Sean Patrick Little's Blog: Still in Wisco, page 10

The Annual Year in Review

Congratulations, friends. We've survived another spin around the sun. How was 2019 for you?

For me, it was a year that will largely be forgotten. Between lack of success with the career, lack of success with the books, and just a general cloud of failure following me around, the less I remember 2019, the better. I have to repeatedly tell myself to try to keep it positive, keep it upbeat. I keep reading self-help books that talk about the power of positive thinking, but I'm also fairly certain that if positive thinking worked, then no one would be poor, hungry, or have to work at a job they hate--and that's just not the case. Life has a way of beating positivity out of you. But, enough of this downward spiral--the end of the year is time for reflection and looking forward.

I am very proud of the two books I put out: The Single Twin and Family Ghosts. Neither has really done anything sales-wise, but I actually put forth the effort and cash to procure a Kirkus review for TST, and perhaps if the review is good, a few people outside of my narrow circle of readers might find it. When THE CENTURION and THE SEVEN both did well with the Kirkus reviews, that's when I got calls from traditional publishers and indie film companies. Maybe something can happen with this book. Who knows?

The coming year has me relatively uncertain about what the new year will bring book-wise. I still have the third Teslacon novel lined up and ready for press, but we'll see if that actually happens. The first two TC books have not sold at all outside of the 80 or so copies sold at the Con itself.

As of right now, I have three new books underway, as well as the fourth Survivor Journals book and a sequel to The Single Twin started, but I will confess to not having written a single word on any of them for the last two months. After getting out TST, I just haven't felt the fire to write. Part of that is work-related. Part of that is seasonal depression. And part of that is just laziness. I have no problem churning out word counts. I don't believe in Writer's Block. I just haven't wanted to sit down and work for a while. I need to remedy that in the new year.

The new year will see me returning to Sherwin-Williams to schlep paint. As some of you know, I have done retail paint sales for many years, and now after more than five years of being unable to find a job I wanted in higher ed, I'm giving up on that field. Going back to hawk paint for Uncle Sherwin isn't a dream job, but it's familiar and the store is two miles from my house. I can't complain about that. In my whole life, I've had hellish commutes. My first job after college had an 80-minute commute from my apartment in LaCrosse. My previous job had a 35-mile commute. For the first time in my life, I'll literally be walking distance from my job. That's the primary reason I'm going back. I'll keep looking for something better, but until then--if you need paint, you'll know where to find me.

As for other plans for the new year: recommit to weight loss and the gym. Like usual.

As 2019 ends, I like to reflect on my favorite things from the previous year. For your perusal:

Best Books I Read:
Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell
The Crossing by Michael Connelly

Best Movies I Saw:
John Wick 3
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Avengers: Endgame

Best TV Shows I Watched:
Barry (Seasons 1 & 2 --I came late to this)
Letterkenny (any season)
The Mandalorian
Lost in Space (Season 1 & 2)
Evil

Favorite Record of 2019:
(--tough year for music as Marillion and Fish did not put out a new record.)
However, Brett Newski's live album "Going Solo is Better Than Being Alone" is very good.
Empty City Squares - "337"

Best Thing I Did:
I went on an Alaskan Cruise in August on the NCL Bliss. It was pretty cool. The boat was an engineering marvel. Alaska was really amazing. I'd like to go back to Alaska, but I don't know if I'd go on a cruise ship again.

Best Podcasts I Listened to:
Timesuck with Dan Cummins
Unexplained
Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast
Monsters Among Us
Spooked

Best New Restaurant I Ate At:
Meze in Sun Prairie (try it!)

The past year had a few heartaches, as well. My cat, Marley, passed away not long ago. She was my lap cat, my buddy. She had the loudest purr you've ever heard, and not hearing her constant revving around the house has made the house feel quiet and sad. For this reason alone, 2019 can go take a flying leap.

For 2020, I wish you all the best. I hope success finds you. I hope good things are lined up down the pipe for all of us. Be sure to let me know your little victories, as well as your major wins. Anything positive is good.

