Ana Spoke's Blog, page 13

Interview with Matthew FitzSimmons, #1 bestselling author of thriller Short Drop!

Hi, everyone!

You may recall that Matthew FitzSimmons unexpectedly stopped by this blog a couple of weeks ago, to explain how Short Drop made it to #1 in Kindle Store and gathered over 1,300 reviews weeks before its release on 1 December (it’s now well over 1,800 reviews with average 4.7 star rating!). You may recall that his debut novel was one of November offerings in Kindle First program, and that Matthew was kind enough to not only explain the ins and outs of Kindle First, he even agreed to answer your questions about his experience.

Thank you all who have contributed to the questions below. Without further adieu, here are your long-awaited answers!

 

In your bio you mention the first novel you wrote, which you would rather forget. Can you tell us a bit more about that experience? What made you want to try again? What kept you going?

Ah the dreaded first book. Well, I spent four years on it. It was meant to be this lyrical, personal meditation on life, the universe and everything – my “great American novel.” It was none of those things. I was young and undisciplined. I worked jobs that I loathed to support my writing. I lost an early version when my hard drive died – too naïve to have backed it up. And there came a point, when I began to suspect that it wasn’t very good. And shortly thereafter, I simply began to hate it. I hated writing. I hated what I’d written. It was self-indulgent, pretentious and achingly “literary.” Actually, in retrospect, there were some quite good bits, but my God they were buried under acres of manure. I decided I was done, done with writing, and that I’d wasted quite enough time on this daydream.

Eventually, I became a teacher, which I loved and was good at. I taught books, theater and coached sports – all in the same day. It was a marvelous job. I did that for eleven years. And then, five or six years ago, I began noodling about with writing again. I’m don’t remember why only that I didn’t tell anyone about it. Small things – a blog that no one read. Bits and pieces of story ideas…that no one read. I was very happy about that – the no one reading it part. It was just something for me. Then I had a bit of a personal crisis, and I began writing more seriously largely because it offered an escape from my day-to-day struggles. Somewhere along the way, I had learned to love writing again. I was older and disciplined. I backed up my hard drive like it was my job. And, to my surprise, what I wrote didn’t seem half bad. When I was halfway through, I showed it to a few friends who I knew wouldn’t be needlessly kind. “Would you keep reading if I finished it,” I asked. “Yes,” they all said. So I did.

You have quite a diverse education and background – from B.A. in Psychology, to theatre, to teaching English literature. How did those experiences, combined with living in Great Britain and China, influence you as a writer? Have you used any of your personal experiences as material for the plot or characters in your stories?

I’ve come to realize that all of my experiences – theater, a degree in psychology, teaching, coaching – have been, in one way or another, about understanding people. Collectively it is the foundation of my empathy. The same for growing up and living abroad; it’s all helped me to put myself in another person’s shoes. And if you can’t do that, then all your characters wind up sounding like variations of yourself.

What is your writing routine? Is writing now your full-time job, or are you still teaching? Do you read broadly, or do you confine your reading to certain genres? Who are your favorite contemporary authors?

Writing has been my full-time job since June. I write six days a week from seven to four. I write new pages in the afternoon and then edit them the following morning. I was writing seven days a week, but I found that if I didn’t take a day off that my brains turned to porridge. I read broadly although I read more thrillers now “for work,” than I once did. But I think it’s essential to read outside of ones genre, because genre can easily become a closed system and then everyone begins to sound like everyone else. It’s the beginning of formula, and formula is the beginning of the end of anything good. Among contemporary authors, I’m an enormous fan of William Gibson, Kazuo Ishiguro and Don DeLillo. Ian McEwan. And for my money, Daniel Woodrell is the best American thriller writer working today.

Your first published novel Short Drop is a thriller, complete with political intrigue, murder for hire, missing people, computer hacking, and a web of lies. How did you come up with the idea for this story? Did you use early/advanced readers for Short Drop? If so, how did they affect the story?

