Below is my interview with Frank Prem, a poet who has written five books to date in a free verse, storytelling form. Find out how and why he became an indie author, what famous works inspire him, and what he would do if he ever became a best seller. Check out the interview below, and be sure to follow Frank Prem on social media!
About the author
Author name:
Pen names are an interesting area for me. I don’t use a pen name now, but I once did.
I’ve been a writer for a long time now, and these days I’m fairly comfortable in the skin I’m wearing for the purpose, but when I was starting out – a budding poet writing who-knows-what style of poetry – I believed with all my heart that I would do whatever it took, regardless of price, to become the best of my kind.
I chose the pen name Frank Faust to reflect that and to remind myself of my commitment. I had a web page, that was really a forerunner of a poetry blog, called The Tales of Faust, and self-published my first collection of poetry under that name and imprint.
It was a few years later that I reclaimed my own name after my (now) wife insisted that my work was something to be proud of and to declare as my own. In a sense, she reclaimed my writing soul.
About the books
I have started to publish quite prolifically, and I’ll mention those published to date, below:
Small Town Kid (2018) – a memoir of growing up in rural Australia in the 1960s and 70s – a kind of childhood that has long disappeared, now.
Devil In The Wind (2019) – voices of victims and survivors of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria (Australia) in 2009.
The New Asylum (2019) – a memoir of a lifelong association with public mental health here in Victoria (Australia) from childhood when I haunted the local institution that my parents worked in, through student nursing and acute psychiatry more generally.
Herja, Devastation (2019) – a collaboration between myself and a fellow Australian writer, Cage Dunn, to produce a free verse poetry/prose story of a Valkyrie and her henchman/assassin.
Walk Away Silver Heart (2020) – This is the first book of A Love Poetry Trilogy. For this project, I have chosen three poets from long ago and stellar examples of their work as the basis for my own writing, using each line or phrase in the original poem as the basis of a new poem. The poets and their poems are as follows:
- Amy Lowell Madonna of the evening Flowers (1919)
- Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass (1855)
- S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Walk Away Silver Heart is my response to the Lowell poem.
Genre
Genre is a slightly tricky thing for me to define. That I write poetry in a free verse style, is obvious, but I also consider myself more generally a storyteller, with works to date including memoir and true-life experience, as well as love poetry and mild horror.
In the near future, picture poetry books will also feature.
Links to buy
All my books to date are available in paperback form through any of the major online outlets. The e-books are available through KU or Kindle Store, here:
Book summaries
Small Town Kid (2018): The story of growing up in the 1960s and 70s. A childhood that had disappeared by the middle of the 1990s. Outside toilets, bonfire nights, schoolyard smoking, death on the roads, and young love, all in a free verse memoir.
Devil In The Wind (2019): The lived experience of uncontrolled and deadly wildfire. Confronting and cathartic free verse storytelling.
The New Asylum (2019): A lifetime spent in public mental health, spanning Mental Asylums, Student Psychiatric Nursing, Acute Care and management, all in a confronting but accessible free verse memoir.
Herja, Devastation (2019): Free verse poetry combines with prose storytelling to create the tale of a Valkyrie agent of vengeance and her human accomplice/assassin/henchman.
Walk Away Silver Heart (2020): Personal/interpersonal love poetry derived from line by line reinterpretation of the 1919 Amy Lowell poem Madonna of the Evening Flowers. Part 1 of A Love Poetry Trilogy.
Book excerpts
Rather than provide an excerpt from each book, I have provided YouTube links to my reading of a few of the poems from my various published collections. There are quite a few more clips available for watching on the site.
Small Town Kid (2018)
Mine was an immigrant family who settled into a small town at the end of 1957. My mother left her entire family behind in Croatia. She died in mid-2019, and I don’t believe she ever quite got over the grief of leaving family behind as she did.
