I’ve got five days to make the book discoverable to US audiences (and more folks in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and everywhere else Amazon can reach) by giving it away, and I started building my campaign to advertise the free promo two months in advance.
S.W. Vaughn – 5 March 2013
Special Note: From today, 3/5/2013 through 3/9/2013 Broken Angel will be available for FREE on Amazon. Don’t wait. Grab it now.
The Back Flap
No rules. No limits. No escape.
Gabriel Morgan is looking for a secret society, known only by a symbol — a five-colored star. Rumors whispered through the New York City underground speak of drugs, dirty deals, and high-class whores. But the society’s main draw is a vicious blood sport fought in a ring with no rules, where millions change hands at every match.
Their fighters are legendary, their leaders cold and ruthless. They are impossible to find, unless you already know where they are.
And they have Gabriel’s sister.
But when he finally stumbles across the leader of the society’s Manhattan division, the nightmare is just beginning — Gabriel is taken prisoner along with his sister and forced to fight for her freedom. He is branded with ink, broken and trained by the best of their fighters, and must accept a new identity along with a new name.
In the ring, he is Angel. And he does not lose . . . because the price for losing is his sister’s life.
About the book
What is the book about?
Broken Angel is the first in a series (House Phoenix) about an underground society of street fighters and assorted criminals. This book is both an introduction to the world of the organization, and the story of Gabriel—a young man looking for his missing sister who stumbles across the society, only to become a prisoner of the men who are holding her hostage. He’s forced to fight to earn his sister’s freedom, and his own.
Beyond that, it’s a story of struggle and transformation, of redemption and revenge. I think the book’s description says it best: No rules. No limits. No escape.
When did you start writing the book?
It’s been a long journey. I started writing the House Phoenix series in 2000, and over the next decade-plus I had four books completed, hundreds of rejections and wrong turns, and revision after revision as I tried to get it right—especially Broken Angel.
How long did it take you to write it?
It took me a year to write what I thought was a finished book, but ended up being a rough draft that was overhauled several times. Fortunately, my craft gradually improved as I wrote the rest of the books in the series (and many more books outside it).
Where did you get the idea from?
The whole series was sparked by a single line of dialogue, which led to a character (Gabriel / Angel) and grew from there. That original idea became the very last line in Broken Angel, and I like to think that it has a lot of impact. Of course, I could be a little biased there…
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Definitely. One of the biggest stumbling blocks I had was the setting. I needed a big city for plausibility (because there was no way this society could escape notice in a smaller place), and I’d designed the structure of the organization specifically for New York City—five divisions, one in each borough. However, I’d never actually been to NYC.
Then I got the opportunity to go to Manhattan on a working trip for the magazine I write for. I went exploring in my downtime, braved the subway alone, took a lot of pictures, and generally got a feel for the place so I could bring it to life in the books.
What came easily?
The characters came to life pretty smoothly for me. The more time I spent with them, the more I got to know them and the easier they were to write. I’ve also found that I have a nearly endless subconscious supply of minor characters who are just as fleshed out as the major roles.
It was disturbingly easy to come up with psychotic character traits and acts of torture. I do wonder what that says about me…I swear, I’m a nice person!
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
Though I’m sure I’ve subconsciously imposed traits and mannerisms on my characters that come from people I know, these guys are conscious fiction all the way. I haven’t hung around with many hardened criminals, drug dealers, psychopaths, or bare-knuckle fighters.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
I’m a lifelong Stephen King fan. While I don’t write horror, I think King has influenced my tendency toward darker stories, as well as the idea that minor characters shouldn’t be cardboard or throwaway. King has a knack for creating three-dimensional characters, even for bit or walk-on roles.
Other authors that have influenced or inspired me include J.A. Jance, John Grisham, Joseph Finder, Anne Rice, early V.C. Andrews (though I try to avoid too much melodrama), and Maurice Sendak.
Do you have a target reader?
Naturally, I want my work to appeal to thriller fans. But I’ve found that many “people who don’t usually read this sort of thing” actually enjoy the series. From some of my reviews on Amazon (mostly the UK, as I managed to make Broken Angel more visible there for a time):
“Not the usual book that I would read…[but] in fact I couldn’t put it down and finished it in record time.”
“Wouldn’t have normally gone for this kind of story…I read it in record time.”
“I downloaded this…although it’s not my type of genre. Didn’t take long for me to be hooked and really didn’t want to put it down.”
