Advice From a Prolific Author

Hi all. Yeah, I know that it's been two years. Can't say that I've been reading any indie, hence no new reviews here. From time to time though, I grow curious about some of the authors that I've reviewed here and wonder what they're up to. Most get waylaid by life and their writing endeavors are stuck in the proverbial muck. I can't recall why, but I was curious about Scott Rhine today.

Scott was one of our most prolific submitters—I think he's up to two dozen books. While I didn't review anywhere near the number of submissions we got from him, I did read and review four of them. I wanted to know if he ever finished the series that I'd been reading here, so I took a spin over to his blog to find out. It took a while to find, but sure enough, he did.

I snooped around some more and stumbled across a post from two years ago entitled "5 Years in the Writing Business—Revised Advice." It really is a must read for all indie authors. Scott shares his experiences with book sales, ads, tags, series vs. standalone books, giveaways, and much more. No matter what you write, it's worth checking out just to see if he's already tried out your marketing ideas. See what's worked for him and what hasn't, then see where it fits into your plans.

\_/
DED

HATER by David Moody

David Moody's zombie novel Autumn was reviewed in this blog some time ago. It was a compelling story and a well written novel and I thought that Mood had talent. I wasn't too far off the mark. Like a number of self-publishing graduates, Moody has been picked up by a major publisher and seems on his way to mainstream recognition.  On the 17th of this month David's new novel HATER is coming out from Macmillan/Thomas Dunne. Not only that,  but it's also been optioned for a movie.

THURSDAY

i

Simmons, regional manager for a chain of main street discount stores, slipped his change into his pocket then neatly folded his newspaper in half and tucked it under his arm. He quickly glanced at his watch before leaving the shop and rejoining the faceless mass of shoppers and office workers crowding the city center sidewalks outside. He checked through his date book in his head as he walked. Weekly sales meeting at ten, business review with Jack Staynes at eleven, lunch with a supplier at one-thirty...

He stopped walking when he saw her. At first she was just another face on the street, nondescript and unimposing and as irrelevant to him as the rest of them were. But there was something different about this particular woman, something which made him feel uneasy. In a split second she was gone again, swallowed up by the crowds. He looked around for her anxiously, desperate to find her among the constantly weaving mass of figures which scurried busily around him. There she was. Through a momentary gap in the bodies he could see her coming toward him. No more than five feet tall, hunched forward and wearing a faded red raincoat. Her wiry gray-white hair was held in place under a clear plastic rain hood and she stared ahead through the thick lenses of her wide-rimmed glasses. She had to be eighty if she was a day, he thought as he looked into her wrinkled, liver-spotted face, so why was she such a threat? He had to act quickly before she disappeared again. He couldn’t risk losing her. For the first time he made direct eye contact with her and he knew immediately that he had to do it. He had no choice. He had to do it and he had to do it right now.

Dropping his newspaper, briefcase, and umbrella Simmons pushed his way through the crowd then reached out and grabbed hold of her by the wide lapels of her raincoat. Before she could react to what was happening he spun her around through almost a complete turn and threw her back toward the building he’d just left. Her frail body was light and she virtually flew across the footpath, her feet barely touching the ground before she smashed up against the thick safety-glass shop window and bounced back into the street. Stunned with pain and surprise she lay face down on the cold, rain-soaked pavement, too shocked to move. Simmons pushed his way back toward her, barging through a small crowd of concerned shoppers who had stopped to help. Ignoring their angry protests he dragged her to her feet and shoved her toward the shop window again, her head whipping back on her shoulders as she clattered against the glass for the second time.

“What the hell are you doing, you idiot?!” an appalled bystander yelled, grabbing hold of Simmons’s coat sleeve and pulling him back. Simmons twisted and squirmed free from the man’s grip. He tripped and landed on his hands and knees in the gutter. She was still on her feet just ahead of him. He could see her through the legs of the other people crowding around her.

Oblivious to the howls and screams of protest ringing in his ears, Simmons quickly stood up, pausing only to pick up his umbrella from the edge of the footpath and to push his wire-framed glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Holding the umbrella out in front of him like a bayonet rifle he ran at the woman again.