I started from a theme rather than a story. I wanted to write about the role of our past on our present. The idea of finding closure was near and dear to my heart at that time, and while Gibson Vaughn’s past is nothing like my own, I related to his desperate need for answers. The story itself, I built in a slow process of addition and subtraction. For example, Gibson’s hacker background was a late arrival, and originated from a conversation with a friend who works in computer security. One night at dinner, he told me about the Stuxnet virus, which was used to crash a nuclear reactor in Iran. It’s an unbelievable story, and I thought it would be interesting to write a hacker character that was truthful to how computers actually work.

Yes, I had an incredible group of advanced readers. Having readers who will give you honest feedback was critical to my success, but it takes time to cultivate them. A reader needs to trust that if they tell you the truth that you aren’t going to throw a tantrum. It was very important to me that the book appeal to both men and women, so I purposefully sought out women to read early drafts. Jenn Charles, for example, underwent a thorough rewrite after a woman, who had served in the army, took me to task for how I’d portrayed certain facets of her personality. She made great points, and helped me understand what the experience of being a woman in a male dominated field experiences. I adjusted the character accordingly, and Jenn Charles is a much more rounded character as a result.

Short Drop has been complimented for well-developed characters, which is often unusual in thriller or action-driven writing. Would you say it is more plot-driven or character-driven?

That’s the compliment that meant the most to me, and I’d like to say that the book relies on plot/character in equal measure. Without character, the plot and action rarely have any impact on me. There’s an old cartoon called Bambi vs. Godzilla that illustrates this principle perfectly. In the cartoon, Bambi is grazing in a field. Out of nowhere, Godzilla’s foot crushes Bambi. End of cartoon. It’s so shocking and unexpected that we laugh rather than cry. An adorable woodland creature has just been heartlessly crushed by a gigantic, nuclear lizard, and we burst out laughing. Now part of the humor is the inherent mismatch of opponents coupled with the suddenness of Bambi’s death, but I think the cartoon also lampoons the laziness of a lot of action thrillers that traffic in murder and mayhem without investing the time to make the characters real. As a result, when the murder/mayhem comes along, the audience is able to stand at an emotional remove and simply spectate rather than feel invested in the outcome on anything but a surface level.

What is the one most surprising thing you’ve learned about the traditional publishing industry? What was it like working with Amazon’s own Thomas & Mercer? Have you ever considered self-publishing?

When I finished my book, I looked at the pros and cons of self versus traditional publishing. There are merits to both, and I decided to try my luck at finding an agent first, with the knowledge that self-publishing was always there to fall back on. I chose that path because I’m essentially lazy about things that I don’t love to do. I love to write; I do not love marketing or any of the other critical work of audience building that the self-published author must do and do well if they hope to succeed. There are self-published authors, Hugh Howey is the obvious example, who are brilliant at it. I had to be honest with myself that I would not be successful following his example.

I was surprised at how “small” an industry publishing is in the United States. Everyone knows everyone else and relationships are important. There is tremendous fluidity among the publishing house and the larger agencies. It’s not uncommon for agents to become editors and vice versa, or for staff to move among the various publishing houses. So protect your reputation and don’t burn bridges ever.

As for my experience with Thomas & Mercer, it has been tremendous. They are innovative and collaborative in a way that I’ve found very exciting. It’s fair if you take this with a grain of salt, but I feel incredibly fortunate to work with this group of people.

Your story is an inspiration to all aspiring writers and authors. Can you share with us the moment when you’ve realized that Short Drop became or was about to become a huge bestseller? How did you feel?

I think it was the moment that I asked my agent, “is this normal?” I really didn’t know since I have nothing to compare it against. He said, “no, there is nothing normal about this.” He isn’t one for hyperbole so that kind of opened my eyes.

How did it feel? Relief followed swiftly by elation. It’s like the first time you ask someone out – you don’t have enough experience to know if they like you or not. So you simply put yourself out there and hope against hope that you aren’t scarred for life by their cruel rejection. And that feeling, when they actually say, “yes” … well, it’s brilliant. And then it’s over, and everything has changed and nothing. My desk is still in the same spot, and my chair stills squeaks when I rock back in it. I still have a book to finish, and I don’t get outside as much as I ought to do. But sometimes, I peek at the numbers just to confirm that I haven’t made it all up.

