This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Welmerink, local West Michigan author and good friend of our family. I met Pete at my family's comic book store a few years back during one of our local artist and author events. Since then, I've followed his journey as an author. He's published many books and recently launched a new endeavor - his first authoring of a comic book series, called Big Jack! Somehow interviewing someone I know makes this whole writing/publishing journey seem so much more reachable! So many thanks to Pete, for answering all of my questions and being my second-ever author interview! I hope this helps all of you take a peek into the world of published writers. If you have questions you'd like me to ask future guests, comment below! By the Way: You can check out the Kickstarter for (and go support) his Big Jack series here. You can connect with Pete on his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, and Blog.
IntroductionMK: Tell us about your newest project! PW: The comic book adaption of my BIG JACK character and his post-apoc environs is my current project. He is part of my TRANSPORT “universe” as it’s my locally-based (West Michigan) post-post apoc world. All the “bad stuff” has already happened and Humankind continues trying to move forward… a common theme in my writing btw. I don’t focus on the doom and gloom so much as I focus on the action-adventure and humanity pushing onward… though sometimes the characters get a bit battered, bloodied and bruised along the way. The BIG JACK comic book adaptation came along when friend and comic creator/scripter RYAN CUMMINS asked me what other TRANSPORT-esque stories did I have out there. I told him I was working on a new character and his storyline that takes place several decades AFTER my initial TRANSPORT storyline. Big Jack Galloway, husband, father, salvager and bounty hunter, just trying to survive, runs afoul of thuggish murderous ne’er-do-wells, and poop hits the fan from there. Ryan got excited and said HOW ABOUT WE DO A SHORT COMIC BOOK SERIES WITH THIS CHARACTER? As I am a very visual writer and would love to see my material in THAT medium, I said LET’S DOOO EET! In Jack we trust. It’s Jack or bust. LOL
About Welmerink's Publishing JourneyMK: Why did you choose the route you went with publishing? What are the pros and cons? PW: I started out by submitting my work to anthology book publishers and online e-zines to get my foot in the door, and get to know and network with people. From there, I followed new writer friend’s experiences and publisher suggestions, looking for the “right one” to publish whatever the specific genre my work fell into. I also pursued a few SELF-PUBLISHING opportunities. Pros and cons… If you simply want to get your work out there, I found it best to go with even a small to medium-sized small press publisher who will give you a cut of sales and opportunity to stock your own inventory with author-discounted book buying option. Unless you work with a BIG DOG publishing house, don’t expect an ADVANCE IN SALES check. Take what they offer (reading the contract thoroughly) and then do your own PROMOTING THE PEE OUT OF IT approach. I make more and better sales selling out of my own author stock than waiting on a teeny tiny amount of cash from the publisher. The PROS of working with a publisher: they pay for most of the activities: cover art, interior art, editing services, INITIAL promotions. The CONS: you don’t see much cash flow unless you hit it big. With SELF-PUBLISHING, it’s all you, baby. BUT you can control costs and how you promote and distribute. Again, networking and lots of self-promoting hard work… with sometimes little reward at day’s end. MK: What challenges with publishing did you face along the way? PW: The challenges in getting my work published was simply being patient with finding the right people/publisher/venue to get my work into. Patience is key. NOTHING happens overnight nor does it happen without YOU pushing it or putting in the blood, sweat and tears. REJECTION can grind you down to a stump of hopelessness. Patience and perseverance are key to finding that good, true home for your work. MK: What advice do you have for authors who are struggling to make that final step toward publishing? PW: If you are simply doing it for FAME AND FORTUNE, Good luck. If you’re doing it because you simply love telling a tale and want to share it with others somehow, someway and eventually, pursue getting your material completed, polished, polished, and out there. About Welmerink's editing experiences
About Welmerink's comic writing experienceMK: How does writing for comics differ from writing your books? PW: Bottom line, you have to boil down the big picture into something that can be visualized in “free standing” bits that still tell the story and get your character(s) and story across. You can’t put EVERYTHING in the visualization of your book(s) into the comic or graphic novel. You have to take that whopper of a book and trim it down into bite-sized bits while still maintaining the main gist of your story and characters. MK: What adjustments did you have to make to your writing when it came to working with an artist? PW: Same as mentioned above: I had to pair down my grandiose views and story to fit into the framed pages that the illustrator would be doing… while still maintaining the story and characters presented. MK: What has been the most rewarding part about writing for comics? PW: Most rewarding part of writing comics: GETTING TO SEE MY CHARACTERS AND FICTIONAL WORLDS VISUALIZED. BAZINGA!! I can only draw mean stick figures and scribbly adaptions of my stuff. Seeing a real illustrator bring my story and character concepts to visualized life… it is humbling and exciting. Wrap-UP
