19 Dec 2023

From Writing To Collective Publishing Interview With Pierre Bruder, Author And Editor

Discover the interview with a deep-thinking author and editor: Pierre Bruder. His vision of the author's profession, his approach to therapeutic writing, his recommendations to aspiring authors.

How do you view the profession of author? What does it mean to be an author today in your opinion? 

For Pierre Bruder, “author is being the author of something”, without any professional notion attached to it. Not to be confused with writer whose profession is writing. There are therefore two terms which each designate a reality, unlike painting for example, which makes no difference in terminology between the amateur painter and the professional painter. 

“For an author, writing does not take up the majority of their time and is not their main income. The writer has this in his blood, he is the one who writes.”

On this question of vocabulary, Pierre Bruder considers himself an author and not a writer. “I am neither a writer by trade nor by vocation” but as someone in favor of writing, who can live without writing.

How did you become an author? What has been your journey so far and how do you analyze it?

Pierre Bruder, alias Bernard Fauren, defines himself as an internet author, that is to say born as an author with the internet. As the internet boomed during the 90s, he started as an author in the early 2000s. “I made my writings public. I liked this almost immediate feedback from readers. It was the substance that prevailed over the form, people shared their texts easily.”

Pierre Bruder did not intend to publish on paper but, by force of circumstances, he was led to do so. People complained about having to read novels on screen and needed a paper novel. The beginnings took place on the Alexandria site as a collective project of around ten internet authors including Pierre Bruder. An argument with the webmaster was the signal for eight of them to leave; and the trigger for forming a real collective of authors. This was the beginning of editions Brumerge. 

“Divorced and living alone, I was also going through a difficult time. At the time, writing was therapy for me, even if it is very much the case today.”

Pierre Bruder has a thousand faces and his career reflects this polarity through a kaleidoscope of experiences: puppeteer, experiences in cinema, or even in supporting patients at the end of life. 

And this diversity, this intensity, is found in his works, notably in his fragmentary novelIn the footsteps of Kali, published by Éditions Brandon. “I like vagueness even if it doesn't please everyone” says Pierre Bruder as a qualifier for this original novel, outside of time, whose journey the reader follows in dotted lines and jumps in time. This work is appreciated as much by what is written as by what is left unsaid, what can be guessed between the lines and the areas deliberately left in the shadows. 

“I wrote two novels before Kali, one of which was very similar toThe Road by Cormac McCarthy.” And they all exploited this vagueness which is dear to Pierre Bruder. 

And now, what are his literary projects? 

“Do you know the story of Buridan’s donkey? The donkey hesitates between two pecks of oats but, unable to choose, he dies of hunger. I find myself in this paradox because I hesitate between two writing projects even if Caroline (Nicolas) pushes me to write.”

Have you encountered any obstacles or challenges in your journey as an author and how did you overcome them?

For me, it’s the opposite. These are precisely the challenges that make me want to write. Which I need to write.”

For Pierre Bruder, it is the publication which constitutes a test. “On the one hand, I claim therapeutic writing so why the hell bring this into the public eye?”

This is the question that everyone is asking: why, at a given moment, do we want to make this public?

Pierre Bruder also highlights the effort required to make the writings publishable because a certain format is required. “That’s the difficulty of writing with the aim of being read” based on his meeting with Caroline Nicolas. 

It’s remembering that writing and publishing are two very different actions: “distinguishing the two helps encourage people to write”. 

What does your daily life as an author look like? What does your writing rhythm consist of, your habits?

“When it comes to writing, I am incapable of building a plan. I write texts of a few lines or a few pages then I provide a short summary of each. When I have forty or fifty, I spread them out in front of me and I wonder what I can do with them.”

Pierre Bruder describes his writings as escapes, escapes, like road movies. It is a fragmentary writing, projected towards the future but also towards the past, from which a poetic coherence emerges. 

What are your "bad habits" or areas for improvement in writing and what are you doing to work on them?

In itself, rehearsals don’t bother me at all, I do a lot of them. And I often write in the first person, it’s difficult for me to vary.”

With these words, Pierre Bruder demonstrates a knowledge of these particularities of writing, which he tends to play on, to fully assume as constituent elements of his style. 

“I don’t see myself writing any other way. I don’t see myself writing like anyone else.” It is therefore not so much a question of bad habits but rather of distinctions, which allow him to be himself in writing, not someone else. 

Pierre Bruder appreciates the exercise of copying in writing, as student painters do when copying master paintings. Learn to write like Victor Hugo to become aware of your own style, and yours. 

In your opinion, what place should or can writing training have in an author's career? Should we continue training once published? 

According to Pierre Bruder, for those who really want to become a writer, training is essential but this goes against preconceived ideas of “to be published, you don’t have to pay anything”. 

Training seems essential to him in writing, “much more than I thought before knowing the Brandon & Company". 

Pierre Bruder, having already been published, followed a large number of discovery workshops: “I took it as a game, acting a bit like a dunce but it encouraged me to write.”

It thus proves that being already published is not a criterion for training or not, because training must be accessible to everyone and there are all kinds of formats, one-off or continuous, specific or which teach the basics. 

Pierre Bruder only regrets that the cost of these courses, which may seem high for some people, is not covered (a sort of grant).

What was the nature of your relationship with your editor(s)? How do you perceive editorial work? 

“In the past, I was able to have access to manuscripts which were then published by major publishing houses. And I had fun comparing the gap between manuscript and final version.”

For certain works, this sometimes only involves replacing certain words with synonyms, as if it were more a question of leaving one's touch as editor on the text. By principle. 

“But all of this was well before the editorial work with Caroline (Nicolas). This work already interested me and I was able to immerse myself in it with her, even if I did not always understand the additional information she asked for. I believe that she was thus seeking to obtain the outlines of the story.”

These were sometimes elements to better understand the context even if they were not going to be found in the final text, or passages to be further developed. “The editorial process did me good. It was therapeutic while managing not to betray anyone and I’m happy with that.”

In the footsteps of Kali being a text with autobiographical dimensions, it was important for Pierre Bruder not to name the people, not to betray their experiences, to have aware of the possible consequences of making this story public.

Author and publisher what does that change?

Being published gave me a lot of perspective on publication.” Pierre Bruder had, however, already published around forty people, not counting the collections. 

For him or the authors he publishes, an adage is close to his heart: “don’t expect anything from publication. I warn them that they should not expect too much from the publication of their work.”

Given the investment of certain authors, Pierre Bruder prefers to warn them to avoid too much disillusionment. “Even if it is a masterpiece if it is not published today by a major publishing house, unfortunately, it will not go far.” 

What advice do you have for aspiring authors who want to realize their projects and even become professionals? 

Write as much as possible and take training if they have the opportunity.” In short, work. 

Pierre Bruder also recommends testing his texts with readers, whether on the internet or by other means. And to remember that there is room for everyone, even if he doubts it over the years. “Sometimes some people fall into dead ends. What awaits the author who starts out is discouragement.”

You must therefore measure your motivation and be able to face criticism which darkens the ego a little. “But if we have it in our blood, no doubt, we will continue.”