Guest Blogger: Neil George Ayres

Neil George Ayres is the author of The New Goodbye, a novel that’s also a multi-arts iPhone app, which has been developed by Russell Quinn, the man who brought Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s to many people’s mobiles. 

Scott’s invited me onto the blog to write a guest post, so no doubt most of you are probably wondering Who the Hell is this imposter? 

I’m here mainly as I’ve a novel that’s just been released exclusively on the iPhone. (Please don’t stop reading if you don’t have one though. I promise to be fairly interesting, and I’ve some pretty pictures to share). As well as my book, the app also includes The Dialogue of the Dogs, Cervantes’ over-looked but rather fun novelette about two talking dogs. (The reason for this is there’s a crossover with The New Goodbye, but no, I didn’t manage to squeeze any talking dogs into my own work.) 

In addition to the writing, the app also has this lovely cover by fashion photographer Nicole Heiniger (there’s a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot as well). 

And Johanna Basford, who’s doing all the ‘drawing’ for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, has contributed a heap of stuff to the app. She’s created illustrations for the book’s six chapters, as well as an amazing two-metre long pen-and-ink interpretation of the Cervantes story, which has been squeezed down into bite-sized chunks for the iPhone screen. 

A cynic might accuse me of putting out The New Goodbye in this manner due to the frustration of not finding a publisher for it. And in truth I did submit an earlier version of the book to a couple of places, and got some encouraging feedback for my efforts. But with the publishing climate of the last year or so, even though I have huge belief in the quality and commercial appeal of the book, I’d be deluded to expect someone to take it on and promote it with my limited profile. 

At another time, maybe I would have tried harder, but by foregoing the traditional route, look at the fun I’ve had, and look at all the great work that’s been created around my novel. I find it pretty inspiring, and it’s obvious very little of this would have happened had the book gone through the usual processes. Now it’s in the public domain, if any publisher would like a shot at taking it into print, they’re welcome to talk to me. After all, that’s one of the few advantages of Apple’s proprietary software; all the other rights are still available. 

 

 

The New Goodbye sampler is available from the App Store for free. Unlocking the full edition costs just £1.79.

Comments

[Ian Hocking]

Just to chip in, I read a late draft of this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is a modern fairytale and quite moving - and the app itself makes a great overall package. My advice is to download it (for free) just to check out the app.

[Nik Perring]

Hiya Neil - I think this is a brilliant and interesting idea (and as you know I've already downloaded the app) so all I really wanted to say was: best of luck with it!

Nik

[Michelle]

This sounds really interesting. Am downloading the free sampler for now... ooh, and it looks like a lot of fun.

[Neil]

Thanks for the nice words, chaps.

Hope you like the app/book, Michelle.