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

Recently I sent a letter to Dave Sim and one of the things within was my outline for how, at the time, I approached publishing my Axiom-man comic book series. The other day I got an email from the A Moment of Cerebus website along with a letter from Dave suggesting that Tim, the owner of the site, run my 8-step model. So I said yes and the 8-step model ran on the site today. I’ve copy/pasted the 8 steps here for archive reasons, but please visit A Moment of Cerebus for the article, Dave’s comment, and also for the other cool Cerebus-related stuff on that site.

Since my company is web-based, with 95% of books ordered being online (whether for print or eBooks), the remaining 5% sold at conventions and booksignings, and since I’ve been able to sustain a living for close to three years based on that, and given the state of tech these days, I think I’m onto something.

Though I’ve slipped recently due to a major burn-out but am now getting back on track, I agree that, as you’ve stated – can’t remember where – that when folks ask you for the secret to Cerebus’ success, you said keeping the book on time is the reason. I believe you. On-time books keep readers interested, give them their fix at regular intervals, and, assuming the sales are there, enables the creator to maintain a steady level of interest as he can sink all his time into his book instead of dividing the comic against a day job.

Here is my current model for Axiom-man. I’m open to any feedback and/or suggestions and/or “what you’re doing is crazy” comments:

1) Release the book on time in print, electronic download, and twice a week post a page from the comic on Mondays and Thursdays. The reason for the webcomic is to raise awareness of the character to help feed print sales and downloads, likewise, if folks like what they read, they will be apt to pick up one or more of my novels.

2) Forego Diamond for the print periodicals. Due to finances, discounts and such, I’m opting out of Diamond Distribution for the monthly book, instead releasing the copies of the comic for direct sale, short-running each issue at 300 copies. This cost enables me to keep the price low on the book and still make close to a buck an issue. Direct sales include direct ordering, conventions, booksignings, and trunk-of-the-car sales.

3) Release each print issue through Ka-Blam (which is like ComiXpress), and utilize their print and digital storefront at Indy Planet and Indy Planet Digital respectively.

4) Release each issue in digital format through as many channels as possible (Kindle, Nook, iPad et al.), treating each download as if they are the print counterpart. A sale’s a sale, after all.

5) Once a particular story arc is complete, collected into a graphic novel. Also, ala Mike Mignola, include a bonus story to set the graphic novel apart from the periodical book.

6) Use Diamond for graphic novel distribution.

7) Use my printer’s amazing distribution system to make the graphic novel available to all the online hotspots like Amazon.com and its sister sites, Barnes and Noble.com, and others. Also offer for direct sale, whether by order, conventions, booksignings, trunk-of-the-car sales, etc.

8) Offer the graphic novel at a fair price for digital download via all the same channels the periodical was. Perhaps offer the same direct as long as I can ensure proper shopping cart procedure and security through services out there that specialize in online digital product ordering.

Part of being a one-man-band, as you know, is time management as it would be all too easy to turn the running of the company into the fulltime job and not the creating of comics. All of what I mentioned above–aside from direct sales–is based on the do-the-work-once-than-don’t-worry-about-it model I’ve been using for eight years. This then frees up time for creating, marketing, and personal time with family. Might even be time for sleep, if you’re into that sort of thing. Har har.

Added for the sake of the article:

The idea(l), I think, is to cast as wide a net as possible distribution-wise without unintentionally getting yourself into a sea of paperwork and a big mess of places to keep track of, in turn losing yourself in the chaos and losing money and time as a result. Streamlining is so critical when it comes to being a one-man operation. I’ll keep an updated list of distribution channels on my blog How To Self-Publish Books & Comics The Right Way.

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

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.

I’m conducting a publishing experiment with Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead and between now and the 9th–the 9th being the last day–it will be free on Amazon Kindle. And it is also only available on Amazon Kindle as I hooked up to their exclusive program for this eBook.

As both an artist and publisher, I need to find good ways to promote not just myself but also my authors. However, to suddenly take all the books I’m responsible for and do a campaign like this one, which is essentially a gamble, it would be unfair to take away 5 days’ worth of royalties from my authors without knowing if it’s to their benefit in the long run.

