Kevin Lucia's Blog, page 33

The Sale Is Over? What Now? THE JABBERWOK

First, check out this interview in which I talk about writing (of course), character VS. plot, using personal experiences in fiction, my faith and how that's played into my fiction, and many other things.
Second, this past week Crystal Lake Publishing ran a Countdown sale on my first short story collection Things Slip Through , which ended yesterday. Essentially, the ebook started out at .99 and slowly, over the course of six days, worked its way back up to its regular price. 
I've got to be honest.
I really didn't expect anyone to bite. I certainly didn't expect folks to share and re-share the sale (even though I was running a contest for folks to do so, I didn't expect them to do it, either), and I certainly didn't expect to not only see the book shoot all the way to #4 on Kindle's top 100, but I also didn't expect folks to keep purchasing it after it raised to about $2.99, keeping it up around #13 and #16 right into Saturday.
I'm absolutely honored and humbled and totally blown away. That, and I'm again in debt to the great work editor Joe Mynhardt has done in promoting my collection. In fact, because the sale was such a success, today marked the first day of a similar Countdown sale on Amazon.com.uk. 
But for the most part, the hoopla is over. The collection has slipped its way back off the Top 100 mark, and unless a similar showing takes place on Amazon.com.uk it's time to stop basking in the temporary glory and get back to business. And I say that tongue in cheek, of course, because I never stopped writing during the whole thing. However, now that the sale's over, it's really time to put my head down, stop crowing about myself and push onward to the next thing.
What are those next things? 
Well, Billy the Kid: Down in the Dark is officially done and will be shipped off to beta readers. It stands at roughly 145,000 words, which, believe it or not, met my goal of 150K or under. Now, beta-readers will hopefully cut out all the fat so I can prep it for pitching to publishers.
And this is awesome, awesome news, because it frees me up to focus on a totally crazy experiment: a free, monthly novel called The Jabberwok. The plan - release a chapter a month for free, on as many platforms as I can manage.
And that's it.
No strings.
No catches.
Totally free.
Eventually, when it's finished, I want to experiment with The Jabberwok as my first self-published title on Amazon. "Hyrbid Writer" is something I want to eventually become, and The Jabberwok is my first stab at it.
But why free?
Simple. In another blog - maybe tomorrow - I want to talk about developing a relationship with readers. I learned a lot through the TST sale, and one of them was this: a strong relationship with readers cannot underestimated, at all. How will The Jabberwok help in the regard?
Tune in tomorrow...

On Not Being Afraid To Share Reviews; But Not Overpimping; The Collection's Out, What Now? Part 2

So, the release of Things Slip Through  has come and gone. I've watched it pop up the Amazon rankings in "horror short stories" and slip off again. The first day it shot all the way to #28, and the highest it's been since then is #55.  Last night it made a brief showing at #91.

It's been very interesting talking to my publisher and seeing exactly how many purchases (apparently, not many) it takes to affect the rankings. This is my first time dealing with such things, and it's been educational, exciting, and a lot of fun.

Of course, it's also prompted me to think - and kinda worry about - how much is enough in blogging and posting about all this stuff. On one hand: it says very clearly on all my social media profiles: writer. So if you added me or follow me, you should expect regular writing updates: reviews when they come in, news, interviews, sales, etc. 

Of course, readers are interested in more, these days. Especially in the "social-media/fishbowl" era of publishing. They not only want to know about a writer's successes and failures and pitfalls and lessons learned, they want to know about their lives, their everyday, average trials and tribulations as not only a writer but also a human. 

And I get that. Some of my favorite writers are very interesting people. And to me, all my social media outlets have always been this crazy mix of my writing, personal, family, social, vocational lives - and just random wackiness. For example, yesterday on Facebook I posted the following things:

- sale that Amazon is running on all paperbacks
- a post from the bot generator "What Would I Say?"
- an update about post-turkey carnage coma
- a share of one of my favorite new horror ezines (and a publisher) Lamplight Magazine
- a notation that Things Slipped Through peeked its head up to 91 again
- several Instagram pictures from Madi's first game of the year as manager of  SCC's varsity   girls basketball team
- a closing day praise for Gary McMahon's forthcoming horror collection, Where You Live

This morning, I've posted so far:

- the opening lines of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" as my writing rallying cry at 2:30  AM 
- a share of the ten worst metaphors/analogies ever
- today's agenda of getting a Christmas tree, more turkey, and maybe some writing
- my lament that Jean Claude Vandamme is acting again
- a comment on the movie I, Frankenstein, and how I'd totally write a tie-in

Two nights ago, I posted the following excerpt from an exchange between Abby and I at the dinner table:

Dinner at the Lucia's - 

Abby Kennedy Lucia: "Ow."

Me: "What's wrong?"

Abby: (rubbing her arm) "Nothing. A patient scratched me at the hospital today."

Me: "Oh, great. That's how EVERY zombie epidemic starts..."

Abby: "Whatever."

Me: "Hey. Keep away from brains, lady."

Abby: "I think you're safe, trust me...

And it received nearly 30 "likes." My comment that Walmart on Thanksgiving was "true horror" received over 40 likes.  I think it's safe to say that my social media outlets are a portal to my life ENTIRE, not just me pimping my wares.