Here's the link to The Single Twin. Tell friends about it. If you can, give it a good review on Amazon, Goodreads, and anywhere else you can--blogs, Facebook, etc...

It takes a village.

Thanks for reading. And Happy New Year.
--Sean

https://www.amazon.com/Single-Twin-Se...

Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything of substance here, so let’s take a moment to chat. Well, not chat–I’m a-gonna spiel for a bit, and you’re welcome to add your two cents after I’m done.

It’s been a little over two months since ALL WE HAVE and LORD BOBBINS AND THE DOME OF LIGHT came into this world officially. AWH made it to 14 reviews on Amazon. LB&tDoL got its first review yesterday. Not quite the awe-inspiring numbers one hopes for, but that’s life.

As much as readers love books in a series, there’s a strange fact about how sequels never perform as well as the first book, and this is painfully true. You want to know why books series have to end? It’s because each additional book tends to do more poorly than the book that preceded it.

Nowhere is this more evident than the promotional weekends that Amazon allows you to do: For a short period, once in a book’s life, Amazon allows you to chuck it up for free downloads. It can really help get a series noticed. I did this with AFTER EVERYONE DIED when it first came out, and it really helped me launch the series. In five days, it was downloaded more than five-thousand times, and from that five-thousand, I managed to scrape out fifty reviews. I’ve mentioned before that fifty is the magic number for reviews on Amazon. Those reviews got AED put into marketing mailers that Amazon sent out, and put it into suggestion lists for people who like post-apoc fiction. It helped a ton.

When LONG EMPTY ROADS came out, and I did the free downloads, it only managed to get to about 1,300 downloads. It took a lot longer for it to get to fifty reviews, too. I think right now, it’s somewhere around 55-60 reviews. It helps, but people like to start a series at the beginning, so when people see “Book 2” in a marketing mailer, they’re not quite as quick to jump on it as they are when something says “Book 1.”

ALL WE HAVE was tossed out for free downloads this past weekend. It only got about 700 downloads. Not great. Better than some books, but still not anywhere close to what I hoped. You have to figure that only about one out of every 100-500 people actually take the time to review a book they like.

It’s hard to continue a series. I get emails on occasion for people looking for another book in the series, and I do hope to write one at some point, but I don’t know if it will be any time soon. I can guarantee that there won’t be a fourth book in that series in 2019, though. Between working full-time and trying to write other books I’m interested in doing, I just don’t have a ton of time. I have so many ideas for stories, it’s hard to pin down exactly which ones I want to write.

I’m working on a few different stories right now:
-A fourth Teslacon novel. (The third one is already written.)
-A sci-fi book
-A fantasy novel
-A literary mystery novel
-A classic detective novel (which isn’t any good at this point…)
-And, I have a YA mystery/romance kicking around in my head that I’d like to start writing at some point.

In addition, I do have a fourth Survivor Journals book in my head, but that’s on a back-burner for now.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep firing on the TeslaCon novels, either. They’re not selling (outside of TeslaCon itself), and they’re not generating reviews. Steampunk is pretty niche. It’s hard to build an audience in that realm. I’m hoping the launch of TeslaCon West in 2020 does something for the series, but we’ll have to see.

Publishing is something you really have to be driven to do, especially without any sort of press support. I always think of Mr. Miyagi’s parable about grapes from “The Karate Kid”: Publishing yes–safe. Publishing no–safe. Publishing maybe so–squish like grape.

It is a grind. It’s a grind I love–but it is a grind.

As always, if anyone has any writing they want me to take a look at, feel free to email me a sample chapter or two. I’d be happy to read it and make some comments.

If anyone has any brilliant ideas for generating sales or traffic to my books, let me know that, too.

Thanks for reading!
-s

Two Weeks Later...

The new books have been out for two weeks. I finally broke down and glanced at the sales reports. Not bad, not great. Pretty average, actually. I'm not going to complain about average in this day and age. I have seen a lot of people reading ALL WE HAVE on Kindle Unlimited. Here's to hoping that translates to some reviews, and maybe future sales.

