Marc Johnson's Blog, page 17

Catalyst: The Passage of Hellsfire

For centuries, the kingdom of Alexandria has protected Northern Shala from the monstrous creatures lurking in the Wastelands. Now, a dark force threatens that fragile peace.

Far from home, Alexandria's princess is abducted. When a young villager named Hellsfire stumbles upon her and her captors, he rushes in to rescue her, alone and unarmed. His fear and fury unleash an uncontrollable magical force that grants him the power to save the princess—and change the world.

Hellsfire has never craved nor dreamed of power. But such magic as he now possesses has not been seen in Northern Shala for a thousand years, since the devastation of the War of the Wizards and the creation of the Wastelands.

Now Hellsfire must leave all he's ever known, and make a dangerous journey to learn to master this wild, ferocious power—power he knows he is not ready to wield. More difficult still, he needs to master his emotions. If he can't, the power will consume him, Alexandria will fall, and darkness will eclipse the land, destroying everyone he loves.

In the dead of cold, the spark shall burn…

Catalyst: The Passage of Hellsfire is available at these fine retailers:

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Figuring Out a Target Audience

I thought I knew my target audience. Even though I don't look like it, I'm a huge geek. If there's one thing I've learned since I was a kid, is that those geeks have gigantic libraries of seemingly every fantasy book. I also noticed that when I worked in a bookstore, a lot more guys bought fantasy books even though most women bought books. Because of those, I thought my target was me or people like me.

Boy, was I wrong.

While most book bloggers are women, when I solicited to fantasy book bloggers, there were a decent number of guys. It's still a small percentage, but it was something. Now, those guys didn't like or want to review my book. I think it's because guys always look for something original to hook them and want a fast paced plot. That's not what my book is about.

So I decided to get young adult bloggers a try, which are mostly run by young women. There's a couple of other reasons for this. First of all, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were pretty big, and women LOVE them. My favorable reviews came from women and they said it was a YA book. I never said anything like that in my query.

It couldn't hurt to try something new and could possibly help me. Grabbing the women audience is key because women buy most of the books. There's also a difference between the sexes. Guys are obsessive. We like to collect EVERYTHING and start from the beginning. Women are passionate. They may not collect everything, but they LOVE whatever it is. They dress up and tell everyone, "It's the best thing ever!"

Now, while I might have made a mistake in my initial marketing try, I believe other writers do far worse. For some reason, writers tend to market towards other writers. That's one thing I will never do unless I write a how-to book. You shouldn't care or want other writers buying your book. Yes, writers are readers. But once they're published they don't read as much as they used to. Now other writers will buy your book because you're a fellow writer. Whether they read it or not, or judge it fairly, is another story.

That's what I learned from trying to define my target audience. There may be people I'm missing. Will young kids like my book? Will old people remember what it was like to have an adventurous spirit by reading it? I have no idea. This is all still very new to me.

What's your target audience and how did you figure it out? Can you give any pointers to a rookie?

Marc Johnson

Defining Genres

I've been thinking about what defines a genre. Below are my thoughts and observations over the years, not as a writer, but as a reader. I read a lot of different categories, but I won't cover everything.

Since these are based off my experiences, expect nothing to be 100% accurate. I might not even be right on anything and I'm also not going to cover all the sub-genres.

1. CHICK-LIT

Even though I'm straight, single man, I love chick-lit! The reason is that all chick-lit is a coming-of-age story, and I love coming-of-age stories. So much so that I wrote my own.

The protagonists are all women in their mid to late 20s. They deal with growing up, trying to live on their own, getting a job, having a love life, and making friendships. At one point, they lose all that and must struggle to succeed.

Now, there is a love interest, but that's not all there is. In fact, the love interest isn't as prominent as you might think. Since most books deal with poor 20-somethings, the man is usually rich and dashing, but not arrogant and flaunting. If the woman is rich, then the man doesn't make enough money. Either way, the man is humble.

Except for my non-existant love life and the fact that I like girls, I can actually relate to these books because of the things they deal with. I may be a guy, but I deal with them too.

2. FANTASY

People always ask what fantasy is. Some people think that having swords, magic, wizards, and dragons make it fantasy. My definition of fantasy is that it looks at where we've been. I mean "us" as the human collective.

Fantasy doesn't ask the big questions nor does it try to figure out where mankind is going. It's always looking backwards. Fantasy tries to figure out where we went wrong, how things were, what would have happened if X turned out differently.

