Max Kidruk is one of the most famous Ukrainian writers. He is known as the author of travelogues and techno-thrillers. The writer is always ready to take risks and move forward in his literary projects.

In a conversation with UkraineForever, Max Kidruk shared his thoughts on the presentation of “New Dark Ages”, how he decided to launch his publishing house and the future of Ukrainian literature.

Good afternoon, Maxim, we congratulate you on the release of a significant work in every sense. The book was appreciated not only by us, but also by your fans. Tell us more about the work on the cycle of novels “New Dark Ages”.

  • Probably, to answer briefly, I worked for a very long time.

Why science fiction, or as you call it, “a historical novel in reverse.” Why space? Why Mars? After all, your previous books were “earthly.”

  • The point is not even science fiction, it’s just a good story. I have certain topics that I want to write about, which I talk more about in presentations. These topics concern the future. Yes, from a technical point of view, it’s science fiction, but I made every effort to ensure that the story I depict, the picture of the future that I describe, was as realistic as possible. Therefore, it’s only nominally science fiction, because it’s about the future. In my opinion, there are no technologies in the text, naive, thoughtless, that would allow this text to be classified as science fiction more than nominally.

When can we expect a sequel, how many novels do you plan to release in the world of the “New Dark Ages”, and what can we expect from them?

  • There will be 4 novels in this series, I have a clear understanding and vision of what I am going for. I do not set deadlines for myself, I objectively understand that the next text will be just as big and it is obvious that such a text does not appear instantly, at the same time and therefore, under the best conditions, the next book will be in 3 years. I am already working on it, but I will not spoil it.

Tell us about your tour, what goal have you set for yourself and where will you direct the funds?

  • The goal is generally obvious to me, we are simply presenting my new novel. Despite everything that is happening, despite the full-scale invasion, despite all the crimes of the Russians, my team and I are trying to do what we can, the best. Obviously, in a full-scale war, we simply cannot function otherwise without giving all the profits to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We have agreed on a partnership with the volunteer headquarters “ANGAR”, which has been helping since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. These are people whom I know well, whom I trust. Therefore, we transfer all the profits, both from tickets and from merchandise, to their account. Moreover, this year, my team and I refused third-party ticket sales services. The main advantage is that we have all the funds from the tickets in our account even before the performance begins. That is, in fact, at the beginning of each presentation I show a receipt for the transfer of funds. Even before I start my chatter about the future and Mars, people understand that their money has already gone to our defense forces to destroy the Russians a little more effectively. I can already say that they bought the first drone, it is the most expensive one, because this is a special request from my good friend, who is now near Bakhmut. They needed a drone with a thermal imager to fly at night. So it will be on the front lines today or tomorrow. All thanks to the fact that we have developed our own ticket sales service, which has allowed us to be more “flexible”. We do not require detailed reports, we do not wait for funds to be credited. People contact us, if we have the funds, we will cover this need.

You recently opened a publishing house, share how this idea came about, and what challenges did you face?

  • I’ve had this idea in my head for a very long time. The reason is generally very simple. At some point in my life, I realized that my team and I do almost everything except the actual printing of the book. What does this mean? Of course, the editor’s work was paid for by the publishing house, the proofreader, etc. Everything else was done by my people, whom I trust, I am confident in them. If the deadlines are “pressed”, they will not start “cutting corners”, but will be there to the last. Stay up late, but do it the way it should be. I also completely controlled the design of the cover. And in the end, I understand that we either control everything, or do everything ourselves. Therefore, this step seemed logical. I resisted for a long time, for obvious reasons. This is a very resource-intensive business that “devours” a lot of effort and time. Obviously, if everything is OK, it is rewarded, but this is an area that requires disproportionate returns compared to other areas of business. Let’s say, if you opened a bakery, no offense to bakers. It is a little easier for you to sell bread, buns or beer than books. This is a very specific product, it is bought impulsively, so you have to make, as I said, disproportionately more effort to simply draw attention to this product. As for the challenges, in fact, I will not complain, I will not complain, the challenges are obvious – there is a war in the country. Because of this, you cannot plan anything. We planned a tour for a month and a half, but you really understand that your maximum is a week in advance. There would be challenges if “New Dark Ages” didn’t sell, or sold poorly, and fortunately I can’t say that. What I’m getting at is that these sales give us a profit, allow us to cover and smooth out a bunch of “fake news”, obviously there are some. After all, this is a new field for us, a new experience, so when you start something new you “fake news” for months. I really have a hard time imagining what my wife and I would do if “New Dark Ages” hadn’t “taken place”. This profit allows us to “plug a bunch of holes” that would have actually let us to the bottom of this book.

