I’ve been
following Dan Dillard for some time now on face book
and on his Demon Author Site.
Dan has a great sense of humor
and on his Demon Author Site.
Dan has a great sense of humor
His short stories are quite a fright and you find yourself wanting more
to read. I recently had the pleasure of reviewing two of Dan’s collections of
short stories called “Lunacy"
and “How to Eat a Human Being”
and let me tell you, they’re scary enough to keep you looking over your shoulder.
So without further distractions, let us begin.and “How to Eat a Human Being”
and let me tell you, they’re scary enough to keep you looking over your shoulder.
Dan, I loved the
two books that you shared with me and wanted to ask you a few questions if you
don’t mind.
Thanks!
Glad you liked them :)
1. How long have you been writing?
1. How long have you been writing?
I’ve written stories since I was a little kid. I wrote
my own version of “Halloween II” with Michael Meyers and all when I was about
12. I probably still have that somewhere. We’ve all made up our own versions of
the truth, haven’t we? Altered reality to make ourselves feel better, or perhaps
to stay out of trouble? What about day dreaming? I think writing is similar to
that, just letting yourself get lost in your own imagination, but recording it
as you go.
I started on Demons and Other Inconveniences (my first
book) in October of 2009. The next thing I knew, I had five books finished and
two screenplays and fifteen more stories started. Seems like a lot longer than
three years.
2. Where do you get your inspirations for your stories. They are dark and scary, so what sparks that mind of yours?
Sometimes it’s a local legend I hear someone describe.
‘Snakehead’ came from the tradition of hunting for morel mushrooms. It happens
all over the country, but I’d never heard of it until we moved to Bloomington,
Indiana. It was strange to me, but part of life that folks around here look
forward to every spring. So I had to make it evil. J
I am on the third draft of a screenplay about a
tooth-eating boogeyman that came from a story my brother-in-law told me at
dinner one night. It was something that scared him when he was a
kid.
‘Pig Man’ was a nightmare my wife woke from and told me
about.
There are elements of ‘The Unauthorized Autobiography
of Ethan Jacobs’ that came from my own nightmares.
A few times, I’ve thought of the title first and then
written a story to match. I don’t recommend that.
I also ask a lot of what-if questions, and that helps
me more than anything. You can take a classic tale and turn it on its ear by
peeling away the layers of legend and replacing them with more contemporary
human problems. ‘Unlucky in Death’ is about a vampire with a blood phobia. He
goes to therapy and finds no help. Eventually, his salvation lies in smoking
marijuana. It’s how he copes.
In ‘How to Eat a Human Being’, there’s a story called
‘Refractions’ which came from looking in a mirror. I wondered if the reflection
on the other side came to life, would it be exactly the same? No, it’s a mirror
image. Then I noticed some scratches in the mirror, and thought about other
differences. The more imperfections in the mirror, the more different that world
would be. I guess I have a lot of time to day dream. Inspiration is everywhere.
What if a coffee shortage caused a zombie apocalypse? What if we ran out of
cattle—what would the fast-food restaurants use? Could you kill someone with a
felt-tip pen? How would you go about describing it and why would you use that
instrument, was it a gift from an abusive lover?
They aren’t all interesting, but sometimes a story
shines through. See? I’m rambling already.
3. Did you find it harder to go the route of self publishing and what advice could you give to other writers that want to try this route?
This is a tough question. I’m very impatient. I did
send some stories out to several publishers and agents and the responses were
mostly this: we don’t do short stories. They weren’t necessarily negative to my
writing, but they were all rejections—dozens of them. That’s something any
artist—musician, writer, actor, painter—has to learn to live with. Art is so
subjective, you have to find your audience and trust that they are out there.
Major publishing houses are evolving much more slowly
than self publishing. My opinion is that the old model is just that—old. E-books
have changed everything. Unfortunately, they have also moved the slush pile to
the general public and that makes it harder for indie writers to get found. It’s
a hard road either way. I think writers should write. Do it because they want
to. It’s not a get rich business. There are standouts and lucky ones where
lightning strikes, but for the most part, it’s a skill, just like cooking a
cheeseburger, painting a house or building a computer. If you do it well, you’ll
find an audience.
Personally, I think the writing part is easy, even the
formatting, cover art, etc. comes easy to me… it’s the marketing that makes my
hair gray and my beer disappear.
4. I enjoy the way you keep your followers on facebook updated on what your latest writing project is. What other marketing tips could you give writers who want to promote their work?
