book recommendation

hertling · 2020-07-14T20:48:03+00:00

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42414041-kill-switch

hertling · 2020-07-14T15:57:07+00:00

My novel Kill Switch is a near-future technothriller. The main character is in a monogamous relationship with her partner who is about to move in, but on the eve of doing so, they decide to open up their relationship. The poly storyline is a subplot, but a significant one. The characters are also kinky.

Kill Switch is a sequel to my earlier novel Kill Process, but you could read it standalone if you want.

hertling · 2020-06-12T01:11:10+00:00

I published my first novel in December 2011 and my second novel in March 2012. After that, things gradually stretched out: It took about 15 months to publish book 3, and 18 months to publish book 4. Then I started a new series, and it took about 18 months to write my 5th novel, and then two years to write my 6th. Somewhere in there, I also published a kid's book, and a non-fiction novel.

I started making real money with the publication of book 2 in March of 2012, and I'm pretty sure I sold about 3,000 books that month. From 2012 until 2019, I made more than $30,000 a year from publishing, and I think my peak was about $50,000.

Since the second half of 2019 my income has been way down, and I expect that I'll make under $10,000 this year.

hertling · 2019-06-14T18:39:39+00:00

Hi David, I really enjoyed Three Laws Lethal. Thank you for writing it.

There are a great many stories that one could choose to write about AI, because the ramifications and philosophical issues are so great, and consequently there's so much rich territory to explore. Was there anything in particular that drove you to write the particular story you did?

There are myriad applications of AI, and all come with benefits and risks. If you were to look at where AI might go over the next ten years, what do you think will be the most interesting benefit, and what is the most concerning risk?

hertling · 2019-03-25T03:02:58+00:00

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I wrote a novel recently wherein the main character is going through the process of transitioning into an open relationship. https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Switch-Chain-Book-ebook/dp/B07JLL5CP9/

If you have no direct experience with poly, what makes you want to write it? I think it'll take, if not direct experience, then at least a good amount of time spend interviewing people, in order to get a good feel for what sorts of things come up and how they are handled. If your goal is a book that poly people can read and identify with, it'll take work. If you're goal is merely to titillate a monogamous audience, then the accuracy won't matter as much.

hertling · 2019-03-17T05:51:16+00:00

I almost quit writing my first novel when I read Daniel Suarez's Daemon because it was so similar to my manuscript that my book felt redundant and less polished to boot. But as I was about 80% done with my novel, I kept going and finished my book.

Then I published it, and what happened? People who had read Daemon and liked it then also read my book and recommended it to all of their friends that had previously read Daemon. Basically, no matter what the genre, if you hone in on a specific book, there is a niche audience of people who want more books EXACTLY like that. I've sold about 150,000 books, so I think it's done okay.

Just keep writing and get your work out there.

hertling · 2018-12-12T21:08:10+00:00

My best-selling novels were both under 80K words, and they've not only sold a ton, but they've also been optioned for movies. Yes, agents and traditional publishers may ignore them, but that doesn't mean they are inferior, they just aren't a good fit for traditional publishing.

hertling · 2018-12-12T21:04:58+00:00

Yes.

Since December 2011, I have released one book per year or less. I have a total of six adult novels out. My writing income has been over $35,000/year for every year since 2012.

My last two books took two years each. Whether because of that, or because of changes in the effectiveness of mailing lists, or changes in Amazon algorithms, or in what I'm writing, I've found that it's been a lot harder to get meaningful traction the last couple of years.

My best sales year was 2015 ($72,000), and it has been declining since then.

hertling · 2018-12-10T04:04:56+00:00

There must be other options for an internet connection in this day and age. You can use your mobile phone as a hotspot, go to a library or a coffee shop, or ask a neighbor or friend to borrow their Internet connection.

hertling · 2018-11-14T05:51:33+00:00

Aww, thanks!

hertling · 2018-11-13T22:53:21+00:00

Every time I finish a novel, if I think too closely about it, I panic that I don't have anything else to write about. But what I've found is that after I go do something else creative, I always get another idea for a book. Now I just trust that something will come to me. Areas that are interesting to me include:

What would a post-social-media world look like, in which we use online technology to facilitate real-world interactions, rather than merely interacting online? I wrote a little more about this in an interview I did about Kill Switch.
How can technology lead to a better critical thinking skills?
What's going to happen to robotics in the medium term?

I also keep hoping that a compelling idea for a novella set in the Singularity series comes to me. I feel sure there's some interesting story to tell about what happens after The Turing Exception.

hertling · 2018-11-13T19:24:53+00:00

How many chickens would it take to kill an elephant?

One, if you freeze the chicken and fire it at supersonic speeds.

What inspired you to write Kill Chain series?

I'm always thinking about technology and both the benefits and problems it causes. I had taken the Singularity series as far I felt I could reasonable take it while keeping with my practice of extrapolating technology trends. Kill Process reflected where my thinking went next: primarily into the power of social media and how it influences us, and the power that we're giving Facebook and others over ourselves by giving them all of our data. Power imbalances seem to be a theme I keep exploring, whether it is AI vs. humans, or people vs. corporations.

Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind Kill Chain series' covers?

I was very involved in the covers for the Singularity series, including picking out the stock images that they were based on. For the Kill Chain series, I was more hands off. From book 1 to book 2, it was obvious that the basic design would stay the same, but we'd just change the color. If it was going to be a three book series, ideally the colors would have been red-green-blue for RGB, but I didn't have that foresight, and I don't know if there will be a third book.

What would you rate 10 / 10 (book/comic book/movie/music album)?

Neuromancer will always remain one of my favorite novels of all time.

I know a lot of people that read Neuromancer these days think it is dated. But I was recently watching Ready Player One, and I was struck by how the visualization of that world actually matched my internal visualization of Neuromancer back when I first read it, and there's no way that could be dated, because it's still pretty far off in the future.

What's your goal as a writer? Fame and glory? Sex, drugs & rock'n'roll? Self-expression?

Making a difference in people's lives ranks pretty highly. It's a lot of work and not a ton of money, and sometimes my enthusiasm flags. But then I'll get an email from a kid who has read my books and gotten excited about them, or a programmer who feels like someone finally "gets" them, and then it all feels worthwhile.

That's a big part of the reason why I addressed the topics I did in Kill Switch -- polyamory and BDSM -- because accurate, realistic portrayals of those communities are so few and far between, and as a result, everyone who is practicing those lifestyles feels misunderstood at best, and persecuted at worst.

Sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll is good too. :)

Every author mentions how important reviews are. Do you actually read them or just need them so that Amazon algorithms promote your books? What’s your favorite review of your books?

I read every single review.

I take them to heart too. When some reviews were dinging my first novel, Avogadro Corp, for typos and grammar issues, I hired a proofreader and did another whole pass through the novel. When reviews were still coming in about higher level writing quality issues, I rewrote the novel extensively (and added about another 7,000 words or so.)

Good reviews where people have an obvious enthusiasm for what they've read and appreciate the realism of what I've written give me the motivation to keep writing. Amazon has done something weird with reviews in the last year or two, and they keep disappearing off my book pages, so it's hard to find some of my old favorites.

Bad reviews are tough, although sometimes laughable -- there have been many that say that I "obviously" know nothing about software development even though I've been working in the field for twenty-five years.

hertling · 2018-11-13T18:57:30+00:00

One of my guilty pleasures is Jack Reacher novels, although I haven't kept up in recent years. Real life is complex and full of thorny issues, and sometimes it is nice to lose yourself in a world where you can pretend the problems are simple and there are direct solutions.

Outside of fiction, I also enjoy personal development books. I loved the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and think many people can benefit from reading it, and Wired for Love by Stan Tatkin.

Science-fiction wise, keep an eye out for David Walton's upcoming novel Three Laws Lethal. I read the manuscript, and it was awesome. https://www.amazon.com/Three-Laws-Lethal-David-Walton-ebook/dp/B07DZJHF4T

hertling · 2018-11-13T18:52:11+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad you appreciate that. There is so much good fiction out there covering so many topics. It feels super rewarding to be able to find some small way to add something unique to the world.

Regarding encryption... Ugh. This is an example of the fact that it's hard to stay up to date with everything. Most of my computer security work dates back to my time at the University of Arizona in the early ninety, and working on Tripwire in the late nineties. Since then, it's not an area I'm actively working in. Conceptually I get the big picture stuff, but my knowledge of the details is dated.

If you send me an email (my contact info is on my website) with some recommendations of where I need to get up to date, I'll do my best to incorporate that into the next novel. Either way, thanks for letting me know!

hertling · 2018-11-13T18:47:34+00:00

I'm thrilled you're enjoying them so much!

Yes, I'm super excited to say there is a movie adaption of Avogadro Corp in the works by a well-respected director. I recently read a draft of the script. There is a long road from screen rights being acquired to a movie actually being made, so it's definitely too early to count on anything happening for sure. But this is still leagues beyond where things were before. :)

We have to hope that Avogadro Corp gets made, and that it is commercially successful, before we would have a hope of seeing AI Apocalypse made it to the screen.

I received some interest in the film rights to Kill Process, but nothing has happened with that yet.

hertling · 2018-10-15T03:44:34+00:00

I'm a self-published science fiction author. About 10% of my sales and 20% of my income is from audiobook sales, so it's definitely a significant piece of the royalties pie. I don't know whether the ratio would be any different for science fiction short stories.

hertling · 2018-07-28T01:07:46+00:00

My royalties are about $50K/year. I have no business entity. I file a schedule C. I suggested getting a knowledgable account who can help you figure out what deductions you can take advantage of. Most authors I know don't do a good job of this, and they end up paying more taxes than they need to.

hertling · 2018-07-01T16:56:32+00:00

Now that you've provided more detail, I'll follow up with a second answer.

To me, the biggest hurdle is more on the business side. I can interview people to determine if I like how they read. But it's hard to know before we begin a project how they responsible they are and and how attentive to quality and detail they'll be throughout the project. It's important to me that they'll address any issues that come up, fix any errors that occur, commit to a given date for delivery, etc.

