Sean D Gregory's Blog

A HEARTFELT INDIE AUTHOR PLEA

I struggled with the decision to write a blog post that very nearly resembles “getting on my knees and begging”. I’ve edited this one hundred times and still, it feels a bit like a beg. Really, it’s a plea. A plea to all my author friends and myself to trust the process, and a plea to readers to trust indie authors—especially those wanting to put our books directly into your hands.

For authors, we must continually remind ourselves that trusting the process means that my readers are out there but just haven’t found me yet. It’s a struggle. There are a ton of new authors every day. Something like a million books a week or month or second or something are published. Most of it is niche, like mine. My content is dark, my characters strange, my world’s stranger still. My debut MC is suicidal (and not flippantly). I’m weird and vocal and well, look at me. It’s hard to keep putting yourself out there, but all artists do it in the hopes that somewhere a large population of people feel what we are putting out there so viscerally that they elevate us to the stratosphere. My day will come…I hope. So, trust the process. Who knows, maybe after I’m gone I’ll be a cult classic.

For readers, we ask for you to trust us both in giving us your mindshare and time, as well as trusting our purchasing mechanisms. We get it. Amazon is easy. You trust them (if you aren’t currently boycotting them) with your personal information, your credit card, your address even. If buying my books on Amazon is best for you, by all means continue to do so. Believe me, most of us indie authors want that “AMAZON BEST SELLER” badge. Honestly, we want you to purchase our products on Amazon if that’s your preferred method. Just know, we make more money and have to sell fewer books if you buy from us direct—like from our websites. If you’re boycotting the big A, then please don’t boycott us in the process. Come buy direct. If, however, your target author only publishes on AMZN, then, for all the love of their work, purchase from the conglomerate for the sake of your favorite author. We don’t have many options for getting our books in your hands and that weird penis looking smiley arrow place has the highest portion of the marketplace for indie author audiences.

For one reason or another, getting you to buy from our websites is a harder sell than in person sales or Amazon sales (though both are difficult). Visits to author websites are great. But just looking at my own analytics, abandoned carts abound or worse, visits with no product in a cart. Even with free shipping, it seems many readers are afraid that our websites are somehow untrustworthy.

At the risk of sounding smarmy, trust us. We protect your information, value your business, and encourage you to leave comments, write reviews, and submit those orders. You can trust us the same way you trust the Zon or B&N online or even your favorite local bookstore. Plus, most of us add a little swag or a personal note or even sign the books we sell direct. If that influences your decision…wink wink.

So, if you would be so kind, visit your favorite indie author’s website. Go direct. We are small businesses, just like any other. And we value your patronage, your support, and your readership. And as always, thank you for reading.

To help you, dear reader, on your journey of discovery, here is a list of authors whose websites you should visit and whose books you should read. I’ve read and love these authors and think you’ll enjoy them too.

Caytlyn Brooke Arlo Z Graves

Marc Avery Eisley Rose

Atlas Creed J.B. Corvin

N.E. Valla Dust Kunkel

Martin Turnbull

Why EDITORS MATTER

Traditional publishing is almost every author’s dream. For those that don’t know, traditional publishing is the painstaking effort to query agents, get 1,000 rejections, and keep trying until that elusive “yes, please send the full manuscript,” arrives. It often involves, after all that anxiety, the author sending that collection of words, phrases, and images they so carefully put together to the agent only to be told, “Oh, no, sorry, this is not for us. You need to work on this more. Good luck on your journey.” The beleagured author rewrites for the fiftieth time and follows up with 1,000 more rejections before another request for the full manuscript comes and they get that enthusiastic “Yes, sign here!”

Sounds amazing to get to that “We love it!” moment, right?

Except what the agent typically loves is you and the idea of your story. They have to convince others to see what they see in your work. So the agent approaches their editor contacts and sends submissions to Random House, or Bantam, or Tor, any of the other big publishers, their imprints, or some small indie presses. The agent receives more rejections before they finally find a publisher who sees what they see. The author gets that acceptance and moves onto the elusive publishing contract.