But still, I worry about it a little. I'm down in my office, writing new stuff every day, targeting other markets, bigger markets, and I'm not hanging my hat on this one collection. Two days ago I sent off a novella that has the potential of being published in my biggest market yet, and I'm finishing off a solicited serial novella, after which it'll be back to BILLY THE KID. And I'm always tinkering with other stuff, and there's the December edition of "Horror 101" to consider.

So obviously I've got more on my mind than just this collection. And, as the weeks pass and things settle down, (there are few more reviews out there yet to pop up), I'll post less and less about the collection. Its sales are trickling in, which is just fine with me, people seem to really like it, and that makes me happy.

So.

I'm excited. I'm happy about the collection, I'm happy that it's finding a receptive (granted, small) audience. So I'm going to share all that, along with all the other craziness that is my life.

And I shouldn't feel bad about it. Especially when I see lots of authors doing the same thing.

But sometimes, I still do. I worry folks will roll their eyes and think: "Oh, great. He's posting about THAT again." Or, this blog: is this just useless navel-gazing? Me trumping my own horn about my writing and my collection, something no one is really interested in reading anyway?

Most of the time, this stuff doesn't bother me. I do my thing and move on. But, every now and then, the anxiety rears its head. So here it is:

If you're sick of hearing about Things Slip Through, I'll move on eventually, I promise. The reviews will stop coming in, eventually sales will REALLY slow down or halt entirely, and I'll move on to the next thing. I'm just young and excited and want to share, that's all. Hopefully - if I'm so blessed - if I'm still writing 20 years from now, I'll still be this excited.

And this not to say that anyone's complained, because they haven't. I'm just a bit insecure is all, and am half convinced that no one's interested in anything I have to say half the time, anyway.

Well, this blog has kinda gone off the rails, so I think I'm gonna end it with this: recently, talented author Mike Duran (if you haven' t read his stuff, you should), posted a blog about blog writing advice for newbie authors.  He makes some good points about not boring your audience with stuff all about you.

And honestly, I'm pretty neutral about all he has to say, except for this: I don't really think about what I'm going to blog at all. Which is not to say I don't care, far from it. But I don't strategically plan my blog. I don't consider what's "attractive" to blog readers. I don't think: "Wait. I already blogged about my writing this week. Can't do it again; blog readers might get bored."

I blog about whatever I'm thinking about that moment. I'm a writer, so very often it's writing. On Thanksgiving it was about what I felt thankful for. Who knows what it'll be next week? Maybe it'll be something interesting to folks, maybe it won't. 

See, I have very limited time in which to blog. BUT, paradoxically, it's also necessary for authors today to leave some sort of regular, digital "footprint." So if I'm going to do it, I'll blog about something I really care about. Maybe others will care about it, too. Maybe not.

Same risk you run in writing fiction, honestly... 

What I'm Thankful For: 2013 Edition

Many of you are probably spending the day eating turkey or spending time with family and friends. As my wife is a nurse and hospitals don't take days off, she's working today as she has on many past holidays, so  the kids and I are holding down the fort on our own. As I have in the past, I offer up a blog for the things I'm thankful for, less because anyone will read it, but more because writing it often helps me remember it.

My Family: Immediate Kin, Friends, and Fellow Horror Peeps

I've been blessed with a wonderful, supportive wife and two beautiful children. We've been blessed with a supportive, giving, caring family. My extended family and my wife may not "get" horror and me writing it, but they get that I love writing, and they've been very supportive of my pursuits. 

Abby's married to a writer. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about how thankful I am for her.

Also, our extended family on both sides has never hesitated to step in and help us in times of need, or simply to be a part of our children's lives.

I'm thankful for a beautiful daughter who is basically a carbon-copy of me. I'm thankful for a bright, precocious, scary-smart, Tasmanian Devil-wild son with a crazy gleam in his blue eyes. Oh, and I'm thankful for his autism, which has taught us the boundless limits of patience, the compassion others are capable of and has served to remind us on more than one occasion what's more important in life.

I don't see my childhood friends as much as I'd like to these days. We've gone our separate ways with our own plans and dreams and families. But I'm thankful for the times we shared together and the memories we forged. In many ways, those memories serve as a bedrock for a good deal of my fiction.

As I detailed in my last post, my horror writing colleagues really have become part of my extended family. I've met so many great people in the past five years, either in RL or online, and I'm grateful for all the support and advice and camaraderie. The publishing and writing goals are important, but I think they'd ultimately be hollow if I didn't have fellow colleagues and friends - my horror family - to share them with. You all mean so much to me, and I can't wait to see you at the next Con, some of you maybe for the first time.

My Childhood

More and more - especially as I see these terrible, wrenching stories in the news about fractured and tormented and hurting families - I'm thankful for my childhood, and the way I was raised. We grew up in the country during simpler times. My father raised us very simply, and our lives had order and structure. Also: we did almost everything as a family. We had traditions and routines, both of which I've tried to give my family. Dad wasn't always so popular - but that's just fine. There are plenty of "popular" or "cool" Dads out there who have failed their wives and children. I'm very thankful that sometimes my Dad came off as mean or "uncool" or "a jerk" because he actually had the temerity to discipline us and teach us right from wrong.  The way I was raised has become the bedrock for my family today.

