Weekly Q&A (Patreon)

1.) Do you have any suggestions about existing communities or websites where dark fantasy- or fantasy authors can find people for their audience? 2.) Or do you have any other advice regarding how to gather an audience quickly? 

I am not really sure where dark fantasy authors hang out because it isn't what I write, but I do know there is only one surefire way to gather an audience quickly and it is out of one's control: write a book people really, REALLY want to read based on blurb and cover alone. If you've ever managed to do this, you will immediately feel the difference. Everything you try to market yourself will just kind of...work. If you haven't done this, and most of the time, we don't...you are probably going to have to build an audience over time, spending an annoying amount of effort on marketing.

Do you find it hard to recoup your losses when you switch genres? While I love Dark Fantasy and Horror, I'm kind of like you in that I also get bored of one genre after a while and want to switch around to try different things, and I had initially intended to write it under my normal name instead of a pen name.

I tried to keep all my genres similar enough that a decent amount of my audience followed me, but yes, it does hurt one's income to switch around sometimes. Of course, sometimes you can hit on something that brings you an even bigger audience, but either way, if you get bored easily, it's objectively not the best thing for income. OTOH, writing for 20 years, it's still more important just to stay excited to write.

Would you be able to explain how you get the covers for your books made? How do you find an artist? How much do you pay on average? How much input are you really able to put into how the cover will look? I read some books where the representation of the characters is nothing like what the book describes them and I always wondered if the author even knows what their own characters look like. Of course, knowing what I do now, most authors don't make their own covers it just seems like something gets lost in translation when the author is speaking to the artist. Has anything like that every happened to you? What covers did you commission that you loved the most?

This is on the video topic list but I probably won't get to it for quite a while. If you're traditionally published, most people get little to no input. Self published, you get quite a bit, especially if you've hired a good quality cover artist who can work a lot of Photoshop wizardry. Sometimes it can truly be hard to match a model, though. A LOT of stock photos come from Russia and Eastern Europe so the bulk of the models available are not just white people but even a very specific sort of beauty ideal!

When I wanted an Asian model for Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow for example, there were SO few to choose from, especially since we needed three good faces for the trilogy. Black and plus size models are the most difficult to find. Although Hispanic/Latina isn't easy either since there's a wide range, they're often not labeled well, and inevitably your designer will just find a girl with darker hair and be like "she looks like she could be Latina!" and you're like "...I mean maybe but..." (And yet you feel your designer's pain, because if you try to find someone yourself you are not having better luck...)

Also, a lot of covers are sold as pre-mades, and you might grab a pre-made that doesn't quite fit your character just because the cover has a great look overall. Demons in the Bedroom is probably one of my favorite covers, it just looks so fun and perfectly nailed the tone. The model's face looks just like how I imagined Helena. However the outfit is NOTHING like how Helena dresses in the book! She'd never be flipping a house in like, leather pants and a crop top, LOL. However, it fits the style for the genre so well, I didn't ask the designer to change her clothes.

Which Final Fantasy is your fave?

IV. But I fully acknowledge that this is a totally biased answer because it was the first Final Fantasy or JRPG I ever played. The story is not fleshed out well compared to VI onward, but as a kid it was mind blowing and spawned reams of fan fic.

Although one thing I still enjoy about FF IV to this day is that you get five characters in your party and their strengths and skills vary SO widely, including that some of them kind of sucked. It was a fun challenge and felt kind of realistic to what the characters actually were, like Tellah actually seems like an old man, Edward is a wimpy bard, the true fighters are much stronger, the kids start out weak but learn fast... Not many RPGs ever did that again.

Also the soundtrack of course. They are all so good but that one was like the first music EVER to worm its way deep into my soul and never leave.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!