Kevin's Watch

Hello. I know this comes across as a plug and that's what it is...but if I'm breaking rules, please let me know.

I wrote a book in my senior year of high school and, because I was also working full-time, had the money to get duped into self-publishing. Unfortunately.

Anyhow, the book was inspired by Donaldson and the Thomas Covenant books. I figured I'd share it with other Donaldson readers, since 'interloper' fantasy isn't wildly popular and this is probably the best place to find people who would understand what the hell I was trying to do.

I'm not asking people to buy the book...if you want, I'll provide the manuscript free of charge (honestly) via email. I published the book because I deeply love storytelling, and I never intended to make a dime off of it...but I didn't realize how expensive it was to self-publish until the deal was already done.

(Incidentally, one week later (literally) I totaled my car. And couldn't get a refund from the self-publishing agency. Among other things like "We'll be with you step-by-step" and "you can have a refund up until the manuscript is submitted to the printers", I was promised things like full, professional editing, that I didn't get, either.)

So the story is only as tightly edited as my 18-year old self could make it. Which, after a year and a half's work, isn't that shabby (again, for a freshly graduated high schooler). I do think of myself as a professional writer of sorts, and I'm studying to be an English teacher (now a sophmore in the SUNY system).

I make a whopping 65 cents on each sale, so I'm sure you can understand that, even if I were begging you to buy the book, I'd have to beg and convince a lot of you and that's not practical. I don't care about making money. Again, I'll provide the manuscript free of charge via e-mail to anyone interested in reading the book.

The Story Itself:

Dynasty is the story of the psychiatrist Morrie Caso and his patient, Christopher Hawthorne. Chris, the son of the famed fantasy author Jason, was omitted to a psychiatric hospital when he began to believe he was visiting the fantastic world his father (and Grandfather) wrote about. He fears that, like his father, he is slipping into psychosis or schizophrenia and may harm someone.

Jason Hawthorne murdered another man in order to 'ascend to Godhood' when Chris was a young man, and it deeply impacted him. Morrie investigates this, and finds that he must confront his own shadows in order to shed light on Chris's.





If you're interested in nabbing the book (the only one I've ever published, and probably ever will...I'm writing another, but after the very sour experience I've had with publishing thus far, I don't have the interest to publish it anymore), it is cheapest to do so via the publishing house's website, Authorhouse.com. It is also available on Amazon, and at Barnes and Noble by special order.

Again, I don't ask that you buy it. The money made per sale is so insignificant that I don't care anymore. There's no way I'll make back the money I blew publishing it.

I wrote it, and blew that money, though, because I love with all of my heart the act of storytelling, and I think that the people on this site will enjoy the story I told.

So, if you're not willing to drop 10 bucks on a book you might not enjoy (which is perfectly reasonable), I can always provide the manuscript via e-mail FOR FREE. Seriously. In whatever format you request, be it .pdf, .doc, .docx, .rtf, WHATEVER. I am the author, and I have Microsoft Office. I can convert it to whatever you need.

I just want people to enjoy my story.



Anyhow, my email address, should you be interested enough to read the book (which is relatively short, by the way; another reason not to drop the cash on it...the book reigns in at about 250 pages, I think...it's been over a year since I published it), is included below with links to the book's page on the publisher's website and to Amazon.

The book also includes two short stories I penned, both loosely set in the fantasy genre.

Email: Tknight AT oswego DOT edu

Dynasty via Authorhouse.com

Dynasty via Amazon.com


Book's information (in case the links go down or whatever):

"Dynasty" by Travis Knight. Published by AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781438928951

Thanks for your time,
Travis Knight
"Black Asgard"

I checked out your profile before I read more than the preview of the post, and was dropping in to say that since you'd been a member for a while, and have actually posted elsewhere on the board, that I didn't think we minded the plug. Pretty sure we've got a couple of (real) ones around, no biggie.

Then I read your post. Sorry, I'm grinning because you told the story well and humorously. The actual story is a sad one, and I'm sorry to hear you had such a shitty experience. But for what it's worth, it was a damn good post.