And I'm thankful for the work ethic my father taught me, mostly by example, by being - then and now - one of the hardest working people I know. This work ethic served me well in high school and college sports (basketball in particular) and it's served me well in pursuing a writing career.

Books and Reading:

Where would I be without them? You could say I'm obsessed with reading and physical books, addicted to them, and you'd be 100% correct. I spend most my free time reading these days, and I'm not ashamed to say that. It made college so much easier, and it has enriched my life. And I have my parents to thank for that. The only whim they ever indulged me in was my love of reading and books, and I try to do the same with my children.

Teaching English

I have this really cool job that basically REQUIRES me to read, all the time. I get to spend every day trying to impress upon teens the value of literature and how it comments on the human experience. 

Every Friday, I run a Creative Writing Club (in the past it's been an elective during the school day), in which we throw all the rules of classroom conduct out the window and spend an hour rapping about writing, the publishing industry, beta-reading and critiquing each others' work. 


And along the way, I get to see kids grow up into fine young men and women. If I couldn't teach, I have no idea what else I'd do. And, I get the summers off, during which I spend time with my kids and write.

What We Have:
We're not rich, by any means. Maybe you could even call us poor. Definitely lower-middle-class, at least. But we have a home that is safe, secure, sound, dry and warm. We aren't lacking for clothes or basic necessities.  

We have plenty of food, and to supplement that we've had a lot of success with our vegetable gardens and berry plants and with me fishing (next winter, I plan on trying my hand at hunting). I've been very fortunate collecting cans and scrap metal to help fund vacations and Cons and Con Family Vacations.


Our cars both run, and when they don't, I have access to father-in-laws who help out this dreamy, useless-as-a-mechanic writer with little or no admonition. We're slowly building up some savings, thanks to my mother-in-law's selfless efforts to help us budget. 

We live in the country. Have a nice backyard surrounded by trees. Have a cool campout area in the woods for Saturday night barbecues.  We have everything we need.

Writing

Somewhere around 8th grade I decided I wanted to be a writer. Not sure how it happened. I read a book I really liked, felt it needed a sequel and started writing the sequel in a spiral-bound MEAD notebook. By my senior year in high school I'd finished writing my first "novel." 

All through college I tinkered with scraps of stories and discarded them. All I wanted was to see my work in print, see my name on a book someday. I wanted to be a published writer. I labored for about ten years on several different things, one of them being an epic space opera that blatantly ripped off both Star Wars and Star Trek and mashed them together. It was rejected by everyone, and should've been.

I am now a published writer. Over the years, my writing goals have matured, changed, become more seasoned and nuanced as I've gained more experience in both writing and navigating the market. 

Recently, I sold my first professional pay rate story which will appear in a collection alongside genre greats like Ramsey Campbell, Mort Castle, Tom Monteleone, Jack Ketchum, John Skipp and David Morell. I'm not finished, though. I have more goals.

But regardless of those goals, in the end, I've achieved what most people only day dream of doing. People have read my work and liked it. And my name is on the cover of something, and that cover is more beautiful than I could've ever imagined possible. I have many more writing goals, but I'm so very thankful for what I've achieved - what I've been BLESSED WITH - so far.

Faith

I'm thankful for my faith in God, which I also attribute to my parents. I've always been very private about this and held my cards close to my chest because I feel like too many people turn their "faith" into stumping points on an agenda. I'll let it all rest on this: all the things I've listed here I thank God for blessing me with: the things and the achievements and the moments and the memories and most importantly, the people. It is also something we're trying to instill in our children as well. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

On Being Part Of The Horror Community; No Writer Is An Island

Not too long ago I blogged about my two consecutive stints at Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp and the folks I encountered there,  looking at where they'd ended up. Then, several weeks later, I hit AnthoCon 2013 and enjoyed a wonderful time hanging out with friends and colleagues, among them a healthy group of Borderlands graduates who are, like myself, making their way in "the genre." I enjoyed hanging out with them and sharing our Borderlands experiences, and I realized something more strongly than I ever had before:

Working in the horror genre is like working with family.

If you're like me, community and family weren't the first things you considered when you embarked upon your writing career. You  - like me - probably envisioned lots of hours in solitude writing and editing, dreaming of that "big break," but depending on the genre you were targeting, perhaps you never thought (like I certainly didn't) that by joining that genre and laboring in it, you were joining a community of seasoned professionals, popular contemporaries, up and comers, fans, editors, publishers, and newbies like yourself.  You didn't think of it as a family, initially. 

After several years of attending conventions, meeting people and making friends, I'm not even sure if I felt that way. I knew lots of people and liked most of them, could call a few friends and most others amicable acquaintances, but family? A community? I certainly didn't consciously think of that until I experienced an awesome (and yes, much mentioned by now) evening with Tom Monteleone, F. Paul Wilson and Stuart David Schiff (editor and creator of Whispers magazine).  What made it so awesome?

