Per aspera

Ellis wrote a novel.  Publisher’s weekly interviewed him:

PW Comics Week: Did you conceive of the idea for Crooked Little Vein and then seek out a publisher, or did they pursue you? Why choose this particular story for your first novel, and why now?

Warren Ellis: Actually, I kind of inherited a literary agent when I changed my Hollywood representation some years back. And the lit agent I inherited, Lydia Wills, made it her goal in life to bug the living crap out of me until I wrote her a novel. So CLV was conceived as a way to make her leave me the hell alone, really. I wrote 10,000 words that I deemed clearly, blatantly unpublishable and sent them to her with a fairly profane note to the effect that she should consider this a lesson in being careful what you wish for.

She phoned me two weeks later to tell me she’d sold it to HarperCollins, Morrow’s parent company, on the strength of those 10,000 words and no outline. To this day, I still feel strangely cheated. It would, however, seem to prove that I know nothing about the marketplace, and that apparently America is crying out for a book about porn farms, tantric ostrich abuse and the well-documented sexual preference for giant radioactive lizards. So don’t listen to me. Buy the book. It has been Approved by Professionals.

PWCW: What kind of audience did you have in mind while you were writing? Were you primarily hoping to reach existing fans of your comics or a new readership entirely?

WE: People who can read. I like those. Also, people with money.

(via Ellis)