Publication Woes

If only finding representation were as easy for me as for a rapper's hometown.

I know, I know... It's been almost four months since my last post, the biggest gap ever in the now one year history of this blog. I know my readers are few, and somewhere small in the back of their minds, a dying gasp of a whisper itches at them to check for an update. The itch goes unheeded. And, to be honest, I've barely thought about this blog myself. 

There are other things on my mind. Namely, the wretched process that is prying one's way into the publishing world. Hoping their polished turd of a book (or at least it feels that way sometimes) will reach beyond the realm of their friends and family. To one day see their work in print, and not because you paid someone to print it.

The first stage - writing the damn thing - I finished at the end of the year. The month of January was spent editing and polishing the aforementioned turd to the best of my ability, and letting a few family members read it. Only positive things were said.

But all that was the easy part. The next step was to find a literary agent to represent my work to a major publisher. SPOILER ALERT: I haven't.

I sent out a wave of email queries to a number of agencies, expecting either rejections, or nothing at all. But, within the first day of my search, an agent requested my first 50 pages! Needless to say I was quite excited, especially since no such luck was found after querying for months with Float. 

Then, they asked for the full manuscript. I was awestruck. Periodic feedback was very positive, and my tower of hopes kept building higher and higher. It felt like such a sure deal, that in no time negotiations would be made with a big publishing house to get Sons of Sludge on the shelves. I had the chilled bubbly on standby at all times.

But then, my tower of hopes was smeared with the very turd it was built upon, then knocked over into the mud. And more turds. The agency ended up declining my book.

And now I'm back to square one. Actually, square negative one, as I have less agents to query than when I started. It's quite depressing.

I jest when I say Sons of Sludge is a turd. I actually think it is very good, worthy of print and readership and accolades. And, though I am aware of my personal bias, I believe it to be better than some books already in print, even on some best-seller lists. But what good is that if an agent, much less a publishing company, doesn't feel the same way? I know it's all just part of the game, but sometimes playing the game sucks.

But I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I haven't been at it for too long, where other fellow authors having been searching for an agent for years. And, like them, I won't give up. Thanks for hearing me vent, and hopefully, the next time I post, it'll be that good news every budding author dreams of.

Finally...

Please excuse me while I do a little happy dance, because the first draft for my next novel, Sons of Sludge, is finally complete.

You may recall a little post I made back in May, in which I came to the depressing realization that the already 50,000+ words I had typed up had to be scrapped, in a favor of a more (I think) successful direction and restructuring. Well, put those 50,000+ words alongside the recently completely 95,000+ word rewritten first draft, and you can safely bet I've had my fill of young adult Hybrid Reanimate literature composition.

Don't get me wrong - I love the story, and I think you will too, but it just feels like I've been grinding away at it for too long. Like... like being stuck in a room... with a person, who's... who's just...

Damn it. I can't even come up with a good simile/metaphor. I'm too mentally exhausted to pull it off.

But rest assured, this novel will see the light of day. The decision to overhaul the story will pay off in the editing process, because I'll have better material to work with. A higher quality of clay for my potter's wheel (Metaphor: Nailed it!). The first proofreading go-around will take the longest, with some chapter restructuring, plothole seeking and destroying, and the usual spelling, grammar and punctuation corrections. But even then, it shouldn't take too long. The third and fourth drafts will come even faster.

After the proofreading comes the most dreaded task: searching for literary representation. The manufactured query emails, the tedious contact list scanning, the inevitable impersonal rejections (or more often than not, no reply at all). I hate it. Every author does.

I had no such luck finding an agent to represent Float, but perhaps the premise was a little too obscure, a little too unbankable for an unpublished author. Sons of Sludge definitely has more marketing potential, but I'm still not too optimistic. Like with Float, if I can't find any success with traditional publishing, I will undoubtedly lose my patience and put it up independently on Amazon. Books are meant to be read, not sitting in a desk or on a hard drive, waiting for a deal that will never come.

Also, I feel I must clear the air about something, as a handful of people have brought a certain upcoming film based off of a book to my attention. I knew they would before they even did, as I became aware of said creative work shortly after starting to write my own story. Let me clarify:

Warm Bodies has an undead main character who craves human flesh. So does my book. This protagonist develops feelings for a human girl. So does mine.

The similarities stop there.

Zombies have become so pervasive in our pop culture over the last ten years that a zombie protagonist grappling with the traces of his/her/its remaining humanity was inevitable. My novel isn't the first, and it won't be the last. I don't claim that any of my work - past, present or future - is completely one-of-a-kind, and I don't mind sharing with other authors who have vaguely similar concepts. We all work with the same culture and human experiences. Are we good? Good.

With that out of the way, it's now time for more shameless self-promotion. As Christmas has just passed, some of you may know friends or family members who have recently been gifted a new Kindle, iPad, smartphone, etc. In light of this I am starting another free download campaign on Amazon for Float, effective Saturday and Sunday (29th and 30th). Spread the word, make some reading eyes happy.

Have a Happy New Year, and await my next update on Sons of Sludge with bated breath.

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.