This sense of community Paul and Tom and Stuart shared. They regaled me and each other with stories about the genre and their own writing and editing careers. They talked about the family they'd shared over the past twenty years, and for the first time, I thought to myself: I want to be a part of something like that. And, for the first time, I realized that with the friends I'd made through writing and attending Cons and the two years I'd spent at Borderlands, I might very well be part of a younger branch of that horror community.

And I liked that.

A lot.

No man (or woman) is an island, according to poet John Donne, because...


No man is an island,Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were.As well as if a manor of thy friend'sOr of thine own were:Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;It tolls for thee.
It's probably just my quirk, but hey: I like people. I like being involved with people. I like seeing them succeed, and I like encouraging them when things aren't working out. This is a big reason why teaching high school English has been so rewarding for me. I get to do this almost on a daily basis.
But more and more, along with my own professional goals: I want to do the same thing in the horror genre. I want to cheer on all my colleagues when they succeed, I want to recommend their works to others, I want to come alongside them when they're struggling. Why?
Because, like John Donne was "involved with mankind" I want to be "involved with the horror genre."
At AnthoCon, I spent time talking with a fellow talented writer struggling to balance work and academic studies and family responsibilities and writing. I found myself encouraging this person, feeling invested in them, because I didn't want this person to give up. I didn't try to sell them a "just buck-up and keep writing" line but at the same time, I tried to offer something that would prevent them from quitting. Hopefully, I offered something of worth.
Funds are tight, we're on a budget, and I won't be traveling to lots of Cons every year any time soon. However...I want to become more involved in the horror community. I want to form a coalition (very small) of New York and Northeastern PA horror writers (NYPENN HORROR?) and start traveling together to smaller, more local Cons. I want to join the Horror Writers Association. Open a chapter here in Binghamton? Start rapping about horror over on Goodreads. In short?
I want to be part of a community. I don't want to be an island. 
In closing, fellow Borderlands graduate Tracie Orsi Godier posted the below awesome group photo on Facebook the other day. F. Paul Wilson - a Bootcamp instructor - commented: "I want to see another group photo like this twenty years from now."
And how awesome would that be? Not only for that photo, but all the other group photos of the past few years. We're not all going to have the same successes, and some of us will go different places than others, and, also, some of us will probably drop out along the way. But I want this community to look back at those photos twenty years from now and realize we started something, and that, God-willing, we all stayed at it and traveled forward together.
That's almost better than any kind of "big break," because that's what makes all of this worthwhile.
Left to right: Myself, Gardner Goldsmith, Traci Orsi Godier, Michael Bailey, Meghan Arcuri-Moran  Left to right: Malcom McClinton, Rob Davies, Scott Christian Carr, Tim Deal, Danny Evarts, Richard Wright, myself Left around table: myself, Mary SanGiovanni, Michael Brenden, Lorne Dixon, Brian Keene, John Koloski

On Being Compared to Charles Grant - Better than Stephen King, Any Day - and The Free Novel

So, I continue to be amazed and absolutely humbled by the reviews coming in for Things Slip Through , and here's the thing that's totally rocking my world so far: one or two are from folks who requested ARC copies, but the majority have come from paying customers. Most recent is from Dean Harrison, author of These Unquiet Bones, and he had this to say:

As a devoted fan of Charles L. Grant's Oxrun Station I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Kevin Lucia's Clifton Heights, a town of nightmares, a place where strange and unexplainable occurrences are the norm and horror lurks in every shadow, drifts in every breeze. Like Grant's Oxrun Station series, Lucia's THINGS SLIP THROUGH had me in its firm, icy grip from page 1. It is written with style, peopled with well-drawn characters put up against the most harrowing situations imaginable. This is not a typical short story collection either. Each tale is part of a bigger narrative that is expertly mapped out to its shocking 5 star ending. A treat for any fan of quality horror. Don't let it slip by.

This has me "verklemped" on many levels. First of all, Charles Grant - one of my favorite writers. And yes, his Oxrun Station novels have been a major influence on me (along with Gary Braunbeck's Cedar Hill Cycle, Al Sarrantonio's Orangefield Cycle and Bradbury's Greentown Cycle), but another reason why I love the comparison?

I'm not being compared to Stephen King.

Which may sound strange. Who would complain about being compared to King? Especially considering that his work has ALSO had a large influence on my writing? I think it's because I remember - as a young reviewer, when my reading diet was admittedly pretty shallow (King, Koontz and the occasional Straub) - I shamefully compared most folks to Stephen King simply because I had no frame of reference. I hadn't read widely enough in the genre to reference anyone else.

So it's extremely gratifying to hear names like Grant, Bradbury and even Robert McCammon mentioned in reviewing my work. Not only does it hopefully indicate I've grown past my roots, but also says volumes to me about the folks reviewing it.  

And who knows how this will affect sales, right? All I know is this: thus far, the collection has already outsold anything else I've ever written, people are sharing the heck out of it on FB, and people really seem to like it. And that works for me.


Now, for something completely different...

I'm going to experiment with something, starting January 2014. More to come on that, but basically: I want to write a serial novel - The Jabberwock - and post in on Goodreads, starting one chapter a month to start with. Then, at the end of the year, I'll self-publish it on Amazon.

Why?

Why not? Just spreading some dandelion seeds...

