So maybe looking up?

I recently put together a newsletter where I listed all the upcoming events I will be involved in.

• I got contacted by Pan-O-Ply, the Michiana literary magazine, and they are going to feature my novel in their next edition!
• I will have a table at PopiCon in South Bend on January 31st and February 1st.
• I was contacted by a podcast, Author's Alcove about an interview. It is now set up for February 18th from 12:30 - 1:30. There will likely be a giveaway as well.
• I am putting together a local author event on May 1st at the Granada (lower level of the Morris Performing Arts Center). This will also be the release of my second book.
• I will have a booth at PopCon from June 27th through June 29th at the Indianapolis Convention Center
• I will be sharing a table at FanExpo Chicago later this summer

There's more. my brother and I are working on a number of animation projects and I think we're finally getting serious with them. with any luck, we'll have some out relatively soon!

Honestly, I am thrilled! This is a lot more than I was expecting! It leaves me time to write while also helping to get the word out and build my fan base. And I'm going to keep adding to this.

I plan on the Michiana Ren Faire, but I will keep researching. Keeping up a schedule like this is also going to force me to keep going forward. This is some very welcome news.

Now, to get back to finishing this audiobook!

Don't know what I am doing...

 Let's be honest here, I'm betting about 11 people will read this, and 7 of them will be bots. 

When it comes to crafting an excellent story, I'm your guy. When it comes to getting a following... not so much.

I honestly don't know how to do this. I'm going to try to learn how to market myself, but I have ADHD. From what I can tell, marketing is a LOT of consistent work, which is something I struggle with. Habits are not things I form. So when I'm told I have to post VIDEOS (I'm a writer and have no right being in front of a camera) 4 times a day... My brain shuts down.

Seriously, how can anyone do that? I can't think of that many things to talk about! And if I did, they wouldn't be interesting or apropos. Which I suppose brings me to the real issue.

I am doing this alone.

All those authors on BookTok, they have people. Either someone with knowledge/time is helping them, they have a team, or they have a budget. Or all 3. I don't. The rest are super-type-A people who scare me. Being a "content creator" is not something I've ever desired. If I was asked to choose between producing drivel but getting personal fame or producing good, meaningful work but no one knows I did it, I would choose the second in a heartbeat. I want my WORK to be famous. I don't want to be. Just knowing that people are reading something I wrote fills me with a sense of satisfaction and joy, even if they never know it was me. (That being said, I am not about to promote plagiarism. I'd rather have no name attached than someone else's.)

I looked up the cost of a marketing team and holy crap on a carp, I cannot afford that. We're talking 6 digits.

I have had great help from my brother and sister, and great help from my editor, artist, and publisher. But none of them have the ability to dedicate the kind of time I need to do the things I want to do. It means 1) I end up waiting for someone else while I sit in Limbo or start working on a future project, 2) I end up having to figure out how to do things myself. I am *truly* grateful for the work they've done, don't get me wrong. I couldn't do this without them. But I want to work at a faster pace than I have been. Making a Kickstarter campaign takes a huge amount of time and thought (which makes it so much suckier when it fails due to ad shenanigans and an election). That's time I could spend writing/revising/editing/reading. 

I'm working against the clock, here. I'm 43 now, and I've only got so much time left before my brain decides to self-destruct. If I publish 1 book a year, by the time I am finished with what I am currently working on, I will be 55. And believe me when I say I will never run out of ideas for novels. Good ones. I got started late and I'm scrambling to make up for all that lost time.

If all I do is write, no one will know my books exist to read them. If all I do is promote, I'll have nothing to promote. 

This seems to be a sucky pattern in my life. If I am given a position of authority or power, I end up faltering. As leader of my lodge, I had a ton of great ideas and got to implement none of them because I just couldn't get anyone motivated enough to actually partake. When I was doing my Eagle project, a parent tried to take over for me because the volunteers kept running off to work on my brother's project instead. I had to tell him that it was MY Eagle and I had to be permitted to fail. I recorded a "how-to-play" video for the Board Game Rundown which involved writing a script and working on the camera work and all sorts of things. I never got to see it because it kept getting pushed aside for other videos so the editor never got around to it. I had so many ideas for fun videos but I couldn't get anyone to *do* them with me. I have failed at *so many things* and I don't want this to be just another failure. I can't do it on my own, but I can't rely on others, either.

If I had the equipment and know-how, I'd have a little bit better of a chance. But honestly, what I need is someone who knows what they are doing and can do it in a timely manner. There's a big difference between posting 4 videos a day and posting 4 *good* videos a day. 

Being neurodivergent *really* doesn't help.

