Adam Oster's Blog, page 45

Fat Mogul vs. Shoes

mine and my wife’s wedding footwear…because she wasn’t into the sandals :-)

Ranting about shoes?  Jeez, Adam must be really struggling for content…

And maybe you’re right.  It’s just quite possible that with all the lack of sleep from having an infant (and a three year old son who really likes mornings) around has caused me to completely lose random things to talk about.

But the truth of the matter is simple.  I don’t like shoes.  Never have.  Or socks.

If I could, I would go around barefoot all day every day.

And, seeing as I work from home, most days I can, although the floors around this house get mighty cold during these long winter months in Wisconsin.

And I’ve found that as I get older…my feet get colder.

When I was a young man, I would spend even the coldest of Wisconsin wintry days outside with nothing but sandals on my feet.  The only times I would actually put something on that would cover my feet in any sort of protective manner would be if I was going to be doing something that would involve me actually traipsing through the snow.  That was not something which happened often.

As I started getting older…I came to the realization that I really couldn’t do the whole sandals in the dead of winter thing anymore.  It was a difficult understanding that I came to, which led me to something of an important decision…what to wear instead of sandals?  I remember hunting for a long time to try and find shoes that would actually be acceptable for me to wear, considering my whole issue with hating to have things on my feet.

Turns out that a portion of my hatred of shoes revolved around the fact that my feet are wide, making my standard Converse All Stars the perfect thing, because those things are made for people with wide feet.  In fact, with all the lack of padding and everything else, they feel, often times, as though I’m still wearing nothing at all…although my feet do, from time to time, get a little too warm in them, especially during the non-winter month (not a typo) here in Wisconsin.

But here’s where the rant begins…and the rant isn’t even actually about shoes, but about how the body starts working differently as you get older.  As a person who has never liked wearing shoes, and would avoid wearing socks like the plague, I am currently, right at this very second, wearing a pair of socks as I sit at my desk, at home, typing this.

Want to know why?

Because my feet are cold!

Now, to be fair, most of my body is cold…it’s damned cold outside and my house is drafty.  But back in the day, when I was a young man rebelling against footwear, I could have fifteen layers on everything but my feet and not notice a thing.  I remember walking through snow in nothing but sandals and my feet not even pausing to take notice.  Now, I walk around my house in bare feet and I feel as though frostbite might be coming soon.

I’m wearing socks, people!  This is not a drill!

Now, I have taken to wearing slippers in recent years on cold days like this, and today’s use of socks is tied to the fact that they need to be washed from time to time (because my feet sweat profusely…part of the reason I don’t like footwear…and they get mighty stinky), but even the fact that I wear slippers on a normal basis is not entirely happy-making.

I want the feet of my youth!  The hobbit feet which felt as though they were shoes on their own.

Instead of these frail whiny feet that keep asking for more attention…more layers..and more heat.

Heck…I sometimes can’t even walk on gravel with my bare feet anymore!

Forget the gray hairs, the aching backs, the slowing metabolism…what I want back from my youth are those steadfast feet which kept me moving.  The ones who could walk hundreds of miles and never need for respite.

Stupid old age!  At some point we all have to accept that it has come…I choose to complain about it instead

Have fun out there!

Marketing Monday: Marketing-related Blog Posts

from techtricksworld.com

Hey, look, a self-referential blog post! That never happens!

Even when I started the idea of Marketing Mondays on here, I was a little leery of the idea.  You see, every single author out there, at least the ones who operate a blog, seem to have themselves a regular post about marketing tips and concepts.

Actually…this was the double-edged sword that caused me to move forward with the Marketing Mondays.  The folks who were writing posts on marketing seemed to all be saying the same things, but were also the things that came up whenever I was searching for pretty much anything regarding self-publishing.

In other words, it seems that if you are doing regular posts on marketing, you’re probably somewhat forced to do regular research on marketing and therefore actually do a bit better on the whole thing than many others do.

