Dylan West interview
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
A little introduction:
I’m a Jesus lover, web developer, video game developer, Navy vet, foreign language nut, and a nut in general. While other people are busy thinking normal thoughts, I’m crafting corny jokes. I live in Chesapeake, VA, with my wife and daughter. I'm also into powerlifting ( easing get back into it, anyhow) and coaching and judging speech and debate for homeschooled high school students.Influenced by my speech background, I've memorized the whole first chapter of my debut novel, and will perform it at my book launch and at all my book readings. I do the voices and act out the scenes as a one-man show š
This is the face of a guy who's thinking about world building details:
Here's the text version of the back book description:
People worship technology on Planet Daishon.With inventions that prolong life and eradicate disease, it’s little wonder. Death seems obsolete until an earthquake kills thousands, including Mallory’s parents. They should have lived for a thousand years, not just fifty. Mallory scrambles for answers. Such a disaster shouldn’t be possible.Quakes have never happened on this world before.Suspecting the top research center had triggered it, her best friend’s father investigates. When he turns up missing, Mallory goes on site after him as a geology intern. She can’t bear to lose anyone else.An old mine sits at the epicenter of the recent quake, and an unbreakable alien barrier seals it off. But a door hidden in its surface opens for Mallory when she translates its engravings. Once inside, she evades underground predators while cut off from the tech that’s always protected her.Some graves run much deeper than six feet, and this place could be one of them.Within this self-contained world lie the remnants of a universal war, revealing that Daishoni folklore is more than superstition. To survive, Mallory must trust in something more than science and logic. She must follow the voice of one she can’t see down to the very bottom. Something deadlier than a quake is trapped there, and it is trying to escape.
My first proof copy arrived last week:
When did your love of books begin?
At age 13, when I read this book:
It was the first book I'd ever read for the fun of it, not because a grade depended on it. I bought it with my own money from a school book fair. At age 41, I still have that same dog-eared copy on my bookshelf, along with almost all of the Redwall series.
When did you start to have the wish to become an author?
At age 13, right after reading Salamandastron. I turned right around and wrote my first novel, called Palmdale. It was, ahem, suspiciously similar to the Redwall books, right down to the cute thumbnail sketches at the top of each chapter! It was 400 pages long, written out in pencil on loose-leaf notebook paper! It's been lost to time now. I wish I still had it so I could ogle at how amateurish it was.
How have you found the process for becoming an author?
I didn't write my next novel till age 25. (high school and the US Navy kept me hopping during the interim) At one of my first programming jobs as a civilian, I had nothing to do at my desk for 4 solid months. So I wrote my second novel. It was a lot better than Palmdale, but still fairly bad. At least this one was totally original, saw a full 4 drafts, and got critiqued by some friends. I'd even planned it as the first of a 7 book series and wrote the outline for all those books.
Then I didn't start writing again till age 30. That's when I started Scribes' Descent. It began as a design document for a video game that my indie game studio, Ezimin Interactive, was cobbling together. While the game didn't go far and I closed my studio, I kept going with the book.
This was when I got serious with my writing. So I joined some online critique communities: YouWriteOn and Jerry Jenkins' Writing Guild. Those were fine, but Scribophile.com was the community that really provided the sheer quantity of critiques I needed. Over the course of 4 years, I got the following:
-483 critiques-52 comments-5,803 views-1,398 unique readers.
And most importantly, I forged tight relationships with dozens of talented authors and wrote over 379,000 words of critique of other people's writing.
What would you say to those wanting to become an author?
1. Figure out a set of processes for how you'll do the following things:
-dream up new book concepts and vet them
-research and plan books
-write outlines
-write drafts
-revise
-find critique partners
-write critiques and reviews
-deal with the critiques you receive
-build your author platform and fanbase
-if you plan to self-publish: design cover art, select an artist, select book formats (digital, paperback, hardcover, audio) and distribution platforms (IngramSpark, KDP, other), decide on formatting details like trim sizes, fonts and font sizes, etc...
-plan and execute book launches/signings/readings/vendor tables at conventions
-and, optionally, how you'll query agents. (whether you plan to self-publish or chase an agent, you still need to build your mailing list. Don't expect your publisher to do all your marketing for you. Nobody will promote your book like you will. Nobody.)
2. Start building your mailing list and your social media followings early, even if you have nothing ready to sell. Research the marketing side of the business long before you need it.
3. Think hard about who your ideal fan is. Then figure out what regular newsletter content that kind of fan would like to receive from you. Start sending out that sort of content to your growing mailing list.My ideal fans are science geeks who love deep world building and want clean content (nothing graphic). That's why my monthly newsletter always has behind-the-scenes science research tidbits that didn't make it into my novels :)
4. You are not selling books. You are building a fanbase. You are not chasing sales. You are finding and cultivating fans. Look for ways to fall in love with the process of going after new fans.