Another Campaign Done—Another Lesson Learned

The campaign for "Fate & Fortune" ended with a little over 200% funding (though there are some backers that need to update their payment methods).

It was only half as successful as "A Sinister Love." While that is certainly disappointing, at least it made it past the $1000 mark (which is where it pays for the art and editing). This means that I will need to sell it in person and possibly have a second Kickstarter later.

The deluxe edition is a bust, however. The cost of each book goes down depending on how many I order, but at 9, it will cost more to print them than I sold them for. I am going to have to order a lot of them and sell them in person or in future campaigns. 

I did not anticipate the election becoming an issue. However, a lot of authors have told me that it is messing up their campaigns as well. Let's just say that this election, and everything it has touched, sucks. I suppose this means that I will need to be aware of other major events that could mess up campaigns.

I also could not have foreseen the mess-up with the ads. In short, my ad account on Meta was suspended (through no fault of my own) on day 1 and I received no notice of it. I did not discover it until day 5. I'm not sure how to prevent this in the future besides checking all my ad sources on a regular basis. It was a perfect storm of incidents.

The feather/quill bookmarks were not enough of an incentive, apparently, for anyone to share the campaign on their social media. When I sold at NekoCon, people thought they were awesome, and I did end up giving almost all of them away. Perhaps they're just a thing that must be seen live to appreciate. I am going to have to do a lot more for the next campaign...

...which won't be for a while.

There's a lot on my plate besides sending out my newest novel.

I'm having a launch party for my first book on December 7th at the Culture Cafe here in South Bend, so I want to get the word out and see if I can get some sort of interest. There's a small chance I'll have copies of my second there as well.

I am going to take part in at least one anthology (and will be looking for more).

I have to start revising book #3.

I have to finish the outline and rough draft of book #4. (Not to mention numbers 5-infinity)

I have to figure out a timeline for the children's book.

I need ads up for A Sinister Love! I need to get audible to actually post it since they approved of it months ago.

I have several short stories I want to get printed.

I need to make certain my trademark goes through.

I have a video series I want to launch. The first one was already recorded.

I have 2 separate animation projects AND a pitch to work on with my brother.

And on top of all that, it's the holiday season, so there's already a ton to do. The 1-year anniversary of my father passing is coming up and I don't want it to go by without something planned.

So, with that, I must go prepare dinner and do household things. Tonight... well, I'll figure it out then.

Hoping the FBI calls me

That’s right, you heard me.

I’m hoping the FBI calls me.

Last night, while going through my email, I discovered an email by someone labeled “ANONYMOUS” with the subject line, “SPENCER redacted, EVERY BOOK YOU PROMOTE WILL BE ON PIRATE SITES”.

I normally would skip over such an email, but I noticed it had no attachments, and it insulted me from the get-go. That’s not a phisher’s M.O. So I opened it to an all caps torrent of threats that I will not repeat here. In short, he called out Fate & Fortune specifically (but not A Sinister Love), he said he’d use A.I. to steal and plagiarize every book I promote on social media or put on goodreads.com, claimed to be immune to the law, and said he was sending my family’s information to local criminals (though he was much more specific with the kind, the sort that needs to be on a registry).

I have not responded, nor will I. But I did learn about how email is sent and how to find the full header in an email. I learned about IPv4 and IPv6 (your computer’s address online will look very different between the two formats). I learned how to trace someone’s IP. And then I learned about “bogun” addresses—IPs that aren’t assigned and can’t be traced. Even with the help of my computer whiz friend, there wasn’t much more I could do (besides report him to his email provider, which I did). I discovered that he, or someone similar, has been sending terrorizing emails to other authors for over a year, sometimes with specific threats and sometimes with an arsenal of 1-star reviews. For an indie author, a bunch of 1-star reviews could be career-destroying.

Then it occurred to me that he threatened my family. Thanks to a recommendation by a colleague, I decided to take this threat seriously. It is most likely nothing, but I can’t know that. And my wife’s job means that blackmail or threats could quickly become a matter of national interest. So, I filed an FBI report. If anyone can find this guy, it’s them. They might not do anything, though if they call me that means they need more information and are doing something. And, yes, the temptation to gloat is a strong one.

Hopefully, he’ll get a visit from some agents soon and his days of terrorizing authors will be over.

The Toll of Writing Death

Dear readers, writers, and fans,

As may of you know, I have a prelaunch page for my second book up on Kickstarter right now.

Because of this, I've been trying to polish the manuscript up. Because I cannot help myself, I have done this while waiting for my editor, which just means more work for me. Yay, self!

