10 WRITING TIPS

1. NO REGRETS One of the nine publishers who originally rejected Dark

Trade went on to make a deal with Mcrae to print a later edition softback.

2. GET THE RIGHT TITLE “Suddenly I was thinking about these guys and they were basically working in a dark business so I was thinking about the words dark and business and then I thought, ‘Well, trading punches,’ and then it seemed obvious,” said Mcrae about Dark Trade.

3. TAKE YOUR TIME… IF NECESSARY Mcrae spent five years on Dark Trade while Hauser took years over Ali: His Life and Times. He wrote

Waiting For Carver Boyd in 10 days. “Depending on how you look at it either 10 days or 20 years, because there’s a lot of thought,” said Hauser. “But that was something very quick. I had a straightforward linear idea and I said, ‘Okay, let’s go to work. Let’s put it down’.

4. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT I’m aware of one current A-lister who won’t sign a book deal because it’s not for as much as he thinks he was worth. To get the big bucks in books, huge names only need apply.

5. HISTORY-MAKERS When you write a book that can shape how a fighter is remembered, there is an extra burden. Hauser had it with Ali and Mcrae with Emile Griffith. “There’s a feeling of importance, that you wanted to do justice to him,” admitted Donald.

6. KEEP THE CONCEPT ORIGINAL Mcrae said he may revisit the format of Dark Trade but insists it “will not be a sequel.”

7. LET THE STORY GUIDE YOU “Every book is different,” said Hauser. “You have to be creative and let each book tell you the best way to research it and put it together.”

8. MORE THAN JUST A NAME The life story of one brilliant British fighter might not be told in full because he no longer looks anything like he did in his prime. Believe it or not, a publisher will reject a book if they can’t get what they believe to be the right image for the cover.

9. DO YOUR HOMEWORK Hauser is one of the great researchers. “For Mark Twain

Remembers, which is a novel about Mark Twain, slavery and boxing and a young man coming of age and that was a huge undertaking. At first, I read every book that Mark Twain ever wrote and a lot of his articles, so I could write in his voice. I also had to do a lot of research on slavery in the United States, because that was a theme and I had to do some research on bareknuckle fighting, because that was an area where I wasn’t particularly well-versed.”

10. JUST DO IT “Even if publishers and agents are telling you not to do a book, if you believe in it, go for it,” said Mcrae. “Most of the time they do know, but if you feel it so deeply in your bones it’s something that’s going to be worth doing, you’ve just got to go for it.”