Guerrilla marketing and the publishing battle

DIABLERO is kind of a modern-day adventure/horror novel about a group of people chasing a demon-possessed Blackbeard the pirate from North Carolina to Virginia to South Carolina and then to the Caribbean hoping to prevent him from literally opening the gates of hell. There’s a lot of great character development in there, so it’s not just plot driven. It’s getting five-star reviews on Amazon and selling pretty well online and in some independent bookstores mainly in the southeast.

The number one thing is to write a book that people will want to read. Everything else you do hinges on that.

Even if you have a publisher, if they’re small like mine, they will have limited resources. But even large publishers can’t do everything. Your book is only going to sell as much, or as little, as you want it to. Besides obvious things like e-mail and advertising, there are tons of things indie authors can do to promote themselves.

I think one of the factors that help sell my book is having the endorsement of bestselling author Steve Alten who wrote the MEG series and the apocalyptic GRIM REAPER: End of Days. Favorable reviews on Goodreads, HorrorNews.com and a few blogs don’t hurt, either. If you can get reviews on websites that are relevant to your particular genre, that really helps make people aware that your book is out there. You really should figure out who your core audience is and focus on them.

But a writer’s best friends are social networking sites like Facebook, because you can go on there and search for people that have similar interests and friend them. You can also create a page for your book and an ad campaign that will reach thousands of potential fans for a couple of dollars a day. Facebook can be linked with Twitter, MySpace and a host of other sites that will post any messages you put up on Facebook.

Another great tool is a blog. You should try to blog about subjects related to your book, which in my case would be horror, sci-fi, fantasy, Blackbeard, pirates, writing and things like that. That gives people a reason to stick around plus you’re not always talking about your book all the time. You’re giving people something that interests them. Guest blogging on other blogs is a great way to spread your name around, too. Oh yeah, and podcast interviews!

Besides Facebook and Twitter, there are also writer’s websites like Writer Face, Filed By, Authors Den, Book Hitch and tons of other places where you can hook up with readers and other writers. If your book has local appeal like mine does, you can also get on some message boards. Try to get interviews or reviews in your local paper, as well, because lots of people will support local authors.

Get your book in some local book stores, set up some author signings and talk to people who come to the store. Being nice and talking to people will sell your book faster than anything. The introverts who sit at the table waiting for customers to come to them are usually going to be disappointed. Build a local following that can eventually branch out into a bigger following.

Also, most computers have built-in video editing programs like Windows Movie Maker and I highly suggest creating a book trailer and putting it on YouTube. You can find plenty of free music, photos and videos online to create your own video. Or pay someone to do it. I’ve had over 1,300 hits on my YouTube channel in the last month alone.

But all the promotion in the world can’t sell a bad book. If you don’t get good word of mouth, you’re sunk before you even set sail.

Researching a horror/sci-fi/fantasy/technothriller

When I was preparing to write my first supernatural thriller, I wanted to learn the best ways to do research, but there weren’t really any books out there on the subject. I just had to jump into the fray and figure it out for myself.

Writing my first novel took a lot more research than I thought it would. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to guess at things, especially technical details. I want to know what kind of boat it is, what kind of engine it has, how fast it can go, who built it, how far it can go on a tank of fuel, how many compartments it has—well, you get the picture. I hate for people to read my books and go, “Whoa, dude—those boats don’t have diesel engines, they have gas engines. Epic fail!”

Right now I’m researching my next thriller and believe me; I’ve had to go around a lot of roadblocks. It’s what I call a supernatural techno-thriller; a Tom Clancy meets Dean Koontz kind of thing. People get a little nervous when you start asking about classified information, though I haven’t really gotten into anything quite that heavy, but so far I’ve found some cooperative people who are glad to help. Not only will they be getting their names in the acknowledgements, but they’ll receive a first-edition signed copy, as well.

The first thing I have to do for this type of book is figure out the basic story from beginning to end. You really have to know the ending, or at least I do, in order to figure out how to get where you want to go, whether it’s character driven, plot driven or both.

Once I’ve outlined the story and figured out who my characters are, it’s time to start writing. Personally, I prefer to research as I write, that way I learn whatever I need to know to move the story along. If I research first and then end up changing the story around because I don’t like the way a certain thing is working, then I have wasted time researching for nothing.

Most of my research is done on the Internet. You can find out almost anything you need to know from Yahoo, Google or any of the other search engines. If it’s not there, then the local library is the next best place. In fact, some may even like it better than the Internet—it’s a personal choice.

It’s also helpful to find people who have been in the situations that you’re writing about. If you’re writing about a Navy ship, find a Navy sailor who has served aboard the same type of ship that’s in your story. You can’t beat real world experience.