She did give me one comment, however, that had me realize a few flaws and ended up in me rewriting the entire opening (4 chapters and then some). Don't worry, I've sent them to her. This meant that I had to go through the entire thing looking for anything inconsistent with the new opening, so I decided that while I was doing that, I might as well read it out loud to myself.

If you are a writer, you are doing yourself a major disservice if you aren't reading your works out loud at least once during your revising/editing process. It's incredible the things you miss until you actually physically hear it. Also, step away from it and work on something else for a while. It helps.

Once I'm done, I will get to work on a book tour and getting images, add-ons, rewards, etc. for the Kickstarter campaign. Expect it to launch in October.

It made me want to make a post about the use of present tense words in past tense passages (yes, you absolutely can do this). But that will (maybe) be later.

What I wanted to briefly address with this post is the emotions writing can evoke, and nothing evokes emotions as much as death scenes. (And no, it's not a spoiler. It's page 1.) I'll get to that.

Have you, as a writer, ever noticed that certain scenes are just hard to write emotionally, like you can't bring yourself to put your character through what you have planned for them? Not only that, but writing your character making a mistake, doing something stupid, makes me want to yell at them as I'm writing them doing it!

I have one scene in particular that is based on an event that actually happened to me (you'll have to guess). Every time I write it, my heart rate picks up and I feel my face and ears flushing. The funny thing is, though, that I'm not thinking about what actually happened to me when I'm writing it. The fact that it happened to me just makes it that much easier to step into my main character's shoes and see it better through his eyes. It feels a bit like method acting, but for novelists.

Torturing my characters in some way is almost a pastime for me. Yet, I feel the pain they are going through. And, conversely, I feel the vitriol in the villain doing the torturing, the sadistic glee. It's a rollercoaster.

I've written a few death scenes before. Sometimes they are easier because of the length (death can be sudden and unexpected), but longer ones are harder to get just right because you want to do the characters justice. What are the perfect last words (and are they even completely spoken)? Is something in this scene metaphorical? If it's referenced later, I have to make certain every reference to it is accurate (from the recalling character's POV). And, regardless of the length, every important character's death should have echoes throughout the rest of the book. Otherwise, it's just death for death's sake, and that's poor writing (you know who you are).

But sometimes writing a death scene takes an emotional toll on me. I have one in particular that I have a hard time reading out loud because it makes me choke up. You'd think that I, as the writer, who authored their death, who has gone through the scene a dozen times at least, and who could change things at any time, would get over it at some point, right? Well, it hasn't happened yet. Perhaps this is because I love almost all of my characters in some way. I tear up when editing it. I wrote the damn thing, but sometimes it feels like the character's last words didn't come from me but were meant for me.

Writing is weird. Weird and wonderful.

It's also cathartic. Therapeutic. This is why people analyze stories (please analyze mine). Sure, the author didn't INTEND anything by making the wallpaper yellow... but what patterns do you see in the story's colors that reveal something the author didn't realize they put in there, something subconscious? I find patterns all the time in my own writing that look awesome and genius and were entirely unscripted. Does it mean something that the character who embodies ADHD originally died, but now gets revived? Does that mean I have come to terms with and am working with my ADHD instead of fighting it? Maybe. Are there parallels between my character's death and my father's? Good question.

Like, seriously good question. I'll need to think about it for a bit.

This is why I think everyone should write. That doesn't mean anyone else should ever see what you wrote (and, in fact, most people shouldn't let others see it except possibly their therapists). But it can draw out difficult emotions, help you work through things, give you a safe place to release, stoke your creativity AND analytical thinking.

I now get back to it. I still have so very much to learn about so many things surrounding this craft.

Things from GenCon I didn’t know (and neither did you)

I’ve been to going to GenCon annually since 2020, which means my first experience with it was during the COVID lockdown. It’s one of—if not THE—largest board game conventions in the world, and after attending this year (2024), I believe it. If you try to navigate the exhibition hall at the wrong time of day, may God have mercy on your soul.

But I’ve never gone to GenCon as a participant. I’ve always gone as a member of the Board Game Rundown crew. The first year, we were mobile, going around interviewing as many people as we could. The second year, we helped out with a booth giving demos between all the camera work. The then we got a booth! We would run demos, have interviews, all sorts of things. It was a blast! Last year, we did a massive giveaway in an attempt to get more subscribers (which did not have the impact we were hoping).

This is the first year where I have my own booth selling my own product… more or less. My boss graciously offered to give me a 4-foot section of the table to sell my novel at. And let me tell you, I learned a lot.

