Michael Bray's Blog, page 3

Cover reveal for ART

Check out the gorgeous cover for my next novel, ART, a book i co wrote with the superb Matt Shaw. This one will be out soon via Horrific Tales Publishing. Excited to get my physical author copies of this one.

The importance of developing a brand

 

 

The hardest part about being an author in the current marketplace is finding a way to get noticed. With so many books released on a daily basis in both print and eBook format, a potential reader has almost unlimited options about when and where they spend their hard earned money. This is why branding is important, in that it can really help any product or business to stand out from the crowd. I know it seems quite impersonal for an author to refer to themselves as a brand, however that is exactly what we are, or at least should be building towards being in order to maximise sales of our books.

 By that, I mean we should be conducting ourselves in such a way as to let our potential readership know who we are. Of course, the first part of this is producing quality work. Branding is no shortcut to success if the fundamental skills aren’t there. For those who are willing to invest the time and effort into their craft and want to go further with their careers, marketing and branding yourself in the correct way is a vital part of the process, and one which I myself am now just coming to terms with.

In the past, I have always dealt with my books – be it self-published or with a publisher – on a case by case basis. In essence, I didn’t really think beyond whichever book I was working on or looking to place into print. As a result, I missed out on a few little things which I hope will help me to brand myself and my work in order to make it more recognisable.

Let me give an example. If you showed anyone a picture of the McDonalds golden arches, or a photograph of the Pepsi logo, it’s safe to assume they would recognise it and be able to identify which company it relates to and the product they sell. Those companies and others like it make a ton of money based on brand recognition, and for the budding author, it’s something we should be looking at too.

For me, the most obvious way to do it is by applying some consistency across the covers of your books. For those who self-publish this is pretty straight forward. One thing all books have in common no matter how they are published is you, the author. Your name is always there on the front. Up until recently, I never thought about how this could be used as part of branding until I looked at some of the bestselling authors in the genre. Those guys, for the most part, had the same font and text placement for their names on their books across multiple titles. Often they would have a tagline above or underneath their name which, again, carried across from title to title. Sure enough, the colours and artwork designs might change depending on the tone of the cover, but the font and placement remained consistent. Here are a couple of examples:

 

 For me, it was a no brainer. I wanted to get in on that action. Plus, I personally think it looks good. I want repeat readers. The best way to do that is to have some constant visual element that my readers can pick out when they are browsing the amazon listings. Something to identify me and my work as a brand. Looking back across my titles, I noticed that the name placement was different from book to book. It’s no surprise then, that some of my most loyal and consistent readers had missed out on some of my releases. So, I set about trying to rectify that. I set to work on designing a treatment for my name, a font which will carry across my work going forward and onto my back catalogue where it could be changed. (Unfortunately a few of these can’t be edited to add in the new treatment). I wanted a font which was clean and simple, and most importantly readable at a distance. I would also need a tagline. I didn’t want to have one of those pointless ‘best seller in amazon short stories about demon dogs’ kind of taglines or anything like that. (Although Whisper did spend a couple of weeks in the top 3 of the overall horror chart in both the UK and US) I wanted something different.

James Patterson uses ‘The pages turn themselves’. Iain Rob Wright uses ‘Fear on every page.’ King uses whatever the hell he likes. He’s King, after all. I plumped for ‘The voice of modern horror’

I like how it sounds, and it fits in with my chosen font for my name.  Check it out.

 

 

 The plan now is to place this font and tagline on all of my back catalogue releases where they will fit. Dark Hall Press have already kindly agreed to change the cover to Dark Corners for me to accommodate the new design. The rest of my works will be updated in the coming days. I also have this as the header on my official website, and my Facebook and other social media platforms will follow suit in the next day or so. My hope is that by identifying myself as a brand, people will be more inclined to remember me and my work and (fingers crossed) come and buy more books.

 

Hopefully, this is something my fellow authors out there might be interested in trying. I know some already do it, and do it really well. I feel like I’m arriving late to the party, and want to try and implement this as best I can going forward as part of building my brand. Here is a look at a couple of my updated covers side by side to reflect the new changes.