I’ll admit.  Ever since I’ve started writing these posts, I’ve been doing a lot more research on marketing than I did even before (when I was still attempting my daily marketing research).  And I even decided to pull an old marketing book (recommended by an in-law who happened to have been a marketing professor) off the shelf and give it a good old read…not that I’ve started, but it’s all so that I can sound a little smarter on here…as well as so I can, you know…sell more books.

As far as the selling more books thing goes…it’s moving forward slowly, but a lot better than it was before I began making my attempts, so there might be something to be said about this whole marketing thing.

But this isn’t about whether or not you should be marketing, but about whether or not you should be following the herd and writing your own marketing-related blog posts for your own blog.

Simple answer, probably not.  I mean, there’s a ton of marketing advice already available out there…if you’re wanting to use this type of topic to bring more awareness to your site…you’re probably not going to get anywhere.  If you’re hoping to give some useful info to your current readers, maybe…but then you probably need to be aware of whether your current readers actually want said content (for instance…mine: mostly not).

But, if you want something that forces you to keep up your own research and to actually develop new methods in which to market yourself and/or your books/products…one of the best ways is to be forced to constantly give fresh and unique content…something I keep finding myself running short on, btw.  Something that I’m constantly working on trying to stay ahead of so I can, possibly, just have something new worth saying here.

So, if you’ve noticed all the other bloggers out there talking about how to market this and/or that and thought to yourself: “Is this a requisite topic to discuss as a blogger?” the answer is no.  It’s covered everywhere entirely already.  However, if you want to force yourself to actually try to come up with the next great marketing idea…if might be a fantastic method, although it definitely could serve to push your readers away…especially if they’re much more interested in long-winded rants about the word Literally.

So…that’s it for today.

 

Have fun out there!

Flash Fiction Friday: Invisible

It’s not easy being unseen.  I know what you’re thinking, having everyone look right through you, it’s got to be great.  You can get away with anything, steal anything, do anything.  Yeah, I know.  But have you actually read The Invisible Man?  It’s not all peaches and cream.

It’s not like I want people to see me.  In fact, I rather like that they don’t.  I’m not sure they’d really like what they’d see if they were able to just take a little glimpse at the real me.  I mean, if I weren’t invisible, I can’t say that I’d ever come out of my basement anyways.  The idea of being seen is just too damned frightening.

But it can get pretty lonely.

Not that I don’t try to meet people.  Every once in a while, I escape my hiding place, come out into the world, and actually make a real effort at talking to someone new, connecting with someone.  But I can’t take off my disguise and let them see the emptiness inside.  Who would want to be with someone as empty as me?  Someone who’s not really even there?

I’ve considered ending it all, obviously, quitting this all-too-pointless life.  Something just seems so terribly depressing about that though.  I mean, not only would no one notice I’m gone, but I’d be nothing more than something to trip over as they’re going through my earthly belongings.

If only I could find someone who had any idea of what it’s like to go through life as nothing more than intelligent air.  Is there a support group for something like that somewhere?  Seems like it’d be hard to find.

There have to be others out there like me, right?  Other invisible people leading invisible lives with their invisible hearts.  I can’t be the only one, can I?

What do they do to get by, to ignore this gnawing feeling of being completely empty?  I mean, look at me, it’s obvious there’s nothing there.

That’s it.  It’s decided.  I have to go find others like me.  I don’t know how, but I know that I can’t go on being empty alone.  I have to find someone to be empty together with, someone who is willing to see me for what I truly am…nothing.

I just hope that nothing is what they want.  Or that I might be able to find some way to be more than nothing.

I’ll try.

I promise.

 

A little depressing :/  I mean, that’s obviously the idea behind the metaphor…but sheesh.

Alright, have fun out there!

 

Fat Mogul vs. Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is an institution.  I can hardly imagine anyone today being completely oblivious to the existence of this long-running show, nor its contribution to the comedy of today.  So many people we turn to for laughter in the modern age had their start on those stages, or at least used them to hone their skills.

It’s amazing to think of how many people really did get their start on that show, to be honest.  Looking at the Rolling Stones article on their ranking of everyone who has even been a cast member, you’ll quickly realize how many people really were trying to use that show to make their place in this world.

