Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

Just finished crunching my numbers for my personal book sales in 2011. I set out at the beginning of last year with a 5000-book goal. The Lord’s blessed me with more than that. Last year, I sold over 5850 Fuchs books and comics!

Amazing, especially since in 2010 I sold 1889 books and comics, so that’s, what, a roughly 300% increase? Truly blessed and thankful.

In this day and age when reading is on the decline and most folks would rather watch TV or play video games, to sell nearly 6000 books in a year for a single author/artist is very special. You readers are great, Jesus is great, and fandom is great.

In last year’s post, I mentioned 2011′s 5000-book goal, so to do the same this year, let’s see if we can hit 8000 books for 2012. Anything you can do to help me reach that goal would be sincerely appreciated. Nearly all my books are less than $5 on Kindle, and paperbacks range from $7-15. Comics are at $2.50-$3.00. Nothing to break the bank.

But I also want to repay you readers on a regular basis and offer stuff for free, so right now the first book in my paranormal romance vampire series, Blood of my World–Discovery of Death–is free on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. Also, here on this blog I have a serial post-apocalyptic zombie love story called Zomtropolis, which I recommend for those looking for a different take on the undead than what’s usually offerered on bookstore shelves.

So once again, thank you for such a great year in books and comics.

Blessings,

A.P. Fuchs

This weekend I created the Blood of my World Boxed Set for Amazon Kindle, a collection of my paranormal romance series containing Discovery of Death, Memories of Death and Life of Death. It is Volume Two of the A.P. Fuchs Library, with Volume One being books from The Axiom-man Saga (coming this week). These boxed sets are a great way to grab a bunch of my titles and/or complete your collection for a great price. It is also on Smashwords, Drivethru Fiction, and should start showing up on the Nook and iPad shortly.

I wrote an introduction to the Blood of my World Boxed Set and want to share it here.

Hope you check the collected book sets out.

The intro:

Blood of my World Boxed Set Introduction
by
A.P. Fuchs

It seems to me that there is a direct correlation between love and horror, the both of which are two sides of the proverbial coin. They are extremes, where one is light and bliss, filled with goodness, hope, stability–physical, emotional, mental. The other is darkness, danger, pain and untold suffering. They also have a tendency to gel, namely in the arena of romantic relationships.
One can’t help but wonder how much different our world would be if these two elements–arguably one element–were not present. I suspect life would look more like a simulation than an actual experience, with folks walking around conducting business mechanically, without nuance–robotic.
Is it not true that human life as you and I know it are birthed and lived from either horror or love or a mix of both? Is not every other human emotion rooted in one of these?
Love is an especially dangerous thing. Beautiful, yes, but dangerous. While ascending to new heights with your lover, when during those early stages all is well in the world and inner peace is achieved–the fear of it all slipping away always lingers a little or a lot until, perhaps, that fateful day comes and your fear becomes reality. The darkness descends, hope is abandoned, and searing pain rips through your chest until you can barely stand. Once you collapse, you think it’s won and the hot coils of loss’s embrace will finally leave you, but instead, it continues to ravage you in waves, bringing you to the brink of apathy and beyond, into self-destruction and mental chaos. Life is looked at through fogged glass. All other emotions are felt through the jagged pieces of a broken heart. Cynicism sets in, walls go up and survival kicks in full gear and you do all you can to fill the void and repair the damage your loved one has done.
Love and horror. Life and death. It’s what defines us. It’s what’s defined my fiction since I wrote my first book twelve years ago. In fact, my entire career was born out of this bizarre relationship between love and horror, and if you’re a reader of my work, you would have noticed that everything I’ve written touches on this in some way, whether a little or a lot.
There’s my novel April, written under the pen name Peter Fox, which is a firm statement about how people get to you and you fall in love because they touch that secret part of you no one else has.
There’s A Red Dark Night, a tribute to B-horror summer camp movies in which the main villain is a creature comprised of blood and evil–the blood you shed when your heart is broken and knife is brought to skin. For some this is metaphorical, for others, it is not.
The Axiom-man Saga, my superhero opus about a man without self-esteem who, as one of the motives for donning a pair of tights, is simply to prove to himself and others that he is indeed something of value after a lifetime of always feeling rejected and second best.
My zombie fiction–books like Blood of the Dead and Zombie Fight Night–utter indulgences into the world of the walking dead. Is this not what we become after love has crushed us? Is not survival our primary concern? Do we not find folks who are fighting just like us, whether in our relationships or even through the music we listen to so we can feel better?
These are more, but let’s move on to what you hold in your hands.
This boxed set, Blood of my World. Three novellas. Three aspects of love and horror–Discovery, memory, life.
Vampires are the horror world’s romantic hero. They are the regular world’s romantic villain. They embody life and death, love and horror unlike any other creature in fiction.
I set out to tell a story about two romantics whose love for each other was thicker than blood and just as red with passion and devotion. The reader must know, I decided, that there are others out there who live in love’s stream, who have gotten burned yet who also have lived and are living because of it.
Who have grown.
The vampires in the novellas you’re about to read are ruthless. There is blood and pain and indifference to human life. They are monsters.
The people in these novellas are you and me, folks living in two worlds: the past and present; light and darkness; love and horror.
I want to thank you for reading these as you join Zach and Rose on their journey of love’s joy, love’s pain–
–love’s horror.

