Vanguard #2: Cold War Frankenstein is now on sale at Amazon for only 99¢ and to celebrate, I’ve made Vanguard #1: Come The Exemplar free! But you have to hurry, because this deal ends on Wednesday, February 25th!
[mybooktable book=”vanguard-1-come-the-exemplar” display=”default”] [mybooktable book=”vanguard-2-cold-war-frankenstein” display=”default”]Tag Archives: new pulp
Lucian: Dark God’s Homecoming
Lucian: Dark God’s Homecoming by Van Allen Plexico
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m a huge fan of Van Allen Plexico’s Sentinels series. Normally I don’t go in for the more space opera-type stuff, so I was curious to see how this book would read. It’s a very enjoyable story with some great action set-pieces. I liked the interaction between Lucian and his human companion, Evelyn. However, I did feel the first-person style was a bit of a weakness from the book. Lucian is a very self-centered character, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, the perspective of the story felt like we got a bit too much of Lucian.
I understand this book is connected to Van’s other space opera books, which I am looking forward to reading. Although I didn’t enjoy Lucian as much as his superhero Sentinels series, it still gave me enough of a taste of this wider universe that I’m interested in discovering more.
Looking Back and Forward
So the year has come to an end. I only put out one new release in 2014, and that was the first Luther Cross story for Pro Se’s Single Shot Signatures line. But despite that, it was a pretty productive year. I completed the entire first season of Vanguard, which clocks in at just shy of 100,000 words. I also wrote the first two Luther Cross stories, so another 20,000 words there and I penned a story for one of Airship 27’s upcoming Sinbad anthologies, another 15,000 words. So in total, I wrote about 135,000 words, making it my most productive year by far in terms of writing.
I also spent a lot of time doing research. Taking a hard look at what works and what doesn’t in self-publishing and seeing how I can apply things to my own business. I branded the books in The Myth Hunter and Infernum series with logos for each series and new covers. The Myth Hunter books will also be getting another round of new covers shortly to prepare for the release of the third book in the series (more on that in the coming months). I also went back to my first book, Fallen, and finally went ahead and put together an ebook, brand-new print version, and a new cover.
All this plus I toyed with marketing attempts on different books, trying to boost some rankings and I’ve been trying to build my platform through my article writing at WhatCulture and my podcasts. I also finally created a mailing list, something I should have done long ago.
Basically, everything I’ve done in 2014 has been building to a big 2015. The reason I chose not to release any of the Vanguard episodes until 2015 is because I wanted to have them all completed in advance. And now, the first episode is available for pre-order!
[mybooktable book=”vanguard-1-come-the-exemplar” display=”default”]The special prequel episode to the series is also available, but only to mailing list subscribers. If you’ve subscribed to my mailing list, you should have received a link to download it by now. If you’re not on the list and would like the prequel episode, then subscribe now!
I’ve also teamed up with Derrick Ferguson, Mark Bousquet and Joel Jenkins to compile Amazing Adventures: 4-Book Action-Packed Box Set. This set features Derrick’s Dillon and the Last Rail to Khusra, The Lost Continent by me, Mark’s Gunfighter Gothic: Under Zeppelin Skies, and Joel’s On Wings of Darkness. These books would normally cost $2.99 individually, but you can get all four for only 99¢. The set is now available and I’d advise you to pick it up while you can, because it won’t be on the market forever.
[mybooktable book=”amazingadventures” display=”default”]2015 promises to be a big year. Each month will see the release of another episode of Vanguard and then I’m planning for a June release of Curse of the Necronomicon, the third book in The Myth Hunter series. Luther Cross will also see new releases quarterly and I’ve got plans for the second half of the year that I’m going to finalize once I finish Curse of the Necronomicon.
There are some other things in the works that I can’t quite talk about yet. But 2015 promises to be a very big year.
What’s wrong with New Pulp?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. There’s a lot of reason to believe that pulp is alive and well in the mainstream. Seems like every new TV show has pulp elements in it. Superheroes, a total descendent of the mystery men from the pulps, absolutely dominate the box office.
Even with competition from far more visual mediums, pulp still manages to succeed in prose fiction as well. Self-published authors like Russell Blake and JF Penn do very well for themselves writing pulpy action/adventure thrillers, and Mat Nastos’ The Cestus Concern made it to the top of the Amazon charts.
