I've been in bands for a very long time. My dad was in a band, my brother was in a band. You could say it is in my blood. I love writing songs. Coming up with a strong concept and working on telling that story in three or four minutes is a consuming passion.
It felt like a natural progression to write a book. It has very different disciplines of course, a marathon not a sprint. Muscles I didn't know I had were needed in the pursuit of writing my novels. I wrote four novels before I felt like I was getting somewhere.
I started touring with 'The Script' in early 2008. We were both supporting a bigger band at the time on a four week UK tour. We got on like a house on fire and our friendship was built on four cornerstones: laughter, creation, inclusion and innovation. Laughter because they made me laugh, creation, because each of their songs is a vignette, songs like 'The Man Who Can't be Moved' or 'If You Could See Me Now' have a storytelling flair that really appeals to me. Inclusion because I was drawn to the way they treated their fans; with respect and affection. 'The Script' isn't an exclusive members' club, it's a party anyone can join. Innovation because I had never seen a band so focussed on thinking outside the box and striving to create an experience that pushes boundaries.
After that first tour the lads started to get pretty big, pretty fast. They began to invite my band on the road with them more and more and the friendship built. When I mentioned I had written a novel that drew from my experiences in a band Mark and Danny asked to read it. I sent them a PDF and they read it in a matter of days.
"What if we brought the band to life with music!" they said.
This was a crossroads moment. I saw it very much as a choice between traditional publishing and some kind of enhanced self-publishing. By applying the same ethos 'The Script' lived by I felt sure the books would have a good chance. Decision made, we started to work up a model that concentrated on using talented friends to help build the book and design the world it would live in. The tour bus became our office. Our shop front would be the World Wide Web. We wanted to harness the power of social media to create the buzz. Despite Mark and Danny being behind it we didn't want to over use 'The Script's' clout to gain superficial followers. We wanted to engage people, to get people reading sample chapters, listening to excerpts of the songs we had written. We were meticulous in our plans. Our mantras were "don't run before we can walk" and "if we don't know something, let's ask someone who does".
On the music side we were savvy of course. On the literary side, not so much. We took meetings with literary professionals, many of whom were positive but constricted by traditional practices. Some didn't understand what we were trying to do at all. One even suggested we re-write the story and base it on three Irish lads from Dublin. But Amazon got it! They were enthusiastic from the moment we explained our idea, saw its scope and had exactly the place for us to house the book. KDP Select was the only outlet where we could maximise the potential and could help us to spread the word in the most effective way. We retained our independence and ability to act quickly whilst at the same time having the added benefits such as the Kindle Owners' Lending Library allowing us to extend our reach even further and build on our positive word of mouth.
I love being in control of my own destiny and I love the direct contact with our small but very engaged fan base. It's already been the most empowering and exciting thing I've ever done in my life. Whatever happens next, we are immensely proud of what we have achieved so far.
-- Jamie Scallion
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