Ben S Reeder, Author
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Art is messy

12/12/2016

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​Not long ago, I ran across some comments about how writers just had to let the process flow, that if you worked too hard at it, you were going to start killing the process. You’d sound like a Harlequin romance.  
“I can tell when a writer is forcing it in the first paragraph and I’ll put the book right down!”
 
“Never force your writing. That just makes for bad writing.”
 
All of this seems to point to an idea that art should come easily. That, if you’re “talented” enough, it just falls neatly onto the page, like Venus springing fully formed from the foamy brine because the Muse channels it magically through your enchanted self. I did my first take on my first novel like that. The result was something that had promise and failed utterly to deliver on it. Two years of queries, partial and full manuscript requests, and rejections later and I was ready to give up. Finally, someone pointed out the REAL problem with the whole thing, and convinced me to tear it down and start from word one. The finished product is vastly different from the rainbow colored, glitter-filled pile of crap I did the first time.
 
Art is hard. It’s messy and complicated and uncooperative. And like most things we do in life, it almost never turns out right the first time. And limiting ourselves to what we first throw down on the page, I think, is the opposite of letting art “flow.” I think we have created this perception of creativity being like water, that it just gushes forth freely. But maybe….maybe it’s more like wet, sticky clay. It just sits there until we reach in and start squishing it and mashing it and shaping it and getting our hands dirty, then reshaping it and refining it until we have something beautiful.
 
And make no mistake, for some of us, it isn’t the finished product that is the end goal. Sometimes, act of making art itself is what we’re after. For a lot of writers, just creating worlds and watching the characters’ stories unfold is the entirety of what our art is for. Storytelling is our therapy, our escape. It’s where we find God, serenity or our Zen space. Calling it a hobby falls far short, and calling those writers amateurs feels like a disservice to me, even if the terms are technically correct. When you’re creating art for yourself, writing stories to your own standards, you’re going to write the work you want to read, generally, and you’re usually going to get it right or close to right the first time.
 
It’s when we start trying to make art that speaks to others that it gets hard. We have to see things from  our own perspective, and that of our audience, and bridge the two, so that our audience can see what we see.
 
Like I said, messy and complicated.
 
The following two videos are a great example of how the finished product can be so very different where we start from, and the magic of trying out different approaches, instead of expecting it to just fall from our pens fully formed.

The first one shows the process inthe studio, and the second is the finished product. The difference is enlightening.
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How I got an Agent

5/31/2016

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​How I got an agent…
So, how did this happen? What led me to sign with this particular agency? Who did I know (because you have to have contacts in this industry!)?
 
Well, like a lot of stories, it starts kind of randomly. I was at NorWesCon, and I’d just gotten out of a panel, and I was waiting for the next one on my list to start. Across the hall, two guys were talking about the changes in the publishing industry, and new genres that one of them was interested in, including fantasy and urban fantasy. Well, I just so happen to write in that genre, so I deftly joined their conversation. Somewhere along the way, we all traded business cards, and I learned exactly who I was talking to: Trodayne Northern, from Prentis Literary, and Lawrence M Schoen, a Nebula nominee for science fiction. As we went on, I mentioned that business was so good for urban fantasy for me that I had out-earned Jim Hines last year, (but quickly pointed out that I hadn’t out-SOLD him). It was about here that we decided this conversation was a lot more interesting to us than whatever the panel was on, so we wandered over to one of the little sitting areas, commandeered a table and proceeded to talk about publishing, self-publishing and sales. At the end of things, Trodayne invited me to have dinner with him the next night so we could talk further, and I could meet the other two agents from Prentis.
 
So, the next night, I pitched some of my upcoming work over dinner, and they told me about what they had in mind to help capitalize on what I had already done to get me the best deal possible going forward. I’d already done my research on them, and I knew by then that they had represented Patricia Briggs. They asked to see some of my current work, and for something from my pipeline, which of course I sent them immediately. The thing was, as much as it actually was a business meeting over dinner, it also felt like I was having dinner with friends I’d also just happened to be doing business with for years. They answered a lot of my questions without me having to ask. I walked away feeling pretty positive about things.
 
So, NorWesCon came to a close, and I went home feeling pretty good about my career. And the truth was…I hadn’t shown up intending to pitch to an agent.
 
