G.J. Boisvert has published his first book called Delusional Reality. A science fiction thriller focused around a Special Forces operative in the U.S. Army.
Can you tell us a bit about your book, Delusional Reality?
The book centers on a character, Michael Brent, who as a young teenager starts to have recurring nightmares. Theses nightmares begin to consume his mind, plunging him into a mental state diagnosed by a psychiatrist as delusions of grandeur. The book follows the early teen and young adult life of this person as he enters college, and then becomes a Special Forces officer in the U.S. Army. He is selected to become part of a mission to squelch enemy rebels in the northern area of Brazil within the Amazon jungle. His team is ambushed, men killed, and he escapes capture only to discover a force that likens itself to his past nightmarish episodes. The adventures then begin as he comes to the reality that his nightmares from the past were a foreshadowing of what he living in that present time. He must face his past while at the same time fighting off the attacks from alien creatures that assimilate themselves into the visage of man-eating jungle animals.
Can you give us an insight into your main character Major Michael Brent? What is it that makes him special?
This character was designed in my mind as the desired skill set that I wished that I would have pursued earlier in life. He has a lot of my personality traits with being studious, persistent, and imaginatively creative. He is special because he cares deeply for his fellow human’s and loathes the society that causes devastation, which exemplifies hatred, and aspires to be a takeover faction. This character fears his sub-conscious and doesn’t quite know how to deal with it.
How do you organize your writing?
My writing is organized in a structured manner. I write at will and can write on demand about virtually any topic with heart and soul. I assemble my thoughts and then just start putting words on electronic paper. I read through each chapter after completion multiple times and adjust flow, grammar, character evolvement, storyline, etc.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
The only difficulty that I have with writing is pouring too many words onto the pages. I can sometimes be too wordy in descriptions, but I am learning to simplify things.
What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing against being published?
The advantages of self-publishing are high quality, ease and simplicity, and the success ratio. Everybody thinks that self publishing doesn’t have a good quality, but in the research that I have done, that is not true. Most of the self publishing companies offer a pretty decent quality and you won’t have to worry about it. The end product will look just similar to any normal publishing. The ease and simplicity is the biggest advantage that I see in it because you don’t have to compete with the big author’s for the publisher’s time, plus there are so many scam vanity presses out there. You are dealing with yourself as far as getting things done, instead of waiting on a publishing company. Trusting an external company to review your book and such is a problem for me too. And then on success, it all relies on you to produce a flawless content, and get it done. The steps for self-publishing are structured and mechanical. You are your own destiny and the success of your book hinges on you as the author promoting it to the public.
The disadvantages of it are the overcrowding of books into the public readership, and you have to rely on your ability to create a unique book topic to capture the market by storm.
How do you market your book?
Through lots of population of entries on reader review sites, blogs, social media, etc. It’s difficult, but it’s all about exposing yourself to the world.
Do you think that giving books away free works and why?
I actually feel that giveaways are a dark horse for me. If you give something away for free without any commitment from the receiver, then there is no reason for them to act on doing anything. You must request something to be acted on to benefit the giver when it comes to “giveaways”.
What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
Reviews are an absolute requirement in order to help promote your book to the world. Bad reviews obviously don’t help your promotion, and good reviews, if from the average reader are fine, but the good reviews need to come from established and highly popular people.
How do you define success as an author?
Success as an author is selling a lot of books from my perspective. Writing for most authors is relatively easy and it is the easy part, it’s the promotion to the reader world that takes a lot of time and effort, so if you can market and promote, then you are on a successful track.
For your own reading, do you prefer eBooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
I actually prefer traditional written books, but I like to have something in my library that is a tangible object.
What kind of books do you read?
Murder mystery, action thrillers, science fiction, and non-fiction technology subject material
What is next?
I am going to promote the heck out of this new book, and network as much as possible. I will eventually write a new series sequel to this Delusional Reality with Major Michael Brent taking on a new adventure.
