FAQ's

I have had a lot of interesting conversations over the last few months with friends and co-workers.

 Most people find me quiet, innocuous, and somewhat boring until they find out that I wrote a book. Then I'm interesting all of a sudden, and people want to ask me lots of questions. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. I like talking about writing, I just wish I had some other personality trait to make me a more engaging person. Maybe I should watch more sports, or take dance lessons or something.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a post about some of the more common questions I get. I've probably touched on some of these subjects in previous posts, so if some of this stuff seems repetitive, that's because it is.

Let's dive right in:

Q: How do you do it? Like, how do you just sit down and write a long story like that? Do you use an outline?

A: I do it because I enjoy it. I like writing. It's my stress relief after a long day at work, or after an especially patience-testing evening with my two-year old. Writing has kind of a flywheel effect with me. It takes me a few minutes to get rolling, but when I do, I'm off to the races. I can't remember how many times I have sat down with my laptop at nine pm, pecked away for a while, and then looked up to realize that it was one o'clock in the morning. Probably why I feel like crap when I wake up at seven to go to work. As for outlines, unless scribbling a few ideas on a scrap of paper between phone calls and meetings at work counts, then no, I don't use them.

Q: Why did you write a book about zombies, of all things? Isn't that kind of...dorky? Isn't there something better you could write about?

A: My actual response to this question was, "Tell you what, when you get off your ass and write the great American novel, or any book at all for that matter, then you can criticize my choice of literary subject. Until then, go back to reading about the Kardashians on your stupid gossip website. And seriously, why do you care about that bunch of talentless fame-addicts anyway? Isn't that kind of...dumb? Isn't there something better you could waste your time with?"

 It should come as no surprise that the individual I said this to hasn't spoken with me since. Sometimes I forget that I'm not in the military anymore, and people who have spent their entire lives within a one hundred square-mile area of the central Carolinas may not be as thick skinned as my compatriots from the Armed Services.

Go figure.

My point is, if you don't like zombie books, or if you think they're dorky, then don't read them. There are plenty of other genres out there. I really don't have patience for ignorant, judgemental comments like that from people who have no literary work whatsoever to their credit. I will never understand why people with no accomplishments of their own constantly strive to tear down the people who do. 

Harsh? Yes. True? Absolutely.

I wrote a zombie novel for three reasons: I like the genre, there were not a lot a good zombie books to choose from at the time, and because I felt that fans of zombie apocalypse horror novels were a grossly underserved niche market. Furthermore, just because the book is about zombies doesn't mean it isn't still an engaging, thought provoking read. Judging by the fact that it has sold well over nine-thousand copies, and received 97 four and five star reviews between Amazon.com and B&N, I feel confident in saying that NEH is at the very least entertaining. Some people may disagree, and that is fine. Zombies aren't for everybody. 

Q: Are you going to write another one? 

A: Hell to the yes. I'm about three-quarters of the way through This Shattered Land, and have plans for at least two more in the series. That's not even counting my plans for the Jeremiah Cain series. Writing is my opiate of choice, I'm slapping my arm with a feverish gleam in my eyes, and I'm looking for something to steal. Unless somebody invents a methadone equivalent for people who are hopelessly addicted to creativity, then I will continue churning out novels for the forseeable future.  

Q: How hard is it to self-publish? Can anybody do it?

A: Easy, and yes.

Q: How did you get so many people to buy No Easy Hope?

A: I didn't. All I did was write it, hire a cover designer, format and convert it, then post it to market. Amazon's amazing meta-data driven marketing technology did the rest for me. Hell, it was three months before I ever created a blog or a Facebook page. Couldn't have been easier. No wonder the Big Six are crapping their pants over e-readers. If a small-timer like me can build a following and sell books with little up-front investment, then those guys are in big trouble. I don't understand why any new author would even bother with the traditional publishing route at this point. If you don't know how to edit, format, convert, or do cover art, there are so many resources out there for you it is ridiculous. Look into it.

Q: How much did it cost you to bring the book to market?

A: Ninety bucks, and ten months of my life. The ninety bucks was for cover art. (Thanks Keary!)

Q: How do you get paid?

