Launching books the easy way.

Launching Books the Easy Way

This is part 3 of the Marketing, Marketing, Marketing series. To check out the other parts, click these links:

So you've covered everything you ever need to do before going live with your novel. The editing is superb, the cover art is flawless, the formatting is great, now you just need to launch the thing. Assuming you don't already have a huge fan base from something else (book related or not), launching a book can be a challenge.

Where should you start?

Step one is obvious: get your ducks in a neat little row. Order a proof copy and actually read the entire thing. Make sure it is perfect. Did the printer poorly cut the cover? Did you find a typo that slipped through? You need to make sure your product is as near to perfection as possible. Even if large changes need to be made which might take months, do them. Get it right the first time.

Step two: select a venue. Where should you host your book launch? There are a few different routes that might work and some of them will depend on your genre. Don't launch a gore fest horror book in a children's themed cafe... Do you want a bookstore launch or something different? Bookstores offer the upside of getting potential buyers as people simply walk through the doors. The downside is that bookstores will typically take a large cut of your profits since you are a direct competitor. My personal favorite? Launch at a bar. Assuming you are of age, find a local pub with a lot of character. Guests would be encouraged to eat and drink as they mingle and usually, that should be enough incentive for a bar to let you host with them. You keep the profits all to yourself.

  • Pro tip: make sure your location is easy to get to with enough parking. Don't make your friends and family drive more than 15 or 20 minutes to support you. A good central location is rather important, even if it means driving an hour yourself.

Step three: select a date. Don't pick a weekend. People are out of town on weekends (as you should be, going to conventions to sell your book...) and bars are packed on weekends already. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the bar will likely be a little empty. Pick your date at least a month in advance. Allow yourself plenty of time to market the event and fix any potential mistakes before it is too late.

Step four: marketing. You have to spread the word. Do all the obvious stuff first. Make a Facebook event, post on Twitter, do all that online stuff. Post on the bar's Facebook page about it. Get some fliers printed. You can easily have a hundred or so posters printed for just a few bucks at any office supply place. Take your posters to the bar and all the nearby businesses. Ask the managers to hang them up and canvas the local area. Go to bookstores in the region and ask to put them up there (especially if your book is for sale online with that store anyways).

Step five: promotion. Make some bookmarks. You can get 5000+ bookmarks for around $100 and you definitely should. Leave bookmarks at the pub. Ask them to slip one in each customer check to tell people about the event. Leave them at the register of local book shops and coffee joints. Ask a bookstore manager if you can put some inside the covers of books similar to yours. Run a contest on Twitter or pretty much anywhere else on the internet. Maybe things like, "tweet this event to be entered to win a free advanced copy of book 2," or perhaps, "first 5 people at the event get a discount," or even, "every book purchase enters you in a drawing for a free gift card!" Things like that will certainly boost the popularity of your event.

Step six: don't shoot your own foot. Sure, your parents and best friends all want copies of your new work of art. Guess what? Don't give them one. Kindly tell them to attend your book launch if they want their free copy. You want to pack the venue with your supporters and giving out even one or two copies to friends before the launch is only hurting your cause. Don't let your eBook or online paperback ordering to go live before you launch either.

Step seven: get a massive amount of books ordered. Even if you don't sell half of what you take to the venue, the books don't turn to dust. You'll have them for conventions and other live events. Bring at least one copy for each person you expect to show up and bring double that number for people you don't know about. The launch is the one event where selling everything could be bad.

Step eight: get your finances in order. You need to accept cash and credit cards. That means you need a cash box, plenty of money to make change, and a card reader that attaches to your phone / tablet. It might be a good idea to get a friend to handle the actual sales part so you can focus on mingling and signing. That format looks a bit more professional too.

Step nine: weird stuff you might forget about. A costume might be a good idea. Is your novel steampunk? A steampunk outfit would be a good choice. That way, people who show up will recognize you without having to awkwardly ask someone else who the author is. Identification is huge if you plan on mingling (recommended) and not sitting behind the table. Do a reading of your book. Reading your words out loud might be the most embarrassing thing you'll do in your entire life, but it actually works. Sure, the people you know are already planning on buying a book, but other people who happen to be in the venue don't know about it. Doing a reading (or 2) lets the other patrons know exactly what you're about. It also looks and feels more professional. Make sure you stay for the entire time you listed. That should be obvious. Even if only a handful of people show up, just grab a drink and enjoy yourself.

Step ten: take pictures. Commemorate the event with photos and such (especially if you incorporate a cosplay element into your launch. Maybe a 'dress like the character' contest?) and post those photos to your blog. Tell everyone as you take their picture where it will be posted. That drives traffic to your website.

Step eleven: online stuff. I don't want to get into huge detail here, but there are a few things you can do. Send out advance copies to bloggers and reviews a month before the launch. Tell them about your launch and ask if they would please leave a review on their blog / Amazon the day of the official launch. Find other bloggers (like me!) and ask to be interviewed by them and have it posted the week of your launch. Write a guest post about your genre or something interesting and get a friend to post it to their blog the week of your launch. The more steam you can generate in the week prior and week after your launch, the better your online sales will be. Doing a blog tour is a great way to promote. Pair the tour with some paid online promotion (see other marketing posts for info on those) and you can really boost your ranking.

