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

The Axiom-man Saga, so far as I know, is the only superhero saga in the world that is a cross-medium storyline done by a single creator. This is why my superhero series spans across books, comics, short stories and, maybe, other platforms in the future. That said, it kind of has a weird publishing model in that regard and isn’t just as simple as reading books 1, 2, 3 and more.

The storyline started in the novel, Axiom-man, the full-length novels meant to be treated like feature films. In between each one are novellas–or “episodes,” like half-hour shows–and short stories and comics. If you’re a prose person, it’s simple: novel, episode novella, novel, episode novella, novel, etc.

For the completist, here is the entire Axiom-man Saga listed in reading order.

Axiom-man
Episode No. 0: First Night Out
Doorway of Darkness
Black Water
Episode No. 1: The Dead Land
There’s Something Rotten Up North
City of Ruin
Axiom-man Comics, Nos. 1-6

Stand-alone Comic: Axiom-man: Of Magic and Men

Here is the thumbnail version of the above. Each thumbnail takes you to its Amazon page for synopsis and purchase details, except for the second last one, which is only available on the Web right now:

The plan with The Axiom-man Saga is to tell a superhero’s life story as realistically as possible, beginning in a world just like ours with no one with superpowers. But what if one day that changes?

In reply to the wonderful essay on Brian Keene’s website by Weston Ochse entitled, “The Great and Improbable Secret to a Great and Improbable Writing Career,” I said:

Are you true to your craft? Are you doing things to better yourself and understand the craft of writing?

Yes. Absolutely. Won’t claim perfection—who can?—but I write following the writing rules I know, staying true to the ones in stone, bending those that can be bent, and just being myself. I read everything from novels to non-fiction books, to comics and graphic novels, to poetry and news articles, magazines and more. I pay attention to their construction and try and apply those lessons to my own work and that of others when I edit them.

Do you seek out as many edits as possible? Note that an editor has to have some sort of training. Merely calling oneself an editor isn’t good enough.

Yes and no. I do believe in over-editing, that is, where you revise and revise until the whole thing starts coming apart like repeatedly cleaning a garment. The fabric can only take so much picking. But I do have an editing system: first three drafts are by me, fourth is by an editor, fifth is me going over his edits (of which I accept around 95% of them), sixth is another draft by me, then seventh is my wife as first reader who just reads to enjoy but marks down anything that jumps out. At that point, my books are pretty clean, and my editor is notoriously picky and hard to please.

If you’ve self-published, did you do it because it was on your own terms, or was it because you were too impatient for the impossibly slow and laborious publication process?

As a long time advocate of self-publishing—since 2004—I originally did it because I was duped into subsidy publishing via a vanity press in 2003. Was a nightmare start to finish, but ironically I fell in love with the book-making process and since my original goal was to be a self-published comic book creator—think Image Comics style—I simply applied my entrepreneurial spirit to writing and publishing books. It’s worked out well for me and it’s how I make my living, and this was before the Kindle hype and all that nonsense, you know, when the midlist dried up and midlisters self-pubbed out of desperation. Some found success, others didn’t. Now it’s a bandwagon, etc., and, it seems, new writers are self-publishing first before going traditional. Doing it all wrong, mind you, but doing it nonetheless. Some are lucking out and finding success, but most aren’t. I have a book on it coming out in June called, Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book, plug, plug.

My company has dealt with Simon and Schuster and the like. It’s fine, but for my own work, unless a really sweet deal came up, I’m better off going it alone. I also write niche-specific superhero stuff and some monster stuff so I’m not exactly doing mass market material. I was actually a guest at a writer’s conference a few weeks back and got some behind-the-scenes details about certain NY houses and what their writers go through. If anything, for me, it reaffirmed my decision to go it alone. I really don’t want to be a cog in someone else’s machine and pretend as if I’m really a writer staying true to his/her vision as a result. Money’s not my motivator. Whether I made six figures a year or just enough to live on, I don’t care. My goal has always been to support myself with my art, but dollars and cents don’t drive me—as in give me more, give me more—and I’m content with whatever comes my way. Money’s overrated anyway.

Are you true to yourself? Are you writing what you want?

See above. Absolutely. I tried to write to market as an experiment—did a trilogy of paranormal romances—to see if genre would affect sales. It didn’t. The joy of self-publishing is I can fool around like that. Got more stuff on the horizon. Are they popular ideas or sure fire ways to reach the masses and make money? Time will tell. Is reaching the masses and making boatloads of cash why I do this? No. If it happens, it’s a side benefit. If it doesn’t, hey, most artists—and I include writers in that label—have to duke out a living anyway. Publishing is a crapshoot. There is no secret formula. If there was, it would’ve gotten out by now and we’d all be doing it.