That brings me to my next point. If you can actually spend time in a place like the one you’re writing about, such as a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, for instance, or a certain city like New York or wherever your story is set, nothing will make it more real to a reader than first-hand experience. I happen to live in the place where most of my first book takes place and I’ve visited the other places, such as Charleston, Williamsburg and the Caribbean.

If you need to find out technical details about certain types of guns, or DNA, or animals, or glass blowing, find someone who sells guns, or works in a crime lab, or is a veterinarian, or makes glass bottles. And don’t forget to give them credit.

But whatever you need to do to make your story believable, do it. It will only be made all the better for it.

Writing the perfect thriller

What is it makes the perfect thriller? Is it the suspense? The violence? The unpredictability of the plot? The character development? Or a combination of all of the above?
I have to admit I don’t know the exact formula, but it seems to vary book by book. Even authors like James Patterson or Stephen King can have their hits and misses, so it’s probably a good thing they’re so prolific, right?

I read a lot of thrillers. I’m in the midst of a Steve Berry novel and it’s quite engrossing. He puts a lot of detail into his stories…a LOT of detail. Maybe a little too much detail. Tom Clancy is usually guilty of that. If I want to know how to operate a nuclear submarine I’ll read the manual. Some people like that, though. To me it bogs down the story. If the reader doesn’t really need to know, why tell them? I only put in my stories what readers need to know in order to keep the story flowing. Maybe that’s why I’m not a bestselling author yet, I don’t know.

Brad Thor is a guy who only tells you what you need to know to keep the story moving, yet I still come away knowing more than I did when I started, which is a good thing. Same with James Rollins, Steve Alten, Nelson DeMille, Lee Child and most of my other favorite writers. What I like about James Patterson are his very short chapters. I tend to write my stories the same way. I like a fast-paced novel with short chapters. I could attribute that to my ADD, but I think telling a story is more important than giving geography lessons or teaching you how to build your own pyramid.

One thing I love about Nelson DeMille are his characters. I can really get inside their heads, probably because he writes a lot in first person, as does James Patterson. I write in third person, but I still get inside my characters’ heads. I like to show their flaws so readers can identify with them and say, “Hey, they’re imperfect, just like me!” The super-agent who speaks five different languages or the master criminal with the degree from MIT gets a little old after a while. That’s why I usually make the characters in my books regular people in extraordinary circumstances, i.e. the journalist and his wife, the park ranger up against an evil being at war with his own humanity. That’s why people like my characters—they’re real people, not super-humans.

Some authors overdo the blood and gore. I don’t need to see some guy get dissected alive to know the bad guy is pissed. Get on with the story. I don’t want to have to hold a barf bag while I’m reading or have to go for counseling later. Some people get a little too much into the violence. Maybe their editor told them to add more, who knows? Sometimes Stephen King is guilty of that, or Dean Koontz. But they are both master storytellers, so I’m not going to presume to lecture them. I almost always love the characters in their books and the plots are first rate.

My next book has lots of suspense, supernatural overtones, intriguing characters, a compelling plot and great settings. There is also some violence, sex, language and other things that some may find questionable, but it all adds to the story—it’s not just thrown in willy-nilly. I think my current book is the same way. Basically, I write the types of things that I like to read. Isn’t that the way it should be?

For more of my writing and to order my latest supernatural thriller, DIABLERO, go to: Toby Tate Stories

The neverending cycle of movie sequels

I loved Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Okay, maybe Indy is pushing 70, but did you see him climb those crates in that warehouse like a caffeinated monkey? Running from bad guys, riding motorcycles through the halls of academia, swinging from his whip and beating the crap out of of the villains - it just doesn't get any better. I hope to be in as good a shape as Ford when I'm 67.
But the point is, the movie rocked, in my opinion. Maybe the aliens were a bit cheesy, but seriously, is there an Indy movie that isn't? Isn't cheesiness the quality that makes it so much fun? Seriously, you can't take that stuff seriously.

That leads me to another sequel near and dear to my heart - The Chronicles of Riddick. Apparently not as popular as the original, Pitch Black, but a kick-ass movie nonetheless. I'm hoping for some more Riddick movies, which I believe are on the way. I expect it to be even better than the last. Vin is over 40 now, but he still looks like the schizzle.

I wouldn't mind it if they made another Laura Croft movie. I liked the first one best, but who gets tired of watching Angelina Jolie running around in skimpy outfits, shooting huge guns and kick-boxing bad guys in the teeth? Not me. There are two movies so far, and I'm voting for a third.

Just watched the new Star Trek again for the third time. I can't get enough of that movie and I hope there are many more to come. Putting the crew in an alternate universe on a different timeline from the original Trek was a stroke of genius. Now they can do anything and say, "Well, they're in an alternate universe, so we don't have to stick to the original story." The Trouble with Tribbles will never happen, though, and that's just a shame. But they all still ended up on the Enterprise. It's like it was meant to be, no matter which universe they're in. And maybe they can run into Khan again!