Congratulations again on making it to #1 in Kindle Store and staying at the top for such a long time. You’ve mentioned that Kindle First was a godsend. What marketing strategies are in place for Short Drop now that it is available to the general public?

Thank you! The advantage and limitation of having a publisher who is also your primary bookstore is that you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket. The tools that Amazon Publishing have at their disposal in the digital realm are unique and incredibly effective. Their ability to direct market to book fans through Amazon.com is unparalleled. For example, the “daily deal” when they drop a book’s price for twenty-four hours is a great tool to boost sales/awareness. However, on the flip side, it can be difficult to reach readers who are not Amazon customers, and traditional publishers are still much better at reaching them. So I’m working with a public relations firm to raise awareness of the book outside of Amazon’s channels. I’d like to say I have a deep understanding of how it works, but mostly I work on the next book and they send me emails telling me what to do next. It’s rather lovely actually.

Is it hard to concentrate on writing the sequel with so much going on at the moment? When can we expect to see it in print?

I’d be lying if this has challenged my focus for the past few weeks, but I’m learning to tune it out while I’m working. IF that doesn’t work, I may throw my router out the window. The draft of my second book, Poisonfeather, is due early next year, and the plan is to publish in October, ’16 – which feels very, very soon.

And finally, do you have any advice for aspiring writers and authors?

There’s an old adage that goes, “write what you know.” It once possessed a kernel of truth, but like many aphorisms, it’s been stripped of its context and become terrible, limiting advice. Writing only what you know would lead to a world without science fiction and without fantasy. Jules Verne didn’t write what he know – not unless he was secretly a submarine commander, a time traveler and an astronaut. He made it up. You don’t need to be a retired lawyer to write legal thrillers, and you don’t need to be a decorated Navy Seal to write a military thriller. I’m sure it helps, but it’s not essential. I have no military background, and I’ve never hacked anything in my life. For me, the best part of writing has been the opportunity to research and talk to people with different life experience from my own. So don’t only write what you know. Actually, I think I’ll offer my own aphorism in its place: Don’t write what you know, write what you want to know.

This is what a CreateSpace paperback looks like

Hi, everyone!

Thanks again for all your warm wishes this week, when I’ve posted my big news – that a paperback version of Shizzle, Inc is finally available on Amazon.

I have mentioned in that post how happy I was with its quality, and a few of you have asked for the photos of the actual book. I’m not a great photographer, so this is the best I can do:

This is only one variation of the finishes you can have – glossy cover (you can choose matte) with cream pages (you can choose white). I don’t have another version to compare, but I’ve found another blog which compares glossy and matte covers.

It feels great – solid, well-made, the same quality you would expect from any bookstore. I really like the paper – it feels great to flip a page or to hold it open, and I’m once again happy with my layout. I was worried that the margins are too small, but it looks fine, again sort of industry-standard.

I’ve ordered 50 copies to gift to my family and to start pushing onto the local bookstores. It will take a month to get here, and yet the shipping cost is still more than $100! My next step is to try and get it into US brick-an-mortar bookstores, if anyone has any advice on how to do that via emails, please let me know!

How I plan to take over the world…

…of publishing, that is!

You would not believe it, but after many an eye roll, back-an-forth negotiations, and general pouting, management approved my long service leave! Five months! Yay! (At half pay…Okay…I can deal with that…).

Five months to write and publish two sequels to Shizzle, Inc. Five months to give this writing career one hell of a try. Can I do it?

Only Microsoft Project can tell! Well, based on the following assumptions:

That I can write 20K words per week (not all of the time will be spent writing).
That I will have 40K words written by Feb.
That I will have the first cover designed by 29 Feb.
That I will do proofreading myself (and rely on “early readers” to suggest structural changes). This way I hope to reduce costs, compared to the fortune I’ve spent on Shizzle, Inc.

I tried staggering writing of both sequels, to allow for other (many!) tasks. This is what I came up with:

Book #2:

Book #3:

Microsoft project says I can do it!

