Hey Everyone! Yes, I am still alive! This episode has two purposes: to one let you know what I’ve been up to and why there hasn’t been an episode in a hot minute.
And two, I want to give some Publishing Tips for anyone who is just getting started. I’m currently helping a guy publish his first book and let’s just say, unfortunately, there are people out there that prey on those who don’t know any better.
It’s a short episode as I get back into the groove of the podcast, but I hope to be posting more often.
I’ll be in Statesboro, Ga on September 15th at Galactic Comics and Games from 10 AM to Noon, hanging out with other authors and signing books!
Alright, so I may be posting this a little late in order to promote the book signing, but the whole thing kind of just materialized out of nowhere anyways.
So, October totally snuck up on me this year.
I knew it was October. I knew Halloween was coming, because me and my daughter have been planning on being Darth Vader and Princess Leia for the longest time now. But the fact that it was October and that it’s been 4 years since I first released A New Death into the wilds of the internet, that completely slipped my mind.
4 years.
Isn’t it crazy how time just flies by?
4 years ago and I just had this silly idea of self-publishing a zombie e-book amongst a sea of zombie e-books.
Silly, silly Joshua.
Anyways, as I often do, I got somewhat reflective and nostalgic about the past 4 years. My cousin played a small part in it as well, as he is in the process of writing his first novel and asked me a few questions the other day.
Which led to the above video.
I recorded this the day before the book signing, so my apologies for not telling you sooner.
But you can still listen in on the five (now six) things I wish I knew before I published my first novel. These are completely subjective and were really the first things that came to mind when I asked myself the question of what would I have done differently.
1. I wish I would have taken it a little slower at the beginning.
I remember finishing the first draft and the sense of relief and accomplishment I felt. I also remember feeling the impending doom of “Okay, now what?” I knew there was editing, formatting for Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, and promoting to be done, but how? When? But mostly, how? I had no idea what I was doing and just kind of kept putting one foot out in front of the other, hoping that there would be ground underneath, sighing a breath of relief whenever there was.
So, the whole publishing process went fast, maybe too fast. Looking back on it now, I wish I had slowed down and stopped to think about where I was heading with this whole author/publisher thing, but looking back on it now, I’m just reminded of a clip from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Night:
2. I would have launched the books differently. (read: better)
When I first released A New Death, I launched it just as an e-book. That was the extent of what I planned on doing, as I had no idea that printing options were available. Again, see above gif. So I launched A New Death in the Amazon Kindle ecosystem and into the cold, shallow waters of the Nook. I spent more time with the Kindle, as it was A.) more user friendly and B.) the more popular of the two.
Knowing what I know now, I would have liked to publish both the e-book and the paperback at the same time, so if you’re still waiting for A New Daybreak, know that you’re going to have to wait for me to finish both now. (Sorry.)
3. I would have liked to finish the trilogy before I published them.
Okay, so this one is debatable. And it comes solely from the perspective of me trying to sell and market my books. (Spoilers: I like getting paid for my work.) But my thinking behind this point is this:
People are more apt to dive into a series that they know they can finish and not wait on the author to finish writing them. (Looking at you George R. R. Martin…)
Again, I’m still personally up in the air about this one, but hey, there it is.
4. I wouldn’t have wasted time on e-readers other than the Amazon Kindle.
Remember when I mentioned the Barnes & Noble Nook earlier?
I think I can count on both my hands how many copies I sold on that thing. (That’s less than ten for all my fellow public school kids.)
And the Kobo? Aww jeez, Rick.
Amazon is the Pickle Rick of the e-reader world.
5. I would have spent more time on the print books.
When I first started, print wasn’t even on the radar. I thought that was only something you could get from an actual publisher or one of those vanity publishers, which I knew to stay well clear of.
But there was Amazon, goading me onwards, deeper into the jungles of the self-publishing world.
“Hey, you’ve done e-books with us. Have you met our friend CreateSpace?”
“Why, no Amazon, I haven’t. Nice to meet you, CreateSpace.”
It was something like that, I think. It gets kinda fuzzy after a few years.
