Self-Published Authors Interview Series: S.C. Barrus
Photo by Alex Stoddard
Here is the second installment of my self-published authors interview series, where I talk with writers about their methods, some personal anecdotes, and what they are currently working on! (My first interview was with Jenny Bravo, and can be read here).
Today's interview is with S.C. Barrus, a man who I came across from Ksenia Anske's website when she requested great self-published books to read. S.C. Barrus's name was mentioned and I saw that he wrote steampunk, so I was SOLD. He was gracious enough to agree to this interview even though he works full-time, has a family, and is currently in the process of releasing a serialized novel titled The Gin Thief! Read on to learn more about the man behind the amazing hats...
AC: Tell us about S.C. Barrus as a child (all the strange details!).
SCB: As a small child I used to love worms. I'd collect them in buckets while digging in the back yard. Upon finding a monster worm I was particularly proud of, I proceeded to roll it with my palm on top of my bike seat. To my horror, the worm broke in half, so I ran to my mom crying, begging her to put it back together.
AC: Or maybe just some personality traits.
SCB: I sometimes have a hard time shutting up, and it gets me in trouble. I take jokes too far. At my wife's grandma's wake, they were telling stories about where she wanted her ashes spread. Some said she wanted them spread over some lake, others said over a forest. Then they joked that as they scattered the ashes, maybe her top half would end up in the lake and her bottom half in the forest. That's where I spoke up. Miming the action of shoving a their poor dead grandma into a furnace, I said "You know those incinerators are kind of small, they got to shove the bodies in, so you won't know which parts are going where." All went silent and very judgy before my wife's uncle shouted, "Ooooooooh!" That was years ago, and he still reminds me of that moment.
AC: Your wife must be a very patient and understanding woman. So did you show signs of a future as a writer even when you were young?
SCB: Totally. I wrote my first full length novel when I was in high school, and I won The Meadow Brook Way Award for Literary Excellence because of it (our high school's creative writing award). That was cool. But even before that I was always writing short stories and poems, even as a kid. It was clear pretty early on that I wanted to be a writer.
AC: What have been your best and worst experiences in writing so far, and how have you handled them?
SCB: That's a tough question. My best moment might have been getting my kickstarter campaign funded. It was 90% of the way there, and one kind couple swooped in at the last second and funded the remaining 10%. That was pretty exhilarating. I also love doing book readings, conventions, and meeting fans. It's always nice to know that people appreciate the work you do. But mostly I just enjoy the process. Not drafting, filling a blank page can be like pulling teeth sometimes, so I just spew what I can on page as quick as possible. But going through and turning that trash into actual prose is very rewarding. I love going over the final draft and finding sentences I'm particularly proud of.
Worst experience though... Explaining to my wife that I wanted to invest $3,000 of our own money into my novel Discovering Aberration. She understood and was very supportive, but it's a huge risk for us. We're not rich. Luckily the investment is paying itself off, so when it came to investing money into The Gin Thief we were both a lot less nervous.
AC: Why did you decide to self-publish? Was it always your plan, or something you decided upon after querying for a while?
SCB: When I wrote my first novel in high school, I queried for that a lot. I was only 17 and it didn't get picked up (thank God; there are scenes in that book that might shame Kevin Smith). But as I matured as a writer, I began to study the publishing industry. It didn't take long before I knew I wanted to go the indie route. I'm an indie at heart anyway. And as I learned about internet marketing through my career, I discovered that most of the work a publisher does, I could do myself. So with Discovering Aberration, I just dived in head first. Never queried, just took charge. I did some things right, some things wrong, learned a ton, and am ready to do it again.
AC: Your first full-length novel, Discovering Aberration, is a steampunk adventure novel that you self-published in early 2014. Can you tell us how the idea came to you, and a bit about the storyline so that readers can purchase it immediately after reading this?
SCB: Discovering Aberration is largely told in two parts. The first is an urban fantasy setting as Freddy, a rebellious writer, and Lumpen, a disenchanted archeologist, steal a map from a crime lord which they believe will point them to the discovery of a lifetime. By the second half, they arrive at a mysterious island that begins to drive people mad, and the thrills escalate from there. Inspiration came from a lot of sources. From classics by Verne, Lovecraft, Poe, Stevenson, and their contemporaries, and you can see that in the feel of the novel. But it also came from interactions I had with my cousin, which is the basis for the banter. Finally, the island was a place I visited in a dream that I wanted to recreate.
AC: Sounds amazing. What does your writing process look like? How long does it take you to write each draft, and do you re-write the entire second draft (as I’ve read some authors do) or just tweak it, etc.? Beta-readers, editors, cover design? TELL US YOUR SECRETS.