I'm still on the fence for Kindle Unlimited. Basically, anyone who subscribes to Amazon Prime and has a Kindle can read for free (well, as part of paying for the service, really) any book enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program. Authors make money by fractions of pennies per page read. The idea is that you'd make the same amount of money as you would an eBook sale if someone reads your whole book. Now, most writers make almost nothing if they're pricing their eBooks fairly. (To me, this means $4.99 or less.) It works as a service for Amazon to help corner the Kindle market (which--let's be honest, they have. The eBook wars are over and Amazon won), and it allows people to try new authors or independent books with no risk to their pocketbooks. For a lot of independent authors, it's really the best way to proceed.

However, the results are sketchy. As an author, I see only a bar graph that shows me pages read. If I see 600 pages, I have no idea if two people read the book cover-to-cover, or if 600 people read one page. The money is much greater if two people read it cover-to-cover.

If you have Kindle Unlimited, you don't even have to read books in this program to help the author. Just page through the books while you're doing something else. Watch TV and hit the Kindle with your thumb until you hit the end. It's sort of like how people help their favorite bands on Spotify by playing albums on repeat with the sound muted while they're not at their computers.

ALL WE HAVE has already garnered nine reviews. At this point, I have not read any of the reviews (because I try not to read reviews), but I know from checking the book's page on Amazon, all nine have been 5-star reviews. I'm very grateful for that, and if you've said kind words about the book, I'm even more grateful. Please, tell friends, tell your local bookstores, tell your local libraries, and post about the books on social media. Every bit helps. If you know any podcasts or blogs that need a guest, send them my way. If you have any bookstores that need a speaker, my schedule is currently wide open. 'Have books, will travel' reads the card of a man...

I spent last weekend at TeslaCon. I did not sell as many books as I'd hoped, but I sold a lot. The hour I was given to speak to people while I was there was not overly packed with people (I think maybe 12-15 people showed up), but the people that did show up were attentive, interactive, and fun. I got to embarrass my daughter, so it was all worth it.

So far, LORD BOBBINS AND THE DOME OF LIGHT has not garnered any reviews, but I'm hopeful. The first book only has five reviews at the moment, so maybe I'm not overly hopeful, but there is always a little hope. I know that the steampunk fandom is very niche and they like to support authors. I know that the week of release, LB&tDoL was actually in the top 25 Steampunk Books on Amazon that week...but since then, I don't know. It's dropping off the radar. I did see someone photo-quoted a passage from the book on one of the TeslaCon fan pages. That was nice. I'd seen people do that for other authors before, but that was the first time I saw someone do it with something I wrote. Felt good. Almost like I know what I'm doing.

The third book in the TeslaCon series, LORD BOBBINS AND THE CLOCKWORK GIRL is complete, so there will be at least three books in the series. There's an outline for a fourth book sitting on my computer at this very second, too! Fingers crossed that people want to see more.

This publishing thing...it's so hard.

Gail Carriger was at TeslaCon (https://gailcarriger.com/). I did not get a chance to even see her from a distance, let alone exchange pleasantries, but I really admire her career arc. She's really a good writer, and she's got this image and presentation that fits really well with her fans. She appears a lot of conventions. I'd like to be able to do that. I learned long ago not to appear places that charged you for table space, though--you almost never get your payment back, and if you do get your payment back through sales, you certainly won't cover gas/food/hotels. I see a lot of indie authors slogging it out at cons, but I can't help but think most of them are losing money on the deal. It's a lot of building an audience one person at a time. You can become successful that way, but it's a long slog.

Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) sold his book out of the trunk of his car at flea markets for years before finally becoming discovered. Fantasy novelist Amanda Hocking published $.99 cent novellas on Amazon for years while pushing her stuff in chat rooms at night until she ended up selling over 900,000 ebooks in a year before agents and publishers took her work seriously. (If you make almost a half-million cash on your work, publisher suddenly want a piece of you.) There are paths to success for independent writers, but luck still plays a large part of it, and you still have to have good books.