Anyways, the paperback versions of my books have been great for making small waves here in Savannah. I’ve been able to do book signings and get my books into some cool local shops, something I would never be able to do with an e-book. This all goes back to me slowing down in the beginning and actually doing some research into self-publishing outside of e-books.
6. I would have treated this more like a job.
There was a shift somewhere, where this stopped being “just some cool thing I could do” and turned into “Man, I would really like to do this for the rest of my life.” I’m not 100% sure when that happened; I think maybe in between CJ’s Story and A New Darkness, or maybe it was there somewhere all along.
I knew eventually though, that I should have been treating it more professionally and more like a job, but still, for some reason I just wasn’t all in. I don’t know.
But I do know now, that I’m stuck in between the rock and hard place of: having a good, well-paying, providing job that sucks the life out of me everyday, but I do it because I love my family and want to take care of them OR this author job, which grants me fulfillment and I enjoying doing, but the financial side of it is, um, questionable.
Knowing now, what I wish I had known then was, if I had slowed down, and thought about this a little bit more than just publishing some e-book, if I had thought about it as a potential career, and then treated it like one, where could I have been now?
But like they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Can’t say that I would change anything though. It’s been a long ride, and I could have made it a little easier on myself, but to think about all I’ve learned, I think the journey was worth it.
So if you’re just starting out, take my advice, or don’t. You’ll get there eventually and I’ll be there waiting to tell you what I’ve learned in the meantime.
Jeez, I might need to work on that title. That is not a sexy blog title. Hmm, oh well…
Anyways, here’s the deal: I got a promotion at my “day” job, so I’ve been working crazy hours. (I clocked in nearly 58 last week.) These crazy hours have left me crazy tired, but I haven’t had much time to rest.
You see, my wife and I are expecting a little girl next month! We have been very busy trying to get ready for her arrival, but life keeps getting in the way! Here’s the quick rundown: wrecked our car, moved into new apartment, apartment infested with fleas, killed all the fleas, unpack everything, set up nursery, look for new car, try to get loan for said car, finally get loan for car, all on top of working 55+ hours a week, getting maybe 4-5 hours of sleep at night.
All while trying to publish my next short story.
Well, needless to say, you know which one fell to the wayside.
BUT…
It’s finally done!
Lexx’s Story is now available on Amazon!
My apologies for taking so long, but when you’re a one man show, you gotta know when to say “It will just have to wait.”
So here’s my proposition:
The cost of Lexx’s Story is 99 cents, BUT you can get it for FREE!
All you have to do is email me or tweet a screenshot of your review for ANY of the other three Savannah Zombie Novel books and I will send you a free ebook copy of Lexx’s Story.
Sound good?
Cool, my email is beencalled (a) gmail (dot) com. Send me screenshot or link to your review and I’ll send you Lexx’s Story.
Want to be super trendy and tweet it?
Tweet: “Check out my review of @SavZombieNovel” with the link or photo of your review and I’ll DM you the copy of the book. (I think you have to be follower for me to DM you.)
OR
You can just buy it for 99 cents. That works too. (Did I mention I was about to have a baby?)
Click on the cover below to go straight to the Amazon page.
Right now you can get Book 1 in the Savannah Zombie Novel Series for FREE on your Amazon Kindle!
This promo will last for FIVE days, so now would be a good time to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet! If you have, then now would be a great time to tell your friends!
Here’s what some readers have said about A New Death on Amazon:
“When you read A New Death,I think you will be shocked to learn that it is the authors first novel. The story is well written and has a good quick pace. It is surprisingly upbeat for a zombie apocalypse novel. I enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.” -J. Meister
“I can’t believe this is the authors first book. Very well written and flowed great. You Mr. Vasquez are a gifted story teller. I really enjoyed the character development, I could not put this book down I think this is the fastest I’ve read a book.”- Jesse E.
