Writer Beware

As I usually do in the mornings before I head off to work, I sat down in front of my computer with my coffee and checked my e-mail. As I've been focusing more on my day job and less on my novel and comic book endeavors, my Gmail account has been pretty quiet.

But today, I received the following letter:

Dear Percival Constantine,

A pleasant day!

I’m --------- a Marketing Specialist of Bookwhirl.com.

I came across with your book entitled, Fallen. We are interested to promote it and we’d like to help you reach out up to 5,000,000 individuals and let them know about you and your book.

Here at BookWhirl.com, we can help you achieve and attain the goal that you want the most for your book.

If your schedule permits, I would like to have an audience with you over the phone to discuss our different Marketing Services. Otherwise, you can always visit us online during your free time at www.BookWhirl.com. If you have any questions, know that you are always welcome to reply to this e-mail or give me a call at ---------- extension ----.

I hope to hear from you soon and have a nice day!

Sincerely yours,

--------------

I'm not an idiot. Not in any sense of the word. And I can smell a scam when I see one. This is definitely a scam. There are a few telltale signs right off the bat that this is not a legitimate marketing agency.

The first is the horrible command of the English language. If you're going to try and market a book, you should at least know the basics of grammar.

The second is that they contacted me and inquired only about my first novel, FALLEN. They didn't ask me about CHASING THE DRAGON and I know why -- they found my old website, which hasn't been updated in over a year. They did no other research on my name, they didn't bother to find out any additional information about me. Also, although FALLEN was published through Lulu.com, CHASING THE DRAGON was published through CreateSpace. So if they weren't trolling about my website, they were trolling Lulu's website looking for suckers.

The third is that they contacted me and any marketing agency that contacts a self-published writer out of the blue is one to be curious about.

A look at their website shows that their "affordable" prices range from $250 all the way to over $2000. Now, I have a very good full-time job in which I make a very healthy salary, more than enough to support myself. But despite this, I don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars to just blow away on a service like this. This is not an affordable service, not if you're middle class and certainly not if you're a struggling, first-time writer.

Their website also shows that they're a subsidiary of Yen Chen Support Corp, which I looked up. It's an Asian-based outsourcing company. Judging from the poorly worded e-mail as well as the comments I've read from other authors in which they were contacted by BookWhirl representatives who have very heavy accents and very broken English shows that these so-called "marketing specialists" are nothing more than telemarketers with a fancy title.

Publishing is a difficult business, especially if you're going the self-publishing route. You'll be lucky if you get anyone to buy your book, let alone turn a healthy profit. But you should still avoid "marketing" companies that rely on telemarketing and spam e-mail campaigns. If these are the tactics they use to advertise to you, what makes you think the tactics they use to advertise your book will be any different?

At long last, an update!

I probably should have done this a while ago, but I suppose it's serendipitous that I've chosen now to update because I've got some very good news to share with all of you. The first piece of news is that I've recently gotten some very positive feedback on Chasing The Dragon. Not in the form of reviews, unfortunately, but the fact that people are actually reading my work and enjoying it puts me on cloud nine. Hearing praise about a book you thought wouldn't go anywhere and no one seemed interested in brightens up my day. When someone approached me recently and told me how much he enjoyed it, I spent a good hour or so just asking him questions and talking with him about various subjects tangentially related to the work. Unfortunately, this hasn't been enough to spur my interest in finishing the sequel, Die By The Sword. And Elias Starr and the Prometheus Engine is still a bit stalled as well.

The second piece of good news is that my first writing assignment for AC Comics' Femforce title has been published! Here is the blurb from AC Comics' webpage:

"... the return of THREETA, last seen in FF # 142. As gangster Tony Balistreri has his renegade scientist fire the mystery weapon at THREETA, he has no idea of the socking results- it makes the king-sized superheroine even BIGGGER, in "Size Matters". But what happens when THREETA's mild-mannered alter-egos remain oversized as well? Script by Percival Constantine, Pencils bt Dennis Chacon, and inks by Jeff Austin."

You can purchase the issue on AC Comics' webpage.


The second big news is that I've caught the writing bug again! I just finished the manuscript of Love & Bullets, including the edits, and sent it off to some people. I'm really excited about this book and I'm very confident in its potential. As I've mentioned before, this is a very personal project for me. After both the film and comic versions fell through, I rewrote the first script, got about halfway into it before other things popped up.