A: I publish through B&N and Amazon, and they both work the same way. I get a royalty payment sixty days after the last day of a month in which I earned the minimum sales required (ten bucks for EFT, I think).
To illustrate: I first published the book in early November. I got the payment for that month's sales at the end of January. The December check came at the end of February, and so on and so forth. After the initial sixty days, you get a check every month on the first. Comes in handy when the mortgage is due.

Q: Do you know any other writers?

A: Yes, I do. Indie writers tend to be fairly approachable people with minimal egos. The community forums on KDP are a great resource for information, tips, and getting questions answered.

Q: What does Amazon do to help? How much do they charge to publish on their site?

A: Not to be overly critical, but the support Amazon provides is minimal to moderate. Pretty much everything you need to know is on the help section of the KDP site, but it is up to you to dig around and find what you need. It can be a time consuming and frustrating process, especially if you are new to self-publishing. Again, the community forums are your friend. Use them.

B&N's Pubit site is, in my opinion, much more user friendly than KDP. Too bad B&N has such a small market share.

As for what they charge, it is free to post a book on both sites. For books priced between 2.99 and 9.99 on Amazon, the royalty is 70%, less a small delivery charge. (Usually 8 cents for me.) B&N pays 65%. Both are way better than the 10-20% maximum that authors see on traditionally published work, although you do not get an advance.

Q: Have you been approached by a publisher or an agent to buy your book from you?

A: No, I haven't. This does not bother me in the least. Unless a publisher is willing to pay me a six-figure advance, I would most likely turn them down. I prefer to retain control over my work, especially the content, cover art, and all-important publishing rights. To learn more about the horrible way that authors are treated by traditional publishers, check out JA Konrath's blog.

Q: How do you find time to write with a wife, son, and a full-time job? Have you ever thought about quitting your job to focus on writing?

A: It is definitely a challenge to find time to write. The obligations of work and family can take a toll on my literary aspirations at times. My goal is to one day make enough money as an author to change careers and focus on writing full-time. When will that happen? Hell, I don't know. A couple of years? Five? Never? I have no idea. Until then, I put one foot in front of the other, finish one thing and start on the next, and eat the elephant one bite at a time. I'm not in a hurry. I know if I work hard enough, someday I'll get there.

Q: Aren't you worried, with it being so easy to self publish, that the market will be flooded with books making it hard to sell yours?

A: No, I'm not. First of all, it takes a lot of time and effort to write a good book. Time and effort that most people are not willing to expend. Second, the ranking and review system on Amazon and B&N are pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff. If a book is bad, it gets bad reviews, no one buys it, it goes down in the rankings, and you most likely never see it. The ones that sell, or have good reviews, get shuffled to the top of the list. It's not a perfect system, but it works pretty well most of the time.

Q: If your book is in e-format, aren't you concerned about piracy?

A: Not really. If you price your work reasonably, most people will buy it rather than pirate it. It's the books that are going for more than ten bucks that usually get stolen. I don't condone online piracy, but I am pragmatic enough to see it as a fact of life, much the same way that a car accident is the potential outcome of driving to the grocery store. I firmly believe that if I keep my prices down around 3-5 dollars, piracy will be a minor issue.

Q: Where do you get your story ideas from?

A: I have a fertile imagination. I grew up watching cartoons, reading comic books, playing video games, and reading about four or five novels a week. Stephen King, Louis La'mour, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, and Robert A. Heinlein are a few of my old favorites. I still have a voracious reading appetite. There are a few genres out there that I especially like, and I want at least my first few books to be contributions to those genres. Zombie Apocalypse, Urban Fantasy, and Military Sci-Fi are my starting points. We'll see where things go from here.

All these questions aside, the most common response I get from people when they find out that I self-published a book is, "Dude, that's awesome."

And you know what? It is. I was very apprehensive about this whole thing when NEH was first published, but I'm glad I did it. Self-publishing has been an incredibly interesting and overwhelmingly positive experience.

If you're thinking about writing a book, do it, and self-publish the hell out of it. It's worth the effort.

Learning Curve

In an earlier post, I described what it was like writing my first book and what my thoughts and feelings were during the process. For anyone else who is thinking about self-publishing some work of their own, I would like to take some time to share a few lessons learned.

