How I Managed To Con Someone Into Letting Me Write A Book

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

With The History of SEGA coming out in a few short months, I thought I might chronicle how I managed to snag the opportunity to write such a tome. If you’d like to hear more about the process I went through to write the book, please let me know in the comments below.

To the, I imagine, chagrin of many who have been diligently plugging away trying to secure a book deal and finding their hopes dashed, my opportunity can pretty much be summed up as “right place, right time.”

My wife and I had spent a few days in Birmingham in 2022. As my poor wife was attending a work event, I was out exploring and finding some rather cool locations. However, on our way home over the weekend we stopped in to a comic convention that was happening on the outskirts of the city. It was one of the best conventions I’d attended since moving to the UK - I even had the pleasure of meeting 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy - and it was here that my opportunity to write a book on SEGA’s history appeared.

One of the many stalls at the convention belonged to White Owl, an imprint of Pen & Sword. They had a table full of video game, comic and film-related books and both my wife and I were enthralled. Hosting the table was Jon, one of White Owl’s publishers. As my wife and I browsed the books and tried to decide which ones to purchase (we could have bought a tone, but we only had limited money) we got to talking to him. As it turned out, Jon has trying to get a “hobby” line of books going, with the ones on the table representing their most recent efforts. He said that he wanted to do books that looked at the history of comics and if I had any suggestions to let him know. I said that a book on the history of The Phantom would be brilliant, as the character is almost 100 years old and a proper history had never been written for him. Of course, this is where my wife jumped in and said “why don’t you write it?”

Smiling, Jon said that if I was interested in writing such a book to send him a few examples of things I’d written before and what ideas I had and he would let me know.

Once we returned home I sent Jon a few examples of thing i’d writtten previously. His replied positively, so I diligently got to work on detailing my idea. I now realise I was probably being a bit ambitious. I had a vision of creating a book similar to the guides on Marvel and DC characters put out by DK Books. I created a basic mock-up of the first few pages, complete with image and text, and how I imagined it to be laid out, although I was specific in my accompanying email that I am no layout designer. Due to the amount of images required, I also contacted King Features Syndicate, the owners of the Phantom character, to see how one might go about securing rights to use Phantom artwork and assets.

To my absolute dismay, the email from KFS came back saying “we are not interested in a Phantom book being produced.” I could hardly believe it! I could see no reason why they wouldn’t want such a thing, especially seeing as KFS themselves would have to do little work on it and that the NECA Defenders of the Earth figures has recently been announced and been very successful. To top it off, only a week (or so) later, the Phantom video game was also announced.

Dejected, I emailed Jon letting him know what KFS had said. He replied that he too was disappointed, but not entirely surprised. Happily, he said he still would like to work with me so asked me to send him a list of topics I’d be interested in writing about. Of course, one of the those topics was SEGA. It turned out that White Owl already had someone writing a book on the history of Sonic the Hedgehog so Jon felt that one on SEGA would be a great companion piece. A few more emails later and I had received my contract to write what would become The History of SEGA.

This opportunity would never have come if I hadn’t attended that convention, and if my wife hadn’t volunteered me to write a book (bless her). I feel a little bad that I didn’t have to send in submission after submission before I secured a gig because I know that’s what so many writers go through. Still, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity, and I can’t wait until the book releases!

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