Over the next few weeks, we exchanged a few emails, as Trodayne and Leslie hit other conventions leading up to the Nebula awards in Chicago. Then, on a Wednesday afternoon as I was driving out of Springfield on my way to X-Con, my phone rings, and it’s Trodayne and Leslie. I pulled over to take that call, and got the news I think pretty much every author wants to hear: They wanted to represent me. We went over the details for a few more minutes, and I resumed my journey on cloud nine. I signed the contract a few days later, and made the announcement today. Now it’s starting to feel real.
 
There are a few things I’d like to mention.
 
First thing to remember here is that I didn’t come to the table with just a manuscript. When I showed up to NorWesCon in late March, I was already writing full time, with six books of my own across two series, and a seventh that was a spin-off from another successful series. I showed up with a solid base of readers and a track record of being able to earn with my work. I gave them a solid set of numbers to work with.
 
Second, while I showed up at NorWesCon with only one contact, I left with half a dozen. A lot of folks say it’s who you know in this business, and I think that knowing the right people can be extremely helpful. The thing is, a lot of folks also seem to think that if you don’t have contacts, you’re out of luck. The truth is, you can and will make them as you go. Just ask my friend Ronnie Virdi, who has recently made friends with Jim Butcher and Kevin J Anderson. So, yeah, contacts are important, but just because you don’t have them doesn’t mean you can’t make them. You just have to get out there and talk to people at conventions.
 
Finally, kind of a double point. Don’t give up hope and keep your options open. You never know who you might meet or what might happen. So keep your business cards with you, keep a quick pitch rehearsed and stay professional.
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Trodayne Northern (l), Lawrence M. Schoen (c), Me (the dorky one on the right)
​1 Comment
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6/5/2016 02:13:11 am
I agree with this article. I’ve read a lot of interview articles with the famous authors today and it was kind of similar to the one that was mentioned. You need to get yourself out there for someone to discover that you have the potential and the talent to immerse the readers of your book and that’s why you need to attend seminars like this one. I am a big fan of books and thankfully, my favorite authors have companies that can publish their works. I believe that it is the only thing for your book to be known by your targeted readers. It is really hard to live as an independent writer because you’re the only one who provides the money and you also need to work hard so that your work can be published. I will share this article to my aspiring writer-friend so she would be brave enough to join in a conversation that they all can relate with and maybe she would also get an agent in doing so.
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February 28th, 2016

2/28/2016

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​
  • Vision Con 2016 has wrapped, and my convention “season” has officially started. It’s my “home” con, since it’s the biggest in the area. This year was particularly noteworthy because it was also the birth of the biggest display I’ve ever been a part of. In fact, “big” seemed to be the pervading theme of the weekend.
    To recap, I got to con Friday morning around 9 AM, eager to get started. My publisher Shane Moore was already there, and had been doing an interview with a local radio station to promote the con. When he got back, his son Dakota drove their vehicle around, and we eventually got it backed up the loading ramp (huge shout out to George Canfield for getting the trailer up there in one piece!) Then we got the trailer open to unload, and I got my first glimpse of the bane of our Friday: five, massive black Kydex boxes. “That’s the new display,” Dakota told me, innocent as can be.
     
    An hour later, we had it unloaded, and I opened the first box. And this was when I knew things had just gotten interesting. On top, in the first of several lucky breaks, was the instruction manual to “assemble” this masterwork design. No small pamphlet this, but a 12” X 24” book, with diagrams and parts lists. It was like a supersized Ikea project. From Hell. So, I figured, let’s get it unpacked, see what we have and get an idea of what it’s supposed to look like.
     
    Then we discovered the tool bag. That’s right, a tool bag. The professional grade bag o’ stuff with a Craftsman label on the side. Whoever had created this thing was SERIOUS about it getting put together. They even included duct tape. And multiple hex drivers. So, we began to fumble our way through the first part.
     
    By now, bets were starting to crop up as to when, and in a few cases IF we were going to get the monster display finished. The doors to the vendors room had just opened, and we looked like a construction site.
     
    And then Serendipity struck again. Because as we were just getting the first piece together, the central portion that held the biggest sign, Divine Fortune sends us my gaming buddy Neil. Who, as he comes up, utters the words that would change his weekend, (and perhaps his life).
     
    “Anything I can do to help?” he asked fatefully. Of course I said yes. And then, his eyes fell upon the Infernal Device before him, and there came an Unholy Glow as he took his jacket off. Because where I was seeing an Ikea project from the depths of Hell, Neil was seeing the world’s biggest effing Lego set under the Christmas tree. See, Neil’s degree involves theater set design. It was as if his entire life had been leading up to that one moment. And, perhaps it had. Because Neil could read the instructions, and more importantly, he could UNDERSTAND the Arcane Rituals laid out before him.
     