Big win! pop the champagne!

Hold up. The author still isn’t done. What comes next is two to three years of edits. If the author refuses the edits the whole deal could fall apart. The editor is a professional. The editor knows what sells and what doesn’t. The editor curates through carefully blocked doors to allow only the cream to come through. And for the author, after all that blood, sweat, tears, panic attacks, heartbreaks, and triumphs their manuscript, which may look very different than where they started, is now on the shelves at Barnes & Noble all over the world!

The dream. Or is it?

The whole ordeal was a moonshot to begin with (I really do love this term.) But a lot of control is taken from the author at this point. Traditional publishing will tell you that this is for good reasion. And they’d be partly right. The author may have the most perfect manuscript. It’s still going to get rejected more than accepted. Traditional publishing is almost impossible to break through. Join Threads, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, or any number of social media sites and start following authors. There’s a consistent theme that pretty much matches the above.

Enter Independent Authors. You’ll find a plethora (this word really is overused but what’s a better word for it?) of Independent Authors on Amazon. But it’s always had a stigma. Some of it is fair. Much of it is not.

Independent publishing, or self-publishing, has evolved over the years. The term “self-publish” existed at least as long as Jane Austin. It’s not a new concept. Small independent presses exist because the market for them exists. In 1996 Ingram began Lightning Source, a way for independent authors to get into distribution channels. But the system punishes the author for returns and pays little in royalties.

KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) started operations in 2007. Arguably the largest and easiest way for Independent Authors to release thier work, this offered the same services as Ingram Spark but with the added benefit of not punishing authors with returns.

But here’s the pitfall—the process does not require the author to collaborate with anyone. Any person can throw words into a .docx file, print it to pdf, and submit to Ingram Spark (Lightning) or KDP. The ease and speed with which this can happpen has proliferated the number of independent authors exponentially.

Traditional Publishing does one thing right. It makes literature collaborative. And that’s important. Films are collaborative. Every move ever made has a team of professionals with specific expertise. Every step of the way is scrutinized by those experts.

It would never occur to me to believe that I can do it all in any endeavor. Especially in writing. Every single human has sent and email, posted on social media, or blogged some thought only to find they said “will” instead of “with”, “and” instead of “an”, or the dreaded “to, two, too” and “there, they’re, their” mistake. Unfortuantely, that’s what most folks think editing is and many independent authors rely heavily on grammar checkers and spell checkers. But editing is more than just fixing grammar or typos.

Editors look for content. They ask tough questions. Does this action make sense? Does the action lag? Does the author explain too much and show too little? Does the prose hit beats that are awkward or clunky? Is this scene necessary?

I know I'm guilty of violating all of the above. Every single author is. Even Stephen King has editors.

Without editors, authors publish works that have more errors than a drunken short-stop at a night game during a blackout. We miss things because we’ve looked at the manuscript for so long, rewritten it so many times, talked about it with so many people, it’s impossible to remember what was versus what is versus what we meant to do.

Editors catch all of that.

For independent publishing to be truly viable and competitive, we, as the independent authors, must treat this as a vocation. We must recognize the need for the village that is the editor, proofreader, book designer, or cover artist.

But the barriers to entry are difficult. These services are not free. Still, there are talented, inexpensive options if you look.

The work of the independent author must be taken with serious gravity. We are important voices in the market place. Most of my favorite books over the last 12 months are independent, self-published works. ALL of them were professionally edited. As indie authors we owe it to each other and our readers to find the editors we can afford and work with. Editors make us better at what we do. It ensure we put out great product.

If we want to be taken seriously as artists and writers, we owe it to ourselves to get that second, third, and fourth set of eyes on our manuscripts.

For the record, no editors viewed this blog post. I’m sure I mucked this up somewhere and errors abound…

PUBLISHING IS A LESSON IN HUMILITY

I’ve been told I’m smart.

No, seriously. Some call me a rocket scientist.