First off: You do not need to hire someone to format your book for you. Use Microsoft word, save your work as a 97-2003 document, and set up indents through the Paragraph function. DO NOT use tabs to indent the first line in a new paragraph. This will leave annoying little dashes on ereaders. Don't underline anything, and don't put any text in bold. This will only cause problems for you. Italics is fine, it won't hurt anything. Center your chapter titles, and use left alignment for paragraph text. Use twelve point print and Times New Roman font. These few simple rules will ensure that your work looks and functions well on Kindle readers. The Amazon KDP website has instructions for converting the word document to HTML. I go a step further and use Mobipocket Creator to convert it to a PRC file before uploading it to the website. This allows me to upload cover art as part of the document. A quick web search can usually answer any questions you have about carrying out these functions.

If you don't have the time or the inclination to do this on your own, then there are plenty of people who will do it for you, but be prepared to shell out some cash. KDP has a comprehensive list of service providers. I did the formatting and file conversion for NEH myself, and it worked just fine. Learning to do it on your own is worth the time and effort if only for the money you will save by not having to hire someone to do it for you.

The one area that I would recommend hiring someone, at least initially, is cover art. JA Konrath features his cover art guy on his blog, and I have to admit that although he is a bit pricy, he does great work. Personally, I employ the services of Keary Taylor, a fellow author and talented graphic designer. The cover for No Easy Hope, and the one I just had done for This Shattered Land, were only 90 bucks each. That is a bargain. If you would like to contact Keary, this is her website.

http://www.wix.com/klandon771/indiecoverdesigns#!

Now on to less technical matters.

When you first publish your work, you will feel like an idiot. You will feel anxious, embarrassed, and you will doubt yourself. You will ask yourself, over and over again, what the hell was I thinking? Sales will be very slow at first, and you will wonder why you wasted your time. You will find yourself obsessively checking your sales figures every few hours to see if anything has happened, and you will feel despair when you go hours, or even days on end, without any sales. The first few weeks are pretty tough mentally and emotionally. Here is my best advice to you:

Suck it up. Get through it. It was worth the effort, and here is why.

Once the final version of your book is published, no further effort on your part is required. The book is published forevermore into perpetuity, and your work on it is finished. It will continue to be on the market and make money whether you do anything else with it or not. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. If your first book doesn't do well, try again.

Now for a few tips on how to get sales, a subject near and dear to every authors heart (and bank account).

It goes without saying that social media is of critical importance to indie writers. I strongly recommend creating an account on Twitter and Facebook for your work. Facebook is especially helpful because you can create a page for your work. To clarify, I have a PROFILE on Facebook that is just my close friends and family, and then I have  PAGE for my book. You want to create a PAGE, not a PROFILE. A Facebook page is open to the public, and anybody who wants to can like it, and post messages or wall content. It is a fantastic medium for getting in touch with your readers and building a loyal following. Creating a blog, as time consuming as it may be, is also an absolute must. Blogger makes it easy. I would also recommend creating a profile on Goodreads and getting active within that community.

To get an initial sales kick, make sure that you tell absolutely EVERYONE you know that you published a book. I don't care how embarassed or insecure you might feel, just do it. Post it on your Facebook profile and get as many friends and family members as you can to do the same. Plug it on twitter, take out ads on Goodreads if you can afford it, do whatever you can to get the word out. The more sales and reviews you get, the more metadata you create, and the more your book will show up on searches on Amazon and other ebook websites. Amazon searches and recommendations will be your best friend in the first few months. The section titled "People who bought this book also bought..." is pure marketing genius, and the farther up that list you can get, the better off you will be.

Ebooks, like any other product, go through a sales cycle. The holiday season, between the end of November and mid-February, is the peak sales season. Once you get into March, things slow down significantly. That being said, there is no such thing as a bad time to publish a book, but don't skimp on quality, editing, and content just to get a book to market. 

Although my work is available on B&N Nook, Amazon is by far my largest source of sales. If you publish nowhere else, publish there.

A few pitfalls to avoid, and some do's and don'ts.