Step twelve: email list. Use your book launch as a way to gather emails for your list. When people buy the book, ask them to write their email on a clipboard. Use that as the seeds of your email list which will become a great tool to let everyone know about your next book launch event. 

 

I hope these tips help you plan a successful launch! If you have any other helpful ideas, feel free to post them in the comments. This is by no means an end all guide to becoming a billionaire, but it should at least get you started on the right track.

 

Looking for your next favorite book? Click here.

So you booked your first live event. Now what?

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing... Part 2!

Actually, let's back up a step. If you don't know where to look to find a place that will host you as an author, you (obviously) need to do that first. Is your book available on Barnes and Nobel? Call them, speak with a manager, and ask to do a signing. Offer them a cut of each book you sell. Offer to sell them store copies at a big discount. You could also get a table at a convention that specializes in your genre such as fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc. Want to try something with a cheaper table cost than comicon? Find a local art festival and grab a vendor booth.

OK, now you have a live event booked. What do you need? You can check out the first Marketing, Marketing, Marketing... post here if you want to get an idea of what my personal setup usually looks like. Bring some sort of stand to vertically display your books. Bring promo materials like bookmarks, cards, etc. If you have a banner, set it up behind you but don't block it. Put it a little off to the side. Lastly, bring tons of books! You need to have at least 6 copies of each title sitting on the table at all times and another 30+ of each in a box under your chair. Never run out. Plus, having so many copies will motivate you to sell.

Dress professionally. If you're at comicon or a similar event, feel free to cosplay. If you're at a church book fair, leave the Cannibal Corpse shirt at home. Especially if you're young, you need to look like a pro.

So you're sitting at your booth and people are walking by... but no one is stopping to look at your books. Guess what? That's your fault. At one of the comicons I attended last year, there was a guy selling a really cool children's book. The event was very family oriented, so there were tons of little kids with their parents. I sold more horror titles than that guy sold children's books. He sat behind his booth, worked on his laptop, and never interacted with potential customers. That's a fine way to lose money, get discouraged, and fail.

I can't tell you how many people have said things like, "I just don't feel comfortable promoting myself." That's like saying, "I'm a really good wide receiver on the football team, but I'm terrified of catching the ball." Suck it up, put on your salesman hat, and start moving books!

The Pitch: you need to have a solid pitch down that conveys the atmosphere and general idea driving your book. No one wants to stand at your booth and listen to the entire plot of your novel. Get something concise and poignant that will drive a sale. It might take a few tries to nail it down, but once you do, it will sell books for you. The legendary bookseller Tony Acree has a wonderful pitch that I've heard several hundred times. When a potential customer shows interest in his series, he describes it like this: "The first line of the book is, 'It was 6pm when the devil walked into my office and had a seat.' The Hand of God is about bounty hunter Victor McCain. His only brother has sold his soul to the devil and he has 24 hours to find a certain girl before the brother goes south. It has lots of action, dark humor, and ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger. The Watchers is book 2 and you can find the rest of the series on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel."

That pitch is great. In 20 seconds, Tony conveys the atmosphere of the novel (it helps that the cover says supernatural thriller on it) and gives a brief overview of the plot themes. He lets the customer know that it is a series, that more books are already released, and that all of his stuff is available online as well. 

Want another example? Here's my pitch. When people come up and are interested in fantasy, I tell them something like this: "The Goblin Wars series is non-Tolkien fantasy from the perspective of goblins. I don't have elves in trees shooting bows or dwarves in mines with hammers. My races are goblins, humans, orcs, and minotaurs. The goblins are a hive-mind controlled by a single goblin queen until one of them is born free. He leaves his mountain home and adventure ensues. My books are $12 each or 2 for $20." Most people will ask more questions after my pitch and I try my best to answer them. For whatever reason, fantasy fans like to know a lot about the lore of a world before they buy the book. Personally, I like to give the price in the pitch since I hate asking people for prices myself.

So you have your pitch, but how do you get people to listen to it? When you're standing behind your booth (never sitting) and someone glances at your stuff, ask them a simple question: "Do you like to read?" If they shake their head, let them walk on. If they say yes, ask them what they read. If they respond with your genre, hand them a copy and dive into the pitch. If they say the classic 'everything', hand them a copy and dive into your pitch. If they tell you they like to read western cross-species bunny-themed erotica with a sci-fi twist, kindly inform them that you don't write that smut but you do write (insert genre here) if they're interested.

I'll leave you with one final bit of advice. I'm sure I've mentioned it somewhere else in the blog, but I'll say it again:

If your seat at a convention is warm, you might as well leave.

People want to look you in the eyes when they talk to you. Stand up, hand them a book to check out, and deliver your pitch. Oh, and watch those profits soar.

 

Want some help with your own pitch? Post it in the comments with a link to your book and I'll give my two cents.

Looking for your next favorite book? Click here.