3. HISTORICAL FICTION

This one's actually simple. It's fiction based in the past. I believe there are two kinds. There's the kind that's true (see Steven Pressfield) and there's the kind that's more a what-if but still has a lot of facts in it (see Harry Turtledove). While both kinds tend to adjust facts as they see fit, I believe the lessons learned from them are far more staying because they're enjoyable. I read non-fiction history books from time to time and they get pretty boring. It's like school.

4. HORROR

The easiest thing would be to say is that horror has something scary, whether it be an actual monster or psychological. While that's true, I find that horrors are more mysteries than anything else. The hero has find out what and why something is wrong and figure out how to beat it. A good horror will make your skin crawl while you're reading it and more than any other story, you'll root hard for the hero winning at the end.

5. SCI-FI

I've always thought that sci-fi and fantasy are two sides of the same coin. There is a reason why there's a lot of overlapping and why in a bookstore, you'll often seen fantasy/sci-fi.

Now, if fantasy talks about the past, sci-fi talks about the future and where we as a people can go. A lot of Star Trek is about that. How will we deal with new situations? What's out there? You don't get those kinds of questions from Star Wars, which is one reason why Star Wars isn't fantasy.

Sci-fi's not about the technology, aliens, space, or scientific babble. Yes, some of books and movies do have that, but some don't. Books like Dune or Starship Troopers are considered sci-fi, but aren't heavily focused on it.

6. WESTERNS

In movies, westerns appear to be making a resurgence. Too bad, the same can't be said for books. Anyways, I like to read a good western from time to time. I would consider Stephen King's Dark Tower series part-western/part-fantasy. Unlike all the above genres, westerns are pigeonholed into a certain setting and time period. That severely limits them. But what makes a western?

I believe a western is the best genre for the anti-hero. The more gritty and realistic movies and books seem to portray this. They're also more of a man's man. In today's soft and political correctness world, I can see why westerns don't sell as well.

Those are the six main genres I read. There are sub-genres I read and other genres that I don't read as much. I love mysteries and romance in my books, but I don't like reading mysteries or romance. I'll occasionally pick up steampunk even if I'm not quite sure what it is.

Do you agree with me? If not, what am I missing? What genres do you read and how would you define them?

Marc Johnson

Goals

Every writer has the same goal. We ALL want to make a living while writing. Some of us are lucky to have wives or husbands to take care of us while we write full time. Sadly, that will never be me, or most of us.

I believe most people should write down their goals. For psychological reasons I won't get into, it helps people accomplish their goals instead of be all wishy-washy. While I generally don't write things down and keep them in my head instead, I decided to write it down my writing goals here.

I want to write fiction full time, which pays a lot less than freelancing. I had to calculate what I would need to sale to afford to live off in. I choose $50,000. I live in California so it doesn't go that far. Strangely enough, I make less than that now, but would love to have a little more breathing room and a bigger place like a house. Below, I break down my goals.

1. Selling ONE MILLION BOOKS in a year

That doesn't look like that's going to happen right now, and John Locke already beat me to it. Now, it may seem ridiculous to you to have such a big goal. However, you must dream BIG, and as Shawn Pryor from Action Lab Entertainment also says, "Hustle hard." Me and a few of my friends are always talking about "going for the gusto." Giving your all means having huge goals. You wouldn't give your all for small goals and anything less isn't worth your time. And if you make it, great. If you fail, you're still doing pretty good. But you must never settle, and you never give up. If you're reading this, writing is your dream.

2. Selling 3,000 books in a year

That's more doable and realistic. I came up with 3,000 because that'll cover my costs on a $4.99 ebook. While 3,000 is my number, it should be whatever it is you spent on your book. Just because you go the electronic route, doesn't mean there will not be money to spend. There will. It will just be considerably cheaper than printers, distributors, storage, etc. And you did spend money on editors and graphic designers, right?

3. 1,000 books a month

Now this is my ultimate goal and somewhere between the first two. This is the one I can live off of and quit my job. Assuming I get 70% at $4.99, that would give me approximately $3.50 a book. 12,000 x $3.50=$42,000 a year. I know I said $50,000, but I can also live off $42,000 a year if I really have to.

Now this number wouldn't include only one book. I would have to write not only an awesome book, but an awesome, stand alone book, which is insanely hard to do for an unknown author. 1,000 books a month would be all my books. I have a six book series planned and I may write a couple of short story. So while 1,000 books a month does seem like a large number, spaced out between six books isn't as daunting as it seems.