SBC: My writing process is slow. I'm trying to speed it up, but I never call a project complete until I can read through it without cringing at my prose. As I mentioned before, the first draft is spat out as quickly as I can muster without any regard for quality or character. From there I go over each scene again and again until it's fully developed. By the end, probably every sentence has been rewritten, hacked apart and put back together three or four times. These days I've added another step where I go back through and cut everything that's unnecessary. If there's a sentence that says "She had gone to the beach," it is cut down to "She went to the beach," for example. But more than this, I find myself cutting entire paragraphs that I love if they aren't serving a specific purpose. For example: The Gin Thief: Episode 1 is set to be 30,000 words. I broke that word count a while ago before writing the final scene. I've since whittled it down to 25,000 and am working on that scene now.
AC: You give some amazing advice on your site about self-publishing and especially how to MARKET a book. You are also incredibly innovative with your website; trying new things and engaging your readers to get their feedback. Through all of this trial-and-error learning over the last couple of years, is there anything you really wish you’d known from the beginning? Something we should be aware of to prevent making our own mistakes that way?
SCB: Yes. Building a mailing list is more important than building a blog audience. Especially before you publish. And time spent blogging is often time better spent writing your book (unless you have a lot of time on your hands). At my blog's peak, I had around 8,000 people a month reading it. Probably around 1% bought the book. At that same time, I had build my mailing list to about 80 people because I wasn't trying that hard. The majority of those people bought my book, probably around 60%. So now I only blog when I feel compelled. I don't keep a regular schedule, I no longer try to force out a blog post if I didn't post that week. The funny thing about that is, now my blog audience might be smaller, but they are more engaging than ever before. So to sum up, I wish I would have spent less time blogging, more time writing, and I wish I would have believed in the power of a mailing list earlier.
AC: That is so surprising! Everything I've ever seen talks about the importance of a blog and rarely about a mailing list. Very insightful; I'll try that for my upcoming novel. Your current project is a serialized steampunk adventure entitled The Gin Thief. You talk about why you decided to serialize it on your website. Can you tell us a little about this new book’s premise, and an anticipatory release date? Where can we find it?
SCB: The Gin Thief is a gangland steampunk serial taking place in the same world as Discovering Aberration, but this time the protagonists aren't the writer and archaeologist, but a gang of women known as Scarlets. We follow Yevylin, a foreigner attempting to enter an unforgiving city wherein she's thrust into a struggle for survival. She's quickly adopted by the Scarlets, and as the series progresses she attempts to matriculate into their ranks in order to survive, all the while focused on the task at hand: to steal a priceless bottle of gin. I'm hoping to release it by the beginning of next month or sooner, but at the rate I'm going it will probably be mid September. You'll be able to find it on Amazon, and probably everywhere else too. If you want to be notified of it's release and want the opportunity to read the entire series for free, then visit my website AwayAndAway.com and sign up for the mailing list.
AC: Fantastic. Everyone do that right now! What is something readers don’t know about you? Hobby you enjoy, or a fun personal quirk?
SCB: I enjoy practicing Muay Thai, which is a violent form of kickboxing using elbows and knees as well as punches and kicks. I've done it for years, and while I've had less time to practice and spar recently, I'm hoping I can get back in the habit soon.
AC: And finally, I like to ask each interviewee to recommend a charity that they feel personally drawn to, so that I can add it to the charity page on my website! What organization or charity do you feel we should raise awareness about?
SCB: I like Books to Prisoners (http://www.bookstoprisoners.net/), which is a great organization that pretty much lives up to its name by delivering books to prisoners.
This is important for a lot of reasons. First, America has the largest prison population in the world (more than China, it's that bad). Most prisoners have done nothing more than commit a low level drug offense. These people shouldn't be suffering for an addiction, they should instead be given access to rehab facilities. Anyway, that's besides the point, because these people are there, behind bars. People like you and me. I think they should at least have something to read. Reading is an escape from the monotony of prison, but it's also a way to educate prisoners. I think the more they read, the less likely the are to end up back in a cell, which is good for everybody.
***
So there you all have it; straight from the mouth of an entrepreneurial writer who has continually been making money over the last few months with Discovering Aberration and is willing to share his advice with us. Also, please check out the dystopian short story I published on Amazon for $0.99, and review it. I am happy to email the free PDF to you as well, the more feedback the better!
About S.C. Barrus
S.C. Barrus is the author of the novel Discovering Aberration and the upcoming serial The Gin Thief. Born in Canada, he grew up as a rebellious youth in the Pacific Northwest where he skipped school in favor of swimming in the local rivers. He was raised on a hefty selection of books, video games and movies, and grew to love storytelling from a young age. He received his degree in creative writing from the University of Washington and began writing fiction in 2011. Throughout the years, S.C. Barrus has been inspired by a wide range of authors and genres including literary fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. Perhaps the easiest influences to identify in his writing come from authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Louis Stephenson.
