Interview with R. B. Wood

I had the good fortune of being invited by fellow writer and now publushed author R. B. Wood to participate in his Magical Mystery Blog tour promoting his new book, The Prodigal's Foole. It's a fantastic read, and is being released on October 31st! Below is my interview with him, followed by the book trailer and some links for you to pick up the book. And do so, because it's worth it.






I see that the Prodigal’s Foole is written in 1^st person. What made you decide to write in that perspective? 

When I developed the Character of Symon Bryson, I realized pretty quickly that TPF and the entire series needed to be seen from his perspective. 

I’m always curious what other author’s writing process looks like. Care to share yours with my readers and I?

Oh dear.  There is a phrase in US politics I like to use…”You never want to see the sausage being made.” J I build a large arc, the top of which is the ‘climax scene’ and fill in scenes leading to it that tell the story I want.  There is research and a lot of thinking and throwing away of ideas.  I have a general map of where I want to go, but a full outline I find too restricting as sometimes the stories take my in interesting directions and I like to explore those paths.

What was it like working on Prodigal’s Foole with a professional editor, as opposed to working with friends and relatives?

Well, I’m a little lucky in this, as my brother is a phenomenal editor.  He has a wicked red pen, and I’m sure was even more facetious and vicious because it was ‘his little brother.’  That being said, we had GREAT discussions, and collaborations.  A good editor who will work with an author is critical, in my opinion.

Were any suggestions made to you by either your editor or publisher that you were reluctant to incorporate?

 Yep.  Some battles I lost, others I won. 

What criteria did you look for when deciding which agents or publishers to query? 

I looked at agents and publishers (big and small) who represent and publish works similar to mine.  Research is key—and social media helped me to find my way as well.

What made you decide to go with a small publisher like PfoxChase? 

I adore Diane nelson.  She’s funny, harsh, supportive and walks with a big stick if she needs to.  I went indie, specifically because the industry is changing SO quickly, I firmly believe that a cadre of good authors with a small press can really take advantage of the uncertainty in the marketplace.

Are you working on something new now?

Yes…a few things.  Book Two of the Arcana Chronicles.  A SciFi Trillogy and a Comic book series in collaboration with a dear friend and auther from Australia.

Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? How many times? What was it like for you?

Once.  Insane.  I wrote a humongous piece of garbage that had one, maybe two good scenes.  I’ll use them elsewhere in some form.

In addition to writing novels and stories, you also run a fantastic podcast that features other artists, called the Word Count. How do you balance time between writing and the podcast? (The Word Count Podcast can be found here: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-word-count/id392550989 )

Ask my partner..I really don’t do it well.  She keeps me on track.

Do you have stories stuffed in the back of the virtual drawer that will never see the light of day?

Oh GOD yes.  That reminds me…I need to burn those.

Like myself, you’re a regular in #5MinuteFiction. What do you like about it that keeps you coming back? 

Well, I haven’t done it in a while….life has been getting in the way.  BUT I’ll be a judge in an upcoming #5MF, so looking forward to that.  Leah is a dear friend, my crit partner and my sounding board on stories, so not only is it a GREAT way to play with short fiction, but it’s run by someone who is extraordinarily talented herself.  Total win in my book.

Have you always considered yourself to be a writer, or was there a time in your life when you decided that is what you were? 

I’ve always loved stories.  I don’t consider myself a writer…more of a storyteller with a word processor.

Do you have a blog? How do you use it?

www.rbwood.com  I use it it to promote other writers, the podcast, for random musings I want to jot down and eventually to hawk my swag! ;-)

What social media do you use? Do you combine your personal and professional or keep them separate? 

I’m a technology consultant by day, so I  keep that very separate from my writer life…or as separate as possible.  I do have a fan page on Facebook and will eventually transfer all the ‘writer folk’ over to that page and leave my personal page for family and close friends.

Eventually.

What is your favorite electronic or digital writing tool?

My Macbook Pro.  I use Word, Write Skrivner and other tools on the system to help me write.

What is your favorite non-electronic writing tool?

Honestly?  My brain.  There is nothing like taking time away from the keyboard to think. 

What is the most persistent distraction from writing?

My day job.  There is nothing like a ‘9 to 5’ gig in the IT world.

What is your ideal writing environment? Have you ever been able to create it?

GREAT question…I write when and where I can.  I never thought about an ideal environment before.  I’ll get back to you on that one.

Do you think that having a book published now will make you more confident in sending out queries in the future?

I don’t think it will have much of an impact.  If you don’t grow a thick skin quickly, this industry will eat you up.  After the 12^th rejection, you really just move on to the next query.

What advice would you offer to new writers out there? 

Read as much as you can.  LISTEN as much as you can.  Get involved with social media because there are millions of authors out there willing and able to give you advice.

Here's the book trailer.

The book can be purchased on October 31st at the following locations:

Smashwords		http://bit.ly/pN6RbN
Amazon Kindle US		http://amzn.to/n1GyEN
Amazon Kindle UK		http://amzn.to/rayVih
OmniLit		http://bit.ly/p5sxyH
ManicReader		http://bit.ly/ndyToU
Amazon PAPERBACK		http://amzn.to/pSFhpW

Fears Of Self Publishing

I suspect that this blog post will be unpopular. But, I also hope that it will spark conversation, because that’s why I am writing it. This is something I need to get off my chest.

Here’s the deal. I’ve been thinking about self publishing (specifically, publishing e-books) for some time now. I’ve weighed it vs. traditional publishing and seeing where I want to go with my writing carrer. I see writers I follow both on Twitter and Facebookk discuss the release of their latest book, and they’re referring to eBooks they self published. And what occurs to me is that they are getting their books out there. People are actually reading their stuff. And no one is reading mine. Because I’m still trying to get published the traditional way.