Let me know what you think of my assumptions and timelines :-)

Marketing blitz reveal – so how did Robin Read, Indie Book Promo, and Book Gorilla perform?

Hi, everybody!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great – I didn’t get any turkey down here, in Australia, but Shizzle, Inc did get to #9 on Amazon’s Satire Bestseller list! Not quite the #1 that I was hoping for, but hey! Single digits!

I couldn’t be happier. Not everything went according to the plan, but a negative result is also a result, as scientists say, and you get to benefit from all my experiences, whether good or bad.

To remind you, I was testing three companies over three days, and the results are as follows:

Robin Reads – 26 November. Cost: $25. Sales on the day: 19
Indie Book Promo – 27 November. Cost: $25. Sales on the day: 3.
Book Gorilla – 28 November.Cost: $50. Sales on the day: 46.

These numbers are quite disappointing, especially when the previous $25 promo with eReader news resulted in 63 sales and covered the cost. It could be that it’s not a good idea to advertise over a major holiday, especially the Black Friday. I might give RR and BG another try, although I’m completely disappointed in Indie Book Promo – I have contacted them and they promised to send me some stats, although their attitude was that they are a different model to an email blast, and that’s just that. Well, I have not seen any evidence that they’ve made a dent on the day or today, so I will take an email blast with results that I can see any day. In the future, I will not bother with any website banner advertisements, seems that a targeted email is the only way to get people to notice.

Back to the numbers. In order to recoup my $100 investment, I should have sold at least 286 copies, so the 68 total sales mean a loss of $76.20. It’s actually a little better than that, because alongside the sales, there’s been a major spike in KENP pages read:

So far it looks like the promo resulted in at least 1,561 extra pages (and hopefully more in the near future!). At roughly half-cent per page, this amounts to another $7.80 or so, so the total loss is currently at $68.40. Hopefully it will continue to reduce as people keep on reading. And if it’s one of you – please, please post a review! I’m up to 18, but it takes 25 reviews to advertise with some of the marketing sites I want to try.

In addition to the three mailouts, I’ve used the blitz as an excuse to continuously report on the sales rank and sales numbers. That resulted in crazy Twitter activity – here are my “impressions” for the week:

Even better – I have gained almost two thousand followers over this past week! The snowball effect is clearly happening, just not so much in sales :-)

I have put the price back to $2.99 and have applied to advertise with Book Bub, but they’ve turned down my $140, which is a pity – rumor has it that authors normally at least make their money back. This means I’m about to put the price back to $0.99 and blast Twitter with the announcements :-)

Speaking of all the marketing sites I want to try, have a look at the The Most Super-Duper, Exhaustive, Comprehensive, and Current Listing of Free and Paid Book Advertising Websites and Ideas, which has been updated with even more sites. I have not given up on paid advertising – you are free to draw whatever conclusions you want from my data, but I see it as investing in my brand. The upcoming blitz/full-on war is as follows:

5 December – second chance for Bargain Booksy. They were nice enough to give me $25 credit for the disappointing YA audience promo, so I’m trying the chicklit audience. Cost – $70 (minus the $25 credit).
7-8 December – Read Free. Cost – free!
9 December – Free Kindle Books and Tips. Cost – $25.
15 December – BookSends (currently arranging, not confirmed).
17 December – Digital Book Today (Deal of the Day). Cost – $30.

Let’s see what that does! Ka-boom!

It’s here! The paperback is finally here!

What a world we live in! Just last Thursday I’ve uploaded the latest files to CreateSpace, then on Friday got the green light to order a proof for review. I paid $26 to have it express shipped to Australia and it was supposed to arrive this coming Thursday. That would have been amazing, but I was not holding my breath, what with the customs and all. So imagine my surprise when the package arrived today! Five days after uploading the files!

What a wonderful, amazing world, full of possibilities!

It’s beautiful! I was worried for some reason that it would look cheap, but it’s gorgeous – it looks just like any book in a bookstore. I chose glossy cover and cream paper and I love the result. The glossy cover makes it feel quite solid, and the pages feel great, like firm paper with a soft feel – the best way I can explain it. The cover colors look just like on my monitor, not like the crappy prints I did myself. The red leather looks very realistic, and I’m once again happy I went back to the gold leaf overlay for the title. If you are interested, I will post a few photos on the weekend – it’s impossible to photograph under artificial lights.

