My name is A.P. Fuchs and I’m a novelist, cartoonist, and freelancer in all things publishing. You are reading my blog, Canister X, my official web presence. I’ve been in this business as a creative professional for sixteen years, been creating for longer than that.
While this is my main home on the Web, I also have a longstanding presence on social media:
My new Patreon page can be found here, where I post serial novels, essays on the creative and publishing industries, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more.
It’s that time of year again where I withdraw from having an active social media presence and switch over to broadcast mode. This begins today and will carry on throughout the winter, which in Manitoba means at least five or six months.
My plan for the winter season is to release all the manuscripts I’m sitting on–some of which were created last winter broadcast season–and get them into your hands as quickly as possible. The plan also calls for creating new work, whether writing or drawing.
The best way to keep up with me is to watch this blog and sign up for my weekly newsletter, The Canister X Transmission.
To contact me, please use email via the contact page on this site.
I hope everyone has a great winter. Try and stay warm, and to you creators out there, get stuff done. I know I will.
This is me the first time I tabled at the Central Canada Comic Con in 2007. It was also the same weekend my son was born. I’ve tabled every year since.It’s coming up soon, but beginning November 1, I will be switching over to broadcast mode for the winter. Pre-programmed content will still air on my social media channels. I’ll also be broadcasting from this blog and, of course, there is my weekly newsletter (which you should totally be reading).
In work news:
Progress is being made on the book front, with many titles waiting in the wings to go through the production process before getting into your hands. This was an experiment for me–writing books in bulk–and was a lot of fun. It also meant not releasing anything for a year, but still a good experiment nonetheless. What this means for output in the future, I don’t know. I do need to be releasing titles more frequently, however. This blog will also have details on each project as they come out. You’ll also learn the names of Secret Projects Nos. 1 and 2 (which are written).
Also upcoming is the Central Canada Comic Con from October 27 to 29 at the RBC Convention Centre here in Winnipeg. This is my last public appearance for the year and, possibly, well into next year or even until 2019. I have some plans and experiments I want to run, but I can’t do them if I’m committed to shows and signings. It just makes for too much work, and I’m not as spry as I used to be when I first started out in this business.
I’m looking forward to hunkering down for the winter. I’m looking forward to the quiet. I’m looking forward to working without other things buzzing in the back of my brain.
All right, let’s talk straight. Specifically, let’s talk author platforms. You’ve read the articles. You’ve been told how important they are. You’ve been given a list of what to include. Heck, you’ve even taken all that information to heart and acted upon it.
And the book sales aren’t happening.
So you keep at it, hoping one day it’ll all pay off. Day in and day out you bust your tail on social media and the Web only to keep missing your goal sales-wise. Or, perhaps, you hit it some months and others you wonder what it’s all for. Frustration sets in and you don’t know what’s going on. You did what Author A said. You got your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your blog, your Instagram and all the others—yet still you’re just another author voice shouting into the storm.
Here’s the issue: you’re following someone else’s advice. Worse, you’re following it to the letter and in the game of publishing, following the author platform advice to a T is a death sentence.
This is why:
Publishing is a giant crapshoot. There is no sure-fire way to do anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or trying to sell you something. While true there are basics and groundwork you can lay, that’s all those things are. Yes, your standard author platform recipe should be part of your game plan. That’s no different than saying you want to sell your book but you know you can’t sell your manuscript as is. You need to make it pretty and put it between two covers before you can do so. That’s a given. The basics.
The standard author platform isn’t working for you is because you aren’t making it yours. You’re making it like someone else’s or, simply, following the basic recipe without adding the personal tender loving touch that makes your cookies taste better than the other guy’s.
This is how to fix the issue, written step-by-step, but don’t treat it like an instruction manual. Customization, you know?
Step one:
Lay down the standard recipe. All good baking has a fairly consistent base across the board. Have your Facebook page, your Twitter, blog, Instagram and all that. Customize each page and make it about you and your books then commit to a Web plan where you’re active on each on a regular basis.
Step two:
Start adding the TLC. Don’t make your Facebook page like Joe Famous’s. Make it like yours.
