could never do. His plan was simply to catch the attention of a major publisher and get them to actually read his book. Once they had done that he figured they would realise his worth and sign him up to a multi-million dollar deal.

His first stop was some of the desktop publishing houses in Sydney. But he quickly discovered they barely knew the size of a paperback novel and realised he would have to organise the whole project himself. The cost of printing was $8,000 dollars; for 1000 copies, which necessitated a; $5,000 bank loan and a $2,50Q investment from a friend's father. But; Matthew didn't stint on quality to create a striking glossy cover befitting an airport blockbuster.

If you want longevity as a creative writer you have to re-invent yourself constantly

To complete the professional look, he put a 'K' on the spine to represent his publishing house, Karandon Entertainment - a Karandon being one of the creatures faced by the book's hero.

His boldest stroke was to pull in a favour from Cleo, a women's magazine for which he had previously written freelance articles. Asked for a pre-publication review, the magazine's book critic gave him the cover quote, "An electrifying first novel for the X-Files generation."

Thus equipped with an expensive looking product, Matthew went door-to-door around the bookshops of Sydney. The first door he knocked on was an independent shop called Read'N'Write where the owner was so impressed with his entrepreneurial spirit that she not only ordered ten copies but gave him the names of several major central Sydney bookshop managers, telling him to mention her name and say that she'd sent him.

With those contacts, Matthew was able to place 30 books with Angus & Robertson - one of the biggest bookshops in the city, just two blocks from Pan Macmillan.

With his product of the shelves, all he had to do was get people to buy them. So he put Phase Two of his plan into action.

First, he called his local newspaper and, always hungry for stories about local people, they sent a photographer and a reporter to interview him.

Second, he gave away some signed copies to his work colleagues and friends, knowing that if they enjoyed it they'd tell their friends.

Finally, every day on his journey to and from home he sat at the front of the bus, avidly reading his book and making sure that everybody could see the cover.

Within a short time, Angus & Robertson had sold their 30 books. When he restocked them, Matthew persuaded the store to make a prominent shop front display of 150 books, alongside such big names as John Grisham and Tom Clancy.

It was then that his plan paid off. As he had theorised, publishers spend a lot of time in bookshops - seeing where their books are positioned, and checking up on the opposition. In his case, Cate Paterson, the buyer of mass market fiction at Pan Macmillan dropped in from her offices just down the street - and was immediately intrigued by the prominent display of a book by an author she had never heard of.

Exactly as he had hoped, she bought it, read it, loved it and phoned the number he had included on the copyright page. By then, Reilly had begun work on his second novel, Ice Station, and on the basis of the first 50 pages he found himself signed to a two book world rights deal.

Five years on, Ice Station has sold more than half a million copies world-wide. His third book, Temple, is selling even more strongly and Contest - the book that was initially turned down by every publisher in Australia - has not only been published by Pan, but the film rights have also been sold.

Attesting to Reilly's increasingly high profile, Area 7 instantly became the reading matter of choice among Australian troops in East Timor, and has been seen on TV being avidly read by the housemates in the antipodean version of Big Brother.

"Best free advertising I've ever had!" quips the author, who attributes his success to, "Escapism. My novels are designed for one purpose: to take you away from your everyday life for a few hours or days."

As for why the Australian writer chooses to write about American characters and settings, he explains, "I like stories where the fate of the world is at stake, where the balance of world power is at issue, and unfortunately, much as I love my country, Australia is not a player in the world-power stakes!

"The other thing is, just as many people read to escape, I write to escape, which means I like to travel the world in my imagination. I can see Australia every day!"

Reilly's plans for the future are to write an even faster paced adventure than Area 7.

"It can go faster," he insists. "I'm talking lean, mean and totally out of control. In the downtime since finishing Area 7, I've been toying with structures, figuring out ways to make the narrative just zoom along. I think if you want longevity as a creative individual you have to evolve, constantly re-invent yourself, and take your craft to a new level. So the future involves pushing myself to a new level of speed.

"And then I'm going to make a movie!"

Area 7 is published by Pan price �6.99 and is available from all good bookshops.

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