by john | Nov 21, 2016 | Promos/Giveaways, Writing
Hey there, since it’s the season of conspicuous consumption, I decided to jump right the fuck on board with that shit and put a ton of my books on sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Buy All The Shit Sunday/Eat Too Much Shit Thursday/Tired Of Dry Fucking Turkey Sandwiches Tuesday and whatever else we can jam into this week.
The sales start on Wednesday, November 23rd, so if you’re traveling, you can pick up a cheap read for your trip. These are all Kindle Countdown Deals, so the prices go up as the sale goes on, so hurry your ass up!
Go to my Black Friday Sale Page!
by john | Nov 1, 2016 | Real Life, Writing
So once upon a time, there were blogs. And there were blog aggregators, and people read blogs, and blogs were super-active, and a thing, and some people wrote blogs about poker, and then they parlayed those blogs into jobs writing “news” articles about poker, and then they got fired from those jobs and turned to writing fiction (not that there hadn’t been some fiction in the other work).
Then there was Twitter, then Facebook, then Instagram, then Tumblr, then whatever, then whatchamacallit, then whodafuqknose…then most of that stopped being fun.
So there were still blogs. And some folks still owned blogs, no matter how infrequently they posted to them. And when Facebook and Twitter and all the other social media sites started throttling the amount of posts they displayed, it became a lot more effective to have a blog again.
At least I hope. I mean, I know I won’t be throttling this space down at all. In fact, I’m going to try very hard to do just the opposite. I’m going to try to be consistent with my posting here, and to post a lot of the crap I used to post on Facebook here instead.
So I think I’m back. We’ll see. I still have a fucking ton of books to write, but I think I can get some better mileage out of regular blog posts than I can out of just screeching into the void on FB.
Either way, Hi! Good to see you. Hope you’ll come back for a visit.
In the meantime, here’s my latest release – Heaven’s Door. It’s book 6 in the Quincy Harker series. I think it’s really damn good, and boy, you wanna talk about shit getting real? Shit gets real real up in here. So give it a look. It’s exclusive to Amazon, so if you need to read it on other platforms, print will be available in January, and all my releases are available to all my fans early using my Patreon.
by john | Oct 19, 2016 | Travel, Writing
Hey y’all!
I’m gonna try something new in an effort to tweak my social media and interwebs presence. I’m going to go back to blogging more and Twittering less, and maybe impart some actual information on folks instead of just screaming into the void. To that end, whenever I attend a convention, I’ll put up one of these blog posts with a convention report and analysis or whether or not it was a worthwhile trip financially, and if there are other reasons that will or will not draw me back to a con.
The first victim of this new idea is Fayetteville Comic Con, where I was last weekend. This was the second year for this convention, and by all anecdotal reports, last year was a rousing success. The show went from one day to two this year, and with attendance in the 8,000 range last year, people were looking for 10-12K going into October.
Then Hurricane Matthew hit. If you aren’t local to the Southeast, you might not be aware that Hurricane Matthew hit Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina like a motherfucker. There are parts of eastern NC that still aren’t open, and a friend at the show told me that his uncle still takes a boat to get to his house, and FEMA can’t even move in until the flood waters recede. So while there wasn’t a ton of actual wind and storm damage, the flooding in the eastern part of the state was intense.
Needless to say, I had some concerns leading up to the show. I didn’t know if anyone would show up, or if they did, if they’d have any money to spend. I wasn’t on any panels, which was fine, because I’m not accustomed to being on panels at comic book shows, and I was perfectly happy to sit at my table and sell books all day for two days. I was joined at the booth by Emily Lavin Leverett, one of the co-authors of the new Falstaff Books release Changeling’s Fall, and my co-editor on the Big Bad anthologies. She lives not too far from there, so she came down and promoted her book for a couple of days and sold anthologies. I wanted to get copies of Changeling’s Fall for the con, but weather and timing conspired against us.
So let’s start breaking things down as to good, bad, and ugly –
Good
Attendance – for one thing, it was good that people were there at all. It seemed like the overall numbers were about the same as last year, and 8,000 people is certainly a great number for a very young convention, so there were people to see.
Bad
Revenue – for that many people, a lot of them weren’t spending, and a lot of vendors said they didn’t make anywhere near the money they made last year. This is to be expected in a region that just got hammered with a natural friggin’ disaster! the way I set expectations for what I call “Trade Show Cons,” which is what most comic cons are – big exhibit halls where people are selling stuff all day with maybe a few panels – is fairly simple. In an area that doesn’t have a lot of competition for convention dollars (basically anyplace that isn’t a major metropolitan area) there is probably only one convention of this type each year. That means that once it gets some traction with the local folk, it becomes an event. It’s something people plan for all year long, or at least they keep it in the back of their heads for months in advance. When I attended Heroes Con as my only con each year, I set aside $100-150 to spend at that con. And I expect that most people have a set budget that is their “con money.”