The Book Is Released - Now What? Horror Library, Chiral Mad 2 and Dandelion Seeds.

So a new story is available. I'm so very happy to see Horror Library 5 from Cutting Block Press out in the wild. Paperback and Kindle on Amazon will be coming soon. It features one of my favorite stories (I don't have many), "Almost Home." Even my wife likes it, and she's not a horror fan. 

Anyway, another awesome thing about this acceptance/publication is something I hope will become a continuing trend: my name in a pretty awesome TOC. Check out the TOC and cover below:

Ray Garton 
Bentley Little 
Jeff Strand
Michael A. Arnzen
Benjamin Kane Ethridge
Shane McKenzie
Eric J. Guignard
Taylor Grant 
Jason Reinhardt
Tracie Mcbride
Charles Colyott
John F.D. Taff 
P. Gardner Goldsmith
Steve Vernon
Tonia Brown
Lorne Dixon
Pat MacEwan
Ian Withrow
Sanford Allen
Boyd E. Harris
Adam Howe
Stephen McQuiggan
Andrew Stockton
Anne Michaud
Mark Farrugia
Dev Jarrett
Danny Rhodes
Kristin Dearborn
Janine-Langley Wood

And in many ways, the publication of this story - and the eventual publication of "Scavenging" in Chiral Mad 2  - reinforces something that maybe I'd lost sight of (just a little) - with the release of Things Slip Through , and that's this:

I'm not done yet.

For the most part, I've tried to remain very logical and realistic about what this collection means for me. It's not the end-all-and-be-all of my career. It's not my "one true hope" to success (such an illusory thing as that is). It's not going to make me an overnight "hit" and it's not going to set the horror world on fire, nor will it bust any sales records. People are not going to be clamoring for membership into the "Kevin Lucia Fan Club" because of it.

And I knew that.

I really did.

But show me a writer who claims to be utterly realistic and coolly logical about their own work and I'll show you someone extremely talented in spinning tales of...fiction. We spend so much time on these things, sweat metaphorical blood and tears (though we're not morons like Tom Cruise. This is writing, not sacrificing our lives for our country) and agonize over every single word, and when something finally gets out there, we can pretend to be all distant and realistic about its fate but really, inside, I think all of us wants - in some small way - to be the next big thing.

And for a minute - when Things Slip Through  blasted onto the scene as Number #2 on HOT NEW RELEASES and Number #28 in HORROR SHORT FICTION, I thought, for just a moment: I WAS THE NEXT BIG THING.

But the dust has settled. A flurry of purchases has come in. And as we move out of this week and into next, I've come back down to earth a little, and have realized a very simple truth:

It's time to write new things.

Don't get me wrong - I've got some contests planned (mostly as experimentation and because they sound fun), a few Goodreads Giveaways, and I'm sure more reviews will come in. Also, Things Slip Through has been offered up for Bram Stoker voting, so we'll see what happens there. But after that?

Well, I always tell my students: There's no magic pill I can give you that will make you a better writer. You just have to write and rewrite, A LOT. 

And I think it's the same with book sales and gaining a readership. There's no silver bullet that will send my book rocketing up through the charts. What I need to do is keep writing and submitting, continually aiming at higher, more challenging markets. 

This may result in more rejections, but this will help me better than any clever marketing strategy. For example: say someone reads "Almost Home" and "Scavenging" in Horror Library 5 and Chiral Mad 2 (and the odds of being read in those publications are MUCH higher than anything I've been published in before) and they like my work. Well, maybe they'll do what I do: hunt Amazon for more Kevin Lucia. And there the collection will be, waiting for them.

So even though I'm going to do some fun marketing things, that's the best thing I can do for this collection, now. Write a lot. Submit to upper shelf markets. Write a lot. Rinse and repeat.

I'm also going to experiment and toss out some "dandelion seeds," as mentioned by Neil Gaiman in this wonderful speech. I've posted two of my previously published short stories on Goodreads, with plans to post more, maybe even write some original content. Goodreads has a whole network of folks posting their writing; I've got over a 1,000 friends there NOT on any of my other accounts, and it's a social network DESIGNED around the love of books and fiction. At the very least, it took me ten minutes to do.

I've got other seeds to toss out, too. Some short stories published on Amazon, in hopes of leading folks back to the collection, but also: readers. One at a time, right? Who knows how many folks will read those stories on Goodreads; whether or not that will produce any sales, or if short stories on Amazon will increase my readership, or not. Thing is - almost anything (non-spammy, of course) goes in this new market, and honestly, what's more important to me right are READERS. Maybe someday I'll pull down big royalty checks, earn big sales numbers.

Maybe.

But you can't get there without readers, I don't think. And to get readers?

One must write. A LOT. And publish in markets that folks read.

I have a collection that I'm proud of, a collection much more accessible to general readers than Hiram Grange is. The cover is beautiful, the physical book itself is beautiful, readers seem to really love it and are sharing it, the reviews have been glowing, and I've already sold probably twice as many copies of this as I ever did Hiram Grange.

And that's enough for me.

So now, it's to work on the next thing...

Amazon Rankings, Ebook Release and Best. Con. Ever.

