Self-Publisher Interview with J. Rocky Colavito

1. What can you tell me about your experience as a writer?

Been dabbling in it my whole life, more academic/scholarly than creative. Published a poem in the student literary magazine when I was an undergrad, but never did much with creative writing until recently.

Published several articles and essays in scholarly collections prior to attempting the first book.

2. What made you decide to write a book?

Was assigned to teach a creative writing class for non-majors; decided to take it in a horror direction. The class is set up so that the students take fifteen weeks to write a short story, taking it from a sentence to short story. I did, and still do, the process alongside them. That’s how my first published story (“Red Eye” in Dark Dossier) came out.

First book was a collection of six sentence stories (an exercise that I have the students do).

3. What circumstances brought you to the decision to self-publish your book?

Wanted to build some credibility as a horror author, and investigate how the process works so I can include it in the class.

4. What has your experience as a self-publisher been like?

I haven’t experienced any trouble other than the usual low sales. I’m trying to get my name out there, and I think a combination on traditional sales and self-publishing is the way to go. Self-publishing has actually gained me more connections than traditional.

5. How do you respond to the negative stigma attached to self-publishing and self-published books?

Haters gonna Hate; critics gonna critique. Being independent has its benefits, and, if you write niche stuff, it’s a better path for getting your work out there.

6. What is one very important lesson you have learned as a self-publisher so far?

Pay for covers; there’s lots of people out there who do them and sell premades. Christy Aldridge and Ruth Anna Evans are just two of the names. Fast workers and super reasonable.

A good cover elevates the work. It’s worth the expense.

7. What do you know now about self-publishing that you wish you knew at the beginning?

The steepness of the learning curve when it comes to editing and formatting. Once I started farming out the covers I could learn a bit more about these parts of the process.

Right next to this is promotion; that’s really an everyday activity.

8. A lot of authors of self-published books have reservations about promoting and marketing their book. Some even feel that it is a form of vanity or self-importance. What is your opinion about this?

I struggled with this, and I learned that there’s a difference between bragging about what you did and sharing what you did. You can enthusiastically share your joy over something and talk about it to try and make it interesting for others. That’s not bragging, bragging is when you make the comparison to others in terms of sales or output.

If you want to take the self-publishing path this is something that you have to do; building a circle of friends who support your work is important, but so is adding to your list of acquaintances.

9. How do you promote your books and what form of book promotion has worked the best for you?

Word of mouth, social media, guerilla tactics (I left copies of some of my books around the hotels at some conferences last year with contact material). Making a special giveaway edition of stuff to serve as a “business card” at cons, sending out review copies, asking friends to tell their friends, taking opportunities to participate in local and regional book events.

10. What are some other important things you have learned as a self-publisher?

If you’re gonna do it, do it well. Edit your work to the best of your ability, pay for covers, Have elevator pitches of your self-published work ready to share, don’t hide the fact that you’ve done it. Good work is created by independent authors, a lot of which is outside the mainstream. Be ready to hustle however you can. Be able to talk about work in progress. Always have several projects in play at once. And have a wood pile of stuff that you can submit or combine.

Develop a writing habit and make it an everyday thing. Don’t come up with reasons to not write. This is the key. It’s something that needs doing every day until you’d feel sick if you didn’t do it.

Read, read, READ! Figure out the type of work that you want to write and read stuff in that genre. Read as widely as you can; read the trash and the treasure.

And don’t listen to the people who look down their noses at what you’re doing. You aren’t doing this for them.

11. Do you feel that self-publishing is a viable choice for other authors?

Sure, people win major awards for self-published work. If you want to get a foundation and practice the craft, there’s no reason to not give it a shot.

12. How do you feel that self-publishing their books has helped many unknown authors finally get the recognition their books deserve?

Many of my friends in the business are unagented and independent. Several desire the freedom that self-publishing offers, And they do okay in terms of making money.

Some, like myself, are using it to establish a body of work. I can say with certainty that my self-published work has opened some doors for me that might have stayed closed otherwise.

Others are creatives who want an outlet to share their work. Does it really matter where you sell your artwork as long as it sells or is shared?

ABOUT ROCKY:

J. Rocky Colavito (aka Dr. Damned/The Plague Doctor) is a soon to be EX-Academic and Midwesterner. He has self-published a number of works, including the Neo-Giallo series (six volumes and counting) and the quieter pieces: They Will Bring You Shiny Things, Who Was That Masked Fan, and Christmas Chaos, and is a rabid supporter of independent horror authors. His mainstream publications range from quiet to extreme horror. He is the creator of Buck Neighkyd (porn star turned occult detective) whose adventures are serialized in Caveman Magazine and in the novel Creative Control (Caveman Adventure Library/Quest Omnimedia), the Stoned Cryptid series (two works in publication process, a third in draft), and numerous horror stories set in the world of professional wrestling. He’s the one they warned you about, and he’s quite proud of that infamy. He also lives by the motto: “Somebody’s gotta do it, might as well be me.”