Here's to hoping.
--Sean

TeslaCon Recap

Okay, time for a brief post about TeslaCon.

I spent most of the weekend hanging out in the hallway near the vendor's room hawking the new Lord Bobbins/TeslaCon novel. I hate selling my own books, but I truly am grateful for the people that want them, and I'm especially grateful for the people who told me they really enjoyed the first one. This is a series I'd like to write for a long time, if the demand is there for it.

For those of you who like that series, please--tell friends. Hit it up on social media. Create art. Write reviews. Blog about it. Ask your local bookstores to carry it. Ask your local libraries to get it. Anything and everything helps.

Who knows...if enough people demand it, bigger things can happen. Let's take these books, and TeslaCon itself, international.

I did a panel on Saturday at TeslaCon. Only a few people came, but my daughter was there, and it was nice to have her watch her old man throw down and do what he do. I even got a couple of laughs at her expense (which I know she enjoyed). She's fully a teenager, so of course she could not let on that she enjoyed seeing me on a stage, but afterward she said, "You were funny. But don't embarrass me again."

At the table next to me for most of the weekend were the good people from Geneva Steam Convention. I talked briefly a bit with Emily Dragonwielder. She's my kind of nerd. (And I mean that with the utmost respect.) As of right now, as far as I know, my next--and so far only appearance--will be at Geneva Steam in March. I'm looking forward to it. It's a really neat little convention in a really cool resort. I attended last year for three days, and it was great.

If anyone has any other places where I can show up and hawk books, talk about writing, or even just stand on a stage and be entertaining for a while, let me know. If you've got a blog or a podcast that needs content or a guest, let me know. Have books, will travel. That's me.

The third book in the Survivor Journal series is out this past week, as well. ALL WE HAVE has already gotten a few very nice reviews, and my pal Wendy told me that the final chapters in the book made her cry, so I did my job.

Let me offer a deep, sincere thank you to those of you who pre-ordered the book, or who have bought a copy since then, or plan to in the future. Thank you to those who wrote reviews for it, as well. Every little bit helps.

Since I've already been asked the question several times: At this exact moment, I do not know whether or not the Survivor Journals will continue. I have at least two more stories to tell in that world. One will be a shorter work (somewhere between a short story and novella, most likely) and it will come out in the annotated omnibus ebook that Spilled Inc. Press will put out sometime early in 2019. The other is another extension of Twist's story. I have it outlined. I even wrote half the first chapter. We'll have to see if there's enough demand for more, and that info will largely come through sales/reviews. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, as always happen when I finish a new book and deal with the dread of rejection that all writers feel when they release one of their babies to the public, I went through a pretty profound funk where I gave up writing for good.

I do this at least once or twice a year. I just look at the headaches, the effort, and the struggle vs. the return for all I put into it, decide it's not worth it, and I give up.

I always return to it, though. I'm the worst quitter ever.

This weekend at TC, in between sales and talking to the nice people who came by my table to say hello, I ended up jotting down 15K words toward a book I've been wanting to write since I was in seventh grade. I won't say anymore than that right now, except that it's a sci-fi novel. So far, I'm really having fun writing it. We'll have to see where that goes.

Anyhow, I had a great TeslaCon, and I'm looking forward to bring LORD BOBBINS AND THE CLOCKWORK GIRL to that con. And, I'm looking forward to TeslaCon West in Seattle in 2020.

Thanks to Bill Bodden, Scott Lynch, Eric Jon Larson, Emily and the other nice folk at Geneva Steam, and everyone else who bought a book, or stopped by my table to chat. As an introvert who is generally not that great in one-on-one talking (I much prefer the stage and the spotlight, because I'm apparently wired to perform), I appreciated the conversations.

And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled social media feed.

Thanks for reading.
--Sean

Books are almost here!

We are a week away until the official launch of ALL WE HAVE and LORD BOBBINS AND THE DOME OF LIGHT. The paperback orders are live, and the eBook pre-orders are up.