“Not my normal type of book as I normally read horror, SF. However, once I’d started reading, it was very difficult to put down.”
I’ve gotten so many reviews similar to these, and I couldn’t be happier that the book appeals to such a wide segment of readers. Also, I try not to let it get to my head. 🙂
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
I used to think I had a writing process, until I realized that it’s been different for every book. The one thing that I do nearly consistently is to write from start to finish, rather than skipping around and writing out of order. I say “nearly” because I did write a scene out of order once – in fact, it was two books ahead at the time. It was just something that I knew had to happen.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
My writing process has always been largely organic. I write as the story unfolds, and the most outlining I do is to jot down a few notes about the next scene, within the manuscript itself. This style of writing has served me well for the most part—except for the third book in the series, Mask of the Serpent. I wrote the whole thing, and felt something was wrong the entire time. It wasn’t until I’d gotten to the end of the book that I realized it was the wrong story, focused on the wrong character.
I ended up scrapping all 85,000 words of that book and starting all over again. On the positive side, several readers have told me that Mask is their favorite in the series—so it was worth getting the story right.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
Because I write organically, I have to edit as I go. When I make changes, they tend to have a ripple effect that runs through the rest of the story from that point forward—so if I waited until the book was finished, I’d need a major overhaul. I learned that lesson with Mask.
Did you hire a professional editor?
The House Phoenix series was almost published by a few different companies, and had been actually published by Lyrical Press starting in 2009, so it’s been professionally edited. I also made another editing pass through all of the books once the rights reverted to me, prior to self-publishing the series.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
Oh, yeah. Music is a major source of motivation and inspiration for me, and I listen to all kinds while I’m writing—mostly hard rock, but also everything from movie soundtracks to rock, rap, country, metal, and oddball stuff that’s hard to classify. I make playlists for every manuscript I’m working on.
Some of my favorites: The soundtracks from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Last Samurai, Last of the Mohicans, Gladiator, Edward Scissorhands, and The Karate Kid; bands that include Breaking Benjamin, Staind, Avenged Sevenfold, Barenaked Ladies, Nirvana, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, Lonestar, Poets of the Fall, The Indigo Girls, Linkin Park (and Fort Minor), Disturbed, 10 Years, Mudvayne, Chevelle, Pink Floyd, Alice in Chains, and Deuce; and solo artists like Eminem, Rihanna, Usher, Peter Hollens, Dan Fogelberg, Collin Raye, Tim McGraw, and Christina Aguilera.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
Yes. I racked up a lot of rejections over the years. Eventually I decided I was never going to get an agent with this series, so I started writing urban fantasy. I did sign with an agent with my first UF (in fact, she’s still my agent), who wasn’t able to sell that particular book, but did sell the next UF I wrote, and its sequel, to Simon & Schuster. I also started writing paranormal romance, and sold some of that work to the big-name e-publishers (Loose Id, Ellora’s Cave).
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
My decision to self-publish came about gradually. Like many writers, I desperately wanted the big, successful package—my books in stores, six-figure advances, hordes of fans waiting for my next book (ha ha). I spent years playing the big publishing game.
But ultimately, when I finally landed that longed-for contract with a Big Six (or Big Five, now) publisher, I was crushed by disappointment. I had no major support from the publisher, no fanfare, no push. I was midlisted before I even got started—and then I was dropped off the radar.
I’ve always written a little outside genre lines, and the fact that I’d sold a couple of books featuring a first-person male POV character in a genre where fans expect kick-ass female leads (unless you’re a male author, like Jim Butcher) probably contributed as much to my commercial failure as the lack of publisher support.
I spent a few years trying to write that expected commercial book with a kick-ass female lead—and just couldn’t do it. It’s not me. My female characters aren’t weak by any stretch of the imagination… but I simply can’t favor one over the other. I need balance and variety. So I decided to choose writing stories that I enjoy, that don’t necessarily conform to genre expectations, over toeing the commercial line.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
I hate to admit that my covers are DIY, because there’s this automatic assumption that if you don’t hire a professional for your cover, it must suck. Looking at a book cover, already knowing that it’s “author-designed,” tends to make you start seeking out the flaws rather than assessing it as it appears.