Stop laughing. I’m not kidding. I work in sensors for propulsion systems on everything from crew capsules to satellites to some cool things I can’t…you know…explain without some nerdy technical jargon.

I have a pretty gnarly grasp of language and art too. If you look at my porfolio in my office you’ll find all kinds of stick figures and great quotes by Rocky the Squirrel and Felix the Cat and Deadpool.

Seriously, though. It seems none of that matters when trying to publish a book. The industry is rife with pitfalls, traps, snares, scams, vagabonds, thieves, and now…artificial intelligence. If you think disinformation is bad on the 24-hr news cycle, try publishing. Even the information that is accurate is presented in a way that almost ensures the inexperienced will stumble and fuck it up. (Oooo, you said ‘fuck’.)

No I didn’t. You did if you read this aloud. I only wrote it.

If you are following along, haven’t tuned out to my rantings, and are interested in the real reason for this blog post, thanks for letting me get all the above off my chest. When I first released THE GROWING DARKNESS I fell into all manner of trouble. I had to undo and redo and in some cases, accept that I’d done something wrong that was unfixable without significant negative side effects. The last few months have been no different. In fact, they’ve been a bit crazy. Honest truth? It’s been a struggle to keep up. You are likely aware that a new novella is coming this month. GARROW’s BASIN is ready and scheduled for publication on MAY 29th. Or…well…it was.

Seems Amazon decided that I have no clue what I’m doing and released it yesterday. Surprise! (That’s directed at me.) I learned from my previous experience that if you use Ingram Spark and Amazon, you have to release on Ingram first and then Amazon separately (and more importantly, not the other way around). I had everything ready to go. Nothing published. But then I wanted to order advanced copies of GARROW’S BASIN to send out physical ARCs so I released it on Ingram and held off on clicking the final “submit” button on Amazon.

But releasing on Ingram somehow placed it on Amazon and now the whole mess is muddled.

Again.

Like the first time. Only different. And likely, impossible to fix without disasterous negative side effects like rectal bleeding, vomiting, head aches, nausea, and a bit of alcohol poisoning. At least Barnes & Noble put it on pre-order and respected the release date. Amazon probably thinks I’m the idiot and mucked it up. Who am I to say. It probably is something I did. No. It definitely is. I just can’t seem to figure out what that is. It’s an enigma. It’s a moon shot only I forgot about particle impact on the sensitive electronics and the dreaded Single Event Lockout has occured. No hard reset to clear the error. We are all systems go. We are up the creek but the paddle is stuck in my ass. (Oooo, he said another bad word.)

All this to say: second book in and I’m still clueless. I have no clue what I’m doing. Others have gone before me, blazed the trail, marked the turns, set landmarks, and they have been wildly successful at navigating this whole thing. Somehow I’ve mucked it up.

Again.

I’ve been told I’m smart.

Let’s be honest. There’s no signs of intelligent life over here. I need rescued. Hey, Marc Avery, send tacos!

OH YES I AM!

It’s very hard as a writer, to stay focused on a project once you unlock the creative flow. Simply dreams can open up an entire world or story. Current stories and works can inspire spinoffs that just need to be told. Ask any of the writers I have met and most will tell you that they have several projects going at once. I didn’t think that was possible.

I’ve since learned otherwise.

There are so many characters, plots, worlds, creatures, and ideas brewing in my head that sometimes I find it difficult to focus on anything else. I can slip into a daydream like Lane Meyers in BETTER OFF DEAD and find I’m not even in whatever moment there is. It kinda sucks sometimes to be honest. I’ve missed some fun times while physically there.

But sometimes, like now, it’s pretty cool to have the creative ideas coming because if enough of them come, one or two will rise to the top, demanding their story be told.

And I have two unplanned, unscheduled, new projects coming! SIGN UP FOR THE NEWS LETTER or FOLLOW ME on THREADS, INSTAGRAM, or BLUESKY to stay up to date and learn more!