Devil In The Wind (2019)
After the fires of 2009, which were the worst experienced in more than a lifetime, the aftermath remained stark and shocking. The impact on people newly encountering the devastation continued to be profound, long after the immediate crisis had passed.
The New Asylum (2019)
This is the story of a long time inmate and then resident of the mental asylum in my home town. It tells of tragedy that became normalised, and of ways to cope in the face of a lifetime of emptiness and loss. It tells of the small affections that make such a life bearable.
Book reviews
All of my collections that have been released in book form have attracted reviews. I would be delighted to have readers visit my Goodreads page to check them out (using the link below). Some have been very moving in their own right.
Author links
Author Page and Newsletter subscription
Talking Shop
How have you promoted your books? What has worked best? What has failed?
To date I have focused exclusively on free publicity and self-promotion. I’m just beginning to contemplate what using AMS ads might look like and whether there is any prospect of turning a poet from rural Australia into a commodity that can sell books.
My view at the time of entering this particular era of Indie publishing in 2018 was largely as follows:
- I am a poet. There is little or no mainstream publishing or purchasing interest in poetry.
- A poet with a unique voice, who is also a self-declared storyteller, with little time to spare for obscure literary contemporary poetry, and so have no clear links to the poetry genre that I can draw on.
- I hail from a small town in rural Australia, and am unheard of in poetry or publishing circles.
- I want to retain control over my own work.
These considerations led me to believe that I needed to tackle my ‘career’ as a writer in the following ways:
- Establish credibility within an area that I can maintain some control over i.e. my geographical locale.
- Establish a following via my poetry blog, my author page, and newsletter and so on.
- Garner publicity as and where opportunities present.
I believe I’ve had quite good success in these areas, without having set the world on fire. For example, I have had frequent guest appearances on local radio, and have featured in all the local newspapers on more than one occasion. I have done numerous live appearances at libraries and in other public venues – including some local literary festival appearances, recently. Reading my work to audiences is a specialty.
I have had good sales at all live appearances to the point where I am adequately ahead of the cost of book production, though not near earning a living from these activities.
To date, AMS and Facebook ads remain a mystery to me. I have learned the rudiments of AMS ads, but not yet how to convey my work – poetry – as valid fodder for mainstream consumption. Paid ads can easily become a disheartening undertaking.
Did you use any professional services before publishing your book? Are there any you recommend to indie authors?
Yes, I did. For my first three collections I commissioned formatting of internal matter, and production of covers from a firm that specialized in helping Indie authors like myself get started. It was wonderful to have access to these services, as I would not have been able to create my books otherwise. Sadly, the group that I used for this purpose is no longer performing the service, having decided to focus on other activities.
Also, however, I have moved on now, to a point where I am creating my own covers and formatting the books entirely on my own, for both e-book and paperback formats.
I’ve come to believe these are necessary skills to cultivate, in order to further my creative freedoms.
ARC reviewers have come from folks I have met and become associated with online – some from FB groups, or LibraryThing, but many from my own poetry blog. These are people who have become wonderful supporters to me in my writing and publishing endeavours.
What’s the best review/compliment that you’ve received about your book?
Many of my reviewers have been readers who have come from the position of ‘I don’t usually read or like poetry much, but . . .’.
I delight in these reviews and responses because I believe it is for the non-poetry reader that I write for, and I strongly believe that poetry can be used much more broadly than it currently is for lyrical and succinct story-telling purposes.
A generation, at least, has been lost to the genre due a determined focus on obscurity, in my view. I wish that it was not so.
As far as a favourite review goes, I prefer not to choose one. Some reviews are very in-depth, applying analysis and deep contemplation, while others are just a handful of words saying the reader enjoyed the book. What I know, though, is that for many readers the thought of publicly offering an opinion or seeming to pass a judgement over what they have read is a very difficult undertaking, and I appreciate these even more because I know the effort involved.
I can’t choose between them and I appreciate every review and reviewer very much.
How active are you in the online writing community? How has this community helped you as a writer?
