Spooky Blog Post From Beyond The Grave!!!

By "spooky" I mean "commonplace", and by "beyond the grave" I mean "the comfort of my office chair".

Happy Halloween! Tonight, through the magic of disguise, I will transform myself into Thor Odinson, donning a cheap blonde wig, a red blanket for a cape, and a $7 foam hammer intended for use by a toddler. For Asgard! Joining me will be my oldest son Teddy, dressed as the Incredible Hulk, my youngest Ozzy as Buzz Lightyear, and my lovely wife Jessica as sexy Pixar cowgirl Jessie. I'd say I can't wait to go trick-or-treating, but I've already dipped into the bag of chocolates a week ago - but that won't stop me from eating more tonight.

It's been one year since Clyde and his band competed in the Fright Night Band Fight, and 113 years away from the worst night of Zaul Jarreux's undead life.

I don't know why, but I must have a thing for putting Halloween events in my stories. I guess I'm fascinated by the holiday. When I was a very young child my family didn't celebrate Halloween, because the church we attended convinced us that the harmless, creative fantasy aspect of the holiday and its pagan origins were inseparable, and therefore the whole day was purely evil.

I remember turning off the light when any trick-or-treaters knocked on our door, pretending not to be home. I'm glad my parents' views changed and I was able to dress up and celebrate a few years later. One of my favorites is when my wife and I wore matching dresses, and me and my band played a show at my sister's house.

Aside from personal reflection, I'm also using this post to update goings-on with the above-mentioned Zaul and his adventures in my recent work in progress, Sons of Sludge. The first draft is roughly two thirds done, and the completion of this project couldn't come any sooner. I hope once I reread it, while editing for the first time, I can fall in love with the story and characters again, because I'm losing enthusiasm. I feel like I've been writing this forever. I'm planning to power through November and finish it by the end of the month, but who knows.

And once I complete a second or third draft, I'll start submitting it to literary agents. I think this story might have a better chance than Float at a traditional contract because it has a more mass appeal, what with zombies being all the rage with the youngsters nowadays. Then it's onto the Float sequel. I can't wait for everyone to read what I have coming for them!

Stay safe tonight - don't get tangled up with malicious musicians wielding magic instruments, and eat candy, not human flesh. Watch a scary movie or two.

Oh, and high-five to myself, for sneaking in an October post at the very end of the month. I almost didn't make it.

Misadventures In Marketing

Warning: The following post contains a certain amount of self-pitying and boo-hooing.

So as many of you may know, a couple weeks ago I held a promotional period wherein I made Float available for free on Amazon, which was met with rather positive download numbers, gaining roughly 12 times the amount of readers from the preceding 3 months combined in just two days. It made it into a few top 100 Free lists on Amazon. When the weekend came to a close, I was ecstatic.

But then Monday came, and nothing else happened. I was hoping for a few straggler sales to trail, or at least a handful of positive (hell, even negative) reviews. But nothing. What went wrong? Whatever it was, I wasn't going to accept it. In my desperation, I turned to utilizing Facebook ads. At a low-risk cost, I was able to target Float to a specific audience, only paying when a user clicked on my ad, capping at a predetermined daily budget. Of the nearly 45,000 people my ad was shown to, only 39 people clicked on it. And none of them got themselves a copy, even when priced at the lowest possible rate of $0.99.

W. T. F.

Is it really that bad? Is the only positive feedback I've received just the manufactured product of obligated friends and family members? It may not be a masterpiece, but I know it is (both objectively and subjectively) better than some books I've read in print - even, dare I say, some best sellers. So what was the problem?

Then a little nugget of wisdom I gleaned from an author blog (probably JA Konrath's) came back to me: Only fans will read your stuff. No one is going to buy your material if they don't know you and your writing. When was the last time you read a book that wasn't suggested to you from a trusted source? Sure, there are a few people who actively seek unknown authors, but most of us (myself included) don't venture much past personal recommendations or national sensations.

Maybe, if I had the funds, I could saturate the market with self-paid ads for my book and grab the attention of .0001% who see it. Maybe I could hire a publicist to shove my face in front of people who don't care. But most likely, I'll need to go Tortoise and the Hare on this mother: Slow and Steady.

So, for the time being, I'm not going to focus on ads or fruitless self-promotion. I'm going to keep writing. I'm going to keep blogging. I plan on pumping out a few short stories between novels, hopefully to keep people interested. In time, with tenacity and integrity, I will build my audience one reader at a time, and see where it goes from there.

This concludes the self-pitying and boo-hooing.

Free Literature? Well, I say...

Float for free. August 18th and 19th. Amazon.