I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember.  I didn’t get to watch it much as a kid, but once I got to high school, I was watching every week.  Folks like Farley, Carvey, Spade, Sandler (the list could easily go on) really caused me to change my thoughts on what it meant to write comedy…not that I was writing comedy at that point, but I definitely tried my hand at the whole being funny thing.

Recently, I’ve kind of given up on the show.  Although I’m a huge fan of Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, folks like Andy Samberg and Amy Poehler actually tainted the show for me…I can’t say why, especially because there’s a lot of stuff they were doing on the show that I really liked.  But there was a sort of tone shift that caused me to pull away.  In fact, over the last decade or so, I’ve really only watched the show when someone particularly interesting was hosting, or when I heard after the fact that it was an especially amazing show.

When I watched the 40th anniversary episode a few weeks back, there were so many new faces that I didn’t recognize…it was somehow off-putting.

Luckily, there were even more old faces that really made things feel like home again.

I recently placed SNL on my list of shows to try and watch every single episode ever of (which is difficult to do, seeing as they haven’t released most episodes of the show), and started watching through the first season already.  I know folks like to talk about the brilliance of the original Not Ready for Primetime Players, and I’ll admit, folks like Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Dan Akroyd are the only reason that show could even possibly exist still today (I’d love to point out Garrett Morrison, but he was unfortunately underutilized).

But they weren’t perfect.

It’s always been a joke that SNL sketches run too long and if they were about a third of the length would make the show a helluva lot funnier.  That was true back then.  But there was a striking difference in the original season in that there were those moments of shortened sketches where near-perfection was reached…something I don’t believe I’ve ever seen in the modern age.

Sketches where it wasn’t a catchphrase that caused the sketch to succeed, but just true brilliance.  Thinks like a courtroom sketch where the whole joke takes only about 40 seconds, but sticks with you.  Or John Belushi as a militant exterminator…there’s just a subtle little joke at the end that makes the whole thing worthwhile (while still probably needing to be about a third as long).

There’s the difference between first season and following seasons…They were okay with being subtle.  The jokes didn’t always need to be over the top (although the constant pratfalls of Chevy definitely speak opposite to that).  They didn’t even have to be vocalized.

Which is probably why Andy Kaufman fit in so well during the first season, and so poorly anywhere afterwards.

Of course, one thing that I can say for the record that definitely failed in that first season…Jim Henson.

I love the man, but his segments on SNL are some of the worst stuff in comedy history…

There’s my pseudo-informed pseudo-rant…

Have fun out there!

Book Review: Once a Rat by Angelika Rust

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you probably know that Angelika Rust is easily one of my top five favorite indie authors out there right now, if not at the absolute top.  You Used to Hurry Home and The Girl on the Red Pillow are two books I will easily recommend to anyone in need of book recommendations.  They also happen to be books that my wife regularly recommends to everyone she talks to.

Ratpaths, her ongoing full length novel series, has been something that I’ve battled with.  While it’s brilliant and action-packed and contains a protagonist that I fear must be at least slightly based on me, it’s also incredible political…and if you know anything else about me, politics and I just don’t jive.  I mean, I really really really wanted to like House of Cards, and Kevin Spacey is absolutely brilliant in it…but in the end, I just couldn’t do it.

Ratpaths, on the other hand, contains enough to keep me going…but Once a Rat, the third in the series, changes all that.

I mean…it’s still rather political and still contains all the same things that all the previous novels have which make them what they are, but something about this one just completely took me by storm.  If you’ve read either of the first two books, you must read this one.  Perhaps it’s how she delves deeper into the world of Istonnia, perhaps it’s how the focus is more on the central adorable thief than it is on the leaders of this fictional realm.  I really have no clue…but it worked for me.

But yeah…let’s get into the real review:

Once a Rat returns us quickly to the world of Istonnia and it’s most adorable thief, Nivvo.  With great ease and considerable conciseness, Rust reminds us of everything that happened in the previous two novels in the series, while also giving us a little insight into what had happened to the citizens of the realm during the short time between this book and the previous.