But yes, I designed the covers for the House Phoenix series—with a little assistance from my artist husband, a lot of scouring for the right images and fonts, months of experimenting, and four different graphic design programs.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
I do have a plan, and Amazon inadvertently made it for me. The first time I was really trying to push this series, I noticed that Amazon sometimes listed books for free. I also knew that with many of my readers, once they read Broken Angel, they immediately wanted the rest of the series. I figured that if I could just get enough people to find Broken Angel, I’d be able to build momentum.
Unfortunately, Amazon was less than receptive to my requests to make the book free. I discovered that they would sometimes “price match” if the book was free through a major competitor (Barnes & Noble or Apple iBooks), so I convinced my publisher to let me offer Broken Angel free through Smashwords, in the hopes that Amazon would pick up the promotion.
They did… sort of. Amazon made Broken Angel free on the UK store for about a week. During that period, it was downloaded thousands of times, the reviews started pouring in, and sales for the rest of the series shot up fast.
So now I’ve enrolled Broken Angel in KDP Select. I’ve got five days to make the book discoverable to US audiences (and more folks in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and everywhere else Amazon can reach) by giving it away, and I started building my campaign to advertise the free promo two months in advance.
I’ve set a personal goal that is probably unreachable—I want to give away one million copies of Broken Angel in five days. Chances are, that’s literally impossible…but hey, I’m going to aim high anyway. 🙂
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
If your first book doesn’t go anywhere—don’t give up. You really need to have several titles available before you’re discoverable, especially by those mysterious Amazon algorithms. Also, writing more books helps you get better at writing in general, which in turns helps you sell more books.
Always strive to look at your work objectively, and always work to improve your writing. Don’t fall for Golden Word Syndrome… “my book is so amazing, why won’t anyone appreciate my genius, it’s perfect!!”. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. The more you write, the more you’ll realize that you’ve still got a lot to learn.
Don’t settle. Ever. Keep writing, keep improving, and keep loving what you do.
About You
Where did you grow up?
I was raised by wolves in the wilds of Canada…er, wait. That wasn’t me.
I’m a country girl at heart. I grew up in the “wilds” of central New York, in a little town called Albion that’s so obscure, you can’t even find it on Google Maps (if you type in Albion, NY, you’ll be taken to the city of Albion in western New York, out near Medina and Buffalo—that’s not my Albion). The town was so small that we had exactly one store. It was a “general store” that was just a one-room trailer with a woodstove, and we used to buy Sweettart lollipops there for a nickel. The store burned down three times while I was growing up (fortunately, no one was hurt), and they didn’t rebuild after the last fire.
However, we moved to the city of Syracuse the year I started high school, and I spent the next 12 years there. I got over the serious culture shock pretty fast, and enjoyed living in a place where if I wanted to go to a store, I could walk or take a bus, and if I needed something to do, there were plenty of places to have fun (some less advisable than others, like the cemetery on a weekend night with friends who weren’t exactly sober), and always new people to meet.
I married my high school sweetheart there, and eventually convinced him to head back to the country with me. We’re glad we did—though we both graduated from a city school, our current school district has been able to offer so much more to our son, who’s going to be a senior next year.
Where do you live now?
We now call the small town of Mexico, NY, home. It’s just up the road from Albion, and a lot of my extended family lives here, and has for generations. We’re five miles from town, so we still can’t walk to the store unless we’re feeling exceptionally adventurous—but country living has its advantages.
What would you like readers to know about you?
Let’s see. I’m addicted to coffee (like many writers), and my favorite kind of coffee is hazelnut from Dunkin Donuts, cream only. I hate Starbucks coffee. I don’t like wearing socks. I have a lot of cats, with unusual names like Fizzgig and Coda and Lucifuzz and Mothra and Blooregard Q. Kazoo (Bloo for short). I am a huge movie buff, but I don’t watch television any more (in fact, we can’t even get any channels to come in out here).
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the final book in the House Phoenix series, Alpha Male. My goal is to have it available by summer 2013. I’ve had so many readers write to me asking for this book, I’ll admit that I’m a bit terrified it won’t live up to the expectations—but I’ll definitely give it everything I’ve got.
You can find out more about me and my work, and read the first 5 chapters from each book in the House Phoenix series, on my website.
End of Interview:
For more, including samples of each book in the series, visit S.W. Vaughn’s website.
Get your copy of Broken Angel from Amazon US or Amazon UK.
From today, 3/5/2013 through 3/9/2013 Broken Angel will be available for FREE. Don’t wait. Grab it now.