5. Read at least 300 novels in your chosen genre. Preferably by at least 100 different authors. And critique at least 100 chapters/short stories by newbie authors in that genre. This will give you a solid feel for what's been done in your genre and what hasn't. Without this exposure, you have little hope of avoiding cliches. Too many authors skip or shortchange this crucial step.
6. Before you spend time planning/outlining/drafting a novel idea, write a high-level concept for it (log-line, elevator pitch). Then show it to as many people as you can. Watch their faces. If their eyes light up and their brows rise, you may have something. If not, keep spitballing concepts.
7. Pursue quality, not quantity. Especially at the beginning. You'll know your first book is ready to publish when dozens of new critique partners on your chosen web community start asking when you're going to sell the book because their wallets are flopping open right now. And to achieve quality, you have to be super picky with your craftsmanship for both prose and storytelling. If people unfamiliar with your story can listen to your whole novel on text-to-speech and follow what's going on without having to stop and rewind, you know your book is clear and readable. And if people routinely say that they've never read anything like your story (and they liked it), you're doing it right.
8. Write WAY more critiques of other author's works than you think you need to. And read critiques that others have written for works you didn't write. I didn't know how to revise my own work until I started doing these things.
9. Do more research and more worldbuilding than you think you need.
10. Alongside building a fanbase, build a wide and deep network of supportive authors. My primary critique partner, Philip Nelson, looks at my high-level outline and worldbuilding assumptions before I even start drafting a new book. He's read all my books (except for Palmdale) and many, many drafts of each. Every writer needs a Philip Nelson. If you don't have one, go find one.
11. Chapter One of all your books needs to be like Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way. I rewrote chapter one of Scribes' Descent over 105 times. I wish that was an exaggeration š¶
12. Sink gratuitous gobs of time into crafting your prose so that readers don't have to think hard to follow what's happening. I work hard so my readers don't have to.
Tell us about your book/books:
Most of my books take place in the Scribeverse, which is a universe I started building 11 years ago. I maintain a 55,000+ word worldbuilding document to keep all those details straight. I've also done the following:
-written the first few drafts of the rest of the Scribes series: Scribes Emerge, Scribes Beyond, and Scribes Within.
-invented 3 new religions
-designed and drew the world map for 5 planets. For each, I wrote up a technological timeline and several genealogies of political rulers.
-developed 6 new sentient creatures (I'm tired of dragons, orcs, and elves)
-wrote The Book of Books, which is a 22,000 word book of scripture, based in substance on the Holy Bible, but pulls in historical, geographical, and political details from four of my invented planets. Characters in the Scribeverse quote from this. I've even started memorizing verses from this book.
-built the whole first area of Scribes' Descent, the video game. It's a 2D metroidvania-style platformer built in the Unity Game Engine. I do all my own art and code. I also compose my own songs, but I have other musicians perform them.-I modeled Mallory Leighyan, the protagonist of Scribes' Descent, in a 3D modeling program called Blender. Here's a 2D rendering of her:
And I illustrated an artistic version of the world map for Scribes' Descent:
I've also written World of Me (takes place in our universe), The Sewer Lord (takes place on Mallory's birth world, 1000 years earlier), and Emolecipation (takes place on the same world as Scribes' Descent, but 1000 years earlier). The Sewer Lord is a novel that began as a flash fiction piece that won first place at a local writing contest last year.
What do you love about the writing/reading community?
We know what we want, work hard, support each other, understand each other's struggles implicitly, and help each other in a bewildering number of ways. Critiques from fellow writers tend to be more helpful and thorough than those from non-writers.
If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?
Two things:
1. Seek out indie books and give them a chance. It's easy to read the same big-name authors over and over again. It's comfortable and predictable, like going to the same restaurants and ordering the same meals. If you search Twitter for #WritingCommunity, you'll find an ocean of indie authors. Here's what I do:
-click into a profile
-click the author website link in the profile description
-search the website for a book that he or she is selling
-fire up my kindle and search the kindle store for a book
-download a free copy and read it
-if I like it, I buy it, read it, leave a review on Amazon/GoodReads/BookBub, and reach out to that author on twitter
-retweet that author's book posts
-return to the author website and subscribe to the newsletter (This act is more important than you know. Likely more important than the author knows)
Doing this, I never slide into a "reading slump." And I also grow my fanbase and author support group at the same time.
2. Give my books a try :) The first 4 chapters of Scribes' Descent are on my website for free: https://dylanwestauthor.com/scribes-descent. It’s a MASSIVE act of love when someone takes time to read my work. I feel seen and treasured.
Where can people connect with you?
Please subscribe to my monthly newsletter on my website: https://dylanwestauthor.com Note: you have to click the link in the confirmation email, which might drop in your spam folder
Twitter: @DylanWestAuthor
Scribes' Descent will be available in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover formats on Amazon on May 30th. It will also be free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
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