 

 

I think they look pretty good, and only wish I had jumped on this a lot sooner. Will it lead to an increase in sales? Only time will tell. I certainly can’t complain with my current numbers, both the UK and US markets are showing good steady sales month on month. My hope is that this further helps me to grow and become more visible, and has encouraged my colleagues in the writing world to at least consider paying more attention to how they brand and market their work.

 

Thanks for reading

What exactly is MEAT: UNCUT?

A couple of weeks ago, I announced on my Facebook author page the pending release of a new edition of my novella, MEAT, titled MEAT: UNCUT. A lot of people have been asking me what exactly it is, and so thought I would write a small blog post to explain.

When the idea for MEAT was first conceived, it was intended as a short story for inclusion in DARK CORNERS, which was in production at the time. I had seen maybe a two thousand word story tops before I started to write.

The story grew and grew and soon became far too big to include in DARK CORNERS. At this point, I knew I had to make a decision. I could either shelve it and come back to it later, or keep writing and see where it took me. I chose the latter, and ended up with a 40k word novella, which was released in December 2012.

I promptly moved on to my next project, sure that my adventures with the Nicu family and the Grueber’s chain of supermarkets was over.

Soon after completing writing WHISPER, I was forced to acknowledge the nagging voice in my head which suggested I wasn’t actually finished with the story of MEAT after all. Being a stubborn man (As my wife will surely agree) I ignored said voice and pushed it aside.

As it happened, MEAT started to sell well, and a few people started to ask about sequels, which, not to disappoint those hoping for one, isn’t something I wanted to do. I like the way the story ends, and I don’t feel like I have any justification to force out a sequel to a work which to me had a natural conclusion.

The reader reaction did, however make me pay attention to that nagging voice in my head and take another look at the story. As I looked through the manuscript for the first time in months, it dawned on me that even without knowing it, I had written the entire novella with a short story mind set. The story flowed well, but I could see far more scope to include things I had subconsciously omitted, sub plots which were there in the early stages and were culled because I had the idea imprinted into my brain at the time of writing that the book had to be ‘short’. I started to consider then, that rather than an outright sequel, perhaps I could go back into the story and restore it to the original vision I had when I first got the idea.

In principal, it was a good plan, although how to execute it was another matter. MEAT was (and still is) selling really well, and has picked up a few fans of the book along the way. I didn’t want to alienate those fans by revising the book and changing it into something they didn’t recognise. At the same time, I wanted to get this deeper edition of the story out there somehow. It was during discussions with an author friend of mine about the situation that he suggested I could maybe release an alternative version – a director’s cut of sorts – for those who wanted to read the full story.

Such a simple idea had never dawned on me, and yet as soon as my friend said it, the idea made perfect sense. Those who like the original edition of the book can stick with it as is. For the curious of those who wanted to further explore the story, the extended edition would be there as an option.

As to what is actually changed for the new version, I don’t want to give away too much detail, as that would spoil the story. What I will say is that there is plenty of new content to flesh out the story. There are extended scenes which delve into the back stories of many of the mail players, plus a couple of sub plots featuring people who were omitted entirely from the first incarnation of the book. I have also gone through the manuscript and given it a thorough edit from top to bottom, re wording certain scenes and using the skills I have learned to make the book better than when I first wrote it back in late 2012.  Personally, I think it has come out well. Really well. I can’t wait to release it and see what the general consensus is on the new edition. I should be in a position to announce a release date shortly. I need to make a few more changes yet and then send it off to have a pro edit before it sees the light of day. Until then, here is the cover art to whet the appetite….

3 book deal signed!

Really excited to be able to finally announce this. Just before Christmas, i signed a three book deal with the amazing Permuted Press to bring FROM THE DEEP and two sequels to press! is this an opportunity to work alongside such a well respected and forward moving publisher, and one eho i’m really excited to be working with. FROM THE DEEP is already complete, and work is about to begin on the second book in the series, tentitively titled RETURN TO THE DEEP. The trilogy will conclude with SPAWN OF THE DEEP sometime in 2015.

I’m sure i’ll be bringing you more news on this as and when i get it. For now i’m just going to enjoy the calm before all the hard work begins!

Update 13/01/2014

Lots of news to share after a busy end to 2013/ start to 14.