First pitfall: Despair. Do not give in to it. Remember, you write because you love it. It is a long and difficult journey, but anthing worth doing is life is going to be difficult. If it was easy, everybody would do it and we'd all be millionares. Trudge forward, ever forward, with all the determination and focus you can muster. Let nothing sway you from the path of realizing your goals. If you feel overwhelmed, break the task in front of you down into small component parts and do one little thing at a time. Finish one task, then move on to the next. Whatever you do, make sure that progress, no matter how small, is being made.

Second pitfall: The way you react to negative reviews. When some naysayer comes along and rips apart the prose that you spent so many long hours struggling to perfect, you will want to post a comment on their review and lash out at them. DO NOT DO THIS. You must remain above the fray. Never, EVER comment on the reviews people leave unless you are thanking them for taking the time to give you valuable feedback. Remember, no work of fiction is ever going to please everyone. There will always be someone who will not like it, and will be mean-spirited enough to leave a bad review.

The Stand, by Stephen King, is one of my favorite books of all time. Go on Amazon, and it will have bad reviews.

Dune, by Frank Herbert, is pure Sci Fi genius. Go on Amazon, and it will have bad reviews.

Don't get worked up over bad reviews. Nothing you write will appeal to everyone. If you go to NEH's page on Amazon, you will find bad reviews. Not many of them, but some. I don't worry about the people who didn't like my book because I'm too busy being grateful to the overwhelming majority of readers who did. I read the bad reviews, I take their comments under advisement, and I move on.

DO respond to each and every comment and post made on your Facebook page. DO NOT be rude, vindictive, or disrespectful no matter how vile a comment a person may make. If you reprimand someone for being ignorant, vulgar, or disgusting, you must do so in a positive, constructive way. Stooping to name calling or vulgarity will avail you nothing, and will make you look just as wretched as the trolls who have nothing better to do than slam the hard work of others. Remember, these people have no accomplishments of their own; that is why they try to break yours down. Don't stoop to their level.

Make sure you communicate with the people who read your work as often as possible. This engenders loyalty, a sense of friendship, and goodwill. Give away signed copies, and never hesitate to offer an autograph or a kind word of encouragement. Always thank people for taking the time to reach out to you. 

Some books take off, and some don't. Why, you ask? I believe it comes down to four things: 
Cover art,
Introduction, 
Editing, 
and most important of all, Quality. 

Get a good looking cover that embodies the overall theme of the book. 

Write a captivating intro, or get someone to write one for you. 

Edit thoroughly. The biggest criticism I have from NEH is editing oversights. I will be much more careful about this in the future. A good copy editor is worth the price, within reason. 

Last, but most definitely not least, write a good story. It helps if you study what is popular in the literature market and write something that is either very popular, or an underserved market. Zombie fiction is a prime example of this concept. That being said, make sure you write about something you like, and tell stories that you would want to read yourself. Also, don't be afraid to branch out and write in more than one genre, write novellas, or short storys. If you write something other than a full length (at least 100,000 word) novel, make sure you price it appropriately. .99-1.99 is okay for short fiction, 2.99-5.99 for full length work. Only go higher than this if there is significant demand for a book. Personally, I doubt I will charge more than 3.99 for anything in the near future regardless of demand. If you have more than one book in a series, offer the first one at 99 cents to help build a readership. Don't be afraid to use KDP Select to do free promotions. This will help get your name out there.

I could probably spend a couple of days writing everything that could be useful to a new author, but this post covers the most important points. I hope you find it helpful if you are an author, and if you are a reader, I hope this provides some insight into just how much goes into making a book available for you.

It is a long and difficult process, but it is also tremendously rewarding. Keep at it.

Confutation

I need to address something that has been bothering me.

Some readers have left reviews that my first book, featured to the right, seemed a bit misogynistic in places. Several reviews have been quite caustic in their accusations. I want to go ahead and clear the air on this point.

I am neither a misogynist, or a male chauvanist, or any of the other labels that apply to men who are too stupid to give women the respect they deserve. I am happily married to a woman who amazes me every single day. She works full time, cares for our son, has a social life, and manages to do all of this while working on her MBA full time. The woman was nine months pregnant when she took her finals at the end of her first semester, and still managed to pull off a 3.0 GPA. Liz is the epitome, in my opinion, of the modern woman.

