An Interview with Boxing Writer Paul Zanon

An Interview with Boxing Writer Paul Zanon 

Paul Zanon is now a veteran author of 8 boxing related books and his latest offering, a biography on multiple weight world champion Johnny Tapia is due to be released on 14th November.

I asked Paul about his background prior to getting into boxing:

“I worked in the retail and catering industry for a decade back in the 1990’s, then switched to the voluntary sector, early 2000’s. My last position prior to writing was as Business Development Director for a national charity. As far as I knew back then, the charity world is where I would be for the rest of my working life.

“I’d started to dabble with writing the early 2000’s, with fantasy fight stories. Ali vs Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard versus Floyd Mayweather Jr, that sort of thing. Then one day, a very well known author walked into the charity I worked at and gave us a stack of his books, signed, that we could use for raffle prizes.

“I started speaking to him about my writing, asking how I’d go about improving or even getting my efforts published in a short book format. He was very dismissive, explaining the barriers to entry into the market, how complex the business was, the low rates of success etc. His final words were, ‘Just enjoy it as a hobby’. As someone who failed GCSE English a number of times and with no formal writing training behind me,  I walked away deflated and even stopped writing my short stories.

“Then, in 2012, a random opportunity came my way. The owner of the Daily Sport (DS), Grant Miller ate at a restaurant round the corner from where I used to live in Kingston. I’d mentioned I was going to see a boxing show in Denmark between Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green and he said, ‘If you write up a few paragraphs, I’ll publish it on the DS website.’

“I thought, ‘Brilliant! Wow!’ I knew a few boxers at the time and conducted a few more interviews for the site and within a couple of months became the Boxing Correspondent of the Daily Sport. I’ll always be grateful to Grant for giving me the portal to fuel my passion for boxing writing.

“About 10 months after I started writing for Daily Sport, the opportunity came up to write Jimmy Tibbs book. I took a four month sabbatical from my role as director in the charity, to break the back of the book and during that time was approached to write Paul Ingle’s book. That’s when I realised this could potential turn into something more than a hobby.

“When I returned from the sabbatical, I handed my notice in and decided to dedicate myself full time to writing.”

Sadly writing in the boxing world seems to be one of little or no pay, very few sites actually pay their writers. I wanted to know how hard was it for Paul to make ends meet financially.

“Pretty tough. I’ve had four No1 Bestsellers in my first six books and as a result, everyone thinks you are a multi millionaire. The reality is, that a couple of my books have only made a few hundred pounds and the best has been a few thousand. The publisher takes the lions share, around 90% on average of the sale price. That’s because they pay for the printing of the book, electronic version, ISBN numbers etc.

“It all comes down to selling volumes in order to get a return. Bearing in mind you can spend anywhere between six months to a year to write someone’s book, a few hundred pounds can be pretty soul destroying from an income perspective.

“That’s where your passion for writing and the person you are writing about needs to take over in order for you to keep your focus and produce the best you can.

“Compared to my salary I earned as a director, income is far less. The secret is having as many irons in the fire as possible.  Also – make sure you have a backup plan. Income outside of writing……unless you write fiction, then one very successful book can be your retirement plan.

We live in an era of YouTubers, live interviews seemingly taking over from the written word. I asked Paul if he thought writing is becoming a lost art, with many appearing to prefer a video interview rather than reading an article or a book.

“I think video interviews and podcasts are certainly an expanding niche. Easy to watch, anywhere, but I also believe there’s still a niche for writing. Time will tell how the ratio pans out between the two”

With it’s long and often controversial history boxing is never short of subject matter, it must be difficult for an author to pick a particular topic for a book.

“I need a hook. I get approached about five times per week with somebody who says, ‘I’d like you to write my book. I’ve got a story to tell.’ When I ask them to send me a list of bullet points of the most jaw dropping events in their life to date, it turns out that many haven’t got enough eye catching material to inspire me to want to spend the next year scribbling their life story.

“I need something more than just – ‘I was born in a rough neighbourhood, boxing saved my life and I became world champion.’

“Don’t get me wrong, the merits of winning any title is phenomenal, but that alone is not enough.  Each book I’ve written has at least one major hook. i.e – being shot five times, or living at the bottom of the ocean at 600ft for a month at a time. For me, it’s all about that unique detail.”

Paul’s latest book is about Johnny Tapia, a fighter with a colourful story to say the least. I asked Paul if sometimes he has to hold back on what he writes about certain people, for fear of offending anybody.

“The only time you hold back is when you are unsure that the information you are writing is factually incorrect or defamatory.

“In terms of this book, I had the pleasure of working with Johnny’s widow, Teresa, who was an absolute angel. She answered every single question in full colour detail and despite covering some very emotional territory, always delivered.

“Obviously, you need to be very considerate and respectful about the way you ask questions and be prepared that some people may not want to answer, but if you don’t ask the questions, you may not get that all important unique content.

Tapia is certainly a controversial fighter, who sadly couldn’t defeat his inner demons but is someone with plenty of material for a book, for a writer this must be what they are looking for.

“As I mentioned earlier – In order for me to write a book about someone, there needs to be a hook. Johnny had a bundle of hooks which attracted me to writing this book. Similarly, my other seven books ran on a similar parallel.”

I asked Paul if his opinion on Tapia had changed after researching for the book.

“No. I kind of knew Johnny’s basic story. Speaking to the likes of Teresa, the pastor who conducted the funeral, some of Johnny’s trainers, famous rocker Sammy Hagar, I was able to shine a torch into a few dark corners, but also reveal some new dialogue which I’d never encountered. Hopefully those anecdotes and detail will be enjoyed by the reader.”

I know from personal experience that whenever you speak to a fighter, that no matter how much you think you know about that particular individual, there is always something that really sticks out about them.

“There’s a bundle of things that stick out about Johnny. He was a very complex character who possessed a magical aura, but unfortunately he was possibly boxing’s most tormented soul and that eventually, was his downfall. Boxing wise – he could have mixed it with the best at any era in his three respective weight categories that he won world titles in.”

Writers always have one eye on what’s next, I wanted to know what’s ahead for Paul.

“I have a couple of potential clients in the wings, but I’m in no hurry to start writing the next book for the hell of churning them out.

“Writing a book is like a mini-marriage. Firstly, you need to make sure you get on and secondly, it takes a long time to take the book over the line.  And as I always say, ‘Time is our most precious commodity. Spend and share it wisely’.

“Ideally – I’d like to write about a football player or athlete next”

We all have our go to authors, writers who we most admire, I asked Paul who he most admired.

“I have a long list of boxing books I like. To put one on a pedestal as my favourite wouldn’t be right. I admire any author who has managed to get a body of work published. It’s a hell of a slog. I don’t have a favourite author, I just appreciate well written dialogue, irrespective of the scribe. I’ll leave you/any budding writers with this quote from Andre Dubus III.”

“When you finish a draft of a poem, or a short story, or novel, you make sure you go out and celebrate all night long, because whether the world ever notices or not, whether you get it published or not, you did something most people never do: You started, stuck with, and finished a creative work. And that is a triumph.”

Paul’s new book The Ghost of Johnny Tapia is released on 14th November.

There will be a special book launch on the 7th November at the Peacock Gym in North London starting at 4:30pm.