But the rest of the New Pulp books? Not even close to doing that well. I don’t really know of any author who classifies themselves as a New Pulp author who is able to make a full-time living by writing fiction full-time.
I think the biggest problem is a lot of authors working in New Pulp approach it as a hobby as opposed to an occupation. And even those who do approach the physical act of writing with far more vigor than others, there are the other aspects of publishing that they take for granted.
Of course, for those who go through one of the New Pulp publishers, a lot of this is outside their control. Hard to put a link to a mailing list or to other books in the series if you aren’t the one who has final say over the ebook. But even still, one of the things that struck me about the informal New Pulp survey I conducted not too long ago was how few authors have websites they own or mailing lists and the results were shockingly low. Same goes for advertising on book lists, either free or paid. Some websites I’ve seen are a total mess without a listing of titles or buy links.
New Pulp has been kind of behind the curve and there’s no real reason for it. There are things that self-publishing and the Kindle revolution have made possible that are practically tailor-made for pulp. But New Pulp books were some of the last to make the switch over to ebooks. Even now, the majority of New Pulp books don’t include calls to action to pick up the next book in the series, leave a review, or sign up for a mailing list. There’s also the serial format, which has completely passed New Pulp by. I see an awful lot of collections of stories, so why aren’t those stories being released first individually in ebook format and then collected together in a bundle? Why isn’t anyone doing a weekly or monthly pulp serial on Kindle Unlimited?
Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone in New Pulp. Pro Se Productions’ Single Shot Signatures line is a good example of what more people in New Pulp should be experimenting with. I’m also planning to release at least one serial in 2015, potentially two.
I think the overall thing here is I see a lot of people in New Pulp lamenting that they aren’t selling more books and aren’t getting more exposure. But then when suggestions are made, I see some of those same people then turn around and say, “well what we’re doing is just fine.” Or worse, I see some say, “yeah, we should start doing that,” and then they continue to do the same things they have been doing.
I’m certainly not a best-selling author so maybe I’m not the one to comment on this. But I am trying some new things and here are some words of advice I’d give to other New Pulp authors:
- Try A Bundle – There are a lot of crossovers in New Pulp. Airship 27 and PulpWork Press recently released The Vril Agenda by Josh Reynolds and Derrick Ferguson. It’s a crossover novel featuring Jim Anthony, Super Detective and Dillon (and the cover should really carry both those logos, plus the subtitle on Amazon should include the characters’ names, but that’s another discussion). To try and drum up some more enthusiasm for this project, I think it would have been a great idea to sell a digital bundle featuring one or two Jim Anthony books and one or two Dillon books for 99¢, advertise the hell out of it, and include a link in the back of the book to The Vril Agenda. Or what about some multi-author bundles? A masked mystery men bundle or a horror bundle or a globe-trotting adventure bundle.
- Update Your Back-Matter – If you have control over your books and your books are in a series, try to include links to the next book in the series, maybe even with a preview of the next book. Also include links to your website and mailing list. While we’re on that topic…
- Get a Website and Mailing List – There’s one constant I’ve seen in all successful indie authors—they all have mailing lists. You can set up lists for free at both ReachMail or MailChimp (until you reach a certain number of subscribers), so there’s no reason not to do it. And everyone should really have a website they own. For one, it gives you a lot more control than a free site at Blogspot or WordPress. I use Bluehost with WordPress.org and I use a paid template (but you can certainly find very good free templates). I also use a plugin called MyBookTable, which offers a lot of ways to display my books with tons of buy links. And it’s even free or you can pay for an upgrade to get additional features.
- Publish Frequently – This is tough if you’re going through one of the New Pulp publishers because you’re restricted to their release schedule. But if you’re self-published, try to plan your releases strategically. I’m doing this right now. My Vanguard serial will contain five books in the first “season” and I’m going to release it monthly. To make sure I can manage this, I’m not offering the first book for pre-order until the fifth book is finished. And yeah, this takes time, but it can be done. I’ve started setting myself a writing goal of 1K Per Day. With that, I can write a 30K novella in a month, or two 15K serials (or three 10K shorts).
- Experiment – If something’s not working, change it. Sales on my Myth Hunter series haven’t been very good, so I’ve got plans to change things about them—new covers and I plan to finally write the third book in that series, then plan to write more. Never tried a serial? Give it a shot. Never done an ad campaign? Worth a try.