Good essay, Weston. Didn’t realize you were all the way up to book thirteen. Congratulations.

Getting ready for C4 Lit Fest this weekend where I’m one of the guest writers. Really looking forward to it as it’s been a long, long time since I spent a concentrated amount of time with other writerly types. (Yes, I know, that last bit sounded pretentious.) Was thinking maybe I should wearing a turtleneck, indoor scarf and blazer with elbow patches to look the part just like Michael Douglas did in Wonder Boys? Don’t even know who started that ridiculous writer’s wardrobe, but I’ve seen it in real life and, well, like Gob Bluth says, “Aw, come on!” I should just go in a robe and toque like Douglas also did in Wonder Boys and see how many heads I turn.

Anyway . . . I’m preparing my workshops for the weekend and thought I’d pop in here to say so.

Topics I’ll be covering include:

- writing as a full time job
- Plotting vs Pantsing (co-panel)
- self-pubbed vs indie vs traditional (co-panel)
- 10 things authors have little to no control over (co-panel)

If you can’t come down to the show, I hope to include these in my upcoming how-to book, Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book, as bonus material. While I realize there are quite a few how to self-publish books out there, non save a couple are comprehensive, so that’s where mine will differ. I’m dumping nine years of self-publishing experience into this baby so you can learn how to do it without screwing up like I did and without getting inundated with all the hype surrounding self-publishing now. It’s better to have a single go-to source than seven books that are basically the same.

But if you are in Winnipeg this weekend, come down to the Place Louis Riel Hotel and join us for a weekend of books and words.

This was a neat interview opportunity. 25 questions covering a lot of topics, including love, books, songs, Jason Biggs, how long I have gone without a bath, and even spanking.

The interview can be read here.

Was at the C4 Pop Culture Expo this past weekend. Good times were had by all. C4 has a small show in the spring and then the big whoo-ha in the fall. This year, the spring show was pretty big, about 1/3 the size people-wise as the fall show. Superstar guests included Adam West, Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig. (They were Batman, Robin and Batgirl, respectively, in the 1960s Batman show, for you young ‘uns reading this entry.)

My wife tabled with me. I sold some books and comics; she sold comics and crafts. Met some people, made some cool connections (hello, GMB Chomichuk), and just spent time being a geek. Loved it.

Here are some pics from the event, with a video at the end where I talk about my table, books and comics after being a dork for the first couple seconds.

My wife’s display

My display

Close up of part of my display

Zombie survival pack containing all three Undead World Trilogy books, survival list, exclusive chapbook, capgun and more.

A stack of my kid’s fanzines. They weren’t for sale, but my kid wanted people to see and read them, so why not?

Giant chess

Ben Reilly Spider-Man

Can’t think of the name offhand, but I know what toy series this Batman is from.

Sketch cards I had for sale

More sketch cards

And more

Me and the “new” Spider-Man

My wife mad a Batman wool cap at the con

The Mrs. and Batman

Me and Captain Jack Sparrow

I love collecting things: books, comics, playing cards, toys . . . all in moderation. Which is good because, frankly, if I had my way, I’d spend every dime I make on pop culture. See, when I was younger and lived with my folks, my room was covered in posters, pinned-up action figures, comics–but when you get married and have kids, you can’t indulge as much as you used to. Fortunately, my wife has similar interests to me and our bedroom looks more like a comic shop and art studio than your typical master bedroom, but I still have a pile of stuff in boxes. My Star Wars figures are a good example.

Today my wife put all my Superman stuff in one spot on display, whereas before it was scattered across the bookshelves. I took a video. I just realized as I type this that I have some more Superman stuff in boxes. Will have to pull it out. I plan on doing an update video anyway as we’re tabling at a comic convention this weekend and comic cons are great places to get good deals on collectibles.

So, without further ado, I present to you most of my Superman toy collection.

Spent the past while transferring over all the self-publishing, publishing and writing-related info from this site over to a new one to keep it all together/niche market it. It’s called How to Self-publish Books and Comics the Right Way: The Rantings and Ravings of a Veteran Self-publisher.

The site, a work-in-progress by it’s very nature, was set up because having been a do-it-yourselfer for so, so long, it bothers me that there’s a ton of misinformation about self-publishing floating around and writers are finding themselves trapped, confused, scared . . . well, you get the idea.

It’s time to set the record straight and so a new website is born.

I’ll post a link on this site when a new article goes up over there to keep you updated.

If you know of anyone who would benefit from How to Self-publish Books and Comics the Right Way, please send them over there and have them bookmark it. It is, and is going to be, a valuable resource, especially in this day and age when the information about publishing your own work can be so confusing.

Thanks. God bless.

