Kevin J. Anderson’s Blog

Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 20, 2013

Publishing is changing faster than the tide can go in and out, and authors are climbing to higher ground, building boats, or getting washed out to sea.  Many of us are putting up backlist titles as our own indy eBooks, while writing frontlist titles for traditional publishers. Much has been posted about do-it-yourself eBook publishing for ambitious authors, but we’ve been out of the loop on the eBook versions of our titles from major publishers.  Until now.

I am pleased to be one of the test authors on a new program, Cunable, managed by John Grace, formerly of Brilliance Audio. Cunable arranges for authors to sell their eBooks from major publishers directly on their own site. Working with us on the pilot project is Kensington Books, publishers of my Dan Shamble, Zombie PI series.

Normally, publishers sell their ePub and mobi files through the major online retailers, amazon, b&n.com, etc.—who take 30–35% of the sales price for themselves.  The publishers get their cut, and a percentage goes toward paying back the author’s advance, but the author is not likely to see much, certainly not for quite some time.  With Cunable, though, the same eBooks are sold directly through the author’s website for the same price.  The 30–35% cut that would normally go to the big retailers is split between Cunable and the author.  For the first time, a portion of the eBook sales from a major publisher goes directly into the author’s pocket.

It’s the difference between buying the same item for the same price from a local mom & pop store, or from giant WalMart.  The publisher (Kensington, in this case) gets the same amount for each sale, but an extra piece goes to the author. And the more an author makes from a sale, the more he or she is able to make a living writing…and to keep writing the books you love to read.  (I don’t for a minute think we’ll make the tiniest goosebump in amazon’s sales, but still this is an innovative and refreshing strategy, and I would love to see how well it works.

Currently, my first four Dan Shamble, Zombie PI adventures are available from Cunable, for the same price as elsewhere. Click on the links to check it out:

Death Warmed Over
Stakeout at the Vampire Circus
Unnatural Acts
Hair Raising

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 18, 2013

Just finished our fourth Superstars Writing Seminar, this time in Colorado Springs. I will be posting a report soon, but one of our first-time attendees, Sam Knight, went home and immediately wrote a wonderful summary of his experiences.  His blog is at http://samknight.com/?p=1347. I am reposting it here with his permission.  Honestly, I couldn’t have said it better!

A Lightning Strike on Your Writing Career—Seriously, You NEED to Read This One

Sam Knight

Ever heard the term ‘lightning strikes’ when someone is talking about a confluence of events that made magic happen? An event that happens somewhere, triggering a chain reaction that changed everything to follow?

When we read biographies and watch behind the scenes documentaries, there always seems to be a point in the story where something amazing happens. Something that leaves people saying things like “What I wouldn’t give to have been a fly on the wall in that room!” or “Can you imagine what that must have been like?”

Then we daydream about how we wish that would have happened to us.

When we listen to the motivational speakers, they always point out that you have to make things happen yourself. You have to make it happen. And then, when they tell their story of how they made it happen, if you listen, you always find that one place, that one time, when lightning struck.

Did they really do it all themselves? Yeah, sure. They did. We all do. That really is what you have to do, you have to do it yourself. And then pray for lighting to strike you while you are doing it. Otherwise you just keep trying to do it.

Mark LeFebvre (Kobo), Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, James A. Owen, Eric Flint, Tracy Hickman.

(Photo by Tracy Hickman)

So the secret is the lightning strike? Yes. No. Kind of. You do have to build the rocket yourself, but you also need the lightning strike to create the spark that lights the fuse to ignite the blaze that shoots off the rocket to carry you into the future you wanted.

So the secret is the lightning strike.

What if you already built your rocket? How do you attract the lightning?

Darned if I know. That’s why those stories are turned into biographies and behind the scenes documentaries.

But I can do you one better.

I know where the lightning will strike.

I just spent the last three days at the Superstars Writing Seminar, and it was a full blown lightning storm.

I’m not going to go into any details, there really is no point. They would mean very little to most people anyway, and like anything, things don’t always pan out. So why put anyone on the spot?

I will say this. I saw lightning. I saw fuses lit. I know, personally, for sure, of five people who encountered career changing, if not life changing, lightning strikes at the Superstars Writing Seminar. Where will this go? Where will they go? What will happen?

