Tag Archives: blood reign: the saga of pandora zwieback book 2

Talking Writing and Self-Publishing

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One of the complications of being an indie-press publisher and author—sometimes the most frustrating complication of them all—is finding ways to promote your latest release.

You can mail out review copies, send out press releases, make requests for interviews, or even fill out preexisting questions available from a website dedicated to writing (otherwise known as a “self-interview”), but there’s no guarantee you’re going to get media coverage. Still, you do what you can to get attention.

When you’re successful, you wind up with something like my interview with the newspaper The Queens Gazette, which appeared in the print edition and was featured on the paper’s website. Or “Pandora Zwieback and the Bloggy Thing,” a guest post that I was invited to write for the site Writing Belle. Or the cover feature article/interview in IndyFest Magazine #85 (still available for free download). Or my upcoming interview at the site Write a Revolution (I’ll let you know when that gets posted). When you’re unsuccessful, however, you can wind up with completed self-interviews that are passed over by the sites you submitted answers to.

Guess which type of interview this is? 😉 Hey, but why let a completed interview go to waste, right?

Here, you’ll get a little background on my literary history: my first break as an author; my decision to self-publish The Saga of Pandora Zwieback; my thoughts on current publishing trends; and a few other topics. Give it a read—and then (if you haven’t already) purchase a copy of Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2. It’ll make all the complications experienced by a small-press publisher worth the effort!

SRoman_PhotoQ: Welcome, Steven. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?

I’m multi-published. In addition to the novels and graphic novels I currently write for my company, StarWarp Concepts (including the Saga of Pandora Zwieback young adult books Blood Feud and Blood Reign), I’m the author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy (BP Books/Simon & Schuster) and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand (Black Library), the graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City, Sunn, and Stan Lee’s Alexa, and a number of short stories and comic book projects for various publishers.

Q: When you were published for the first time, which route did you go—mainstream, small press, vanity published or self-published, and why or how did you choose this route?

Well, I’d written some comic books and short stories early in my writing career, but as a novelist I got my start in 1997 with a mainstream title: the original, licensed novel Spider-Man Super Thriller: Warrior’s Revenge, based on the Marvel Comics character. It was part of a Marvel book series co-published by Byron Preiss Multimedia Company (BPMC) and Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books imprint. It actually turned out to be a ghostwriting job—the original author’s manuscript had been rejected and I was hired to rewrite the book from scratch, but the covers with his name had already been printed, so I never got cover credit!

blood_feud_lg_cover_2013In 2010, I decided to go the self-publishing route by reviving StarWarp Concepts—a publishing company I’d launched in 1993 for my comic book projects—as a book-publishing house. And in 2011, I released my first young adult dark-fantasy novel, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1. The reason I decided to self-publish it was because I’d done the agent-and-editor submission dances, sending a proposal around in hopes of a book deal and/or an author representative, only to have it rejected for some head-scratching reasons. Most of them fell under two categories: “It’s just not right for us,” which is sort of agent-speak for “I just didn’t care for it on a personal level”; and “Could it be more like…?,” which means they’d like you to knock off something successful—at the time I sent the Pandora proposal around, everyone was trying to clone Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. (Today, it’s things like E. L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.)

So if I’d been willing to rip off Twilight, I might have been signed by any number of agents, but I wasn’t interested in that approach. Self-publishing removed the unpleasantness of dealing with ridiculous, non-constructive feedback.

Q: How long did it take you to get published once you signed the contract?

I think I wrote the Spider-Man novel in a couple of months—with the original manuscript rejected, I had to make up for the book’s lost production time. It was a scary time for me—it was my first novel, someone else’s name was going to be on the cover, and I had to jump right in and start writing. Thankfully, Marvel’s licensing department was happy with the results, and that’s what led to me soon after getting the assignment to write three X-Men novels that sold exceptionally well.