I hate the word “brand” when it comes to this author stuff. It turns us into a product and, frankly, art is never about product. It can become a product, but should never be a product. See the difference? This world is sickly loaded with consumerism and people pushing products non-stop twenty-four hours a day. Most of us have tuned out the racket. But what draws us and captures our attention? Unique items and unique people. This so-called “brand” you’re supposed to become? How about voice? After all, your voice is what makes your art what it is to begin with. Why turn that off when sharing it with people?
So . . .
Format and design your pages to reflect you and your books. Don’t be all authorish. Don’t be all bookish. Don’t make people feel like they’re in a stuffy library when they visit you on the Web. In other words, don’t be so professional you come off as cold. Cold people suck.
Into baking or crafts? Build that into your page designs and content.
Into superheroes and comics? Put up some indie superhero character art as part of your banner and pictures.
Into sci-fi and tech? Give your page(s) a mechanical flare and make the electro-junkies squee on the inside when they visit you.
Into horror? Spook it up, man.
Get the idea?
Step three:
With your on-line base of operations already established, leave it alone for a bit and start playing around with other marketing ideas.
Some items . . .
Set up book signings. Table at conventions. Hook up with some craft shows and flea markets. Arrange a book tour, say, local at first then, depending on success, look at traveling out-of-province/state, even country.
Set yourself up as a unique property at these events. Don’t just have a plain table. Add some posters and signage. Add some props. Display your books in a pyramid-like tower. Stand out. Fool around. Don’t be the lonely author who sits there with a handful of books laid out boring and flat in front of them, longingly gazing at the passersby, your eyes pleading, “Please come talk to me. Please come buy my book.” I mean, you took all this time to personalize your on-line presence, why wouldn’t you do the same for your off-line one?
Casually bring up you’re an author into everyday conversations. You can subtly work your pitch into whatever you’re talking about with someone—choose appropriately, of course—and at a bare minimum leave them with a business card. But have books on-hand or in your car in case a sale is to be made. Trust me, it happens.
Go to open mic nights and share story excerpts or poetry. This is your chance to pimp your work, network and perhaps get hired for new projects.
Do workshops.
And a thousand other things. These examples are to make this point: lay your groundwork—that author platform—then play around with other marketing avenues. You’ll be surprised what works. You’ll also be surprised at what doesn’t because what works for Author A doesn’t always work for Author B.
Book marketing is all about customization. It’s about finding what works for you and putting energy into those things while discarding the things that don’t after you’ve given them a fair chance (i.e. six months to a year or something). And you know what? Even that thing you did that didn’t work for your first novel might be the goldmine that works for your second one. Each book is different. Even each book in a series is different.
Authors want the easy way out. “I just want to write,” they say. Well, if that were really true, you wouldn’t be publishing as well, right?
Or they want to be told what to do: that standard author platform recipe. Come on. How can you be so creative in fiction then totally useless outside of it? Don’t you know your life is a story and so is your book career? That creative flare that you put on the page can be used off of it, too. Stop thinking inside of your book and start thinking outside of it.
After this article is drafted, my plan for the day is to revisit my platform, one that I’ve already customized to me over the years—self-publishing since 2004—and take inventory on what’s working and what isn’t. I’m going to make some changes and try new things. Going to add my own TLC instead of relying on the standard Author Platform recipe.
I’m eager to see how these cookies turn out. I already know my zombie chocolate chip ones are dead ringers for a win and my Axiom-man cookies are super.
Screw the standard author platform. It’s boring and useless. But your own? The one with your personal touch?
Some say blogging is dead. Others still keep at it. I honestly don’t know if blogging is indeed dead, but I do know that writing is very much alive. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to blogging lately–as if I already don’t have enough to do–and want to revive this blog again. It used to be done five days a week, and most–perhaps all–of that was lost to the meltdown of 2014. Anyway, I was thinking that a good exercise would be to do some sort of weekly–maybe at one point daily–public journal. It could be about anything: Tell a life story, show a poem, post a picture and talk about it. Whatever.
In terms of weekly commitments, my main one is my newsletter. To add another, I’m hoping, won’t be too much. Who knows? Maybe one day there’d be enough journal entries to make a blook (a blog book)? The entries would probably be short, maybe a few hundred words, unless I really get going. The idea would be to clear the cobwebs and dump out whatever I’m thinking about. Some sort of alternative reading resource.