I use my poetry blog a lot – mainly for posting new work and keeping in touch with a few regular visitors there. Over the last year or so, I’ve found that I can’t keep up with visiting other places online as much as I once did – just too many projects on my plate and not enough me to go around.
I post on Facebook in a modest way and keep an eye on what is going on in my writing communities. My posts from the poetry blog are shared to my Twitter feed and to Goodreads.
I enjoy having conversations with visitors who have an observation to make, or questions to ask. These interactions are a great pleasure for me.
How long have you considered yourself a writer? Did you have any formal training, or is it something you learned as you went?
I’ve been a writer since my mid-teens, and have spent years developing skills and pursuing mastery of my particular craft.
I have tended to avoid ‘education’ in writing and in poetry/poetics as such but have sought out suggestions and opinions to help in my development . Generally from outside of my native Australia. I have always sought to compare or establish myself in countries other than my own (the US, UK, India (for awhile) and Canada).
My approach to critique has generally been to note it, but not to change the work in question. Rather, if the work was terribly flawed, I would bin it, and use the advice and critique to craft the next piece better.
I have only considered myself an author for a relatively short while – a little over a year.
What is your day job? How, in any way, does it relate to your life as a writer?
My profession and career has been as a psychiatric nurse and within the public psychiatry system, here where I live.
I have spent many hours writing my thoughts and observations and attempts at understanding the things I have experienced and seen through forty years (plus), culminating in the free verse memoir published in 2019 – The New Asylum.
The New Asylum traces my life from childhood days playing in and around the local mental asylum where both my parents were employed, to student nurse training within that institution, and then beyond into the wider spheres of public psychiatry.
I have been able to cast a poetic eye over 40 years and more of my time in the profession and industry of psychiatric nursing and public psychiatry.
Are your books for sale at any book stores? Have you tried any other methods of selling hard copies in person versus online?
I have books in a few book stores, but I understand why the online sales environment is so much more attractive for Indie authors. Physical bookstores will generally only take books on consignment (and with a substantial wholesale discount, of course), and my experience is that it is only practical to supply stores within easy physical reach i.e. a short car trip.
It rapidly becomes a significant investment in the cost of books and car wear and tear and time for fairly limited gain. The prestige of having paperback copies displayed in bricks and mortar bookstores can’t be overstated – it’s quite a rush to experience, but I have found that the practicalities rapidly overtake the sentiment.
My approach now is to develop a capacity to sell directly in person and from my web page and to offer signed copies (within Australia).
What I like most is to develop a personal relationship with the people who like to buy my books.
What were your expectations for writing and publishing your first book? Have they changed since then?
My heart’s desire was to have a copy of one of my books of poetry on every bedside in the wide world.
I had no expectation of becoming some kind of best seller, of course, and one of the first things I learnt when I entered the local poetry scene was that a few thousand copies represented bestseller status for poetry. It did not, however, amount to any dollars in the bank, nor to a significant readership.
What I believe I really wanted was the validation of having people – strangers – buy my work, read it and think well of it. I think that remains the overriding goal for me, although I would now like to work towards making a living from my efforts.
I have around ninety ratings and reviews (posted on Goodreads) now, and average around 4.8/5 per rating, so I have some grounds for confidence that the folk who read my work enjoy the experience. That is a very lovely feeling, indeed.
How well do you handle criticism, either while writing, editing, or reviews? Do you ever use that criticism to change your story?
I’m not sure any writer enjoys criticism, or even the process of seeking and receiving critique. It is all about fingers poking at tender places, I think.
In my own case, I ponder what is said a great deal – i.e. what was liked as well as what was not. I try to take criticism on board and use it as feedback that I can bring to bear in the next thing I write. I will rarely allow criticism or critique change the body of a piece of work I have done.
I believe the work that I produce is my own personal responsibility, regardless of what a reader opinion might be, and the critical thing is for myself as author to be satisfied with the work. Having said that, I have been prepared to trash a piece of work if feedback was persuasive.