Anyway, I just got online now after being offline all day and at about 5:30PM CST, my Kindle rank in the free store for Zombie Fight Night is #604. That’s pretty good considering I haven’t promoted anything yet. Can we hit #1? I don’t know, but you’re more than welcome to help by clicking on the book cover above and downloading a copy. It’s free, and will only take you around 30 seconds. If you don’t have a Kindle, then a whole host of free apps are available here for your iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, PC, etc.

Here’s the story:

In 2027 A.D., the Zombie Apocalypse took the world by storm and no one was prepared. Countless lives were lost as humanity battled to regain control of their planet. Eventually, they did, and out of the ashes of fallen civilization rose a new world, one bent on revenge against the hordes of the undead that took everything from them.

Enter Tony Sterpanko, entrepreneur extraordinaire who found a way to capitalize on humanity’s thirst for vengeance against the zombie. He created Zombie Fight Night, a worldwide craze where the undead men and women who remained from the apocalypse faced off against people and beings that once existed on Earth or were existing for the first time.

It is ten years later and at Blood Bay Arena, fortunes are won and lost. Men are made millionaires over night. Others are not so lucky and find themselves broken and destitute.

Mick Chelsey is one such man: gambling addict, lousy husband and Zombie Fight Night fanatic.

Except now, in order to still watch the fights and try to win back all he’s lost, he needs to bet fast and big otherwise death will come for him.

Let the battles begin.

Zombies fight Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires, Axiom-man, Bruce Lee, samurai, kickboxers, robots and more in this ode to blood-and-guts action from Blood of the Dead author, A.P. Fuchs.

You ready to get it on?

I now present to you what I think is one of the most coolest books of my career, Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, for free.

Enjoy, and thanks for downloading.

Christmas has come and gone, but the Holidays are not over. Not when you can curl up with a good book and take a vacation between its pages.

Join us as we celebrate seven years in business with a Boxing Week sale from Coscom Entertainment!

All eBooks are 50% off at Smashwords, with most sitting in the $2.50 range.

Now’s a great chance to load up your Kindle, Nook or iPad with these great monster and superhero titles.

Book list, coupon codes and links below.

Thanks, and enjoy reading these discounted books, but hurry as the coupon is only good for one week and expires at the end of the year.

Coupon codes displayed after the book’s title and author.

A Red Dark Night: A Novel of Blood, Gore and Terror by A.P. Fuchs – DR33D
Animal Behavior and Other Tales of Lycanthropy: A Chilling Collection of Werewolf Horror by Keith Gouveia – UK46G
Anna Karnivora: A Vampire Novel by W. Bill Czolgosz – BN25J
April: A Love Story by Peter Fox – JM44Y
Axiom-man: A Superhero Novel (The Axiom-man Saga, Book 1) by A.P. Fuchs – NZ67X
Axiom-man: Doorway of Darkness (The Axiom-man Saga, Book 2) by A.P. Fuchs – KU48L
Axiom-man: First Night Out (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 0) by A.P. Fuchs – BE35U
Axiom-man: The Dead Land: A Superhero/Zombie Thriller (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 1) by A.P. Fuchs – EY48Y
Bigfoot War by Eric S. Brown – WU22N
Bigfoot War 2: Dead in the Woods by Eric S. Brown – QD32A
Bigfoot War 3: Food Chain by Eric S. Brown – XB84X
Blood of the Dead: A Zombie Thriller (Undead World Trilogy, Book 1) – SC39X
Born to Bleed: A Thriller by Ryan C. Thomas – UN38R
Children of the Dragon: A Fantasy Novel by Keith Gouveia – XT99W
Cult of the Damned (The Wraith Series, Book Three) by Frank Dirscherl – VR39R
Dead Science: A Zombie Anthology edited by A.P. Fuchs – ZQ26P
Don of the Dead: A Zombie Novel by Nick Cato – JT89H
Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann- CC64A
Eternal Unrest: A Novel of Mummy Terror by Lorne Dixon – TZ24P
Flame of Surrender (The Ferryman and the Flame, Book One) by Rhiannon Paille – NN68D
Hound: The Curse of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Lorne Dixon – SF68N
Life of Death (Blood of my World Novella Three): A Paranormal Romance by A.P. Fuchs – QJ38H
Memories of Death (Blood of my World Novella Two): A Paranormal Romance by A.P. Fuchs – QJ52B
Metahumans vs the Undead: A Superhero vs Zombie Anthology edited by A.P. Fuchs – GU58K
Possession of the Dead: A Zombie Thriller (Undead World Trilogy, Book 2) by A.P. Fuchs – SK56N
Revolt of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (Death Puppet Trilogy, Book One) – VY65K
R.I.P.: A Zombie Novel by Harrison Howe – WS62N
Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers by Paul A. Freeman – PK65N
Snarl: A Werewolf Thriller by Lorne Dixon – UJ84F
The Black Cat and the Ghoul (Coscom Entertainment Monster Novella Series) by Edgar Allen Poe and Keith Gouveia – GU44Y
The Lifeless: A Zombie Thriller by Lorne Dixon – AT32F
The Summer I Died: A Thriller by Ryan C. Thomas – QS78Z
The Undead World of Oz: L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Complete with Zombies and Monsters by L. Frank Baum and Ryan C. Thomas – MD97P
The Weaponer (Coscom Entertainment Monster Novella Series) by Eric S. Brown – TS38V
The Wraith (The Wraith Series, Book One) by Frank Dirscherl – GK39Y
Valley of Evil (The Wraith Series, Book Two) by Frank Dirscherl – ZM55W
Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head edited by A.P. Fuchs – VE42M
World War of the Dead: A Zombie Military Thriller by Eric S. Brown – HU49K
Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs – DP59A