First up, From the Deep is complete and has been sold to a publisher who for now I cant name. All i can say is it’s one of my favourite presses, and they have a history of producing top quality work. Watch this space for more info as and when i get it.

Secondly, the sequel to WHISPER is finished, or at least the first draft is. Now begins the long process of edits before we look to a release, which is tentatively scheduled for Summer time. It’s a story which i hope does justice to the original and lives up to its best seller status! 

Finally, there are a few things on the horizon regarding possible movie adaptations for at lest one of my works. Again, i cant really go into too much detail yet, however contract talks are set to begin in the next couple of weeks to see if we can get something confirmed. I have always wanted to see one of my stories transferred to film, so this is a really exciting potential development. Apologies if this update isnt really telling much of anything, sadly with contracts and confidentiality agreements in place, my hands really are tied. Here’s hoping the next update lets me reveal a little bit more information.

Update 13/11/2013

A small progress update today to let everyone know what’s happening right now.

From the Deep is still in edits, and a few initial queries to literary agents have been sent about the possibility of placing the story for sale. Whatever the results of those, I expect to release the book sometime in 2014. As I have mentioned before, it’s a hell of a story that I’m really proud to have written.

Also completed is the collaborate novel, The Void, also pencilled in for a release next year. Like From the Deep, it’s a strong story that I can’t wait to show you.

As for current works, the Whisper sequel continues to take shape, and I’m thrilled with the progress so far. I’m also greatly enjoying working on another collaboration with the superb Matt Shaw on a twisted dual viewpoint story, titled ART.

As for the remainder of this year, there might well be something new appearing before Christmas. I can’t go into specifics yet, but watch this space. In the meantime, thanks for reading.

WHISPER sequel started!

Excited to share the news that the sequel to my critically acclaimed novel Whisper is officially now in production! I have spent the last few months working out the story, & am really thrilled with how it has come together. Tentatively titled WHISPER: Return to Oakwell, the story picks up 7 years after the events of the first book & once again features Steve & Melody Sampson as they are once again drawn to the place that almost cost them their lives.

The book will be written alongside my Jack the Ripper novel, with a planned completion of February/March 2014 after which the editing process will begin. I shall update with more specific details in due course.

Free Complete Story From FUNHOUSE

Following a vote during the official launch party for FUNHOUSE, it was decided that one story would be released in full from the collection. That story was THE BOY WHO SAW SPIDERS. Here it is in it’s entirety.  If you enjoy it, Please considering buying the collection from the following links:

UK: : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funhouse-Michael-Bray/dp/1492746606/

US: : http://www.amazon.com/Funhouse-Michael-Bray/dp/1492746606/

 

 

THE BOY WHO SAW SPIDERS

The party on Pointer Street was where Andy had planned to tell Jenny how he felt, and perhaps take the next step in their relationship. But now, any idea of such things had evaporated, disappeared into the ether as he sat and tried to come to terms with the situation. He tried to regain focus, but it was no good.

All he could think about were the spiders.

When he arrived at the party that night, he was just like everybody else. An average, run of the mill student who didn’t really excel at anything in particular, and had made an academic career of remaining almost completely anonymous. However, none of that mattered. Not anymore.  He chewed at his bottom lip, scratched at his greasy mop of brown hair, and tried to make sense of it all. He was perched on the end of the sofa, his beer long forgotten and clutched in his hand, as he watched the spiders scurrying over the carpet and skittering across the walls with horrible, jerky urgency. They were far too numerous to even attempt trying to count. The big ones were hanging back in the corners, peering out from the dark places and watching, their smaller, olive-sized cousins were bolder, and exploring the room as if the throng of people were nothing more than enormous lumbering obstacles.

He took a slow, dazed look around the room and wondered why nobody else was making a fuss. He would have expected screams or panicked yelps of disgust, but with sick realisation, he understood why.

Only he could see them.

He reflexively curled his toes as one darted past his shoe and into Melissa Freese’s Handbag. Melissa didn’t notice, she was too busy jawing with that smart mouthed, pig faced friend of hers — Alison something-or-other — who was blathering on and on about some personal injustice that had conflicted with her narrow minded view of the world.  He looked to his left. On the opposite side of the sofa, Jonny Marshall, and whichever unfortunate girl’s face he was chewing off, were slobbering as they groped at each other and tongue wrestled in the way that horny teens did.