When your fucking house is flooded, that con money becomes “replace my entire home” money. Hell, just being without power for a full day or two is rough – you have to replace every piece of food in your fridge and freezer, and there goes your con money right down the drain.
So there were people, but they weren’t spending like some folks expected. I tempered my expectations to meet the conditions, and for the weekend, I walked away with right about what I expected to see.
Good
Seeing old friends and other writers – Networking is one of the best things about going to conventions, and this time I got to spend time with James Maxey, Chris Kennedy, Kindra Sowder, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Edd Sowder. I always love hanging out with those guys and getting a chance to swap stories, exchange ideas, and trade information on what is working and what isn’t in our various lines of work.
Bad
Communication – This is a new con, and they’re still ironing some things out, but they’ve got to get better about updating the website and communicating with their guests and vendors. It was hard to get confirmation that I had a space, I didn’t know where my table was until I got there and wandered around looking for it (okay, Emily wandered around looking for it), and I just generally felt like I wasn’t very important to the people running the con. Admittedly, I’m not, but I did pay for the privilege of being there, and getting no communication from the show leading up to the event, not even a “Hey, we’re still happening and here are the road closures leading in to Fayetteville” was a little disconcerting.
Okay
Placement – This con boasted a “Authors Alley,” and I wasn’t part of it. I signed up late, and I needed a whole table, because I have too many titles to share a 6′ table with anyone, so those are the main reasons, but I was never told that I wasn’t going to be in Author’s Alley, which was disappointing. Goes back to the communication thing. It turned out to be a good thing, because the Author’s Alley was more of an Author’s Ghetto, where the writers were stuck out in an unsecured hallway out by the panel rooms, which were sparsely attended. I was in the exhibit hall, on one of the back rows, but I had great traffic all weekend and made decent money. I will happily attend the show again, but that is contingent on me NOT being in Author’s Alley. I want to be somewhere that I can leave my stuff on the table overnight in a secure area, and I want to be where the people are. So what initially appeared to be a negative for me turned out to be a positive for me and a negative for the other authors.
Minor Bonuses
Having a few celebrity guests, like my buddy Santiago Cirilo, was nice in boosting attendance. They had the original Flash Gordon there, and the Skullcrusher dude off Naked & Afraid, so that was kinda neat. It also breaks up the monotony of it being just rows and rows of Pop figurines and comic boxes. I like it when cons bring in a few actors to boost attendance. I wonder exactly how much it does boost attendance, but as long as folks are making their guarantees, I don’t care. As long as the focus of the show remains on the vendors and the fans, and it doesn’t become too much of an autograph hound con, I’m fine with it.
The tables in the vendor area were 8′ tables, which is great. I have a lot of books, and I fill up a 6′ table quick. Having the extra space was super-nice. Loading in wasn’t terrible, even though some of the parking guys were kinda douchey.
Minor Annoyances
The tables were so close together there was no room left to get out between them to go pee or get anything to eat. That’s actually a bigger pain in the ass than you’d expect, because every time somebody has to pee, you end up knocking shit over on either your table or somebody else’s. Cell reception (T-Mobile) wasn’t great, but it held up through the weekend. No power near the booths, but that’s really to be expected in a convention center. The bathrooms could have been cleaner, but that’s not on the con. I would have liked a tablecloth to be provided, or at least to know that it wasn’t. I think my new standard is going to be not to expect a tablecloth at a comic show, and only expect them at programming cons.
Money
That’s what it all boils down to, right? Did I make any money? Will I go back? Well, here are the dirty details.
Let’s look at expenses –
Table Rental – $100 At a lot of cons, I pay for the table. This was one of them.
Hotel – $0 – even with traveling three hours across the state, I had no hotel expense. Thank You, Marriott Rewards points. The Fairfield Inn Fayetteville Cross Creek Mall wasn’t anything glamorous, but the rooms on the third floor have hallways, not just rooms opening to the outside, and the amenities were nice. Little white noise generators in the rooms, and USB charging stations by the bed. Bed sucked, though. Not horrible, but far from great.
Food – $90 (roughly) – I ate really pretty cheaply on this trip. Dinner in the truck on the way out there, then I carried Pop-Tarts and Clif Builder Bars for breakfast and lunch Saturday. Grabbed a slice of pizza, a few pretzels, and a couple sodas in the convention center over two days. Had one nice Mexican dinner with Emily, James, Cheryl, Chris, and Sheellah (I’m sure I butchered that spelling), but overall getting out for less than a hundred bucks in a two day con that involves travel before Day 1 is really good.
