Today I'm sitting down with Calgary author Adam Dreece, taking advantage of his exciting new book's release to ask about every aspect of his writing - and some non-writing - life.
You, sir, are a self-publishing success story. Your Yellow
Hoods series sells widely and each book seems more popular than the last, both
with children and with adults. When you leapt into this venture, what surprised
you? Did you expect to keep on doing it, and did you expect you’d gain so much
recognition so fast?
Um… you can’t see me blushing, right? Good. Thanks for that
lead-in.
When I wrote my first book, Along Came a Wolf, I honestly didn’t expect it to find an audience.
I’ve been a misfit in so many areas of life, from school to today, that I
honestly was prepared to learn whatever I could from how things went with Along
Came a Wolf, and use it to make me stronger going forward. When it found an
audience and started to sell (even with the original cover), I was surprised.
The success of the second book was what really took me by surprise. Did I
really write something that was appealing to people? Were they actually seeing
how it was written on multiple levels and… and liking it? Really?
Like many (most? all?) writers, I’m haunted by doubt. But every time I start thinking what I’ve written isn’t any good, whenever I think I might have hit the end of my road, my fans seem to show up and punch that doubt off my shoulder. There’s nothing like being at a comic-con event, standing behind your table, when someone shows up saying, “I love all of your books. What do you have new? I don’t care how different it is, I want it.” And the next day, when you see them and wonder if maybe now you’ve lost them as a fan, they come over and say, “I’m 5 chapters in. This is brilliant.” Man, that refuels the confidence tanks tons.
Talk to me about the ways self-published authors help or
hinder themselves in the marketplace. How many mistakes did you make in your
early efforts and how have you fixed them?
Oh, wow, there are many places where indie authors hinder themselves, from skimping on editing to 3rd rate covers to page layouts that don’t breath. In the self-publishing space, very often authors don’t realize they have become a publisher, and that comes with an entire set of business responsibilities above and beyond just writing.
When I worked at Microsoft, there was an executive who used to say that he didn’t care if he made mistakes as long as he could outrun them. I think that’s the essence of my career so far: learn, listen, think, pivot.
When we (my wife’s my business partner) first released Along Came a Wolf, we had 2 days to get a
cover done so we could launch at CalgaryExpo (100k people attend CalgaryExpo
each year, it’s a comic-con type event). The book sold well, but I quickly
learned the cover wasn’t speaking enough to genre, and that it needed a
re-edit, despite the great work done by a friend of mine who was a part-time
editor. Two months after launch, after selling about 400 copies, we got a new
cover, printed new books, and pulped nearly all the remaining 600 copies. It
was a tough business decision, but I wasn’t going to keep selling books that
weren’t at the caliber I wanted people to associate with my name and my brand.
Being an indie authors allows a lot of freedom, and sometimes that can be paralyzing, and sometimes that can allow you to do things that are terrible ideas. When I wrote The Wizard Killer – Season One, I wasn’t sure if this was a mistake in the making or a potential hit. I took the idea of post-apocalyptic stories and applied it to a magical world, and then wrote it in an episodic style, using a TV show model in terms of climaxes. Then I allowed myself to use a made up swear, a lot. I posted the raw episodes online every week, and had a small following, but would this sell? Would people stop and pick it up? I decided to roll the dice and see. It was radically different from The Yellow Hoods, though still within the realm of young adult fiction. Well, it’s turned into 1/3 of all sales.
Now, I’m releasing The Man of Cloud 9, which is a very
different type of science fiction from the vast majority that’s out there. It’s
character-centric, it’s emotional, and it’s cerebral. As one early reviewer
said, you couldn’t get further away from The
Wizard Killer if you tried. Several loved it, a few had a hard time
handling that it was the same author as The
Wizard Killer. Is it a mistake? No. At worst, it means that I’ve got a
challenge on the marketing side, to make sure that I find the fans of 1960s
style sci-fi and works like The Sparrow. If things are well-written, well-conceived, and well put together, you can find a niche for it. It just might
take more effort than you originally planned.
You admit to many hours spent playing Dungeons & Dragons
as a teen and young adult. Yet you don’t play now. What did that game bring to
your story-telling, your life, and why aren’t you still playing it?