One thing for certain was that the pair hadn’t noticed the spiders either – even the one that was working its way into Jonny’s ear, its thin legs kicking and scrabbling for purchase as it delved deeper. Completely oblivious, Jonny and his date continued swapping spit and feeling each other up.  Andy half wanted to warn him, but Jonny was a jock, and more than that, he was an arrogant, bullying son of a bitch who was at his happiest making the less gifted, less attractive, less ‘Jonny’ type kids’ lives miserable.

Fuck him.

Let it burrow.

He saw a flicker of movement, whipped his head around just in time to see it, and immediately wished he hadn’t.  He watched as a plump, ugly looking funnel web spider darted into an open pack of Cheetos that were on the table. Once again, he had half an urge to call out and tell someone, but held his silence. Other than Jenny, he didn’t really care for anyone at the party anyway, and none of them were people who he could actually call friends. They were just acquaintances, some of which he barely knew. So he swallowed his words and watched in morbid fascination as

Chip Denning — who if rumor was to be believed, preferred boys to girls and had a homophobe of a brother who would break your teeth if you ever asked about it — picked up a handful of the cheesy snack. Andy saw the plump spider wriggling as Chip shoved the snacks, spider, and all, into his mouth and crunched down, then turned back to his conversation.

Andy’s stomach quivered a little, and he suddenly wanted to run away from both spiders and classmates alike, but he knew he would never be able to pluck up the courage. He was also sure that if he tried, his legs would refuse to cooperate, and he would be left standing like an idiot frozen to the spot.

And they would know.

The spiders that only he could see.

He became conscious of the fact that he was holding his breath, and let it out slowly. His eyes flicked to the door, the thought of escape still lingering in his mind, but even if he could move, what he saw made the point moot, as that route was already being cut off.

Hundreds — no, thousands of the spiders were constructing an intricate web which covered the entire doorway.

The scale of it was too much to bear, and he forced himself to turn away. His stomach lurched, and he let out a shallow, booze-flavored belch. It was only then that he noticed the bottle of Budweiser still clutched in his fist, and he took a long, grateful swig, just about managing to keep his trembling hand steady enough to get the bottle to his lips. It was warm and flat, but made him feel better nonetheless.

Still the party went on.

Still the spiders scurried.

Dale Thompson crossed the room, standing in front of Andy with a distracted, uncomfortable look on his acne-ravaged face.

“Hey Andy, you drinking that or what?” Thompson said pointing to the bottle clutched in Andy’s hand.

“Uh…Yeah. No… I don’t think so.” Andy replied, unable to rationalise his thoughts.

“Mind if I have it?”

“No, go ahead.” Andy mumbled, handing Dale the barely touched, too warm beverage.

“Thanks. Take it easy Andy.”

“Yeah. You too.” He said as he watched Dale swagger away.

Dale’s T-shirt was swarming with hundreds of spiders, crawling over and under each other as they explored their host’s portly frame.

How could he not have noticed? Andy wondered, and as he considered the question, that little voice — the one that went so often ignored – popped up in his mind.

Dale can’t see them because they aren’t there. Not really. But you already know that, don’t you?

The thought sparked another question, which presented itself in his inner monologue with much less subtlety.

Am I insane?

He considered the question. He was nineteen. Reasonably intelligent, no history of mental-health problems. In fact, life had been pretty uneventful until he arrived at the party that night. But no matter how he tried to spin it, there was no explanation for them.

The spiders.

They were now everywhere, swarming out from behind furniture, and covering almost every wall and surface.

He glanced at Andrea Gill, she who had cheated in last month’s chemistry exam by reading his answers. He had let her, because he didn’t care. He was going places, and regardless of her cheating ways, the Andrea Gill’s of the world were destined to become single parents, welfare scrounging fuck-up losers for life.

He watched in fascination as a fat house spider with disproportionately long, spindly legs scurried up her body, finally coming to rest in her hair. One thin black leg clung onto her cheek as the spider paused above her ear.

Andrea carried on talking to her friends, none of them spotting the new addition to the party.

Yes.

