An Interview with Ben Lyle Bedard: Author of The World Without Flags, Silver Winner of the 2019 SPR Book Awards

Born in Buckfield, a rural town in Maine, Ben grew up reading Tolkien, Stephen King, and Charles Dickens. When he went to college at the University of Maine at Farmington, he published his first piece of fiction in the local college journal. After moving across the country to study creative writing at Mills College, he began writing poetry as well as fiction. In his graduate studies, he published poems in several little magazines as well as a book of poems, “Implicit Lyrics.” He won honorary mention from the Academy of American Poets in the Friends of University Libraries Poetry Prize for his poem “All the Wind Points East.”

While in Buffalo, New York, he met his future wife, Fernanda Glaser, a Fulbright scholar from Chile. To meet the requirements of her scholarship, she had to move back to Chile, and Ben followed her. They were married a year later, under crimson bougainvillea. While in Chile, Ben dusted off a book he had written in Buffalo called “The Island,” a coming-of-age story wrapped in a zombie apocalypse. Unable to find a publisher, he decided to publish it himself. After much revision, Ben renamed it The World Without Crows and released it on Amazon. It won an IndieBrag Award and had many favorable reviews. Encouraged by fans of the book, he wrote the sequel, The World Without Flags, which takes place ten years after the first book. He is currently living by the Pacific Ocean in La Serena while he researches and plans his next book.

Tell us about your book.

The World Without Flags is a book about a young woman who has to use her wits to survive a post apocalyptic landscape, while also looking after someone very important to her. It is a story of hope and loyalty.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

I self-published because I had accumulated a drawer full of rejections from agents, and I thought I was spending more time trying to craft a one page summary to entice agents than I was writing. So I decided to forego all that and just concentrate on writing.

What do you think are the main pitfalls for indie writers?

There are so many books published, it’s difficult to get seen. You have to work very hard with book bloggers and indie sites to get your book out there. It’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding when things go right.

What tips can you give other authors looking to self-publish?

You really need six months to plan and research releasing your book, and you probably are going to make mistakes the first time around. Keep good records so you can learn from them!

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

When I get in the groove, I spend the first hour or so reading what I wrote the day before, correcting it, thinking about it, and then I write for a few hours. During the day I think about the next day’s work, usually during a nice walk or right before I fall asleep. In my experience, when you begin the book, it slowly devours your entire life. By the end of the book, there’s not much else but thinking about it or writing it or editing it.

What are your plans now your book is published?

Well, publication is the first step. Now I have to market it as best I can for the next few months. In many ways, the work just begins when you publish.

What’s next for you as an author?

I have started a fantasy novel, my first foray into that genre since I was a young teenager.