Please, tell friends. I can't do this without the kindness of strangers.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Have-Survi...

https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Bobbins-D...

ALL WE HAVE pre-order

The pre-order for the Kindle version of ALL WE HAVE is available on Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Have-Survi...

Share the link. Tell friends.

Cover reveal for ALL WE HAVE

Check out the cover for ALL WE HAVE--coming soon!

https://www.facebook.com/SeanPatrickL...

New TeslaCon Off to Press

The next TeslaCon novel, "Lord Bobbins and the Dome of Light," is off to the presses. There should be hard copies at TeslaCon this November.

If a perfect world, there will be copies of ALL WE HAVE there, too.

The TeslaCon novel series was started with very high hopes, but so far--they have failed to pan out. Only four reviews of the first book after a year of being out there. It's not selling copies. I don't know if that's an Amazon algorithm thing, or what. It's just a little disappointing because it's a fun book series to write.

The third book in that series, "Lord Bobbins and the Clockwork Girl" is complete. It will likely see some form of publication at some point. Maybe just eBook. I don't know.

We'll have to see how the second one performs.

Updates and some Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve written a major post, so I figured it was time to remedy that. Things are still progressing on the novel front. As soon as Paige finishes the cover to All We Have, that will go to press. I’ve completed edits on the two TeslaCon novels I’ve prepared for this fall, so hopefully I’ll be able to get on the same page with Eric about those covers, and we’ll make something happen.

I’m a little nervous about releasing any of these books, because I always get that way. In Henry Rollins’ most recent special, “Keep Talking, Pal,” he tells a story about opening for Ozzy Osbourne. Over 19,000 people came to see Ozzy play, and before the show, after Rollins Band played their opening set for Ozzy’s band, Henry sees Ozzy huddled in a corner, hands on his knees. When Henry checks on Ozzy, the Blizzard of Oz, in his distinct Birmingham accent, says, “Is there anybody out there, man? I always get nervous that no one will show up.” That says something about the self-doubt that fills all artists. If Ozzy is worried that people aren’t coming to see him, then none of us have any hope.

I think it’s even tougher for writers, though. Unless you’re one of the big names, there are no direct lines to tell how you’re doing. You can upload your books and hope for the best. Once a month, or once a quarter you can check your sales stats, but those are meaningless. You can get a few reviews. However, for the most part, you’re just shouting into a void.

I know that Geoffrey Owens (The Cosby Show actor who played the guy who married the oldest daughter) got somewhat shamed by some yokel taking his picture as he worked a second job at Trader Joe’s. He still acts on stage. He still teaches acting classes. But, he needs to make ends meet, and so he works another job. It’s a stark reminder that those lucky few who are able to make a living from their art, and solely from their art, are the exceptions, not the rule. Even most traditionally published writers have to have second jobs, or even third jobs. Most writers have to work to finance their writing habit, and so it is with me, as well. Despite AFTER EVERYONE DIED selling more than 20,000 copies over two years, I don’t think my entire catalog of sales over more than twelve years of publishing has added up to what I make in a year in my day job. It is what it is, though. I write because I must. No other reason. It’s my dream that someday I can make a living solely from hanging out at Culver’s and jamming out stories, but that’s lottery odds. It just doesn’t happen for most of us. And that’s okay.

It’s so hard to sell any books, even the big names, and it’s even tougher for niche books (like post-apocalyptic survival stories, or steampunk adventure novels). Most of those books exist only as ebooks, and most of them sell only a few thousand copies, at best. That’s just the way it is. Nothing any of us do can change it.

Which brings me to my reviews for this post—I just finished reading THE FAT LADY’S LOW, SAD SONG by Brian Kaufman. This book is a perfect example of how traditional publishing misses great books. This book, an indie title self-published through an aggregate house called Black Rose Writing, is easily the best book I’ve read this year.