But we are then quickly placed right into the middle of a new dilemma that only Nivvo could possible repair, a new empire-changing prospect that requires the skills of a thief who also happens to be of a very particular heritage.

And perhaps this is precisely what caused me to think this is far and above the best book in the trilogy, because we’ve already got most of the background we need to get this started here and can, instead, move into the real action.

Of course, perhaps what I really get into is how Rust uses this title to really delve into the background of Nivvo himself, questioning the attributes that cause him to allow himself to continually get into these grand circumstances.

All around, this book does a fantastic job of taking all those pieces we love from the previous books and increasing the use of them to complete perfection.  Honestly, if you’ve read any of these books, you must read this one.

Buy it now!

Book Review: Vostok by Steve Alten

I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to join in on a Book Blog Tour for Vostok by the prolific science fiction adventure author, Steve Alten.  The blog tour was organized by the good folks at iRead Book Tours.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t familiar with him before they contacted me either, but after doing a little research, I can tell you that this guy has kept himself busy.  His Adopt-an-Author program alone seems to be doing a lot of good in getting unique titles into schools for kids to read.

But, this isn’t about the author, this is about his newest book, Vostok…a book that I’m happy to announce is quite amazingly good, especially if you’re someone like me who appreciates a good Crichton-esque science fiction read.

However, before I get into my review of the book, here’s a few words from Mr. Alten himself:

My name is Steve Alten and I am a NY Times and international best-selling author of fictional thrillers. My new release is called VOSTOK. In writing VOSTOK, I spent over twenty hours interviewing Dr. Steven M. Greer, the world’s foremost authority on Extraterrestrial Intelligence Last week, Obama Advisor John Podesta revealed that his biggest regret since leaving office was “keeping the UFO issue a secret.”

Woven into Vostok is Dr. Greer’s darkest secrets about a Cabal made up of the four largest banks which also own and operate the four largest oil companies. These cartels work hand-in-hand with the defense industry and orchestrate the wars which finance their entities. They own every major newspaper, magazine, radio, and television network which allows them to black out news stories that run counter to their enterprises. The Cabal operates by its own set of rules; Congress has no oversight over their budget or knowledge of their actions. When inquiries are made people turn up dead, and no rank is too high to be assassinated. CIA director William Colby agreed to support Greer’s investigation – until his body turned up in the Potomac River. That was a warning to Clinton and other members of the Cabal who might think of defecting. President Obama received his warning while in Norway to receive his Nobel Prize. On December 9, 2009, MJ-12 fired off a scaler burst over Oslo from one of their satellite weapons. A scaler weapon uses gravitic waves to vaporize targets, and the Norway blast left behind a blue spiral in the night sky that was witnessed by thousands. Obama was put on notice that he may be president, but the Cabal is still in charge. This group has one singular objective – to acquire ET technologies for weapons applications while keeping a tight lid on clean, unlimited power generating systems which would essentially solve the planet’s energy crisis but put the fossil fuel industry out of business. Vostok exposes everything!

In writing VOSTOK, I spent over twenty hours interviewing Dr. Steven M. Greer, the world’s foremost authority on Extraterrestrial Intelligence Last week, Obama Advisor John Podesta revealed that his biggest regret since leaving office was “keeping the UFO issue a secret.” Dr. Greer was the person who provided the extensive briefing to John Podesta on UFOs shortly after President Obama took office in 2009. Dr. Greer left his career as an emergency room physician to dedicate his life to persuading military and government officials to come clean about UFO sightings; not just to convince the public they were real and meant us no harm, but because he knew the military industrial complex had been suppressing extraterrestrial technologies that could supply society with an endless supply of free, clean energy. In 1993, Greer had met with a group of military advisors to find a way to poke holes in the dam of secrecy and disinformation that had obscured the truth about extraterrestrial contacts since 1947.

See more here- http://news.yahoo.com/outgoing-obama-adviser-john-podesta-s-biggest-regret-of-2014–keeping-america-in-the-dark-about-ufos-234149498.html

As you can plainly see…if you like conspiracy theories, this book will do more than whet your appetite.

