• Writing Corner – My Current Office

    For years I used to sit down at the computer desk and write my books, and only once have I written an entire book longhand–never again, by the way–but there came a time where I would be sitting on the couch and be inspired and would want to write, but couldn’t immediately/conveniently do so because the computer was all the way upstairs, I’d have to wait for it to boot up, get myself settled, etc. So, a few years ago I bought a laptop and have since done all my writing on it. Now I can write anywhere in the house. For a while it was on the couch in our rec room, then I took a liking to sitting in bed and writing, but these days I’m on the big comfy chair in our front room. What you see above is my current office as I work on Secret Project No. 1. I’m getting a lot done in this space and, so far anyway, plan on using it for Secret Projects Nos. 2 and 3.

    Production work for these books will be done on the desktop in the studio, but the editing will be done anywhere, most likely in bed as I like to lay down and do my edits. Don’t ask me why. I might go the coffee shop route and do my edits there. Not sure. For each round of edits, I always type them up on the desktop computer as that’s where the printer is and that’s what I’m used to.

    Anyway . . .

    What about you? Where do you write?


  • A Self-publisher’s Book Stock

    In the corner of the studio is my shelf of books. These are for conventions, book signings, direct sales, and any other venue I can sell paperbacks at. Selling direct to the reader is a market that most modern self-publishers don’t take advantage of and is one I highly recommend as I’ve been doing direct-market sales for eleven years, and convention sales for eight. Save for the occasional bad book signing, it’s always been a good method for me to move copies. Typically, I’ll order in a bunch of books in moderate quantities, anywhere from 25-100. Only once have I gone way over and got in 300 copies of a title. By doing it this way, I know I have stock for all my shows for a year, possibly two, depending on quantity ordered. By all means, there’s a small financial outlay at the start, but as discussed in my book, Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book, this cost is quickly recovered and everything above that is profit. Likewise, the more you get in, the cheaper your per-unit cost is thus making it fewer copies to recoup your investment and also increasing your per-unit profit.

    Here are pics of the big bookshelf in the corner. Some book and comic stock also pepper the studio in other places, but this is the main go-to shelf, which is stocked two books deep and as high as is possible. Click the pics below for a closer look. Recognize the titles?

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  • New Newsletter: The Canister X Transmission

    Some of you may recall the old Canister X Newsletter, which ran a long time ago for five or six issues. It was published monthly and contained a pile of stuff that I didn’t include on my blog. I’ve always liked the idea of a newsletter and have been toying with the idea of starting a new one for quite sometime now.

    Well, that time has come.

    The plan is to send it out every Saturday. It’s called The Canister X Transmission, and will be a place to transmit my thoughts on what’s going on, musings on the creative life, fanboy randomness, with a publishing or marketing tip at the end. It’s good for writers and artists, but you don’t need to be one to sign up. If you enjoy peeks behind the curtain or just want to get stuff from me more regularly, this newsletter is for you. Yes, there’ll be the occasional promo thing–that’s just how these things are–but I’m not going to spam you with sales pitches. I just want a fun way to stay in touch with my readers and those interested in hearing more about making stuff up for a living.

    You can find the signup page here.

    First issue goes out this Saturday.

    Thanks.


  • Why You Should Self-publish Part Two

    Why You Should Self-publish Part Two

    why you should self-publish

    (from Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book)

    By taking on the role of a publisher, the one who fronts the cost to turn a manuscript into a published book, the self-publisher takes all the risk—but also reaps all the reward as a result. Think of it as an investment. Folks go to the bank all the time and dump in fifty dollars, a hundred dollars, a thousand or more into RRSPs or GICs, money they’ll never touch for years, but while it’s sitting there, it’ll earn them much more than they originally invested given enough time. Self-publishing is the same way. Even if your up-front costs are a thousand dollars, you start selling your books and, depending on format, make $3-10 profit, once you’ve sold 100-333 copies, you’ve made your money back. Everything above that is your return on your investment. And instead of making a dollar or even two dollars a book sold as per the traditional royalty system with the rest going to your publisher—and to be fair, they deserve to make money for bringing the book to market for you and taking care of you during your contract with them—you get to keep all the profits for yourself.

    There’s huge potential to make a lot of money self-publishing. Like I said, if you set up your system to ensure you make $3-10 profit per book (i.e. $3 minimum on an eBook sale and $10 or so on the high end for a paperback sale), you could come away with a very secure future assuming the market is kind to you. To sell 50 eBooks would pay my water bill for three months. I could do the same if I sold 15 paperbacks at a convention as I average around $10 profit per sale through those direct-to-reader venues.

