Robert Swartwood, Me, Nick Mamatas
My friend and The Damned Highway co-writer Nick Mamatas gave a reading in Wilkes-Barre this week, so Robert Swartwood and I drove up to visit him today and see him off to the airport. We had the honor of being the very first customers ever to eat at the just-opened Maers BBQ, for which we were given commemorative t-shirts. Both the food and the service were excellent, and Nick made it to the airport.
But this post isn’t about that. It’s about Rob, and the current marketplace, and how digital makes possible things that weren’t possible even a few years ago.
Robert Swartwood is a good writer and a smart kid (anybody under the age of 35 is a kid to me at this point). He’s part of that Sixth Wave I talked about a few months ago. I like Rob for many reasons, one of which is that he reminds me of myself back in the day — except that he’s not a smart-ass or a troublemaker. But he does pay attention to the industry, and he’s smart and savvy and able to anticipate trends and changes. More importantly, he understands how to build an audience and market to them. Writing and publishing are very different now than they were 15 years ago when I started out. Many young writers ask me variations of this question: “If you were just starting your career now, how would you go about it?” My answer is simple: I’d do exactly what Rob has been doing, focusing on digital, and especially Kindle.
On the way home, I was grilling Rob about his success and the challenges he’s faced, and the opportunities digital has presented him with, and something occurred to me. About five years ago, a publisher asked me to pitch an ongoing adventure series similar to James Axler’s Deathlands and Outlanders, but with a horror vibe, rather than sci-fi. I did, and as usually happens with such pitches, it went nowhere, because the marketing people and bean counters got involved. But digital makes such a thing possible. More importantly, digital gives me the ability to cut out the marketing department and the bean counters, and indeed, even the publisher if I so desire.
Tonight, I have to finish the script for the latest issue of The Last Zombie. Tomorrow, I have to work on the final draft of The Lost Level. But in between, I’m going to pull out that old pitch, and dust it off, and look at it through a digital lens. More on this later…
Excited to see what you come up with. I don’t have a kindle yet, but do have the app for my PC at home, and download books when I can. Keep us posted, as you always do!!!!!!!
I agree with all of this, as you might have guessed. I will continue to work with traditional publishing for certain things (primarily the sort of horror novels I’m already known for), but digital gives me the freedom to do whatever else I want with other projects. If I want to write a space opera, I can do it. Or an Edgar Rice Burroughs-style adventure. Or another urban fantasy like Kayla and the Devil. I need not worry about selling those sorts of projects to publishers because I can easily do them myself and get them out to anyone who wants them in both digital and print formats. It’s a very freeing thing.
“More importantly, digital gives me the ability to cut out the marketing department and the bean counters”
That, right there, is the major strength of digital. And not just for books, but for all entertainment. Add in vastly cheaper tools (especially for music, video & film production) and no wonder the major studios/content providers are fucking scared. They don’t know how to deal with all of this. And marketing people really are not getting it.
I still don’t have a digital device I’d feel comfortable reading a novel on (I think a phone screen is too small to stare at for extended periods of time), but I do plan to buy the new iPad when it comes out later this year.
I’d personally love to see you do something like Deathlands. Just make sure there are some sharks in it at some point…
Sounds very cool! Can’t wait to see what you release using this format alone. Ready to try it on Android phone and Nook
Jeez, I remember reading through those Survivalist book series and thinking how awesome it would be if there were a post apocalyptic or a horror series. We got the former in the Afterblight Chronicles (not exactly the same format as they don’t all follow on) now we could get the latter!. I never did read Deathlands or Outlanders though I always wanted to as they look a fun read, plus you can blast through them in a day, but there’s no way to pick up the full series in paperback without paying a fortune – I had to stop reading Survivalist after like 30 books as the later paperbacks (I found the series years after it was published) were like upto £30 each. Still annoys me no end that I couldn’t finish the series and with digital there’s a hope that whoever holds the rights for them puts them out as an ebook, maybe a few bundles packs or something would be awesome.
Glad to hear it, Brian. A digital series, with your established fanbase? It’ll sell gangbusters.
I’m a luddite when it comes to e-publishing and e-readers. Hate ‘em w/ a passion. But they are here to stay, and smart writers like you guys should take advantage of the new delivery system.
I really don’t have trouble w/ experienced, previously published writers doing the e-thing. My problem is with how much self-published dreck it allows to spew out into the marketplace. It makes for tons of garbage to be waded through. I’m not a slush reader—if I’m paying for a book/story, I want to read something that’s been vetted by a an experienced editor and copy editor (and I do understand that just because something’s edited doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t bad). Perhaps in days to come a system will be developed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
In the meantime, I saw the pics at Nicks’ blog and was glad to see how good you look, given the strains of the last few months.
This picture is sort of like some surreal piece of art.
Swartwood – He’s good people. Has continued to associate with me after I was included in the Hint Fiction anthology even though he’s becoming quite successful.
Keene – Obvious one here. I remember turning some friends of mine on to the Conqueror Worms in college and how they resisted, balking at the idea of worms as horror and then, weeks later, loving it.
Mamatas – I actually quoted from one of his pieces from Nothing in This Book is True (I think that was the title) for a Sociology paper.
This is really messing with my head…