NINJA STUFF: New Cover and Ninja Update

Hi there, Esteemed Reader! My how I've missed you this last month. Fatherhood and writing are going well and I've got a snazzy new cover for my book, All Together Now: A Zombie Story.

Fatherhood has changed my life in ways I'm only beginning to understand. I'm barely awake most days, so it's going to be a while yet before I return to blogging full time, but I am writing a new story for you (it has zombies in it) and I've got a middle grade book I'm very excited for you to read coming yet this year.

As I write this, my son is sleeping on my chest, supported by a pouch. He's eaten 2 ounces and I just changed the stinkiest diaper you ever saw, so I think I can get to the end of this post if I write fast:) I'm channeling all my thoughts on how amazing his arrival in my life has been into this new zombie story--I think that will make sense when you see it:) So let's talk about publishing.

When I went indie with my writing, I promised I would share my experiences with you so that you could do with them what you will. This is only my fourth month being an indie author, so I'm not sure I'm ready to dispense with advice, but I will say being an indie author is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I expected to fail miserably my first time out, so my experience has surpassed all my expectations:)

To date, I am not an incredibly wealthy and famous author. Neither are the majority of the writers I've interviewed here. If you want to be rich and famous, what are you doing writing!?! But I'm rich in a way I never expected to be so early in my publishing career: I have actual, honest to God readers! Like, for real readers, meaning people I'm not paying, in a critique group with, and who are not my mom! And they like me!!!

Esteemed Reader, after two decades of writing for no one, I teared up a little the first time someone I've never met went on Amazon and wrote me a 5-star review. After years of sending out messages, someone received one and my book did what I always hoped it would: it entertained a paying customer.

Actually, reviewers have been absurdly kind. No one is more in love with my writing than me and even I think some of these reviewers read some book other than the one I wrote:) I'm looking over my shoulder to see the writer they're actually talking about. If you want to keep tabs on my reviews (why wouldn't you!), my guest posts, and my interviews, you can follow them here.

The content of All Together Now: A Zombie Story has not changed. I wrote and published the book I wanted the first time and I think it's a sin to alter more than typos in a book people own. Meaningful changes to a story that no longer belongs to the teller but to the audience is how great storytellers end up with "Greedo shot first" fiascoes. But I could change the book if I wanted and I have made some small changes to the front matter.

The cover, however, needed to be changed. I know this because readers told me so and when Esteemed Reader talks, I'm smart enough to listen. I love Adam Smith's original cover. He designed the image I wanted and I think it's an amazing cover. More, Adam is busy creating artwork for our next release and if I'm lucky, I'll get to feature some of his artwork in every book I ever publish--the books would be poorer without.

I have Adam's cover hanging on my wall. But readers have said publicly in reviews and told me privately that the original cover looked too much like a kid's book, which I like about it. Still, there's a warning on page one of All Together Now for a reason: it is absolutely not a children's book. I wasn't a father when I wrote it and now that I am, I have no intention of letting my son anywhere near that book until he's at least in his teens.

As I am going to be publishing children's books in my name, which will be available right next to All Together Now, I wanted to help parents out and update the cover to convey that this is a scary story for teens and adults. So I reached out to the incredible Steven Novak whose artwork adorns some of my friend Susan Kaye Quinn's titles.

I knew Steven would do a great job, but I'm over the moon in love with his cover. He over-delivered in every possible way. He was absolutely professional and easy to work with. If you're thinking of going indie yourself, I'd hire Steven before demand for his work drives his prices through the roof. Seriously, I didn't pay a fraction of what this cover's worth. Maybe I shouldn't have told you about him as I'm definitely going to want to use him again.

I think this cover would be at home on Stephen King's newest, and it's mine all mine! What do you think, Esteemed Reader?

NINJA STUFF: Indie Confession

Guess what, Esteemed Reader! They're adapting Greenhorn by Anna Olswanger into a movie. Tomorrow we're going to feature our first ever interview with a filmmaker as Greenhorn's director, Tom Whitus, will be here to face 7 Questions. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie version of a Book of the Week and we're going to be following the production over the coming months.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, our old friend Susan Kaye Quinn writes an amazing blog I'd recommend checking out anytime. But right now she's live blogging a whole book called The Indie Survival Guide, and I am greatly enjoying her posts. We've been talking about all things indie this summer and if you've been thinking about going indie yourself, you owe it to your readers to invest some time with Susan's hard-learned advice.