I spent a couple of hours reviewing the interior. They say you’re supposed to read it three times, but I just couldn’t do it. I’ve had multiple professional proofreads, and the Kindle edition has been out for three months. Surely, one of the 18 reviews would have mentioned if I had glaring errors? I also would love to continue tweaking the cover art, but at one point you just have to stop. Just stop and move on, and issue another edition in the future, if need be. Otherwise, the sequel will never get finished.

So I’ve approved it for publication. The message said that it will be available on Amazon in 2-3 days. Not bad. Then I’d decided to check Amazon. You know, in case they were just managing my expectations.

I don’t know what I was thinking. Stupid, unwarranted hope. Which sometimes leads to unexpected results:

It’s here! I mean, there, in cyberspace! It’s already available on American Amazon website and appears on UK Amazon, although not yet available to order. It doesn’t yet appear on Australian Amazon, but that’s not surprising – we are ahead of the US by about 16 hours and behind by at least 16 years. It has not yet linked to my author page, or to the Kindle edition – I would appreciate if anyone could advise how to expedite the process. I would love to get them linked in time for my upcoming 5 December promo with Bargain Booksy. That way people may read a digital edition and decide to buy a copy or two as gifts. Cause, you know, nothing beats laughs as a Christmas gift, right?

I Skyped my parents and we clicked glasses to our respective webcams. Mom cried. Dad predicted my brilliant future and tried to tell me some new jokes for the sequel. I drunk my white wine and thought about the last two-an-a-half years of writing, editing, and publishing. It was all worth it.

What a world we live in…

 

Ana Spoke to interview bestselling author Matthew FitzSimmons!

Have you ever wanted to ask a celebrity author a question? Like, I dunno, maybe the author of Short Drop – the #1 bestseller OVERALL on Kindle Store? Do you wonder how his debut novel hit big time in the oversaturated fiction market?

Well, believe it or not – you can! Unexpectedly, Matthew stumbled across our heated discussions over the reviews of his yet to be released book – which turned out to be available via Kindle First. Matthew was kind enough to post several comments and so we already know that he was picked up by Amazon’s own publishing house through an agent, and that indeed Short Drop was available via Kindle First during the entire November and that’s how it now has 1,352 reviews. Short Drop will be released to the general public on 1 December and is set to make waves, with a sequel already in the works.

That in itself was pretty amazing – I’m personally blown away that he is engaging with readers directly and not via a publicist. I was so encouraged, that I boldly asked if he would be interested in an interview on my blog. You, know, all casual and the like. Whatevs.

He replied and said he would be “delighted” to do an interview! This is when I thought of you – my dear readers and followers – you, who keep pushing my site traffic to record numbers almost every day. Without you, who would’ve noticed this blog? Certainly not a bestselling author! So it’s only fair that you get to interview him, in a way.

So here’s the plan: post your questions in the comments below, I will collate them until midnight on Tuesday, try to combine any repetitive/similar ones, and will come up with a list of 6-8 or so. I’ll get the ball rolling with these:

What is the one most surprising thing you’ve learned about the traditional publishing industry?
What marketing strategies are in place for Short Drop, once it goes live?
Is it hard to concentrate on writing the sequel with so much going on at the moment?

Post away! You have about 24 hours to come up with a perfect question! Don’t miss this opportunity!

Matthew FitzSimmons himself stops by to explain the mystery of Short Drop reviews!

It was late last week when I posted Riddle me this! – a question about how it could be possible for a book to have a ton of reviews before its release. The book in question was Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons, an overall #1 on Kindle, with 1,388 reviews at the writing of this post, and the release date of 1 December.

I was not the only one confused – the post generated quite a discussion and a number of hypothesis, but it was a consensus that the reviews were a result of the book getting picked up as Kindle First. Is this the first time you’ve heard of Kindle First? Well, that makes two of us.