So yeah...plug away.

--A

Heck I plug mine in my sig and no one's complained yet...

BTW, does anyone mind that I'm plugging my book in my sig?

Nah. Regular contributers can do it. It's the people who join only to plug it, then never post again that annoy us.

--A

Yeah, with my novel Flat Earth, I'm going to take as long as it takes to find a good agent to put it out to the big publishers. People have tried to tell me about self-publishing, but I don't see how it could get anymore than a handful of readers (which I get through friends, anyway).

It's refreshing to see someone so young doing literature of such scope. I tried to make a novel in high school, got about 160 pages in and felt I wasn't ready for it. So now it's my 2nd novel (and much more pleased with its progress now). Also got a novella I did when I was 19. But yeah. Keep it up. You can only improve your writing, if nothing else.

Well, thanks fro the encouragement.

I do not seek to ever self-publish again. If anything, I can circulate printed paper copies between my friends and family.

One of the things that I find most familiar about reading Donaldson is that he seems to share my philosophy on writing--it's the act of storytelling that he loves. Moreover, he says in his excellent essay "Epic Fantasy in the Modern World" that he never expected to write bestsellers. He expected his stories would only make small-time, circulating amongst close friends and family.

Before I read the essay, I had always been fine with this idea. The idea of other people reading my writing seems to alternate between absolutely terrifying, embarrassing, and exhilarating.

I tend to write shorter novels in the vein of silver-age Asimov, Clarke and Dick. By design, I think that the short novel (as opposed to the epic volume) is a medium more conducive to the mindset of the culture we live in.

I illustrate:

We are a culture dominated by quick-edited scenes that flash before our eyes; the media has ticker tapes that run below talking heads to deliver as much as possible as quick as possible. Bright colors, lightning-fast information, and instant gratification rule our era. We all know this.

So, I think to expect readers, even the pensive and thoughtful readers we all fancy ourselves, to sit and slog through 400, 600 or even more (Fatal Revenant and the Runes of the Earth (though 1.5x line spaced) weigh in at over a thousand pages each!...Robert Jordan, Tolkien, Salvatore, etc all follow the epic-volume philosophy similarly) is asking a lot. How much information does the reader really need to know to enjoy the story?

I think that inflating the page count with needless, tasteless information is a result of the information age. It's stupid and wasteful, and detracts from the story.

Now, I know that witty people are quick to point out that books like the Lord of the Rings, Thomas Covenants (hell, of Gods and Generals, Don Quixote...the epic volume is as old as the volume itself) are huge volumes.

Herein lies the difference: the world of Middle-earth was designed to be information-rich. The detail supports the story. Thomas Covenant is introspection-rich. The introspection supports the story.

A common blight with the modern epic is that the story supports the information-rich world. This leads to a serial and swollen thing that loses out on entertainment value BECAUSE of its richness of information. The worlds are built as set pieces on the story's track.

So, I suppose I've developed a minimalist style. My novels, as I've said, are shorter. Instead of reigning in at 400+, they canter comfortably in at around 250 pages, if that. I trim my stories so that I do not waste words with unnecessary detail. I keep the story moving, I keep the characters moving, and I keep the dialog designed to be realistic, not fancy.

An example of this is Cormac McCarthy, I suppose. Or John Steinbeck (in Of Mice and Men, or The Pearl...not Grapes of Wrath), or Ayn Rand's 'The Anthem', or any of the silver-age Asimov, or Bova, or Del Rey.

The results of this philosophy are mixed between positives and negatives. On one hand, the novels (I've written four; my first I wrote when I was 16, another at 17, a third (Dynasty, the above advertised) at 18, and I'm working on the third draft of my fourth, at 20) and novellas (written a few of those) tend to be quickly-read and well-liked by those who get their hands on them. I also can write them 'quickly' (takes about 7 or 8 months to write, another to edit a novel; two months or so to a novella). Another pro is that, if published, they would theoretically be cheaper because they are smaller. I consider that a pro for readers. And my philosophy against sequels unless truly necessary (I'd rather write a longer volume than make them wait) goes hand-in-hand with that.