    And then shit got Biblical.
     
    And lo, we did build The Display, and set it upon the firmament. And Shane saw that it was good. And he did say “Wow!” For it was a mighty display, ten feet by twenty feet with locking boxes and many display signs. And it did stand on its own, and all of the other merchants were astounded by its greatness. And in the fifth hour, Neil did declare the damn thing finished.
     
    Both Neil and I literally bled over that thing. And I have to hand it to my gaming buddy, when he gouged his hand, he did first aid like a boss. First, he cleaned the wound, not with sanitary this or that, but with an alcohol wipe. Then, not wanting to bother with hitting the first aid station, he used duct tape for a bandage. I was mightily impressed.
     
    Needless to say, he didn’t pay for food if I could help it, and Shane and Steven Tibbs showered him with swag. The man was our hero.
     
    From there, the rest of con was almost anti-climactic. We sold books like nobody’s business. I even sold out of some of my titles. I got to hang out with Katy Townsend and meet Sam Witwer, as well as a lot of cool new folks and I got to see a lot of familiar faces. Confirmed with a couple of cons from last year that I was going to be there. And while I didn’t do a lot of partying like I might have once, I still had a great time.
     
    The VisionCon staff deserve a huge shout out for putting on one HELL of a great con. As always, but it never fails to impress me. Especially when attendance increased the population of Branson, Missouri by about 20% for that weekend. And if there were glitches or problems, I certainly didn’t see them, and they didn’t disrupt things as far as I could tell. So, my hat is off to Brandon Shane and his team. Another great VisionCon!
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Vision Con Revisited

2/22/2016

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​Wow. I keep saying that, but it’s been that kind of year. Last year, leading up to Vision Con, my whole world was on the precipice of a huge change, one I had been hoping for but didn’t see coming. I guess I’d always seen it as happening more gradually. But over the space of one weekend, at Vision Con, was where my life actually changed. Vision Con has always been special to me. It was my first science fiction convention, and my “home” convention. But last year’s con was even more special to me.

The Friday before, this was my life: I had a decent paying job, no car, and just enough money to pay the bills most months without getting overdrawn. I was still in the churn phase with my writing, where everything I earned from my work pretty much went back into the next book. I had recently released The Demon’s Apprentice, and it was doing rather well, breaking into the top 1000 on Amazon in the days before con. And I thought THAT was about as cool as my life could get. Mentally, I was far from planning regular convention appearances or attendance as a vendor. I had intended to hit a couple of cons later in the year, and I had to base THAT on if I could get a ride and plan it around getting vacation time from work. I was planning on releasing the next in the Demon’s Apprentice series at con, and looking forward to a little extra money coming in from that. It was doing well in pre-order, and I was hoping it would hit the top 100 like its predecessor had.

Friday came and went, and I was making some sales. Things were going well enough. Saturday came, and it was a full day as I adapted to the new sales environment, tying to sell books with two other authors at the table. Now bear in mind, these two other authors were talented, articulate, pretty women…at a convention full of geeks. Needless to say, there were times when I felt almost invisible next to these two ladies, but hey, at least I was in good company! We joked with con goers, did a couple of podcast interviews and in general had a great time selling books. Then came our panel, one of the most fun panels I had ever been a part of, the Publishing Panel. The energy in the room was high, and all three panelists were feeding off of each other and the audience was getting in on the fun.

Afterward, a bunch of us went to a nearby restaurant to east. And this is the moment where my life changed. I was sitting at the table, taking the first free moment I’d had all day to FINALLY checked my sales. I had expected a big jump in sales because of the preorders all hitting my feed that day, but when I checked my sales RANK, I was literally stunned.

Page of Swords OWNED the top spot in Paranormal and Coming of Age, and it was ranked at number 187 on Amazon. I sat there for a couple of moments, unable to do anything but stare at my phone and wonder if I was looking at the right book. Was this actually happening to me? Was this MY life I was in the middle of? Evidently it was.

It became a little more real to me when Gerry Kissell, an artist friend who had done one of the covers for my zombie series, asked me if I was okay (evidently, shocked and stunned looks the same if it’s something good as it does when it’s something bad). I tried to explain what was going on coherently, and eventually I got the point across, because Gerry brought me back to reality with a simple phrase: “I knew you’d get there.”