Visit Kindle First website to learn more. Just don’t get too excited if you, like me, are in Australia – for some reason it’s not available down under.

My post generated so much discussion, that I’d decided to post an update – Mystery solved, explaining how it was possible and asking if anyone knew how to get onto the program (which is probably impossible for self-published newbies). Imagine my surprise when I was scrolling through my Twitter notifications and a familiar name caught my attention:

Whaaat? I jumped over to the blog, and there was the comment, waiting for approval:

I have replied, of course, and had the balls to ask how he got to this point – and he replied! For reals:

So there you go folks – a mystery solved, new lesson learned, and another proof that you should never, ever give up on your dreams. I’m off to do some writing. I hope you do the same.

 

Mystery solved (I think) and a quick update on the marketing blitz

Hi, everyone,

Shizzle, Inc got up to #34 on Amazon’s Satire Bestseller list! If you are not following the live tweeting of my biggest marketing campaign to date, here is a quick recap:

Robin Reads started strong, but was a disappointment at 19 sales, at a cost of $25.
Indie Book Promo was a complete dud, at maybe 1 sale (I had 3 total, but 2 were from my constant tweeting about it).
Book Gorilla is currently on fire!

I will post a complete report on Monday. Wish me luck!

Now, I’d like to venture an explanation for the mystery surrounding the 1,200+ verified purchase reviews on a book yet to be released – as previously mentioned in Riddle me this!

First of all, I’d like to thank the following detectives:

Nancy Glynn of Nancy Glynn – thank you for sharing the loophole allowing reviews on a yet-to-be-published book by “tricking” CreateSpace.
Isabella Belucci of Isabella Belucci – thank you for sharing your experience reviewing and ARC (Advanced Review Copy) for another author.
Mykl Walsh of Secret Agent Man – thank you for scouring the Internet for clues!
Tim Vicary of Tim Vicary – thank you for checking the suspect’s Goodreads profile :-)
Prospero of Prospero’s Island – thank you for digging up an interview with the mention of Kindle First!

I did some research myself – and it all seemed to point to Kindle First. For example, all 1,200+ reviews have been posted during November, in line with Kindle First offering the book a month before its release on 1 December. For those not familiar with Kindle First – it is an offer of free or discounted bestsellers (I think just four of them a month), chosen by Amazon’s editors. I have searched madly for any clues on how to get on the list, but it seems to be either a secret or an impossible feat, even though most traditional publishers are currently not supporting it.

Any detectives want to take on this new mystery??

Riddle me this!

Hi, everyone,

Another day, another browse through the Amazon’s Top 100 – and I’ve noticed something I can’t explain. Can someone with more experience and insight explain this phenomena?

How can a book that is yet to be released have 1,200 positive reviews? From verified purchases? Have a look at Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons.

Ok, I understand the need to create pre-release buzz and actually plan on doing the same with the sequel to Shizzle, Inc – but how could there be reviews? I’d like to believe they are not fake…if so, how does one go about getting reviews on Amazon before the release day?

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! The marketing blitz starts tomorrow!

I can’t believe it’s only a day away!

To remind you, I will run three promos on three consecutive days between 26-28 November. There was going to be a fourth, but I’d messed up and did not follow up on it. Proof that you have to have a plan and write things down.

Speaking of plans, I just heard an awesome quote along the lines of “The difference between confidence and arrogance is a plan.” So let me lay out my plan on getting Shizzle, Inc to #1 in Amazon’s Satire Bestseller List this weekend:

26 November. We start with Robin Reads targeted mail-out. Cost: $25.
27 November. There might be some sales generated by Robin Reads, hopefully supported by Indie Book promo. Cost: $25.
28 November – we finish off with a biggie – a proven performer, Book Gorilla. Cost: $50.

I am so excited about it that I will be posting live sales charts throughout the weekend on twitter. So, if you are interested, and are not yet following me – follow @spokeana on Twitter now! You don’t want to miss the races!

This is the current sales chart:

 

 

And here are the current rankings:

 

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,319 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#650 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Satire
#654 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Humor & Satire > American
#1188 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women’s Fiction > Action & Adventure

Let’s see what happens tomorrow!