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Stories Matter

Why I Went Indie

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So, last week I wrote a short post expressing some gratitude to Amazon for creating a place where independent fiction can thrive. Today I figured I’d talk a little bit about why I went independent in the first place.

A little bit of history to start:
I’ve been writing for as long as I’ve known how to. Someday, I’ll share with you some of the first stories I wrote in second grade. They are of course, beyond horrible, but they’re pretty funny.
But even though I’ve always written, I’d never, ever considered a career as an author. In hindsight, maybe I should have, but I focused on education and youth work, and worked in those fields for over a decade. Through it all though, I kept writing, just for myself.

I’d have to go back and check my files, but Nightblade was either the second or third full-length novel I wrote. However, it was the first one I liked. But even after writing it (in 2012), I didn’t even consider publishing it. It was just a good story. I wrote another novel afterwords, which was also horrible.
To make a long story of discovery short, I came upon the Self-publishing podcast. I read their first non-fiction work, Write, Publish, Repeat, and for the first time I thought to myself that perhaps there was something to this idea of independent publishing.

After a substantial amount of debate with myself, I made the decision to go independent. There were a few reasons for this.

First, I hadn’t really expected to make a career out of it. I was dissatisfied with my other work in life and was looking to figure out how to work from home, but I was focused much more on consulting and freelance writing. I figured if I could make an extra $50-$100 a month through Amazon, why not? Being as I wasn’t looking at making a career out of it, I figured there was no point going through the traditional publishing cycle of rejection. I’d just make something as nice as I could and put it out there.

Second, I liked the idea of control over your work and your success. With independent publishing, there’s no one else to blame but yourself. I got to pick the cover and decide how the story ended. Anything good or bad about the book is entirely in my hands – and I liked that idea.

Finally, I liked the idea of connecting with fans directly. With independent publishing, there’s no one between me and readers, and I thought that was great.
To say the story took some twists and turns is an understatement, but I’m glad I went independent!

Cheers,

Ryan

Why Indie?

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So, this October, Amazon is celebrating independent fiction, complete with its own hashtag: #poweredbyindie

As part of the celebration, Amazon is featuring independent works by a wide range of authors, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the featured independent authors.

For some reason, the emails from Amazon put me into a reflective mood, and I was thinking about how crazy the journey has been. I quit my full time job just a little over a year ago, in August of 2015. My wife, bless her, told me I had one year to generate enough income to replace my old one. After years of working on Nightblade, I finally took the leap, hit publish, and waited to see what would happen.

Since then, I’ve published four stories on Amazon, and I have more ideas than I have time to write (even though I’m writing full-time). Every week I get to hear from people who have enjoyed the stories.

Next week I’ll write about why I went indie, but for today, I just wanted to express gratitude. I think that often, technology is a two-edged sword. But the advent of the kindle and digital reading has shaken up the industry, and it has given me a chance to tell stories for a living, and for that I’ll always be grateful.

There’s another aspect to independent publishing that doesn’t often get mentioned: a closer connection between authors and readers. Because of the nature of independent publishing, there aren’t so many layers between authors and readers. For the first time, we live in a world where its easy to say “Hi” to the person who wrote our new favorite book. As both an author and an avid reader, this has been fantastic.

So, to all of you who have made this journey possible, thank you.

Ryan

Release of Primal Dawn

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Top of the morning, everybody!

I know this has already gone out on all the channels, but I wanted to make sure it could be seen here, too. I’m really excited to announce the official release of my newest story, Primal Dawn.

Primal Dawn is a new endeavor for me, a short sci-fi story about first contact. It’s an idea I’ve had bouncing around in my head for quite a while, and after finishing the Nightblade trilogy, was looking for a bit of a change of pace.

The story comes in at about fifty thousand words, so a little less than half of a full Nightblade novel. This was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy as well. If you’re interested in learning more, the link is below:

Primal Dawn

Take care all!

Ryan

The Humbling Experience of Becoming a New Author

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Hello everyone, Bryce again.

As I mentioned in the last post, I finished my first fiction novel last week. The rough draft came in at about 125,000 words. I’m incredibly proud at the moment, but I’m sure a harsh dose of editing will bring me back down shortly.

I just wanted to share a few things I experienced during the writing process. These were things that I didn’t anticipate at all. I have written 10,000 – 20,000 non-fiction books before, but the process is so different that they hardly compare.

By far, the most frustrating aspect was maintaining the story line throughout the entire book. It took me roughly seven months to complete, and in that time I had a baby and started a new job. I was a completely different person when I started the book! I managed, but it was a struggle to make sure I was writing the same story at the end as I was at the beginning.

Another interesting thing happened to my writing mindset. I no longer thought I was going to finish the book, but I wrote with every bit of passion and interest I started with. I literally thought that I would be writing the book forever. Oddly enough, I was OK with it. I was invested so much in the characters that I didn’t mind visiting them every day. I don’t view this as a bad thing, but I had to remind myself that there was indeed an end goal.

Lastly, as I reached about 80% completion, I began splitting my time looking in to publishing ideas. I researched cover art, launch strategies, Pokemon Go, key words, Amazon algorithms, and a the list goes on. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. Then I realized that my progress halted completely. I refocused my energy on finishing the book. I had to fight my urge to look too far ahead.

In the end I finished the thing. I enjoyed myself the entire way. There is nothing quite like finishing something you have written for so long. I hope everyone can experience it at some point!

I’m sure the editing will be a different story… With me luck!

Thanks,

Bryce

Disturbing Trends in Indie Publishing Series

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Today I have a little bit of a bone to pick with the publishing community.  I’ve run across this a couple of times now, and it feels entirely inexcusable, at least to my sensibilities.

I’m worried and concerned about the way series books are being handled these days.

First of all, I need to state for the record that I love series.  I love that they give you the time to dig really deep into a group of characters, and I love how immersive they can become.  I think TV (HBO, Netflix, Amazon) is really picking up on this with long-form storytelling, and it’s so much better than weekly TV.

But I worry because I’ve come across several series as of late that take advantage of the idea of a series to sell more books.  Game of Thrones is a notable culprit, with book four becoming so large that Martin actually had to cut it in half, making it books four and five, and leaving avid readers scratching their heads as to where all their favorite characters had gone.

I recently read part of another series (which I’ll leave unnamed.  It’s an indie author and I’m not out to spread bad vibes in the community).  I was reading the second book of what will be a seven part series, and absolutely nothing happened.  No major plotlines were resolved.  There were no major character changes.  There was action, and minor characters died, and there was the prerequisite cliff-hanger ending, but it all felt hollow and pointless.

I believe it is our responsibility as storytellers to tell stories.  Not parts of stories, whole stories.  A series can do this, often better than stand-alone books.  But even with a cliff-hanger to pull readers to the next book, every entry in your series has to tell a whole story.  If not, I think you’re cheating readers out of a complete experience.

Again, I think series can be some of the best literature around, but if you’re writing a series, at least respect the form.  Stories in a series need to be able to stand on their own, otherwise you’re just pulling money out of trusting readers.