Pre-order now!

Hi everyone! I’ve kept this a little quiet, but awhile back I wrote a short story called Dead Man’s Shoes to appear in the Zombie Survival Crew‘s anthology Undead Is Not An Option.

This morning Undead Is Not An Option opened up for pre-orders (at the introductory price of $10.00), and I’d love it if you could go and pick up a copy. I’ve heard that there will soon be an ebook version for digital aficionados as well, so no matter how you like to read, The Crew will take care of you.

Undead Is Not An Option is, as you might have guessed, a collection of zombie stories from around the world. But that’s not all it is (from the ZSC website):

“Zombie love, zombie hate, how to get your killing spree on – we’ve got it all. When the Zombie Survival Crew organized, we realized the talent pool we had at our fingertips and decided to put together this unique volume of work by the crew members. Short stories, educational pieces, and artwork combine to take you on the zombie-ride of your life and help you prepare to “meat” any challenge.”

The Zombie Survival Crew started out as a fan movement for AMC’s show The Walking Dead, but has grown into an international community of zombie enthusiasts, zombie horror writers and a squirrel.*

My story Dead Man’s Shoes is a twist on the voodoo zombie tale, and it has all the blood, guts and nightmare creatures you could want from a tale of the undead.

I’d really appreciate it if you could share this post with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, your blog or any other site. There’s an Add To Any Button underneath this post that can help you tell the world, no pimp suit required.**

So tell me, what’s your favorite zombie tale? I’ll pick a commenter at random and buy them a pre-order, so the winner will get a copy sent to them the second it comes out.

* We try not to talk too much about the squirrel.

** This doesn’t mean you can’t wear a pimp suit, or a big hat. Do what feels right.

On the other side of the street, wearing nothing but a street sign and a filthy towel, are the other doom sayers, speaking about the difficulty of finding success in the oncoming flood of self published shit that’s bearing down on us like an enormous, misspelled wave.

Occasionally a weasel runs by, promising you grand sccess if you’d just give them five thousand dollars and roving SEO specialists scream at you from atop steam powered buggys.

Far in the distance, Stephen King can be seen making money.

Somewhere in this post apocalyptic vision of the publishing industry is the right decision for your career, and for mine.

I can’t pretend that I know what the right thing to do is, I’m not qualified. However I can tell you what I’m going to do, and why I came to that decision and then let you make up your own mind.

Beware anyone who tells you they have all the answers, especially if they’re only wearing a towel.

Self publishing isn’t going to go away, as time goes by (and e-readers become more popular) self publishing will be an increasing presence, and one that can’t be ignored by someone who wants to make a living as a writer. If the publishing houses or agents can’t see a way to sell your book selling it yourself no longer has the stigma it once did, and if you’re savvy about it there is real money to be made.

Of course if you’re stupid about it be prepared to go broke.

However, self publishing is by no means the only way. Even considering e-readers and e-books, those authors with marketing dollars, a platform and a publishing pedigree behind them will be in the best position to make a living.

Considering this what I’m going to do is this: I’m still going on my third novel, the first two being practice runs, and I still plan to sell that to an agent or a publishing house.

However, I’m also currently working on a short story collection that I will be putting up on Kindle this June the 30^th. The stories are done, I’m just re editing and finding the right professional people to do the art, layout and formatting. This is my way of dipping my toes into the waters of self publishing. I’ll keep you posted as to how this process is going and the things I’ve learned along the way.

But this is my decision as to what I want to do, how do you decide?

I consider the following blogs to be required reading. See what they say, compare their opinions and then make up your own mind. Each and every one of you will be in a different position in regards to you career, and so each of you will take the things said on these sites differently.

Remember: read, absorb then make your own decision.

The Newbie’s Guide To Publishing: This is J A Konrath’s blog and guide to publishing. I don’t always agree with Konrath, or his way of speaking to or about authors…but the man has often been proven right in the things he’s saying and I’d be a fool to ignore him just because I don’t always agree with him. Check out what he has to say, and see if it meshes with your worldview.

Nathan Bransford, Author Nathan Bransford, author of Jacob Wonderbar and The Space Kapow and former agent extraordinaire has one of the best blogs online. Pages and pages of downright prescient advice on publishing, self publishing and writing. Nathan has takent he middle road on the publishing apocalypse, stressing (like I do) that everyone’s mileage will vary no matter what they do.

Terrible Minds: Chuck Wendig is not safe for work. I’d be lying if I said he was safe for home. Chuck Wendig, is not, in fact, safe at all. However for all the pants free rampages and strange beard flavored rants, Chuck is a very smart guy dishing out excellent advice every weekday. Chuck has recently released a self published book of short stories called Irregular Creatures and his novel Double Dead is soon to be published.

Whatever John Scalzi: author, father, president of the SFWA and human/blog hybrid. John talks about self publishing, publishing, books and just about everything else you can think of. John’s blog is the perfect example of how to run a blog and build a platform. I suggest reading through the archives and seeing what you can garner from his approach to his online presence.

What blogs do you consider to be required reading when it comes to publishing? Let me know in the comments and I’ll pick a commenter at random and buy them a copy of Irregular Creatures by Chuck Wendig.   

 But it helps.

 I first heard the advice about short stories in Stephen King’s excellent book On Writing. Inside, King suggests that budding novelists strive to get short fiction published to give them a leg up on their competition.

 After spending far too much time online I can tell you that this advice still holds true in some ways. While no agent is going to ever turn away an excellent manuscript because the author hasn’t been published in the short story ezines, it will make your query stand out amongst the other thousand queries the agent has seen that day.

 There are some other benefits too.

 For one it gives you practice at finishing projects, and this is an important skill to have. It also forces you to practice your craft away from the comfort zone of your main manuscript.

 It also gives you plenty of practice submitting, querying and dealing with rejection.

 So even if you only spend an hour a week writing short fiction instead of long, it will be an hour well spent. Who knows, one day you may be able to print a collection of short stories and sell them for cash money.*

 I’ve mentioned this before, but if you want to read a good example of what a book of short stories should be, then you can’t go wrong with man/beard hybrid Chuck Wendig’s Irregular Creatures. It’s three bucks, and it’s a worthy investment.

 Do you write short stories? Let me know in the comments.

 * Beats selling body parts.

Things are actually pretty darn good. For one thing, I’m getting married. I got engaged to my girlfriend DJ, who’s put up with me for coming up on eight years now, last weekend. We’re also about to buy a house.

I also sold a short story Extra Virgin to an e-zine called Forever Nocturne. The zine itself is only a dollar for the PDF, and if you buy it not only do you get to hear about my virgin eating protagonist Sarah (she hangs out at comic conventions a lot) you also get a whole load of other short stories and poems all along the theme of things that go bump in the night…sometimes they don’t wear much while they’re bumping…

Ahem.

Anyway you can get Forever Nocturne’s March 2010 Edition here. It also includes the excellent short story “Campy” by Carrie Clevenger. That’s worth far more than a dollar right there.

How about an impromptu competition? Comment on this post and I’ll do a draw in 48 hours. If I draw your name out of a hat, I’ll buy you a copy.

Hopefully coming soon will be my rundown on the Neil Gaiman speaking engagement I went to, and an awesome interview with Philippa Ballantine (who is a pimp, just in case you were wondering).

The story that’s on there at the moment, Jack’s Echo (nothing to do with my last name, it just happens to be the main characters first name), was written for a one day story competition with a 1500 word limit. We had to include four random elements given to us on the day. I got mine in early, only to realize I’d missed one of the fairly vital instructions on the entry form.

Let this be a lesson to everyone, don’t spend six hours writing and two seconds reading the entry form.