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.

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

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

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.

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.

The publisher copies of Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook from Source Books came in the mail the other day. All I can say is WOW! I’ve produced many books in my time, have read many, have seen many, etc., and Alice in Zombieland is easily one of the best-looking books I have ever seen. Truly. I took some shots below so you can see it, too. The jacket is not just your regular paperback jacket, but rather a thick version of a dust jacket, very sturdy and sharp. The title is raised, and the cover even has a “golden spine” like those Golden Books we used to read as kids. The interior is beautiful as are the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel and Brent Cardillo.

Alice in Zombieland is available in paperback here, on Kindle here, and on the Nook here.

The story:

When little Alice follows the Black Rat down into the open grave, she falls and falls, and soon finds herself in an undead nightmare. Following the Rat, she ventures further into this land of monsters, encountering characters both creepy and madcap along the way. But there’s something else troubling poor Alice: her skin is rotting and her hair is falling out. Can Alice escape Zombieland before the Dead Red Queen catches up to her?

Have a seat at the table for the wildest tea party of your life and explore the unforgettable adventure that is Alice in Zombieland.

Here are the pics:

As part of my previously-mentioned experiment regarding cover art for books, last night I did up new covers for the two books currently on the market for my Undead World Trilogy (the third’s not out yet, aiming for later this year). At present, these new covers are available for the Kindle and Drivethru Horror only, however will start showing up for the Nook and elsewhere as soon as those distributors update their listings with the new art. If the new covers prove to move more copies in eBook format, then I’ll be updating the paperback versions as well.

To be honest, I really love the original covers to Blood of the Dead and Possession of the Dead. The artists did a fantastic job. I even have promotion posters of both covers in my office. The thing is, my personal tastes fall more into the comic book-style covers, whereas most readers enjoy the photo/traditional covers gracing most books these days. That was kept in mind when making these new covers last night and I’m interested to see how these eBooks fare with the new covers, everything else about them staying the same.

Here they are below, the new covers to Blood of the Dead and Possession of the Dead. Click on the book covers to be taken to their page for Amazon’s Kindle.

Thanks.

My supernatural thriller novellete, Undeniable, went live as an eBook-only download on Amazon Kindle, the Nook, Fictionwise, Smashwords, etc. back in December 2010.

It’s a fantastic story, one that I’m really proud of, but one thing that I felt needed work was the cover. Not that the art was bad, but my personal artwork falls more into the realm of comic book and sequential art rather than standard book cover art.

So . . . as things would have it, this month I was fortunate to acquire a piece of artwork that fit perfectly with Undeniable‘s hardcore and martyrdom-based setting, and so used it as the new cover with new lettering.

It is posted below, and by clicking in on it you’ll be taken to the book’s Amazon page, where you can download it for less than $3. The new cover art will update at the other e-outlets soon. Just waiting for the computers to do their thing.

Here’s what Undeniable is about:

When Duncan and his son Kyle are arrested for their faith, they are subjected to bloody and horrific torture that brings them to sanity’s edge and death’s door.

Physically broken and emotionally spent, the real threat is if they will finally break spiritually.

His eyes removed by his tormentors, Duncan is blind, and it’s only when he asks God to see again is it revealed to him what is really going on beyond the natural realm.

Amidst all the blood, the pain, and the hissing of demons, will Duncan break, or will he prove that Jesus is Undeniable?

Recommended for fans of Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker.

To be clear, I’m not trying to be a jerk. Just telling it like it is.

The eBook market has been around for years and year and years. I’ve been publishing eBooks since 2004. They’ve always been a viable market and I’ve always made money at it. Unfortunately, up until recently–thanks to no other place for writers to turn–they weren’t viewed as “real” books and being e-published didn’t make you “really” published. Sheesh.

It’s only the explosion of eReaders that have changed the game. I daresay it’s not even that. It’s just the eReading technology has improved, making eBooks easier on the eyes. Handhelds have been around for a long while, just not marketed as aggressively as the Kindle or Nook. Like the recent mashups: they’ve been around for ages, but only have recently hit the mainstream.

Regarding my forever stance on eBooks and what I explained to my authors when negotiating contracts and some would say they weren’t sure about the eMarket, I told them, a reader is a reader, a sale a sale. The goal is to reach the readers in the way they want. If they like eBooks, awesome. They’re still getting the same book, just a slightly different format. Why would I deny the reader–and the author–that?