Take a walk on the design side and watch author A.P. Fuchs go through some of the edits from his editor for his upcoming release, AXIOM-MAN/CRIMSON CLOAK: SCARLET SYNERGY, then proceed to the layout phase of the book’s production prior to a final read-through before press.
Check out THE AXIOM-MAN SAGA in paperback and eBook to get ready for AXIOM-MAN/CRIMSON CLOAK: SCARLET SYNERGY at:
It’s important to me to share information with fellow writers and artists whenever I can. I have a free section here for it on this site, but I also have a special section on Patreon for creators as well. The below essays and articles are only available on Patreon but they share over 20 years of knowledge of the self-publishing business and how it works.
Click the image above to be taken to the page.
The Secret to Social Media Success Part 1
The Secret to Social Media Success Part 2
The Secret to Social Media Success Part 3
How to Write Well Every Time: Proper Writing
The Road Back: How to Create Again After a Hiatus
Spontaneous Book or Comic Marketing
How to Maintain a Blogging Schedule
How to Overcome Writer’s Block
What to Do If You Think Your Arts Career Is Sinking Part 1
What to Do If You Think Your Arts Career Is Sinking Part 2
Should you Maintain a Creative Schedule?
The One Marketing Trick Hiding in Plain Sight
Creating: Time Allocation
Business Card Division
Project Cash Flow
All of the above writing and self-publishing essays and articles are designed to help the creator, give insight, and, ideally, give their career a boost. I know the above has worked for me.
Last Friday, I released an important essay to my patrons on how an author or artist can managing funding their current and future projects while still reaping the reward. How to budget as an author or artist is huge right now in this digital do-it-yourself era.
I cover a solid tip here on this site but the real meat and potatoes is below.
Excerpt:
“Money management can be the bane of many creators. It can be difficult to juggle funds for your project as well as keeping the financial reward from that project while also ensuring funds are available for the next project (never mind juggling the costs of life on top of this, especially in this era of inflation).
Here’s a solid approach:
First, understand the moment you decide to take your creation public and start charging money for it, you’re a business not a person. That’s how businesses work: They make something and sell it. No different here.”
Please visit here for the rest of the essay. Its intent is to save creators headaches regarding funding their work.
Well, I’ve been working in the same space for almost five years. This is the only room in the house that accomodates my desks and equipment to bring you books and comics and a pile of other stuff.
However, it’s time to change the decor and shuffle things around. Depending what Melinda says, I might even be able to free up an additional 2′ x 6′ area that’s presently occupied within the studio. As well, with a new studio layout comes new decorations so I’d like to showcase the studio as it is right now one more time before we say farewell to this version and change things up for 2024 and beyond.
Here’s the teaser I shot to hint at the tour:
And here is the tour itself. Hope you tune in when the 2024 studio changes kick in and all is complete and a tour is given.
Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead City Book Spotlight
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?
ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT: BATTLES OF THE DEAD is available as a paperback and eBook at:
Canister X Mailbag – Harvey Pekar’s “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me” and
“On the Fly” Unboxing – 01112024
I’ve been a fan of Harvey Pekar ever since I watched AMERICAN SPLENDOR all those years ago. It’s my comfort movie for a lot of reasons, one of which is simply the ability to relate to Harvey and his battle through life. He wrote comics about the everyday stuff. And they were good. I have quite a few graphic novels of his outside of AMERICAN SPLENDOR and Harvey always delivers.
You need to check him out, especially if you’re big into comics. It’s mandatory reading.
NOT THE ISRAEL MY PARENTS PROMISED ME by Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman on Amazon.
ON THE FLY by Harvey Pekar and Summer McClinton on Amazon.
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I don’t often check my sales reports. It’s a peace-of-mind thing. Some authors sweat bullets over their numbers and I personally don’t need that kind of stress so I just let the books sell and whatever I get is whatever I get.
As per my distributor, ZOMTROPOLIS: A RECORD OF LIFE IN A DEAD CITY is bestseller for me out of all my eBooks. Not bad. I’m proud of that book and what it’s about and what it stands for (yes, there’s a message/theme throughout).
Short synopsis:
She came back into his life. Only to die on him. Marty loved Selena. Maybe too much, but after their breakup, everything went to hell, including the world around him. Now, alone in a zombie-infested city, Marty must come to terms with what’s happened both to his heart and to the world around him. Hope, loss, pain. The undead. Welcome to Zomtropolis.
Realm of Heroes and Monsters YouTube Playlist Index
As you might have guessed–because I’ve been blatantly obvious–I spent a good chunk of 2023 beefing up my YouTube channel in an effort to 1) Play in another medium 2) Put some eyeballs on my books and comics 3) Entertain or inform you as best as I am able.
We did not bad and had growing stats week by week. Sure, there were some dips in the analytics but you can’t hit the ball out of the park every time.
Below is a newly-curated list of my playlists on YouTube. It’d be really great if you subscribed to one that strikes your fancy. Part of the goal with this whole YouTube thing is to use it as a funding channel–which costs my viewers nothing other than 2 seconds to click subscribe–so I can more easily bring you more books and comics and other entertainment. If you haven’t already subscribed to the channel, please do so. It really does help out an independent creator like me make ends meet.
Here are the playlists on my channel in no particular order as we embark into 2024.
Enjoy!
Realm of Heroes and Monsters YouTube Playlist Index:
I started writing when I was 19. That was a long time ago. Not all work was published. Some was work by a young writer learning the craft; some was work after he started to get the hang of it.
There are some–going off memory–cool stories and concepts that were created but never made it into the reader’s hands. Not because the stories were terrible. Those works never made it to print simply due to the path my writing career took.
My plan is finish digging through the archives and see what material is available and if it’s any good or not. If it is, the work will no doubt need some editing and possible revisions, but perhaps the effort will lead the work to its final destination: You, the reader.
I’m going to see what oddities I can find then take it from there.
This year is already stacked with publications so as of right now, goal one is to assemble and assess then take it from there.
As we get back into real life after the break, it’s time to put 2024’s self-publishing and media plans into motion. A lot of thought and planning went on during the break, and now with that in place, it’s just an issue of carrying it out.
This month, AXIOM-MAN/CRIMSON CLOAK: SCARLET SYNERGY is top priority if I want to make a late January/early February release deadline. As of this writing, the book is done and is in the editing phases and the cover is currently being created. Once these two parts are complete, then I’ll have the components to begin the book production process and get the project out to you. Due to the nature of publishing, this may create an earlier release (early January) or a minorly-delayed one (early February).
All I know is the book is my main thing this month with everything else secondary. The secondary stuff will still happen, but the primary gets the, well, priority.
Okay. Enough blabbing.
Time to get this book out to you. To get caught up on THE AXIOM-MAN SAGA, please go here.