See, at the previous Vision Con, Gerry had encouraged me to have faith in my work, because if I didn’t give up, I’d make my dream of writing for a living come true. And damn if the man wasn’t right.

About three months later, I bought my first car in years, quit my job, and began to do this writing thing full time. Now, coming into Vision Con for 2016, I’ll be there as a hybrid author, writing both my own series, and writing for New Babel Books in a spin-off series for the Apocalypse of Enoch. I’m a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, a dream of mine since I first heard of the organization. My whole life has changed since last Vision Con, and that is where it started. Going to Vision Con this year is going to be returning to my roots, as it is every year, but it’s also going ot be where I come full circle.
​
I can barely imagine where I’ll be next year.
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January 22nd, 2016

1/22/2016

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​For the past few years, Jim Hines and John Scalzi have done blog posts where they talk about how much they made that year. I figured this year, it was my turn. They also use pie charts to show certain things, and who doesn’t like pie? So, I might find a use for one, too. Maybe a graph or two, even! Because numbers.

First, a little background. In 2014, I released my first self-published book, Zompoc Survivor: Exodus. It did pretty well, selling about 2500 copies or so its first month. All told for 2014, I made a little over $7,000. Not a bad first year. As the year ended, I decided to release my Demon’s Apprentice series again after getting the rights back from the publisher, and it started off reasonably well. But nothing prepared me for January of 2015, when The Demon’s Apprentice started to take off. And I was even less prepared for what happened in February, when Page of Swords blew its predecessor out of the water and hit #1 on the Paranormal chart on Amazon. The rest of the year was a bit of a roller coaster ride, and I’ll chart it with you. All told, before taxes, I made $67,384 in 2015, which is only a little less than what Jim C. Hines made, if you add in what he made before his agent’s commission.

Now, before that sounds too braggy, remember that since his royalties are from traditional sales, he probably sold a metric ton more books than I did. My guess would be that he sold at least three to four books for every copy I that I sold, which is why agents and big publishers aren’t kicking down my door just yet. Earnings doesn’t equal salability.

Products and Distribution
What this represents is a total of six books in two series sold exclusively through Amazon. After a certain point roughly half of this income represents revenue from Kindle Unlimited. The series are the Zompoc Survivor series and the Demon’s Apprentice series. The genres are post-apocalyptic/dystopian and YA paranormal respectively. Most of my revenue comes from the Demon’s Apprentice series. In fact, every month where I earned more than $10k corresponds with or closely follows a release in that series.
While my career is proof that you can make it by selling solely through Amazon, that may not be the path for everyone. But it sure seems to work with YA paranormal and zombie novels. Later on, I may go with a wider distribution, but for now, this is working.
​
Breakdown by Month
Below is a chart that shows my total income each month. The thing to remember is that the month I earn the money is two months after the sales have actually happened. So, January is showing what I earned in November, February shows what I earned in December and so on.
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​So, as you can see, my income varied greatly by month. The chart below breaks it down as a percentage of the annual amount was earned in a given month. 

​One thing you can easily see from both charts is that more than half of my income came in three months. What happened in those months? Oh, that part is easy: I had book releases around those times. Demon’s Apprentice in late December, Page of Swords in late February, ZS: Odyssey in August and Vision Quest in mid-October. And between book releases, you can see how my income went down. Now, some may argue that my income drop also was most pronounced during the summer, which is typically a dry time for self-published authors. I released the third in the Zompoc Survivor series in August, which caused the small jump in October, so that could also add weight to that line of reasoning as well.
 
Another thing I learned in looking at this is that for me, a book release has a strong cycle of about two months, and then things drop to a much lower level, one that stayed pretty steady between books. In a way, this kind of mirrors what traditional publishing sees, I think, a strong start and then a drop off after a month or two. The difference is that my books stay available on line after that, which is where my main customer base is, while traditional books, unless they do REALLY well, tend to fall off the shelves after that big sales period (and traditional authors see returned copies come out of their royalties). So this is another place where I think I tend to have an advantage over a traditional author, because I don’t have that drain on my royalties. My physical books are print on demand. So, like a traditional writer, I have that bigger influx at the beginning, then I’m in the trough between books, only I’m still making a little money.

Handling Finances
One thing that I learned this year was patience. While February ended with more than $10,000 in sales, I didn’t see that until the end of April. That was a long sixty days. As soon as that hit, and I knew I had another fifteen grand on the way, I was at a point where I could quit my job, since I would have what I made in a year at that job essentially in the bank before I hit the middle of the year. From there, I knew I had a bit of a cushion if I needed it, and I kept that buffer in place.