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
February 25, 2012

I noticed late last night that Amazon has several of my books for sale under their 4-for-3 program. Basically, yeah, buy 3 paperbacks get 1 free. Not bad. Can’t get a deal like that offline (unless you visit me at the C4 Con).

Here are my titles available for this promo. Just click on the thumbnail to be taken to that book’s Amazon page. This would be a great opportunity to try out one or more of my books, or finish off your collection and save money at the same time.

I don’t know how long this sale will last so I encourage you to jump on it straight away so you don’t miss out.

Thanks.

Blood of my World Trilogy:

From The Axiom-man Saga:

On the 5th of January, I put my book, Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, up for free at Amazon after joining their Amazon Exclusive program. Right now, the book is still free even though it was meant to be a five-day promotion, which should have ended yesterday. Perhaps they’re keeping it free and will eat the cost of paying me from today onward? Or maybe it’s just free and I won’t make anything. Regardless, I don’t mind it being free right now as, to me, it’s one of the geekiest and coolest books I’ve ever written and I simply want to share it with people. If you as a reader want to support my work–I do feed my family off my publishing–then by all means please check out the Kindle books on the left of this page, or the paperback versions on the right. Thanks, if you do.

Since the 5th, and as of 1:07CST today, Zombie Fight Night has been downloaded 1377 times across all Amazon platforms. Not bad at all. I’ll have to see how the free thing goes behind-the-scenes and if Amazon’ll start charging for it or if I’ll have to manually do something. Regardless, now’s a great time to get a couple free books from me, no strings attached.

What’s the other free book? It’s book one of my Paranormal Romance series, Blood of my World, called Discovery of Death. Memories of Death and Life of Death are the sequels. Discovery of Death became a freebie in September of 2011 and has been downloaded 15,976 times, and that’s on Kindle only never mind Nook, iPad, etc. I plan on keeping it free for now as it’s helped move copies of its sequels.

Here’s the point: I’m fortunate to have been writing long enough to have enough of a backlist that I can put books up for free while still earning a living off the other ones. Ever since I started writing, money has never been a motivator. The only “motivation” dollar-wise was to be able to make enough to live on so I can write and publish fulltime. Also, by having a large backlist, this enables me to conduct these experiments without taking too much of a hit or any at all. Like I posted last time, I try these things out on myself first before considering adopting it as part of my business model for those I publish so as to ensure it’s worth doing so on the money front. To short change an author with their own work . . . yeesh. No, thanks.

Will the risk of offering Zombie Fight Night for free pay off, or will it be a loss monetarily but a gain readership-wise? Time will tell. Watch this space.

