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David Moody is a British writer, editor, designer, publisher and promoter of books. He has so far written seven of them, with another two on the way. He also promotes them on his own web site which also includes a free download of his undead apocalyptic thriller Autumn.

The largest percentage of his work is based in this end of the world environment created in Autumn, plotting the immediate history of small groups of survivors. He then became script writer for the film of Autumn which is now in post production. I found the books riveting, with a resonance to real emotions and turmoil within the survivors that you very rarely get in this genre of book. David graciously agreed to a short interview so I could get an idea of the man behind these books, how was he moulded into the writer his is today and what does he hope the future holds?

AC:  Going right back to the beginning, can you take us on a journey through your inception into writing? What started your interest in writing? Is it now your full time career?

DM:  I never actually wanted to be a writer, I wanted to make films but I didn’t know how! I’ve always been able to string a few sentences together, so it was a natural progression for me to put into words the stories I really wanted to tell as films. That said, I’ve grown to love writing. It gives you a great chance to be in total control of a situation, to make all the rules and to decide the fate of the characters you create. Sounds like I’ve got a god complex, doesn’t it! I haven’t.

My first book was published in 1996, but life got in the way and it became a part-time hobby for the next nine years until I was made redundant from my job (believe it or not I used to be a bank manager; my job moved to Sri Lanka and I didn’t!). I then set up my own publishing company, ‘Infected Books’ which enabled me to produce and distribute my books without getting involved in the ‘traditional’ publishing industry. That said, some of my books have now been picked up by ‘proper’ publishers and that’s given me the freedom to be able to concentrate on writing full-time.

AC:  Was there any principled forethought behind your complete self publishing? 

DM:  First off, I have to say that I hate the term ‘self-publishing’. It gives completely the wrong impression; you’re automatically made to think about poorly produced, badly edited books that other publishers won’t touch, but that’s not always the case. I prefer to call it ‘independent publishing’ – I, and many other authors taking this route,  use the same printers and distribution channels as a lot of mainstream publishers.The creation of Infected Books was a natural progression after Autumn was made available free on-line.

AC:  It must have taken a great deal of self belief to offer the first book as a free download?

DM:  Not really. As I said, my first book, Straight to You, was published traditionally. As with the vast majority of the books which are published each year, however, it didn’t hit the top 10 bestsellers list. Thinking about it, it didn’t even scrape the top 10,000 list! So when Autumn was finished I reassessed what I wanted to do with the book. Did I submit it to publishers again and hope to get lucky, or did I use it as an advertising tool?

I was resigned to the fact that I probably wasn’t going to earn anything from it (because no-one had heard of me at the time) and so I gave it away, offering it as a free download safe in the knowledge that I had at least a couple of sequels planned which, I hoped, I’d be able to get people to buy. The gamble paid off. Using Autumn as a ‘calling card’ I managed to reach a much larger audience than I ever would have if people had been asked to pay for it. More than half a million people have now downloaded the book and even though it’s still available for free, the paperback sells in decent numbers each month. 

AC:  Do you see yourself in any of the characters of your books?

DM:  Yes. That’s unavoidable, I think, but I don’t tend to identify with any one character in particular. There are some of my traits in pretty much everyone I write about.

AC:  What would you do if you awoke with everyone gone, like in Autumn? 

DM:  I think most people would like to believe they’d have the time of their lives if they woke up and found everyone else gone! There are so many horror and science-fiction stories that deal with that kind of scenario and show people living in luxury and generally having a blast!

If it actually happened though, I think the novelty would wear off pretty quick and the fear, self-doubt, isolation etc. would soon kick in. So if I did find myself in such a situation, I guess I’d find myself somewhere safe to hide, make myself as comfortable as I could, and sit and wait to see what happened next...