The Cerberus Rebellion
is a fantasy novel set in my Griffins & Gunpowder Universe. It is the first
novel of a planned six in its series. The Griffins & Gunpowder Universe
differs from traditional fantasy in that it's Gunpowder Fantasy. It blends
traditional elements of Epic Fantasy with rifles and railroads without going
into steampunk.
The Cerberus Rebellion
tells the story of a rebellion that rips apart the nation of Ansgar. It follows
four main characters who have different perspectives on the war and why it is
being fought.
Did you try the
traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?
Not with The Cerberus
Rebellion. This novel was planned and built from the ground-up with
Self-Publishing in mind. I had previously submitted other works to agents but
aside from one personalized note, all I got out of that was a stack of form
rejections.
Do you belong to a
critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?
I'm a new member of Scribophile which has already helped me
in the short time that I've been there by pointing out some of the larger scale
aspects of my writing that I need to improve on.
What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?
Previous experience with the traditional publishing model
was definitely one aspect. About 5 years ago I looked into self-publishing but
that was back when you had to buy massive runs of your work and weren't sure
that anyone would buy it anyways. With Amazon's KDP, after cover and editing
there's no inventory to manage.
Did you hire an
editor to review your manuscript before publishing?
Absolutely. Nick over at Everything-Indie.com went over
Cerberus several times, providing valuable feedback that I used to improve the
novel.
What have you learned during your self-publishing journey?
Not everything goes according to plan; I expected to publish
my novel in early September but thanks to a new laptop, I was able to get it on
the market by the beginning of July.
Besides Amazon, are
there any other sites where your books are for sale?
Right now, The
Cerberus Rebellion is only available via Amazon because I'm enrolled in the
KDP Select program. I intend to let it go for one more cycle in Select because
I plan on having Book 2, The Hydra
Offensive, available by the end of the year and want to use Cerberus as a
springboard. I do have three short stories, The
Gathering Storm, The Sithean Betrayal and The Red Dragon's Gold that are available on Kobo and Barnes &
Noble.
What kinds of
marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for promoting
your book(s)?
I have a blog at www.gunpowderfantasy.com
and I'm a member of Guild of Dreams (fantasycollective.wordpress.com). I've
very active on Twitter (@authorjkjohnson) and participate in about half a dozen
forums to promote my work.
Do you find it
difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing
your next book?
I have a pretty set schedule where I write; I do a lot of
on-the-go marketing via my smartphone and tablet
What advice would you
give a new author just entering into the self-publishing arena?
Keep writing. Like most everything else, you get better with
practice and the more titles that you have on the shelf the more visibility you
have.
What’s next for you?
I've got a novella set in the Griffins & Gunpowder
universe sitting on the shelf, waiting for me to go back over it after a hold
period. I'm currently working on the sequel to The Cerberus Rebellion: The Hydra Offensive.
Thanks for hosting me today!
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