Interview with Steampunk Author Rebekah McAuliffe

 

 

Firstly, tell us about Gears of Golgotha, your debut novel. What inspired it? Where did you get the idea for the world of chemists and scientists?

It's kind of a funny story how I came up with the idea for Gears, actually. The basic ideas of it came from a dream I had after a night of hanging out with friends (and no, it wasn't like that haha). From that dream came Erin, the main character; Dr. Sharpe; the villain (at the beginning, the villain was a man named Xerxes, brother of the Supreme Leader); and the Gears themselves. I knew I wanted to turn it into a novel, but I didn't know where to go with it. That was until NaNoWriMo 2013. I was hanging out at my cousin Amy's house (of Bella Morteand Letters to Daniel fame). I had a basic skeleton of the story, but didn't feel it had any meat on its bones. I had two choices to take on for my NaNoWriMo project: develop this new idea, or refine a murder mystery I had been working on. I eventually picked the new idea, but still couldn't think of a name. The idea of Chemists and Mages, as well as the title itself, are actually fossils from the era of story development where Gears was actually a commentary on the science vs. religion debate.

 

 

 

What made you sit down and start writing? Have you always been a writer?

This is another funny story, I think. When I was in first grade, my class had to participate in the Young Authors competition at my school. I've always been very competitive, and when I heard that there were going to be medals (at the time my life goal was to earn one of them), I jumped at the challenge. With the help of my Eighth Grade Buddy (an 8th grader that was assigned to first grade students to tutor them and serve as a role model), I wrote My Alabama Vacation, a story where I go on vacation to a zoo in Alabama, even though I have to this day never been there haha. There was no real plot to the book; it was mostly just about the trip there, and stopping at places like a barber shop and comparing human and animal behavior ("Do animals get haircuts, too?"). I glued in different pictures of animals, including one of a monkey picking bugs out of another monkey's fur for the "haircut" bit. I was really proud of my work, and submitted it to the contest. A kid in my class named Nicholas won first place with his story The Last Dinosaur. Even though I won second place, I didn't think it was good enough. I swore that day I would hone my skills as a writer, so that next year, I would kick Nicholas' butt. He transferred to another school the next year, and there were no more Young Authors contests, but I still kept writing and writing. In 7th grade, I wrote Chapparelle's World,a short story which can only be described as Edgar Allen Poe meets Alice in Wonderland, in which a woman ends up in her dreamworld and confronts her demons while in a coma after a failed suicide attempt. I won 1st place in my school's Young Author's competition, and even went on to the county-wide semi-finals, but it was then I realized something: I didn't care about the awards. Sure, they were nice, but I loved writing. And I was good at it. I've been writing regularly ever since.

 

What has been the most enjoyable aspect of being a writer? What keeps you writing more?

I love making up things. I love asking "What if...?"  When I was little, I used to make up what I called "step-friends," imaginary characters that I would make up stories for. I think about different worlds, wonder what life would be like if someone changed one little thing, or if something never even happened.

 

Who are your favorite authors? Does any of their work influence yours?

I really love the classics; you can never go wrong with them. I feel like the darkness of my stories was inspired by writers like Poe and the Bronte sisters. I love J.K. Rowling's writing style, too; it's so raw and personal, and gets under the readers' skin, which is something that I strive to do as well.

 

What books did you read when you were young? What was the first book you ever read?

I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I would read anything and everything. While I can't remember the first book I ever read, I do remember that I started reading from a very young age. My mom will tell you that I started reading at 2 years old, when I picked up the newspaper off the kitchen table and started reading it to my parents. I mostly read Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter, and the Magic Tree House books. I didn't start reading classics until 5th grade, with my first being The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

 

What do you have planned in the future? Anymore steampunk? Anything written in the Gears universe?

I do want to write a sequel to Gears, but I haven't even started it yet, let alone set a release date for it. Right now, my attention is focused on ALPHA, book 1 of The ALPHA Trilogy. Think Bourne saga meets Manchurian Candidate. It's my first spy/political thriller, but I've always been fascinated with MK ULTRA and other legends like it, so writing it has been a lot of fun.

 

What's the best convention you've attended to promote your work?

Imaginarium, by a long shot. It was my first convention, and I had never felt more welcome there than anywhere else. That was where I actually felt like my work could mean something to other people. I was offered and signed two contracts there for Gears and ALPHA from Hydra Publications. I had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go again in September, where I'll be turning 21!

 

What advice do you have for fledgling writers? 

KEEP WRITING. I can't stress this enough. They say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get good at something. And don't let ANYONE tell you to stop writing.

 

Lastly, where can we find your work?

Amazon * Goodreads * Twitter

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing....

Updated for 2021

This guide operates under the assumption that you have already produced an extremely professional book.

Step 1: The Really Obvious Stuff

For social media, I have a guide to that right here.

Become active on forums and different writing communities. Join a local author group and make friends. Find the people more successful than you and learn from them. There is a subreddit for every genre—use them! If you write fantasy, hang out and interact on /r/fantasy. After people get to know you, dropping a line or two about your own writing (tastefully...) will be welcomed and respected.