Gas – $40 – the truck was EMPTY, so I filled her up. Didn’t use the entire tank, so my guess is about $40 in gas.
Vendor Hall BS – I bought $20 worth of magic cards. Didn’t open anything good. Oh well.
Total Expenses – $250 This was a super-cheap con since I didn’t have a hotel room associated with it.
Gross Sales – $408 – I sold $408 in inventory over the weekend. Figure 50% of that is profit, by the time I buy the books and pay shipping on them. That’s about right overall, given the difference in discounts and pricing, and the royalties I have to pay the writers whose books I sold over the weekend. Net Revenue – $210 (est.)
End Results – $40 loss
Yep, lost money on the con. And it was worth it, because at $40 for a convention, it’s something I can afford in a marketing budget for the year. So this con is definitely worth it, especially next year when I’ll have even more books out for people to pick up, and hopefully there won’t be a devastating natural disaster less than ten days before the convention. If I have to have a room next year, we’ll have to see about either crashing with someone, splitting a room with someone, or staying somewhere on points or super-cheap. Gotta manage expenses, and if I’d paid even $75 per night in a hotel at this one, it wouldn’t have been worth it. That’s why everybody that does this circuit is always scrounging for hotel points and offers, they can really turn a show around for you. The last two comic cons I’ve done, I’ve stayed in hotels on points, so that’s been a huge savings.
The Verdict – I’ll give Fayetteville Comic Con a B+, and will definitely be back next year if at all possible.
If you think this was awesome, feel free to share a link! If you really think it’s awesome, you can go over to my Patreon and sign up! My newest release, Heaven’s Door, is the latest in the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter series, and is available now on Amazon.
by john | Oct 17, 2016 | Harker, Writing
Shit gets real in the Harkerverse with this one, kiddos. Heaven’s Door is the real kickoff to The Cambion Cycle, which comprises Year Two of the Quincy Harker novellas. Heaven Sent was a nice preview of things to come, but Heaven’s Door is where the rubber really meets the road, so to speak. If you thought things in Quincy Harker’s life were complicated before, just wait until the end of this one.
Sharon from I Smell Sheep was kind enough to give the book an excellent 4.5 Sheep Advance Review, which you can read here. My favorite excerpt – There are lots of bloody fights, traitors unveiled and then Mr. Hartness goes all Games of Thrones on some characters…damn, no mercy. There are going to be some very powerful and pissed off people looking for revenge in the next book. Can’t wait to see them in action.
Thanks for the shoutout, Sharon!
If you want to be the first of the cool kids to read Heaven’s Door, click on the cover for the preorder!
He’s finally found something to care about after a century of searching, but will he lose it all at the hands of his most dangerous foe yet?
Seven years ago, Quincy Harker vanquished the demon Orobas and saved the city of Charlotte, NC from his evil plans. Or so he thought. Now the half-divine Nephilim are turning up dead in the Queen City, and it looks like Orobas is back to finish the job.
Can Harker stop Orobas, or will the bloodthirsty demon unleash Hell on Earth?
Who is behind these horrible murders, and why do they seem to be calling Harker out?
Will this be the battle that finally ends the long life of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter?
Find out when Harker, his girlfriend Detective Rebecca Flynn, his guardian angel Glory, and his uncle, the legendary Count Dracula bring the battle of the diving and demonic right to HEAVEN’S DOOR.
by john | Sep 11, 2016 | Writing
I like music. A lot. I like most types of music, at least a little bit, although I lean more towards the country/folk/bluegrass world, and sometimes I just need a little old-school rock n’ roll or hair metal to get a scene going. So today I’ll give you a little sample of some of the stuff I listen to when I write.
For example, Pentatonix’ version of “Starships” by Nicki Minaj just came on as I was starting up this blog post. Don’t hate, you know it’s fun. That’s on my “Driving Music” playlist that I run in the truck when I’m on a long road trip and don’t feel like listening to an audiobook. That playlist also includes Taylor Swift (because I’m not Tom Hiddleston), Reckless Kelly, a pile of Willie Nelson, some Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (who I have to thank Delilah Dawson for turning my on to way back at a JordanCon dinner with her, Seanan McGuire, James Tuck, Stuart Jaffe, and a pile of other people years ago), Blake Shelton, Turnpike Troubadours, and Tori Amos. I like to sing along with the radio, so I know most of the words on my Driving Music playlist. If you ever ride any distance with me, you’ve now officially been warned.