And as soon as I DID have the full amount in my hands, my wife and I sat down and figured up our total bills for a month, and I set aside enough to cover my half of them for the rest of the year in a completely separate account. All of our bills were set to autopay, and overall, we didn’t change our lifestyle in a lot of big ways. We still live like I made what I used to. If I had to point at one big change in this year, it’s been that we just haven’t had to worry about money. My largest new expense was a decent used car for going to conventions. No new jewelry, no long vacations or any other huge expenses, and no sudden move to a bigger house.

Getting There
Up until May of this year, I worked in customer service for a credit card company (much like Dave Stewart in the Zompoc series, except mine wasn’t the hell hole  his was). My work week was 34 hours, and I devoted those extra hours and more to writing. My wife worked overnights and in recent years, went to evenings, so most of my writing time happened between midnight and three or four AM. I used to put in about fifteen to twenty hours a week on writing. Since May, that number has gone up considerably, though I also end up putting in a more than a few hours each week on marketing and the nuts and bolts of actually putting a book together and managing my writing career. Convention appearances and speaking engagements take time to do right, or at least, they do for me.

Conclusion
Whatever conclusions you might draw from the numbers and patterns, looking at this does prove one thing for certain: as an independent author, you HAVE to publish regularly. And you have to keep your name out there where people can see you. Many of my sales during the summer came from convention appearances and just handing my card out to people. While I didn’t make it into the $100K range like some writers, I also acknowledge I’m something of an outlier, and that as much skill and effort as I put into things, there was still a measure of luck involved. But luck only does so much. Once you’ve been blessed with a little you have to do something with it, like write the next book and up your game a notch.

For aspiring and current authors, I hope this gives you an idea of what is possible. A LOT of people have never heard of me, and that's okay. Enough people have that I can write for a living, and that's the important part. It IS possible to succeed at this without selling your soul or compromising your craft. You don't have to make the NYT Bestseller list in order to write full time. (It helps, though). 
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The Gift

6/13/2015

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​Every writer doubts themselves. Some of us do it more than others. We doubt our skill, we doubt our worth as writers, we doubt we have what it takes, and some days we question whether we should be writing at all. Somewhere along the way, I think we all have these moments, especially at first. Times where we don’t believe in ourselves, where everything feels like an uphill battle that we’re never going to win. We start out with skills in storytelling that fall far short of our expectations. We know we SHOULD be able to do better, but we don’t yet know how to do it better.

Sometimes, we give up. For some, it’s just for a moment, for others it’s for months or even years. And for some, sadly, it’s forever.

But most of us keep going, always getting better at what we do, until one day, we receive The Gift. When we get it, most times, we don’t even know it. Other times, it’s so overwhelming that we find ourselves in tears. Sometimes, it takes us years to understand that we have it. But the change is so fundamental that you find yourself wanting to give it to other writers, too.

What is The Gift?

It’s simple. Not easy, but simple. The Gift is nothing more than faith in yourself. It’s when saying “I can do this” stops being an affirmation and becomes a fact, a foregone conclusion that you believe with the same certainty as gravity. When you know you can finish that novel, and when you  know it’s good.

Jim Butcher gave me The Gift. Somewhere around page 15 of Dead Beat, I realized that this was similar to the voice I wrote with. That if this guy was a NYT Bestseller, then I really DID have a shot at making it as a writer. The agent who queried me proactively gave it to me again. My readers give it to me every time they buy my books, leave reviews or leave me a comment or a message.

So, when people ask me what one piece of advice I would give an aspiring writer, I’m a little flustered. I can tell them to believe in themselves all day long, the words are going to ring hollow until they receive the Gift. Instead, I wish I could just give them the Gift. Sometimes, though, I can. Sometimes, you’ll have those moments where you’re the right person, in the right place, at the right time. And you get to see the look in someone’s eyes when they start to believe in themselves. When you watch the video below, you’ll see when the young chef begins to get that Chef Ramsey believes in her, and where she begins to believe in herself.
  • ·  ·  · 
This is why you will NEVER hear me tell anyone that they shouldn’t be writing, or be overly harsh to someone who wants to write. This is why I WILL be harsh with people who give toxic advice to aspiring writers. Nothing you can say to a writer can equal the power of being sure of yourself. Even then, you’ll still doubt yourself, and if you’re smart, you’ll use that as fuel to make yourself a better writer.