First of all, the ebook for Things Slip Through  debuted this Saturday. I know nothing about sales ranks on Amazon or how reliable they are or how quickly they change, but I was delighted and amazed to see this from my publisher sometime yesterday morning:

Kevin Lucia's Things Slip Through reaches #28 on the Amazon top horror short stories list. Right next to Neil Gaiman. Congrats, Kevin! And #2 on the Hot New Releases list. :-)

Now, I have no idea what that means, really, or how many ecopies have sold. And actually, when I tried to search the rankings myself an hour afterward, I came up with nothing. So maybe it's one of those things that lasted that way until everyone woke up and started buying ebooks of more important people than I. Who knows?

Either way - it's really cool. And no, I won't start posting every single day about what Amazon ranking I am - not unless it's something really awesome. But still, it was heartening to see, just for a moment, that my book may have flashed before the eyes of lots of people.

Second, when I get home from AnthoCon and get my feet under me, I'll be putting together a viral social media contest that will give away free stuff. Here's the thing, though: my intent is NOT to spam folks in my social media feeds. The idea is to reach out through lots of OTHER folks' feeds, and even though we probably share friends, they probably have friends who DON'T know me. So the goal is to connect with them. You guys already know who I am. So I'm not going to shove stuff down your throat.

Third - I'm sitting down in the hotel lobby writing this blog because I couldn't sleep in any longer, thinking how AnthoCon 2013 may have been the most satisfying Con I've ever attended, both on a personal and professional level.

Myself with Gard Goldsmith and Tracy CarboneThe readings I organized went off well, with a few small road-bumps. Everyone seemed to really enjoy them and they seemed well-attended. I got to see a LOT of good friends and colleagues, too many to name here. It's so awesome to see folks spreading their wings, taking off and making  ground in the genre, and I also hope I encouraged one writer in particular to keep up the good fight (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!). It was especially awesome to see a collection of Borderlands Press Bootcamp Graduates, which is a blog for another time, honestly. 




I also met some new folks, expanded online friendships into real friendships, which I think makes Real Time Cons even MORE important today in this day of immersive social media (but that's ALSO another blog for another time).

Also - having my family with me raised my AnthoCon experience to perfection. It was so fulfilling to leave the Con Saturday and Sunday to go do family stuff, sight-see, eat out, etc. The coup de grace was hitting the After Con dinner last night with the kids, mixing my writing life with my family life, and it came off nicely. Honestly, if we could afford it, I'd attend every Con with my family, because there was something so cathartic and restful in blowing out of the Con for an hour or so with Abby and the kids yesterday. A big THANK YOU to Abby for entertaining the kids during the day while I did my thing.

Lastly - this, by far, turned out to be my most satisfying Con ever, professionally speaking. I experienced a totally unexpected run yesterday and came five books away from selling out entirely. And no, it's not about the money, it really isn't. 

But being on the tight budget we are, it is SO satisfying to have very likely come out on the plus side, or the very least to have broken even. It makes me feel that my writing is NOT just a hobby, it's something I've become proficient at, something that can help the family budget.

Also, several folks I didn't know or only just met bought copies of Things Slip Through. Or, folks picked up the book, asked if it was on Kindle,  then pulled out their Smart Phones and bought the ebook on the spot.

And that was so very heartening, it really was; folks picking up my book, reading the back cover and deciding it was worth a shot. That meant SO much to me. Especially the fellow who read the back cover, said, "Sounds like a Charles Grant novel" and then bought it. Considering my love for Charles Grant's work, that was worth TEN book sales, almost.

Also, the AnthoCon crew - Mark Wholley, Tim Deal, Johnny Morse and Danny Evarts - once again put on an amazing Con. AnthCon is rapidly becoming a very unique, different convention without sacrificing any of its professionalism while being a welcoming place for new faces. If you're in the Northeast, or if you like to travel, AnthCon is a must-attend on the Convention tour.

And now it's over. But instead of that usual "Con Let-Down" I feel super-charged, ready to dive  back into the writing headfirst tomorrow morning. And THAT's why Cons are more important than ever, ESPECIALLY in this new digital, social media age, but we'll blog more about that and "the community of genre fiction" later this week.

The Book Is Here; Time To Celebrate But Also Keep An Eye on the Prize

It's finally here.  Things Slip Through  is available in paperback for a limited time on CreateSpace, and November 15th it'll be available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon. My first short story collection - which has gotten lots of nice blurbs and reviews thus far - is out in the wild. And in fact, here's another nice review, my favorite snippet being:

In Things Slip Through, Kevin Lucia is like a mad scientist; throwing everything he’s got to create an utterly singular, pulse-pounding tale that you just can’t put down. Using a literary and evocative voice, the reader finds their heart-beat jumping in sync with the characters as they scramble away from the ancient evils that hide in the darkness like a stalking butler.

So here we are. I love the cover, I'm proud of the collection and Crystal Lake has done a fabulous job promoting it, even putting together a launch page.  Believe it or not, I think it's already sold more copies than Hiram Grange ever did, and reader feedback has been great so far. Of course, even with all that, I'm still plagued by all the usual writer anxieties...

Will folks really like it? I mean strangers, not just my friends and colleagues?