“Josh Vasquez has done a fine job for his first effort. The characters grab your attention and pull you along with them. This is very much a character driven tale and it works well. Plenty of zombie action and questions to answer. I am looking forward to the next installment.” – Belle Rouge
“Easy to read and entertaining. Fast moving. I Looking forward to the next book! Perhaps the Bible talk may be a turn off for some but so far it was tolerable.” – Amazon Customer
“one of the better zombie books I’ve read in awhile! fast paced, great characters…Loved lexx! really hope there is a sequel!! hoping for more from this author!” – Lisa Cook
“This is a bit different from other zombie books. There are the usual slow ones and some runners. What makes it different is that the bitten change into muscle bound rage monsters. While this not the best book I have ever read it certainly isn’t the worst. It’s a good first book.” – ladyboss230
“Josh Vasquez obviously found his calling in writing a zombie novel, keep up the great work!! A can’t put down read!” – Debra Ryan
That’s just a few people’s opinion. You can make yours by either clicking the picture above or by clicking here.
I should mention that I’ve never been good at resolutions.
My bad.
But that being said, I hope I can make it up to you! With these three things!
Behind door number 1: Are you on Goodreads? Cause I am. Do you like free books? Cause right now, on Goodreads, I’m giving away A New Death. (Yes, you heard right!) You can enter into a giveaway and win one of TEN signed copies of the first installment in the Savannah Zombie Novel series! So, you should click here and go enter to so can win! (Heck yes, you should!)
Behind door number 2: I’m a little late on saying this (unless you follow @savzombienovel on twitter) but I’m running a Kindle Countdown Deal in the UK on both books. Well, tomorrow is the last day, so if you live across the pond (Do you guys even like that phrase?) go snatch up some cheap zombie ebook goodness while you can here!
And finally…
Door number 3: Remember CJ’s Story, the short story that takes place between A New Death and A New Darkness? Ever wonder what my voice sounds like? You are in luck! I’m in the process of teaching myself how to make audiobooks and I’m starting with CJ’s Story! And just like the ebook version, I’m making it free to listen to! It’ll be available on Youtube. (You’ve heard of that, right?)
Here’s the thing though: I’m still kinda working out the bugs in the whole audio department. The first episode is up, but I would love some feedback on how it sounds. You can check it out here and leave a comment on what you thought. Thanks so much.
Okay, that’s everything, I think…
Hmm…
Yeah, that’s it. I hope this makes up for not blogging and know that if I’m not posting stuff here, I am working! If you want more up to date info, then it might behoove you (heh, heh, behoove…) to follow the above twitter account. I tend to be there more than here.
Hey everybody, just wanted to give a quick update and let you know what I’m up to.
First, A New Darkness releases on Kindle this Saturday! You can still pre-order it and save 33% on this weekend’s price and 66% on list price. If you haven’t yet, go and get it here.
Maybe you’re like, “I still haven’t read A New Death yet.” Well, good for you, A New Death is on sale until Saturday! Get it for $1.99 here!
Or maybe you like paper. (Who doesn’t? Books smell amazing.) Well, good news for you, I’ve made some updates to the paperback version of A New Death and started work on the A New Darkness paperback this week. So both of those will be live in the next couple of weeks.
And lastly, I don’t normally do too much promotion leading up to book launch (one of my weak points) but this time around, I’m trying something new.
It’s called Thunderclap. Thunderclap works like this: You go and hook up your social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr) to my Thunderclap promotion. Then on Saturday at noon, Thunderclap will blast out a message featuring my book and link through all of our social media accounts. Pretty cool, right? The only catch is I have to get full support or else the message won’t go out.
As of right now, I’m at 14 out of 100 supporters. With only 14 people signed on, it already has a reach of 4313 people. Can you imagine if we get all 100?
I’ve done this before and have never received any junk mail from it, or any emails afterwards. It’s an extremely easy way to help support me. All you have to do is give up one tweet or status update on Saturday.
100 people is an easily reached number. We can do this. Sign up here.
Thank you so much for the support and I look forward to hearing what you have to say about A New Darkness!
This next month I will be rushing to finish book two of the A New Death series. I have a lot of work ahead of me this next month, seeing that I’m two-thirds of the way through my first draft.
Don’t worry, I know you’re concerned. You’re probably like, “Joshua, what the heck have you been doing? I’ve been waiting forever for this book!”