I wouldn't mind too much if George Lucas decided to go ahead and make a new series of Star Wars movies, with all the original cast in the future. They're all older now, so it would work. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher - I say bring 'em all back for three more movies. It would be awesome! Throw in some younger stars, of course, to appeal to the younger set. Come on George, what do you say?

I'm ready for some more sequels!

Review: Steve Alten's "Meg: Hell's Aquarium"

Miles below the crushing depths of the Philippine Sea, hidden beneath the crust of the Philippine Sea Plate, monsters dwell that should have died 65 million years ago. Luckily for us, they didn’t.
If you like your monsters big, mean and prehistoric, Steve Alten’s “Meg: Hell’s Aquarium” delivers the goods. It also effectively illustrates the point that there is always a bigger fish in the sea.

A follow up to Alten’s “Meg: Primal Waters,” Hell’s Aquarium continues the story of Jonas Taylor, the deep sea diver/ paleontologist who first discovered giant Megalodons, prehistoric cousins of the Great White Shark, on a top-secret dive to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

Taylor, the lone survivor of the doomed Navy expedition, is demonized and ridiculed for what he says he saw—until he becomes a paleontologist and manages to find one of the Megs again years later. The Meg follows Taylor to the surface and chaos ensues.
Taylor, along with his wife, Terry and daughter, Dani, is now running his own aquarium, the Tanaka Institute in California, with his own captured Megs—the 76-foot, 50-ton Angel and her brood of “pups,” Angelica, Lizzie, Mary Kate, Ashley and Belle.

The story begins with the Meg from Angel’s first litter, Scarface, becoming lunch for something much, much larger—a creature known as a pliosaur—one of a menagerie of prehistoric creatures that have been discovered to inhabit a vast sea beneath the Philippine Sea Plate. These creatures, it seems, who were once air breathers, have evolved gill slits, which enabled them to stay hidden and procreate all these millions of years.

Now, an Arab gentleman by the name of Fiesal Bin Rashidi, who also happens to be filthy rich and a relation of the Prince of Dubai, has built an enormous aquarium in Dubai, big enough to house these monsters from the deep. Who does he want to enlist to help capture these creatures? Not Jonas Taylor, as you would suspect, but his son, twenty-year-old David, who is home from college on summer vacation. David also happens to be an expert pilot of a new high-tech sub called a Manta Ray, which can withstand the tremendous pressures at the bottom of the Pacific.

David is enlisted, against the will of his father, to help train a team of pilots to dive deeper than any man (or woman) has ever gone before and lure these dangerous creatures into an array of awaiting nets. Unfortunately, once these pilots get down to a few thousand feet, they wig out because of the claustrophobic darkness and the very real possibility of becoming a snack for a sea serpent. It seems David and his newfound girlfriend, Kaylie, a navigator and pilot in her own right, are the only ones who are up to the task. But of course, all does not go as planned.

As if they didn’t have enough problems, it seems Jonas’ fish at the Tanaka Institute are becoming restless and the holding pens are becoming too small for the steadily growing Megs and their ginormous mother. An overzealous animal rights group (called R.A.W.) is also pushing the institute to release the Megs back into the wild and possess no scruples about their methods.

Well, I won’t give away the rest, but suffice it to say that the biggest showdown of all time eventually ensues.

A literary agent once told me that you shouldn’t have too much killing at the beginning of a horror book; you should build up to it. But since this is science fiction, I guess the rule doesn’t apply, and that’s great, because everyone wants to get to the part where the Megs start chowing down. Am I right? It does tend to get a bit graphic, but I don’t think there is really a non-graphic way to describe a giant fish eating people.

Even though Jonas is 66, I figure if Harrison Ford can still be Indiana Jones, then Jonas Taylor can still pilot a sub and tame a giant shark or two. I realize that David will probably eventually assume Jonas’ role just as Mutt will probably assume Indy’s role and Dirk Pitt, Jr. will assume the role of his father in Clive Cussler’s adventures.

One thing I love about Steve Alten is the research he does for his books. The man does have a Ph.D., so I assume he knows how to do research. I actually learn things when I read his books—Domain, Goliath, The Loch—just like I always did with Michael Crichton, one of my all-time favorite authors.

I’ve read pretty much all of Mr. Alten’s books and I can say unequivocally that this is his best yet. This book moves along at a great clip and has excellent character development. It’s not a throw-away, run-of-the-mill page-turner—it’s a book that will stand the test of time.

Now out in paperback at about 500 pages, Hell’s Aquarium features two different collectible covers and retails for $9.99.