Then, in answer to a challenge from my buddy Jason Franks (more information on him and the comic story we worked on together once I have it), I wrote up the opening scene from the revised script as a short story for an anthology. After I wrote it, I had the drive to keep going, so I novelized the entire story, making revisions where necessary and now, it's finished. I went through and edited it and then sent it off to some people who may be interested. More on that as it becomes available. But I have planned out the series connected to this book, at least roughly.

I've also got the writing bug in regards to another potential book series, featuring another character I've nursed for a while (and tried to do in comic form without much luck). I plan on getting started with one of those books very shortly, once I've decompressed a bit from the excitement over finishing Love & Bullets.

Sadly, not much else to report on other projects I've talked about here. The comic work has come to a stop for the most part, mainly because I have dealt with far too many artists who chose to stop answering e-mails. A note to anyone who wants to get involved in any sort of industry -- please keep in touch with people. If you can't take on or stay with an assignment, don't ignore e-mails. Just politely tell the person that you're no longer able to commit for whatever reason you may have. You can even make up a reason if you like, it doesn't matter, just as long as you have a reason.

But when you refuse to respond to messages, don't give any reason for the lack of a response, then you begin to develop a reputation as being unprofessional. And in an industry where there is an abundance of talent, far exceeding the availability, professionalism is key.

Writing Update

It's been a while since I gave an actual update, but here is what has been happening lately in my world. For starters, I should start by getting this off my chest -- I haven't written any original material in months. Both my current novel projects -- Elias Starr and the Prometheus Engine and Die By The Sword (the sequel to Chasing The Dragon) -- have come to a screeching halt. My attempts to bring these back up to the previous speed I had managed on them has met with frustration.

A few friends helped me deal with some self-doubt I've struggled with in my writing. All of them offered great support, but I want to draw attention to two of them in particular -- Josh Reynolds and Jason Franks. Josh, who writes for a number of anthologies, posted a link on my private web journal to the submission guidelines for several theme anthologies. Jason saw this and then challenged me to join him in submitting to Utility Fog Press' Assassin's Creed anthology.

At first I struggled. Then I remembered the aborted scripts for the Love & Bullets comic. I really love that story and the characters, Kyle Shire and I came up with some great stuff in that original screenplay. After the first issue of the series failed, I went back and rewrote the script for the first issue, although nothing more has come from this endeavor. So I dug out the script and adapted the first scene into prose and submitted it to Utility Fog. We'll see what comes from that.

On the plus side, this has led to me continuing to adapt the scripts to prose. I've gotten 7500 words written so far and haven't finished adapting the first issue of the six-issue series. This is a pretty good sign for me and I'll keep going with this. It's not any new material, but at least it's something and I think it's more marketable than my currently published novels.

As far as comic work goes, there has been some progress. Two pages for the Steampunk Western submission have been penciled, inked and lettered, several more pages still to go unfortunately. It's slow-going, but the pages are really high-quality -- Alain Chan and Jon Michiemo are blowing me away with their work. I think it has a very good chance of getting picked up by a publisher.

Also on the comic front, my first Threeta story for AC Comics' Femforce title has been completed and will be in their next issue. And, referencing Jason yet again, the story he and I co-write, Trauma Ward, has been completed for Black Glass Press' Kagemono anthology. Carl Yonder provided the artwork, some of the sharpest work I've seen from him, and I'm really proud of the lettering. This will take a bit longer before it's available, because Jason chose to make this edition of Kagemono a graphic novel instead of a single issue.

More information as it becomes available.

Size Matters

The Threeta story I wrote for AC Comics' Femforce title has the pencils completed and is going through the inking. In the meantime, I've been laying down some initial lettering to speed things up since the editors want to get this out ASAP.

There seems to have been some confusion with the characters so I've had to make some changes in the dialogue as I'm lettering. Nothing overly destructive though, so I've been able to be creative with it and manage things pretty well.

More information as it becomes available.

Progress Update

Unfortunately, there hasn't been that much progress on my work. I'm still writing, although I've just been focusing on some other stuff just to keep things fresh in my mind and to make sure I don't get out of practice. Between teaching, studying Japanese, and just life in general, I've been pretty busy these days, especially with the planning for my trip to Nagoya this weekend to visit an old friend from high school.