I have no idea. But I was a fly on the wall. I heard some of the conversations. Someday, I will be reading a biography with one of those five names in it. Someday I will be watching a behind the scenes about it. And I am in awe.

Do you really want to be a writer? Is this really the career you want? If not, thanks for reading this, I hope it entertained you, at least a little.

If yes, lean in close. I have a secret. I know where the lightning strikes.

If you’ve built your rocket, and you are ready, I know where you need to take your lightning rod and plant it in the ground. There are no guarantees, there are never any guarantees, and what you do after you’ve been struck by lightning is in your hands, no one else’s.

But I know where the lightning strikes.

I’m not talking about how to write. I’m not talking about getting inspired, having critique groups, or playing with prose- that’s how you build your rocket, and there are a lot of great places to go learn how to do that. This is different. This is for people who are ready.

I know where the lightning strikes. It strikes at the Superstars Writing Seminar. If you really want to be a writer, you owe it to yourself to find some way to get there next year.

My name is Sam Knight. I just climbed into my rocket, and I’m strapping myself in tight, extra tight, because I don’t know what’s about to happen. I just watched a bunch of rockets around me get struck by lightning, and mine got hit, too. My countdown just began…

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 17, 2013

WordFire Press has joined forced with the extremely popular and innovative Baen eBook Library, and our first four titles have just been featured in their May newsletter.

First up is FIVE BY FIVE: Five military SF novellas by five military SF writers (Kevin J. Anderson, Michael A. Stackpole, Aaron Allston, B.V. Larson, and Loren L. Coleman). It’s a war out there. In these pulse-pounding tales, the best (or worst) soldiers in the galaxy are pitted against powerful aliens on distant battlefields. Never before published stories about monsters, deadly combat tech, treachery, and honor.  (Note, we are working on the second volume of FIVE BY FIVE right now, with all new military SF by some of the top authors in the field.)

Next, there’s ALTERNITECH: A company sends prospectors into alternate but similar timelines, where tiny differences yield significant changes: a world where the Beatles never broke up, or where Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t gunned down after the Kennedy assassination, where an accidental medical breakthrough offers the cure to a certain disease. Alternitech finds those differences—and profits from them, a sequence of interconnected tales of parallel universes.

BLINDFOLD, On the colony planet Atlas, an innocent man trusts a young Truthsayer to defend him from a murder charge . . . until, impossibly, she convicts him. It seems the famous Truthsayer drug Veritas has been diluted and someone in the colony is selling smuggled telepathy. Justice isn’t blind—it’s been blinded! And now unless the crime can be solved the old fashioned way, Atlas is doomed. (Fans of my Saga of Seven Suns will especially like this one!)

CLIMBING OLYMPUS: The Adins: prisoners, exiles, and pawns of a corrupt government. Now surgically transformed to survive on the surface of Mars, they are still pawns, working for human colonists, not themselves. But Adin leader Boris Tiban has a new plan: to save his people and deliver them to freedom.

RESURRECTION, INC. In the future, a microprocessor brain, synthetic heart, artificial blood, and a fresh corpse can return as a Servant for anyone with the price. But now one Servant murdered before his time begins to remember who killed him—and what Resurrection, Inc. has in mind for the human race.  My first novel, inspired by the Rush album Grace Under Pressure.

The four books by me are together as a special bundle available only through the Baen eBook Library for $12.99.  Each title is also available individually for $4.99 or less.  Click here for the Baen eBook Library.

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 11, 2013

After I finished my massive edit of the 800+ page manuscript of THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS, I celebrated by going to the dentist to get a crown put on a tooth (yippee) and after that, I really celebrated by going to see IRON MAN 3. (That was much more fun.)  Then the following day, Thursday, Rebecca and I drove off into the mountains to Glenwood Springs, where we spent the afternoon soaking in the mineral hot springs.  It’s a gorgeous mountain resort, great hot springs (this is where Doc Holliday went to spend his last days).  During the three-hour drive each way, we brainstormed a novel I’m plotting, but we spent most of the time writing down lists and preparing all the details for next week’s Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado Springs.

Glenwood Springs: A good place to brainstorm Superstars details!