Some things may change my numbers, but not my overall goals. I may lower my first book's price when I release my second book. I may release physical books. Whatever I do, I'll have to adjust the paths, but never the outcome I want and never my goals.

What are your specific goals?

Marc Johnson

RSS is Your Friend

Going indie has some drawbacks. One of those drawbacks is staying on top of the news. While I did that anyway especially in the Fantasy genre, with today's publishing climate, I've had to do it a lot more. I've had to not only keep track of my preferred genre, but publishing as a whole. There are many good blogs and news sources out there, but how was I to keep track of them?

The last year and a half, I learned something about a little thing called RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. While I don't understand the technical aspects, RSS really is simple.

Instead of constantly visiting and bookmarking all the websites I go to or leaving dozens of tabs open, I just use RSS. In most websites these days, they'll be either a button that says subscribe like what I have in the upper right corner or they'll be this picture. By clicking on this button, you'll be able to get the feeds from a whole bunch of websites. You will never need to go to the website ever again.

What RSS does is pull the news from the site. You'll get their updated news feed whenever they update and you'll see whatever images they post. In the case of some sites, you'll no longer need to play the guessing game of when they update their site. It's also helpful for podcasts and webcomics.

There are downsides to this. You won't be able to comment without going to the websites and you only get the news feed. If they do anything to the other sections of their site, you won't see it. You won't even know they've updated it unless they mention it in their front page.

What I use to keep track of all the RSS feeds is Google Reader. I don't have experience with any others so I can't talk about them. Google Reader's great especially since I already have a Gmail account, and it's free.

On the side bar, Google Reader organizes the sites alphabetically. It'll have a number by it if the site has a new post. You can look at each site individually, or better yet, you can just look at the top left under 'all items' and see how many you've got. That's what I do. I spend my time scrolling down that section.

Now, those numbers can add up especially if you don't check your RSS reader daily. There are days when I have a few dozen and I think that's a lot. I remember seeing my friend and he had 999 on it.

Since you're reading on a computer and the feeds will add up, you'll tend to skim what you read. Thankfully, not all the posts are a 1000 words long. Some of the things I subscribe to are just quick updates or have images.

If you're an indie author, you'll definitely want to subscribe to a lot of sites so you can read them all at once. It's convenient and will save you a lot of time. Don't be afraid to subscribe and try out RSS, especially to my site. I love it, and I still don't even know what it means or how it was created.

Marc Johnson

My Cover

While I talked about what it takes to make a good ebook cover in this post, I never did talk about my own cover. Slight spoilers for my own book.

Below is my cover:

Some people enjoy my book cover and I'm glad. Others don't. My friend and I brainstormed for awhile on it. I believe we and the graphic designer, did a good job with it and it was a reasonable $50.

While the image I'm showing you is big, it relays everything I want it to even if it's in a thumbnail side. You should be able to tell it's fantasy because flame is coming out of hand. What's interesting is that in a thumbnail or a black and white image, you can't see that the hand is actually a female's. That's very important.

THE PASSAGE OF HELLSFIRE is a first person, fantasy, young adult(?) series told through a guy's perspective. That doesn't mean that the female lead and love interest isn't important. Some might say she's more important than Hellsfire. I think it's symbolic and simplistic enough to portray what I want it to. I wanted it to mention him, her, and magic. I hope to have more of my covers do similar things.

Recently, I had my cover reviewed at Cover Art Review. Sadly, 3 out of the 4 people that commented didn't like it. I believe they didn't get it because I think they were looking at my cover from a wrong point of view.

The post never mentioned that it was a cover for an ebook. I have no idea if that would have swayed people or not. If I ever do a paper book, the covers WILL be different. It would probably be more traditional and there would be more things going on. I could have a background, a vista, people, scenes, etc. As it stands now, all that would cost me several hundred dollars for an image that would look small and crowded on your standard e-reader.

Keeping in mind that my cover was designed specifically for an ebook in mind, do you people like my cover? It's OK. You can tell me if you don't. You won't hurt my feelings. The best thing about doing an ebook is that I can tinker with things. If you don't like it, what's wrong? What needs work?

Marc Johnson

High Standards

As my friends and family will tell you, I have VERY high standards. Enough that I drive them crazy and it's probably why I'm single. It's just in my makeup, along with never giving up or never settling. If you're going the indie route, there are no gatekeepers except for you. With that in mind, your standards must dramatically raise because odds are you're not like me.

Despite what people may say, there's nothing wrong with having high standards. Most successful people have them whether it's Oprah, Jay-Z, or Warren Buffet. We're very demanding people, both for others and, more importantly, for ourselves.