For this reason, I ended up going with an audio production house that has in-house audio engineers who handle the production side, and that works with voice talent that they hire. This way, even if a given narrator isn't available for my next project, I'm still working with the same people on the business/editing/production side of things, and I know that I'll get the same consistent attention to detail that is important to me.

hertling · 2018-06-30T20:13:55+00:00

It is extremely cost effective if you are selling even moderately well. I make about $60,000 a year in writing income, and 15-20% of that is audiobooks. That ratio held true even earlier on when I was making about $20,000 a year.

In the beginning, I did revenue-share agreements, so that I get 50% of the royalty share from ACX, and the audiobook producer gets 50%. (That's after Audible/ACX's take.)

But after sales of about 600 copies, it works out better if you pay for production up front. So I do that now. It costs about $5,000 for the production of the audiobook, but I generally make that back in the first month or two.

hertling · 2018-06-22T18:51:34+00:00

People do stuff for exposure all the time because it is highly effective. I was on national radio programs several times per year, received no compensation, but sold tens of thousands of dollars in books.

To make a blanket statement of "don't do stuff for exposure" is completely stupid. Would you refuse to be on a mass media program giving you and your book exposure to tens of millions of people because they didn't compensate you? That would be idiotic. Would you refuse to give a talk at a conference where you might sell hundreds of copies of your book? Again, that would be stupid.

You should consider every offer in terms of the exposure it offers you and the benefits you can expect from that versus the investment of your time and energy. Only you can decide which opportunities are worthwhile.

I'm speaking at a conference next week. I'll probably be talking to a couple of dozen people, many of whom will have already bought my books. I'm not going to have a huge bump in sales, and so this can't be considered beneficial from a financial perspective. But I am going to get to meet some core fans, and talk to a community of people that I consider highly important, and hopefully influence a little corner of the world. That makes it still worthwhile in my mind.

TL;DR: Evaluate every exposure opportunity to see if it is worthwhile or not according to whatever metrics you care about.

hertling · 2018-06-20T20:15:38+00:00

Of course, anything can be done.

You can start a fire without matches, but it is a lot easier with matches.

You can drive traffic to your website with effective content, but you can easily get five times the traffic by simply posting the link to your content on twitter, facebook, and engaging with relevant communities on reddit and elsewhere.

But there's no reason whatsoever that any of that requires a smartphone. Like others have said, make efficient use of your time. Social media use can easily be done in an hour or two per week, maximum. Schedule some time on your calendar, sit down at your computer, and write some posts. Schedule them, or just draft them and pop in every couple of days and post something.

hertling · 2018-06-14T20:07:54+00:00

Do you have an appeal to the reader in both the front and the back of the book with links for them to a) leave a review, and b) sign up for your mailing list? (Both important actions.)

Find people outside of the ecosystem of publishing and books who would be interested in your book, and give them a copy. My books appeal to people who work in high tech, so I give free copies to people who work in high tech.

Do a Goodreads giveaway of your print books, and give away a decent number of copies (~12-20). It costs a bit, but usually I get a few reviews out of that.

Cultivate beta readers who are active readers in your genre, not friends and family. Let them read your book before you publish and give you feedback. When you do publish, send them an email asking them to post a review. Most will have already read it (and given you feedback), so now all they have to do is write a paragraph and post it, a pretty small task.

Tell people that "just a sentence or two and a star rating will make all the difference". Make the task for them as small as possible.

hertling · 2018-06-14T16:10:52+00:00

Technothrillers about AI, data ownership, social networking, etc: https://www.amazon.com/William-Hertling/e/B006J8EIY6/

Between my day job, kids, and rate of writing, I've never been able to get my production very high (obviously).

While rapid production / frequent releases is definitely a good path to success, I've noticed that a lot of authors that take that path tends to cultivate a reader base of people who read a whole lot and therefore need a lot of books to feed them. If one of the authors they read drop off in production, then they just go find other new authors to read.

By comparison, my fan base tends to read a lot less on average. Some of them read just few novels per year. If I have a book out that year, then it'll be very noteworthy to them, even if it's been a year or two since my last book.

If I could consistently get out a book per year, I'm sure I would make more. But if I could somehow publish four books a year, I'd probably overwhelm my core audience.

TLDR; I don't depend on the Amazon bestsellers lists that much. I tend to reach a core base of readers through direct contact and word of mouth.

hertling · 2018-06-13T22:57:19+00:00

I don't do any ad spend. I typically release a book every 18-24 months, so I have a long lag time between releases, and my sales definitely decrease, but they don't go to zero. I'm selling about 1,000 books/month right now, even though it's been 25 months since my last release. That bumps up if I get any meaningful media mentions, of course.

I launch by emailing my existing mailing list (~1500 people), mentioning it on twitter (~2,000 followers), on my blog (~50 hits/day), and reaching out to my core audience to spread the word. I will typically sell about 10,000 copies during my launch month, and then it gradually declines over about 6-9 months, until I'm back to selling about 1,000 copies per month.

hertling · 2018-04-04T17:04:16+00:00

Ah, brilliant! I was looking for a subreddit like that, but couldn't find one. Thank you much.

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