We’ve got boxes piled up for delivery to the hotel, folders, badges, lanyards, tote bags, clipboards, pens, goodies from our sponsors Scrivener, Kobo, and Olympus, finalized the panel schedule, gathered the bios, worked with the hotel on the layout and setup of the Superstars room, coordinated all the flight times of the speakers and arranged for transport, and there will probably be lots more details to wrap up in the next two days.

Here is the full final schedule of lectures.

Tuesday 5/14/13

8:00 am Intro, Seminar Overview, Speaker Introductions

8:30 The Popcorn Theory of Success
Kevin J. Anderson

9:30 It’s Business: How Publishing Economics Works
Eric Flint

10:30 Windup & the Pitch (pitches, queries, proposals, treatments)
Tracy Hickman, James A. Owen, Lisa Mangum, Kevin J. Anderson

11:15 A Really Cool Announcement for Superstars Attendees & Alumni

11:30 Lunch

1:00 pm Get ’em While They’re Young: Young Adult
James A. Owen, Tracy Hickman, Rebecca Moesta

2:00 The Romance Industry: If I Knew Then What I Know Now
Joan Johnston

3:00 “Dirty Secrets” of Being a Professional Author
Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta

4:00 A Day in the Life at a Major Publishing House
Jim Minz

4:45–5:30 Open Q&A Session
Joan, Tracy, James, Rebecca

6:00–8:00 pm Welcome Mixer/Reception

Wednesday 5/15/13

8:30 am Ebooks & Indy Publishing
Mark Leslie Lefebvre

9:30 Do It Yourself: Kindle, Kobo, PubIt, PoD, Kickstarter
Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Tracy Hickman, Rebecca Moesta, James A. Owen, Moses Siregar

10:30 Different Paths: Major House, Indy Writer, or Hybrid?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Jim Minz, Kevin J. Anderson, Eric Flint

Noon Lunch

1:30 pm Getting Noticed: Self-Promotion for Authors—Spiking Your Sales
Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Peter Wacks, Jim Minz, Joan Johnston, Lisa Mangum

2:30 Cracking the Code: What Are Editors Really Looking For?
Jim Minz, Lisa Mangum, Tracy Hickman, Eric Flint

3:30 Two Heads Are Better Than One: Collaborating
Kevin J. Anderson, Eric Flint, Tracy Hickman, Rebecca Moesta

4:30 Drawing out the Dragons
James A. Owen

5:15–6:00 Open Q&A Session
Kevin, Mark, Jim, Eric

7:00 pm VIP Dinner: MacKenzie’s Chop House

Thursday 5/16/13

8:00 am Publishing Myths
Rebecca Moesta

8:30 am A Brief Primer on Copyright, Trademark & Intellectual Property
M. Scott Boone

9:00 Future Tense
Tracy Hickman

10:00 Building Your Network
Rebecca Moesta, James A. Owen, Tracy Hickman, Lisa Mangum

11:00 Dissecting a Contract
Eric Flint

Noon    Lunch

1:30 pm Agents: The “A” Word
Tracy Hickman, James A. Owen, Joan Johnston

2:30 Eleven Tips to Increase Your Writing Productivity
Kevin J. Anderson

3:30 Being a Writer & a Real Person at the Same Time
All

4:30 Open Q&A Session
All

 

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 10, 2013

Late last fall I went through a writing marathon to finish the first draft of THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS—Book 1 in The Saga of Shadows, a new “next-generation” trilogy set in my Seven Suns universe.  After prepping for many months by rereading all seven novels in The Saga of Seven Suns, plotting the multiple storylines in great detail, I wrote the entire 836-page first draft in 47 days.  Then the editing started…

The third draft was in good enough shape that I handed it to my group of test readers and to my editor at Tor Books.  After I received all their comments, suggested changes, revisions, deletions, and rearrangements, I had my work cut out for me. Then I also received the detailed letter from the Tor Books editor. I dove in to do my manuscript surgery—just as I set off on my national HELLHOLE AWAKENING tour.

It took me weeks to address the various issues, rewrite scenes, change characters, build suspense, add descriptions.  By the time I was done with the Draft 4 overhaul, I had added another 10,000 words, bringing the manuscript up to 869 pages.  Now, it was time to go back to page one, sharpen my metaphorical red editing pencil, and then go back through again with a ruthless eye to cutting anything that didn’t need to be there.  A book this big cannot afford to have flabby prose or slow spots.  I trimmed out everything I possibly could, while also giving the whole story a big read to make sure all the story threads tangled and tied together properly.

