People You Need to Meet: Dave Shields

I first found out about Dave Shield's book The Race, from reading a review in a cycling magazine last year.  I went to 3 different book stores to find it and it was worth it!  If you are a cycling fan, or if you want to learn more about what goes on with a pro racing team, this is a great book for you.

If you are a Lance Armstrong fan and want to know more of the behind the scenes detail that he and his team deal with, read this book!

Dave is a very passionate guy and learning about why and how he wrote this book serves up lessons for all of us, regardless the interest in cycling.

Dave is also a new blogger and I was quite suprised to find out he gives me the credit for starting his blog(!).  Check out Dave's blog.

Business Thoughts:  You know I'm a fan of you and your book The Race!  Give us some background on you as to why you wrote the book.

Dave Shields:  I guess it was because I couldn't avoid writing it. My first novel, "The Pendulum's Path," got great reviews but didn't sell too well. I felt like I needed to come up with some blockbuster concept, but I couldn't get this idea of writing a novel about cycling out of my mind. I thought about it so much that finally I decided I'd have to write the book if I was ever going to think straight. One of my ambitions for this novel is that it would create new cycling fans by teaching them the sport while they enjoyed an intense story.

BT:  After reading the book, you definitely have a thorough knowledge of racing.  You have a lot of behind the scenes stories in the book.  Does that come from experience or discussions with pro teams?

DS:  It's a combination. I rode my bike 300 miles to Southern Utah as a fourteen year old, and I used to race criteriums. I ultimately turned to triathlons and I got lucky enough to win a few small races. It's such a unique experience to hold the lead after you've been in the pack for years. But the thing that really took the story to the next level was getting 1999 US Pro Cycling Champion and two-time Tour de France finisher Marty Jemison to read the book. He subsequently gave me hours of his time, helping me to perfect the sense of being on the inside of a pro team. Marty is a stud. He's got tons of great stories and is so refreshingly honest about everything.

BT:  With the success and mainstream hero status of Lance Armstrong; have you seen more "non-cyclists" buy your book? 

 

DS:  No question about it. Lance has brought a lot of attention to cycling in the last few years and everything cycling   oriented has benefited from the increased level of interest. I hope that these new fans will stick around once Lance is retired, and I believe that they will if they begin to really understand the sport. Hopefully "The Race" can play a part in that.

BT:  There are plenty of people out there that would love to write a book, but don't know where to start.  What advice would you give them?

DS:  It might not be a bad strategy to massively underestimate the challenges the way I did. The slippery slope thing got me sliding and I've never had enough sense to turn back. Eleven years into it, I remain optimistic that my big break is just around the corner. In reality, though, there are thousands of great manuscripts that will never succeed financially. It turns out that fiction is one of the toughest markets   (not nearly as tough as poetry, but far harder than non-fiction). If, like me, you just have to write novels, be realistic going in. It's a great hobby, but if you want to make money this is a very tough way to do it.

BT:  I see that you started blogging in December!  Why did you start and has it been beneficial?

DS:  I started because you told me to. Do you remember that? One day I did a Google search on my title and your blog popped up. That was the first time I ever heard your name. I thanked you for mentioning my book and you asked me if I wrote a blog. I think I started my blog later that same day. It's been very beneficial. People who are interested in my career are easily able to follow along with recent developments. Others who might be searching various key words become aware of my work. I try to post a brief note whenever anything relevant happens.

BT:  You just won a Benjamin Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction.  Congratulations!  Give us some background on the award and your thoughts.

DS: I'm ecstatic about the award. When a reader considers buying a book from an author they've never heard of before it's not the cost in dollars that makes their decision tough.  It's the investment in time that they are going to have to make to get through it. Validation like this award reassures readers that they are in for an entertaining experience.   The Ben Franklin Award is administered by Publishers Marketing Association which is a large industry organization whose goal is to help quality books   make it into the marketplace and get recognition. They've meant a lot to me.   Not only have my book sales jumped, but I've also had all sorts of rights inquiries including film, audio, and foreign print. It's been an exciting time.

BT:  What is next for you?  Can you give us some info on the upcoming new book? 

DS:  In between a heavy travel schedule to promote "The Race" I'm putting the finishing touches on my sequel. I'll be traveling to France in late July to do polish up my descriptions of key locations, and  then I'll be pushing hard to get the book onto store shelves by April 1, 2006.   I don't want to say a lot about the project right now because experience has shown me that inspiration can bring about major last minute changes. I will say that I'm extremely happy with how the manuscript has turned out so far. The story takes all sorts of twists and turns I hadn't anticipated, and the ending was so intense and unexpected that I was glued to my keyboard for hours at a time as it revealed itself. That sort of talk may sound odd to someone who has never written fiction, but you'll find that most authors are addicted to those moments where the story really takes off and the characters seem to act on their own. The author is just as surprised to learn what happens as the reader eventually will be.

BT:  Anything I forgot to ask you or that you would like to share with us?

DS:  I want to thank you and others who have taken the time to spread the word about my books. As I alluded to above, it's incredibly challenging for an unknown author to break through. Whenever it does, you can be sure that it's the result of passionate readers sharing their opinions. I love hearing what people think of my work, and how it affected them. Every reader brings a different background to the experience and interprets the words in their own way. I love hearing about and trying to understand people's opinions. I'm honored when readers contact me, and I will always do my best to write back.

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tags:  people you need to meet | dave shields | cycling