About Peter Welmerink
Peter Welmerink grew up in pre-apoc West Michigan, and enjoys writing fictional post-apoc adventure yarns about West Michigan. Why should Atlanta, LA and Tokyo have all the fun. He is co-author of the Viking berserker novel, BEDLAM UNLEASHED, with Steven Shrewsbury, and author of his first solo novel series TRANSPORT. His first major comic book project is BIG JACK: ANIMALS, and he hopes this opens the doors to more visual adaptations of his written work. He has a day job, and is married with a small barbarian horde of three boys and two cats. Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | BIG JACK Kickstarter | Blog | Patreon Insane Asylum: Top Secret
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I am so excited to share with all of you an interview with A.E. Winstead, author of soon-to-be-published Fate of the Fallen on sale September 12, 2020! We met on Instagram and I have been so excited following her journey toward publication! As a writer, I was curious about her publishing journey - and she graciously filled me in! I hope you all enjoy the interview and learn a bit about the world of self-publishing! A huge thank you to her for being my first-ever author interview! BY THE WAY: You should totally go pre-order Fate of the Fallen. The softcover is available for pre-order at Target and the hardcover and e-book can be pre-ordered on Amazon. You can even visit aewinstead.com to read the first five chapters! You can connect with A.E. Winstead on Instagram @aewinsteadbooks, Facebook @aewinsteadbooks, Twitter @ae_winstead, and TikTok @aewinsteadbooks. About A. E. WinsteadM.M.K: Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey! A.E.W: About me? Oh dear…I don’t want to bore your readers right off the bat, so I’ll make this part brief. I was born in Illinois and grew up in Tennessee. I’ll be forty this year, which I am really looking forward to! I have two children, one who is about to start his senior year of high school (so pray for me). I’m married to my high school sweetheart, going on twenty years now. And I work full time as a social worker advocating for the elderly and disabled in our community. My love for storytelling came from the hundreds (maybe thousands) of books I read as a child, but I didn’t start writing until high school. I wrote more poetry back then because I was an angsty teen, but did write a short story for my then-boyfriend as a birthday gift one year. Back then (in the dark ages) we didn’t have cell phones or social media, so we communicated a lot through notes and letters. My boyfriend at the time always told me I could paint the most beautiful pictures with my words, so I married him! Even though I enjoyed writing for fun, I never even dreamed of writing a novel until I was in my thirties. I read a ton of books and often joked with my husband about trying to write one myself. I truly meant it as a joke, but my husband seemed excited about the idea and was extremely supportive (I told you he liked my letters). That was when I began to think seriously about giving it a try and researching exactly what that would entail.
MMK: What do you hope readers take away from your books? AEW: The overarching theme of both books is forgiveness and the damage that can be done when we harbor hate and resentment in our hearts. Publishing Journey
Editing Experiences
Wrap-UpMMK: If you could do this all over again, what would you do differently?
AEW: This is a great question! I hope you aren’t looking for a deep, philosophical answer here, because my one regret is very basic, actually. I would’ve hired someone to do my formatting up front (especially my ebook). I tried to do as much as I could do myself (trying to save money, you know). But after days wasted and lots of tears shed, I ended up hiring someone anyway. In hindsight, I would’ve just hired it out to begin with. One word of warning I wish I could shout from the mountaintops to new authors is this: Expect delays! Once you get your edits back from your editor, you’d think it would be smooth sailing from then on, but you’d be wrong! That’s when you really have to hit the marketing hard and everything that can go wrong, will go wrong! Believe me. So, set your release date far enough out (I would suggest 5-6 months) to get all those wrinkles ironed out. MMK: How has social media helped (or hindered) you during this writing and publishing process? Any tips? AEW: Social media is a necessary evil, I think. I do enjoy it and have met some wonderful and kind people through Instagram and Twitter, but it does distract, and sometimes I find myself spending more time checking how a post is doing or responding to comments than I do actually writing. I have no advice here because I still haven’t figured out how to balance it all! Tips? Hmm… I guess I would have to say: try not to make your social media about you…if that makes sense. My approach to social media has not been to say, “Hey, look at me! Look what I did.” Or “Hey! Go buy my book.” I’ve looked at it more from a fan POV. I try to think about, “What would a reader want to see when they come to my Instagram page?” With my TikTok, I’ve taken on more of a role of a helper or mentor—giving writing tips and answering questions about self-publishing. I don’t pretend to have any of this figured out. I’m just winging it, really. But people seem to have responded well to that. Thank you so much, A. E. Winstead! And congrats on your book! Be sure to check out Fate of the Fallen, available for pre-order at Target and Amazon! |
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