 

Step 2: Printing

If you're really serious about making money in the crazy world of books, you need to spend money first. I highly recommend getting a few thousand (~$100) bookmarks printed at UPrinting that describe your book, have a link to your website, and links to Amazon. If you have multiple series or genres, get multiple bookmarks. Give them out at live events and hand them out everywhere you go. Go to bookstores and ask to leave them by the register or in your genre's section. Drop a stack off at a local coffee shop. Always keep a stack in your car and a few in your wallet to hand out to people you meet who might be interested.

The banner: Having a great banner is critical for live events. A great banner can run up to $400. Honestly, an eye catching banner will not only bring people to your booth at an event, it will sell copies for you. In the picture below, I left my banner in the car. I don’t think it mattered much, because my canvas art operates much in the same way as my banner does. It draws people to the table.

My setup at Anime Ohio, 2021. I had already sold out of 4 titles, so my offerings were sparse. Normally the book rack would be full, and the presentation would be a bit better.

My setup at Anime Ohio, 2021. I had already sold out of 4 titles, so my offerings were sparse. Normally the book rack would be full, and the presentation would be a bit better.

Step 3: Going Live

I've said it before about a thousand times on reddit, live events are the best way to market when you’re just starting out. Now that you have beautiful bookmarks and a great banner, find every event you can and book a table. If you want to go to a huge event, get other authors to split the table with you and bring down the cost. The table pictured above cost $30 and I made hundreds.

How to sell in person: I've read plenty of posts from other indie authors about how they feel gross selling in person and they can't do it. They don't have the personality for sales. Guess what? The moment you tried to make money from book sales, you became a lifelong salesman. At my first live event, I only sold 3 books. I still blame the frigid weather and outdoors setting for the most part, but I didn't know how to sell. I sat behind my booth and waited for people to come up and ask a direct question. The event drew about 1,000 people and I only sold to 3 of them. Pathetic.

Find people selling books at your own live events and watch them for 10 or 15 minutes to get the feel of how they do it. Observe them make a cold sale to a disinterested passerby. Get a good 30 second pitch down and stick to it. You'll be pulling people in left and right.

  • My actual spiel at live events: stranger walks by and A) if they glance at my banner, ask if they like fantasy or B) ask if they like to read. If they like fantasy, give them a Goblin Wars bookmark and pitch them the book. If they like to read, ask them what genre. I'm in 3 genres, so I can usually grab them from that point. Always end your pitch with a price. Don't make the customer ask for it. Offer them a deal on multiple books, especially if you have 2+ out in the same series.

  • Another great strategy: take pictures (with permission) of cos players at live events and post them to your website in a Convention Recap style blog post. After you take a picture, hand them a bookmark with your address and tell them it will be posted soon. You just sent traffic to your website and every click is a potential sale.

Step 4: What do I write / how much?

The obvious answer is obvious. Write what you love! And never stop. With only 1 book released, physical promotion and live events are tough. People don't take you seriously and you can only market to fans of 1 genre. The truth is, series sell. Standalone novels are outsold by series novels 2 to 1 or better at live events. An article I read once said that you need to spend 90% of your "book time" writing and only 10% marketing. Every time you release a new novel, bump another 10% into marketing. That's a good formula to follow.

  • Don't skimp on a cover and good editing. You'll destroy potential fans if they read your first book and find errors or the cover is crap. The upfront cost might hurt, but you're hopeless without it. If you need a cover artist, I can recommend a few, just shoot me an email. If you need an editor, I know a couple of those too.

Step 5: Online Marketing

Unless you miraculously get accepted to the shrine of holy book sales known only by whispers (aka BookBub), you need to be careful with online advertisers. A few services out there look great, but many of them are expensive scams veiled as instant success. To name a few of the well known scams: Reedsy, BookDaily, NetGalley, etc. Stay away. For a detailed video on how to build ad stacks and make money (including a list of places to use when promoting), check out this post.

  • KDP & Kindle Select - I recommend it. I know a lot of people don't, but I've found the countdown deals to be fantastic.

  • KDP free download days - I sort of recommend it. Only do free days for book 1 of a series that already has book 2 released. You want to gain long term fans. Use those days sparingly.

  • Kindle Unlimited - I recommend it. You still get a cut of the sale price and it encourages people to give it a shot. Plus, there are several websites and subreddits devoted to books on KU and they will advertise you for free. This is especially true for romance / erotica.

Do a blog tour. What's that? Find a blogger (like me) and book reviewers and send them free copies of your eBooks to check out. Ask them to interview you for their blog. Run a giveaway contest on their blog. Ask other authors to be interviewed for your own blog so you can share an audience. Offer to write guest posts on other blogs about anything the owner of the blog wants to read. The more places that have your name and a picture of your book, the better.

Step 6: Mad Profits

Be realistic. Don't set out to self-publish or publish through a small press and quit your day job. Especially in the first year, it won't even pay for itself. Your covers and editor fees will rack up and that mountain of book related debt won't start to erode until you have 2+ novels released. Try to only check your sales rankings once a week and you'll avoid most disappointment. Use your sales rank as a reward: every 10,000 words you write on your work in progress earns another peek into Amazon.com's author central. 