It all comes down to this one important point—no one cares about the pulp revival except pulp fans. And there are two ways to approach this. You can either shrug and say, “well then I’ll just focus on the pulp fans.” I think that’s a poor approach. For one, about half the pulp fans have already dismissed New Pulp just on the general principle that New Pulp wasn’t published during the heyday of the pulps. Two, look at how many New Pulp books are out there, and that number is growing. The existing New Pulp audience is so small that they simply can’t afford all the books that are released.
So I advocate the second way—expand the audience. To do that, you need to work harder at it, you need to invest some money into it, and you need to take it seriously. For those New Pulp writers that view this as just a hobbyist pursuit, hey good for them. This is more directed at those who seriously want to make a living at being a writer. We have to do the work or else it’s not going to happen.
And before anyone says anything, I fully acknowledge that I have not been doing this stuff myself. That’s why I’m changing things.
If you don’t want to do that, then fine, don’t do it. But then don’t go around complaining that you can’t make a living off writing and that nobody is buying or reviewing your books.
New Pulp Categories
So, here’s the deal.
Amazon gives you a choice of two categories for your book. And those two categories are pretty broad. For many pulp authors, that doesn’t express just how diverse our books are. As one example, Love & Bullets is an action/adventure book (a sub-category of literature & fiction). But it’s also a book about assassins (which is a sub-category on Amazon). And it’s a pulp book, another sub-category. It’s a thriller, yet another category. It’s women’s adventure. It’s even romantic action/adventure.
But here’s the problem: I can only choose two categories. And most of those categories I mentioned are more specialized and aren’t available as a choice with those two categories. So some of you may be wondering, “how do I get my books into those categories?”
This is something I recently learned when CE Martin told me about it on my podcast, The Exploding Typewriter. And now I’m going to pass on this information to other New Pulp authors.
I took some screenshots. These are from the KDP page for The Lost Continent.
You should all be familiar with this, when you choose your categories. You pick the two categories you want, pretty self-explanatory right? Click add categories and you get this window.
If you’re a New Pulp author, one of your categories should probably be Action & Adventure. Even if you’ve got a sci-fi book, don’t select two sci-fi categories and I’m about to tell you why.
Right before you get to where you upload your cover, you have the choice to enter up to seven keywords. Most people waste these keywords. You know how I know? Because Amazon has a pulp category (again, thanks CE for pointing this out). As of this post, the pulp category has 375 titles in it. Of those 375, there are about twenty New Pulp titles.
“But wait, I make sure to have pulp as one of my keywords! In fact, I have pulp a few times—pulp, pulp fiction, new pulp, etc.”
Yes, but you don’t have it in the right category.
Amazon’s pulp category isn’t a main category, it’s a sub-category. The hierarchy goes Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Pulp. Which means if one of those two categories you selected isn’t thrillers, then you’ve just wasted three keywords on those pulp terms.
To be smart about your keywords, look at the categories Amazon has. To see them, go to the Kindle Store. Now scroll down and watch the left sidebar. Once you get to Kindle eBooks, click on Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. Then click on Thrillers. Now look at the sidebar again.
Not only do you have more sub-categories that might fit your book, but you’ve also got moods & themes, characters, and settings. Most sub-categories have this kind of thing. Your keywords should match these (when applicable). You may not be able to get much traction in a large category like action, but if you’re in action > men’s adventure, you might have more luck.
So say you’ve already figured out all the keywords to use and you still have some extra. This is where things like characters and moods and themes can come in handy. For SoulQuest, one of my keywords is “pirates.” The reason I chose pirates is because those are characters under the fantasy > swords & sorcery sub-category. If someone’s looking for a sword & sorcery book, I’ve got to compete with about 9,000 titles. But if they’re looking for sword & sorcery books that feature pirates, there are less than 90 listed. That gives me a much better chance of being discovered.
Be smart about your keywords. You’ve only got seven and you should use them strategically. Because the fact that only 5% of the pulp list on Amazon is represented by New Pulp (and most of that is because CE is a prolific writer) is a shame. Don’t let your books get lost in Amazon’s ecosystem.
Want a Discount eBook? How About a Free One?
Been a long time, unfortunately have been very busy with classes—both teaching and taking them. But what I have to bring you today is two great offers!
First, for the month of July, you can pick up SoulQuest for the sale price of 99¢! It’s available on all platforms, so whether you’re an Kindle, Kobo, iOS, or Nook user, you can get access to it. One of the reasons for this sale is because I’d like to boost up the reviews for the book. So if you buy and enjoy it, then please post up a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Without reviews, it’s very hard for indie books to find an audience.