When I write, I keep a little more low-key, usually (he says after taking a break to make a futile attempt to blow all the cat hair off his keyboard). That means a lot of Lindsey Stirling, The Piano Guys, John Williams, Ray LaMontagne, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Guy Clark, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Darrel Scott, and Flogging Molly (they have some mellow stuff, just not a ton).
If I’m working on a fight scene and I need to get things rolling, Rob Zombie is my go-to. Dragula or More Human than Human are a good place to start for me, then I’ll move into some old mid-90s Nine Inch Nails or old Jay-Z. The Hamilton soundtrack has been a really good piece to write to lately, but sometimes I get lost in the words and don’t write much because I’m singing along too much. Occupational hazard, it’s for real.
There are a couple of reasons I play music while I write. One is that I love music. It transports me back to where I was when I first heard the song, it makes me feel more energetic, and it gives me a little more rhythm and speed to my writing and typing. Also, it gives my wife a signal as to when I’m actually working and I’m not just screwing around on the computer. It’s hard to tell sometimes when it’s okay to come into the office and chat with me, and when it’s a lot better not to interrupt me. I usually don’t play music when I’m surfing Facebook or CNN, because I watch a lot of videos linked off those sites, so she knows that if there’s music playing and I’m typing, then I’m probably working, and only to interrupt if it’s an emergency. If I’m just screwing around on the internet, then I don’t care if she comes in to chat about the weather. I also use music to drown out the TV in the next room, so it helps me focus, especially the instrumental stuff. I don’t really dig classical, but some of the newer, jazzier instrumental stuff is really good background noise, and I don’t find myself getting interested in the noises coming from elsewhere in the house, so I can focus on getting my words on the page.
What about you? Do you listen to music when you write? What helps you get words on the page?
Do you enjoy these blog posts? I enjoy making them, as well as my Writing Rants podcasts. Other writing advice tips are available as Patron-Only benefits on my Patreon Page and on Magical Words. So check me out there or become a patron and get all my stuff!
by john | Aug 28, 2016 | Business of publishing, Real Life, Writing
As I’ve said before, this is advice for new writers. Writers with just one or two publication credits. If you’ve got a list of pub credits as long as my…arm, then this probably isn’t the reason your book got rejected. Go back to one of the earlier posts and see the stuff about bad timing, bad luck, or just not being a good fit for a publisher at that time. It’s more likely to be that. But if you’re just starting out, this is the #1 reason most books or short stories don’t get published.
You Don’t Know How to Write for Publication Yet.
This shit is hard, y’all. It takes years to learn how to write a novel or a really good short story. It takes even longer to learn how to do it again and again, day in and day out, either for a living or a supplemental income. You don’t just walk out of college with a freshly minted BA in English and sit down to write your first novel. Okay, you probably do, but it almost certainly sucks. And that’s okay. Your first book, story, blog post, article, poem, or whatever the fuck you want to write is supposed to suck. Just don’t think people are going to pay you for it. And don’t think that it’s worth charging money for it.
So how do you get good? How do you get ready to be published? Well, strap in kids, I’m going to give you the Secret to Becoming a Published Author and getting all the women, blow, and cash you can ever imagine.
Work really hard, study a lot of shit, read a fuckload, and put a metric shit-ton of words on the page.
Come on, there’s no fucking secret to it. I spent almost a decade writing a blog and working for poker websites before I wrote The Chosen. I had more than a million words written and about half a million of it published by someone other than my blog before I started writing fiction.
You want to get good? Write.
You have to write. You aren’t good if you’re getting a lot of rejections. That’s the main reason people get rejected. It’s not because they don’t like you. It’s not because they don’t like your politics. It’s not because they don’t like gay people, or straight people, or white people, or African-Americans. It might be because you’re an asshole, but you can probably hide that for the fifteen minutes someone spends with your query letter. It’s almost always because you aren’t ready yet. You don’t serve mashed potatoes that are cold in the middle, and you don’t get your book published until you know how to write, and how to be a writer.
So what do you do?
Write – and join a critique group. You can’t learn in a vacuum. I learned a ton writing my blog, because I had people reading my work every day, and they would call me on it if something sounded stupid. Then I worked for an editor, and they called me on it when I wrote shit. If you live in the boonies, join an online critique group. I know it’s hard to show your precious little manuscript to a room full of strangers, but suck it up, buttercup. It’s one of the best ways to improve. And no, nobody wants to steal your fucking idea. If you think that people go to critique groups to steal ideas, then just be a goddamn stamp collector, because there are already enough idiots in publishing and writing, we don’t need another one.
