And so it begins...

So, I've spent almost two years now writing and editing a novel. It's the first in a series. The novel is about a man sentenced to death. Only the setting is a post apocalyptic American Empire and his death sentence is to be dropped off in the city of Necropolis which is a city of vampires. It's called Shining in Crimson.

I have big plans with this site.


To start with I will be serializing an audio podcast of my novel in it's 4th draft. It won't be perfect, but it will give people an idea of what it will become.


Beyond that I have several possibilities in mind that I am considering from this point. For the longest time I was decided that I would go through the traditional publishing route. But recent developments (see the links at the bottom) in the publishing world have wavered my trust in the traditional market and enticed me to the possibilities of self publication.

Typically people self publish without any understanding of what it really takes to make a book salable. I'm certainly no expert. But I'm learning new things every day and between reader feedback and possibly the help of an editor or two I plan on making my book as good as it possibly can be before either self publishing it or seriously seeking out traditional publishing.

So, here it is. My experiment. In the coming weeks I will post the first 2 or 3 chapters of my novel in plain text on this blog as well as a link to download the audio versions of these chapters. I plan on including music in the audio versions. Some of my instrumental music to start with and then possibly branching out to other groups or artists who would like to join forces with me. I will continue to do this for the entire 4th draft of my novel, cover to cover. Some things will likely change from time to time, but we will see how it goes.

One last thing:

I encourage comments, good or bad!




The promised links:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/02/time-is-money.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-a-Self-Published-Author-Sells-Thousands-of-Books-on-Kindle



Some Authors who have been successful with self publishing:

J.A. Konrath

Amanda Hocking

and J.L. Bryan


And for other big horror fans out there here's a treat:

David Wellington, author of the Monster Island trilogy, the 13 Bullets series, and the Frostbite series is not a self publisher however he did start a lot of his books as online free serializations (part of what gave me the idea to do an online serial).

His serials became so popular that he managed to get a publishing deal and has went on to publish three horror series and is planning on publishing a fantasy series under a pseudonym later this year.

His webpage (when it is back up) where you can find his free serials is at www.davidwellington.net.