This year started off with good intentions, but I got derailed when I went through a massive burnt out and some health trouble so my output wasn’t quite what I wanted. However, I’m gaining swift ground on things I set out to do and want to update you on these things. So . . .
Axiom-man: City of Ruin – Done. Edited by the editor. I have still go through his edits and do one more draft my own and give it to my wife as first reader before press, but that’s going to have to wait until next week because I’m plowing through . . .
Redemption of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book 3) – Readers have been asking for this for a while and I hate telling them–especially in person at conventions–that it’s not done. So, I’m doing a major crazy write-a-thon this week to get it done as outlined here. Still have to talk to my editor about a quick turn around, but don’t tell him for me. I want it to be a surprise. Uh, yeah. (And if you’re reading this Mr. Editor, Surprise!)
Axiom-man No. 3 – It’s started to air on the website. Still dropping in some gray tones on the rest of the issue but that won’t take long. Will be off to press on it probably late next week, all in time for an end-of-the-month release and get copies out to subscribers.
Canister X Comix No. 4 – Written, planned, and barely started in the drawing department. Since this minicomic is more for-the-love right now than anything, it’ll have to wait until the above is done. To find out more about Canister X Comix, please go here.
Zomtropolis: The free zombie love story serial here on this blog that’s been running for a couple years or so. I have a new installment written but not posted. After the paying projects above are done, I’m going to finish this up and then upload it for auto-updating so readers get the rest of the story on time every Friday like before. Then that book will enter rewrite phase, editing phase, production, etc. for a new edition to be released next year in paperback and eBook.
If you want to know what life over here feels like right now, watch this as I pretty much feel like these guys (this show, by the way, is my new reality TV favorite).

Last night close to 11pm, I finished the first draft of the third full-length Axiom-man novel, City of Ruin. This now brings his book total to five. First draft clocked in at approx. 61,000 words. I started getting back into it on August 16 and maybe put in around 3,000 words over the following three days, so last Monday, when I decided to get hardcore into it and finish the thing, the amount of work already done on the book was around 15-16,000 words, which means that since last Monday to last night–with last Tuesday and Sunday off–I was able to pull off roughly 45,000 words in 5 days. Not bad. My math could be slightly off, but it’s over 40,000 for sure.

Anyway, the point is, this is the shortest amount of time I’ve taken to write a book, the runner-up now being April under my pseudonym Peter Fox. If memory serves, I did that book in about a week back in 2002. I think A Red Dark Night is the next shortest. 2 weeks to write that one sounds about right.

Doesn’t matter. It’s not about speed and at no time over the past week did I go, “Okay, I have to write so I’ll just writing something because I have to write something.” Instead, I was fully immersed in the story, lost in Axiom-man’s world of Good vs Evil and superpowers. Inspired by Brian Keene and Carlton Mellick III in terms of just going hardcore and banging the book out, I got the job done without sacrificing quality. All that’s left to do is drafts 2 and 3 then the book goes off to my editor for stuff I missed.

Besides, I read in an issue in Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic that back in the pulp age of fiction, it was not uncommon for writers to pound out a 40,000-word book in a week to keep up with a crazy publishing schedule of getting stories to readers frequently.

I’m taking today off in terms of writing and am handling business duties. Tomorrow I go head first into finishing Redemption of the Dead, which I believe sits at around 3-4,000 words at the moment. It’ll be 75-80,000 when done. I have about two weeks to crank that one out, or 12 days as I don’t work Sundays.

Let the madness continue!

Regular visitors of this site know that since about mid March I’ve been running the new Axiom-man comic book as a webcomic over at www.axiom-man.com

The idea of offering the comic free is to help increase public awareness of the character, and also tell a serious superhero story via the Web as I’ve read elsewhere that a serious superhero webcomic is hard to find.

At the same the webcomic runs–twice a week: Monday and Thursday–the book is also released more or less monthly as both a print comic and a downloadable digital one.

The hard reality of the current print comic climate is that, unlike the glory days of the late ’80s and ’90s, and even up until a few years back, the comic book shop market for indie comics has shrunk so considerably that they are extremely hard to find. Even some stores, as per the comment section of Terry Moore’s blog a while back, don’t even carry his stuff, and he’s right up there in terms of indie comic successes. Making things worse, Diamond Distributors, the only game in town to get your stuff into comic shops–again, unlike the glory days of the ’80s and ’90s–has raised the bar in terms of how much money your book has to bring in as a gross each month. Currently it’s at about $2500 and as per this report, which makes it about 1,667 orders needed to hit that number. Sure, if you’re a big name already, you’ll probably pull this off. If not and are unknown to the comic field like myself, then, well, have fun. Likewise, you have to keep that sales level at least at that amount to keep being listed month-to-month. Since–not always, though–a monthly series’ readership falls each month, again you have a major issue.

