So this past Saturday, I had the opportunity to be on a local radio show here in Savannah. It’s called Muses, Memoirs, and More, and it features authors and other creatives from the Georgia area. My buddy Adam Messer hosts it, you may remember me mentioning him from the Savannah Quill Convention.
I got to be the guest on the second episode, which was really cool. After the episode, Adam edits it and posts it to YouTube. I’ve shared it with y’all here. Give it a listen and if you like the format, give a like and subscribe to the YouTube page for more content.
Also, make sure you subscribe to hear next weeks episode! Adam and I are switching seats and I will be hosting and interviewing him! Adam has a background with writing a local column here in Savannah and you can learn about the origin of the Savannah Quill Book Convention.
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.
Here’s some food for thought for my fellow writers, artists, and creators:
Everyone wants to be an Avenger. To be Iron Man or Captain America, or heck, even just Hawkeye for one day would be the dream for many of us. To us, our Avengers are authors like Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, or filmmakers like Spielberg, Lucas, or Christopher Nolan. Or maybe artists like Warhol, Rembrandt, or even Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The ones who people think of when the words “author, director, artist” come to mind. We all want to be big shots in our creative fields, not because we crave fame, (although some of us do, I’m looking at you Tony Stark) but because we want to make a difference with our art.
Here’s the thing: you can make a difference.
But be a Defender, not an Avenger.
Yeah, the Avengers get all the limelight, the tent-pole movie blockbusters, and all the sweet Hasbro action figures to go with it. But the Defenders, the Defenders are fighting crime on the street-level. They’re in the trenches, getting the work done that the Avengers don’t have time to deal with, which isn’t a knock on the Avengers. They obviously have bigger issues on hand, such as fighting off alien invasions led by an Asgardian god of mischief or stopping the destruction of the world at the hands of an unruly artificial intelligence program.
Some of us may never see the big time. But what we can do is make a difference in our cities. In our own creative circles. We may never have a big blockbuster or New York Times best seller on our hands, but we’re there in the trenches, getting the work done. We’re hitting those word counts and working a full-time job. We’re uploading quality content to YouTube and interacting with our audience, all while we’re raising two year olds and wiping noses. We’re on the Twitters, doing the tweets, and tweeting the things.
It may not seem like much, but it’s what we got.
And what we got, is sometimes all the world needs.
So get out there and make a difference in your circles, in your city, or even in your neighborhood. Because you never know, sometimes even a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man can become an Avenger.
That’s me in our local paper’s DoSavannah section, which features local music and happenings each week.
No big deal.
Haha, jk. It’s weird though, because this is the first time I’ve really put my work out there locally. My books have been in several local bookstores, but unless someone just walked in there, they would have no idea my books exist.
Sad, I know.
But now, “real” people know about my books, not just “internet” people. (No offense.)
Anyways, this was a really cool start to the new year and as I get back on track with A New Daybreak, this really gives me motivation to press forward. I just shared the Prologue with my email list (which you should join by the way and get a free ebook) and will continue to share sneak peeks with them until release day.
You can read the article here and you should probably share it on social media, because it’s 2016 people and that means it’s the future.
Last year, I attended the Savannah Zombie Walk, but the event was moved to April, so I will be doing a book signing on Halloween instead. It will be at E. Shaver, Bookseller, which is a cool local bookstore in downtown Savannah. (I say cool, because there are other local bookstores, who are, um… not so cool.)
Anyways, from 3-5 PM on October 31st, I will be hanging out at the bookstore which is located at 326 Bull St. Come stop by, pick up an autographed copy of A New Death, and just hang out with some cool book people!
Ok, so I didn’t just submit my book to the Tybee Island Book Festival.
But I did do so in the last week.
Pretty excited about a local book festival that includes both traditionally published and self-published authors. We have the Savannah Book Festival here every year, but as of right now, they only except traditionally published authors.
Which is kinda funny to me, because two years ago, they had Hugh Howey, who is one of the more well-known self-publishers. In fact, his self-publishing career is what led to him getting a traditional type publisher, but I digress.
I don’t have too many details on how I’ll be envolved with the festival, but I will keep everyone posted.
Anyways, I’m making the first pass of edits through Lexx’s Story. Right now it’s all copy-editing and some sentence rearranging. When I edit, I like to knock out the simple stuff first (spelling, grammar, punctuation) and then move on to things like context and content. The first draft is normally for my eyes only, the second only gets seen by beta readers, and the third, well the third is the final, so everybody sees that.
And I mean everybody. (If you haven’t, then you ain’t everybody, and trust me. You want to be everybody.)
That being said, I’d like to open the door for some new beta readers. If you would be interested in receiving an ARC (advanced reader copy), there’s a couple things you gotta do:
1. You have to at least read the rest of the Savannah Zombie Novel series. Lexx’s Story will not make as much sense if you have not read the others.
2. It would be really helpful if you have REVIEWED at least ONE of my other works.
3. Lastly, I would appreciate you posting a review of Lexx’s Story when it releases. Those first reviews are critical for my books to gain any kind of traction and they help other readers know what to expect.
If you are interested in becoming a beta reader, email me at beencalled(at)gmail(dot)com
I will send you an advanced copy of Lexx’s Story and will also open the door for future works. (Book 3 anyone?)
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.