 

 

Feel free to comment and add your own advice. And of course, since this is a post on marketing, check out my books!

Indy Wizard World ComiCon Recap

Indianapolis ComiCon this weekend was a blast! I loved getting to meet some awesome fans and hang out with cos players and celebrities alike.

Here are a few pictures from the event:

 

The booth. I shared space with Tony Acree, Violet Patterson, and C. Bryan Brown.

The booth. I shared space with Tony Acree, Violet Patterson, and C. Bryan Brown.

Awesome Pyro (TF2) cosplay

Awesome Pyro (TF2) cosplay

Na'vi is one of my favorite Legend of Zelda characters. Very rarely done as cosplay.

Na'vi is one of my favorite Legend of Zelda characters. Very rarely done as cosplay.

Incredidlbe combo.

Incredidlbe combo.

Very good zombie.

Very good zombie.

The best part of the entire event happened on Friday night. A few of us were hanging out in the hotel bar when David Del Rocco and Michael Rooker walked in! Rocco didn't come over or even acknowledge that we exit, but we bought Merle a drink and he gave us half an hour of his time. Getting to hang out and chat with Merle was a once in a lifetime experience. 

Want to see more cos play pictures? Click here!

Giving away 2 copies of Goblin Wars! Book 2 Release Date!

Click here to enter the Goodreads giveaway! Two copies up for grabs!

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Goblin Wars Part One by Stuart Thaman

The Goblin Wars Part One

by Stuart Thaman

Giveaway ends March 01, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win


The Goblin Wars Part Two: Death of a King is set for release on March 1st! 

Interview with Daniel Kucan - actor, author, badass

Daniel Kucan - Self-published author, Command & Conquer actor, professional martial artist, and renowned carpenter

 

 

Firstly, I think it is fair to say you've had a wild life. Acting, writing, carpentry and more. Have any of those professions felt like a true calling? If you had to pick one job for the rest of your life, what would it be?

 

I think secret agent would be cool, except for the ‘secret’ part. It’s only cool if everyone knows you’re a secret agent, but I guess that sort of defeats the purpose. You can’t really be a ‘famous agent’, and being famous rocks. Guess I better give this some more thought.

 

I'm a huge fan of the Command & Conquer series. What has been your favorite roll for C&C? Were you ever asked to do a part and refused?

 

When my older brother Joe started working on the very first C&C, I was living in New York and Joe brought me out to Vegas to work on it with him. He and I and several other actors had a big discussion about who was gonna be the bad guy and no one wanted to do it. We settled on Joe because he was the scariest, but it wasn’t really his first choice. Ironic because it made him a global superstar, and I ended up getting exploded, slapped, set on fire, ion cannoned, run over, mortared, and killed in various and sundry other ghastly ways. I think my favorite was getting tortured by the blonde supermodel… you know they actually PAID me to do that? Crazy world.

 

What inspired your writing? Was there an exact moment when you sat down to put words onto paper and knew you would be a writer?

 

I’ve written stories since I was very young, probably second grade. But there is a difference, I think, between a writer and a storyteller. I love telling stories. My first novel is a semi-autobiographical series of stories set in the professional fight world. And the thing is, every fighter I know is a GREAT storyteller. I think a lot of guys fight simply so that they have stories to tell. There is a really deep and rich history of pugilism stories that are constrained to oral tradition because they are only told in gyms or BJJ schools or what-have-you. One of my goals in writing Full Contact was to get some of the things I experienced written down.

 

Did you read a lot when you were growing up? If so, what were your favorite authors? Have they influenced your style at all?

 

The first big chunk or reading that I read on my own was The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander when I was about eight. I can’t overstate how they utterly changed my life. I think it’s a crime that we have young kids reading Dick and Jane when they could be reading about Taran kicking the shit out of the forces of darkness.

 

When writing, do any of your characters feel a lot like you? Have you purposely written yourself into any works?

 

Full Contact is certainly based on events of my life, but I wouldn't say that it’s ME.  Some smartypants once said that the characters in our dreams are all aspects of our own personality. I guess I feel the same way about the fiction we create.

 

Do you have any more books planned for after Full Contact? Any works in progress?

 

My next novel is called The Gossamer Prince and is an urban fairy tale with all sorts of dark and sinister turns: you know, goblins and devils running loose among the downtown crowd, vampires and temptress goddesses and renegade dragons eating up the souls of the wicked.  Joe and I are also working on a play for our theater company in Las Vegas. It’s an adaptation of a Fritz Lang film and we are really excited about it.

 

Have you ever considered writing in the style / universe of Command and Conquer?

 

Funny you should ask!  Joe and I tried for several years to acquire the rights to create a C&C movie, but EA wouldn’t even entertain the notion. I’m sure they have their own plans for the franchise and I can say unequivocally that it will suck so hard that the fabric of the universe may actually be damaged by the vacuum created.  

 

What sort of advice would you give to an aspiring writer? How about to an aspiring martial artist?

 

To a writer, I would say, “Write.” To a fighter, I would say, “avoid fighting.”

