Continuing our look into who we are and what we do at Floodlit Dreams, Seth Burkett shares his life as a writer and publisher…
I never really intended to become a writer and publisher. It just sort of happened. My great love, and great ambition, was football and to become a footballer.
Through a series of fortunate events I spent a season playing in Brazil just after leaving school. My team, Sorriso Esporte Clube, trained for five hours a day. For the other nineteen hours we were expected to rest and recuperate. There is only so much relaxing you can do – particularly when you can only speak swear words in your teammates’ language – so to fill the time I kept a diary.
My grandmother always encouraged me to write. She was an author, publishing over 120 books while also running an animal rehabilitation centre from her house. As a teenager she’d sometimes take me into schools to help her run writing workshops, and she also asked me to help edit a couple of her books.
So I wrote to pass the time, but as the experience in Brazil became stranger and stranger, I realised there was a story to tell.
I had a lot to learn. I messaged Alex Bellos, author of Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, which I had enjoyed reading so much while in Sorriso. He was very helpful in telling me about proposals and how publishing works.
My first efforts were swiftly rejected. And so were my second. Eventually, I received a message from Ian Ridley, who had just published Mark Halsey’s book, Added Time. He suggested we meet.
That meeting took place in January 2014, around four years after I’d started writing my book. I’ll never forget the feeling when Ian suggested I may have something. We’d have to work quickly – it made sense to publish the book in time for the World Cup that was taking place that summer. That sounded good to me.
Following the publication of The Boy in Brazil, I was invited into schools and clubs to give talks on writing. It wasn’t something that I ever actively pursued. Again, it just sort of happened. But as I did more and more events, I realised it was something that I really enjoyed. To keep on doing them, I’d have to keep on writing.
By now I saw Ian as my mentor. I’d learned so much from him editing my book, and one day he handed me a proposal he had received through Floodlit Dreams’ submissions page. It was from Neil Beasley, a gay football player and fan. Ian thought it was a brilliant idea, and suggested I help Neil to craft what would go on to become Football’s Coming Out.
A decade later, writing has become my life, and it has taken me to some amazing places. Ghostwriting books allows me to meet incredible, interesting people with fascinating stories. I’ve taken on all sorts of writing projects from crafting TikTok posts for advertising agencies to penning newspaper columns. I get to work with brilliant people, like my co-author Matt Oldfield and agent Nick Walters. Writing has even earned me a contract playing football in Sri Lanka.
So yes, there are brilliant opportunities, but it’s not exactly a smooth ride. I still receive so many rejections, get so many one star reviews and encounter so many people who want me to work for free. Just like football, this is an industry where you need thick skin. Ability is important, but resilience and dedication are even more important. As in football, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
For the last eight years, I’ve also worked as a publisher, allowing me to see another side of the business. At first I helped Ian with the odd Floodlit Dreams project. As he puts it: doing all the things he didn’t want to do. I learned about printing, managing stock, distribution. I heaved thousands of books from the back of lorries to storage units. But as the years have gone by I’ve become more involved, to the point I now help Ian and Jane Purdon to run the business.
Such learning has been valuable to my own writing. And hopefully my experience of writing is valuable to Floodlit Dreams. We’ve recently published some exciting, innovative works in the Football Shorts series, and I’m excited for the release of Tony Adams’ 1996. I may be biased, but it’s absolutely brilliant.
I’ve got plenty of writing of my own to keep me busy alongside Floodlit Dreams. Matt Oldfield and I are onto our sixth in the Football GOAT series, which is a World Cup special. I’ve got a collection of World Cup graphic novels on the go, and I’m working on a book with Billy Monger, Find Your Drive, which is to be published by Macmillan. My gran was delighted when she heard about that one – they also published her first book, The Year of the Badger, way back in 1972.
I needed plenty of help to get started on my own writing journey. I was fortunate to have my gran’s guidance, to get a reply from Alex, and to benefit from Ian’s mentorship. I’d like to help others in my role at Floodlit Dreams, whether that’s guiding a proposal, creating a great book or simply getting their order to them swiftly.