If you're going to be an indie author or self-publisher, you must strive to put out your best work. I hate it when when writers say that it's OK to not put out a perfect work. That's not the right attitude. We all know your book won't be perfect, but you must still strive for perfection. You don't have to owe it to readers, but you should owe it to yourself. You should be proud and happy about your work. If you're not, how will anyone else be?

Another problem I have are people that "can't" afford an editor yet they put a book out to pay for one. Word will spread and not many people will buy a crappy book, no matter how cheap you put it. You don't put out your book until you've had it edited. You save your money until you can afford an editor. That's a MUST.

With standards so high, how will you know when to release it? People will high standards will never be happy. We're always striving. However, you must understand that, after you get it professionally edited, you'll know your book will be ready because you'll go, "A-ha! That's what I was aiming for!" And you'll be happy with it, even if it's only for a brief second. It won't be perfect but it will be what you want it to be if you've done everything right.

You should get rid of the, "It's good enough" attitude. Your readers will know when you've given them an unprofessional product and your sales and reviews will show it. By having high standards, your readers will hopefully feel all the work and love you've put into it. Even if they don't "get" your book, at least you'll be happy with it.

That's all that matter. That, and selling a lot of books.

Marc Johnson

It's a Sprint, not a Marathon

One thing I constantly hear people say is, "It's a marathon, not a sprint." Despite SAYING that, people do the opposite. That's why I've never took much stock into what people say, but what they do.

If you're unsure of what you are, here are my Top 10 Reasons You May Be a Sprinter:

1. You check your sales every few minutes

2. You lowered your price to $.99 within a week of publication

3. You check your sales hourly

4. You raised your price to $2.99 the following week

5. You check your sales daily

6. You lowered your price back to $.99 the next week

7. You've made a post about how you haven't made a sale for the day and how something's wrong with Amazon

8. You changed your cover every month

9. You bought your own book again to boost your sales ranking

10. You wonder why you're not making as much as your God (JA Konrath, Amanda Hocking, etc.)

If you do two of these things, you are a sprinter. You're not giving yourself time before adjusting things and trying something new. Making sales on a book takes time especially if you're an unknown and have no audience. I understand that you want immediate validation, but it's just not likely. People don't know who you are and whether you're doing advertising or promoting, it all takes time. Time that you have. The world's not going to end tomorrow for most people.

While you're able to release your books and adjust things faster than any traditional publisher, you should still give yourself time to see patterns. You need to see if something's working or not. How can you know what things to change, if you're constantly changing them?

You have to learn to walk before you can fly.

Marc Johnson

Social Media

Everyone these days, says you should use social media if you're an author. There are so many things out there, it's confusing. Plus, what is social media? Is it something where you make "friends" and network, or is it something where you promote yourself and your book and get people to buy your work? Maybe it's something else entirely and I'm missing the point.

Here are some of the things I use to "get myself out there," and if perchance you're reading this through an RSS feeder or didn't go through the home page, click on the links to follow me some more.

1. BLOG

I know a blog isn't considered social media, but I'm putting it down anyway. Out of everything I do, this is where the serious happens. Unlike Twitter or even Goodreads, I'm not as goofy or weird here. I use this blog on my site to talk about the news, observations, experiences, and personal feelings on the publishing industry and my writing. I have no idea whether people find the majority of what I post helpful or not. I would like to think so.

It's okay if they don't. I like to think of this blog as a journal where I can get my thoughts out, but honestly. I would love to make it big and have this blog be the tale of my journey and have hundreds of people comment, but no one still knows who I am.

2. FACEBOOK

I recently set up my Facebook fan page. Instead of clogging all the other sites with reviews, interviews, appearances, etc., I decided to put everything on it. The other sites aren't as specific as a Facebook fan page is. I figure if people are interested in my work, they'll come to it. If people are interested in me, they'll follow me on more than one thing. Also, while people can email me any time with any questions or comments, Facebook makes leaving a comment easier.

I do have a private Facebook account, but I don't accept people unless I "know" them. It consists mostly of real-life friends, former classmates, and a few family members, yet I've added people who I've chatted with through my show, forums, Twitter, etc.

Lastly, having an author page will allow me to point older family members there as I won't let them on my private page. I know. I'm a terrible nephew and son.

3. GOODREADS

I'm still getting the hang of Goodreads. I use it as a reader of books even though I have an author page. I primarily use it as a way to review books. I occasionally get feedback on one of my reviews, which is cool because I'm not really sure if anyone other than authors read it.