On the way through, I found even more ways to speed up the pacing, rearrange a few chapters and scenes, tighten everything up.  I had previously added 10,000 words…and now I cut another 16,000 back out—one at a time, word by word, line by line.  Back down to 814 pages.  And, while I went through the manuscript, I compiled a 14-page glossary of all the terms and characters.  In a complex story (which will continue for two more novels), I think the readers deserve the glossary just in case they need the reminder.

So now, Rebecca will go over the manuscript for her final copy edit, checking it line-by-line…while I finish developing and fleshing out the blueprint and chapter-by-chapter outline of HELLHOLE INFERNO (which I brainstormed with Brian Herbert a couple of weeks ago), and Brian, meanwhile, is doing his final read and edit of MENTATS OF DUNE before delivering it to our Tor editor.  All the universes mesh together like the gears in a cosmic clock!

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 3, 2013

A week ago, I flew up to the Seattle area to spend several days with Brian Herbert so we could immerse ourselves in plotting HELLHOLE INFERNO, the finale to our Hellhole trilogy.  We do this for each book. Since we live far apart (Brian in Washington state, me in Colorado), we need the intense face-to-face brainstorming that lets us bring out the best in the story.

I had prepared by rereading HELLHOLE and HELLHOLE AWAKENING, not to mention finishing several weeks on the road signing copies of HELLHOLE AWAKENING.  I reloaded the characters, the plot lines, and the settings in my imagination (sometimes, I think I have too many universes in my head), re-read our original proposal for the trilogy, and I was ready to go.

During the Seattle stop for the HELLHOLE AWAKENING tour and my guest appearance at Norwescon, Brian and I had already spent an afternoon mapping out the main structure of NAVIGATORS OF DUNE—but that won’t be until next year.  Now that we have that story sketched out, we could devote our energies to developing the blueprint for HELLHOLE INFERNO.

We spent the days holed up in the office brainstorming, walking several trails and brainstorming, going out to dinner and brainstorming, and even took a few hours off one evening to see the new film Oblivion.  We got the main plot points hammered out quickly enough, but the Hellhole trilogy has plenty of side stories and unexpected twists. Each time we fleshed out one storyline, it connected with a different one and gave us new ideas.  Even up to the last morning, at breakfast in a hole-in-the-wall cafe, we still had new breakthroughs.  By the time I got back to the airport to fly home, I had many files of notes, and spent several hours in the lounge and on the plane just organizing the myriad events.

It was an exhilarating experience, as it always is.  HELLHOLE INFERNO will be the 16th book Brian and I have done together.

photos by Janet Herbert

And when we took a break from the Hellhole universe, we discussed some of the final editing changes to the MENTATS OF DUNE manuscript.  I had been working on it for a couple of months, and it’s nearly finished.  I gave the manuscript to Brian for his final edit, and then it goes off to our editor. MENTATS OF DUNE will be published next spring. HELLHOLE INFERNO is due out in Fall 2014.

 

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 2, 2013

Here’s a brand-new, never-before-published original story featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI.  ”Road Kill”—When Dan Shamble, Zombie PI wakes up in a coffin in the back of a semi truck, he knows it’s not going to be a good day. He has to escape, figure out what’s going on, foil a black-market blood-smuggling ring—and make sure he’s not dead on arrival!

Because I love this series so much, I am offering the story for free.  It will be available for free Kindle download for three days only, through Saturday. Click here for the link.  OR you can get the free pdf by signing up for our fan club on the http://www.wordfire.com homepage. (If you’re already a member, you should have received an email with the direct link.)  ”Road Kill” will also be available for Nook or Kobo at 99¢.

If you’re a Shamble fan, or if you’ve never tried one of his adventures, YOU NEED THIS. (I can be as relentless as a hungry zombie, because I love this series so much). Cover art by Jeff Herndon.