Here is the second installment of my self-published authors interview series, where I talk with writers about their methods, some personal anecdotes, and what they are currently working on! (My first interview was with Jenny Bravo, and can be read here).
Today's interview is with S.C. Barrus, a man who I came across from Ksenia Anske's website when she requested great self-published books to read. S.C. Barrus's name was mentioned and I saw that he wrote steampunk, so I was SOLD. He was gracious enough to agree to this interview even though he works full-time, has a family, and is currently in the process of releasing a serialized novel titled The Gin Thief! Read on to learn more about the man behind the amazing hats...
AC: Tell us about S.C. Barrus as a child (all the strange details!).
SCB: As a small child I used to love worms. I'd collect them in buckets while digging in the back yard. Upon finding a monster worm I was particularly proud of, I proceeded to roll it with my palm on top of my bike seat. To my horror, the worm broke in half, so I ran to my mom crying, begging her to put it back together.
AC: Or maybe just some personality traits.
SCB: I sometimes have a hard time shutting up, and it gets me in trouble. I take jokes too far. At my wife's grandma's wake, they were telling stories about where she wanted her ashes spread. Some said she wanted them spread over some lake, others said over a forest. Then they joked that as they scattered the ashes, maybe her top half would end up in the lake and her bottom half in the forest. That's where I spoke up. Miming the action of shoving a their poor dead grandma into a furnace, I said "You know those incinerators are kind of small, they got to shove the bodies in, so you won't know which parts are going where." All went silent and very judgy before my wife's uncle shouted, "Ooooooooh!" That was years ago, and he still reminds me of that moment.
AC: Your wife must be a very patient and understanding woman. So did you show signs of a future as a writer even when you were young?
SCB: Totally. I wrote my first full length novel when I was in high school, and I won The Meadow Brook Way Award for Literary Excellence because of it (our high school's creative writing award). That was cool. But even before that I was always writing short stories and poems, even as a kid. It was clear pretty early on that I wanted to be a writer.
AC: What have been your best and worst experiences in writing so far, and how have you handled them?
SCB: That's a tough question. My best moment might have been getting my kickstarter campaign funded. It was 90% of the way there, and one kind couple swooped in at the last second and funded the remaining 10%. That was pretty exhilarating. I also love doing book readings, conventions, and meeting fans. It's always nice to know that people appreciate the work you do. But mostly I just enjoy the process. Not drafting, filling a blank page can be like pulling teeth sometimes, so I just spew what I can on page as quick as possible. But going through and turning that trash into actual prose is very rewarding. I love going over the final draft and finding sentences I'm particularly proud of.
Worst experience though... Explaining to my wife that I wanted to invest $3,000 of our own money into my novel Discovering Aberration. She understood and was very supportive, but it's a huge risk for us. We're not rich. Luckily the investment is paying itself off, so when it came to investing money into The Gin Thief we were both a lot less nervous.
AC: Why did you decide to self-publish? Was it always your plan, or something you decided upon after querying for a while?
SCB: When I wrote my first novel in high school, I queried for that a lot. I was only 17 and it didn't get picked up (thank God; there are scenes in that book that might shame Kevin Smith). But as I matured as a writer, I began to study the publishing industry. It didn't take long before I knew I wanted to go the indie route. I'm an indie at heart anyway. And as I learned about internet marketing through my career, I discovered that most of the work a publisher does, I could do myself. So with Discovering Aberration, I just dived in head first. Never queried, just took charge. I did some things right, some things wrong, learned a ton, and am ready to do it again.
AC: Your first full-length novel, Discovering Aberration, is a steampunk adventure novel that you self-published in early 2014. Can you tell us how the idea came to you, and a bit about the storyline so that readers can purchase it immediately after reading this?
SCB: Discovering Aberration is largely told in two parts. The first is an urban fantasy setting as Freddy, a rebellious writer, and Lumpen, a disenchanted archeologist, steal a map from a crime lord which they believe will point them to the discovery of a lifetime. By the second half, they arrive at a mysterious island that begins to drive people mad, and the thrills escalate from there. Inspiration came from a lot of sources. From classics by Verne, Lovecraft, Poe, Stevenson, and their contemporaries, and you can see that in the feel of the novel. But it also came from interactions I had with my cousin, which is the basis for the banter. Finally, the island was a place I visited in a dream that I wanted to recreate.
AC: Sounds amazing. What does your writing process look like? How long does it take you to write each draft, and do you re-write the entire second draft (as I’ve read some authors do) or just tweak it, etc.? Beta-readers, editors, cover design? TELL US YOUR SECRETS.