He thought to himself as he looked at the table full of half-eaten buffet food, now pulsing and flexing with a life of its own as the arachnid mass explored the fleshy sandwiches and small containers of dips and breadsticks.

Yes indeed.

He supposed that the little voice in his head might be right. He could well have lost the plot, gone mad, bought himself a ticket to the funny farm, lost a few vital sandwiches out of the picnic basket. Because the world ticked on as normal, but for him, it was filled with spiders.

Spiders here, spiders there, spiders everywhere.

He felt a shrill, giddy laugh begin to move up to his throat, and he knew that if he let it out they would hear, and like the words smallest army they would come for him. He knew it as a certainty.

The laugh was close now, and he lifted a clenched fist to his mouth and bit down hard enough to draw a little blood and make his eyes water. The pain didn’t bother him though, in fact, he welcomed it, because the laugh had gone, and the status quo was maintained.

He started to relax, and then drew a sharp breath.

There was one of them perched on his knee.

He looked at it, too afraid to swat it away, and

the spider looked back. He could feel its glassy multi eyed stare boring into him, and could do no more than wait to see what would happen.

It was as if time had stopped, and even though the party and its oblivious guests went on with the business of drinking, pairing off and trying to boost their popularity, his world was no more than the small square of denim on his left knee.

The spider skittered forwards, just a few inches, but it was enough to make Andy try to push himself back into the sofa. He was going to scream. He knew it and knew there was no way that he would be able to stop it this time.  When it came, he knew he would be gone — his mind broken as he fell into the black hole of perpetual insanity – but at the last second, the spider changed direction and ran instead off his leg and down out of sight into the dark place between the seat cushions.

He felt sick and saw small white spots dancing in front of his eyes. He was going to faint, and knew he couldn’t allow it to happen, because if he did they would come for him.

He laughed.

A short, shrill, cackle which went unheard amid the thumping bass and the constant stream of party chatter. Yes, he was sure of it. Something in his brain was defective. Something had broken, and now he could see them everywhere. He imagined how his life would be; living in his own personal world filled with spiders.

He heard a groan. Jonny’s date had come up for air, and when she smiled, thousands of tiny newborn spiders streamed out of her mouth and nose, covering her face and neck as they looked for dark places to shelter.

The terror bubbling in Andy’s guts told him that his brain was on the verge of shutting up shop and refusing to play ball, and so he closed his eyes, trying to regain a little composure and maybe bring himself under a modicum of control, but even that was no good.

Because even with his eyes closed he could still see them, cast in stark white negative on the blank canvas of his mind’s eye. He blinked away the image and found that his reality was only marginally better than the squirming, scurrying mass that lived in his brain.

He glanced towards the corner of the room, and when he saw it — saw her, he felt something break, a sharp click as whatever small thread had been connecting him to his sanity snapped.

Jenny was slumped in the corner.

Jenny.

The girl he had known since they were four-year-old neighbors.

Jenny who had always seen him as more of a friend than the more serious thing that he one day hoped they would become.

Jenny who had brought him to the party, even though it was a place where a quiet, reserved kid like him wouldn’t have otherwise been invited.

However, all of that was before the spiders.

Her petite frame was swollen, chin resting on her chest. As he watched and his broken mind processed what was in front of him, he knew without doubt that he was irreversibly damaged.

He could see them moving under her skin, making it ripple and pulse, and bizarrely reminding him of childhood trips to the coast and the way the tides ebbed and flowed as they crept up the beach. They were streaming out of her nose and ears, and as he watched, her mouth slowly opened and a huge, thick-limbed monster of a spider pushed its way out. Andy had seen them on T.V. 

Bird eaters.

He was sure that’s what they were called.

The huge spider dragged its immense body out of her gaping mouth, and flopped down on to her chest where it stood in splayed legged triumph. Andy was beyond screaming, beyond anything other than looking on with a sick and twisted fascination.

She’s the queen, and Jenny was her nest.

The thought danced, darted and spun in Andy’s mind, and when he couldn’t make any rational sense out of it, it danced and spun some more. He wanted to ask what it wanted. Why him? What did he ever do to deserve this?

But he couldn’t move, and his mouth remained tightly closed as still more of them came – a never-ending procession from every conceivable place in the room.

