James Aquilone and I spent a few years writing for the late, lamented SF Signal. When he launched a Kickstarter for his first novel, Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device the least I could do for my former colleague is give him a chance to talk about the Kickstarter, among other writerly and genre topics in this interview.
A little bit about Dead Jack…
Dead Jack isn’t the best detective in Pandemonium. He’s just the cheapest. In fact he’ll work for fairy dust. But don’t judge. Jack needs it to curb his hunger for sweet, succulent flesh. In Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device, the first book in the series, things go bad for the brain-licker after he tries to score from his old dealer. Jack and his homunculus sidekick Oswald find themselves on the run from angry leprechauns. But they have bigger krakens to fry, because Pandemonium is in danger of going bye-bye — and our duo is its only hope. Lucifer help them!
Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device is the first in a series of short novels by James Aquilone. (The second book, tentatively titled Dead Jack and the Soul Thieves, is due out in March.) The stories are a mix of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Big Trouble in Little China, Shaun of the Dead, and The Maltese Falcon.
On to the interview…
How long have Dead Jack and Oswald been kicking around in your skull?
Quite a while actually. I wrote the first short story 10 years ago and promptly filed it away, thinking no one would be interested. Five years ago Weird Tales was looking for zombie stories, so I submitted it on a lark and it was accepted. It was my first sale. (Though, in the beginning, Oswald was actually a worm named Olly.)
You’ve published a fair number of short stories, how long have you been aiming at a novel for these two characters (or the world in which their story takes place)?
I always planned on writing more Dead Jack stories and doing a series. My plan was to get my feet wet with short stories for a year or two and then start churning out novels. But I enjoyed writing and publishing short stories so much that I wrote pretty much only short stories for the past five years.
How many novels/stories in total do you have planned for Dead Jack? Is this an opened ended series?
It’s open ended. The plan now is to do at least one book a year for the next several years with short stories sprinkled in.
Why go Kickstarter with this duo?
All my short stories have been traditionally published but I wanted to do a series on my own, mostly because I wanted full control over it. I wanted to be able to pick the cover artist and editor, do the marketing, and publicity. I think nowadays every writer needs to be involved in self-publishing in some capacity. Besides, it’s more fun and exciting to do it this way.
Once Dead Jack gets rolling, though, I’ll pursue my non-series novels with a traditional publisher and look for an agent.
When we were both writing for the late, great SF Signal (moment of silence), one of your regular features was the “SF/F Crowdfunding Roundup.” How beneficial was writing about these projects to building the Dead Jack Kickstarter?
I owe a lot to SF Signal. I probably wouldn’t have paid as much attention to Kickstarter if I wasn’t doing the Crowdfunding Roundup. I followed the campaigns I covered and took notice of what worked and what didn’t. I think I was able to avoid the major mistakes writers sometimes make with their Kickstarters, like setting their goal too high or not having interesting art or not having an excerpt. I still made mistakes, though. You never know until you throw your hat in the ring. It’s never a bad idea to write for a blog when you’re starting out. It’s a great learning experience and opportunity to network. I’ve been missing SF Signal terribly these past few weeks.
Your Kickstarter seems like one of the more professionally put together Kickstarter campaigns, was this the first one you’ve organized?
Thanks! This is the first one I’ve created. But I’ve helped friends a bit with their Kickstarters and I got some great advice before I launched. The amazing artwork by Ed Watson also helped a lot to make it look professional and interesting. Great artwork is invaluable to get people’s interest, then if you can deliver with a great excerpt, you’ll be golden.
What has been more of a challenge for you writing the novel or building the Kickstarter campaign?
The hardest thing is writing the book and doing the Kickstarter at the same time. I’m a couple of drafts in, but there’s still a lot of work to do and it’s been really difficult to get any writing in during the Kickstarter. There’s a tremendous amount of work just to get the Kickstarter launched, but it’s a whole other beast once it starts. And with social media, there’s always something you can do to promote the campaign, so it never ends. Plus I check the page at least a thousand times a day.
The art by Ed Watson you’ve included seems perfect for a comic or graphic novel story featuring these characters. Are there plans (or hopes) of taking the story to that form?
Absolutely. Dead Jack started because I wanted to do a webcomic, but it morphed into a short story and now a series. I love comics and I’m hoping the books are successful enough that we’ll see a Dead Jack graphic novel soon. It’s off to a great start so I think it will happen.
How did you get Ed Watson involved?
My cousin Louis, who’s a black belt in ninjutsu, trains with Ed, and he hooked us up after finding out I was about to publish the book. Steven Gladin, who made the animated cover, is also training with my cousin. So you can say I have a team of ninjas working on the book.
Ed did the cover, character sketches, and map. He’ll also do two interior illustrations for the book now that we reached the second stretch goal.
I think it’s the first prose book cover and map he ever did. He’s more of a comic book illustrator, but that’s exactly what I wanted. I’d rather my covers look like comics or heavy metal album covers than the typical book cover.
Here’s a link to Ed’s website http://www.edwatsonart.com/
The Kickstarter campaign has nearly doubled its goal, why do you think it managed to be such a success?
It came as a total surprise. Initially I set the goal lower, because I was truly worried no one would be interested. This is my first book and first big project, so I didn’t know what to expect. But we ended up reaching the goal in about three days and we’ve already closed in on our second stretch goal. We’ve been the number one publishing and fiction project for most of the campaign so far, which is unbelievable. People seem very excited about it. All the feedback has been positive, from the artwork to the preview of the first chapter. I think people can’t resist a hardboiled zombie and cute homunculus.
What is some advice you have for others considering the Kickstarter route, especially if they are crowd-funding a novel?
Do your research. Study the campaigns that worked as well as the ones that failed. The ones that fail usually do so because they set the goal too high or didn’t have any writing examples or the person had no network. Social media is super important in getting backers. Traditional advertising isn’t very cost effective, at least in my experience. So build your social media well in advance. Also do as much as possible before the launch, especially with your marketing plan, because once you’re in the thick of it, you’re going to be crunched for time. And get advice from people who’ve run successful campaigns.
Any last words?
Last statement? I’d just add that we have some cool stretch goals, like a collection of all my short stories as well as an audiobook, which I’m really exciting about.
James Aquilone was raised on Saturday morning cartoons, comic books, sitcoms, and Cap’n Crunch. Amid the Cold War, he dreamed of being a jet fighter pilot but decided against the military life after realizing it would require him to wake up early. He had further illusions of being a stand-up comedian, until a traumatic experience on stage forced him to seek a college education. Brief stints as an alternative rock singer/guitarist and child model also proved unsuccessful. Today he battles a severe Tetris addiction while trying to write in the speculative fiction game. Demons, robots, dragons, superheroes…that sort of thing.
His short fiction has been published in such places as Nature’s Futures, The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2013-2014, Unidentified Funny Objects 4, and Weird Tales Magazine. His first novel should be out soon. Suffice it to say, things are going much better than his modeling career.
He lives in Staten Island, New York, but don’t hold that against him.