This was a story I wrote under the Peter Fox pen name some years ago for an anthology called Romancing the Soul, an anthology of short stories about soulmates. I figured since folks really seem to be snapping up copies of April, it wouldn’t hurt to have another Peter Fox love story offering out there. So, I gave this a quick revision, made a cover, and away we go.

I do hope you take a moment to check it out. Just click on the Kindle eBook image above to access it. It’s only .99 cents.

For those requiring other formats instead of the Kindle for the Nook or Sony eReader, or iPad or iPhone, My Angel and Me is also available at Smashwords in a multitude of formats.

Thanks.

The story:

Sometimes you fall in love, and she becomes your whole world. You never thought it would happen, but it did. This is a short story about an angel, a girl named Cyan, someone who brought Heaven down with her, and made Jack believe in miracles.

November 3, 2010
Blog: Reading Angel
Web: http://www.readingangel.com/2010/11/scott-nicholson-guest-post-and-kindle.html
Comment:

“Yet clearly I don’t want to believe it, or I would have embraced that incident as proof of the afterlife.”

This statement piqued my interest. Do you have any idea why you don’t want to believe in an afterlife?

Actually, to fine tune the question even more: what is it about the possibility of an afterlife that scares you hence, it seems, making you not want to believe in one? Because, frankly, what each and every one of us believe has no bearing on what really is. Truth is truth, fact is fact, and beliefs–no matter how varied–don’t change that.

Thanks.

November 4, 2010
Blog: The True Book Addict
Web: http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/2010/11/scott-nicholson-guest-post-and-kindle.html#idc-container
Comment:

Never got into reading during the school years, mainly because you were forced to read certain books and, frankly, none of them really appealed to me. However, after high school, I started reading books I wanted to read and suddenly a whole new world was opened up.

Terry Goodkind, Stephen King, John Grisham, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis–man, just such good material.

These days, my influences are from all over the place, especially as I’ve been exploring the world of indie comics and have been finding some real cool voices (Alec Longstreth, for example).

I agree. With all the options out there in the digital era, we’ll never be bored.

November 5, 2010
Blog: Chrissie’s Corner
Web: http://www.chrissiescorner.co.uk/?p=3122
Comment:

Good post. Thanks, Scott. Please put me down for Kindle.

November 6, 2010
Blog: McQuestionable Musings
Web: http://mcquestionablemusings.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-post-with-author-scott-nicholson.html
Comment:

Ahh, the beauty of the Internet: the ability to publish a rejected manuscript and no one says boo about it.

However, at least you took the time for rewrites, edits, overhauls, etc., the stuff sometimes needed to make a book worth reading.

If anything, you’re kind of straddling the line here, yeah? The idea of a writer taking a rejected book and self-publishing it because he believes in it?

