By Scott Nicholson
Haunted Computer
[Editor’s Note: this is a guest post as part of Scott Nicholson’s blog tour. Enjoy!]
“Whatever happened to you, man?”
That innocent question came from my friend Mark Justice, early in our podcast interview last year for Pod of Horror. I was silent for a moment, considering the implications of the question. To many outside observers, particularly those who primarily knew me from my six supernatural thrillers that came out in mass-market paperback, it looked like I had disappeared. I haven’t listened to Mark’s recording yet, but I was probably a little uneasy and defensive, as if I had somehow failed at something.
Of course, if you measure me as a “horror writer,” because of what was stamped on the sides of the books, then maybe I had disappeared and failed. There are plenty of reasons, both internal and external, but the truth is, even during that era that I now consider Act I of my career, I was writing in many different formats and genres. Those paperbacks were just the most visible artifacts of the era.
Even the “horror” thing seems a little odd to me. In the last few years, I have become less interested in the more unsavory elements of the genre, particularly the violence commonly associated with the graphic movies that come out under the banner. I see the genre as broad enough to hold both supernatural suspense and brutality, and I’d never stop anyone from getting the reading material they want, as long as it doesn’t directly harm someone. But I want more than a cheap thrill.
So what happened to me? Well, life changes, career changes, passion changes.
I’ve been working on comic books, screenplays, and children’s books, as well as some mystery, fantasy, and humor. Some of it is scary and has paranormal elements. Some of it is so unlike what people think of as a “Scott Nicholson book” that they probably won’t believe I wrote it. Which is exactly how I like it. Something like As I Die Lying is billed as The Worst Novel Ever Written. New York turned it down 117 times, just like in the book. And now it is out. “No” didn’t work. The book happened.
The era has changed so much that getting published in mass-market paperback is nearly the worst possible way to reach readers, and certainly one of the most time-consuming, clumsy, and least rewarding. And readers are now paying $8 or $9 for the privilege, which seems unfair for a disposable pulp product that was designed to be carried in a purse or back pocket.
So the new era means I can publish everything, and I can do whatever I want without worrying about branding or platform or market or genre label or store category or all the other publishing considerations of Act I. All I have to worry about now is you.
If I give you what you want, you can give me a few bucks. Not much in between us.
What happened to me? Forever Never Ends, a revision of my 2003 paperback The Harvest, is now in the author’s preferred edition. Speed Dating with the Dead. Drummer Boy, a coming-of-age story about the misfit kid in all of us that just happens to use supernatural elements.
These days, I just want to leave something lasting for my kids, important messages and lessons that will help them deal with the world. Sure, the world is scary. But it’s also a world where you follow your dreams, and you move on from people who hinder or darken the dreams.
More than three years after my last mass-market release, I have more books out than ever before, all available around the world at any time. I’m working on multiple translations to get stories to more people. Three years after I looked dead, I am shambling back like a zombie with a typewriter, cooking up a witch’s brew of strange fiction that has me giggling, disturbed, and satisfied, yet eternally hungry for more all at the same time.
What happened to me?
Everything.
Read me and see.
[Editor’s Note]
Scott Nicholson is author of The Red Church, The Skull Ring, and 10 other novels, five story collections, four comics series, and six screenplays. A journalist and freelance editor in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he often uses local legends in his work. This tour is sponsored by Amazon, Kindle Nation Daily, and Dellaster Design.
To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. Nicholson is also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free ebooks to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter. And, hey, buy his books and put him in the Top 100 and he’ll throw in another random Kindle 3 giveaway. Thanks for playing. Complete details at: Nicholson Blog Tour
You enjoy what you do and so do I! Please don’t retire anytime soon!
I’m still enjoying the tour and reading the daily posts.
[email protected]
Where do you come up with your material? Did you ever believe you would be so successful?
lisaglidewell[at]gmail[dot]com
Change and progress are interchangeable aren’t they.
I look forward to the changes that are in my future, and enjoying the adventure along the way.
Honestly, the Horror label has kept me from reading this material. Your words about that lable in your post require that I read something that had been pidgeon-holed in this genre. Which one of your books do you think I should buy to try it, the book you want your kids to look back on as a great book that Dad wrote? I will buy it and read it as soon as I can.
So the new era means I can publish everything, and I can do whatever I want without worrying about branding or platform or market or genre label or store category or all the other publishing considerations of Act I. All I have to worry about now is you.
It most definitely means you can publishing everything. This is fantastic news for the writers who can actually write; bad news for those who still need to learn. I’m all for self-publishing and have been touting it for years, but it also scares me that anyone can do it, especially these days. The reason is not fear of competition, but rather fear of readers being let down by works not yet ready for publication. You can only get burned so many times by trying out authors you don’t recognize before you default back onto those you do.
True, the cream rises to the top. This is always the fallback position. But as the waters get more and more swimmers wading into them, the athletes will have to perform even better to get ahead of the pack and stand out so readers will notice them.
You’re right in what you say: “All I have to worry about now is you.” It’s the “you,” the reader, that determines if your writing is a hobby or a living. It’s the reader that determines how much time we can invest in our craft without having to dilute that time with other things like a day job. Even more than one job, for some folks.
Let’s hope we succeed and stay ahead of the pack so we can pay it back to the reader by having more time to develop new stories for them. It’s the circle of the writing life. *cue Elton John*
Well, at least he was still thinking about you, though that is kind of a worrisome thing to say! (As a side note, my maiden name is Justice, so it’s still weird to see it elsewhere – when I was growing up, chances were, if anyone was named Justice, we were related.)