Recently, I have been exploring Goodreads more and checking out their groups. I think Goodreads is a great place for readers but their group interface is a bit unwieldy. I think their forums should be more like normal forums that everyone's used to instead of what they have now.

On the bright side, there are a ton of groups so whatever type of genre you read, you WILL find one that interests you. Problem is, I think there's TOO many. Oh, and if anyone wants to start a THE PASSAGE OF HELLSFIRE group, that'd be all right with me

A person can do author interviews/chats and giveaways, but I'm not entirely sure how those work. I've never participated in one or done one, and I've heard mixed reviews about authors that do them. I still have a lot to learn about that site.

Even though I'm an author, I doubt I'll do much if any promoting on Goodreads. It doesn't seem the place for that.

4. PODCAST

I do a little niche show. I talk about comics and pop culture and whatever's on my mind. The reason I started it was so I could practice before I started podcasting my own novel and hopefully build up an audience. I didn't do either of them, but I did learn a lot from podcasting. Podcasting's a serious undertaking. There's a ton of work and while you can build an audience, you don't learn anything about writing or the business of writing.

Yet if you podcast, you can become part of the podcasting community. While I'm not a part of any community, I've observed that the podcasting community can be quite helpful. They'll easily help you with information or interview you on their show.

All the other social media sites are text only. With podcasting, a person can hear your voice and inflections. My tweets would be a lot funnier if people heard me because I have a dry sense of humor. Sometimes, I'm also goofy and weird, depending on my mood. My friends tell me that listening to my podcast is like hanging out with me in real life.

Even if you don't like comics, movies, television, or video games, if you really wanted to know me and see how I am, you'd listen to my podcast.

5. TWITTER

Out of all the things I do, Twitter is where I'm all over the place. I tweet about what I'm watching, reading, doing, or thinking. Occasionally, I tweet about writing. I'm one of those rare people that don't talk about what they're doing so while I write/edit/revise, I don't talk about it. I never hard sell my book there or retweet reviews. I've never understood that. If I follow you, do I really care about the reviews you retweet? I wouldn't mind if it's one or two, but people retweet in blocks of five or ten.

I like Twitter because it's part-IM/chat/news. It's also a far easier way to connect with people. People may not return emails, but odds are they will return tweets. Surprisingly, I've "friended" a lot more people on Twitter than anything else. I'm not sure how because sometimes I can tweet a lot and they're all over the place. I'm weird. It's also fun to participate in various hashtags or make some up.

That's all the social media I do and all I can currently handle. I know there are others and I know some of these will disappear to be replaced by something new. Whatever the case may be, I try not to let anything fade, and update all of them at least once a week. In the case of Twitter, I'm tweeting all the time.

Do any of these help? I have no discernible way of knowing that. I would like to think that they do and that they couldn't hurt. Despite the fact that I have a common name, hopefully a mixture of these will help get my name out there, or at least my work.

Get out there and try a couple of these. You don't have to do everything and you don't have to do it all the time, but you should do it regularly if you stick to it. The bright side is that you can always delete your account. If you don't like doing any of this or more importantly, are having any fun doing it, then stop. But keep trying until you find one you do enjoy.

Marc Johnson

The Hardest Thing About Writing

Recently, I started revising my second book in THE PASSAGE OF HELLSFIRE series. I'm trying to get it ready before I send it off to my editor. While working on it, I figured out what the hardest part about writing is–the beginning.

All of writing is hard whether it's the descriptions, characters, settings, endings, middles, etc. For me, I've realized it's the beginning.

There are two problems I have. The first is I'm not in a groove to write. It's like exercising without stretching. While I do grind it out, it takes me awhile before I feel like I'm in the flow of things. I do try to make my page count, but it's hard.

I normally take a month or two off before I start writing again. While I think that break is necessary both to recharge my brain and look at it from a slightly less objective point of view, it does have its draw backs.

Eventually, I do get into that groove, but is it because I'm getting into the story as things are picking up? Or is it because I'm just used to writing? I have no idea.

The other problem is while the world and characters are all fully fleshed out in my head. They're not going to be for the reader. I have to remember to restate and go over things again. I have to remember that people are coming into my world with a empty head. At best, they'll have read the previous book. Odds are, they'll need something to jog their memory. Plus, I don't know what percentage will start off on the second book.

It took me many years but at least I realized what my problem was. Better late than never. Now while I find beginnings hard, what part of writing do you you find hard?

Marc Johnson