So, until it happens, just keep going. Keep writing, keep learning. You’ll get there. I promise.
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Quest complete.

4/30/2015

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Tomorrow’s a pretty big day for me. I thought I’d announce it now, though. Seems I told a few people something big was coming. Not a lot of people…well, okay…just everyone on my Facebook page.

So, what’s the big deal?

Tomorrow, I turn in my letter of resignation at my day job, and give them two weeks’ notice. On May 16th, I start my first day in my new career: author. Yep, I’m going to try to do this writing thing full time for a while. It wasn’t an easy decision, and it isn’t one I’m doing without some forethought and planning. So, if you’re a self-pubbed writer, don’t do this right after you’ve released your first book. Do it when you have a year’s worth of income ready to hand, and a few books under your name that are selling okay.

So, tomorrow starts a period of transition and farewells. I’ve worked at my current day job for more than ten years, and as much as I’m looking forward to writing full time, some of those farewells won’t be easy ones. But, this is what I have always wanted to do with my life, so it’s a lot like hitting a Lifetime Achievement Goal in the Sims.

I’m going to write for a living. I’ll be a full time writer. That’s some nifty stuff.

Quest completed. Achievement unlocked.
3 Comments
mary ann Reeder ( mareederland@yahoo.com )
4/30/2015 09:16:31 am
I am absolutely HAPPY. For you.......as more good comes to you.........a.very good.heart love

Kim W link ( No email )
5/1/2015 01:52:34 am
I read _Demon's Apprentice_ and _Page of Swords_ in one solid three day gulp and I was all "OMG! Must follow this awesome author!" I'm so glad you get more time to devote to your craft, and good luck figuring out the new adventure of self employment. (Beware the ROUS, the fire swamp, and taxes.)

Scott H ( rshollis@gmail.com )
5/22/2015 12:44:20 am
I just re-read Demon's Apprentice and Page of Swords. Certainly looking forward to the next book. I enjoyed them both...again...and wish you all the best in your new job. :) 
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A Special Announcement

3/22/2015

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  • Back in 2011, when I first published The Demon’s Apprentice, I went over to the Science Fiction Writers of America website to see how to join. After all, I’d been published! Surely I qualified for membership, right? Not exactly. A lot of small presses don’t qualify as a professional market, and since the publisher I went with didn’t pay an advance, there was no way I could meet the $3000 minimum advance requirement. I chalked it up to my naiveté about publishing and figured I was still paying my dues as a writer. Someday, I vowed. Someday.

    Now, some folks wonder “Why should I join a professional organization no one has ever heard of?” Well, that’s the thing. People HAVE heard of the SFWA. People with clout in the publishing industry. Many of those people with clout in the industry are MEMBERS of the SFWA. Authors you’ve heard of are members. Agents for authors you’ve heard of are members. And there are resources available for members that I might not otherwise have access to. For me, it came down to one very important thing. You can tell a lot about people by the company they keep. The SFWA is filled with people who I would be happy to hang out with, people who have become successful with their writing, people I WANT to be associated with.

    So I kept the dream of joining alive, this tiny little ember of hope…someday…

    Then I discovered self-publishing. Oh, self-publishing, where I could find success in the form of actual sales! How I loved it! Freedom from the day job was within my grasp! In a couple of years or so, once I got enough books out, I could write for a living! And maybe, if I geto enough recognition, I’d get an offer for one of my series from a qualifying market. Or, I could submit a manuscript to an agent and get a contract that way! The ember had dwindled to a spark, but it refused to die. Someday, it still whispered.

    Things change. Horror Writers of America changed its policies about accepting self-published authors as member. With my zombie apocalypse stories, I qualified for membership there. Hot damn! So I joined. At the very least, it was tax deductible, right?

    And then it happened. Things change, and the SFWA opened their doors to self-published authors. Around this time, I had regained the rights to my Demon’s Apprentice series, and the first book was (and still is) doing well. The spark became an ember, which quickly turned into a flame. “Someday” turned into Soon…

    On March 18th, Someday arrived, and Soon became Now. I officially became a member of the SFWA. I’ve spent the last few days sort of sitting back and making sure it was real. Every now and then, I’ve been saying “I’m a member of the SFWA” just to hear how it sounds. Let me tell ya…it sounds pretty damn cool. Thankfully, my girlfriend understands why I do that, and has the patience of a saint (I know, I try it often.) so no one has showed up to fit me for a jacket with really long sleeves. Truth is, she’s as thrilled as I am about it.