Got the Tragically Hip playing in the background as I write this. This song specifically:
Been working very hard on a number of things and am approaching the crest of the hill. Like, twenty feet from the top. I’m hoping by the end of the upcoming weekend I’ll be over the hump and it’ll be smooth sailing from there.
Getting awfully tired and took on too much work; a bad habit I have. It’s difficult for me to say no to work from others and work I impose on myself. A long while back I decided that for the last half of 2017 I won’t be doing any more freelance gigs unless I promised you something beforehand.
Anyway, this is just a quick note to let you know I’m still working and there should be some announcements soon about upcoming releases.
Just a quick note to say I’m working my ass off behind-the-scenes and getting things done.
The best way to find out what I’ve been working on week-to-week is through my newsletter, which you can subscribe to via the subscription box on the right.
There will also be announcements on this blog in the near future as to what releases are coming your way.
Instead of doing the usual writer shtick of announcing what projects are coming out and when, I’m simply going to announce them as I complete them.
There are only three confirmed titles coming from me in 2017 thus far. They have already been announced on this blog, but I will mention them again and mention why I know they are guaranteed to be released.
The Canister X Transmission: Year Three – This is being written week-to-week and, like Years One and Two, the collections have been published within a couple of months of that newsletter’s year having ended.
Untitled Flash Fiction Collection – This is part of the Year Three experience, so each week a new piece of flash fiction is sent out to readers. A total of 60 pieces of flash fiction will comprise this collection–52 from the weekly newsletter, a 53rd from the collected edition of the newsletter–and the remainder to be written afterward.
Axiom-man and Auroraman: Frozen Storm – This is a novel I will be writing for a kickstarter project that begins in March. Since it’s being kickstarted, and assuming Auroraman creator Jeff Burton and I hit our goal, this book will be published on time for backers.
Regarding Secret Project No. 1 and Secret Project No. 3–projects mentioned in my newsletter–they will be announced upon completion. What about Secret Project No. 2, you ask? Since it ties directly into Secret Project No. 1, I can’t say anything about it just yet.
As for other works in various stages of finishing, same deal: they will be announced upon completion.
Commit to nothing.
I have also restructured my 2017 on-line marketing efforts and just today finished automating the whole year. There will be some manual posts but the rest will be the social media bots doing my bidding.
Your best bet in keeping up-to-date on things is by regularly checking this blog or subscribing to my newsletter.
It is with great pleasure that A.P. Fuchs and Jeff Burton announce the upcoming Kickstarter campaign for the team-up novel, Axiom-man and Auroraman: Frozen Storm.
Not only will this Kickstarter fund the novel, but also fund Auroraman No. 1. Earlier in 2016, Jeff kickstarted Issue 0 to great success so we’re excited to work on this dual effort together and bring you a fantastic issue of Auroraman complete with a short comic at the end that leads into Frozen Storm.
Jeff and I have already discussed the general outline for the story and can’t wait to show you what’s in store as time gets closer to launching the Kickstarter into full gear.
I can, however, tell you one thing about Frozen Storm and it’s this: these icy villains put the abominable snowman to shame.
This is a hello message going out into the blog-o-sphere letting you know I’m still alive and am working on various things as evidenced by the picture for this post. We’re doing a combination of writing and artwork over here, slowly but surely chipping away at the obscene amount of projects on the docket. No, really, there’s a ridiculous amount of work to be done and I’m not sure there’s enough coffee and uppers in the world to see me through. I am also not immortal so if you have an in on a mechanical heart that won’t conk out on me, let’s talk.
However, it is my pleasure to report that work is being done and things are looking good in terms of achieving the end game of all this. If you are a subscriber to my newsletter–which you really should be–you’d see what I’ve been up to week to week. For those of you who are not, this blog entry is for you. (Though, again, you really should be subscribing to The Canister X Transmission. All the cool kids are doing it.)
Further, despite having some medical issues occur that have knocked me on my backside and tried to take me out of the game, we’re still going strong here in a top secret location that is known only to me and the dog at my feet.
In summary, for the artwork side of all this, follow me on Instagram because that’s where items are posted.
For the wordsmithing side, you’ll just have to watch the newsletter and this blog for announcements. Actually, the occasional Instagram pic of what’s going on shows up now and then so there’s that, too.
It’s a blizzard out there today and I’m about to go into it for something I need to attend. Got my snowshoes ready.