E PLURIBUS UNUM

“Out of Many - One”

I always loved this phrase. Most of my life I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by a diverse group of people. Growing up in South Florida the mix of folks, immigrant and “native” (let’s be honest, we are quite liberal with that word) was the everyday of my environment. We bounced around a lot. By the time I was in the fifth grade I had attended seven different elementary schools and none within five miles of one another. It started before my parents divorced so I don’t really know why we moved so much. I went to Catholic schools, public schools, Christian schools, and back to public schools. We covered all of Broward County and a big chunk of Dade County in that time.

It didn’t hit me until well into my adulthood that my experience wasn’t the norm for most people in this country. It impacted my ability to make friendships that last. Spoiler alert: I struggle with that level of intimacy that builds lasting relationships. But it benefited me in other ways.

I didn’t grow up in a world where everyone looked like me all the time.

Let me say this another way: I didn’t know there were people who didn’t share the experienced diversity that was the normative experience of my life.

This experienced was amplified when my father remarried.

While I was cognitively aware of the differences between myself and those around me, it wasn’t something I thought about much. My very white father married my very Cuban stepmother when I was ten years old. I still remember how beautiful and funny she was that first night my dad introduced her to us. It didn’t take long for my brother and I to call her “Mami”. We pretty much loved her from day one. We just call her “Mom” now because we are adults and that is what adults do. She teases us sometimes about how we used to call her “Mami”.

The first words I ever learned in Spanish were “Da me un besito,” and I still say it to Mom every time I see her.

Her parents emigrated to Miami by boat with her and her siblings in the 50s when she was only 6 months old. Mom is a naturalized American citizen and has been for over fifty years. She served in the USAF. She went to college. She owned her own business and later sold it for a nice little sum, though it didn’t make her rich. She lived in Florida, Ohio, Maryland, and North Carolina. She was the best thing to happen to my father, for a lot of reasons.

After their wedding, I had in influx of new Cuban aunts, uncles, and cousins. I adore them all though I don’t get to see them often these days. Mom’s family welcomed my brother and I into their family with open arms. We never felt like outsiders.

Not long after the wedding, my sister was born. I was twelve. Then another brother, and then yet another brother. I’m the oldest of five.

Mom’s mother, Abuelita, dated a man from Haiti for a very long time. She owned a successful business manufacturing curtains and comforters. Hotels all over South Florida bought from her. She was warm and funny and barely spoke a word of English. Abuelita practiced Santeria. I still remember the plates of food on her altar with pictures of saints, candles, and the little ants crawling all over it. She had chickens in the back yard there in Little Havana just down the street from the old Orange Bowl that was pretty much a flea market by 1984.

I won’t tell you the story about the time she sent me into the back yard to grab a chicken. Pretty much every one of her grandkids has the same story. No, not for Santeria…it wasn’t like that.

Every other Sunday, every holiday, every baptism (I was raised Catholic), every First Communion, every wedding—hell, every Dolphins game—my brother and I were surrounded by a diverse crowd of Irish Scottish, Cuban, and Haitian people.

My entire life I was taught, not by words, but by environment, that “E Pluribus Unum” was real. All these people from different places with different skin colors, different beliefs, different backgrounds, mingled with the Irish Scottish family I already had. We blended. We adopted new traditions from each other. We melted together into one big giant family.

To this day my favorite food is Cuban food. Mom made black beans and rice, maduros, tostones, yucca, flan, arroz con pollo, ropa vieja, lechon asada, tres-leches, alongside the staples of Sheppard’s pie, Guiness stew, and corned beef with cabbage and potatoes. I ate more Cuban bread than any human has a right to eat. I’m shocked I didn’t turn into a giant loaf of it. I had my first Café Cubano when I was eleven. I still drink it like it’s water.

On my biological mother’s side of the family, I spent much of my time at her parent’s house. She didn’t remarry after the divorce from my father. Mom’s family was very close. But with three daughters, two infertile, and no son’s, my brother and I were the only grandkids in that side of the family. But even then, we were surrounded by diversity.