    Achievement Unlocked. One more dream come true. Do what you love, and KEEP DOING IT. That's part of the secret.
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One year...

3/2/2015

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  • Saturday night marked one year since I self-published my first book. My first sale was to myself, a tradition I’ve continued with every book I’ve published. This wasn’t my first foray into publishing, but so far, it’s been my most satisfying and successful. February closed as my first five figure month, and March looks like it could be almost as good. Granted, I’ve had months where I made MUCH less, and I anticipate (dread) months like that in the future. By the same token, I hope for more months like February.

    For the past couple of days, I’ve been trying to write this blog, trying to figure out what I really wanted to say as I started my second year as an independent author. I’ve done pretty well for myself, but I’m no Hugh Howey or Joe Konrath. I’ve definitely sold more than a hundred books. But I can’t say that I’m possessed of any special wisdom in marketing, or even in networking. Truth is, I really should come with a disclaimer because half the time, I’m not even a good example. On my first book, I did EVERYTHING you’re not supposed to. Somehow, it still managed to work out okay, but I’m that guy who says “Don’t try this at home kids!” I wish I could say I’m possessed of some special brand of genius that I could pin this on. If that was true, I would know exactly what I did to make my books successful. But I don’t.

    I also don’t want to ascribe my success to pure luck. I worked too damn hard to make this look this easy to chalk it all up to something completely beyond my control. So, if you ask was I lucky? Maybe a little.

    What I do have on myside is experience. Not all of it my own. When I first started the process of releasing Zompoc Survivor: Exodus, I talked to other successful authors. I asked questions, and I listened. I did what they did, and somehow, it worked for me. And one thing experience has taught me is persistence. There were times when I looked at my sales and thought “All those assholes who tried to kill my dreams may have been right.” But I still stuck with it. Dues = paid. So, if anything, I can hold myself up as an example of persistence paying off in the long run.

    It’s been a good year, and it looks like the year ahead is going to be even better. At the end of the day, I’m glad I went indie. It’s been an adventure so far, and it’s only just beginning for me.

    Onward!
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Building a Readership (The one thing I did right the first time)

1/15/2015

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  • In my last post, I talked about the costs of publishing a book as a response to how another author had invested her money and time in publishing a book of her own. In talking to Lisa, however, another topic came up, and that is in getting the best return on that investment. It has also been the subject of a couple of posts in other groups I participate in on FB.

    Now, usually, I would tell you that my example is the last one you should follow because I tend to do everything either wrong or backwards the first time and only end up getting it right from sheer luck. Somehow, that’s worked out for me, but this is one thing that I think I got right the first time, even if it wasn’t by design.

    The Obvious

    I’ll start with the one thing that is pounded into us as writers from day one, to the point that it’s the First Commandment Of Publishing: Writeth thou a Good Book. It’s something we hear all the time, and it’s irritating. It’s one of those trite sounding clichés that sounds like you read it off a bumper sticker. But, it’s a cliché because it’s true. If you write a crappy book, no amount of marketing is going to build a readership for you because no one is going to have good things to say about your book, no matter what YOU say about it. This also falls under a point I’ll be making later. Now that part is out of the way...

    Gilt by Association

    Back in the Eighties, those halcyon days of big hair, big glasses and boom-boxes, I worked with a woman from Colorado while I was in the Air Force. Now, at the time, I was considered a nerd and a social misfit. I didn’t hang out at the NCO Club, I didn’t smoke or drink and I didn’t do small talk. So to my co-worker I was not associated with anything interesting. Back then I was also active in the SCA, so I would spend my weekends off camping with a bunch of other cool folks in funny clothes. One weekend, after an event, I came in to work to pick up something before I went home, still in the clothes I’d been wearing at a camping event.  Almost immediately, Rene perked up and asked if I’d been camping. When I told her about the event I’d been to, she started talking to me about camping out in Colorado before she’d joined the military. Now, I had mentioned the SCA, and camping events, but until I walked in with my clothes smelling of woodsmoke, she had never associated me with camping. That one moment made the connection in her head, and suddenly, we had something in common, and my weekend hobby wasn’t quite as dorky to her.

    What does this have to do with publishing?

    Good question, I’m glad you asked. One of the first things I did when I started down the path to publish my first zombie book, Zompoc Survivor: Exodus, was to start talking to other fairly successful authors. Not schmoozing or fanboy praise, but actually talking to them. I asked questions, I talked up  their books, talked TO them, and acknowledged their help publicly. Some people might think of this as networking, but I approached it as becoming part of a community. As zombie authors go, I’m sort of a freshman as far as semi-successful authors go, one of the new kids who is just getting my name known a little.