    Before, a writer would have to sell thousands of copies of their book just to stay afloat because they made anywhere from 80 cents to a couple bucks a book depending on format. Sometimes less. And while it’s great that they sold those thousands of copies so they could pay their bills, imagine how much more they could’ve made had they been able to do the same volume of sales on their own? If they sold 2000 books total and made the aforementioned 80 cents to two dollars, that would be around $1600-4000 in their pocket. If they self-published and averaged $3-10 per sale, that’s a range of $6000-20,000 to their credit. A huge, huge difference, and for some, enough of a difference between having a bed to sleep in and food on the table.

    The beauty of self-publishing is the ability to produce a book for a niche market, something that you don’t typically find in the mainstream, if at all. For example, I write superhero fiction. Back when I started doing it in 2006, my series, The Axiom-man Saga, was one of a handful of other independent superhero fiction books. There was no way I could take my manuscript and sell it to a publishing house because no one would take the risk on a completely unknown superhero with no proven track record. Well, guess what? By self-publishing the series, I’ve been able to find an audience for it and every time a new installment in The Axiom-man Saga comes out for a convention or on-line, people buy copies. And when I’m behind on getting a new book out because I’m committed to other projects, people start asking me when the next book in The Axiom-man Saga is coming out.

    Self-publishing is also great for those who can’t keep their hands to themselves. Some writers need to be involved with their book every step of the way, and while this goes back to self-publishing enabling the writer complete control of the project, it also lends itself to writers who are also entrepreneurs, who are business people by nature.

    There are two types of people in the world: those who take risks and those who don’t. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. They see the potential for a business and are willing to spend the money—sometimes money they don’t have—to make it happen even though there’s the possibility it might not work out. And that’s their mindset when it comes to self-publishing: it’s a business. And what do businesses do? They manufacture a product and market it to people. Even service-providing businesses do the same because a service is a product. The entrepreneurial self-publisher is someone who isn’t just a creative individual, but also one with a business-oriented mindset, someone who has a vision for their book beyond simply writing it and are willing to take the risk(s) involved to make that vision a reality. While I personally don’t view books as “products” but works of art, from the outside looking in that’s what a publisher does: sells a product.

    The other advantage to self-publishing is to take a book and prove to a traditional publisher there is a market for it. There are many stories of writers self-publishing rejected manuscripts—which weren’t necessarily rejected for quality reasons—and turning them into bestsellers. There are also those who have self-published, had major success, and then were picked up by a traditional publisher who took on the publishing duties of the same book. Often, these publishers paid a lot of money to have these books in their catalog because the writer showed them there’s an audience for their book(s) out there. You need to sell several thousand copies to catch a traditional publisher’s interest, something to the tune of 5000 copies-plus, but self-publishing is an excellent way to give a chance at life to a book that otherwise would’ve been sitting in a rejection pile somewhere.

    By self-publishing, you are also the sole rights holder to the book. And while true even if you sold the book to a traditional publisher you’d still be the sole author and copyright holder, the traditional publisher would be the one who holds the print and electronic rights to it, meaning they could be the only ones to publish the book in the language they represent. Depending, some traditional publishers take additional rights when taking on a book: audio, film, even foreign translation rights if they are connected in that way. The first two are the most common. By going it alone, you decide who gets what, so if some guy from Hollywood wants to make a movie out of your book, you don’t need to share the monies offered with anyone if you negotiate the deal yourself. You’d also get to decide how much influence you’ll have on the movie, though, of course, if you want too much influence—and how much influence is “too much” is up to Joe Hollywood—then the deal might not happen at all. Regardless, to be the one in charge of deciding what other ways people can experience your story is up to you if you self-publish.

    If you’re a salesman or are good with people, then the marketing of self-publishing should excite you. For some, sales are a thrill-of-the-chase thing and for every sale they land, they get a high off it. And to know that for every hour of effort you put into selling your book will reap you and you alone the financial reward of doing so should make you even more excited. Books usually don’t sell themselves, but if marketing and creating campaigns is an area of interest for you, self-publishing is an excellent field to do it in.

    As you can see, there are numerous advantages to self-publishing your book, the main ones being control and the potential to make more money. You also get to bypass anyone who might reject publishing your book and just take it directly to the reader themselves and let them decide.

    But most importantly, self-publishing is a ton of fun and I love every minute of it. Unless a traditional publisher comes along and can do something for me I can’t do on my own, then I plan on self-publishing for the remainder of my writing career.

    Having too much of a blast doing so.

    Maybe you will, too.


  • Why You Should Self-publish Part One

    Why You Should Self-publish Part One

    why you should self-publish

    (From Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book)

    There are those on the planet who enjoy making things. I mean, really making things, going from mere idea to its actual physical reality. There’s a sense of pride in seeing something through start to finish, crafting something with your own hands, making something that wasn’t there before.

    Our world wouldn’t be where it is if not for those who saw it fit to make their ideas a reality, for others to see, feel and experience those ideas and, hopefully, make the world a better place as a result. Sometimes we’ve succeeded at that, others times not. Regardless, bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before is incredible.