First off, people do not go to GenCon looking for books. They want games. So I quickly learned that no one was going to approach me—I had to fish for them. There’s a certain look where you *know* that person is a reader, but there are a lot of people who will surprise you. The key, I found, was twofold.

Eye Contact

Greeting

By watching everyone go by, I could see them quickly glance away, a not-so-subtle way of conveying that they don’t want to look at a book and have more important things to be doing. Most of those people were too fast or just smiled and kept walking if I tried greeting them.

But some people would look me in the eyes, and then I had a much better chance of getting them to come over. The best one, I found, was when someone’s eyes were lingering just a little too long on my books/amulets. A quick “Hey there! Do you like to read? Know someone who does?” usually got them talking. Sometimes it didn’t go anywhere, but more often than not, I at least got to hand them my business card/bookmark.

Following up the greeting with something else, either something personal (I see you’re a fan of Hazbin Hotel) or generic (What types of novels do you read?) was key. If I didn’t take that initiative, I would have made exactly 0 sales.

What I learned is that all those people passing by who think they aren’t interested in you or your book just don’t know that they are yet. I had my pitch down... a few of them in fact. When I put the book in their hands and told them my pitch, their body language changed and I could tell if they just went from considering me some annoying salesman to someone offering them a good time (15 bucks is cheap ifyouknowwhatImean). What I found even more fascinating was when I gave them the pitch for my second novel. Every single time, when I got to the very end, their eyes lit up and they said something along the lines of “woah!”

It was very reaffirming.

I thought my sales were lackluster until I talked to the other authors, who seemed impressed that I got the numbers I did with a single book to offer. That told me that maybe I really *am* where I’m meant to be. One reader came back a day later and told me she loved the book and couldn’t put it down and that my main character is her new favorite female protagonist. That was the best birthday present. Later, she’d shared it with friends and they were planning on starting a book club for it!

But it was hard work. Moving around the place is difficult. Food is expensive. Standing (if I sat I would miss out on sales) for 8 hours straight hurts. I figured out that bringing food is the way to go, but with it that crowded, I had to take bites when I could. 

I also learned the art of the upsell. Whenever I was handing them the book, I would then bring up the Surli bookmarks that were covered in puns and mention that they’re a dollar off if you buy the book. Sometimes, that was enough to convince them to buy the book as well!

I’m sure there’s going to be a whole lot more I’ll learn at FanExpo in Chicago in a couple of weekends. One of the best things I do at conventions is talk with the other authors. They almost always have friendly and useful advice and they’ve not steered me wrong yet! Plus, I get to see how they do it, and each one does it differently. Making these connections is unbelievably important.

Turning Pro

 With only 24 hours left on my Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asinisterlove/a-sinister-love-by-spencer-hixon), I have to keep my eyes on the future.

I am juggling promotions, ads, new work, adding a newsletter, adding a Patreon, pledge fulfillment (which is a huge thing), and being a dad and husband. And I feel like I don’t know what I am doing with any of it.

You know, like a professional.

They say “fake it till you make it” but I think it would be better to say “act like it.”

I got in touch with an author who has many, many books and who I’ve met several times at conventions. Chris Schmitz. It seems to me that authors run into two “wannabe authors”, those who have a dream (probably 90%) and those who are working towards that dream. So when they heard me asking, as one put it, “the right questions,” they all were extremely helpful and kind. Chris has been and more. He’s treating me like a fellow professional and that means the world to me.

By researching what other authors do, I’m acting like one, right? Who knows if my novels will ever be a financial success. At the moment the Kickstarter will pay for the book’s art and editing. Someday, who knows? I could even do more than break even. But if I don’t, if I’m a failure, it won’t be because I didn’t act like a novelist.

Pounding that Pavement

 One of the things I really need to work on is exposure.

Not that kind.

Starting from scratch without the luck of having any real connections means I’ll likely be forming my base of fans for a long time to come. And I‘m just not quite sure how. Unlike many writers, I’m an ambivert, AKA I’m outgoing and sociable. Sometimes. But that doesn’t particularly help me online. 

• Blog
• Facebook
• Tumblr
• Twitter/X 
• newsletter
• Kickstarter list
• Facebook ads
• Tumblr ads
• Cold calling everyone I know

It’s a start, I suppose. But I decided it wouldn’t hurt to put up some fliers as well.  I mean, who knows? I hung up 15 today in various coffee shops and libraries. I’ve got more to put up in Columbus, OH, if I find the time. And then I’ll get some put up hopefully in the Atlanta area and the DC area, as well as North Carolina.  It helps to have a team that’s kinda spread out.

So here’s hoping that this works, at least a little. Even one person would pay for the flyers.