Why the name “Bearded Tamarin”?

  • We spent a long time choosing a name, because we were guided by the fact that this would be a publishing house of popular science literature. I thought about a primate, because on the one hand it is funny, and on the other hand it is a very intelligent animal. Many names did not fit, there was “bonobo” – these are some of the most intelligent monkeys among primates. But there is a singer with that name, so we rejected this option. Then there was the option of “gorilla” – too rude. Back then I was already looking for impersonal names so that they would not be associated with anything, but I didn’t like everything. Then I decided to do what I do when I can’t do something, or I don’t understand something. I just go to Google and see how people who are much smarter, much more successful, have done it. I found an article, a really serious article about how to choose the right name for a publishing house and which publishing house names “go” the best. It says that the name is secondary, the absolute majority of readers do not associate themselves with the name. People remember the logo more. And if we talk about logos, then the most recognizable ones are those with animals. Then there was the next step, I went to Google with the query “10 cutest animals”. Among them was the bearded tamarin. For me, it is both funny and wise. I realized that this is it.

In one of your interviews, you noted that you will not chase bestsellers, but will select books that you read yourself and that the Ukrainian market lacks. What books are lacking in Ukraine and what kind of literature would you like to distribute among Ukrainians?

  • Even now, in our portfolio, obviously, we haven’t announced everything yet, but there isn’t a single book that was just released. That is, these are all texts from older years. We choose texts that we like first of all and that, in our opinion, are not enough on the Ukrainian market. Speaking of me, it’s space. We have very little of this, both “lite” and “hard”. We have already founded an entire series “Corvus” for this, there will be many texts there that I haven’t announced yet. In addition, we have already announced the second series, which is called “Lonely George”. Named in honor of the last representative of the Abingdon elephant tortoise subspecies, who died of old age in 2012 on the Galapagos Islands. He was never able to produce offspring, so now he is considered a symbol of the struggle for nature conservation. This series will be dedicated to Earth sciences.

What is the most important thing for you in the process of writing a book?

  • Silence. You just sit down, open your laptop and start writing. There is no magic here.

Was there an idea, or maybe even a suggestion, to animate one of your books?

  • Yes, there were such suggestions regarding “Don’t Look Back and Be Silent” and “Look into My Dreams”. Regarding “Look into My Dreams”, we even reached the director’s storyboard of the script, but that’s it. The reason is obvious, to create a book you only need laptops and good ideas, right behind this “bone box” (points to the head). And to shoot a film you need funding and a crew, of course, it’s more difficult.

Have you ever had the idea to write a book about this war that is happening now?

  • No. I know for sure that there are people who will handle it much better than me. It is worth understanding that any author who writes or will write about Ukraine after February 24, 2022, will obviously touch on the topic of war in one way or another. This has left an imprint on everyone.

How do you see the development of Ukrainian literature in the future?

  • I don’t want to get into some kind of pathos and talk about banal things. In general, I think I’m not qualified enough to answer such questions. I start with myself, with my creativity, with my team. I’m convinced that if everyone else does their job responsibly and professionally, then everything will be fine. Obviously, we can also talk about external factors. For example, eSupport was an ideal program that helped the book market a lot. After all, out of the entire list of possibilities, the only real thing that can be bought is a book. It is very important that the law that prohibits the import of books from Russia to Ukraine comes into force. Obviously, they are not being imported now, because of the war. But this law has not been signed yet, I would really like it to come into effect after the victory.
    I am one of those people for whom the main thing is not to be disturbed. Don’t touch me, I will do everything myself. I am speaking exclusively about myself and my team.

How would you describe your creativity in one word?

  • Creativity is an achievement, or creativity is a process?

Process.

  • Consistency. I’ll give you an example from my favorite and hated sport, American football. About a quarterback who is considered the best quarterback of all time. He just recently finished his career, played for 21 years, which is fantastic for such a traumatic sport. He wasn’t the brightest, every year there was someone better than him. But this guy was on and off, and this guy I was talking about is Tom Brady. His greatest strength is consistency, because he played at the same high level throughout his career. That fits my career, too, I understand that I’m not the best writer, but consistency and consistency are what we strive for with the team.

Tetiana Panchenko