His skin itched, and his stomach danced as he tried to put the situation into some kind of order. But his brain wasn’t cut out for dealing with such horror, and so it had decided to leave Andy to his own devices.

He saw Jenny move, and for a moment, there was hope, hope that she was ok, hope that he could get her out of there and maybe then she would look at him in the same way he looked at her.

But it wasn’t Jenny that was moving, not really.

It was the spiders.

The spiders in their Jenny skin that were going about their business and making her loll and dance like a macabre marionette.

Spiders.

Spiders Spiders Spiders

He would do anything. Anything to avoid having to watch the jerky, skittish way that they moved in that horrible, stop start motion. Anything to avoid having to watch the spider filled Jenny puppet that pulsed and rippled along to the bass line of the party.

You know what it’s going to take. You know what you have to do.

The voice in his head whispered, and he did. As terrifying as the thought was, it was the only way. He lurched out of his seat with a defiant roar and did it before he could change his mind.

His scream brought the party to a halt. The music cut out and his fellow classmates, students, friends, and those that he was indifferent to were looking at him. He could feel their judging gaze, and found a bitter irony that for the first time in his life, he wasn’t an anonymous face. He was finally the center of attention.

The silence was broken by a single high-pitched scream. He thought it might have been Andrea Gill — she of the over the shoulder wandering eye on test days, but couldn’t be sure. Whoever it was; they set off a chain reaction, and the silence morphed into chaos.

Andy simply stood where he was and smiled. Because although the sounds of the screams were loud, at least they were natural. They were normal, everyday things that he could rationalise and make sense of.

He thought that the world made more sense when it was rational. And he thought that he would be just fine now that it was done. He began to laugh, a sound rich and hearty and full, because he had won.

The chaos was a thick, heavy thing and seemed to hang in the air like a physical entity. Yet, amid the confusion, he heard several distinct things.

 

Someone shouting for help.

 

Someone else repeating ‘oh god, oh god, oh god’ like it was some kind of bizarre mantra.

Someone quite close to him, crying.

He thought it might have been Jenny, and hoped that it was, because that would mean he had saved her. He would have looked for himself, but he had already torn out his own eyes.

He continued to laugh as the sound of police sirens drew close.

FUNHOUSE RELEASED!!

FUNHOUSE is out NOW in both paperback and digital formats! I hope you enjoy this one, it was great fun to write! Don’t forget to spread the word about the release!

Paperback

AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funhouse-Michael-Bray/dp/1492746606/

AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Funhouse-Michael-Bray/dp/1492746606/

Kindle

AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funhouse-Michael-Bray-ebook/dp/B00G3CKZZ4

AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Funhouse-Michael-Bray-ebook/dp/B00G3CKZZ4

Update 22/10/13

I recently did a guest blog for my friends over at Dark Hall Press about the importance of editing. I thoughts some might be interested in reading it. you can check it out HERE. Let me know what you think about it.

In other news, im thrilled to see that WHISPER is still going really well and selling strongly on both sides of the Atlantic, rising as high as #3 on the paid best sellers list in the US, and #4 in the UK!!. The superb staff at Horrific Tales Publishing have to take credit for a superb promotional and marketing campaign. From the start, they had set out to increase my U.S profile, and have already gone to great lengths to do just that. the high chart position speaks volumes for the success they have achieved, and I look forward to continuing to work with them going forward.

Even though they are technically a small press, they have gone above and beyond to really push and promote the book, and in doing so have put many of the so-called ‘ bigger’ presses to shame. As I mentioned in my last blog, this is a subject that I intend to cover in the very near future, where I will show the difference between the author fleecing cowboys who are only out to make a quick profit from the author, to the companies that genuinely care about the quality of work they output, and invest the time, effort and financial resources to make sure it happens. It should be a good read, so look out for that one soon.

On the submissions front, had a couple of bites from Literary agents about the From The Deep manuscript that i have been shopping around. Nothing concrete yet, but definitely some positive movement. I really hope someone picks it up, as i truly think the story is my best work to date. 

Dont forget to check out the Dark Hall Press guest blog, and please feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts or feedback on this or any of my other blogs. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mick