I know, I know. I’m a slacker.
But here’s the good news:
I work my best under pressure.
Always have. (Well, except for one area, but don’t worry, that has nothing to do with my writing.)
In school, I always waited to the last minute to start reports or any other kind of projects. And for the most part, I always came through. This might turn some of you off, but I was that kid that just naturally retained information. (Except for math, that junk is hard.) I rarely studied for tests, I just remembered what I was taught.
Prodigy?
Probably not. You see, we all know that, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Well, because I retained facts so easily, I didn’t apply myself that much. In fact, I spent a lot of my spare time writing stories that no one will ever read. (We see where that got me.)
So, okay, what does this have to do with Book 2?
I’m going to bust this story out this next month. I know exactly where I’m going with it. I know where it ends. ***SPOILERS*** I’ve already hit the climax and it’s all downhill from here. (Okay, that wasn’t really spoilers, but people are weird about that kind of stuff.)
One last story before we go and I get back to my dayjob. (I’m on lunch break as I’m writing this.)
My senior year in high school: The year was 2006. A year of dreams. A year of aspirations. In my 12th grade Lit class, part of our final grade was a book report. I had a buddy, who shall remain anonymous, who, let’s say, didn’t care for reading. (I know, who doesn’t like reading?) Anyways, he decided to hire me as a ghostwriter. (That’s what I’m calling it.) The deal was, he would pay me $90 and I would do his report. Simple. Plus, the book was 1984. (No! Don’t throw me into that briar patch!) I spent the majority of the time working on and writing his report. This was the first time I was being paid for writing, so I wanted to do the best I could. (Although I did knock off $10 for a sandwich, but I digress.)
This left me with little time to work on my own crucial report.
I decided to do it on a book I had already read, so I choose Animal Farm. I knocked out my report quickly and didn’t really put that much into it. Well, when we received our papers back, I ended up scoring several points higher than his. Long story short, I work well under pressure..
Speaking of working under pressure, I have set Book 2 up for pre-order on Amazon. I have to have it finished by October 1st and it will go live on October 10th! The cover is temporary, but the name has been revealed! Pre-order A New Darkness now on Amazon!
Okay, elephant in the room. If you read my last post, I ended it with
“Tune in next week for the rest of the story!”
That was three months ago. My bad. A lot has been going on these past couple months. My computer quit on me and I had to buy a new one. I started a new job, which requires me to work early in the morning and has taken some getting used to.
Anyways, my apologies.
Last time, I wrote about some of the events in my life that lead to me writing my first book. If you haven’t read about them, you can here. But it ended like this (spoilers), I’d come to the realization that I could publish a book via Amazon’s Kindle.
Now up until this point, it had always been a dream to have my own book published. But I didn’t have the first idea on where to start. I knew I would need a publisher, but to get a publisher, you need an agent, right? How do you get an agent? These were things I pondered. And to be honest, if I found out then what the process of being published entailed, I probably wouldn’t have even attempted.
Basically, this is how it works. You write your manuscript and then you mail it off to the publishers. (Yes, the old way.) But you also have to send a query letter, which has to be formatted a certain way to even be accepted. The publisher then reads your query letter, which sums up your manuscript (you know, the one you poured hours of your life into), and based on that, they decide whether to even readyour novel or not. If they don’t, you get a nice letter saying how you’re not what they’re looking for.
Do not pass go.
Do not collect $200.
You then continue this process until you find a publisher who will give your book a chance. If you don’t, well, write another book. Not saying the one you wrote isn’t good, it’s just not what the publishers are looking for.
Amazon changed all this.
Yes, there were eBooks before Amazon, but the Kindle did what iTunes did for music:
It made it instantly accessible.
And not only instantly accessible to the consumer, but accessible to the producers as well.
Authors could now directly publish to Kindle and have their written word out in the world. You no longer had to get past the gatekeepers of Publishers and Agents. You went straight to your readers.
It was like the printing press all over again.