How do you autograph your books? Do you use a special signature? Write a personalized message? Draw picture? Add stickers or stamps?
If I am selling physical books (paperbacks) directly, either in public or by mail I am always happy to sign. I generally ask the buyer if they would like an inscription as well as a signature.
Most times it will read:
To …,
With all my best wishes …,
Frank’.
I generally also include the date of purchase.
What is the most fun part about writing? The most difficult?
Most of the time I really enjoy the feeling of being obsessed with a subject and writing different aspects that progress the overall story or idea towards a satisfactory end point. The writing is its own reward.
In recent times, however, I have become engrossed (and a little obsessed) with creating my own book covers and learning the process of formatting for book publication – e-book and paperback. It can be a frustrating process, but such a joy when accomplished.
Do you focus on word count, hours spent writing, page count, or another way to measure your daily or weekly progress?
I have become more interested in word count since I started contemplating books. For example, I now know that for a book to be viable (for libraries, for example), it needs a spine with author name and book title on it. To achieve such a spine, I need 100 pages or more, and to achieve that I need around 7,000 words – very different to a novel which might require 80k words and up.
I think that 100 pages is also around the smallest size that allows selling a paperback book to be viable, so I tend to think in terms of that number and look for it in the page count of my draft work.
What skills have you acquired or information have you learned from writing?
I have learned how to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end, in relatively few words. To lay out and to format a book.
I have also learned about publishing and marketing and how to run a workshop.
My most recent venture is a picture book created completely by using PowerPoint. The related learning is creating a workshop that focuses on preparation of written material inspired by the visual, and presented using PowerPoint slides . . .
It goes on.
“What If” Scenarios
If you could have one person that you admire, living or dead, read your book, who would it be?
This has actually happened, just last year.
When I was a teenager at school, there was a brief period of time when the subject Australian History’ became a little bit sexy, and I took to it with great delight. All the business of transportation and colonialism and the Rum Rebellion and riding on the sheep’s back – terms that won’t have a lot of meaning for a reader today, especially if non-Australian.
Anyway, I went for it, and there was a dashing professor of Australian History – away off in the big city who was making a very big noise with his latest book, which had found its way onto the syllabus. His name was Geffrey Blainey, and he remains quite famous in certain circles.
I bumped into him a year or so ago when I was performing readings for promotional purposes in local libraries. I popped in to scout a venue and there was Geffrey Blainey sitting next to me, as his wife was launching her own book that day!
He was a lovely gentleman and made the mistake of expressing interest in what I was doing, as you do.
Some months later, he was on the circuit again, and this time I hunted him down and handed him a copy of my memoir Small Town Kid.
I didn’t expect more. My mission had been accomplished, but I was delighted when he wrote to me some time later and made some very kind remarks, including his view that stories like my collection would be the stuff of future social historians research. They would have no other way of learning about a ‘rabbit-o’, or the place and significance of bonfire nights (for example).
I could not have been more thrilled.
If you could be in a writer’s group with up to four famous writers, who would they be?
The problem with this wish is that I don’t think I could count myself a participant, but only an observer. I would draw my four from my bookshelf of favorite writers, whose books have traveled with me through many changes:
J. R. Tolkien. I am reading Lord of the Rings yet again at the moment, and I find myself thinking (again) that he was the first and the best.
Ursula Le Guin. I love the science fiction work this wonderful author produced across the journey. She invented the ansible, she created the Earthsea stories, and so much more.
Robin Hobbs. A fine touch in the realm of contemporary fantasy. I have lost myself in her work many times.
My final choice in this line of thinking is Suzanne Collins. Her Hunger Games trilogy is quite profound in its content and storytelling, but also in the context of the target audience of young adult readers. Amazing and wonderful.
Honourable mentions go to J. K. Rowling, in the same vein as most of those above – what she did for young readers was just life changing for many of them. But also, someone from a very different sphere gets a mention – Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist. I owe this man.