For a limited time, I’m offering the first novella in my slayer vs vampire paranormal romance saga, Discovery of Death, for free as an eBook.

Have a Kindle? Got you covered.
Have a Nook? It’s free on that, too.
Have another eReader? Got that figured out as well.

Discovery of Death is available via the following channels for free, no strings attached. I hope you enjoy the book. Feel free to send in any emails with your thoughts. And if Discovery of Death incites you to try any of my other titles, by all means, I won’t stop you. Thanks.

The story:

When Zach goes missing for three months, Rose is heartbroken. Zach awakens in the dark of a coffin, his memory erased. A strange group of people who identify themselves as his family reveal he has become a vampire. Rose has also learned of her secret heritage: she comes from a long line of vampire slayers. It is only when her path accidentally crosses with Zach’s does love surface again.

Discovery of Death on Kindle, on Nook, at Smashwords.

All righty, so we have about four months left in the year. Back at the beginning, I made you a list of all the personal projects I wanted to accomplish before year’s end. What I’ve learned is that even while you work like a dog to get things done, the way they get done isn’t always what you envisioned. However, I’m pleased to say I’ve delivered on almost all of what I mentioned back at the beginning of 2011.

This is where we’re at on my checklist.

Zomtropolis: Temp. hiatus. Paying projects first, like I’ve always said. There are some things (see below) that take priority and need completing before I can get back to the weekly schedule with this. Apologies to those who’ve been waiting. This book will be done.

Axiom-man Comic Book: In the coloring phase. Low priority because . . .

Axiom-man: City of Ruin: This needs to be done and published by Halloween weekend. Plan to go hardcore on it first two weeks of September and finish this badboy. For those following the saga, this will be a full-length adventure ala Axiom-man and Doorway of Darkness.

Redemption of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book 3): Like last update, currently in idea phase. Just needs to be written. Book 2 was released 2 years after book one, so I figure I have a bit of leeway with this installment considering Book 2 was released October, 2010.

A Red Dark Night: Reissue The revised edition with a new cover was published this month.

Discovery of Death (Blood of my World Vampire Trilogy, Book 1): Published in April.

Romance of Death (Blood of my World Vampire Trilogy, Book 2): Published in April.

Life of Death (Blood of my World Vampire Trilogy, Book 3): Published in April.

Canister X Comics No. 1: 13 pages roughed and written. 7 more to go. Will be published by October 1. Wait ’til you see the cover.

Canister X Comics No. 2: Complete except for scanning. Canister X Comics will be published quarterly, this one due Jan. 1, 2012. However, I might just date the comic that and have it out for comic con anyway.

Canister X Comics No. 3: Done. Needs scanning. Same deal. Thinking of having the first three comics available for comic con, but not technically releasing them until their quarterly due date.

All in all, I’ve had a very productive year publishing-wise. And these are just my personal projects. For everything else I’ve had a hand in, take a look at the new releases at the Coscom Entertainment website.

As part of my blog go-rounds announcing the release of the Blood of my World vampire series, I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately, and the newest is at Kelsey’s Book Corner.

Lots discussed, things like what the Blood of my World series is about, writing background, what I do in my spare time, and more.

Please read the interview here.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Today is the last day you’ll be able to get all three of my Blood of my World vampire books for just .99 cents each.

After today they’ll be $2.99.

Please take advantage of the deal while there’s still time.

Thanks.

The Horror Fiction Review has gone live with their thoughts on all three of my Blood of my World books.

They are available online here. Scroll around 3/4 of the way down to read them.

Nice thing to read after battling a headache for the past 14+ hours.

“Spot” of the book blog See Spot Read has posted her interview with me along with her review of Discovery of Death, the first book in my Blood of my World vampire series. We talk about the Blood of my World books, of course, my biggest fears, advice to newbie writers, and more.

The interview is available here.

The review is available here.

Really glad she liked the book!