Seriously though, I really like writing and I really like fighting. But the part about fighting that I could never get over (and that kept me from being truly great) was that I simply didn’t have the fighting instinct. I never liked beating someone up.  I was good at it, at the science of it. But when I lost I felt lousy, and when I won I felt… uh.. lousier. I still fight a lot, probably too much for my wife’s taste. But I’m generally teaching or helping someone out.  When I write, no one ever gets a dislocated jaw or a cracked rib.

 

Lastly, where can we find your books? 

Amazon * Author Bio * Goodreads

The last 3 books I've tried to read have had some serious issues...

I understand that many self published authors have little to no budget for editing and proofing. Many people try to edit their own manuscripts. As you can imagine, editing your own work isn't a great practice. How do you know if you wrote some absolute shit? How can you be sure that you catch every typo and grammatical mistake? I am by no means a flawless editor or writer, but some of these will make you shake your head.

Here are a few examples of things I've read in the past few days. Some of these sentences are worse than others, but all of them should have been flagged by an editor. 

Sentence 1: "Dirt coated the skirts, revealing the age and abuse that this building had survived through."

Where do I begin? Firstly, survived is redundant with through. You could simply chop the last word off and be ok as far as that error is concerned. The second issue with the sentence is one I find in a ton of self published works. The word "this" should be saved for textbooks. It hijacks the reader's attention away from the vivid imagery and reminds them that they are reading a book. I'll probably rant more on that later.

Sentence 2: "He wanted to dip down below and meet this man, ask him several questions."

Not surprisingly, sentence 2 comes from the same book as sentence 1, only a paragraph later. When I was reading, I resolved to keep going after the first glaring sentence, but gave up after the second. Again, "this" could easily be changed to "the" and some sort of connector needs to replace that comma. Perhaps, "He wanted to dive down and meet the man. Maybe he could ask him a few questions."

Sentence 3: "She decided to definitely not mention [character], because any mentions of her always upset [character], and [character] was still considering what to think about what [character] had said."

I took out the character names to somewhat hide the book. A few good rules to follow are such: if a sentences takes longer than 1 breath to read aloud, cut it down. Also, don't repeat large words within the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. Those rules aside, a few other things bother me about this line. Considering what to think about -- so... she is contemplating HOW to contemplate something else? What?

Sentence 4: "As a child, [character] was told about the Bogeyman. It's a fictional monster or entity that laid under the bed. An imaginary creature used by parents to frighten children - to teach them not to suck their thumbs, and generally to deviate from bad behavior."

First of all, you don't need to explain urban legends. You especially don't need to explain the Bogeyman. Saying "monster or entity" is useless. If you really want to make the point that the Bogeyman might not be a *monster*, just say that. Otherwise, you are wasting words. The second half of the section has a redundancy issue as well. Deviating from bad behavior includes thumb sucking. Plus, as mentioned before, you don't need to explain the origins of urban legends! Also, saying that the Boogeyman lays under the bed isn't nearly vivid enough. Unless this is children's horror, that monster needs to lurk. Maybe prowl. Perhaps he could hunt under the bed. Anything except lay there and chill out.

 

Let's talk about the word this. I performed a few searches on very successful eBooks (I have their pdfs) to see if perhaps I am the only person on Earth who hates the word this. It seems that I'm not alone. Outside of dialogue, several famous fantasy novels don't use it a single time. Sci-fi has the same results. I tested a few others and found the word only once outside dialogue, and it was used appropriately. When I see the word, it jars me. It takes me out of the moment. It makes me instantly hate the author for derailing my journey. In almost every single case, the word can easily be changed to the.

 

In closing, my advice is to hire a professional editor. Can't afford the $200+ it might cost? Don't publish until you can afford it. Releasing something with glaring mistakes will only make potential readers hate your work and never support you in the future, no matter how skilled you become.  Sacrifice up front and reap the rewards later. 

Quotation Marks and Other Instruments of the Devil

I was reading a book last night when suddenly, I came upon very strange looking punctuation. The book is horribly written trash, the apparent standard for the big presses these days, but it felt well edited. Or so I thought.

Without giving away the book, here is basically what they wrote: "Blah, blah, blah, ghost and shit, OMG teen drama, blah, blah"."

That's right - they have 3 punctuation marks... In a book that is consistently ranked in the Amazon top 1,000. Next time someone berates small press for poor editing, I really want to hand them this garbage and see what they think.

Anyways, what's the actual rule for quotations and punctuation? The error above isn't the only one I've seen. Many authors (and presumably editors) are baffled by the required location of punctuation involving quotes.

Here it is: unless you have a rather uncommon sentence structure, punctuation goes inside the quotes.

Looking for more specifics? Here is a website that beautifully explains the rules.

And of course, since the Brits insist on doing everything their own way, England basically throws all expected grammatical conventions out the window.

Book Trailers: yes or no?

I've read a lot of posts around the wonderful interwebz that talk about book trailers: short little video clips that summarize a book's plot in about a minute.

Personally, I've only ever watched a few, and they were mostly for books I had already finished. I liked a few, I disliked a few.