A wealthy reader buys 100 copies of your book and tells you to hand them out to anyone you wish. Who do you give them to?
Well, I have a bit of a track record to draw on here, Laura.
My first endeavours in self-publishing required me to purchase a great many copies of each book, wholesale. That stock traveled with me through several relocations and a minor flood.
There came a point where I had around a hundred copies of each of three poetry collections that I had self-published over the journey to that point.
We bundled the remaining books together with a ribbon around each, and donated them to the Salvation Army as part of their Christmas Hampers that year.
To this day, some years later, I have folks occasionally recognise me in the street and stop me to mention that they once received a parcel of poetry for Christmas.
You’re given $10,000 to spend on marketing for your book. How do you spend it?
I think I’d like to go on a speaking tour around the world (as far as the money would take me), to read my work to new audiences and to talk about writing and reading, and certain ideas I have about how very young folk and those with lower literacy levels might be able to read and enjoy work, regardless.
Your book becomes a best seller. What do you do next?
I think I would become desperate (even more than usual) to produce a follow-up. To prove that it wasn’t a fluke and that there was interest enough to buy my work again, to read some more, to appreciate that poetry can be enjoyed, and enjoyed very easily, when it is written with the reader in mind.
I would hope for some opportunities to talk to people about what I do and how I do it, and why I believe it is so important.
Best seller status might open some of these doors more easily.
Would you rather own your own book store or your own publishing house, and what would you sell or publish?
I am my own publishing house – Wild Arancini Press! A single-author publisher, specialising in me.
I would be a hopeless bookstore owner, I think. But I’m far too focused and indeed obsessed with myself and my own writing and books and covers to be able to support hundreds and thousands of other authors and their books.
There may be a point in the future where Wild Arancini Press might publish others, but I see that being in the context, perhaps, of a workshop group that I was leading wishing to publish an anthology and to have that experience, rather than expanding to become a multi-author enterprise.
Just For Fun
What legacy do you want to leave behind?
I think I’d like to have encouraged spoken word readings – i.e. live performance and reading to audiences as a viable, interesting and entertaining way to spend an afternoon or evening. To have the decision to wander along to a reading become as viable as staying to watch television, or streaming a movie
A movie or piece of music that changed your life.
There were some big movies of this sort in my younger days. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Cabaret. To Kill a Mockingbird was another.
In more recent times, The Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games have been very influential for me.
Favorite place you’ve visited/place you want to visit.
My wife and I honeymooned on the Great Barrier Reef, and in the Daintree Rainforest. Beautiful, beautiful places that I wanted to revisit for years. Now, I am a little afraid to do so.
Food you’d like to win a lifetime supply of.
I delight in cured meats. Hocks and hams and bacons. When young, my family would slaughter a pig each year and cure great portions of the creature, as well as make various sausages and other concoctions.
My father often declared that ‘ . . .the only part of the pig that we waste is the squeal!’
A talent you have and a talent you wish you had.
I can’t claim that it is appreciated, but I’m not too shabby at making puns and at word play.
I wish that I was a better ukulele player and singer than I am.
Buy it!
Buy a copy of Walk Away Silver Heart by Frank Prem here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
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Love your interview – that it wasn’t just about the books (but that was great too) but also how he got to where he is now
It is always interesting to read about an author’s journey. There is no one path to becoming a writer.
Thanks for reading, Lisa. Glad you enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Frank
I have always been intrigued by authors who tackle the heavy and unusual and Frank seems to fit this bill with his novels on uncontrolled fire and other tough topics. I do also agree and am happy his wife persuaded him that the pen name was no longer being necessary. I think this decision usually helps authors step into a new phase of their writing.
Very true. Thanks for the comments!
Hi Kimberlie.
Thank you. The tough topics seem t be the ones that won’t let go until I’ve done at least a little something to explore and pin them down.
Cheers,
Frank