It's going to be an interesting year, Esteemed Reader. If you read this blog regular (and you don't, because I'm very bad about regular posting) you know that Mrs. Ninja and I are expecting our first Little Ninja in December. I expect a baby will change my life in a million ways I can't begin to foresee now and already it's changing my life in small ways.

Adam Smith, my best friend since the third grade and one of the best men at my wedding, had a baby boy last week. I've been spending a great deal of time with him just recently working on a project I'll tell you more about soon--when it's ready to share, you won't be able to get me to shut up about it.

Adam's an artist. The drawing above is an illustration of his from a children's book we published in college. He'll kill me when he sees I'm sharing it as that's an old one, but his new work isn't ready to share yet. It amused me over the weekend to see him dividing his time between inking a horrific poster of zombie carnage and feeding his infant son. It was a preview of things to come in my own life as I'm sure I'll be dashing from the nursery to my writing office and back again.

As for the book, please don't bother looking for it. There's a reason I've been running this blog for years and this is the first time I'm ever mentioning I self-published a novel. If you never did anything stupid in college, I suppose you're right to judge me, but I'll wager most of your college shenanigans are far more interesting than indie publishing a below average book for children.

I loved the book and I still do. I'm not sorry I published it, but I'm not mentioning the title because I don't want you finding it and being disappointed when you discover it reads like a book written by a too-young writer uncertain of his voice and craft. But don't let me convince you not to read it. Let me share with you a one-star review it received titled "Not For My Kids:"

After reading favorable reviews comparing this book's interest level to Harry Potter, I purchased it, expecting a charming, exciting nighttime read with my three children, ages 11, 8, and 6. Within just the first few chapters, I could tell that I had made a mistake. First of all, I did not see the imaginative writing and illustrating I was promised. Instead I found amateur artwork, design, and story development. I abruptly read about a young boy left at home at night while his father worked because his mother had left them (unsettling for young listeners). And once Jim starts hearing and seeing "monsters," that was it. My youngest two children (who have listened to many pages of Harry Potter) were too scared to continue and didn't even want the book in their rooms. This was not what I expected from the reviews.

To be honest, I've always loved this review. For me, the worst possible reader reaction would be no reaction and a part of me is still thrilled to have so terrified an innocent woman and her children. The more rational, mature me, however, realizes publishing before I had enough experience to know what I was doing was a mistake.  I'm embarrassed that poor woman spent money and came away with an inferior product that did not accomplish it's intended purpose.

My indie publishing experience was an epic fail. The illustrations were a nice touch and I think the format holds up, but fortunately, this all happened many years ago before the advent of ereaders. Adam and I had to take our book door-to-door and found not one bookstore willing to support us, probably because we looked like punk college kids without any money. We did, however, convince a local chain of Papa John's to hand out coloring sheets for a time. We sold some pizza, but no books:(

It's easy to forget how fast the world changes and preferable to forget how rapidly I'm aging, but when I went indie more than a decade ago now (big sigh), the world was a different place. Paper books and big publishing reigned and indie authors lacking their own pre-existing distribution network were dead in the water, especially if their only means of promotion were delivering pizzas with coloring sheets attached:)

For my birthday I received a high definition Kindle Fire (it's so awesome) and if you don't own such a device, you need to get one. I used to stop by the bookstore at least twice a week to get a read on the market, but they closed all the bookstores near me and now I have to drive across town--and I live in Indianapolis. In the surrounding towns, readers have their libraries and online retailers, though there's still one or two used bookstores in operation.

Now, instead of driving across town and committing time I don't have to browsing, I can lay in bed at night and browse the Kindle store. I read samples of books and check out the reviews and if I'm convinced to take a chance, the author receives my money a click later, not if I remember next time I'm in the bookstore. I know indie booksellers are cursing me at this moment so I should add I do still drive across town and support Kids Inc as should you.

But thanks to ereaders, I can peruse the titles of indie books I never would've had access to otherwise. It's an exciting time to consider indie publishing as a distribution network at last exists so that you can write something in your pajamas and I can buy it in my pajamas. If you want your book to reach me, you don't have to drive across the state to a printer, get a big box of books, and then take them door to door with pizzas. You can put your book up online and anyone in the world could potentially read it.

But should you? For my part, I'm glad the online distribution network did not exist when I tried my experiment in self publishing. Lack of distribution saved me from myself. Think long and hard before you indie publish. I'm all in favor of writers doing it, but unless you want some reader of your blog more than a decade later discovering your book and then emailing you, necessitating your writing a confession post about it, make sure the book you're publishing is ready to be a part of your permanent record:)