Will it sell many copies? Or will it just get good reviews from reviewers?

And...

Will it sell many copies? Or just go pfffft?


Now, these nice little anxieties bounced around in my head all day long yesterday until I saw some great news on Facebook about one of my favorite writers and guys, Ron Malfi. Here's the announcement from his agency, but the long and short of it: Ron has signed a deal with one of the "big boys," Kensington. That's awesome news, and I can't think of any writer who deserves it more.

And this news really speared a hole right through my little anxiety storm.  See, I've watched Ron closely the last few years, have looked at his career, along with reading his work and becoming a fan. And while it's a mistake to try and imitate or copy a writer's career, I think it's important to draw as much inspiration and information as possible from writers we associate with. 

Ron's journey is one that resonates with me. His first novel was published 13 years ago, by PublishAmerica. For the next several years he sold several novels to small press publishers until 2009 and 2010, when he debuted with Medallion and Leisure. 

The last several years have been quite a ride for Ron, releasing titles through Dark Fuse, Medallion, Samhian and Cemetery Dance, and a slew of foreign translation deals, leading up to his current sale to Kensington, one of the big boys.

And let me tell you, Ron has WORKED his way there, writing his heart out, also remaining true to his instincts and passions. He writes what he feels and doesn't compromise. He doesn't play the "popularity" game at Cons, he's open and honest and humble, and he's a class act all the way around.

And he's been doing it, fighting the good fight, for 13 years.

Now, by no means do I think I can imitate Ron's career. But three years ago, a more experienced writer, in a moment of counseling, asked me what kind of career I wanted. Foolishly, full of myself, I said: "I want Peter Straub's career."

Let's be honest, even when I said that, I probably realized how ridiculous it sounded. And it wasn't long afterward that I realized that, and also realized that Ron's career is not only one I admire, but one I aspired after, also.

So when I saw his good news on FB, all my anxieties about Things Slip Through and whether or not anyone will like it or buy it pretty much dissolved. I love my collection, feel proud of it, and will put my shoulder behind it (hopefully without spamming too much) like I do with everything else.

However, I'm still so early into my journey. Only about five years in. This is only my second publication. It's foolish, it's silly to hang my entire literary future on this. I hope lots of people will buy Things Slip Through, I hope folks love it, and I hope it will grow some legs and run places. I'm also going to try some marketing things that are FUN as well as experimental.

But it's only one step along the way. In his recent blog about the TOC of Chiral Mad 2, editor Michael Bailey very kindly called me a writer that was "going places." I have no idea where those places are. But to get there, I not only have to enjoy what I've done so far and share it with the world...I need to push on instead of just hanging all my hopes and dreams on one thing.

Random Thought: Why Editors (Official Ones, Not Beta Readers) Are Still Really Important

Just a thought rambling through my head about how editors - official editors working for publishing companies, or paying editors of collections - are still really, really important. It popped into my head after chatting back and forth on a FB thread about the pros and cons of self-publishing, because one thing that didn't seem to get mentioned in that thread: how "official" editors with some sort of authority are far more valuable than just "beta readers" - in my opinion, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, beta readers are important. A second or third or even fourth set of eyes can spot lots of blemishes before a story is sent off. Beta readers really helped me with the collection and the last several short stories I sold. The thing is...beta readers, as valuable as they are...can be ignored, if we choose to. We can dismiss their advice, if we don't agree with it.

And paying an editor to check over your work...does that really have as much weight as an official editor? A good freelance editor will do a good job, no matter what. Their reputation rests on it. But even so - a freelance editor works for you, if you self-publish and pay a freelance editor to treat your manuscript.

An editor of a publishing company or anthology, however...they're more official. Carry more authority. And most of us are more likely to listen to that authority and take their advice seriously. 

For example: several beta-readers made suggestions for the story I recently sold. Some of them I liked, some of them I dismissed. However, the editor who purchased the story made a suggestion before accepting it. NOW, important point: editor did NOT hold this over my head, making my acceptance contingent on my heeding his advice. 

However, I took a careful look at his suggestion, and saw that...indeed...it made my story better. Stronger. Gave it more emotional punch. Even more important, the editor had highlighted one of more annoying tendencies, to over-explain. And even though I'm self aware of this tendency, I'd still committed this "sin" and I needed an editor with some sort of authority to pick that out.

Enter my upcoming collection. After several line-by-line edits from my editor, he made a suggestion about the ending...again, curbing my instinct to over-explain. I saw how the collection would be improved by this suggestion, and based on reader response so far...I am SO glad an editor with authority pointed that at to me.

To be sure, there are bad, controlling, manipulative editors out there. Maybe I've just been very blessed to  have not encountered them. And maybe when I become a more experienced writer, I'll be able spot these quirks of mine easier, and won't need an editor as much. And maybe readers don't even care or notice these small things.

But I do. 

And I know, right now, I need an editor with authority, an I editor I need to listen to. Of course, I'm a very authority-driven person. Was raised in an authority-driven household, and in all my jobs, I've functioned better under strong authorities. So maybe it's a personal quirk. However, it was just a thought that popped up, something important to consider in all the rush to self publish. As usual, your mileage may vary...