    That’s what self-publishing is: an incredible way for writers to bring their ideas into physical reality for a reader. And while before it was a joint effort between a publisher and writer to do that, taking the path of self-publishing enables the writer to be the sole creator of a book.

    The reasons people take the self-publishing route vary from individual to individual, but there has to be a few positive reasons behind doing it for it to be a viable option and worth the writer’s time, effort, and money.

    Self-publishing puts the success or failure of a book on the writer’s shoulders. By them being the publisher, it rests on them if the book succeeds or not, and by walking the book from conception to finished manuscript to formatted and printed paperback/hardcover and eBook, they can oversee each step in the process to stack the odds in their favor for a successful outcome.

    Why should anyone self-publish? I mean, it is an awful lot of work. Some, like me, would argue that the writing of the book is the easy part, but turning that manuscript into a published book is where the challenge is.

    It’s not for everybody and is certainly not for those seeking a get-rich-quick scheme, but it is for those who are entrepreneurial by nature, are very hands-on, enjoy a great deal of control, and even are lone wolves at heart. Writing itself is a lonely job, sitting there for hours on end typing on a computer or writing a book on a legal pad. Throw taking that manuscript and turning it into a published book into the mix and you’ve just added even more hours spent by yourself.

    For me, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love my alone time and prefer to spend the majority of my time that way if it can be helped. Ever since I was a kid I enjoyed time by myself, with time spent with others more of a chore than a joy. Nothing against anybody; just how I’m wired. But if this is you, too, then you’ve already got the makings of a writer and a self-publisher.

    To see a book through from start to finish, there’s an immense amount of control. Unlike the traditional publishing model where things like the cover or even the book’s title are under the domain of the marketing department, everything is up to the writer if they self-publish. The beauty of this is you can not only call the book what you want instead of giving your baby another name, but also decide on its presentation.

    When writing the book you no doubt had the story’s different scenes playing through your head. I’m sure there was at least one moment or two where you thought, Man, if only this scene was on the cover. Well, self-publishing gives you that chance. You can be very specific with the artwork and hire someone to bring to life that image you saw in your mind’s eye. Likewise, the book’s interior can be presented the way you want. Do you want spot illustrations in it? Hey, hire and artist and put them in. A traditional publisher might not go for that if you asked because it’s an added expense for them and an additional hassle in terms of coordinating with the artist for those images. Same with even font style, or simply labeling your chapters as “Chapter One” or “Chapter 1” or “1.” However you want it is how it’ll be which, to me, brings an added level of artistry to the book. Not only did you write the story, but you also designed the canvas for it to be presented on. Self-publishing is the only way to have this kind of control.

    Same with picking the price point. Traditional publishers have a bottom line they’re trying to feed and, depending, that bottom line might not even be dictated by the company owner but by others with their fingers in the pie. After all—and as I’m sure you’ve experienced if you’ve ever worked for a big company—the almighty shareholder comes first and who cares about practicality, right? By being in control of the pricing, you get to decide how much you make as the author/publisher and have the ability to experiment with different price points to see which one yields you the most earnings.

    Speaking of money . . .

    Please go here for Part Two on why you should self-publish.


  • Progress Report – April 28, 2014

    Progress continues on the writing of Secret Project No. 1. Very few people know the details and I’m enjoying keeping things under wraps for now. According to the wordometer on the right side of this blog, we’re sitting at about 10,700 words on the first draft. Not bad. The story’s flowing and I know where I’m going with it, currently thinking 2-3 scenes ahead.

    I gave a hint on this blog entry as to what it’s about. I’ll give another: it’s a new genre for me to write in.

    Genre variation is something I think is important for writers to experiment with. It’s a chance to stretch one’s creative muscles, try new things and not get stuck in the same ol’, same ol’.

    In other progress news, today I’ll be reposting an old self-publishing article on this blog as part of my rebuild motto that I got going on over here.

    I want to say thanks to those who’ve supported my books this year thus far. I’m grateful for every reader, especially in this competitive industry. So, again, thank you.


  • The Dead Land (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 1)

    Axiom-man: The Dead Land by A.P. Fuchs

    The Dead Land (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 1)

    A young boy goes missing.

    Taken, in the middle of the night.

    No clues. Nothing except the remnants of a black cloud, like the one coughed up from inside the Doorway of Darkness.

    A black cloud that takes Axiom-man to a world not his own.

    A dead world, where a gray and brown sky shrouds an entire city in a miasma of decay.

    The streets are empty. The young boy is nowhere to be found.

    Those he does find . . . are dead.

    And walking.

    Welcome to The Dead Land.

    Available as a paperback at:

    Amazon.com
    Amazon.ca
    Amazon.co.uk
    Barnes and Noble
    Other On-line Retailers

    Available as an eBook at:

    Amazon Kindle
    Drivethru Fiction
    Smashwords

    For more books in this exciting superhero series, please visit the Book and Comic Shop.