SBC: My writing process is slow. I'm trying to speed it up, but I never call a project complete until I can read through it without cringing at my prose. As I mentioned before, the first draft is spat out as quickly as I can muster without any regard for quality or character. From there I go over each scene again and again until it's fully developed. By the end, probably every sentence has been rewritten, hacked apart and put back together three or four times. These days I've added another step where I go back through and cut everything that's unnecessary. If there's a sentence that says "She had gone to the beach," it is cut down to "She went to the beach," for example. But more than this, I find myself cutting entire paragraphs that I love if they aren't serving a specific purpose. For example: The Gin Thief: Episode 1 is set to be 30,000 words. I broke that word count a while ago before writing the final scene. I've since whittled it down to 25,000 and am working on that scene now.
AC: You give some amazing advice on your site about self-publishing and especially how to MARKET a book. You are also incredibly innovative with your website; trying new things and engaging your readers to get their feedback. Through all of this trial-and-error learning over the last couple of years, is there anything you really wish you’d known from the beginning? Something we should be aware of to prevent making our own mistakes that way?
SCB: Yes. Building a mailing list is more important than building a blog audience. Especially before you publish. And time spent blogging is often time better spent writing your book (unless you have a lot of time on your hands). At my blog's peak, I had around 8,000 people a month reading it. Probably around 1% bought the book. At that same time, I had build my mailing list to about 80 people because I wasn't trying that hard. The majority of those people bought my book, probably around 60%. So now I only blog when I feel compelled. I don't keep a regular schedule, I no longer try to force out a blog post if I didn't post that week. The funny thing about that is, now my blog audience might be smaller, but they are more engaging than ever before. So to sum up, I wish I would have spent less time blogging, more time writing, and I wish I would have believed in the power of a mailing list earlier.
AC: That is so surprising! Everything I've ever seen talks about the importance of a blog and rarely about a mailing list. Very insightful; I'll try that for my upcoming novel. Your current project is a serialized steampunk adventure entitled The Gin Thief. You talk about why you decided to serialize it on your website. Can you tell us a little about this new book’s premise, and an anticipatory release date? Where can we find it?
SCB: The Gin Thief is a gangland steampunk serial taking place in the same world as Discovering Aberration, but this time the protagonists aren't the writer and archaeologist, but a gang of women known as Scarlets. We follow Yevylin, a foreigner attempting to enter an unforgiving city wherein she's thrust into a struggle for survival. She's quickly adopted by the Scarlets, and as the series progresses she attempts to matriculate into their ranks in order to survive, all the while focused on the task at hand: to steal a priceless bottle of gin. I'm hoping to release it by the beginning of next month or sooner, but at the rate I'm going it will probably be mid September. You'll be able to find it on Amazon, and probably everywhere else too. If you want to be notified of it's release and want the opportunity to read the entire series for free, then visit my website AwayAndAway.com and sign up for the mailing list.
AC: Fantastic. Everyone do that right now! What is something readers don’t know about you? Hobby you enjoy, or a fun personal quirk?
SCB: I enjoy practicing Muay Thai, which is a violent form of kickboxing using elbows and knees as well as punches and kicks. I've done it for years, and while I've had less time to practice and spar recently, I'm hoping I can get back in the habit soon.
AC: And finally, I like to ask each interviewee to recommend a charity that they feel personally drawn to, so that I can add it to the charity page on my website! What organization or charity do you feel we should raise awareness about?
SCB: I like Books to Prisoners (http://www.bookstoprisoners.net/), which is a great organization that pretty much lives up to its name by delivering books to prisoners.
This is important for a lot of reasons. First, America has the largest prison population in the world (more than China, it's that bad). Most prisoners have done nothing more than commit a low level drug offense. These people shouldn't be suffering for an addiction, they should instead be given access to rehab facilities. Anyway, that's besides the point, because these people are there, behind bars. People like you and me. I think they should at least have something to read. Reading is an escape from the monotony of prison, but it's also a way to educate prisoners. I think the more they read, the less likely the are to end up back in a cell, which is good for everybody.
***
So there you all have it; straight from the mouth of an entrepreneurial writer who has continually been making money over the last few months with Discovering Aberration and is willing to share his advice with us. Also, please check out the dystopian short story I published on Amazon for $0.99, and review it. I am happy to email the free PDF to you as well, the more feedback the better!
About S.C. BarrusS.C. Barrus is the author of the novel Discovering Aberration and the upcoming serial The Gin Thief. Born in Canada, he grew up as a rebellious youth in the Pacific Northwest where he skipped school in favor of swimming in the local rivers. He was raised on a hefty selection of books, video games and movies, and grew to love storytelling from a young age. He received his degree in creative writing from the University of Washington and began writing fiction in 2011. Throughout the years, S.C. Barrus has been inspired by a wide range of authors and genres including literary fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. Perhaps the easiest influences to identify in his writing come from authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Louis Stephenson.
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