I recently enrolled my debut e-book Float in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program, which allows me to promote my novel for a few days every 3 months. The first promotion will take place this Saturday and Sunday in the Kindle store, where I hope millions upon billions of digital readers will flock to get their greedy fingers on a copy.

Well, maybe not that many.

Sales for my book have practically been non-existent recently, but revenue isn't what I'm concerned with at this stage. Right now I just want to get it in front of as many eyes as possible, and making it available for free is a great way to do so. If you're a long-time-reader, no-Float-purchaser, this is the perfect time to check it out. Or, as my dad would type, "Czech" it out.

Oh, and tell your friends, family members, co-workers, colleagues, neighbors, teachers, distant relatives, doctors, accountants, acquaintances, local grocers, enemies, random strangers you see on the street, and that creepy dude on the bus who won't stop looking at you. You can even tell me if you'd like. I'll act surprised.

Float. Free. Amazon. 18th. 19th. Make it so.

What happened to July?

There's no getting around it: Last month my blog was post-less. Dormant. Inactive. Taking a cyber-nap. I'm sure two or three of you were lying awake at night, wondering if I had fallen into my digital inkwell, or if I'd simply run out of words to type.

But I've been busy. Oh yes, rather busy indeed...

Well, sort of. From the end of June until this last Wednesday I've been laying down the first section of the Sons of Sludge rewrite. 8 chapters, 27,000 words - I have a good feeling about this. When I read it I get excited, finding myself wanting more of a story I have yet to finish writing. That's when I know my book has some potential.

The whole first section (basically Act I) follows Zaul's first day out in society, after six years of confinement in his caretaker's basement. It introduces most of the characters and shows you just how miserable his unholy existence is. A small glimmer of hope is discovered at the end of the long day, giving him the strength to continue with his life, and sets the scene for Acts II and III, where things spiral down into a fiery pit of complicated madness. There will be drugs, violence and the consuming of human flesh. Aren't you excited?

My current plan is to finish the first draft by November 1st, with an estimated 100,000 words totalled, which means I need to pump out a little over 6k a week. Then, I'll spend November editing, and hopefully have a finished product by the end of the year. Wish me luck.

In other news, I have discontinued the sale of Float on Barnes & Noble. The large majority of people were getting it from Amazon anyway, and there's an exclusive program I can use through them if I don't make my book available anywhere else. It allows Amazon Prime members to digitally borrow my book from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, and the ability to offer Float for free for 5 days in each 90 day period. I'll let you know when the promotional days will be, so you can bug your friends and family to snag their copy for the low, low price of nothing at all. Stay tuned.

I hope I can squeeze out another post or two before this month ends, to make up for July. Right now I'm just checking in to let you know I'm not dead, and, more importantly, that I haven't given up on telling the world my stories. I have plenty more tales to spin. Until next time...

Sons of Sludge Overhaul

After 30 chapters, 54277 words and nearly 4 months of writing, I have come to a necessary yet depressing realization: I need to start over on this book.

My computer didn't get fried, a dog didn't eat my work in progress, and I didn't get writer's block. It wasn't like I found out this exact story has already been done (although that's always a possibility, says my paranoid self-consciousness). But what I did find was that I've been writing this book outside my usual genre, being young adult.

But how could I have a "usual" genre, since I've only completed one other book? The reason is sort of lame, yet simple: That's the only kind of writing I've done, and recently, the only kind of reading I've done. Hunger Games, Trylle, Divergent, Forest of Hands and Teeth - that's what I've been reading, and they're all teen series.

If young adult is all that I've put out, and all that's coming in, how can I suddenly expect to jump into horror for adults? Even while writing I've noticed teen novel-isms coming through, and they're usually out of place. It's just where I am in this life endeavor. But I do hope, in time, to grow as a writer. To branch out in the future. I don't plan on being in the young adult genre forever.

Unless, of course, it's a rather lucrative path to take.

Which brings me to another, perhaps seemingly lamer, reason why I'm switching the genre on this book: I think it will be more marketable. I think it will sell more easily. I think it will have a better chance at furthering my "career" (fingers still crossed).

If you don't like teen literature, or you're getting tired of it, I apologize. But I know that this shift will make the story better, have it flow out of me more easily, become more cohesive. It will increase chances that fans of the Float series will also be fans of the Sludge series.

Some things in the story are changing, some aren't. The setting's the same. A lot of the character's names and roles are the same, just needs a little tweaking. The protagonist, Zaul, will be starting a new school instead of a new job, and will be living with a sort of guardian instead of living alone. Mainly the tone, the narration, is what needs the most work.

And yes, Zaul will still crave human flesh.

