Category: Writing

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How Do You Keep Writing and Where Do You Get Ideas?

How Do You Keep Writing and Where Do You Get Ideas? I’m glad you asked because that’s what I’ll tell you.

The first rule is to desire to write. I love writing crazy ideas into books, surprising and entertaining people. I truly would do it for nothing. In fact, my net profits so far are nothing.

I loved writing Zombie Turkeys. That way I got to write ridiculous chapters with weddings and zombie turkeys.

How Do You Keep Writing
Zombie Turkey dressed for a wedding. Chapter icon

Then, I sought to top myself with My Undead Mother-in-law. I had to make a new villain, one so evil you would feel sorry for the zombies. I made a sociopath who used cyborg animals to commit crime, like capuchin monkeys, rats, and black mambas.

How Do You Keep Writing
Rat, capuchin monkey, and black mamba cyborgs chapter icon from My Undead Mother-in-law

Now, how would I top myself again for my third book? I hated repeating myself. I needed something related, but totally beyond a mere undead mother-in-law. How about if I put the zombie family on a luxury yacht, give them a letter of marque from the President, and send them around the world fighting American enemies, public and private? That’s a start!

My undead family would be zombie pirates. But that phrase is too common. Paranormal Privateers became the title of my third book.

How Do You Keep Writing
Paranormal Privateers Andy’s third book

Next, a disaster happened.

Ruh Roh! Writer’s Block

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEffUAATOY8

I got stuck writing this book. How could I keep topping myself? My paranormal privateers fought pirates, slavers, terrorists, and prevented a nuclear holocaust. What could come next?

I needed a change, a total surprise. But how do I get there? What did I want to write? I loved 1950s science fiction movies. So I wrote what I loved. That is how you break writer’s block. Return to your passion.

I can’t tell you what I did without spoiling the book, but I’ll give you some hints.

Your first hint:

Your first hint

Now, your second hint.

Your second hint.

That is your second rule to keep writing year after year: write what you love.

I finished Paranormal Privateers two months after NaNoWriMo, in January 2018. It appeared in ebook and print on Amazon and later Audible.

(By the way, you can get all my books at Audible. They’re free if you’re a member. Zombie Turkeys, My Undead Mother-in-law, and Paranormal Privateers. Or, if you want a free copy, just write me and I’ll send you one in exchange for an honest review.)

But what would I write next? I burned myself out on zombies. This leads to your third rule.

How Do You Keep Writing: Write Something New

Where could I go next? What else did I love writing? What did I love reading? Young adult science fiction. Everyone wants a superhero origin story. I wanted to do one of those for my fourth book.

But this had to be different, unusual. Superman got his power from birth on another planet. Batman got his power through intelligence and training. How about an ordinary hero? How about an unlikely hero? What was the least likely hero?

Now I get personal. My daughter’s been disabled with cerebral palsy since her birth. What if my hero had cerebral palsy–and his superpower didn’t take it away?

Then superheroes often come in teams. What if they were all disabled, each with a different disability and a different superpower?

I had my next book: Secret Supers.

How Do You Keep Writing
Secret Supers cover

Finally: Your Free Books

These offers are just good until October 31st.

First, you get Zombie Turkeys for free. Click here.

Free Zombie Turkeys
Free Zombie Turkeys ebook

Now you get your BIG GIFT: 31 Free books follow and end this blog post.

31 free books for you
Click for 31 free books. Only until October 31, 2019
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How You Can Publish 4 Books in 3 Years Like Andy Zach

How You Can Publish 4 Books in 3 Years – stop reading! Go to the first part of this blog now, How I Published 4 Books in 3 Years.

If you just came here for the first time, welcome! I’ve been a self-published author for three years and I’ve blogged the whole time.

But you want to know how I did it. My first post covered publishing Zombie Turkeys, my first book. (Psst! If you want a free copy, go here. This link is only good for a limited time.)

You Can Publish 4 Books
Zombie Turkeys

I left off that post mentioning my second book, My Undead Mother-in-law. Here’s the story of that publication.

You Can Publish 4 Books
My Undead Mother-in-law

First, I didn’t take time off after Zombie Turkeys came out October, 2016. I entered November NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of MUM (as I like to abbreviate it.)

I finished up the book in January and sent the book to my editor, Dori Harrell, as with Zombie Turkeys. Then I contacted my illustrator Sean ‘Fuzzy’ Flanagan. He stressed the covers should look similar, so people can see this is a series. He created another fantastic cover.

Like before, the back cover is a scene from within the book. In this case, the first chapter family meal with the zombie family, the Newby’s and the normal inlaws. Did you notice the back cover is a parody? Compare it to this famous Norman Rockwell painting.

Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell

Fuzzy also created unique chapter icons, like this next one:

MUM Chapter 1 Icon

You Can Publish 4 Books in 3 Years – The Process

At this point, I’m getting a rhythm to working with my editors and illustrator and Amazon. I used over a hundred step project plan for Zombie Turkeys. For you, I’ve boil it down to:

  1. Write as much as you can every day until you’re done with the first draft.
  2. Then edit your first draft. Remove all grammar and spelling errors. (I use the free version of Grammarly).
  3. Next, hire an editor. I hired Dori Harrell.
  4. Also get an illustrator, like Fuzzy Flanagan.
  5. Then you’ll need a book format editor like Rik Hall. He puts your final manuscript into a professional format for print and ebook publishing.
  6. Now you can upload your manuscript and cover to Kindle.
  7. Consider this optional step: print out an author copy to check. I did that with Zombie Turkeys, but not the other books.
  8. Finally, you can publish it. Plan a date two to four weeks in the future for time to generate buzz and interest.
  9. Don’t forget to hold a launch party on the day of your book’s availability. Choose a library or bookstore and advertise it. I also advertise online by creating a Facebook event for each book launch.
  10. You can now buy posters and promotional material for selling at book conventions.
  11. Finally, sell your book at conventions. I’ve gone to Chabanacon, PennedCon, Archon, and Quadcon.
  12. Start writing your next book

What’s Next? Last Notes

My goal is to publish a book every nine months. A successful author said he writes four per year in a series and releases them every month for four months. I may try that in the future.

Would you like that? How about if I wrote four volumes of my Secret Supers series and release them monthly? Would you like that? Let me know. I’ll send you a free short story for your response.

You Can Publish 4 Books
Secret Supers

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How I Published 4 Books in 3 Years – You Can Too

Yes, I Published 4 Books in 3 Years. Here they are:

Published 4 Books
Andy Zach’s Published 4 Books

First I published Zombie Turkeys on October 31, 2016. Then ten months later, out popped My Undead Mother-in-law on August 5, 2017. I still strove to hit my nine-month publishing goal with Paranormal Privateers, which debuted on May 5, 2018. Finally, I switched genres to middle-school science fiction with Secret Supers, appearing March 29, 2019.

I feel like these dates are the birthdays of my children!

4 Books Published
The Andy Zach Family, before publishing

In the next section, I’ll give you a rundown of my steps in publishing.

4 Books Published – First Zombie Turkeys

  1. I wrote the first draft in November – December 2015 – I used NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) as my motivation. You can too!
  2. Then I self-edited my book – inefficiently. January to March 2016. I checked grammar and spelling and reviewed checklists of what not to do. I think I went through six or seven revisions.
  3. Next, I studied publishing and self-publishing. ‘Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, Volume 2‘ and How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle were my primary influences.
  4. In April, I worked with an editor for the first time. April to August 2016, Dori Harrell. She’ll work with you too! This created another six or seven revisions.
  5. I knew I needed a cover artist, so I got one: Sean “Fuzzy” Flanagan. We went through ten ideas and we selected the handprint cover. August to September 2016.
  6. Then, I bought IBSNs from Bowker. September 2016.
  7. After this, I set up Amazon Kindle and Createspace accounts. They’re now merged. September 2016.
  8. I learned I needed a format editor: someone who edits the text into ebook and print formats, Rik Hall of Wild Seas Formating. You need him, too. September 2016
  9. I set up a website, zombieturkeys.com. It’s now merged with andyzach.net. October 2016
  10. Finally, I uploaded my edited ebook and print book with their covers to Amazon and set the launch date to October 31st. October 2016
  11. Before I could order books, Amazon had to approve them. As soon as they did, I ordered my print books. Mid-October 2016.
  12. Then, I set up my book launch party at the Peoria North Library for October 31st. That was probably a mistake. I learned that some people were out, due to Halloween.
  13. I got my print books in the mail. Huzzah! I got them just before the launch party. Late October 2016.
4 Books Published
My First Book Copy

The first concept sketch for Zombie Turkeys:

Zombie Turkey Concept Art

Zombie Turkeys, the first sketch

Next, My Undead Mother-in-law

I knew I had to surpass my first book with my second one. I had to be crazier, funnier, wilder, more exciting, more violent. In November of 2016 when I wrote my first draft of My Undead Mother-in-law. I’ll tell you what I learned through that book in my next blog post.

This one is long enough.

My Undead Mother-in-law, Andy Zach’s second book

But naturally, you’ll have questions. Ask me! I‘ll do my best to answer you.