UPDATED (AGAIN) ON 7/17/2024

What’s it take to be a professional writer?

You have to write. That’s pretty much it — no different than being a non-professional (meaning ‘unpaid’) writer.

This was true in the copywriting and ghostwriting career that lead me into publishing novels, and it’s most certainly true now that I’m writing fiction. I have to write. In the former scenario, it was a matter of meeting deadlines so people would cut me checks. Now, it’s all about producing entertainment. And while I don’t really have deadlines to answer to, I do have fans.

If you’re already one of those fans, I’m immensely grateful for your support. A few have emailed me regularly. Some of us have had lengthy discussions about our entire life stories. Others have sent a few encouraging and inspiring words that help keep me motivated.

A lot of times, the longer conversations have culminated in ‘the big question’. When’s the next book coming out?

And man, I gotta tell you, I’ve been underestimating my projections for about six months now. The problem is that I got spoiled with Into the BeanStalk and Into the Looking Glass. Both of those books were written and published very quickly. I’m pretty sure I wrote the first novel in about two months, and the sequel only took a bit longer. Now it’s been almost a year since ITLG launched, and I’m still working on book three.

Let me explain the reason why.  It goes all the way back to the beginning.

I’d hit a point early in 2023 when I grew very sick of my day job. I’d been copywriting and consulting for years, my client list was drying up, and I had no motivation to go out looking for new contracts. Just couldn’t do it anymore. Not at the pace I’d set for over seven years, and not in the same capacity. So, I took the dwindling workload as an opportunity. I had more free time, and I was very used to sitting at a keyboard all day.

In the midst of all that, I was drop-kicked by an urge that hadn’t been around for some time. The desire to write fiction.

For those who don’t know, this wasn’t a new thing for me. I actually got into writing two decades ago because I wanted to write novels, and I’d written three novels long, long before I began Into the BeanStalk. But after a couple of years trying to get published and getting no traction, I focused on other ways to make money as a writer. Copywriting and ghostwriting worked, and I ended up going down that road for ages.

Anyway, early 2023, I’m feeling that again. Within a few hours of the realization, I was writing. A few days later, I was sending drafts to beta readers one chapter at a time. I split my time between writing, editing, studying the indie publishing industry, and doing things like setting up this website and building lists on StoryOrigin. A couple of months later, I had a novel finished and ready to go. By the time people were reading ITBS, I was halfway finished with the sequel. That launched about two months after the first book. This was with me managing every aspect of bringing them to market, mind you.

I was kicking butt on efficiency. And the part that I’m going to brag about here is that the books were very well received. In effect, I proved to myself that I could write killer books very quickly.

That’s great — but then things started to catch up to me. First was the feeling that I didn’t want to compromise any quality for speed. I’d juggled the idea of being one of those authors that cranks out ten (or twenty) books a year and lives on sheer volume, but the idea never sat well with me. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that, it’s just that it didn’t feel like my path.

Then there was the worldbuilding. I wrote the first two books without documenting any of the worldbuilding. Because I was doing it all so quickly, I didn’t need to. But over time, the Hope Megacity encyclopedia in my head started to fade. Writing the third book became more challenging by the day as I had to go back and look things up — a problem compounded by the fact that I was simultaneously writing The Game State, another book set in the same universe but with completely different main characters.

My momentum was shot. My energy waned. On top of that, I was holding this series to higher standard than I’d set when I started writing it. It was so frustrating that I actually started writing other things just to get away from how oppressive it felt. (That’s where Portals & Paydays and Dice Lords came from).

Right around that time, I lost the last of my old clients because he sold his company. Being shortsighted, I was living off of that income, so I quickly lost all interest in writing fiction. Duty called, and I focused on restoring my cash flow.

It took several months before I secured new clients.  Those were some long, stressful months — but not everything that happened during that time was bad.

Is That You, Universe?

Right around the time I threw my hands up and said there was no way I’d be able to finish my novels this year, something surprising happened. Out of the blue, I was contacted by not one but two outside parties that were interested in my book. Both of the emails came in the same week. It was weird timing.

The first came from a high-tech company in the content and performance marketing space (whose name I still can’t reveal, sorry) that wanted to take over promoting Into the BeanStalk in exchange for profit share. Without getting into details, this is not too dissimilar from how traditional publishing works, but I’d be earning higher margins. The second email came from Arcane Fiction, a startup created by voice talent veterans and audio engineers with designs on turning indie books into audio dramas.

Turns out both of these companies were looking for…me. I don’t mean to sound self-centric, but I asked both parties how they ended up finding my book. The response was that they were looking for exactly what I had on offer. (Arcane was literally looking for cyberpunk fairy tales. The other company was scouting for cyberpunk indie authors who were largely undiscovered.)

At a point where I’d almost given up, I had two companies who knew the entertainment biz telling me that I had something worthwhile. Something with an audience that just hadn’t found it yet.

Something that could live beyond the page.

Into the BeanStalk Adaptations

I’ll tell you, I had no reservations working with Arcane Fiction. From the first meeting, I knew we were on the same page. I grew up listening to audio dramas (radio plays) and had worn out the library’s cassettes of the BBC’s production of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the time I was eleven.