From the age of 7 to probably 16, I spent VAST amounts of
time playing Dungeons & Dragons, or more specifically, being the dungeon
master/storyteller. I think there were a few days in there when I was
‘allowed’ to play.
It taught me a ton about world building, about dynamically
adjusting stories, and about the nature of people. As I got older and engaged with
games like the cyberpunk game Shadowrun, I pushed my plots and allowed for bad
things to happen as a consequence of the characters' actions. The impact was
fascinating. I remember sitting in the gamers' lounge of my college, listening
to guys talk about campaigns, no one knowing who I was. And at one point,
someone started talking about this legendary campaign where the actions of
the heroes resulted in the death of a kid that was central to the story, and
how that had knocked all the players into a light depression. I stood up,
corrected a few facts, and was asked as I was leaving the room. “How would you
know?”
I smiled and replied, “Because I was the guy running that
campaign.”
D&D taught me a lot about what was ‘epic’, and what would sit
with people. With university, and then building my IT career, role-playing went
by the wayside, with two attempts to bring it back. These days, my daughter’s
asking about D&D, so it might be
making a return into my life. We’ll see.
Your first Yellow Hoods book, Along Came a Wolf, is a retelling of a bedtime story you once
invented for your daughter. It’s often praised for its female characters who are
both adventurous and very much girls, ie not girls acting like boys. How
conscious are you, during the story process, of writing characters who will be
good role models for your own children as well as other people’s?
I spend a lot of time reflecting on my characters and their
actions. As a young adult writer, I take responsibility to consider
what I’m putting on the page, and how it could resonate with someone. I like my
villains to be complex, my heroes to be flawed and growing, and the evil I
bring in to be carefully thought through. I once said on a panel that I would
never write a psychotic character from their own perspective, which would have
to include the enjoyment of their actions, etc. I can’t put that on a page.
One of the best foils I have for my characters is my
daughter. I love giving her my early drafts and seeing what she thinks. She’s
challenged me on a number of things over the years, and it’s awesome.
Your new book, The Man of Cloud 9, is half a galaxy away
from the low-tech world of the Yellow Hoods. It’s written for adults, another
departure. Why the switch?
The Man of Cloud 9
was part of two experiments this year. I wanted to give my more mature fans
something more emotional, cerebral and personal, as well as putting something
new out there to bring in a new audience. I think of The Man of Cloud 9 as fitting into that classical science fiction
space, ages 12-14 and up. With no kid characters, with no constant action,
and with having a lot more social complexity, I was giving my readership a new
part of me to discover that, for all I know, could be their favorite part.
First and foremost, I had to write this for me. The amount
of myself that I reveal through the story terrified me at times, and I stopped
a few times thinking that maybe I should hide some of it behind extra action or
‘exploring the world' moments, but then decided against it. I was going to put
on the table something that, in a lot of ways, was my goodbye to my technical
career, wrapped in the me that I’ve become.
I’d rather be the writer who lost some readers because of
something that flopped, than not write what could have been the key
to a whole new level in my career.
What’s next for you?
Right now, I’m working on Book 5 of The Yellow Hoods, titled The Day the Sky Fell (April 2017). Alongside that, I’m writing Season 2 of The Wizard Killer, due in February. Though, like any writer's, the planning part of my mind’s already wondering what I’m bringing out in Fall of next year other than Season 3 of The Wizard Killer.
I have a sequel for The Man of Cloud 9 in mind, but I’m not
sure when I want to write that. I have a number of stories jockeying for the
Fall, from my dieselpunk story, The Torrents of Tangier, to the Autobiography
of the Villainous Mister Simple, to a few others.
The best thing people can do is stay tuned to my Twitter
feed (@AdamDreece) or my facebook page (AdamDreeceAuthor) to find out what’s
coming next.
Thanks so much for the interview, Jayne. This was great.
The Man of Cloud 9
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/
Order signed hardcopies from Owl's Nest: http://bookmanager.com/
The Yellow Hoods
Amazon eBook & Print: http://smarturl.it/
The Wizard Killer
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/
Online Presence
Twitter @AdamDreece
Facebook /AdamDreeceAuthor
Blog AdamDreece.com
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