Growing up, my step-mother, who raised me as her own since I was six years old, instilled within me a firm sense of equality between the sexes. She always pointed out that although it is undeniable that men and women are different, we are nonetheless equal in every way. During my time in the military I served with quite a few women. In spite of the dark looks, whispered criticisms, and hurtful jibes that they dealt with on a daily basis, they served their country with honor and distinction. I'm not sure if I would have been able to deal with all that ignorance as constructively as they did. When it comes to morality and common sense, women have a corner on the market and the best that men can hope to do is follow their example and try not to screw up too much.

I realize that I am speaking in generalizations, and I understand that these descriptions do not apply in every situation, but they do apply to the majority. I am trying to convey that I have the utmost respect for women, and for all people, regardless of race, religion, gender, or nationality. From an anthropological standpoint, these things are merely social constructs that have no grounding in genetic science. We are all human, and we all have a heart, and a mind, and a soul. If at any point anything that I wrote seemed offensive or belittling to women, or any other group for that matter, I humbly apologize. That was certainly not my intention.

I think most people who read this book will see that clearly, but I understand that this is a sensitive subject. In all honesty, some of the criticisms about my treatment of women in this novel are warranted. I didn't realize until it was pointed out to me that the men in the story are the focus of all the action, and the women are more background characters. That was not a deliberate decision on my part, it just sort of worked out that way. I will strive to be more careful about that in the future. My only excuse is that, growing up, all the women in my family fulfilled more traditional household roles. My step-mother and grandmother kept the house and took care of the kids, and my dad worked long hours in a factory to make ends meet. My father always made it clear to me that cooking, cleaning, and looking after us kids was just as difficult, and just as important to the well-being of our family, as the money his work as a machinist earned. I never saw these roles as demeaning to women, but I guess some people feel differently about that, and I can see why.

For quite literally thousands of years women were, and in many parts of the world still are, treated as second class citizens. This separation of society relegates women to what we here in America refer to as 'traditional' roles. If a woman does the kinds of things my step-mother did with her life because it makes her happy and she finds fulfillment in it, then that is one thing. When women live that life because society gives them no other options, then that is wrong. Social marginalization is as idiotic on the part of the people who perpetrate it as it is soul-crushing for the people it affects. Many women are, and very well should be, dilligent in their efforts to promote womens rights, and I whole-heartedly support them in that endeavor.

I don't want to be too long winded on this, I just want to make sure my stance is understood. I am not a bleeding heart, nor am I a right-wing conservative, but I do believe that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.

I think my readers understand this too. Thanks for keeping me on my toes, ladies.

Sideshow

Let me start by saying that the feedback I have gotten from readers of No Easy Hope has been overwhelmingly positive. I am honestly amazed at how much people like this book. I recently re-read it, and to be blunt, there were moments when I cringed. Maybe that's just me being self-critical, but I really thought I could have done a much better job. I have learned a lot about writing since I started NEH, and I feel pretty confident when I say that my technique in This Shattered Land is much improved.

One thing I noticed, and several reviewers noticed as well, is that the writing starts out stiff and amateurish, but loosens up and gets better as the book progresses. Well, there is a reason for that. NEH was the first book I ever wrote, and as the story progressed, I gradually got better and better at writing. By the time it was done, I had finally managed to find a pretty good rhythm, so to speak. I thought the last few chapters were pretty good, compared to the first few.

All this being said, if I had it to do over again, there are a lot of things I would change about that first novel. Maybe those changes would help the story, maybe not, but I would have walked away feeling much better about it.

Oh well. As old Bill Shakespeare wrote in the words of Lady Macbeth, what's done is done.

Moving forward, I will be working to expand on the story and improve upon the foundation already laid. Eric and Gabriel will start the journey to Colorado, and get into a hell of a lot of trouble along the way. They will meet friends, and make enemies. They will have happy days, and tragic ones. They will learn, strive, fight, love, and lose. Their path will be neither straight, nor easy. Nothing in life ever is, especially when you have to survive a mass extinction event. It's gonna be a hell of a ride.

So. On to other topics.

For those who follow this blog, or my Facebook page, you probably noticed that I am working on a side project; Jeremiah Cain: Vampire Hunter. Let me explain my motivation for this project.

