• Tag Archives Writing

  • Why I Post What I Do – Author Blogs

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs
    Author Blogs

    Many author blogs or websites are just about that: writing and books.

    Which is 100% fine. I used to do it. Many others I know still do it. But do you see that site banner up there? It says three things: Writer, Artist, Creator. And it’s the latter part that explains why I don’t just post about books and comics (as awesome as those are).

    I’ve talked about it before and I’ll mention it again, this site is about the long game in my creator/creative journey. It’s a showcase of the various crafts I practice. It’s also an information and entertainment source for you.

    Why the hotwheels? Why the Funko Pops!? Why the action figures and playing cards? Because the film medium is something I also enjoy. My skillset might not be top-notch (most of what I do behind the scenes is based off what I learned in high school multimedia class 25 years ago . . . and it still works).

    These creations and showcases are meant to compliment the books and comics and show that those things are made by a fan for the fans.

    Some stumbles across one of my posts via a search engine and soon they are whisked into a realm of heroes and monsters and fandom entertainment. Author blogs can be more than just books and writing, if you want.

    It’s that simple.

    Like I always say, there’s a method to the madness.


    📂This entry was posted in Articles Blogging Books Canister X Comic Books TikTok YouTube 📎and tagged

  • Patron-exclusive Essays and Articles Index

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    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.

    Patreon essays collection

    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.


    📂This entry was posted in Patreon Self-publishing Writing 📎and tagged

  • Patreon Invite

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Patreon Invite

    A.P. Fuchs-Patreon-Logo

    A ton of cool stuff has been happening over at the Patreon page. It serves as a special place to hold all that I share in public plus a pile of stuff for patrons only. Right now we’re airing two serial books, behind the scenes stuff, special articles, blog posts, videos, and more.

    The patron-only video this month asks the all-important question: Does God Speak German? And before you berate me, there’s a reason for the video.

    It’s amusing items like the above that keep the page fresh, educational, and also entertaining.

    I’m having a lot of fun with Patreon 2.0 and I invite you to join me there for the same.

    Here’s the trailer:

    Realm of Heroes and Monsters Patreon Page Trailer

    See you there. Oh, don’t forget about the books and comics here on this blog, too.


    📂This entry was posted in Patreon 📎and tagged

  • Status Report – 021324

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs
    status-report-021324

    Status Report – 021324:

    All right, so things are starting to come together. Just over the weekend I received back the edits for AXIOM-MAN/CRIMSON CLOAK: SCARLET SYNERGY, which means that after I go over the edits (which is me doing just that: looking at the edits only prior to a final pass), the book goes into the production machine, gets a final look-over, then off to you, dear reader.

    I’m really excited to release this book. It’s not your usual Axiom-man story and it was a chance for me to start a mythology that may or may not be true. I’ll leave that to you to decide for when the book comes out.

    Also, I got the final piece I needed for my Writing 101 series I’m bringing to YouTube. There’s a method to the madness here and a bit of scheduling. It’ll all make sense as the episodes come out.

    Lastly, this week is also a major work week with a ton of hours needing to be put in so if I’m a bit silent on the social feeds, that is why.

    This has been your Status Report for 021324.


    📂This entry was posted in Blogging Canister X Status Report Superhero Fiction Superheroes 📎and tagged

  • Station Ident – 020824

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Station Ident – 020824

    station ident 020824

    Station Ident – 020824

    This is your station identification for 020824.

    I am . . .

    . . . A.P. Fuchs and welcome to my blog where I have all sorts of things going on. I’m an independent writer, cartoonist, and freelancer in the worlds of books and comics. This is Canister X, my official web site and the Realm of Heroes and Monsters, where we attempt to entertain and inform you on a regular basis. (We blog 6 days a week, sometimes 7 so be sure to bookmark this site.)

    I’ve been at this publishing thing for over 20 years and I still have lots to do. Presently, we’re big on video content—both longer videos and shorts and reels—and podcasts, so be sure you’re hooked up at the appropriate links below (podcast on YouTube).

    My, perhaps, too many social media presences are:

    MeWe

    Twitter

    Facebook

    Instagram

    Pinterest

    Tumblr

    LinkedIn

    WT.Social

    YouTube

    Ko-fi

    TikTok

    LinkTree

    Spotify

    YouTube Music

    My Patreon page is here. It’s a very special place where I post serial novels, serial comics, essays and articles on the creative arts business, behind-the-scenes secrets, artwork, photography, and more. Join me and my other patrons and be a part of something entertaining and interesting with consistent content. Check out the wicked trailer for the page.

