Editing Iain Banks (section)

===Writing career===
Banks took up writing at the age of 11. He completed a first novel, ''The Hungarian Lift-Jet'', at 16 and a second, ''TTR'' (also entitled ''The Tashkent Rambler'') in his first year at Stirling University in 1972.<ref name="business"/><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9J7BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |title=The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks: A Critical Introduction |first=Simone |last=Caroti |date=26 July 2018 |publisher=McFarland |page=24 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-4766-2040-4}}</ref> Though he saw himself mainly as a science fiction author, his publishing problems led him to pursue mainstream fiction. His first published novel ''[[The Wasp Factory]]'', appeared in 1984, when he was thirty.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sandm.co.uk/mary/sfjournm/Iain_Banks/iain_banks.html |title=What's in an M (or) What a difference an M makes |archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928164721/http://www.sandm.co.uk/mary/sfjournm/Iain_Banks/iain_banks.html}}</ref> After the success of ''The Wasp Factory'', Banks began to write full time. His editor at Macmillan, James Hale, advised him to write a book a year, which he agreed to do.<ref name="business"/>

His second novel ''[[Walking on Glass]]'' followed in 1985, then ''[[The Bridge (Banks novel)|The Bridge]]'' in 1986, and in 1987 ''[[Espedair Street]]'', which was later broadcast as a series on BBC Radio 4.<ref name="council"/> His first published science fiction book, ''[[Consider Phlebas]]'', emerged in 1987 and was the first of several in the acclaimed [[Culture series]]. Banks cited [[Robert A. Heinlein]], [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Arthur C. Clarke]], [[Brian Aldiss]], [[M. John Harrison]] and [[Dan Simmons]] as influences.<ref name="CNN"/> ''[[The Crow Road]]'', published in 1992, was adapted as a BBC television series.<ref name="Spike"/> Banks continued to write both science fiction and mainstream. His final novel [[The Quarry (Iain Banks novel)|''The Quarry'']] appeared in June 2013, the month of his death.

Banks published work under two names. His parents had meant to name him "Iain Menzies Banks", but his father mistakenly registered him as "Iain Banks". Banks still used the middle name and submitted ''The Wasp Factory'' for publication as "Iain M. Banks". Banks's editor inquired about the possibility of omitting the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy" and the potential existed for confusion with [[Rosie M. Banks]], a romantic novelist in the [[Jeeves]] novels by [[P. G. Wodehouse]]; Banks agreed to the omission. After three mainstream novels, Banks's publishers agreed to publish his first science fiction (SF) novel ''Consider Phlebas''. To create a distinction between the mainstream and the SF, Banks suggested returning the 'M' to his name, which was then used in all of his science fiction works.<ref name="five"/><ref name="Lawson"/>
[[File:Ian M. Banks 2005.JPG|thumb|right|upright|Banks book signing at the [[63rd World Science Fiction Convention]] in Glasgow, August 2005]]

By his death in June 2013, Banks had published 26 novels. A 27th novel ''[[The Quarry (Iain Banks novel)|The Quarry]]'' was published posthumously.<ref name="jboog"/> His final work, a poetry collection, appeared in February 2015.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/14/iain-banks-prose-poems-ken-macleod |title='Readers of Iain Banks's prose will find in his poems much that is familiar' |last=MacLeod|first=Ken |date=14 February 2015 |work=The Guardian |access-date=9 December 2015}}</ref> In an interview in January 2013, he also mentioned he had the plot idea for another novel in the Culture series, which would most likely have been his next book and was planned for publication in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-future-might-be-a-hoot-how-iain-m-banks-imagines-utopia/267211/ |title='The Future Might Be a Hoot': How Iain M. Banks Imagines Utopia |first=Scott |last=Beauchamp |date=16 January 2013 |website=theatlantic.com}}</ref> 

In February 2018, a project to publish Banks's unseen early drawings, maps and sketches from the Culture universe alongs with his writings and notes on the setting was underway.<ref name="Iain M Banks's drawings of the Culture universe to be published in 2019">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/15/iain-m-bankss-drawings-of-the-culture-universe-to-be-published-in-2019| title=Iain M Banks's drawings of the Culture universe to be published in 2019|last=Flood|first=Allison|date=15 February 2018|work=[[The Guardian]]| access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref> In 2021, the delayed single volume of ''The Culture: Notes and Drawings'' was cancelled and replaced with two separate volumes: a landscape artbook of ''The Culture: The Drawings'' and a companion volume containing notes, excerpts and new text from [[Ken MacLeod]].<ref name="An update regarding THE CULTURE: NOTES AND DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod">{{cite web|url=https://www.orbitbooks.net/2021/06/15/an-update-regarding-the-culture-notes-and-drawings-by-iain-m-banks-and-ken-macleod/| title=An update regarding THE CULTURE: NOTES AND DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod|date=15 June 2021|work=[[Orbit Books]]| access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref> ''The Culture: The Drawings'' was released on 7 November 2023, while the still-untitled companion volume was scheduled for late 2024.<ref name="THE CULTURE: THE DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks">{{cite web|url=https://www.orbitbooks.net/2023/04/21/the-culture-the-drawings-by-iain-m-banks/| title=THE CULTURE: THE DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks|date=21 April 2023|work=[[Orbit Books]]| access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-04-05 |title=The Culture: The Drawings |url=https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-page/orbit/the-culture-the-drawings/ |access-date=2023-12-04 |website=Hachette UK |language=en-US}}</ref> 

Banks wrote in various categories, but enjoyed science fiction most.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/21/iain-banks-updates-fans-cancer |title=Iain Banks posts new update to fans on his cancer |author=Alison Flood |newspaper=the Guardian |quote=Until the last few years or so, when the SF novels started to achieve something approaching parity in sales, the mainstream always out-sold the SF – on average, if my memory isn't letting me down, by a ratio of about three or four to one. I think a lot of people have assumed that the SF was the trashy but high-selling stuff... while I wrote the important, serious, non-genre literary novels. Never been the case, and I can't imagine that I'd have lied about this sort of thing, least of all as some sort of joke. The SF novels have always mattered deeply to me – the Culture series in particular – and while it might not be what people want to hear (academics especially), the mainstream subsidised the SF, not the other way round. |date=21 May 2013}}</ref>

In September 2012 Banks became a Guest of Honour at the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, [[Loncon 3]].