Vostok works as a bit of a crossover title between two of Alten’s other works (one being a series, the other being a separate book).  I obviously haven’t read any of those, but it didn’t matter to my enjoyment of the book here, although I definitely got enough of an idea of the basics of those previous titles.  In fact, The Loch, which I think works as a more direct previous book to Vostok, is about a guy finding the Loch Ness Monster…and if you know anything about me and cryptozoology…well, you know that this is my kind of game.  Might have to pick up a copy when the to-read pile lightens a bit more.

But, let’s get on to the actual review:

Alten’s latest masterpiece, Vostok, might not be quite the thing you want to read as you’re trudging your way through the last few weeks of February and eagerly awaiting the warmer months to come about, but that doesn’t make it any less of a wonderful enjoyment to read.  Sure, the bulk of this book might take place in Antarctica, causing readers to be constantly reminded of the absolutely frigid temperatures outside (which, at the time of reviewing this for publication, isn’t actually that cold…), but all of those connections are quickly severed as you are brought into Alten’s mysterious world of Miocene monsters still living, and active, and hungry, in the world today.

On the surface, readers might recognize a lot of Crichton’s work within the style of writing Alten produces.  We see a highly action-packed tale filled with tons of scientific facts to back up the more absurd concepts.  But Alten really takes this genre into his own by opening his world up to so much more than one specific idea.  Here we see a fully developed globe where incredible feats of scientific research are being performed everywhere and by everyone, and we get to have these little glimpses into the amazing things that people are learning about the very world we live in.

However, this ain’t no book of facts and figures, this is a book of purely thrilling action and completely incredible situations that will cause you to be flipping pages long past the time you know you were supposed to go to sleep.  Heck, not many books will kill off their main characters.  Alten seems to like to do this as many times as possible.

You don’t need to have an interest in marine biology or undersea monsters to enjoy this book, all you simply need to have an interest in is great storytelling and a healthy dose of action and adventure.  Besides, once you get deeper into this book, you’ll quickly find that there’s much more going on under the surface (see what I did there?  you know…because they go under the ice…), leading to a shady conspiratorial world of even further questions.

This book really has pretty much everything you could possibly ask for from a book written with the typical male in mind, giving it my official stamp of Dude Lit.

Check it out!

On a side note, I see that Alten is sometimes criticized for loose research, causing shoddy recognition of scientific facts.  I’m no scientist, and definitely no expert in the fields being discussed within the pages of this book.  I can say, however, that he does a good enough job of supporting his ideas with scientific concepts that my own personal suspension of disbelief was never in danger of faltering.  And I think that’s about the best you can ask for from any book, IMO.

Marketing Monday: Social Media by the Numbers

a different set of numbers…probably more interesting than mine.
from blogging4jobs.com

We’ve talked about the using social media before.  Everyone has.  But there’s another question that relates much more directly to something that it seems everyone out there cares about more than producing useful content.  Numbers.

Followers, likes, fans, or whatever else they might be called on your favorite social media site, they are all we seem to care about.  I receive way more e-mails regarding how to get more followers than I do about how to improve my content.

The question is…does quantity really override quality here?

Obviously, there is something to be said about increasing your exposure.  The more people who know you (and your product) exist, the more people that might be tempted to actually buy in.

But at what cost.

I have more than a couple of friends who use social media in what I would consider the wrong way, spending all their time talking about how many followers they have, how many they could get, begging for more, coercing their current fanbase to really get them up to that next tier of followship.

And it generally seems to work…

But does it really make a difference?

A quick look at sales rankings would suggest otherwise.

Now, I’m not going to comment on the quality of their work, but I do want to focus on the message they are sending out when all they seem to care about is how many people have pressed that button stating their love for them.  It really seems desperate.

I’ll admit, I’d love more followers.  I’ve actually taken to, rather recently, working on increasing my twitter fanbase, mostly because it actually offers the best way to look for new readers who share interests, without having to put down money for advertisements first.  But the idea that I would beg my current fanbase to get those new readers for me…I’m sorry…I just couldn’t make that your job.