On the comic front, I wrote the conclusion to the Threeta story I took over for Femforce and I'm awaiting progress updates from Mark and Steph on that as well as the artwork on the first part I wrote. Rogue Nation has been stalled a bit -- Seng has had some other problems to deal with at the moment, but he's finished another page and it looks great. Alain has completed all the pencils for Steampunk Western and Jon, our inker, is working on them but with college finals, he was sidetracked. And on The Darkworld Chronicles, Dan has sent in some great layouts that look amazing and is working on the finished pencils. Manhunt, a project I'm lettering, seems to have gotten some interest. I'm awaiting final color pages so I can swap them out for the inked versions I've lettered. I'm also co-writing a story with Jason Frank for his Kagemono anthology.

As far as the novel front goes, Elias Starr and the Prometheus Engine is a bit stalled. I've been putting a lot of effort into Die By The Sword, the sequel to Chasing The Dragon and it's coming along nicely. I've written about a third of it so far.

What I've Written And Where You Can Find It

FALLEN

After the creation of the Earth and the birth of Man, the Presence seemingly vanished from existence. Once the angels and demons discovered that mortals possessed souls, they became locked in an endless conflict for ownership over mankind. But Gabriel, once the leader of Heaven's forces, felt humanity should be allowed to live in peace. For his transgression, he was stripped of his wings and expelled from Heaven. Now, centuries later, the wars of man have brought the world to ruin. Man's once-vaunted technology has regressed. Lance Kells, a drifting writer with no direction in his life, inadvertantly stumbles upon this war and finds himself trapped in the middle of it. As Lance tries to uncover the truth, he will encounter a host of intriguing characters, from a hard-drinking, pink-haired avatar of death to an elderly Native American mystic. During his journey, Lance will discover a method of ending a conflict as old as time, as well as a disturbing secret which links him to Gabriel.

"Combines elements of science fiction, horror both psychological and gory, Navajo mysticism, Christian dogma, action/adventure, comedy and even the modern day comic book (or graphic novels if you take your inner geek seriously) all wrapped up in a road trip."
-Derrick Ferguson

Available on Amazon.



CHASING THE DRAGON

Brenda McKenzie is a single mother working double-shifts as a waitress and struggling to make ends meet. But Brenda's life gets turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Alyssa, runs away with Ryan Cunningham, her heroin-dealing boyfriend. With the police providing no assistance, Brenda feels all hope is lost. Until the day a strange man offers his help. His name is Riker Stone and he has a monster lurking inside him--literally. Riker's quest will lead him to Ryan as well as the people who support him. And in his search for revenge, Riker will leave a trail of bodies. From Percival Constantine, the author of Fallen, comes a bloodspilling, ultraviolent tale of vengeance and horror in a fusion of splatterpunk and noir.

"If you like hardboiled crime fiction, you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading it. Especially if your tastes run more to the underground crime fiction of Vacchs and Izzo and Westlake, the turf usually staked out by the Parkers and Burkes of the world. Because this is a world where there is nothing but dark spaces, where the only way to be a hero is to out-bad guy the bad guys."
-Thomas Deja

Available on Amazon.

Rogue Nation

What once was Izujko Nation has now become Rogue Nation and even that name may not be final. But basically, Seng and I have come up with a pretty good premise and outline for the series and I've written a revised version of the first issue based on that. As such, the name also needed to be changed, but I'm still not totally sold on this new name. Either way, to the left you'll see a logo concept I did a few days ago.

Also included in this update is the first page. Seng not only penciled, but also inked and colored this page and I did some lettering for it. As with the logo, I'm not sure if this is the style of lettering I'll stick with in the final version or not, this is mostly just testing things out.

The important thing to take from this is that after a several year hiatus, this project is moving forward. I'm also happy to announce that two of my other projects have found artists as well. Dennis Chacon has signed on to do the Threeta story for Femforce and he submitted some great samples which Mark and Steph were kind enough to pass on to me. As of this writing, he's also finished the first page and so far, so good on that front. Also, The Darkworld Chronicles has found a new artist in the form of Daniel Andrews. His style's quite different from Justin's, but he totally fits the feel Justin and I were going for with this book. Since their styles are so different, Dan's had to redo all of the character designs and so far, they are great. I'll post some of those in a future entry.

And last but not least, I've been invited to submit a story for Black Glass Press' Kagemono horror anthology. I've got a rough story already done, just not sure if it's what they're looking for or not.