The next thing to offer is “The Wild Hunt.” If you’ve previously bought a copy of the PulpWork Christmas Special 2013, then you’ve already read this story featuring Asami of The Myth Hunter series. But if you haven’t, now you have the chance to read it for free! How do you get it? All you have to do is subscribe to my mailing list.
Check out the details for both books below:
[mybooktable book=”soulquest” display=”summary”] [mybooktable book=”the-wild-hunt” display=”summary”]
SoulQuest is now available for sale!
It’s been a long time coming, several years in the making, in fact! But SoulQuest, which was birthed as an idea for a comic book many years ago and then later morphed into a novel is now available for sale!
Featuring a stunning cover courtesy of Brad Horton, SoulQuest focuses on the character of Zarim, an expert swordsman and captain of the Excalibur, an airship from which he and his crew commit acts of piracy. Joined by his lover, Ekala, and the gruff faerie Swul, they are given a new task—to seek out the legendary Soulstones, artifacts which can grant godlike power to anyone who possesses all five.
Their quest takes them to the edges of the planet, and beyond! Throughout their journey, they will meet and join with a colorful array of allies and face some of the greatest threats ever known to man!
Just in time for Cyber Monday, SoulQuest is available in print and digital formats from Amazon, with later sales channels opening up in the near future!
[mybooktable book="soulquest"]
SoulQuest Cover Coming Along!
Today I’ve got something special for you. Brad Horton is hard at work on the cover. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw I posted a small headshot from Brad recently. Well, I woke up this morning to find the image you see to your left waiting for me in my inbox!
The hooded guy in the cape and wielding a sword is Zarim, the hero of SoulQuest and captain of the pirate airship, the Excalibur. By his side, as always, is Ekala, his first mate, a rough-and-tumble thief who doesn’t take crap off anyone.
These designs were originally created by artist Frank Jensen when he was working on SoulQuest as a comic book. I gave those designs to Brad as a reference to work from and told him to feel free to make any changes he felt were necessary. For the most part, he left the designs intact, but he made some subtle tweaks which I feel have really tightened up the look of the characters.
And this is just the preliminary stuff, people! Brad’s showed me the concept he has in mind for the cover, and it will take these awesome designs and make them extremely dynamic!
Once again, if you haven’t, run on over to Brad’s website and check out his amazing work. He’s also got some art for sale (my personal favorite is his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles piece)! We still don’t have an official launch date for SoulQuest just yet, because I want to give Brad all the time he needs to work his magic, but once we do, readers of this blog will be the first to know!
On other fronts, my latest story for Pro Se is inching closer and closer to completion. I’m at 5,239 words and the story has a rough goal of 8-10,000 words, so a little more than halfway done.
I announced this on Facebook and Twitter yesterday, but I wanted to mention it here as well: I’m looking into starting up a podcast specifically about pulp writers on writing pulp. I’ve gotten some interest so far, but if any pulp writers are reading this and would like to be a guest on the show, please drop me a line either through Facebook, Twitter, or this site’s contact page. In your message, let me know what aspect of writing pulp you’d be interested in discussing on the show (feel free to come up with a list of things, as I’d like to have recurring guests).
The Cestus Concern (Weir Codex Book 1)
Looking at Mat Nastos’ biography is enough to give you feelings of inadequacy. If you want to talk about making the most of your creative career, he’s definitely one guy who has done that, as an artist for comics/film/TV, director, writer, and now, he can add novelist to that long list of accomplishments. He’s a self-proclaimed Super Genius, and after reading some of his excellent articles on marketing over at his website, I can say that’s a title he’s definitely earned.
The Cestus Concern is Nastos’ first novel, as well as the first book in the Weir Codex series (Book 2 is due out this year). The story centers on Malcolm Weir, a soldier who awakens in an operating room to find cybernetic arms have been grafted to his body and a computer installed in his mind. Fighting his way out, Weir discovers that he has no memory of the past eleven months and seeks to discover what what done to him. With the help of his old college buddy (and conspiracy theorist) David “Zuz” Zuzelo, Weir tries to discover what transpired in the lost year of his life, all while fighting off super-powered mercenaries and assassins dispatched by the government’s mysterious Project: Hardwired, which is also responsible for Weir’s present condition.