 

 

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on May 1, 2013

Many of you know that Ben Wolverton, son of bestselling author David Farland (and one of our main Superstars instructors) in the hospital after a severe head injury, and Dave has decided that he won’t be able to teach at Superstars this year; Ben’s condition is just too much up in the air and he wants to focus his energies where they need to be. In the meantime, if you want to help Ben, there’s another book bomb set for this Saturday, May 4, Star Wars Day. Here’s the link to spread the word around: http://www.helpwolverton.com/p/star-wars-twitter-bomb.html

In the silver-lining department, bestselling author Tracy Hickman has agreed to fill in for Dave, so our brain trust will not be at all diminished. You’ll still have a great Superstars experience. Tracy was also a guest instructor at the 2011 Salt Lake City Superstars.

Tracy Hickman is many times over an International and NYT Best-selling fantasy and science-fiction author with over fifty books in print. He has in excess of thirty years’ experience in the crafting and selling of the written word. He is also a pioneer in electronic- and self-publishing which he teaches in his own online writing workshops and seminars. He specializes in character and story structure as well as the new paradigms of publishing in the ebook age.

The 2013 Superstars Writing Seminar is coming up in less than two weeks in Colorado Springs (May 14–16).  For the full schedule and details on Superstars, see the Superstars Writing Seminar homepage.

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on April 30, 2013

The third full-length Dan Shamble, Zombie PI novel—HAIR RAISING—hit bookstores today.  You could hear the howling from miles away!

This full-moon, crime gets a comb-over! The fur really flies when a serial scalper stalks the supernatural citizens of the Unnatural Quarter, targeting werewolves—and what’s sadder than a chrome-domed lycanthrope? Zombie P.I. Dan Shamble is on the case, trying to stop an all-out gang war between full-time and full-moon werewolves. As he combs through the tangled clues to hunt down the bald facts, things get hairy fast. Shamble lurches through a loony landscape of voodoo tattoo artists, illicit cockatrice fights, body builders assembling make-your-own-human kits, and perhaps scariest of all, crazed fans in town for the Worldwide Horror Convention. Yet the reign of hair-raising terror grows longer. If Shamble can’t snip this off at the roots, the whole world could end up howling mad!

On Day 1, the book received a starred review from Booklist:

“The first three Dan Chambeaux novels appeared in rapid succession 2012 (Death Warmed Over, Stakeout at the Vampire Circus, and Unnatural Acts). Now here’s the fourth book featuring the zombie private eye who’s better known by his moniker, Shamble. Ever since the Big Uneasy, humans have been getting used to sharing the world with all manner of once-mythological creatures, and Dan, being one of the walking dead (the first book in the series saw him solving his own murder), catches a lot of seriously odd cases. Like this one: someone is scalping werewolves. Is it some weirdo with a follicle fixation, or do the scalpings signal trouble between the two werewolf factions (full-time lycanthropes and those who get furry once a month)? As usual, Dan is also juggling a variety of other cases: a murdered vampire; a fellow zombie who wants his (mortal) ex-wife to give him visitation rights so he can see his son; a bodybuilder—and not the kind who lifts weights—who purchased a defective spleen from an online vendor. The Shamble stories are comedies, obviously, and very good ones, too. The characters are weird and wonderful; the environment is carefully constructed (it makes its own kind of logical sense); and there are plenty of high jinks (a werewolf expert named Walter Zevon, named, presumably, for the musician Warren Zevon, one of whose hits is highly relevant here). Fans of humorously handled urban fantasies, mysteries, and horror stories won’t stop laughing until long after they’ve finished the book.”

It’s been a good day for zombie detectives.  Suspense magazine just reviewed Dan Shamble’s second full-length novel, Unnatural Acts:

“Dan is a detective…and a Zombie. His world is filled with werewolves, ghosts, vampires, and all sorts of ‘unnatural’ creatures. Most work the night shift at dead end jobs just trying to survive while they suffer persecution. Senator Balfour is completely against unnaturals and is pushing the ‘Unnatural Acts Act.’  A stage for Shakespeare in the Dark is destroyed. Golems complain about sweatshop work conditions. An interracial couple is being discriminated against. These are just a handful of the storylines woven into one. Dan is juggling his caseload and trying to solve mysteries right and left. Just when he is close to an answer there is a twist that sends him another direction.

Witty characters and monsters with twisted up lives/deaths. The author does a great job of entertaining throughout the book.”

And don’t miss the other two adventures of Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.—now available for Kindle and Kobo worldwide!

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Posted By Kevin J. Anderson on April 28, 2013

We hope to see you there!

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