Fliers.

However you wish to spell it.

I had a feeling there would be complications

Hello everyone!

I wanted to let you all know how my new Kickstarter Campaign is going.

I suppose I’ve been in a rush to get it published. After all, it’s my first! And I suppose I have this idea that if I can write more than one book a year, I’ll really be a professional writer. Well… PUBLISH more than one book a year. We’ll see!

I’ve already had to push things back, however.

The original plan was to start the campaign on the 4th of March and start felling the book on April 8.

Then I found out that we weren’t really ready for it. The video had to be worked on, the graphics, lots of logistics. It got pushed back to the 12th… then the 21st…

There are good reasons, though. A Kickstarter campaign is a lot of work! So is designing merchandise. And since I’ve been told that Monday are the best time to start a campaign, I keep pushing it back by a week…

And last week I had 2 birthdays in the family. My wife was traveling, too (she does that a lot). We have a new kitten. And now there’s Easter, which I am not at all ready for. On top of that, family is visiting! 

I don’t know what this means for things. I haven’t been able to push the book as much as I’ve wanted to. I’m still tentatively starting the campaign on the 1st, but I meet with my publisher tomorrow and we’ll see!

Publication has to be postponed because the printer hasn’t sent us the proofs yet, so I haven’t seen the final product myself! 

Work work work

I thought it would be a good idea to update you all on my current situation (even if most of you are just bots).

I have been hella busy.

• We have a new kitten (8 months) who took a while to acclimate but now he always wants to play and loves yowling at random intervals. However, he is freaking adorable and super affectionate.

• I have been teaching a bunch of junior high kids about writing! And not just "this is grammar" and "this is how you write a 5 paragraph essay" (though I did go over common grammatical errors yesterday), but how to write professionally. There is so much about writing novels that you simply don't learn in school. Hell, I didn't learn this stuff in college; I had to venture out on my own to teach myself. But no, I don't just stop with The Hero's Journey, Scene & Sequel (I formally petition we change that awful name to Action & Reaction thank you), or worldbuilding. I'm teaching them things like how you can't use any lyrics in your book without violating copyright, the different kinds of publishing, query letters, crowdfunding, how to give AND TAKE critique/criticism, formatting, etc. I want to teach them how to actually get a book published. My theory is that they don't teach you this stuff in college because most professors can publish through the university press or go through very different channels, so they simply don't know. I find it fulfilling, even if so far only 2 or 3 of the kids have actually turned in their assignments.

• The next two weeks, I am single-parenting it again. Doesn't seem like a big deal? Yesterday, I didn't get to sit down at the computer until 10 pm.

• But mostly I am working on Kickstarter. In case you were unaware, I am setting up a Kickstarter campaign to help fund my first novel (well, really, to help fund my career as a novelist). It is exciting! However, there's also a lot of learning, trial and error, logistics, planning, etc. In other words, work. I've got most of it ready (and I owe a huge amount of that to my brother (https://www.hixonart.com/) and sister for doing most of the graphics and teaching me basic photoshop skills.
  
  We'll be offering the books, of course, in paperback, hardcover, e-book, and audiobook formats (as read by me). I'm also making these Soul Stone amulets that I think look awesome! I have a crazy expensive tier for one person to take where they get to collaborate with me to make a character for my fourth novel (which is the sequel to the first and the one I am ready to start drafting). My favorite thing, however, are the bookmarks!
  
  They all feature Surli, a Siri-esque digital assistant for demons who has an attitude (not quite Bad Janet from The Good Place but it's a good starting point). One each bookmark, she has a snarky comment about what you're reading and I adore them (and her). "Some of these words are hard. For you." "You're only this far? Ugh, you're so slow." "Is this smut? Does Jesus know you're reading this? I'm so proud of you!" Each physical copy will get at least one.
  
  I've also got some pretty awesome stretch goals, I think. Now, I'm still new to this whole world of book collecting, so I don't have any upgrades to the books (but I likely will in future campaigns), but I do have an amazing artist who will provide more sketched to purchase as well as a full-color image (but we've got to raise quite a bit for that). Backers can also unlock some free short stories that I have yet to write, so they will be exclusive to this campaign, at least for quite a while.
  
  What's left? Well, I need to finish mastering the audiobook (mostly there), I need to get a PO Box, I need figure out the logistics of providing signatures, I have to fix the audio on my video, I need to finish the images (we're still working on the bookmark mock-ups), I need to submit it for approval, I need to start campaigning and spreading the word...

So, as you can see, I am a busy bee. And because of that, I will be signing off. Hope to see you all on the Kickstarter!