January 13, 2021
Broken World Post Three
Welcome to Broken World Day Three!
Week 2, Day 3 – Broken World
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: July 2, 2014
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Universal
Audible
Goodreads
As a deadly virus sweeps the country, Vivian Thomas teams with brothers, Angus and Axl, in hopes of making it across the country to find the daughter she gave up for adoption. By the time they make it to California, most of the population has been wiped out, but when the dead start coming back, they quickly realize that no electricity or running water are the least of their concerns.
What was the publishing process for Broken World like?
I went over some of the details last week when I talked about Collision, but there’s a lot more to the story when it comes to publishing Broken World. During this time, I was actively looking for an agent, which takes a lot of research. You have to find someone who is open to submissions – not always easy – write a one page synopsis of your story, complete with character descriptions and arcs and major plot points, write a professional email introducing who you are and your background, and submit a portion of the book – most agents ask for the first three chapters. Then you wait. Sometimes you get a response, but most of the time you don’t – no response means a no. Sometimes it comes really fast, sometimes you wait a year. If the agent likes what you’ve submitted they’ll request the complete manuscript, and you have to wait again. Months. In my research, I’d come to realize that very few agents were open to zombie books, the reason being that no publishers wanted them because there was no market for zombie fiction. Which was why I wrote Broken World with the intention of self-publishing. As I said last week, I had no budget for an expensive cover – I got a few recommendations from other self-published authors and found out that a good cover could cost $200 or more – so I went to Fiverr and bought a gig for $5 and asked for a cover for my zombie book. I wanted no zombies on it and I mentioned that the group was traveling Route 66, but that was all. What I got back was amazing.
Then I got the publishing deal for Collision and put my idea of self-publishing Broken World on hold, thinking that having a publisher would be better. I submitted it, they read it and loved it, I signed a contract, and we moved forward. By the time they dropped me as a client – if you don’t know that story, you can find it here – my editor had already finished editing Broken World and I was literally less than a month from its scheduled release date. Since I had the cover from before, I decided to move forward with publishing it on my own, so it was released on July 2, 2014 two days before the original scheduled release date.
At this point, I was just hoping a few people other than friends and family would buy a copy, because I’d read over and over again that there was no market for zombie fiction. I’d dropped around $50 on a blog tour, hoping to get the word out a little and sales started trickling. Five a day at first, then twenty, then forty. July ended and over 700 ebooks had been sold or borrowed through Kindle Unlimited. Over 1,200 the following month. I was getting messages from readers, my reviews were fantastic, and people were dying for the next book. I don’t even know how so many people learned about it since I had almost no money for marketing, I just know that after thinking there was no market for zombie fiction, I was blown away by how many books I was selling.
Seriously, if you’re one of those people who gave me a shot when I was just starting out, thank you. Writing has always been my dream and the success of Broken World definitely gave me the confidence to write what I want and not be influenced by what’s popular or what’s selling.
