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

A lot of “numbered” features appear on this blog–i.e. book reviews, movie reviews, etc.–and as is my way, I’m starting a new one: Various Bits from the Net, a kind of showcase, if you will, of a handful of things I find on the Whacky Worldwide Web that I enjoy–usually fandom-based–and posted here for your amusement or criticism or whatever you like. Cool? Okay, good. This’ll be done now and then to help while away the hours for both of us.
Here we go:
The Avengers – Extended Super Bowl Spot (HD):

Comic Book Men on AMC (A few trailers):





Steampunk Bicycle Playing Cards:

Click Here to Order From Amazon.com

Jon F. Merz goes hardcore in this brief–but all-too important–guide on how to build your readership via Twitter.

And that’s the beauty of this eBook: it’s niche. This is about increasing your readership and overall eBook sales via Twitter, focusing on that one method of delivery. A “crash course,” if you want.

Look, I’ve been on Twitter a long time, and the sad truth about social media is–right now–there is no “for sure” way to do anything in terms of generating sales. Jon tells us this, so instead offers what’s worked for him. And if it’s worked for him, odds are it’ll work for many others who follow the advice in this book.

Everything is covered from how to sell your eBooks on Twitter, how to gain more followers, how to format your links and so on.

On a personal note, what I really appreciated was Jon not including any hype about the “eBook revolution.” As someone who’s been publishing eBooks for seven years, it drives me nuts when folks treat eBooks as a big deal and hype it up to the extent that it’s “go indie or bust.” Instead, Jon sits down with you over a cup of coffee–or maybe a beer due to how loose and relaxed he seems in this book–and just flat out says, “Hey man, this eBook thing is working out for me. Hadn’t always. Now it is. This is what I’ve done differently, and here’s where I’m at today.”

I’d recommend this book to anyone looking to sell eBooks more efficiently, quickly and properly on the Web.

Kudos to Jon for providing a down-to-earth guide on how to use Twitter to its utmost in every author’s quest to sell more books.

The good folks over at Beacon News conducted an interview with me and have now aired it on the Web.

Please go here to give it a read.

Thanks.

Read Part Three…

September 16, 2010
Blog: BookHounds
Web: http://maryinhb.blogspot.com/2010/09/kindle-giveaway-from-author-scott.html

Comment:

Amazing you can read “bookmarkless.” Unless I finish a chapter, I’m lost when I do it that way. Actually, here’s my dirty little secret: sometimes I use a square of toilet paper for a bookmark. Just fold it in half and, tada! Bookmark.

Okay, said too much.

September 17, 2010
Blog: Paranormal Haven
Web: http://www.paranormalhaven.com/2010/09/guest-post-with-author-scott-nicholson.html

Comment:

We have a church like that just outside the city. The myth is you go there at midnight and run around the church three times.

On the third time, you disappear.

Remember hearing this growing up. Gave me the chills. Now, no, but back then . . .

September 18, 2010
Blog: What Book is That?
Web: http://www.whatbookisthat.com/2010/09/dont-quit-your-day-job-post-by-mr-scott.html

Comment:

When I started off as an artist, I used to think that whatever your art, you’d only focus on that one craft. Writers write. Artists draw. Actors act. No mixing them. None.

Then you get older and you realize that–as pretentious as it sounds–artists tend to drift from one medium to another, even if just to learn they’re not as good at it as they’d like to be.

There’s a freedom in that, one that’s more fulfilling than just sticking to one craft only and rolling with it even if that one craft is successful for them.

September 16, 2010
Blog: Swamp Dweller Book Reviews
Web: http://swampdweller.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/burial-to-follow-a-word-from-scott-nicholson/

Comment:

That’s an amazing family history, Scott, despite how morbid it is. Doesn’t events like those send a kind of gloomy shockwave throughout the family that stays there?

However, I do have to hand it to your relatives for forgiving your uncle. The crime was horrific, but they’re acceptance of him afterward proves love covers a multitude of sins.

Wow. If anything, you should be honored to have a family that does that.

September 21, 2010
Blog: Luxury Reading | Book reviews, Author Interviews, Giveaways
Web: http://luxuryreading.com/scottnicholson/
Comment:

“Don’t want to mess with that stuff.”

I had a friend who used the Necronomicon and did one of the rituals in there. The result? Glowing, haunting faces on his bedroom walls. This was before he became a Christian.

Yeah, don’t want to mess with that stuff indeed.

We’ve had some Net trouble here on our end in that the main machine I worked from was unable to get online for browsing, hence no blog post yesterday.

We just underwent a much, much overdue hardware upgrade here, so I need a few days to get things back up and running. I’m able to access the Net again, but my work–both publishing and writing–is on the other machine. I’m still aiming for a Zomtropolis update tomorrow, but there’s a small chance it might not appear until Saturday. Please check in tomorrow to see if it was posted or not.

Likewise, Coscom Entertainment work has been backed up as a result, too, since a good portion of the business takes place on the Internet and all its files are on the other machine. Time to start transferring.

Thank you for your patience.

When I first got on the Web sometime back in 2002 in terms of having a website, it was meant as a place to promote myself and my writing, and that’s pretty much how it stayed till around 2004. Then I had two sites: one for me and one for Coscom Entertainment. The Coscom Entertainment site has been through a couple incarnations, the latest of which was put in place back in 2008. As it stands, I like the Coscom site as it is so don’t plan on changing things much over there.

For my stuff personally, in 2007 (I think), I overhauled my site for the third or fourth time and made it Axiom-man-centered, which was fine, because I was pretty much only writing Axiom-man stories. Then I started my zombie trilogy, so I got a website for that (www.undeadworldtrilogy.com). That was fine, too. Then, if you’ve been following my “web diet” over the past year, you can see things got out of hand for a while and between all the social networking sites and other things, I was getting close to 20 places on the Web I had to deal with. Too much, hence the web diet.

After all that and with the changes in my own writing and publishing life, my website setup wasn’t cutting it, so I started doing the blog thing. I’ve been through three or four versions here on WordPress, trying to find a layout that works for the content I want to deliver. Even went so far as creating an offshoot fanzine/site for my love of superheroes and monsters and called it Canister X. That was short-lived, because to maintain that and my personal site and Coscom’s was too much, so I merged the first two and here we are.

Now my approach to things is changing again . . . for the better. The Canister X site will remain. You’ll always be able to come here and count on daily updates on things monster and superhero related. But I’m going to take things a step further, but without overextending myself, in turn making things fun for me and, more importantly, fun and cool for you.

You’ll see some layout changes for the next little while. Don’t worry if something looks off. Odds are I’ll be fixing it. Just need to noodle around a bit till I get things right. In the end, youl and I will be rewarded with a cool place to hang out and be entertained.

Stay tuned . . .