The idea of adapting my novel into an audio drama with a full cast of voice actors thrilled the hell out of me. I signed with them as soon as I could. Expect production on that to start later this year. (In the meantime, be sure to check out what they’re doing with Anna Mocikat’s Space Punks books.)

There’s gonna be Jack merch. There’s probably going to be a Jack motion comic. The last week or so, I’ve been listening to voice actors’ auditions and looking over artwork. The whole thing has me pumped again, much like I was at the start of last year when I blitzed through writing ITBS.

And that takes me back to the issues I was having with churning out books at a rapid pace. I knew it wasn’t my path — but I had no idea what my path was supposed to be. In the indie publishing world, you kind of only have three options. You can publish two books a month and win with volume, you can start with an established fan base from something like a YouTube channel, or you can throw money at paid advertising.

I’d already ruled out the first option, and the other two weren’t exactly available to me. But then this fourth ‘mystery option’ appeared. Build off the success of the first book. Verticalize into other formats. Expand the world that I was so obsessed with creating into something bigger than the books. In a weird way, that option took off a lot of pressure. So much so that I’ve been able to go back to writing The Game State and Book Three of Jack’s series without feeling like someone had parked a flaming bulldozer on my chest.

Getting Avant-Garde With It

Another realization came with this newfound energy. I don’t like doing things the normal way.

I don’t know what it is, but you can show me a tried-and-true method of accomplishing a goal, completely spelled out with checklists, and I will not do it that way. I will, invariably, crash and burn trying to figure out some other way to get to the same goal. (This is not true with cooking. I can bake bread, and if you know anything about baking, you know that means I can follow a recipe.)

I pretty much told you how to succeed as an indie author a few paragraphs back. This information was imparted to me directly by successful indie authors. But I should have known that something in my genetic makeup would not allow it to play out that way. All I had to do was keep cranking out the novels. Finish a Jack book every three months. I’d proven I could do it, and I have no shortage of ideas. (Inside secret: I actually have plots laid out for the next four books involving Jack.) But I couldn’t do it.

And I’m not even sure if that’s my choosing. It’s almost like the universe didn’t want me to go that route, because it started sprinkling these metaphoric caltrops all over the road.

All the better, though, because the more excited I am about a project, the better the outcome. My creative skills do not survive well in a mundane environment. There are new challenges ahead, and that’s where I thrive.

I’ve turned from just writing books in a series to writing a content ecosystem. Even though I’m back at tackling the third Jack book, I’ve been spending hours on documenting and refining the worldbuilding. I’ve also been taking copious notes around ideas for expansion and experimentation in other mediums. The goal? I guess I would call it “immersive experiences”. I can’t even quantify that yet, but at least I have like-minded people like Kari at Arcane who are on board.

A few weeks ago, I asked readers for input on an idea where I embed QR codes into future books that would lead to online ‘found lore’ that expands the universe. There was interest in the idea, but now I’m thinking even bigger. With voice talent already being booked, I’m envisioning audio supplements to the printed books, maybe even animated cutscenes that can be viewed between chapters. On top of that, I’m exploring the addition of AR elements in the books themselves (though I’m wary of pursuing anything that requires the audience to own expensive tech).

Right now, I’m working on the script for an animated story entirely about Monk’s service in GreySec with the characters in The Lucky Seven. I’m hoping that keeping it short and visual will make it easier to pitch than animating something as complex as Into the BeanStalk. Then there’s the worldbuilding bible that I’m assembling day by day — which I intend to publish as a full-color art book and in-depth guide to Jack’s world. Bonus…I’ve already been asked to produce something like this for pitching the story to RPG game developers, so we’re talking force multiplication.

What I’m getting at is that even though the third book has stalled — and now you know why — I have definitely not given up on the series, the characters, or telling Jack’s story. I’m fully committed to telling it more compellingly than ever, and in new ways that other authors haven’t even thought of.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you for your interest in my books and the future of Hope Megacity. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, there’s a form at the bottom of the page that will get you set up with all the relevant updates (and free book promos). I’ll be running some contests for books and merch as soon as the company that can’t be named sorts some things out with Amazon. (I’m still waiting to find out if they can take over my marketing without losing the reviews I’ve already accumulated!)

New Ways to Connect with Readers, Writers, and Gamers

I’ve also been working with my (unfortunately, not full time) Community Manager to set up a Discord channel. The idea is that it will give you a way other than email to reliably reach me with questions or comments, as well as provide a forum for discussing cyberpunk, my novels, and their adaptations. I’ve also had a private area created for my beta readers, and there will probably be a lot of discussion about how these novels should, could, and will enter the world of RPGs.

This channel is still quite literally in the setup process, but I’m sharing a link anyway: https://discord.gg/62gp6Pca

Join now and you’ll probably get to see me fumbling through the advanced features! I might even break something!

But once that chaos is over, I have a lot of ideas for Q and A, contests, and that. I’ll also be open to discussions about the craft o’ writing in the specified rooms.