Has anyone ever watched a book trailer and then bought the book specifically because the trailer was that good? Has anyone ever watched a trailer and decided against a book they were previously interested in? What makes a good book trailer?

Do you think your book trailer has the right stuff to seal the deal and bring about a sale? Post it below and I'll embed it in this post!

Probably the best book trailer I've seen:

I'm not sure if this trailer is for a hardcore erotica or a crime-noir thriller, but regardless, I'm interested. Very good production quality as well.

Another solid noir style trailer. Not as good as the two above, but certainly effective.

Pretty sweet trailer from a new author

Very well made book trailer that captures the tone of the novel perfectly. 

Peer into the mind of a horror editor...

Interview with Sanitarium Magazine editor Barry Skelhorn

 

When did you get into the fiction industry and what drew you toward the horror genre?

When I was young, my Granddad lent me a copy of Frankenstein – which I devoured. Soon after that he lent me Dracula and a few collections of M.R James. Over time I read more and more horror and it grew from there.

There is just something about horror and the written word, the writer leads you one way, but it is your imagination that fills in the darker gaps and that’s the beauty of it.


As an editor selecting a story for publication, what is the line that you won't cross? How much violence, even beautifully written, is too much?

Personally I think that most subjects, if they are in the correct context can add to a story. However I won’t entertain any works of fiction with any graphic sexual reference to minors.




What is your take on the standard giants of the horror genre such as King, Matheson, Laymon, Bierce, and Koontz? How do some of the indie writers of today stack up against the legends?

Everyone has to start somewhere. As the story goes; without Tabitha King picking Carrie out of the bin and giving her feedback maybe King wouldn’t be where he is now.

 

There are so many indie authors that are making strides in the horror genre today – it would be wrong to single a few out. I would also like to give a shout out to the small and not so small independent presses that are keeping the integrity of the business together.



When selecting a story for publication, do you tend to prefer more psychological and subtle themes or more overt and graphic tales?

The way Sanitarium works is simple – you never know what is going to be behind each case file. Each issue that we collate we try and keep a mix of sub-genres so there is an eclectic collection of tales for the reader.

 

I find going from (for example) one zombie story, then another and another is great. But after a while you end up comparing them and not enjoying them as much.




What direction do you see the Sanitarium Magazine taking in the future? Any major milestones coming up?

We are working on a new look that we are bringing in one piece at a time. The magazine will be offering a printed copy as payment from the start of 2015. Also we are changing the tag line so we can cover more in its pages. “Showcasing Horror Fiction, Dark Verse and Macabre Entertainment”



Which issue of Sanitarium Magazine do you consider to be the best? What sets it apart?

Cover wise I love issue 20 with Kevin Spencer’s artwork “skull” – the vibrant colours and washed effect really works for me. As for the stories, there are a few stand out ones for me but we have found everyone has their favourites and we’re happy with that.




If you could interview any horror writer, living or dead, who would it be? How do you think they would act face to face?

Sadly one of the greats we were close to interviewing with was James Herbert. We are based in the UK and he lived only a short drive away but it was not to be. I think his style of writing where it was quite close to the bone both with gore and sexual undertones struck the right balance.

 

I would of course love to interview Clive Barker, Stephen King.


What is the most terrifying thing you've ever read?

I think this has to be put in context. I was 16, on a family holiday in France and we were staying in a large converted farmhouse just outside of Bordeaux – I was staying in the bat house.

 

Whilst staying there I started to re-read Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. The summer storms were a sight to be seen and the atmosphere was just right for a good scare. So with every turn of the page, the story gripped me more than it had the first time around.



Have you had any horrific experiences in your own life that you couldn't explain?

I wouldn’t say horrific but there were a couple when we stayed in the farmhouse. Whilst staying in the bat house one night I felt something hit the bedframe at the foot of the bed. Thinking nothing of it I just fell back asleep. I felt it again, this time I was jolted awake and flicked on the light. My Brother, asleep in the other bed next to mine, was sound asleep. Looking around the room, nothing seemed untoward, so hitting the light I went back to sleep.

 

It wasn’t until the morning when both of us awoke did we realised what had happened. My bed, which has started flush against the wall, was now a good foot from the wall.  

It turns out that when they were renovating the farmhouse, they came across a soldier’s helmet with a bullet hole through it – I think I was sleeping in his snipers nest and he wasn’t best pleased.


Finally, does your love of horror branch into other media such as movie, music, art, etc.?

 

Most media interests me in the horror world. I have mentioned Clive Barker as a writer but I also love his style of art from “The Hellbound Heart” to “Abarat” and everything in between. If I could I would have a piece hanging in my office for inspiration. Another that I really have a lot of time for is the theatre and plays such as Danny Bolye’s Frankenstein, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. It would be interesting to work with some of the writers who have appeared in Sanitarium and put together a 3 Act show with some of the stories.   

Interview with Evan Camby

Evan Camby

 

What got you into horror? Have you always been a fan of the genre or did one particular work pique your interest? 

