What genre do you
write and why?
I write in a mix of three
different subgenres of speculative fiction (i.e., apocalyptic science fiction, modern
paranormal fantasy, and horror) with a bit of action/adventure thrown into the
mix. I write in these genres because I
write the types of stories that I personally love to read. Eventually, I hope
to do a steampunk book because that is another of my favorite subgenres.
Tell us about your
latest book.
My most recent book, Hell Holes: Demons on the Dalton, is book 2 in my Hell Holes trilogy. In the first book, Hell Holes: What Lurks Below, an oil
company hires a team of scientists to study one of the hundreds of huge holes
that mysteriously appeared overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle . When an invading horde of demons flood out
of the holes, the team is forced to flee to the mothballed Pump Station 2 along
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. In book 2, the three survivors from the first book
are chased south down the treacherous Dalton
Highway Fairbanks
How was this book
published? (traditional, small press, self pub, etcc...) Why did you choose that particular publishing
route?
While my six technical books have all been
published by traditional major publishers, I am a proud indie author and
publish my fiction under my personal imprint Magical Wand Press. With the
advent of print on demand (POD), ebooks, and distributors such as Amazon’s
CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Smashwords, IngramSpark, and
InstaFreebie, it has become almost trivially easy to self-publish. This way, I
have far more artistic control. I am able to make changes anytime that I want,
and I can have fixes and improvements out in just a few days.
What marketing methods
are you using to promote your book?
I’m actually using quite a few with blog tours
probably being the most effective single approach. However, I find that one
really has to use a lot of different marketing approaches if you want to see
your book claw its way up to near the top of one of Amazon’s subgenre-specific
top 100 best seller lists. I’ve captured what I’ve learned over the last couple
of years in a new book I’ve titled Free
and Low-Cost Marketing for Indie Authors. The book manuscript is about 90%
done, and until the book is finalized and launched, you can download a free
current draft copy from my author’s website (http://donaldfiresmith.com/free-and-low-cost-book-marketing-for-indie-authors/).
Do you read your book
reviews? How do you deal with the bad or good ones?
I read each and every review, both the good and
the bad. Few readers realize just how important reviews are, not just to help
prospective readers decide which books to read but also to use authors,
especially indie authors like me. A good review does not merely summarize the
book; that’s what book blurbs are for. The best reviews say what the reader
specifically liked and didn’t like, which can help an author write better books
(and fix mistakes that somehow made it past the editors and beta readers).
Actually, intentionally negative reviews aren’t the hardest ones for me to
take, because they often have something to teach me. It is the occasional
review that is inconsistent with itself that bothers me the most. I get very
frustrated when all of the text is highly positive, but the star rating is only
3 stars, which Amazon considers to be a critical (i.e., negative) review.
What formats is the
book available in?
Paperback and three ebook formats: mobi
(Kindle), epub (Nook), and pdf.
Where can people find
out more about you and your writing?
Please check out my official author website (http://donaldfiresmith.com), and you can
also subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, Firesmith’s Speculative Fiction
Newsletter.
Do you believe in
writers block?
I’ve never really suffered traditional writer’s
block, per se. I do have days when a chronic illness leaves me physically or
emotionally unable to enjoy writing or even force myself to write. But usually,
my problem is finding sufficient time to write.
How do you research
your books?
First and foremost, it’s the Internet and my
favourite search engine, Google. It’s amazing what you can find in the way of
textual information and images. For Hell
Holes: Demons on the Dalton, I also used Google Maps street view to
virtually drive the part of the Dalton Highway that I had not been able to
visit in person. Part of the action takes place at Eielson Air Force Base, and
I got the base historian to give me a tour of all of the relevant parts of the
base that are used in the Hell Holes
trilogy including even “The Vault” where classified planning meetings take
place. I also had three military advisors who helped me get the military
aspects right, and a University
of Alaska Fairbanks
What is your work in
progress? Tell us about it.
The Hollywood
producers, Michael Chamoy and Nat Mundel, just acquired the shopping rights to
my Hell Holes trilogy with the
ultimate aim of making a major feature film. They are hiring a writer for the
script and film treatment, and I am busy producing a Hell Holes Cheat Sheet to
help them understand the books’ characters, the different types of demons, and
Hell – the demons’ homeworld. Mike also gave me two great recommendations that
will make the script more marketable and also improve the books. So the other
thing I am currently doing is making some significant improvements to my first
two Hell Holes books to make them consistent with the script.