    I’m also the writer/artist behind the webcomic, Fredrikus, which you can read from the beginning here.

    On Saturdays, I send out my newsletter, The Canister X Transmission. It’s a weekly newsletter where we all come together after a busy week, unwind, regroup, and kick off the weekend. Presently we are in The Very Long Year Six. Join us.

    End station identification.


    📂This entry was posted in Blogging Canister X Social Media Station Ident 📎and tagged

  • How to Budget as an Author or Artist

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    How to Budget as an Author or Artist

    A.P. Fuchs-Patreon-Logo

    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.


    📂This entry was posted in Canister X Patreon Self-publishing 📎and tagged

  • 2024 Studio Changes

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    2024 Studio Changes

    vLog - 2023 studio tour thumbnail

    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:

    The Phantom’s Door. A.P. Fuchs Studio Tour coming soon to YouTube

    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.

    See you inside.

    A.P. Fuchs 2023 Studio Tour

    📂This entry was posted in Canister X Life Self-publishing Social Media Stuff vLog YouTube 📎and tagged

  • Some Thoughts on Blogging

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Some Thoughts on Blogging

    station ident apr2420

    Just sitting here thinking about blogging. It’s considered a great sin in the blogging world for a blogger to blog about blogging. But, every now and then should be okay, right?

    To be honest, I don’t have much to add to the idea of blogging or what a blog is. I mean, what is a blog anymore? A long, long time ago in an Internet far, far away, blogs were basically public journals where writers–pro or hobby–could express thoughts and opinions on whatever topic, post it up for the world to see, then hope someone out there agrees with them.

    I’ve been thinking about this blog here at Canister X, the Realm of Heroes and Monsters. It’s not really a blog, is it? I mean, kind of. It’s runs on a WordPress engine so thus a blogging platform. The site’s divided into sections and pages, I have the main window of this place to share whatever I want on any given day, and I try and encourage you to explore the site because there’s lots here from articles, to comics, to artwork, to videos, to podcasts–I mean, we’re not really blogging anymore per se. We’re not journaling or running a series of articles on a topic as our main thing either. We’re just sharing art and writing and hoping to entertain and inform you. That’s it.

    This site–this place–is more a multimedia hub than a blog-blog. And that’s how I’ve been viewing it for a while: A place of free entertainment and a celebration of pop culture, superheroes, and monsters.

    Just some random thoughts this early Sunday afternoon (the time I’m writing this).

    Well, let’s just go forward step by step and take it from there.

    “Every day’s a brand new deal, right? Just keep on working and something’s bound to turn up.” – Harvey Pekar, AMERICAN SPLENDOR

    Peace.

    – APF


    📂This entry was posted in Blogging Canister X Life Web Stuff 📎and tagged

  • Caught in Black Headlights is Complete

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Caught in Black Headlights is Complete

    black headlights collection

    (Not official cover. Just a snippet of it.)

    Last week I finished CAUGHT IN BLACK HEADLIGHTS, but if you’re a reader of my newsletter, you get advance news so those guys already know about it. It is a book of text and photos, my first in that regard. The next closest thing would be CANISTER X COMIX No. 3, in which photos were used instead of art for the panels.

    This one is set for a spring release, looking at late March or early April. Date to be determined.

    AXIOM-MAN/CRIMSON CLOAK: SCARLET SYNERGY comes first. (Presently with the editor.)

    Gonna be a good year for books. Lots of things planned and, as you can already see, we got 2024’s first two releases already lined up. Are you caught up on everything?

    More news as it becomes available.


    📂This entry was posted in Books Photos Poetry Writing 📎and tagged

  • The Canister X Transmission: TinyLetter Archive About to be Gone

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    The Canister X Transmission: TinyLetter Archive About to be Gone

    canister x transmission collections

    As you know, we had to change newsletter services about a month or so back since MailChimp decided to pull the plug on TinyLetter. This is the original blog post.

    MailChimp sent out a reminder email the other day to everyone using the TinyLetter service that the archive and accessibility to one’s account is going up in flames at the end of February 2024 so a person had best get going on exporting their reader list otherwise you’d have to build from the ground-up again. Fortunately, we already took care of our newsletter problem and if you’d like to join us, you can do so here.

    As for THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION TinyLetter archive, this will only be avilable until the end of next month so if you’d like to read as many issues as you want (except for the past five or six newsletters as they were sent via MailerLite), you need to do so before then and can go here to read them. Enjoy.

    Onward.

    – APF


    📂This entry was posted in Blogging Canister X General Announcements Newsletter Web Stuff Writing 📎and tagged