I used to like the Anita Blake series. The first six or seven novels were great. They fused the supernatural with action and adventure, and I loved the whole angle of society being aware of all the creatures that are featured in the story. They didn't exist in the shadows, they were a part of American culture. It was refreshing, it was original, and it was entertaining. Somewhere along the way, there was the first sex scene in the series. I remember thinking, Well, that was...graphic.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bible thumper or a prude, but incredibly detailed descriptions of people getting their schwerve-on is not exactly my cup of tea. I prefer action scenes of the flashing swords and blazing guns variety.

So I kept reading the series, and something disturbing happened. The sex scenes got more frequent, longer, and more detailed. I found myself flipping through page after page trying to get to the part where there was an actual story to read. Pretty soon, I was at the end of the book. I was very disappointed.

This imaginative, original series that I had liked so much had devolved into a bunch of cheap, smutty porn.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, if erotica is your thing, that is fine. You won't find any judgement from this guy. I just don't care for it, personally. I grew up playing Mortal Kombat and reading Batman and X-men comic books. I like heroes, and villains, and epic battles between the forces of good and evil.

By now, if you've actually read to this point, you're thinking; Does this guy have a point, or is he just rambling about nothing?

My point is, since when did Vampires become the good guys?

Since when are they romantic, sympathetic characters?

To hell with that. Vampires are bloodsucking creatures of darkness, and the only good one is a dead one. To that end, I created a new character for a new series: Jeremiah Cain.

He has the heart of a lion, and the soul of a fanatic. He is zealous in his efforts to rid the world of the Vampire scourge, and he will stop at nothing to wreak his vengeance upon the creatures that destroyed his life. He is flawed, just like everyone, but he is also an an extraordinary man. His adventures will be epic.

Much like any story, I have no idea where this one will take me, but I know it will be a lot of fun along the way. I don't want to give away too much right now, especially considering that I still have a ton of work on This Shattered Land to accomplish, but I am very excited about this story.

More to come.

The Span of One Orbit

It's been an eventful year.


Today marks the anniversary of when I started work on my first novel. I finished it in October of last year, and published it on November 8th. (Auspiciously enough, that is the same date I reported to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Great Lakes Illinois, back in 1998, and the date that I recieved my honorable discharge from the Navy six years later in 2004.)




No Easy Hope recently reached a milestone. As of yesterday, it has sold over 7000 copies. That translates into $20,930.00 in gross revenue. After Amazon.com takes their cut, that leaves me with right about fourteen thousand in net earnings. After taxes, it's a little over ten grand. I only get about half the pie, but hey, half of something is better than all of nothing. And that's only what its earned thus far; it's still selling and averaging between thirty to fifty copies a day.


Now don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging here. I really do have a point.


To a lot of authors, even self-published ones, seven thousand copies is no big deal. There are plenty of authors out there who see sales like that every month, and I say good for them. The reason I bring this up is to reinforce a point I made on my previous post. Traditional publishing models have left niche reader markets grossly underserved, and there have been a lot of missed opportunities there. That is where Amazon and guys like me come in.


I'm a business guy. I like numbers, I like understanding the truth behind how things work, and I like spotting opportunities. It doesn't take an advanced degree in marketing to spot opportunities for potential readers who want a particular type of literature, just a sharp eye and a good idea for a story. Case in point: Jim Butcher. He is the author of the wildly successful Dresden Files series, a favorite of mine, but initially, in spite of the quality of his work, he had a hard time getting published. His particular brand of dark urban fantasy, centered around a modern day wizard, had a huge potential readership that the big publishing houses had no idea even existed. But Jim Butcher did. He submitted manuscript after manuscript, and was repeatedly rejected. Why? Because the publishers who read those manuscripts didn't see the potential there.


The Dresden Files series is brilliant. It combines action and adventure with horror, mystery, and even a little romance thrown in for good measure. It is a genre spanning masterwork that has sold millions of copies wordwide. Jim Butcher is a fantastic author, way better than I am or ever hope to be. Which begs an obvious question.


If a world class writer like Mr. Butcher has to jump through a thousand flaming hoops to get published, what chance does a mediocre amateur like myself have? Not much of one. About a snowball's chance in hell, I would say. This sentiment is exactly what kept me from writing anything until after I turned thirty. I just figured it would be a lot of wasted effort.


