Q&A with Isaac Marion

He self-published three novels before his breakout, "Warm Bodies." His new novel, "The Overnoise," is forthcoming but already snapped up by Hollywood.

Isaac once backed his camper into my precarious driveway with such aplomb that I could tell he was alien to all fear. Shortly thereafter, he went full Thoreau and moved into a cozy hand-built shack in the wilderness with his cat Bob. As in, that’s his view in the headshot above. Before he wrote his breakthrough, Warm Bodies, he self-published three novels. Dude means it. Warm Bodies was adapted into a fun film with Nicholas Hoult, whom I shall forever think of as Tony from Skins. Thereafter, Isaac turned Warm Bodies turned into a full series. And now he has a new novel, The Overnoise, that was snapped up by hot-shit producer Bruna Papandrea. This guy films. Like a lot of writers I know, he’s also an accomplished musician.

1. For newcomers, can you help demystify the differences between publishing fiction and non-fiction, to the best of your understanding?

Probably the biggest difference that I’m aware of is that you can sell a nonfiction book with little more than a proposal explaining your idea, whereas with novels you have to completely finish writing them before you find out if publishers are going to care. So nonfiction requires less of a gamble. Of course the downside to nonfiction is that you have to actually know something.

2. What’s the worst advice you got about the business of writing?

Probably the most damaging error in my understanding of the industry was thinking that having a big hit gives you permission to explore. After Warm Bodies blew up, I spent my hottest window of time writing short stories, a prequel novella, and several doomed screenplays instead of jumping immediately into the next book in the series. It was only four years later when The Burning World came out, but no one told me that the industry completely wipes its memory every couple years and a four year gap was essentially starting from zero. Whoopsie!

3. Book agents and publishers are mysterious entities to many. What was your decision-making process when you've had to choose one?

I’ve never been in the position of “choosing” an agent. The agent I ended up with was simply the one who was interested. Maybe I would have kept searching if he seemed like a bad fit, but we aligned quickly. I did have to choose from a few publishers that were interested in Warm Bodies, and that was a tough decision. It tends to be a choice between hip smaller houses who understand what you’re about but don’t offer much money or industry clout, vs. big, commercial houses who don’t really know or care what you’re about but offer more money and have more ability to push the book out into the world. I was persuaded to choose the latter for Warm Bodies, and it didn’t work out very well for me as they ended up not pushing much at all and then dropped me the moment sales dipped. If I could do it over again, I would choose a smaller house that actually likes my writing and cares about developing my career rather than a big machine that just wants to cash in on a movie.

4. Tell us about a great / sexy / awkward / awesome reader connection you’ve made.

I can’t single one out specifically, but I’ve made some of my best friends through my writing. One of my biggest motivations for writing has always been connecting with people. When someone resonates with my writing, it automatically puts us on a certain level of intimacy that can take years to reach through traditional hanging out. Shoutout to R’s Rmy!

Anyone else want to talk bad advice? Or good? What do you think: big moneyed publisher or small hip one?

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