Bryan Cassiday's Blog, page 29

World War Z as a Movie

I hope the author who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Max Brooks’s novel World War Z did a significant rewrite.  The book had no main character, and, without a hero for viewers to empathize with, I don’t believe it would translate into a successful movie.

I’ve heard reports from people who have seen the movie that the zombies don’t shamble or run.  Instead, they sort of leap like insects.  I have no way of verifying these reports, since I haven’t seen the movie.  If these reports are true, it would add another zombie mutation to the movies.

In Hollywood, zombies started out as slow and lumbering like the ones in Victor Halperin’s White Zombie (1932).  They didn’t eat people.  They blundered around in a trance and followed the orders of their evil master Bela Lugosi.  And then, over thirty years later, in 1968, George Romero’s classic lumbering flesh-eating zombies evolved.  It wasn’t until over thirty more years later in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) that film zombies became cannibals that could run.

A lurching, leaping, insectlike zombie might turn out to be pretty scary.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Kill Ratio Coming Soon!

Kill Ratio, the highly anticipated fourth book in Bryan Cassiday’s Chad Halverson dystopian zombie apocalypse series, will be released on July 9, 2013.  Does it all end here?  Kill Ratio is available for preorder at Amazon.

Meanwhile, you can read the three previous Chad Halverson zombie books–Zombie Maelstrom, Zombie Necropolis, and Sanctuary in Steel.

Audiobook for “Sanctuary in Steel” Is Near Completion

The audiobook version of Bryan Cassiday’s dystopian zombie apocalypse book Sanctuary in Steel will be released within a few weeks.  Sanctuary in Steel is the third book in the Chad Halverson zombie series.  The trade paperback is available right now at Amazon.

 

Audiobook for “Kill Ratio”

Sergei Burbank has signed on to produce the audiobook version of Bryan Cassiday’s forthcoming dystopian apocalyptic thriller Kill Ratio.  The audiobook should be released around the same time that the paperback version is released on July 9, 2013.  The paperback version of Kill Ratio can be preordered now at Amazon. A virus with a hundred percent kill ratio decimates the American population and resurrects its victims as zombies.  Hidden underground in the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, what’s left of the government must decide how to save the country.  Every option is on the table, including the nuclear option.  A spine-tingling thriller in the manner of Failsafe.

Why Would a Self-publishing Author Want an Agent?

According to the New York Times (4/17/13), well-known author David Mamet will self-publish his works this year, instead of going through his traditional publisher.  But for some reason he is using his literary agency ICM Partners to represent him as a self-publisher.

It’s an auspicious sign for the world of self-publishing that an author with Mamet’s reputation is becoming a self-publisher, which validates the self-publishing industry and distinguishes it from the stigmatized ghetto of vanity publishing.  But Mamet still seems enthralled to the outdated ways of doing business in publishing.  Why does he need an agent to self-publish?

A literary agent acts as a broker between a writer and a publishing house.  He tries to get the best deal for his author and keeps 15% for himself.  In self-publishing, there is no publishing house, so there’s no need for an agent.

Robert Gottlieb, the chairman of the Trident Media Group literary agency, believes otherwise.  He believes an agent brings experience in marketing and jacket design.  An agent also has relationships with digital publishers that give his clients pride of place on sites unavailable to unrepresented self-published authors.

The fact of the matter is, a self-published author can design his own book covers or hire someone to design them.  He can also market his own book.  He’s probably going to end up paying for marketing anyway, even if he has an agent.  The only thing a self-published author doesn’t have is this special relationship that agents supposedly have with digital publishers that gives them prize placements on sites that self-published authors can’t obtain on their own.

I’m not really sure what these placements on certain sites are.  Do these placements cost money?  If so, why couldn’t the author pay for them himself?  Gottlieb doesn’t explain what these “sites” are in the Times article.  Maybe these mysterious sites are just a way of justifying the existence of an agent in the world of self-publishing, which is in actuality phasing the literary agent out as part of the ossified, and increasingly archaic, mode of publishing known as the giant New York publishing houses.

Read the First Two Chapters of “Kill Ratio” on Amazon Now

The first two chapters of Bryan Cassiday’s dystopian thriller Kill Ratio are now available for reading on Amazon. The plague is wiping out the human race, turning everyone into flesh-eating ghouls.  The end of America is near . . .

“The Anaconda Complex” to Be an Audiobook

The Anaconda Complex, Bryan Cassiday’s CIA conspiracy thriller, will be an audiobook that is scheduled for release this summer.  Here is a sneak peek of the cover for the audiobook.

“Sanctuary in Steel” to Be an Audiobook

ABWvoiceovers has been contracted to do the audiobook version of Bryan Cassiday’s Sanctuary in Steel.

If you can’t wait for the audiobook, read it on Kindle.

New Cover for the Audiobook Version of “Helter Skelter”

On Bryan Cassiday’s Facebook page there’s a sneak peek at the new cover for the upcoming audiobook version of Helter Skelter, his collection of horror stories, which include zombies, vampires, serial killers, and other maleficent creatures.

 

 

 

 

Bryan Cassiday’s “Helter Skelter” in Production as Audiobook

Helter Skelter, Bryan Cassiday’s collection of his zombie stories and horror stories, is now in production as an audiobook.  Peter Husmann has signed on to produce it.

If you can’t wait for the audiobook, you can always read Helter Skelter on Kindle at Amazon.