The advent of self-publishing has changed all of that. Maybe No Easy Hope, or any of its sequels, will never appear on the NYT bestseller's list. My side project, Jeremiah Cain: Vampire Hunter will probably never make it there either. But if my first book, published without aid of an editor, agent, or publishing house, can sell 7000 copies in four months without any kind of marketing effort on my part, then I am willing to stay in the game and keep writing. Ten grand in take home cash may not be much to some people, but for a guy like me with a wife and kid to look after, that money can do a lot of good things. Daycare is expensive, and gas isn't getting any cheaper.


I don't need to write a bestseller. I don't need millions of sales (although that sure would be nice). I'm not trying to get rich, I'm just trying to earn a living, and make things easier for my family. When I got my last royalty check, I paid my bills for the whole month, set aside money for gas, groceries, and daycare, put some money in my Roth IRA, and still had a good bit of cash left over to put in non-retirement savings. For a guy who has spent most of his adult life living paycheck to paycheck, fretting over bills, and losing sleep at night wondering how he is going to make ends meet, a surplus of cash is nothing short of a Godsend. For the first time in years, I'm not worried about whether I'll have enough money to get by until my next paycheck.


Amazon, B&N, and all the other ebook retailers out there are the ones who made it possible. They gave niche market authors like myself access to our underserved clientele, and there are hundreds of other writers in hundreds of other markets out there doing the same thing. We're not getting rich by any means, but we are doing something that we love, and making money at it. That's a blessing any way you slice it.


The big publishers are not interested in these small literature markets because there isn't enough money there for them. That's fine with me, I'm more than happy to step in and give these readers what they are looking for. That's my business strategy. While I'm at it, my focus will remain firmly fixed on improving as an author, and publishing quality, fast paced, entertaining stories. I will keep up with my readers on social media, I will read every single review as it comes in, and I will take all comments and criticisms under advisement. Feedback from my readers is as valuable as gold, and I always welcome it, be it good or bad.


Ultimately, my goal is to be able to write for a living. To not have to wake up to an alarm clock every morning and dread going to work. I'm a long way off from that goal, but I believe that I will get there eventually. If my time in the Navy taught me anything, it is that life is about the journey, not the destination. Writing enough books and building a sufficient readership to write full time is a large, daunting task. When I think about this, I am reminded of an old joke I heard who-knows-where a long time ago.


Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time.


Becoming a successful author, which means making enough income from writing so that I don't have to work a day job, is my elephant to eat. Years ago, I would have would have walked away from so large a task, but not anymore. Ebooks have leveled the playing field, and for those of us with the drive and the determination to see it through, our dream of being professional writers is no longer an unattainable one.


But that is the big picture.


Small picture is to take the next bite. All the ambition in the world ain't gonna do me a damn bit of good if my books suck. It's easy to get caught up in money, but at the end of the day, a book is a work of art. To be a good author, one must always seek to improve his or her writing, and the love of the craft must ever and always remain the writer's foremost motivation. The bottom line here is that if I didn't love writing, I wouldn't do it. I would get a part time job, or work overtime, or something. Writing is hard, it is time consuming, and it can be an incredibly frustrating process. If you don't love it, you won't last long at it.


I have learned a lot in the past year. About myself, about the world of publishing, and about my readers. The feedback that I have gotten from the people who read my book has been, far and away, the most rewarding part of this whole process. More than money, or anything else, I am incredibly grateful to have been able to share something that means so much to me with so many people. The surprising part is that most of them actually liked my book. That is what motivates me to keep writing. The fact that people out there will read my books and enjoy them is as validating as it is humbling. I don't want to let you down, Dear Reader, so when I finish this blog post, I will apply my rather bulbous nose firmly to the grindstone, and get to work on finishing up the sequel to No Easy Hope.


Just in case you haven't heard, the title to the sequel is This Shattered Land. It picks up a couple of months after the epilogue in No Easy Hope, and details the beginning of Gabriel and Eric's journey to Colorado. I'm about halfway through, and I am actually in the middle of writing an action scene involving...


Well, I don't want to spoil it for you. I need to get back to writing, and finish up the chapter I am working on. That is the next bite. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. That's how you get to where you want to go.


I hope you decide to tag along, I'd appreciate the company.