The Prentices lived next door. They were from South America, but I can’t for the life of me remember where. Mrs. Prentice loved how my brother and I knew tiny bits of Spanish thanks to Mami and that we never turned down a meal. Upon arrival at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, we bolted across the yard to knock on the Prentices door so we could play with our friends, their two sons, who were five years older than us but always willing to play a game of HORSE or throw a football around.

My mom’s parent’s neighborhood had a Synagogue, a Methodist church, and a Catholic church. My mother’s best friend was Jewish, and my aunt Bobi married a Jewish man. She later converted to Judaism.

Everywhere my brother and I went, we were surrounded by people different from us.

We lived in the Melting Pot.

I don’t want to disparage a parent but let me be forthright: while my brother and I were blessed with this experience, prior to my stepmother’s appearance into our father’s life, there were certain words thrown around in his home. It’s one of the reason’s my mom divorced my father, I think. Mom (biological mom) was never one for intolerance, even in the 80’s.

In the 70’s Dad wore belts that had “The South Will Rise Again”. He held onto certain misogynistic stereotypes too. There are pictures with a confederate flag on the wall in the trailer I was born in that I hide in a box, embarrassed to even look at, but afraid to throw away lest I forget where I started. For the record, I was born in a single-wide in a trailer park. Well, not “born in”. I was born in Broward General Hospital. My parents brought me home to the tornado transport that looked almost identical to Bud and Sissy’s trailer in Urban Cowboy.

My dad, thankfully, evolved into a much more enlightened human being. I believe a certain headstrong, feminist, intellectually superior, Cuban woman is to thank for that. Te quiero mucho, Mami!

My mother (biological one), thankfully, had a greater influence on my brother and I than my dad did prior to my dad’s new wife. Moreover, by the time dad married Mami his evolution was well underway.

I look around and I see all the anger and hate toward immigrants, and I don’t understand why we are still in this place. People scream about “criminals” entering our country and are willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is the most insane part to me.

The “flip-switch” of the narrative doesn’t resonate with me. Immigrants have always been the backbone of our nation. School House Rock taught us that German, Irish, Italian, Scottish, British, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, African, Polish, Iranian, Palestinian, Israeli, etc. make us what we are. The list of countries that have influenced our society, economy, culture, is endless.

I will never understand the hatred that has grown so prevalent. I’ll never understand the outrage against people who aren’t white, or “native” born. This concept of “birth-right” is a fallacy. Indigenous people are the only true birth right citizens of the land. The rest of us are immigrants and descendants of immigrants.

Just like my stepmother and my siblings.

What A Wild Month!

January came and went and the release party for THE GROWING DARKNESS was an amazing success! Eighty folks showed up, many of whom had already purchased TGD and many more who hadn’t! 30 new readers during the party!

Meanwhile, I spent quite a bit of time with BOOK II. Cajoling the next phase of the plot into 180,000 words was a momumental task. To do it in less than 45 days was really taxing but it’s been through beta reads, two rewrites, and now is OFF TO THE EDITORS!

Once again the folks at Writer’s Journey Services are busy picking apart every plot hole. The disambiguation of the plethora of violations to characters and story is pretty stressful but a necessary part of the process. Hopefully this manuscript is in better shape than the last one when I fired it off the first time.

The scheduled release is June 30th and I hope we can hit that date.

It still hasn’t hit me that THE GROWING DARKNESS is a reality. I thought it would by now but it still seems like a fantasy (pun intended). Let’s hope the release of Book II is less bumpy. I made so many mistakes that first time around.

By the way: if you are looking for author authors, I’d like to point you in the direction of a few I’ve had the great fortune to become freinds with. I put links to their IG/Threads here for you.

ARLO GRAVES

CAYTLYN BROOKE

ATLAS CREED

MARC AVERY

CHRISTIAN PROSERIE

Follow these outstanding authors and find some new indie author works. You won’t be sorry!

LITTSBURGH Q&A

Did you know Pittsburgh has a marvelous non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and advocacy of Pittsrgurgh’s great literary scene?