(And, yes, I crossed that line many years ago. However, the difference between you and I is I subsidy-published mine out of naivety and not really know what the reading audience required, whereas you’re doing this properly and with experience built in when creating the final product.)

Let’s hope this “sucky” book does real well for you, man.

November 7, 2010
Blog: Sparkling Reviews
Web: http://www.sparklingreviews.com/2010/11/kindles.html
Comment:

I’ve been debating for a while on which e-reader I want. A Kindle would almost seem like the default, but at the same time, I like the idea of color as I would want to read comics on it as well, so at present I’m leaning toward the iPad with the Kindle app.

I know that Kindle is where it’s at in terms of the action and selection, but yeah, that color thing for a comic geek like me . . .

For the past several days, I’ve been trailing horror author Scott Nicholson around the blogosphere, commenting on his posts, which are part of his three-month-long blog tour. His goal? To boost his Kindle eBook sales, gain more readers, gain exposure and share insights about his new experience as an independent author.

He’s giving away a free Kindle for this tour and, if just one of his eBooks make the Top 100 on Amazon.com, he’ll kick in another one.

My motive for following him around the Net is twofold:

1) I want a Kindle so I can experiment with eReading on a handheld. I’ve tried it on the iPad, but have not yet read a full novel in e-format. That’s on my bucket list.

2) I’ve been commenting on each of Scott’s posts on his tour, sometimes just a general comment, other times quoting him and making a statement. I’m compiling these tidbits of info and will be giving this compilation away as a free eBook once Scott’s tour is done (I have his permission). It will be in actual eBook format, but will also be posted here at www.CanisterX.com as a giant blog entry.

I’m excited to be making this book with Scott because it will serve as a good FAQ/FYI/here’s-the-deal on independent publishing, the book biz and life as an indie writer.

It still needs a title. Hmmm . . .

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 5

August 2010

Work is progressing very swiftly on Possession of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book 2) and I’m well past the 50,000-word mark. If I keep up my present momentum, I hope to have it done before the week is out. Present per-day goal for word count is 4,000. It’s got to get done and please don’t think just because I’m pounding it out means I’m not taking my time with it. It’s just how I write. I blast all the words out onto the screen first, then I go back edit/delete/tweak/etc. It’s a cool story, picks up right where the previous one left one, and sets things up nicely for the third installment.

Why the big rush? Simple: Central Canada Comic Con. This year will be my fourth year going as a vendor and I move a solid amount of product when I’m there, and folks last year were asking for Blood of the Dead’s sequel so I assured them it would be out 2010, no later. I’ll be officially launching Possession of the Dead at the con, but odds are it’ll be out online before then, probably mid-October or so. Just watch www.CanisterX.com for an announcement.

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Earlier this year I also teased about changing my online presence and having more stuff for you, the reader. This is still true and things will be changing at www.CanisterX.com before Possession of the Dead is released. In fact, one of the changes will be part of celebrating the book’s release.

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On the above, times are changing for the working writer and for publishers everywhere. 2009 was kind of the last year for the old way of doing things. The publishing business is changing daily and lots of publishers are going out of business. We’re living in an increasingly media-centric society and, unfortunately, the old days of paper and ink are fading fast. However, that does not mean books or comics are fading. Just means we need to change our plan, really invest in the e-arena and bring you solid entertainment that way.

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In comic news, I’m 11 pages into my autobiographical comic, Canister X, named after my website. This autobio comic is nothing like what I’ve seen so far that’s out there—not that I’ve read every autobio comic; I’ve read some and read of many—and I think my use of blending real life with fantasy is quite unique. We’ll see. I hope to have this comic out by comic con as well.

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That’s it for this month. It’s a brief newsletter because the clock’s ticking and much work needs to be done.

As always, thank you for supporting my work and that of my company, Coscom Entertainment.

I should also point out if you love monster (namely zombies, werewolves, vampires) and superhero books, not only is Coscom Entertainment the place to get quality stories, but if you have an e-reader (or just read them on your computer as well), all of Coscom Entertainment’s books are $2.99US or less for the Amazon Kindle and in other formats (.epub, .mobi, lit, pdf and more) at Smashwords or Fictionwise. Our books are also available at the iBookstore for the iPad and iPhone as well for $2.99, too.

Thanks again. See you next month.

Best,

A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
August 23, 2010