“Please...” she begged as he sunk the sharp metal tip of the umbrella deep into her gut and then yanked it out again. She slumped back against the window, clutching the wound as the stunned and disbelieving crowd quickly engulfed Simmons. Through the confusion he watched as her legs gave way and she collapsed heavily to the ground, blood oozing out of the deep hole in her side.

“Maniac,” someone spat in his ear. Simmons spun around and stared at the owner of the voice. Jesus Christ, another one! This one was just like the old woman. And there’s another, and another...and they were all around him now. He stared helplessly into the sea of angry faces which surrounded him. They were all the same. Every last one of them had suddenly become a threat to him. He knew there were too many of them but he had to fight. In desperation he screwed his hand into a fist and swung it into the nearest face. As a teenage boy recoiled from the sudden impact and dropped to the ground a horde of uniformed figures weaved through the crowd and wrestled Simmons to the ground.

Where Are They Now: Henry Baum

There is a new POD book review site out there, The Self Publishing Review (http://selfpublishingreview.com/) and it's run by Henry Baum, the author of North of Sunset.

I really like the look of the site and the fact that it seems to cover more than just reviews: there are columns that deal with cover design, a news section, and a review of publishers in the self-publishing world.

Henry decided to create a review site in order to help legitimize self-publishing.

I've been meaning to do this for a while - one of my complaints about self-publishing is how little it's taken seriously.  I wanted to create a place that will hopefully legitimize self-publishing to some degree and get writers some attention.  It doesn't just cover book reviews, but every facet of self-publishing - news, how-to's, and the like.

Henry is also working on a new book.

I'm gearing up to release my next novel and I don't really have the heart or desire to deal with submitting it to publishers.  I've been working on this novel for a few years and it has some of the same issues as North of Sunset - it's not well-defined in any one genre.  The closest thing would be science fiction, but I'm not a science fiction writer, so I could see some negative responses.

Where Are they Now: Kristen Tsetsi

Another writer whose work Homefront was reviewed by the original Podler blog was the talented Kristen Tsetsi. Here's what she wrote in response to the burning question--

Since having Homefront reviewed by PODler, I've begun a new novel, The Year of Dan Palace. It's been slow-going. Work and life got in the way for a while...I started Palace shortly after Homefront's review, and shortly after that moved to Connecticut and became a newspaper staff writer. And it's difficult—for me, at least—to write fiction after a day filled with other writing. I've since left the job, however, and am happily once again able to immerse myself in a fiction zone. In the time since Homefront's review I've also founded and currently co-edit Tuesday Shorts, an online journal of very short fiction that includes original pieces by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Kris Saknussemm, and Richard Grayson—who, incidentally, was also reviewed in The PODler. I also began work as a freelance correspondent for online magazine Women's eNews, and will co-edit American Fiction, an anthology of fiction by emerging writers (deadline March 15 - visit www.newriverspress.com or Tuesday Shorts for prize amounts and guidelines). [/plug] When in need of a break from the characters I'm working on in Palace, I write short pieces for Six Sentences.

As always, be sure to support this and other talented independent writers whose work was reviewed by the blog by purchasing their work.

Where Are They Now? Rick R. Reed

Rick R Reed's book IM had been reviewed by The Podler blog in the past. Since that time, Reed had continued to write. In response to the burning question, Reed writes:

Where am I now? Since IM, I have had several novels published, all by small-press POD publishers. These include: In the Blood, a tragic vampire love story, Deadly Vision, a thriller about a reluctant psychic and the blossoming of evil in her small town, High Risk, about a bored housewife who picks up men while her husband is at work until she runs into a very handsome, and very psychotic stranger, Orientation, a paranormal thriller about love and reincarnation, and Dead End Street, a young adult horror novel. In addition, I have sold five eBook projects and several sales to print anthologies.

You can find out more about this prolific and talented author, "The Stephen King of gay horror" at the links below--

http://www.rickrreed.com
Check out my most recent releases on Amazon:
Dead End Street: http://tinyurl.com/5mztwy
Orientation: http://tinyurl.com/5ntwyu
High Risk: http://tinyurl.com/39dror
Deadly Vision: http://tinyurl.com/3eygd4
In the Blood: http://tinyurl.com/5zwc8w
IM: http://tinyurl.com/32rsy4