Hell, I already feel like I owe my current readers a debt just because they’ve read one of my books…how could I possibly feel okay asking them to do even more than that?

I don’t know…what do you think?

In the end, from what I’ve seen in my own experiences thus far, more numbers does not equal more sales.  In fact, social media has driven so few of my sales over the years that I’m still questioning the necessity for it (realizing that I use the platforms rather poorly, so there could be more that could be done).

But I can say…you’re not going to catch me begging for bigger numbers.  If I really want them, there are more than enough ways to get them without bugging anyone.

That’s a really short message for today folks, hope  you don’t mind.

Have fun out there!

Flash Fiction Friday: Why so Moody?

I have a feeling that as a male writing about this particular subject, I’m opening myself up to a whole helluva lot of flak.  Soo…I’m preempting it by stating that this is a piece of fiction written based on how the whole thing can sometimes appear from a male’s perspective, not in any way an attempt to try and assume that I have any clue of what you all go through every month.  Even with that said…I’m prepared for every last piece of hate mail you feel the need to send.

 

“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” he says as he brings a present around from behind his back.

It’s small.  That’s a good sign, right?  Eagerly, I rip open the wrapping paper to find a square black box, covered in velvet.  A necklace!

I slowly open the box to see a gorgeous gold chain, with a beautiful pendant.  I’m ecstatic, until I the glimmer of the diamond in the pendant stops blinding me and I see it for what it truly is.

“Really?” I say, feeling anger welling up in me, not really sure where it’s coming from, but I can’t seem to keep it back.

“What?  It’s a pink diamond.  Your favorite.”

“My favorite?” I yell.  “Since when have pink diamonds been my favorite.”

“Since always?” he asks uncertainly.  I feel him shrinking in front of me.

“I can’t even count how many times I’ve talked to you about how I think pink diamonds are the most absolutely gaudy of things ever created.  How could you have possibly thought that they were my favorite?”

“Jeez,” he says to me with his self-assured smile, “what got into you today?  Is it your time of the month or something?”

Before I am aware, my hand is already stinging with the pain of slapping him across the face.  I turn quickly and enter the bathroom, tears streaming down my face as the door slams behind me.

“How dare he?” I ask, looking into the mirror.  “How dare he try and pretend he has any idea of what I’m going through.”

“I know, right?” my reflection agrees.  “I mean, it’s like he thinks he’s so much cooler than you just because he knows when you’re menstruating or something.  Need to tap out?”

“Yeah, I think I do.  I just can’t take it today.  I could really use a few minutes to get myself together.”

“No problemo, sis.  Female solidarity, am I right?”

“Thanks.”

I close my eyes and reopen them, suddenly everything looks different, but the same.  I begin giggling.  I hear him on the other side of the door sighing in frustration.  Of course he would.  Damned fool thinks everything revolves around him or something.  I glance back into the mirror.

“Get yourself a little rest or something, alright?  I’ve got this.”

“Thanks again,” my reflection says, the weariness showing on her face.

“No problemo.  It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out and about anyways.”

I turn to the door, a smile spread across my face, and I open it to find him sitting on the other side of the hotel room, focused on his computer as though nothing had happened.

Sounds good to me.  I didn’t want to talk about any of that stuff anyways.

“I’m sorry,” he says half-heartedly.  Not even looking up from his screen to express his feelings.

I slink slowly toward him, feeling my body course with warmth at the sight of him, even though he doesn’t even think to look at me.  I don’t know why, but I love this feeling of a predator sneaking up on her prey.

I’m already on him, rubbing his back before he even notices I’ve neared.

“Hey,” he says in surprise.  “Wow.   Okay, so, all better now?”

“Oh yeah,” I say, trying to sound as sultry as possible, “way better.”

“Want to head out to dinner then?”

“We’ve got time, don’t we?”