All the work I've done, the time I've already spent writing Sons of Sludge, is unfortunately for the most part down the toilet. But in the end, I think it's a good thing. I think you'll get a better product, and a more powerful story. Wish me luck.

I Am A Spoiled Author

I haven't written much material in my newborn "career" (fingers crossed) as an author, so I can't say I've been around the literary block a few times, or have any keen insight into the industry. Hell, I don't even know any other authors, on a personal level. But one thing I have learned...

I am so damned spoiled. Spoiled rotten. If I were any more spoiled, I'd be throwing a fit at my 9th birthday party because last year I got 87 presents, but this year I only got 83. 

*cue audience laugh track*

This revelation mostly comes from comparing the writing process now to what it was several years ago. Let's start with word processing. Before its rise to prevalence on personal computers, the typewriter was King. Yes, many authors still use one - but I never have. Never needed to. The seduction of spell check, easy formatting, rapid editing, copy and paste - it seems too easy, but that's because it is. The thought of manually feeding paper into a machine, the frustration of seeing "teh" instead of "the", but not being able to fix it until you retype the whole page...

What a nightmare for lazy ol' me.

But perhaps the most significant contribution to my lethargy is the internet. In fact, just now, I was quite confident I used the word "lethargy" in the proper context, but just to be sure I ran over to thesaurus.com to verify. No gigantic dictionaries or volumes of encyclopedias sitting around my desk. Everything I (think I) need is right at my fingertips, constantly updated, and free.

I try to think back to the olden days, when an author actually had to research and investigate a subject before putting pen to paper. What a pain. Need some info on ancient Greek customs? Drive to the library. Want to know the distance between two cities in your work in progress? Pull out a map, and calculate it your damn self. Don't have the right map? Go back to the library. And so on, and so on.

Maybe it's just the culture I grew up in, but I think a writing process like that would drive me insane. I might not even be writing, if I lived in such a world without the comforts that I have today. But perhaps authors from the 70's or 80's would say the same thing about writing before the advent of the typewriter. Or even earlier writers shuddering at the thought of publication before the invention of moveable type. 

*Gutenberg fist bump*

And, of course, the recent rise of e-books and self-publishing online have made it possible for me to make my content available without enduring the grueling publication process of landing a deal with a traditional publisher. But I guess the downside to all that is it makes it easier for everyone else, so I'm a smaller fish in a bigger pond.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... Thank you, to all the technological innovations that have made being a writer easier - and kudos, to all the authors who managed without tehm.

Them.

I'm Back! (but not with a Vengeance)

It's been almost 3 weeks since my last blog. Where have I been, you ask? Not in any location or situation that would impede the composing of a blog. I guess I've just been lazy.

I'm about 60% done with Sons of Sludge 1.0, wherein a zombie just proposed to a human girl (She said yes!). Still progressing a little slower than I'd like, but rolling along nonetheless. I've been resisting flirtations with other writing projects, like the second Float installment, or a concept for another paranormal teen novel that my wife and I toyed with a while back. I just need to suck it up and get this first draft done - I think it'll really shine once I start editing it.

Last week I went to go see Rammstein in Dallas, and it was phenomenal. Their live performances were my inspiration for the Shock Tooth concert in Float (if you've seen Rammstein, and have read the book, you'll know what I'm talking about). 

One of the most entertaining aspects of the show, however, were the security guards standing in front of the pit. I guess no one briefed them on the band's affinity for pyrotechnics, because every time flames shot out they would cringe and try to shield the back of their necks from the heat. And of course, for the closer, Till shot foam all over everyone, including the event staff. At least they were smiling and laughing about it - if you've been to a concert, you know the guards don't normally betray any emotion. Good times.

My sales for Float have slowed considerably, and I think the initial surge for it has come to a halt. I think it's time I start trying to advertise beyond just my friends and family, but I'm not sure how. I've read that no one will buy your book unless they know and like you as a writer, but how will they like your writing if they don't first buy your book to read it? It's a sort of a "Chicken or the Egg" scenario. Kinda like how you to have to get an agent before you can get published, but in order to get an agent you have to have something published first. Lame...

I guess it all boils down to having an audience. I've been playing with the idea of making a viral video, one that will get a lot of traffic, then somehow integrating my literary material into it. I know, it sounds a little sneaky, but what else must I do? I got kids to feed, dammit.

No, they're not starving, my family is actually quite blessed. I was just being dramatic.

If anyone has any ideas on generating a successful viral marketing campaign, give me a holla. Also, I'm still looking for takers on writing up a review for Float on Amazon. If you think that's something you'd like to do, then go right ahead. But please, be gentle - it's my first one.

You'll hear from me again in another 3 weeks, if you're lucky. Adios.