Parker Westfall is a career minor-leaguer. He’s never made The Show. For more than a decade, he’s been grinding out a career playing baseball in podunk towns for podunk teams, and those playing days are coming to a close. He’s given one last chance for a season in the sun playing first base for the Fort Collins Miners, an independent baseball team. If there’s one step below the minor leagues, it’s independent baseball. With no other options, Westfall signs on. When he gets there, the team owner asks Westfall for a special favor—mentor a young pitcher who throws a helluva knuckeball.

Oh, yeah—that pitcher is a woman.

The signing of Courtney Morgan could be just a publicity stunt, and the book could have turned into a trite, damsel-in-distress novel, but it doesn’t. Parker and Morgan don’t fall in love. Parker isn’t the white knight who teaches her the game, but rather a coach who helps her find her own way to play.

The book is a sweet paean to baseball, the unsung heroes who never get to be on baseball cards or interviewed on ESPN, and the tiny towns that keep the spirit of real baseball alive. As a baseball fan, and as a fan of good writing, this book falls into place at the top of my reading list (so far) for 2018. It’s one of those books that probably should have gotten more looks from agents or publishers. It’s one of those books that should get more readers than it’s ever going to get.

But, like the minor leaguers this story encompasses, sometimes what you get in the end is just good enough. I loved this book. I can’t recommend it enough.

I haven’t read too many other books, lately. I’ve started a bunch, but for various reasons have not plowed through to the end. I’m getting curmudgeonly in my old age. I’m not willing to invest time in something that isn’t knocking my socks off, maybe. Or maybe it’s because I realize how limited my time is lately, so I can only indulge in books that are really moving me at that moment.

I’ve also found that a lot of books are victims of headspace—how am I feeling when I read them? I’ve started some books in the past that I just wasn’t feeling at that moment, but later on, I’ve gone back to find that I loved them. That’s how I’m feeling at the moment.

As far as movies and TV goes, however: I just saw ALPHA today. It was very good. Not as good as I hoped it would be, given the trailer, but still a solid flick. It’s a survival story set 20,000 years ago, and tells a hypothetical tale of how the first wolf might have been domesticated. While the story is beautifully shot and well-acted, I think it missed some real chances to swing for the fences emotionally and a better director and editor would have really been able to bring a larger emotional scale to the film. It’s still worth checking out, though.

I saw THE MEG last weekend, because my kid likes any movie with giant animals eating people. THE MEG is everything the trailer promised. It’s a Megalodon shark eating people and fighting Jason Statham. That’s what the trailer promised. That’s what the film delivered. If you go to this film hoping it will be some great think-piece, you’ll be disappointed. However, if you go to have some mindless fun, you’ll be happy. It’s not great. It’s not bad, either. It’s exactly the movie you think it will be.

On Netflix, I’ve been binge-watching PERSON OF INTEREST lately. I never watched it when it was first broadcast, but I’ve found that I greatly enjoy this. It’s a solid series.

I’ve also gotten through the first five episodes of Amazon Prime’s new JACK RYAN series. I’ve always loved the Jack Ryan character (even though I’m not a fan of Tom Clancy’s writing style), and I’m a fan of John Krasinski, so this series works very well. The first five episodes have been quite good, and I’m looking forward to finishing it.

Musically, I’ve been digging Brett Newski’s new album “Life Upside Down,” and the new album from Lords of the Trident, “Shadows from the Past.” Both are Wisconsin-based acts, and both are really solid. Brett’s more the indie-folk-geek genre (think, dude with an acoustic guitar and a silly sense of humor), and Lords are doing what I consider to be 80’s-style metal—big, loud, over-the-top, and silly in the best possible way. The lead singer, Fang Von Wrathenstein, has a great set of pipes. Much like how indie books get overlooked by the masses, both of these indie music acts should be much bigger than they currently are. Get in on the ground floor and listen to them on Spotify, or be a mensch and purchase their records. Every little bit helps.

That’s probably enough rambling for now. As always, please tell friends about books you enjoy. Write reviews. Share links. Encourage others to support the artists who are grinding it out.

Stay tuned for further updates on the release of ALL WE HAVE. In a perfect world, it would have been out by the end of September. It’s looking like early-to-mid-October will be more likely.