 

From a very young age, I preferred horror and the macabre to anything else.  I remember one year I missed a lot of school because I got very sick, and I spent the days in bed watching a marathon of old Vincent Price films.  Many of them were based on works by Edgar Allan Poe, which guided me towards his books.  I read everything I could of Poe's and he was my first, biggest influence.  I loved the way he created such rich, Gothic atmospheres even in very short works.



On of your stories, Hat Man, deals with night terrors. Do you have any personal experience with sleep paralysis or other terror-inducing sleep disorders? An interesting phenomenon occurs during the hallucinations triggered by sleep paralysis where the brain has trouble recalling the face of a remembered person and thus places a hood or dark hat over the character in an attempt to make the blurred face appear logical. 

 

Hat Man is definitely based on night terrors I had when I was young.  In fact, 80% of what Bernice lives through in Hat Man are things that actually happened to me.  I have read all the scientific explanations behind sleep paralysis and night terrors, and I do think there is a physiological component to them.  However, no one will ever be able to convince me that there isn't also a supernatural element to what I experienced.  




Have you ever used a Ouija board yourself? If so, how did it go? 

 

I have, with a childhood friend.  We both loved ghost stories and anything spooky, so we played with it often.  The only thing I can remember happening when we played was that she would get terrible migraines almost every time, which is part of why we stopped altogether.  Another reason we stopped was a story that her mom told us.  Her mom said that when she was a little girl, she played with the Ouija with her friends, until something happened that scared them out of it.  One of the girls she played with had recently lost a family member who, by all accounts, was not a nice guy.  So, they asked the board what happened to him, if he was in a better place, that type of thing.  She told us that the board suddenly shifted under their fingers, and then spelled out "Satan knows" before sliding across the room and hitting the wall.  Of course, she might have made the whole thing up,  but that story coupled with the migraines was enough to scare us out of playing with the Ouija anymore.  I haven't picked it up since. 




Almost everyone experiences some type of terrifying, unexplained event. What's yours?  

 

Other than the night terrors, which were truly terrifying, I have experienced a lot of strange events.  I'll pick one from when I was a kid.  I grew up in a house set back deep in the woods, with big windows all over the first floor looking out at the trees. My mom says I used to stand at the windows and smile and wave outside. One day she asked me who I was waving to, and I said, "All the people."  Now, no one was outside.  At least, not that she could see.




Do you believe in ghosts? How about spiritual beings such as angels and demons?  

 

Definitely, I believe in all of them. I don't think that this life is all there is and that there is a lot we don't know and can't prove.  There is real evil in the world, both natural and supernatural.  I also believe there is pure good and love that counteracts that, whether it's angels or God or whatever your particular beliefs name it.  



When you first started writing horror, how did your friends and family respond? 

 

It's not a surprise to anyone who knows me.  Most little girls play with baby-dolls--I had a plastic skeleton who I named Skellie that I carried around.  My parents are a little shocked, though, that I remember the night terrors so vividly, since it's been over twenty years since I first had them.  



What has been the most difficult thing that continually plagues you as an author?  

 

Self doubt is a huge obstacle to getting words on the page.  What I've learned to do is "brain dump"--just get it all out there.  No matter how terrible that first draft is, you can always go back and change things, edit, add, subtract.  My advice to writers who struggle with the same issue is to give yourself permission to suck.  Really, it's OK if what you put down is terrible at first.  None of it's permanent, it's not as if your first rough draft will be tattooed on your body forever.  But if you don't at least start somewhere, the words will never make the jump from your brain to the page.  


What is the most unique advice you've ever been given by another professional in the writing world? Did that advice prove to be useful?  

 

I read an interview where Stephen King answered the question, "What makes a talented writer?" or something along those lines.  I'm paraphrasing, but basically he said that if you write something, and someone pays you for the story, and you then take that money and pay your light bill with it, he considers you talented.  I love that.  It takes the pressure off of setting out to be the next Hemingway, and lets me have fun and focus on being a storyteller who people pay to entertain them.  That's something I can be proud of, too, it's not all about Pulitzers and The Paris Review.



If you had to pick one author for your writing to be favorably compared to, which would you pick? What elements from other writers do you try to incorporate into your own writing?  

 

In my dreams, Vladimir Nabokov, simply because of his mastery of the English language.  As far as my genre goes, Stephen King knows how to tell a great story and create realistic, flawed characters, and that's my main focus in writing.  The fanciest prose, scores of allegories, and a dreamy, stream-of-consciousness style of writing are worthless if you can't tell a story worth a damn.  I want to entertain and help people immerse themselves in the more visceral and scary elements of the world in which we live, and he is the master of that.

 

Lastly, where can we find your stuff?

Amazon * Twitter

Got a pretty cool paperback yesterday...

As you may recall, a while back I got to read and review Into the Aether by T. C. Pearce. If you read that review, you'd know that I really, really enjoyed that book. Yesterday, I got a copy of the paperback in the mail. I was thrilled to see an excerpt of my review printed on the back!

 

 

I plan on giving the book to my fiance, Anna, who loves YA and supernatural fantasy, and who also does book review videos for YouTube. I can't wait to see what she thinks of Into the Aether. It really is a fantastic book.