Margay1122(at)aol(dot)com
Your story is what makes look at ebooks in a positive light. Sure, they’re different from real books but something I can get instantly and that doesn’t take up any shelf space? Lovely!
You’re my kind of zombie, Scott, a zombie hungry for writing. Please keep me posted on those children’s books, too.
Scott,
I’m glad to hear that you love what you do. That is something I think we all strive to attain.
[email protected]
I am just getting into ebooks. Haven’t decided how much I will like them
jellybelly82158 at gmail dot com
Hi Scott, you rawk! Thanks for the chance to win a Kindle! I’ve been wanting one since DAY 1. Woooot! 🙂
purposedrivenlife4you at gmail dot com
Please everyone, don’t forget to leave some way to contact you–if I can’t find you a week after the drawing, I will have to pick other people. Also, The Red Church is the first goal for Top 100 push, as I’ve lowered it to 99 cents. Please review and tag it at Amazon to help make it more visible. Thanks! Let’s get that extra Kindle in the giveaway pile!
Tracy, Andrea, thanks, I am keeping on with the vision!
Lisa G, I am not wildly successful buy humbly grateful for having met some wonderful readers in my time. My ideas come from life and a lot of mountain folklore–follow the tour and you’ll see.
Jeff, sample either “As I Die Lying” or “Forever never Ends (pulp sci-fi) or “The Skull Ring” (suspense thriller) as examples of my non-supernatural work.
AP, I am not worried about the future–I trust it to sort itself out. All I have to do is everything I can!
Margay, and Justice for all!
Hodgepodge, that’s exactly what I mean about “horror” on the spine of the book immediately limiting the audience. It gets an immediate reaction from many people–often outright revulsion–because of all the movie posters with bloody axes. Heck, I am that way myself.
Pink panther Stalk away!
Scott Kimberlin, yes, I love it that audiences will be better able to find what they want. Some readers are actually scared of having to search the pile, but most are loving it.
Scott Nicholson
Love your tours! I adore ebooks but they’re burning a hole in my eyesight. I want to still see things when I reach 40… so maybe I’ll try to quit it someday…
woohoo. another day, another tour. This is fun
I think one of the problems with modern publishing is there need to pigeon hole everything.
If you do not exactly fit into the horror or the romance genre they don’t know what to do with you.
Independent solutions just avoid such obstacles.
These guest posts are great insight for aspiring authors like myself!
truebookaddict(at)gmail(dot)com
“The Harvest” was one of my favorite Scott Nicholson books and I pushed it pretty hard at the library using ‘vegetable zombies’ as a hook. Now Scott is coming out with an author’s preferred edition, I have to put it on my must-have list.
I love author preferred editions and try to get them over regular editions. Stephen King’s “The Stand” was better uncut than the original version. I suspect that I’ll feel the same way about “Forever never Ends” (formerly the book known as “The Harvest”).
–Greg the Undead Rat
theundeadrat (@) gmail (.) com
I love at set of book That you can find in sifi and in horror and in paranormal romance it’s a great series so do not let them stick you in one catagory.I believe it was a set of book by Tanya Huff I got it in sifi and then the same set of book my grandma got in horror and was telling me about then and I go I know I already have them but to me thay where not horror if enything thay where Paranormal Romance but thay came out in a time where paranormal romance was not big and thay had to but them somewhere so thay but them in meny places I guess .I guess its how the reader see’s them that matters the most.now that I renember it I have to get that set of books back from my neice she took them about three years ago.there great Vampires and Deamons and Werwolfs and a hole lot more.
sasluvbooks(at)yahoo.com
I’m a firm believer in writing what I want to write, so that’s what I do. I’ve done mystery, romantic comedy, romantic suspense, am partway finishing a romance about a country singer, have a thriller boiling, plus a book about my dog, Rascal. If you can’t write what you want, there’s no sense in writing.
Morgan Mandel
[email protected]
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Yes, having the term “horror” associated with your work can be a turn-off to a lot of people…like me! I saw part of one horror film in my whole life–one of the Friday the 13th movies–with my friends in high school. About 20 minutes in, I turned around in my seat and faced the back of the theater until it was over. I won’t even watch commercials or look at posters for that stuff. But I took a chance on Scott’s “Skull Ring”, and so far, I haven’t been disappointed.
–Maria
Diversity is good. We need some excellent “horror” writers to recmmend to people at my library. The only thing is that they get stolen.
kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com
This looks really great. THank you
Thanks for commenting and entering–unless more comments get moderated in today, the entries for the Kindle DX are capped at 73 entries for this stop. I hope you’ll make Hellnotes a regular Internet visit like I do. Thanks, Dave and the gang.
@Lisa, I get material from folk legends and real stories, but usually it’s a first sentence, a character, or a single vivid image that sets me on my journey.
@Greg, the Forever Never Ends (formerly The Harvest) is out as ebook and a week or two away from POD release. I also sell signed copies directly through my site, cheaper than anywhere else.
@stacey Yes, Tanya Huff was doing vampires long before they got trendy
@Norgan and Michelle, I’m glad to see writers followingt he tour so we can allshare ideas. It’s too lonely otherwise. See you on the other stops.
Scott
Nice blog, Scott. 🙂
conrad.jd (at) gmail (dot) com
awesome interview! good luck with the blog tour, scott!
-Len-
maidenveil(at)gmail(dot)com
Wonderful idea!
ivechosendarkness[@]gmail[.]com
Jeannine D
wuzzum(at)gmail(dot)com
Awesome giveaway! I’d love to have a Kindle! 😀
LaQ