Thanks for reading.
--Sean

On Typos--

Saw a great post on Twitter: @CalixofCoffee wrote, "Shout-out to the typos that made it through three rounds of content edits, copyedits, and two rounds of proofreading. I am inspired by your dedication and tenacity."

Ain't that the truth?

One of the things that really bothers me is when people review indie books and complain about typos. I don't think any author purposely puts out error-filled books. We all want our product to be the best it can be. But, the old adage "If you can't afford an editor, you can't afford to put out your book" may not be practical. Most book editing costs around $500/book, maybe more. The average indie book will never even make its author $500 over the course of its lifetime. Sad, but true.

I consider myself very lucky. In the grand scheme of things, I have done extremely well for someone who does not spend money on promotion or marketing. AFTER EVERYONE DIED got lucky. It's been downloaded a lot. More than I probably deserved. The dropoff for LONG EMPTY ROADS has been huge, though. Less than a quarter of everyone who has bought or read AED has followed through to read LER. It really makes me worry about what will happen when ALL WE HAVE comes out. (Soon, I hope--Paige Krogwoldis still working on the cover--she's been really busy.)

What people need to understand is that publishing is just like the music industry. Indie authors are punk rock. Books kicked out by the large publishers are the studio albums. Punk rock is imperfect. It's done by people who can't afford the best equipment, tons of studio time, great engineers, or perfect mastering. It's done with a DIY attitude and hope. That's it.

Same with indie authors. We don't have a ton of help out there. Most of the time when I send out early copies of books for beta-reads, I don't get much feedback, if any at all. I do most of my own editing, and I go over the books dozens of times. I want them to be as good as I can make them, but financially speaking, I can't afford to take a loss on books, and paying for editing, most likely, would be a loss. Sad, but true.

I also don't want to be someone who begs people for help. I always say that if I ever make decent profit on a book, I'll pay it back. But, that hasn't happened, yet. I do try to do something for those that help out in the process, but I'm a broke educator with a writing habit. I still have a ton of student load debt almost twenty years after graduating with my M.A. Life is hard.

It would be great to have the major label support. It would be great to get slick, professional covers with blurbs from other writers. It would be great to get the internal support of editors and copy editors, but c'mon. There can only be so many major books. Just like there can only be so many major albums. A TON of books released by major houses don't make money, so what chance do indie books have? Hitting the best-seller lists is akin to winning the lottery.

I do what I can do, and I try to do it as best I can, and I just hope people understand that I'm out here with three chords and the Truth, trying to turn myself into U2. But, like most punk bands, I'm lucky if I can make it out of the garage.

When I was in high school and college, most of my favorite bands were punk rock bands, especially the ones that haunted the Minneapolis scene. Bands like #HouseofLargeSizes, or #MarkMallman, or #Chixdiggit or #TheGroovieGhoulies--bands that were out there with almost no support, just trying to build an audience. Every band has to start somewhere. Even Rush used to play to less than ten people in a makeshift youth center in the basement of a church. You gotta walk before you can fly.

The nice thing about doing things this way, is that I publish books that I want to read without kowtowing to editors and publishers who won't get it. When I first tried to publish AED, I sent it off to a bunch of editors who all wanted more characters and more action--which would have defeated the whole point of the book. Same thing with the music industry: If all bands are major label bands, then you never get bands like Black Flag, the Sex Pistols, or the Ramones. You have to have people who are willing to do what they want, regardless of what the major corporations want.

Also, with indie writers, you get a chance to watch someone develop as a writer far more than you do when you have a series of editors polish their work. My first book was as good as I could write twelve years ago. Now, as I've learned the process better, and I've gotten better with my tools, I'm putting out better product. If you read my books in order, you can hear the progression. Same thing with punk rock bands that hit it big. You can listen to their records chronologically and hear them develop as musicians and songwriters. It's nice.

But, you just have to understand that mistakes, typos, and missed corrections are part of the game.

I hate them. Believe me, I hate them more than you. But, that's just part of the game.