One that can go either way is that the shorter format forces me to be more economic with my storytelling and word choice. On one hand, if done properly, the author can craft a layered, deep story that bears fruit as far as you are willing to search as a reader. But if done wrong, the layered meaning and metaphor can be rendered cheesy, stupid, or juvenile, and seriously work against the story as a whole.

The biggest con is that publishing houses are more interested in finding the 'next' Tolkien, or Rowling, or (god forgive me) Paolini. The shorter novel is ignored, as I have learned.

One reason for this, I believe, is the cost of production. I'm not entirely sure how this comes into play, but I've read that the shorter novel is actually harder to produce, which is one of the reasons it has largely fallen out of style in favor of the epic. Another is the longevity of the story given. It takes longer to read the epic volume than it does to read the short novel, so there is more 'bang for your buck'.


With that working against me, it's easy to see why my designed minimalism probably won't produce any contracts any time soon. The production of my newest novel I am considering releasing entirely electronically (if not for free...I'm looking into copyright and creative commons laws for enforcement, but it's looking grim).

Sites like lulu and AuthorHouse and Amazon's print-on-demand press are scams. I learned that the hard way. The 'agent' I spoke to at Authorhouse had a silver tongue, and talked me into the deal. She promised a lot and delivered next to nothing (even the cover-art is more or less my own art...I was asked for a submission of 'concept art' that they then put into photoshop and rendered a few layer effects on...and that's it. Concept art my ass). So I've learned. Publishing is a bitch, and I'd rather write.

Anyhow, my novels tend to be shorter.

Also, thanks again for the encouragement. And tolerance.

Lulu's not a scam if you know what you're going there for -- to get a hard-copy thing that looks like a book with your name on it, that you can send to friends for Christmas or whatever.

Places like AuthorHouse and Publish America, otoh, *are* scams. They promise you the moon to get you to sign a contract with them...and then they give you exactly as much support, in terms of helping you sell it, as Lulu, et al., do.

I'll have to do more research into Lulu. I'd be fine with a single hard-copy of my story until I can find a real publisher, so I can loan it to friends. But I won't pay exporbitantly to have it bound. I have zero interest in that.

aliantha wrote: Places like AuthorHouse and Publish America, otoh, *are* scams. They promise you the moon to get you to sign a contract with them...and then they give you exactly as much support, in terms of helping you sell it, as Lulu, et al., do.

I can testify from personal experience that Publish America is definitely a scam. I published in 2005 with a 7 year contract that I'm still waiting out. I'll be very glad to get this overwith. Ultimately I'm wiser for the experience and I'll never do it again.

Lulu is most definitely not a scam. I published my own book on there myself for nothing but my time. They take a small percentage of the on-demand output. Check the book in my link in my sig.

Heck, go one better and buy one.

aTOMiC wrote:

aliantha wrote: Places like AuthorHouse and Publish America, otoh, *are* scams. They promise you the moon to get you to sign a contract with them...and then they give you exactly as much support, in terms of helping you sell it, as Lulu, et al., do.

I can testify from personal experience that Publish America is definitely a scam. I published in 2005 with a 7 year contract that I'm still waiting out.

Sounds like one of those bad driver's license pics most people have to wait out.

And yeah. I may just put my sci-fi novel on Lulu, until the damned publishers wake up! Would love to have a hardback copy. Lord knows I've polished it to a reflective sheen.

Well, thank you for your opinions (and potential five and sixty cents).

The book aged officially aoneyear old yesterday.

Dynasty has been heavy on my mind for the last few weeks, with it aging a year old and all, and I've decided to release it free to the public, in a revised, second edition text, with new (better) cover art and a new introduction.

I'm not sure when it'll be available, because it's probably going to be a project I won't have very much time to spend on right now, but it's going to happen.

So if on the off chance you were thinking about buying it, don't. You'll get a better copy, for free.