Zombie Apocalypse Mambo

My sales have started to pick up the last six weeks. I'm nowhere near getting rich or even being able to write full-time, but I'm happy to see the improvement with the holidays approaching. A big, big part of this, I hope, is the renewed interest in zombie stories thanks to AMC's TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.



Most of you know me as the guy who writes Living With the Dead, my fictional, real-time blog set in the zombie apocalypse and free to read at Livingwiththedead.net. Not to plug my work too shamelessly, but collections of the blog are available on the Kindle and Nook for purchase if you've got a hankering to take the blog with you in an easily readable format and like supporting indie authors.

I've talked in a few of the collections and in various other places about how The Walking Dead (the comic, not the show) was a huge part of my original inspiration to create and continue LWtD. I, like Robert Kirkman, wanted to explore a world beyond the two hours of a zombie movie. For me, that meant going into incredible, minute detail about daily life and living in the zombie apocalypse, to a degree that even Kirkman doesn't match in his comic.

I'm not saying I'm doing it better. That's not what writing is about. I'm telling my own story in a different format, one that lends itself to going into much greater detail than a comic can. Most people reading a comic are going to put the issue down in disgust of someone talks for a few paragraphs about how to zombie-proof a window.

But dammit, knowing how to keep zombies from breaking in through a window is important to us zombie nerds. How many times have we seen some person standing next to a thin pane of glass, only to have a rotting, skeletal hand smash through it to pull them into certain death? It's a crying shame.

As my friends and I watch the new season of TWD on AMC, we chat about the various elements of the story we like and don't like, and what characters we love and hate. I, being a person who has done serious damage to their brain over the last two years by having to constantly see the world in apocalypse terms, have a slightly different viewpoint.

When Daryl Dixon goes out killing (because the word 'Hunting' implies the possibility of failure. Daryl never fails to kill.) he's always so badass. He's got his trusty crossbow, his impressively sleeveless shirts, and an attitude that just fucking DARES a zombie to come at him. You want some, dead guy? Huh?

While I love Daryl and pray daily that the producers don't kill him off (which seems likely--someone that awesome is doomed. It's zombie movie 101) I still can't help but look at him as kind of a stupid guy. I mean, yes, he has mad hunting-since-I-was-a-lad country boy skills, he can track, he is a crack shot...

But dude. Sleeveless shirt. Jeans. ONE FREAKING WEAPON. No armor, no backup weapon like a machete or hatchet. Relying solely on his wits and observational skills to keep him alive.

Of course, I'm being overly critical. I love the show with a heart bigger than the Grinch's after he realizes the error of his ways. It's just that spending so much time writing as realistic methods as I'm capable of figuring out to stay alive in the zombie apocalypse has made me look at literally everything from the perspective of the fictional me I write as.

So when I watch TWD or Night of the Living Dead or 28 Days later, it's sort of like watching them while actually living in a world overrun by the dead.

I'm a nerd, I know. Just an interesting thought I wanted to share.

Oh, and just in case you've read this and are still wondering:

The best way to secure the standard window in a home from zombie intrusion is to cut pieces of plywood to fit both the interior and exterior sides. The thicker, the better. Using L-brackets and masonry screws (if your house is brick like mine), attach the plywood to the frame of the window, inside and out. Using this as a base, add layers of plywood to the originals until both sides are flush with the walls. On the inside of the house, cut a much larger piece of plywood to cover the whole thing, then nail it into the two by fours that surround the window under the drywall. Lots and lots of nails. On the exterior, use a piece of sheet metal to cover the entire window, with at least six inches overlapping onto the brick wall all the way around. Use a drill bit made to cut metal to put holes in it, then run masonry screws into the wall, securing the sheet metal.

It'll be easier for the zombies to knock down the bricks than come in that window, I assure you.

Being Generous

My brother-in-law shared an interesting article with me today. You can read it here if you'd like, but I'll cover the salient points.

What it boils down to is this: author James Crawford was selling an eBook on the Kindle store as well as several other electronic storefronts, and Amazon may have made an error that potentially cost him thousands of dollars. You see, his book, which sold on the Kindle for $5.99, was marked down by Amazon's automated system to free. This happened because their system uses an algorithm that crawls the web for the same content, then matches the price. The problem was that Mr. Crawford was only giving away a three chapter sample for free, not the whole book. In the time his book was being given away, it was downloaded more than six thousand times.

Now, the book being free likely caused this incredibly high number. I'm not saying Amazon isn't at fault for this error, but he probably doesn't have a legal leg to stand on due to the user agreements we agree to as publishers. I had a similar (but much less severe) problem last year. If I were him, I'd be happy for the huge burst of publicity and name recognition from so many downloads. My larger issue with this story was actually referenced in the article as more of a side note--Mr. Crawford only takes a 35% royalty on his book, refusing the 70% option because he doesn't want to be forced to allow people to lend his books.

Yes, you read that correctly. He's forgoing half his profits because he doesn't want anyone to lend his eBook to someone else. This is absurdly illogical to me. I know over the years I've bought dozens if not hundreds of books based on being lent the first book or two in a series. I know for a fact through talking to my readers that many of them had the first book in Living With the Dead lent to them, then went on to buy the rest of the series.

Hell, for that matter, I give it away for free. Living With the Dead is free to read online, and again I know from fan discussion that even daily readers will buy the books for several reasons. To support me, someone who gives it away for free, or to have a handy copy on their phone or Kindle to peruse at their leisure. I'm sure there are other factors, but the result is what matters: I sell more books because I give it away.

Lending is a great way to get new fans. I don't get why this guy is against it, but my own experience tells me that his logic, whatever it may be, is faulty on this.

The other thing that this article made me remember was that I've wanted to do a post on this blog for a while about an option self-publishers like me don't have on Kindle or Nook.

I'd love to be able to make my books free to download on their stores. Right now, that's not an option. 99 cents is the lowest I can go. LWtD has three volumes out now, and one special edition that collects volumes one and two and contains a TON of bonus material. I'd love to give the first one away for free, to have the option to do it at will. If I had 6,000 downloads of book one as a free title, and even half that number of purchases of the other volumes combined as a result in one month, I could do this full time. Those numbers wouldn't just make me a Professional Writer (all caps, even) but would note a HUGE increase in my income. 3,000 sales in a month would average out to at least $6,000, and that's probably a lowball figure.

There are a lot of ins and outs to learn being your own publisher, but then there are just as many you have to know even with a book deal and an agent. I deal with my distributors directly, and I have to understand how they operate, what their rules are, and be vigilant in order to keep myself from inadvertently losing out or having what happened to Mr. Crawford happen to me. As I continue to spread my work out to different areas, get more name recognition, and try to improve my sales, it behooves me to know the industry as well as possible.

Which leads me to wonder why such a powerful marketing tool as being able to give away books isn't available to indie writer/publishers like me. The large houses can do it. It's not as though reading is a zero-sum game. I encourage people to read the authors I like, many of whom are fellow indies like Joseph Paul Haines, Annetta Ribken, and Lori Whitwam--all of them friends, but not what I would call direct competitors. People read books, and I don't know any dedicated reader who will turn down one book for another. It's a win-win. Letting us give away books on the Kindle or Nook would cost Amazon and Barnes and Noble a little money in transmission costs, but the potential gains in sales of other works or even those works when put back into the paid category FAR outweigh them. People who read my stuff are very likely to read the books those folks I linked above have written, because I include links to them in my eBooks. I suggest them, people buy their books, and everyone makes money.

Wow. Long rant is long. Anyone have thoughts on this? Feel free to chime in below in the comments. I'm curious what all of you think.