So much to the point that right now, Amazon is having it out with Major Publishing Houses. You can read about it from guys who know tons more than I do like, David Gaughran or Hugh Howey. There’s this whole friction between Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing, between what’s established and those who seek to find a new path.
And how does this all tie back into my story?
When I set set out to publish A New Death via Amazon, it wasn’t because I thought Self-Publishing was the way to go. To be more accurate, I stumbled into it. I thought to myself, “Hey, I can do this.”
And then I got to it. I began reading books (on my Kindle, of course) about writing fiction, publishing on Kindle, eBook formatting, selling on Amazon, and just soaked in whatever I could. But as much as I read, I just did. (There is no try, only do.) I went through the process of writing, editing, publishing, and marketing my book. I set up social media for it. I created a website and blog. I started off knowing nothing about publishing.
And look at me now.
I am by no means a famous author. I’ve been on a few bestseller lists of some slightly obscure categories, but nothing too crazy. (Yeah,Metaphysical category!)
But I’ve sold books. Books that I have written. Books that people give five-star reviews and ask, “When’s the next one coming out?”
That is awesome.
A dream come true.
So why did I choose to Self-Publish?
Because sometimes, you have to do things on your own to find out what you’re capable of.
In my final semester of high school, when I should have been more focused on graduating, I was planning on making a low-budget zombie movie with my friend. We considered ourselves zombie film buffs and very knowledgeable to all things undead. We had studied the greats: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and 28 Days Later. We’d even gorged ourselves on lesser quality flicks, my personal favorite being the redneck-infused Hide and Creep. It was this last movie which made us go, “Hey, we can make a movie this good.”
(Here’s the DVD cover. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.)
And so, we set out to make movie history.
But, we didn’t.
We didn’t even get close.
I have several loose pieces of notebook paper scribbled with our conversations, a progress report with a failing grade on one side and marketing notes written on the other, two different story outlines, several pages of script, and one short story. All of these documents prove that we had dreams.
Dreams that were crushed by the little thing we like to call:
Life.
I’m being dramatic. (I am a writer after all.) We could never really work up the funds to buy any kind of equipment, we graduated, I went to seminary (another story in itself), and well, time got the best of us.
So, our little zombie movie went into a three ring binder and dissolved into the past.
Flash forward five years: It’s Christmas and all I want is an iPad. (I already had my two front teeth.) I knew it was a long shot. I’m not sure if you know this or not, but those things are freaking expensive!
I open my gift from my wife: A Kindle.
I wasn’t let down, because like I said, the iPad was a long shot. I love reading, so while I couldn’t do all the fun stuff an iPad could do, I could at least read a lot of books. That’s a win. This was nowhere near the disappointment I felt the year we received a Nintendo Wii. (To a hardcore gamer like me, this was the human equivalent of the cone of shame.)
I take to my Kindle like a librarian takes to the Dewey Decimal System. (That means I liked it.) One of the things I fall in love with is that there are tons of free books.
Did you hear what I just said?
Free books.
Free books are like crack for bibliophiles. So I began downloading tons of free stuff. In the beginning, most of it was classic theological studies, but after some time, my love of the living dead brought me to free zombie books. But I didn’t read much of them because I came across something much more profound than free zombie books. (Yes, you heard me right.)
You could publish your own books to Kindle.
I had written stories all my life. (I wasn’t so good at finishing them, but whatever.) Of course I had dreamed of writing a book one day and having it published, but I just never thought it would be possible. What did I know about getting a book published? Yeah, I could string together a decent story, but was my prose up to par to be printed on paper? (See all those p’s? That’s alliteration. Boo yah.)
I made the mistake of downloading the publishing guide for Kindle Direct Publishing. Big mistake. It was a mistake because I realized how easy it was to publish an ebook to Amazon. (I say “easy,” but anyone who has done it knows it can be a lot of work. “Do-able” is a better word.)
So, now that I knew it could be done, what would I write? The Doom fan-fiction I wrote in high school was never finished and I knew I’d run into copyright issues. Other than that, what stories did I have to tell?
Well, in the same notebook of my Doom rough draft, I had the outline for a low-budget zombie movie that never got made…