Check out Steve's Web site at http://www.stevealten.com.

The soul of Frankenstein

I don't know if anyone has seen the movie FEAST, a direct-to-video gorefest starring Henry Rollins and directed by John Gulager, but it's actually pretty good for what it is - a gorefest. Basically, some people are trapped in a bar in some desert town in the midwest and are forced to fight for their lives against some inexplicable monsters who like to eat humans. There are also a couple of sequels, each one more bizarre than the last. The monsters are pretty convincing, the victims are pretty convincing, everything is pretty convincing.
But there's one thing that always bugs me about most modern horror movies like FEAST - there's no soul. I mean, sure, you get to see the humans fighting off the monsters while trying to maintain their humanity and hopefully win out in the end, but beyond that there's - well, nothing.
Here's an example. Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster comes to life, decides he wants to explore the world, and goes out in search of knowledge. Unfortunately, he doesn't look so hot and the townspeople misunderstand his intentions and ultimately come against him. The monster then goes on a rampage, causing even more misunderstanding and more misery.
In the meantime, we are feeling sorry for the monster, because, after all, did we not create him in the first place? There is some sympathy there, because we know that down inside, the monster doesn't see himself as a monster - he sees himself as a human.
I feel no sympathy for the monsters in FEAST - they're just monsters, one-dimensional and soulless. They simply kill and do...well, other things. The Frankenstein monster killed, too, but we also felt pity for him when he was being relentlessly hunted by angry villagers with torches and pitchfoks. Even though he couldn't talk, he was multi-dimensional and we could empathize with him.
How do you empathize with something that does nothing but kill? Think about other monsters like Dracula, or the Mummy, or the Wolfman, or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or even Godzilla. We could empathize with all of these characters because we know that somewhere inside of them is a misunderstood being driven by circumstances beyond their control to do what they do.
That's the same way I wrote my book, DIABLERO. My monster is not just a killing machine - he has a heart and a soul and a battle going on inside that all of us as humans also have - the battle between good and evil.
That's why I like the classic monsters - the Mummy, the Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein - it seems like the monsters of today have lost their souls and have nothing to offer in the way of enlightenment, only entertainment.

The Wisdom of Loons by Jeff Dennis

The funny thing about this book is that I don't usually read this kind of stuff. I stick with the action-oriented page-a-minute type of thrillers or classic sci-fi by Edgar Rice Burroughs or Heinlein or horror by H.P. Lovecraft or Rod Serling - you get the picture. This book really expanded my horizons.
To be honest, though, Jeff Dennis' "The Wisdom of Loons" is a lot like Serling - very Twilight Zone-ish. It's really a foray into a surrealist universe peopled by some very down-to-earth types - a guy who just wants to relax with his dog and go fishing, and a woman and her cantankerous father who just want to get away from it all for a while.
Enter Lake McDowell in the mountains of Georgia, where nothing is as it seems. The loons (birds that look like ducks but who can dive underwater like fish), play an integral part in the story of Cal Blevins and his would-be girlfriend, Lauren Talbot (no relation to the Wolfman, Lawrence Talbot - I asked), and Lauren's father, Edgar.
I like Cal because he plays guitar like me. That's how he meets Lauren - she hears him play and falls for him immediately. The same thing happened with my wife. Well, sort of. Anyway, Cal soon learns that Lauren's father had a stroke recently and is a little loony himself when it comes to loons. Edgar not only is obsessed with the birds, he starts making loud, obnoxious bird calls and driving poor Lauren nuts.
Cal tries teaching Edgar some guitar licks, which helps create humor to kind of balance out the ongoing tension between Edgar and Lauren.
But Edgar's obsession with the loons goes even deeper - so deep it becomes a mystical experience, such as when the birds fly over the mountain, five at a time, in a perfect "V" several times. What does it mean?
Lauren and Cal fall for each other hard and poor Edgar feels left out, going even further into his own little world, doing crazy things like trashing the cottage and wandering off at night into the forest to find loon eggs.
They even meet a few helpful Native Americans along the way, who live in the mountain and help them try to understand the ways of the loon.
Lauren and Cal see and experience a lot of weird, inexplicable things which at first don't make sense. But in the end, it all comes together in a memorable way.
And by memorable, I mean mind-blowing.
This book isn't Dean Koontz and it's not meant to be. It's a love story with supernatural elements that will jerk a few tears, produce a couple of guffaws and maybe even clean some of the cobwebs out of your brain.
Above all, though, it's just great storytelling, which is what every novel aspires to be. I highly recommend it, because "Loons" is a unique literary experience.
Check out "The Wisdom of Loons" by Jeff Dennis at http://www.nightbirdpubs.com.