“Time for what?” he asks.  Men can be so damned slow sometimes, can’t they?  “Oh,” he says, realization dawning on him.  “Look, I just want to let you know, I’m really sorry about the whole necklace thing.  I’ll return it first thing in the morning.  You can even come with me and–”

“Oh yeah, the necklace,” I say, picking up the box from the small table his computer sits on.  I take it out of the box and wrap it around my neck.  “Pink diamond.  My favorite.”

 

Yeah, I know…

 

Fat Mogul vs. Superhero Novels

not exactly related, but an interesting image to see the popularity of guys in tights. from superhero nation

I’m trying something new with the tidbit thursday this week…informed rants!

We’ll see how it goes.

Hey, did you know that in addition to being the beloved author of a young adult novel involving two time traveling con men (con people?), I also happen to have a couple of superhero novels under my belt?

That’s right, kids…The Legend of Buddy Hero and its sequel Rise of the Fat Mogul are both books in my Defenders Series which follows a few folks around as they try to pick up the pieces of a world that forgot about them.

Here’s the thing about superhero novels, though…they’re kind of overlooked.  Seeing as superheroes (at least the traditional definition of them) came about through the incredibly visual medium of comic books, and have more recently become incredibly popular through the even more visual medium of film, the few folks who take the time to actually write about these heroes using only words are generally barking up the wrong tree.

Which is incredibly disappointing, if you ask me, because there are some great superhero novels out there, which do an amazing job of circumventing the visual part of the style of storytelling and really bring things back to their roots..the parable-esque nature of ancient myths.

Actually, I think you’d find it interesting if you actually looked at some of the more popular books of recent days, things like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, or even the Twilight series, and compare it to comic books of old.  There’s a whole lot there that are similar.  Harry Potter being your typical “nothing can hurt me” character who has a host of sidekicks with special powers who keep him going forward…you know, like the X-men.  Katniss Everdeen, the principle-driven person who wants to change the world, although really shouldn’t be capable of such power…backed by the image of some winged creature that everyone rallies beneath….you know…like a Batman…or…since she has the arrows…maybe Green Arrow?  And Bella whatsherface from Twilight…well, she’s not really much like the superheroes at all, but romance comics used to be a big thing, and there was often a lot of crossover between romance comics and horror comics…so…you know…I’m only stretching a little here.

But I get it…it’s really hard to want to even consider changing how you read about superheroes.  Why read about someone flying through the air, leaping over buildings in a single bound and all that, when you can see it either on the page or on the screen?

That’s a great question.  A question that I hope every single author out there who has attempted to pen a superhero novel has attempted to answer and taken into account when putting their stuff together.

Take, for instance, Flora and Ulysses….now, this book does have some pictures involved, but they’re really a smaller portion of the whole piece.  And this is young adult literature…really young adult.  But the author here uses superheroes as the way the may character deals with the fact that her parents are divorced…and a superhero squirrel works to keep Flora safe and happy and on crazed adventures that keep her distracted from what’s really bothering her.

Or Henchmen, a book that takes a look at the whole superhero phenomenon not just from the bad guy’s standpoint, but from the bad guy’s sidekick’s standpoint.  Here we see that everyone within an evil organization has their own reason for being involved…and it might not always be money.

The Supernaturalist is an interesting example in that it first appeared in the written format, but then went on to become a graphic novel…and soon a movie? (apparently, maybe)

So…needless to say, I’ve only scratched the surface here of what superhero novels might have to offer.  And obviously those who are silly enough to attempt to write in the genre are facing some terrible odds, seeing as those most interested in superheroes tend to put their money on the ones that come in pretty packages with fantastic pictures.

But I suggest you take a stab at reading one of the more literary versions of the characters.  You might find they’re even more amazing when you’re allowed to create your own visualizations…

Have fun out there!

Fat Mogul vs. Pre-orders

Available now!

First off, I need to admit that at the time of writing this, I’m still 9 days away from the actual release of The Long Chron (buy it now!), and have barely begun the process of attempting to sell the book to the masses, although I have some amazing graphics to work with and all that jazz.  I bring this up simply to state that I really have very little to present in the way of specifically how pre-orders end up working at the end of the rainbow for authors who utilize the program.