Read – it’s a fucking mortal insult when someone walks up to my table at a con and says “I have a fantasy novel I’m writing (have written),” then they follow that up with “I don’t really read, I just want to write.” Fuck. You. Read. Read in the genre. It’s fucking necessary. You need to know what the tropes are. You need to know what the crutches are. You need to know what’s selling, and what’s oversold. You need to know what’s been fucking done to death, and when an original idea is actually original.
Study – There are amazing books out there, many of them written by people who are doing exactly what you want to do – making a living off their words. Why would you not take the opportunity to learn from them? I really like On Writing by Stephen King and Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Deb Dixon. Every writer in the world has their favorite. Ask someone.
Go to Conventions and Writers’ Conferences – Yes, they cost money. Some of them are expensive. Most of them are worth it. Where else can you sit in a hotel bar and talk with half a dozen publisher writers? Where else can you sit in a room and listen to six or more people tell you how to answer writing problems? I have several friends, manny of whom I’m now publishing with Falstaff, that I met when they were attending conventions and sitting in the audience taking a shitload of notes. They kept their mouths shut and their ears open, and they learned. And they got better, and now they’re building careers.
Write – Oh, did I say that one already? That’s because it’s the fucking key to it all. I don’t give a shit how many hours you work. I don’t give a shit how young your kids are and how much of a pain in the ass they are. I worked two jobs when I was starting out and still blogged every day building my voice. I drove from Charlotte to fucking Arkansas, spent three nights in a hotel to attend a con where I was nominated for an award that I didn’t win, sold two goddamn books, then drove two days home. I’ve been to cons where I slept three or four hours a night because I was networking in the bar (yeah, I know, but I was networking. Ask my friends how many times they’ve been in a bar with me until the wee hours. Then ask them how many times they’ve seen me actually intoxicated. Those numbers won’t match, and you can probably guess which number is surprisingly low.) then got up to make a 9AM panel.
I’ve been to cons with bronchitis when I was so fucked up on codeine-laced cough syrup I don’t remember the convention, and I was at Dragon Con doing panels and working the convention while I knew my mother was dying. I said my goodbyes on Thursday afternoon, told her I loved her for the last time, drove back to Charlotte, got in the car with two friends, and rode to Atlanta. I got the call Monday morning that she was gone, and we buried her two days later. So don’t tell me you’ve got shit to do that gets in the way of your writing career. I’m standing here shouting from the goddamn mountaintops that if there are things in your way that you don’t want it bad enough. Go read Sherrilyn Kenyon’s website where she writes about how she got her start and all the shit she went through. Then tell me your job is hard and you’re too tired.
If I sound hard, and mean, well too goddamn bad.
This isn’t my hobby. This isn’t what I do when I feel like it. This isn’t something I do when the muse strikes me. This is how I feed my family and keep a roof over our heads. And if you aren’t willing to work as hard as I do, then get out of my way. But if you want it, if you are willing to scratch and claw and work for years to get good enough just to get a personalized rejection letter, then let’s go. I will do anything I can for you. I will help promote your shit. I will perhaps even publish your shit. But if you’re in this because you think it’s an easy ride, go somewhere else. I ain’t got time for dabblers.
I just spent two days working a comic con with two friends. One of them is a doctor. He has literally saved lives, and watched people die in front of him. He has a job, an important job, and he’s good at it. We need him doing his day job. But because this is something he loves, he works all week then drives all across the Southeast doing conventions. He works all day and goes home to write. He’s got one novel out now, with two more coming in that series, and I’ve signed him to a three-book contract for another series. Now tell me you don’t have time to get some words on the page.
You want to know why your book got rejected? Because out there in the dark of night, at 11:35 on a Sunday night when I’m writing a blog to promote myself, promote my brand, and hopefully give a little back to aspiring writers, there’s somebody else who’s working on their craft. Somebody who wants it more than you do. Somebody who’s willing to work harder than you. Somebody who will invest the time and energy into developing their writing ability to something worthy of publishing.
Note that I never mentioned talent until just now. I’ve said this from my senior year of college when I first started directing plays. I don’t give a fuck about talent. Talent doesn’t mean shit. Give me a choice between an A-plus talent with a C-minus work ethic, and a C-minus talent with an A-plus work ethic, and I’ll take the work ethic every time. Fuck talent, get to work.
You like this shit? It’s moving come September. My blog will be more events and fun stories, and my writing advice will be for my Patreon patrons. Because I gotta make a living. My podcast will still be free, and my stuff on Magical Words will still be free, so there’s plenty of ways to get my advice for free. But these blog posts will be patron-only. But they will be available for everyone that pledges $1 or more, so it’s affordable. Go to Patreon to check it out.
