Interview with Jackson Rocco
Published 2014-10-09.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
The Elastic-Sided Spaceship. It was about a frog called Boffo that came from Outer Space that had a ship that can miniaturize or grow huge. It was beautifully illustrated.
How do you approach cover design?
I emulate the books I want mine to be. it's a vision of how I'd see the book being sold on a shelf. Marketing departments do this anyway. However, for kink, fetish and BDSM I wanted to avoid cliché or naff eroticism. My cover is partly based on bestseller self-help guides.
What do you read for pleasure?
At the moment I'm re-reading A Clockwork Orange as it's chockful of horrorshow neologisms. I love playing with language, an ever-evolving river. Normally I love classics, how-to manuals, interviews, autobiographies and self-help.
What is your e-reading device of choice?
Well its two as they are both about even stevens in my world, Kindle and iPad.
What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?
Social media, the book's Facebook page, my twitter account and my website jacksonrocco.com. It's really the infrastructure that is more about effectiveness and accountability, things like using Hootsuite and Google Analytics.
Describe your desk
Half cat bed for the studio pet (who sometimes lays across the keyboard), and half memos with a computer in the middle with books, musical, technical equipment all around.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
Boring and traumatic places with endless upheaval, hence my imagination.
When did you first start writing?
Alphabet? At infant school: I was quick but a bad at speech. Writing stories I guess primary school and early secondary, where I was touted to take my exams five years early and tipped to go to Oxford.
What's the story behind your latest book?
It's non-fiction and inspired by the desparate need we have have in the world today for positive kink education. It's sex education for a time when everyone is ready to accept that more than half the people you know have a kink, fetish or a penchant for spanking or being tied up.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
The lack of comprehension from major publishing houses and agents. They had no understanding of how to bring it to market. One title was subtitled: 'BDSM for nice people' which is horrifically patronising. I know many people who have a range of qualities, but just nice is not the whole story is it? They were after the Fifty Shaders, but not seeing that most adults are in fact interested. If you Google the words fetish, kink, S&M, or BDSM, you're going to find over 200,000,000 interested searches.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
I've just begun on here. But I can say that so far it's an organisation of the highest integrity, which is why I chose them as they are a really important part of the delivery for my work in earning the trust of my readers.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Coming up with the ideas and two weeks after publishing when I can have a lie in.
What do your fans mean to you?
Not sure I would use the word 'fans'. But feedback that I get back from readers is very important to me as it adds to the community knowledge of learning what positive kink can achieve,
What are you working on next?
I have ideas for four fiction titles and one non-fiction. I will go with the one that will excite and challenge me the most, possibly the fiction book about kink. I've been asked about it a lot as well.
Who are your favorite authors?
Too many to mention, but Milan Kundera I love.
What’s your background?
I’m a fetish lifestyle writer, editor and journalist from the UK with 20 years experience in and out of the kink scene observing and practising alternative adult sex. More recently I’ve been a blogger for two international kink webzines while for the last three years I’ve been compiling this book.
Where can i read other interviews about the specifics of your kink, fetish and BDSM writing?
I did an interview for Culture Kiddo in the UK where I was called the new Christian Grey! If you type 'culture kiddo jackson rocco' you'll find it. And also on the FAQ of my website where I answer the questions that come in via email.
What is your writing process?
Research, write, research, rewrite, proof, research, rewrite, proof, format, reformat, reformat, reformat. Proof. Publish. Or thereabouts! Writing seems like a tiny percentage of it.
What makes the games filthy then? Why did you not call it The Book of Fetish Sex Games?
I'm using the word filthy to inspire excitement and get the ball rolling. A lot of vanilla people assume kink to be filthy: or hope that it will be. From an educational point of view, I want as many people to read The Book of Filthy Sex Games as possible. More will find the word filthy more exciting than fetish; and the latter word has also been misunderstood, misconstrued and misused. Hopefully it will help build an understanding to the wonderful world of fetish and consensual kink and BDSM practices. But of course, with this kind of thing, it's each to their own, so my games are like tasters and mini-starter guides, to the fetish or practice involved.
Are you going to write a book for the LGBT scene?
I already have, most of the adult play scenarios in The Book of Filthy Sex Games are inclusively non-gender specific. The language is usually 'you and your partner' or 'active and passive partner', it doesn't assume to know your persuasions. Ultimately this stems from me having a blank canvass attitude to towards people until their personality (or mine) gets in the way. So my book is for all consenting adults.
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