And let me first start off by stating why I want to be published the traditional way.

It’s pure go.

See, I want to be able to walk into a Barns and Noble and see my name on the spine of a paperback on that book shelf. And as far as I know of, no one that is self published get’s there. It’s been a dream of mine to get there for years now (true, it took me years to actually start doing something about it, but that’s a different blog post), and I not only find it hard to let go of, I don’t think I want to. I like the idea of being published traditionally.

And here’s where I start to get into some of my fears about eBooks.

Self published books, in my opinion, are, for lack of a better word, professional. These are professional writers. eBooks that have been self published are written by amitures.

Cue the hissing and throwing of things at this blog.

Listen, I know there are a lot of very talented self-published authors out there. Hell, I’m a Kindle owner, and am reading an eBook right now by Scott Siggler, who self-publishes all his stuff. I’ve also got a book written by someone I follow on Kindle, a free book that he’s putting out there as a gateway to his other stuff that cost money. I’m hoping it’s good enough to warrant spending said money on his stuff.

But the truth is, there’s a perception of amitureness in self-published eBooks. I’ve tried several books before finding Scott, and they were bad. Badly edited, badly formatted, no covers, etc. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m discovering more and more that I’m not the only one with this perception.

So, a big fear here is that if I self publish, I have a huge perception image to overcome in order to convince everyone that my books are worth spending money.

Maybe this isn’t true. Maybe there’s a big enough eBook readership that knows there are plenty of good books out there that they are willing to risk a few bucks on an unknown, but for now, it feels like a huge mountain to climb.

Another fear I have is related to money.

If I want to climb that mountain and rise above the chaff, I need to make my book so polished that it shines like a new car. Or better still, a diamond. And that means making it look as professional as a traditionally published book. I would have to hire an editor and pay them to make my book look pretty. I would have to hire an artist to give my book a cover, preferably one that doesn’t only do the painting, but also one that does that cover design. I say this because I’ve tried my hand at cover art before, and let’s just say that I am not a graphic designer. And then there’s promotion.

That’s all a pretty significant outlay of my own cash before my book is even up for sale. What happens if the book doesn’t sell? I’m out some cash.

And that’s a real fear I have, to be out of cash.

And a final fear I have is that self-publishing will somehow prevent me from getting published the traditional way. I mean, can I pub self-published books in my bio? Should I? Will the perception I mentioned above leave the publisher/agent afraid to touch me with a 10 foot pole? I don’t know.

This is not to say that I don’t have fears about traditional publishing. I do, but they just don’t seem as insurmountable as these fears are.

All that said, I realize that these ARE fears, and as such, I shouldn’t let them blind me to the possibility of eBooks. I need to figure out how real these fears are, and are they truly as insurmountable as I believe them to be.

I’ve been thinking of taking a book that I wrote that I had no intention of getting published the traditional way, and putting it out there as an eBook to see how well it does and if this is a viable market. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s not good enough to get published traditionally. It is. It just wasn’t written for that purpose.

I am also taking an eBook plunge in another way. Some friends and I are working on an anthology that we plan to put up on the Kindle store. Maybe THAT’s a better test that self-publishing my other novel.

The point here is that there’s just a lot of stuff about eBook publishing that I just don’t know. And I guess until I do, these fears will continue to get in my way.

And so, I guess my next step is to do some serious research into self publishing eBooks, try to get some of my questions answered, and maybe find a way to test the waters.

Because the real truth is, I don’t want to let fear, any fear, from ruling my life.

My Opinion on eBooks and the Future of Publishing

So, this seems to be a hot button topic around the camp fires of Facebook and Twitter. Bloggers and writers all over the place are throwing in their two cents, both professional and unpublished. Publishers, editors and agents have also said their piece regarding the matter. But, still, I see people running around the internet like chickens with their heads cut off, crying that the sky of publishing is falling, and eBooks are going to tear down book stores brick by brick.

So, given all that, I figured why not throw in my two cents as well? Likely, they’ll just get lost amidst the rest of the change out there, but hey, this is my blog, so what the hell.

If this all sounds a little skewed in the direction that I don’t buy the hype that traditional publishing is going away, that would be essentially the truth. But not all of it. Let me start with something simple.

Traditional publishing IS going to go away. The same way that horse and buggies were driven out of business by the automobile. But, it’s not going to happen tomorrow. Or even in the next few years. And the publishing industry is not just going to fold up and die, not all of it anyway. They’re going to adapt to new technology, and switch their model of business to accept it. Those houses that don’t, those are the ones that will die.

But, here’s something that I think a lot of people look over. The real reason that traditional, paper books are not going to disappear the way of the 8-track. People like books. A lot of people like books. Different kinds of people like books, for different reasons. And here’s one that I think a lot of us that are on the internet regularly forget.

eBook Readers are expensive.

That’s right. That Kindle I have sitting next to me as I write this? $130. That’s a lot of money, when you consider that a book is around $10. Sure, I know the argument, it’s a one time payment and then all your books are only $4. But, most people can’t put up that $130 investment. They won’t. It’s a lot of money. $10 isn’t so bad, so they’ll spend that on the book they want. Plus, books can be traded at a used book store for more books. An eReader can’t.

Now, that said, I do believe that eReaders are the eventual future of this industry. And yes, there were be new avenues for up and coming authors to publish in. But, the publishing industry will continue to be what they are now. Protectors of good books. They are the ones that filter through all the crap to find the good stuff and then put it out there for our consumption. They will continue to do that in the eBook era.

Yes, I have no doubt that there will be lots of self publishing options available, but at some point, most people will realize that if they don’t want to spend the time to filter through crap to find the good stuff, here’s a publishing house that does it for them.

And this, my friends, is why the book and the publishing industry are not going to go away.

At least, in my opinion.