Yet there are so many creators out there who want to make comics for a living and not just as a hobby. My current challenge to myself is: can it be possible to carve out a sustainable comic book career, one that provides for oneself and family in today’s market?

Is it really Diamond or bust?

I love a challenge. In fact, my entire literary career is built on that. I’ve fought tooth and nail to make a career out of writing and publishing books. Even been homeless once. I’ve also lived in major poverty where my wife and I had no food in the house aside from a can of soup and no money for groceries. My folks would drop off a loaf of bread and other small items to see us through until the next maternity leave check came in. Hard times, but during those hard times, I was paving a road and laying the foundation for what would later be a career in publishing and being able to support my family with it. The price was a ton of sacrifice, hard work, no sleep, ridicule, condecension, financial uncertainty, and a whole other mess of stuff that could be an entire blog entry on its own.

So . . . that said, let’s get back to making a living doing comics. Is it possible nowadays? Especially if you’re a nobody in the field and have zero “name weight” to throw around?

I think there is. I also have zero data to back up this theory/ideal, but if I have learned one thing duking it out to have a creative career, is that, as Marty McFly said, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” This includes comics.

Quick side note: I refuse to take all the credit for my current career. I thank Jesus Christ first and foremost for being blessed enough to have such a career. I also thank the support of my wife and others.

If you talked to a marketing guru and asked how to be successful–in any field where something is manufactured–they’d tell you to “find out what people want, make it, then sell it to them.”

Makes sense.

But if you’re an artist–and without sounding pretentious as all get out–sure, you can make what people want, but the final product wouldn’t be as good as making what you want. So then the question becomes personal and you have to decide whether you’re going to go short or long term for other folks’ desires, or for your own.

After having done both, I’m sticking with the latter. If my heart and soul is going to go into a project, I better be passionate about it. I remember something Kevin Smith said a long time ago, something along the lines of, “If I like what I write, then odds are there is someone else out there like me who’ll like it, too.” Good advice. Of course, how many people are “like you” varies. (Actually, who else out there is like Kevin Smith?)

My new comic series, Axiom-man, is part of my life’s work, that is, when I leave this planet, I want a giant saga about a superhero to be left behind, one encompassing books, comics, audio books, etc., all done by a single creator. I also want this work to be true to the vision I have for it, which is not quite your usual superhero fanfare. The Axiom-man Saga, though chock full of superhero action, is also a life-and-times piece and chronicles the life of a superhero starting from when he first donned the tights at age 24. There’s drama, some of the daily mundane, introspection, romance, superpowers, and a pile of other stuff (including what it’s like to fly all the way down from Canada to Florida when you’re top flight speed is about 60km an hour).

The books are like that and I want the comics to be like that, too. I’m also taking a huge risk in the comic’s presentation since I’m heavily inspired by indie comics, namely independent, black-and-white books. The Axiom-man series is in black-and-white with a hand-colored cover. No digital. The inside has a touch of digital here and there, but nothing super fancy as I personally find today’s digitally-colored comics distracting and the overuse of gradients and effects dragging down the original artwork.

A black-and-white superhero book? Are you crazy? Well, maybe a little, depending who you talk to. So far as I know, Axiom-man is the first single-creator, long-term comics narrative done in black-and-white, and also the only one done by one creator. Not only is this cost-effective, but it’s also a smart choice in making the book stand apart. Of course, for some superhero readers, it might take some getting used to.

Anyway…

Below are some numbers and figures regarding the first issue. Though a monthly book, the figures below cover the first issue since its first page aired on the Web to its last page, cover-to-cover.

Webstats: 1,100 (equaling an average of 11.34 hits per day. Since my counter doesn’t tell me which are unique hits, let’s just assume that each repeat visit was by the same person.)

Money out: $416.59 (print costs, taxes paid not included in this total)

Money in: $33.30 (sales income, taxes collected not included in this total)

Profit: – $383.29

It’s a decent chunk of change to be in the hole, but the good news is a) the comic is still for sale and will move copies (I’m fairly well-known at C4 Comic Con), and it’s also available in digital via Kindle and that will be one sale perpetually b) I’m used to thinking longterm for this business. I’m also encouraged by what Dave Sim said when he talked about the early days of Cerebus. He said for the first couple years on the book, he would have made more money babysitting.

Comics is a marathon, especially when you’re an unknown comics creator jumping into the water.

Take the above as you will, but I thought it’d be fun to share this journey with you.

If you would like to help turn that negative number into a positive, Axiom-man No. 1 is available in both print and eComic through multiple venues. Please see the comic book store here for details and issue summary. Info on the second issue is also there. Thanks in advance for your support.

Feel free to sound off in the comments below. Perhaps we can all learn something from each other.