Littsburgh, founded by Pittsburgh native Rachel Ekstrom Courage and Nick Courage, industry professionals and writers, was founded in 2015 and is the fastest growing organization dedicated to all things literary in Pittsburgh. With over 3,000 susbscribers, Littsburgh supports writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, and the various writer organizations throughout Pittsburgh.

Their dedication to the work, the importance of literature in the landscape of human experience honors the rich history of Pittsburgh and it’s contributions to the arts and American society as a whole.

Want to find a book event? Visit www.littsburgh.com/local-events

Want to discover the people of Pittsburgh’s writing community? Visit www.littsburgh.com/literaryroster

Want to learn about Pittsburgh’s various writing organizations? Visit www.littsburgh.com/litorgs

And if you want to get the latest updates and news? Visit www.littsburgh.com

And want to see their latest Q&A with your’s truly? That’s right! CLICK HERE!

I am honored that Littsburgh saw fit to include me in their ranks of Pittsburgh Authors. If my work isn’t your cup of tea, there are many local Pittsburgh authors you can find at LITTSBURGH!

Please click any of the links above and consider supporting this amazing organization in their work to promote the literary history and future of Pittsburgh, the city I am proud to call home.

All the best - Sean

My First 5-STAR REVIEW!

So I did the thing! I sent out over 400 eBook copies of my book into the world! Well, I invited over 445 newsletter subscribers and ARC readers to download The Growing Darkness and put all three versions up for sale on PRE-ORDER!

I can’t believe it’s time! Release day is approaching: T-minus-17 days and counting! If I had more skills on this whole website thing, I’d add a ticking counter. But I haven’t been able to figure that out yet…I keep trying.

But yes, 445 invites to download. 112 downloads! And from one amazing supporter: A 5-Star review. I cannot express the amazing feeling that is. Overwhelmed doesn’t do the feeling justice.

If you are one of the ones that downloaded TGD (Hattip to Amanda Miller @salientbooks), I cannot wait to hear from you! The Growing Darkness is up on the following stores and ready for reviews!

Barnes & Noble Bookstore (all formats soon)

Kobo Books (ebook only)

Apple Books (ebook only)

Smashwords (ebook only)

Fable (ebook only)

And soon will be on Amazon (ebook only)

For the paperback and hardcover click these links and you can pre-order them directly through my web-store!

As always, all the best! —Sean

NOT SO FAST!

Well, sometimes, as is my nature, I rush things. Here I thought editing was complete, but no. More editing is required to dial this world and the story in. But it’s close. Still planning on an October 31st release!

Also, I now have nine rejection letters from agents…all very kind…all variations of “Not a good fit” or “Not what we are looking for.” Each rejection came with a “good luck in your search.” That was nice.

I’m told this officially makes me a real author now. Yay me!

I always dreamed of being traditionally published. Penguin, Random House, Tor..oh, it would be so cool. But, after meeting so many indie authors, maybe I’m not thinking logically. I’ll still chase the traditional route, but now, for The Growing Darkness, self-publish it is. I’m not willing to wait.

One last thing: check out the new FLASH FICTION page! My first free short-story THE CABBY is up and looking for readers! Let me know if you find anything that needs fixed in the comment sections of that story!

PENCILS DOWN!

Normally those words would bring a level of anxiety, but not this time! I am putting down The Growing Darkness! The last edit to the manuscript is complete. No more changes! After countless hours, thousands of edits, multiple re-reads, and a lot of late nights, the book is finished.

The next time I read this sucker it will be in hardcover format. I can’t believe it’s done. It’s such a strange feeling. It’s been eight months since the first word appeared on the screen of my computer. After six rounds if edits, we are finally ready to move to book design!

Time to pick the fonts, the layout, internal artwork, trim size, and whatever else I’m missing. We are still on scehdule for the October 31st release date! The anticipation is driving me insane. But better to take the time to ensure it’s release in a well thought out path rather than rush it to publication.

If you haven’t done so, please sign up for the newsletter and follow me on social media. We are up over 300 subscribers! The effort to gain visiblity and reader ship is ongoing and every like, share, and comment helps get the word out!