Ahhh, Facebook. Twitter, Google +, Goodreads, Shelfari,
Authonomy, Linked In… all HUGE wastes of time that could be spent writing. I
still feel like there is something to be gleaned from all of the social media,
but here’s the thing I notice most: it’s a bunch of writers spamming each other
and asking everyone to buy their books. Follow me, friend me, plus me… In the
end, everyone will follow everyone else and then we’ll be right back to where we
started- anonymous. What I’m learning to do is pare down the folks to a minimum,
and keep them organized a bit so I can keep up with the ones who really seem to
have something to say. I deleted 4000 facebook friends this past spring and it
felt fantastic. Nothing personal, just too many people to keep up with, most of
which never even realized I was gone. Still, I get a kick out of Facebook.
People are funny critters.
Marketing is the hard part. How to find people who want
to pay you for your writing… If I put a book out there for free, people download
the crap out of it. If I make that same book 99 cents, the downloads stop
completely, maybe a trickle. 4 and 5 star reviews don’t sell books either.
Advertising online doesn’t really work either. It’s tough because you could take
out a full page ad in the New York Times and probably sell a lot of books, but
that full page ad cost upwards of $80,000. Will you sell 80,000 copies? Probably
not. You have to invest wisely.
What works? Word of mouth. The hard part is getting
people talking about your work.
I had well over 100,000 downloads last year. Only a
small percentage was from paid purchases. There is a strong correlation between
giving something away free and the sales it generates. I give away a free story
from ‘Demons and Other Inconveniences’ and people will buy that book. There’s no
risk in downloading a free story, and if they don’t like it, they move on, but
if they do, maybe they’ll buy one of my books. If they like the book they
bought, they might buy another, but better yet, they might tell a friend or two
about it!
Going to conventions and book signings helps too. I’m a
wimp when it comes to public speaking, shaking hands, and self promotion—so I
don’t do near as much networking as I should, but it does work. Conventions
especially—it might cost $200.00 for a table, and you might only make four or
five sales, but you might meet 150 people and that’s the key. I need to get on
that circuit and off the internet.
It’s really that simple. ONE READER AT A TIME. If you
catch a break, that’s great, but don’t go in expecting that break to happen
without a lot of work.
5. Do you get a lot of support from your family?
Yes. They buy all my books ;o) . Even my
father and my aunt, who I know are offended by some of the outlandish things I
write— sex, over-the-top violence, extreme profanity… They still encourage
me.
They also proofread, edit, and most importantly: they
tell me to keep writing. They also inspire my imagination more than they will
ever know. Especially my kids. They’ve brought back the wonder I had when I was
a kid… might be why so many of my stories involve
children.
6. If you could teach one lesson on the trials and errors of writing and publishing, what would it be?
If you believe the positive reviews, you also have to believe the negative ones. Lose your ego. There are better stories out there, better writers out there and people with more experience than you.
You aren’t perfect and neither is your writing. Once
you get past that point, it makes things much easier.
Learning to take criticism is a skill as well. It isn’t
personal when people critique your writing or find mistakes. If a review reads
like a personal attack (and I’ve had a few of those), it’s just an idiot who is
mad about something else—maybe because you stuck your neck out there and
published a story and they haven’t had the guts to do it
themselves.
What the author needs to do is learn to pick out the
parts that help them write better.
If a review says: I didn’t like the story because the
main character had blond hair and drove a stupid car… that’s a worthless
review. Don’t get mad at the fact that they gave you a one-star on Amazon.
Discard it for now and go back and laugh at it later.
I had a reviewer trash one of my stories because he
didn’t like the ‘meter’ in which I’d written a poem, said it didn’t flow well
for him. That’s an opinion.
I’ve had a reviewer give one of my stories one star
because she said it was disturbing and scary. She thought it was
going to be a feel-good story, even though it was listed as horror.
That is her mistake, not mine, and I consider it
positive advertising for the story.
But! Occasionally, you’ll get a review that says things
like “POV shift” or “Leap of Logic” or “There were some spelling errors on page
XXX” or “You left in one of your editor’s comments, dumb-ass.” Those are
helpful, and teach you things to look out for.
These are all actual notes from my proofreaders and
reviewers.
So, in short—write, write, write. Then proofread,
proofread, proofread. Then edit, edit, edit. When you think you’re done editing,
edit again. A well written, well edited story is what it’s all about. If you
can’t do that first, you don’t need to look any
further.
-- Dan Dillard
email: demonauthor@gmail.com
website: http://www.demonauthor.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheDemonAuthor
twitter: @demonauthor
google+: http://gplus.to/dandillard
So let me end this interview with a great big thank you to Dan Dillard and a recommendation to my readers to check out his books.....booingly scary
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