By the time this article airs, I’ll have some more real info to share.  However, I’ve been traditionally pretty terrible at remembering to look through or update articles before they air…so…no promises…in fact, if you’re reading this sentence like this, I’m guessing I forgot to come out here and give new info (I didn’t!).

Aaaaaanyways…preorders.  They’re nothing new, obviously.  I mean, you’ve been able to buy things before they’re available since the beginning of time, I’m guessing.  You know…before money…when you would barter for things by stating you’d provide future services or something like that.

But even more so than that, pre-orders, in their current state have been around for quite some time.  I could be wrong, but I think their current iteration is actually relatively new.  I mean, I remember pre-ordering one of the Harry Potters for my wife, and I remember considering pre-ordering some video games back in the day…but before the year 2000, the entire concept is not even in my head…not to say that it didn’t exist, I just wasn’t aware of it.  Which wouldn’t be that surprising…I didn’t have money back then either.

However, pre-orders are new, if you’re talking about for self-published authors who choose to publish strictly through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).  Yep, that’s right, about 6 months ago or so, Amazon opened up the ability for authors to set up their books to be pre-ordered.

And the world of people who tell you what you need to do in order to sell more books went crazy.  Well..basically, everyone began stating definitively that if you wanted to sell any quantity of books, you needed to put your book up for pre-order.

We all know how those definitive statements work.

All the same, I decided to test it out.  I mean, there are some pieces of the theory that do make sense.  First of all, Amazon offers a service called Kindle Firsts for Amazon Prime members, in which Prime members get to get their hands on books before they’re available to the public.  I would assume that somewhere in the fine print of setting your book up for pre-order, your book ends up in this pile (I’m wrong.  Since the writing of this post, I actually did some minor research and quickly found this to be unfounded).  This is great simply for one reason…Amazon has reason to want to promote any books they’re offering as a special option for its members. (this isn’t entirely off base, as Amazon still likes preparing people for buying any books they’re offering through Kindle Unlimited or as part of the Kindle Lending Library)

Secondly, your pre-order book sales don’t actually apply to your account until the day your book goes live.  This is important because you can actually work on selling books before the big day to attempt to get your sales rank even higher on the day of release…and sales ranks are important (another thing I’ve found to be unfounded.  Your sales rank is effected during the pre-order period, meaning these sales are applied to your rank before the book is released, making this a strike against the pre-order process)…or so I’m told.

But even more importantly, at least to folks like me who have the tendency to forget to market…Setting your book up for pre-order means that you actually have some time in between the moment you hit publish and the moment people can actually start reading your books…meaning that all that marketing you do after you hit that button is technically marketing for release…which is, of course, what you’re supposed to do.

But the question you’re asking at this point is still probably more along the lines of “Adam, do YOU think it’s worth it?”

My answer right now (unless I come in here and update it, which I probably won’t) is that I think it is (updated thought: meh…probably not)…First, from a professional standpoint…it makes you look a little more professional than those who suddenly have a new book for sale.  You can remind people for weeks beforehand and they can actually put their money down right away for it (even though the money won’t be taken until the moment the book’s available (I think)).

I’m also guessing that Amazon will be more likely to help you in the promoting of your book, considering they’ll have more time to put it into e-mails and whatever before the book is actually released.  I can’t speak for certain on that…but I did already get an e-mail stating that one of my favorite authors (me) has a new book out.

However, I’m also guessing that in the end, it’ll all probably come out as a wash.

But…that’ll have to wait for February 28th…You know…two weeks ago (for you)…and then you’ll probably have to wait another couple weeks from today (March 11th…I think) before I’ll actually put something more definitive up here…unless I remember to update this post…which I probably won’t.

All the same…buy my book!

Have fun out there!

Update: I only sold 2 books through the pre-order process, and it really doesn’t seem to have done too much for increasing my exposure.  Now, I definitely could have done a much better job of pre-selling the thing, but it’s not a magical selling machine to have your book up for pre-order.  Also…Look, i updated it!