The Cestus Concern is some of the best New Pulp out there. Like any good action movie, it’s a roller-coaster ride that grabs hold of you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the last.
I know from my own personal experience that one of the most difficult things to write in a novel is an action scene, because the reader has only your words to visualize it, and sometimes what you see in your head can be difficult to put into words. Nastos has experience with crafting scenes through his work as an artist and director, but being able to translate that into prose is very different. Fortunately, Nastos is able to transition seamlessly into this new medium he finds himself working in, and his action scenes are so vibrant and perfectly and succinctly described that he gives you just enough to let you know what’s happening, but avoids dragging down the narrative with too much description. These scenes move with such speed, that you feel as if you are watching an action movie play out in your head.
Of course, action can only get you so far. You can craft the best action scenes in human history, but it won’t mean a thing unless you’ve got characters for the reader to care about. Fortunately, we’ve got that. Malcolm Weir is a battle-hardened soldier, but when the bullets aren’t flying, he’s a relatable, down-to-earth and funny guy, the kind of guy you could see yourself tossing back a few beers with as you watch a movie or play a video game. We care about Mal as he goes through his predicament, and we feel for him as things go from bad to worse. Also added into the mix is Zuz, who serves a role both as light-hearted comedy relief, but also provides some much-needed narrative explanation. Although there are times when his conspiracy theorist lifestyle borders on providing a bit too much convenience for the story, for the most part he’s an entertaining supporting character that gives our hero someone to play off, rather than being an irritating nuisance like his type of character usually becomes in some of the poorer action fare out there.
Nastos makes no secret of his influences on this book—in fact, he states them in the book’s description: “Fans of films like Bourne Identity or Smoking Aces, or the comics of Deadpool and Wolverine, will love the over-the-top science fiction action of The Cestus Concern.” There are elements of all those in here, and more—it’s an unapologetic hodgepodge of everything you love about over-the-top action movies and comics, and it’s a whole lot of fun to get lost in.
You can pick up The Cestus Concern from Amazon in either print or digital formats. Check out Mat Nastos’ website for more information on not only this book, but his other work.
Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira
They say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, but I’ve got a third certainty: a Derrick Ferguson Dillon yarn will always be spectacular.
I’m no stranger to Ferguson’s writing or the world of Dillon. I was both fortunate and unfortunate enough to jump onboard when the first book, Dillon and the Voice of Odin, was initially released almost ten years ago. I say fortunate because I’ve gotten to spend that time with this character, reading and in some cases re-reading his adventures. I say unfortunate because that also means I’ve had to endure waiting for the next book to come out. There have been four Dillon books to date: Dillon and the Voice of Odin, Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell, Four Bullets For Dillon (a collection of short stories), and now Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira. Each one has been superbly written, with white-knuckle action, snappy dialogue, and witty humor.
This latest tale comes on the heels of The Legend of the Golden Bell, and just like in that book, we see Dillon returning to the fictional nation of Xonira. When I first heard that this book would take place in Xonira again, I have to admit some skepticism on my part—we just finished a tale there, so why did we need to return so soon when Dillon is a global adventurer? But my skepticism was unfounded, as Xonira feels as fresh and as intriguing a setting now as it was a few years back when it was first introduced in The Legend of the Golden Bell.
Dillon, of course, is back. Along with his frequent partner-in-crime and mentor, Eli Creed (who, despite retiring, seems to be doing a very bad job of actually staying retired, and bless him for that as he’s always a fun addition). Signing up for this mission as well is Toi Lahayne, a representative of the mysterious Braithwaite Group and Allie and Shon Pierri, a mother-and-son team of French defense agents. On the other side, we have the Pirates of Xonira, commanded by a man who has some history with Dillon.
The action moves along at a brisk pace. At a little over two hundred pages, it feels like a lot less, given how quickly you can progress through the book. Ferguson very rarely lets up on his characters, even for the briefest of moments, and there’s always something either happening or on the verge of happening (or sometimes both simultaneously).
While the roles of one of the characters seemed a bit too obvious to me at first, Ferguson flipped it on its head slightly at the end of the book. I won’t say anything more about it than that, other than it’s a very realistic thing in this situation, and serves both to give Dillon a bit more humanity by presenting him with a problem he can’t really solve as well as opening the door for a follow-up in the future. And speaking of follow-ups, the last scene hints at exactly that in a very big way.
I’m not sure when the rest of that adventure will be told, but I will be waiting for it.