    What that means to me is that on occasion, authors like Shawn Chesser and David Forsyth will engage with me or mention my name. And their readers see that. When I released ZS: Exodus in March of 2014, it was doing alright at first, but nothing special. Then, Shawn mentioned my book as a result of the release party I’d held online and my sales rocketed into the top 100 in my genre. I had become a part of the community that surrounds the zombie fiction genre, and people saw me as a good writer because of who I was associated with.

    Which leads me to the next important point…

    Truth In Advertising.

    On the one hand, people say “Perception is reality.” To a certain extent, that’s true. If people see you as a good writer, they will expect you to be one. If they see you as a jerk, you’re going to have a hard time shaking that opinion.

    That being said, if you paint yourself as the next Tolkien or Hemingway, and you’re really just a hack writer…no amount of marketing is going to fix the damage you’ve done to yourself. People hate being misled. Early on, my tendency was to under promise and over deliver. Writers are especially good about this, since we are constantly second-guessing our skills. Truth is, it’s the bad writers who praise their own work the most.

    So, as a writer, if you hang out with successful people, make sure your work is the absolute best you can put out and try to avoid singing your own praises too loudly. Be genuine, try to stay humble, and try to deliver the best story you can to your readers. Don’t brag…well, not too much, anyway.

    Make It Easy For Your Fans.

    My first book was a write off from the moment I hit publish. I came at it thinking I might never make a lot of money from it because I started it off with a price of $.99 for the first month or so that it was out. My return on that book wasn’t money. My return on my first book was readers. It’s easy to look back at the number of books sold that first month and say “If I had priced it at $2.99, I would have made so much more money.” But I also know that if I had, I might not have sold as many books. I priced my book low to make it easier for readers to buy it. And they did.

    Some folks will tell you that pricing a book low is a sure sign to readers that it’s not very good. I say that they are selling readers short. For an unknown author, a reader is going to buy a book on impulse if it appeals to them a whole lot faster if it’s cheap. For the reader it’s a low risk proposition. New author? Risk. New series? Risk. 99c price point? Not much lost. Buy now with One-Click.

    If you’ve written a good book, you just made yourself a loyal fan. They just paid 99c for a book they would have happily paid $2.99 for, so to them, they got a good deal and they’ve already made the decision to buy the next book you put out. By then, your hard core fans are already with you, and you've already established for them that your next book really IS worth the higher price.

    Engage, Engage, Engage.

    Really, this is something you have to do once you actually HAVE readers, but it’s important because it helps you keep them. There as many do’s as there are don’ts with this.

    Be nice to your fans. Pretty obvious, right?

    Do respond to your readers as often as you can outside of reviews

    Don’t turn into a spam bot.

    Do talk about things other than your book.

    Don’t push an agenda.

    Be interesting. Be friendly. Be helpful. (This last trait has landed me several speaking engagements and podcast spots). Be knowledgeable when you speak. Research the things that you say. As I discovered recently, the best piece of advice will automatically be ignored if someone can’t back up even the most minor of statements with their own truth. Likewise, knowing what you're talking about and sounding like you do can help keep you visible in your community in the right ways.

    Be positive. Talk about how things CAN be done, instead of complaining about problems. People like reading about success and how they too can have it. Don’t complain about how things are going bad, about sales slumping or  bad reviews. People deal with enough negative BS of their own every day. Don’t’ saddle them with yours, too.

    Randomly post cool stuff from other authors, too. It helps keep the sense of community strong, and that goes back to the beginning, be a part of the community you write in.

    Most importantly, be grateful to your fans. Don’t talk shit about them, not even the ones who act like jerks. Don’t respond to negative or positive reviews, except to highlight something good a fan said. Randomly thank folks for your success.

    Your Wordcount May Vary

    None of this is guaranteed, of course. This is just what has worked for me, and what I hope works for you. And remember….

    Do epic shit. Be a force for the Awesome.
​1 Comment
Steven Wolff link ( AuthorStevenWolff@gmail.com )
1/22/2015 03:47:46 am
Lots of great advice! Thanks for sharing and opening up my eyes. I can't wait to try the tips mentioned above. :-) 
1 Comment
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    Ben Reeder
    Author of the Zompoc Survivor and The Demon's Apprentice series. Occasional wit. Constant smart ass.

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