More On My First Pro-Pay Short Story, And How The Pro-Pay Isn't The Most Important Thing

So, in my post the other day I shared the news of my first pro-rate short story sale - "Scavenging" to Written Backwards' Chiral Mad 2. Obviously, I'm head over-heels, delirious to have finally cracked this barrier, also so completely humbled to be on such a stellar TOC. 

But in some ways...it's odd. It's a goal I've finally reached, but only after I'd sorta given up on it. And by given up, I mean this: I finally came to the decision about a year and a half ago that I shouldn't measure my growth as a writer by pro-pay rates, or by what I sold my work for. 

No, I decided that what I needed to do was ramp up my reading, glut myself on short stories written by the masters and hone my internal standards, really focus my writing goals on the writing ITSELF, write what I truly WANTED to at that moment, write what I truly FELT, submit where I may, and let the chips fall as they would.

See, about five or six years ago when I first waded into this whole thing, I had a goal: three pro-pay stories to qualify for active membership in the Horror Writers' Association. Why?

Well, obviously.

That's what all the cool kids were doing. So obviously, it's what I had to do, too.  That, and I very quickly ran into the prevailing notion that if it wasn't pro pay, it wasn't real writing. If I got paid only token pay, or only semi-pro pay, that was a reflection of my obviously poor writing skills or hopeless naivete as a young writer.

Now, to dispense with the snark: I have no issues with the HWA. In fact, soon as I qualify for Active Membership, I'm applying, because I want to try it out for myself, I want to try and contribute to their community. 

And, in all seriousness, I DID learn some pretty serious (and sometimes disheartening) lessons about submitting to "4theluv" anthologies that paid only in .pdf contributor copies. I found that, very often, publications with very low rates of pay also had very low standards of quality. 

BUT, along the way I also found publications with high standards both in production and content, like The Midnight Diner, Shroud Magazine, Cutting Block Press, Horror Library, Crystal Lake Publishing and others that didn't offer pro pay rates. And I started to sense a little bit of a...well, LIE in there. Yes, very often rate of pay reflected quality and standards. But, very often...it did NOT.

And when I spent a year talking to an acquisitions editor at Harper Teen, I discovered another lie: the big publishers actually don't care at ALL where you've sold your short work. At least this one didn't. Our conversations only dealt with what I pitched them, and that was it. It didn't matter to them at ALL where I'd sold my short work. They were just concerned with the work before them.

Here's another thing: all the stories in Things Slip Through only earned semi-pro pay or token pay rates. And you know what? They're GOOD stories. People REALLY LIKE THEM. And I've grown enough as a writer to know not to judge the quality of those stories by what they earned. 

So what's the advantage in writing for pro pay? Or at least submitting to pro-pay? Why I am so JAZZED to appear in this collection?  Take a look at the TOC below the cover for your answer.

David Morrell
Gary McMahon
Gene O'Neill
Jack Ketchum
Andrew Hook
Erik T. Johnson
John Skipp
Mort Castle
Emily Cataneo
James Chambers
Mason Ian Bunschuch
Max Booth III
P. Gardner Goldsmith
Patrick O'Neill
Richard Thomas
Ramsey Campbell
Dustin LaValley
John Biggs
Thomas F. Monteleone
Kevin Lucia 
John Palisano

I'm in a collection with David Morrell (y'know, the guy who invented Rambo?), Jack Ketchum (who Stephen King calls 'the scariest guy in America'), John Skipp (the father of splatterpunk), Mort Castle (the Hemmingway of horror), Ramsey Campbell (the 'greatest living British horror writer,' according to the Oxford English Dictionary), and Tom Monteleone, a virtual legend in the horror genre. 

And also, even more importantly? Mort and Tom are mentors. Former instructors. And I've now joined them in a publication for the very first time. Not necessarily a "student has become the master" sort of thing, but to JOIN my teachers at their level, even if for just this collection...

Certainly not of lesser nature is the pleasure of joining a crop of writers I might even dare to call my contemporaries: like Gary McMahon, P. Gardner Goldsmith, Dustin LaValley, John Palisano, James Chambers and others. Several of these folks I've met at conferences, two of them studied with me under Mort and Tom. And here's the kicker: there are MORE folks who'll be announced. And the names of those folks will only make this collection even MORE awesome.  

And to me, that's what's most important. This collection could be paying me NOTHING and I'd still be screaming from the rooftops. Why? Because I survived over 700 stories  to make it in. It was HARD. And I MADE IT. I may never sell another short story for pro rates ever again. But for this one collection - my story was selected to be with work by the "greats" and the "established" voices in the genre. And that is a milestone, no doubt about it. And it pushes me to attack more pro-rate submissions...for all those same reasons.

I won't lie. The pay is awesome. Selling this story will allow us to rent a car and really enjoy AnthoCon next weekend, versus scrimping and spending the whole weekend worrying about bills, worrying if our family car will make the trip up and back in one piece.

But then the money will be gone in a flash. You know what'll be left over?

The respect. From others, and, maybe most importantly, from myself.

The satisfaction of joining these greats; the knowledge that my story was better than 700 others. THAT'S what lasts.

But of course, guess what happens tomorrow?

I get up early and start writing something new...