With Blood Feud, it took about a year or so to get it into a shape I was happy with. And then I handed it over to Howard Zimmerman, a friend and former editorial boss of mine, for editing. Once he was done constructively ripping it apart—I wound up rewriting half the book and adding new material, based on his spot-on edits—Blood Feud was finally ready for publication. And based on the feedback and positive reviews I’ve received, it was worth all the effort!

spidey-warriorQ: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

How’d I feel? Like a kid with an intense sugar buzz! I mean, it would’ve been nice to actually have my name on the Spider-Man book, but when I held a copy of the printed novel for the first time, I couldn’t help but be excited by it. And anyway, I finally got my name on the cover when I wrote the X-Men: Chaos Engine Trilogy novels a few years after that, and that was even more exciting!

As for how I celebrated when Warrior’s Revenge came out…I think I treated myself to White Castle hamburgers, or something. Yeah, I know, not the most exciting way to celebrate, but I was happy enough.

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

With the Spider-Man novel… Unfortunately, neither BPMC nor Simon & Schuster did any promotion for the series as a whole; the books were just sort of put out there with no fanfare. So if a Marvel fan happened to come across Warrior’s Revenge in a bookstore—great! Otherwise, no one really knew it was available. The same thing happened a few years later, when the X-Men novels I wrote were published—but those sold huge numbers in spite of the lack of publicity.

pan_comic_0With the Saga of Pandora Zwieback and my other StarWarp Concepts projects, since I’m sort of the master of my own fate—being the publisher as well as the writer—I’m much more proactive in how my work is promoted. I send out press releases and review copies, print up catalogs and brochures, make appearances at horror and comic book conventions and book festivals, heavily blog at the StarWarp Concepts and Pandora Zwieback websites, and set up interviews—like this one! To promote the debut of Blood Feud, the first Pandora Zwieback novel, I published a free full-color comic book, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, that introduces Pan to potential readers, and handed out a couple thousand copies at conventions—and then I made it a free digital comic that can still be downloaded from the StarWarp Concepts site.

Q: Since you’ve been published, how have you grown as a writer and now a published author?

I like to think my writing and storytelling continue to improve with each project. Looking back at the Spider-Man novel, I can see the beginnings of my character-driven action stories, but it’s rough in comparison to, say, Blood Reign, the current Pandora Zwieback novel. Pan is probably the most fully realized character I’ve written, but there’s so much more to her story I’m looking forward to exploring.

Q: What has surprised or amazed you about the publishing industry as a whole?

It’s sort of a mixed reaction. On the one hand, the time has never been better to be an author, with the advancements constantly being made in self-publishing tools. On the other, as an editor, copyeditor, and proofreader with over twenty years’ experience, I’m always surprised by the number of self-published authors who haven’t taken the time to really learn their craft—story structure, plotting, consistent story continuity, even correct spelling and punctuation. In those cases, it’s reflective of an attitude I used to run into at conventions, when I’d explain to visitors to my table that I was a writer, not an artist: “Well, anybody can write a novel.” Actually…no, not everybody can. Not without working at it.

That said, there are a lot of talented authors out there who know their business, and those are the ones whose works are worth tracking down. As for the rest…well, even in the worst-written novel you can often see the story the author intended to tell—they just need to keep honing their craft in order to tell it better and clearer.

Blood-Reign-FinalCvrQ: What is the most rewarding thing about being a published author?

Discovering that there’s actually an audience out there for the kinds of things I write! When I hear from someone who’s read my Pandora Zwieback work and they tell me how much she reflects their own thoughts and feelings, and is even someone they’d love to hang out with, then I know I’m doing a good job as a writer. And that’s a pretty nice reward!

Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

As lame and clichéd as it sounds, keep at it! You can only get better by working your craft, by learning the tools of the trade—by which I mean the publishing “bibles,” Webster’s Dictionary and the Chicago Manual of Style—and by learning to take constructive criticism. I often tell folks that Blood Feud, the first Pan novel, wouldn’t be the critically acclaimed book it is today if I hadn’t listened to my editor when he told me what needed fixing. Do all that, and one of these days you might find your name on the cover of a book, too!

My latest work, Blood Reign, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, is currently available for order from online and brick-and-mortar bookstores and the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit the Blood Reign product page at SWC for more information, as well as a sample chapter.

Subscription Service Shakeup Doesn’t Affect Pan’s Adventures

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blood_feudOn June 30, e-book subscription service Scribd announced that they were making dramatic cuts to the number of romance titles they offer, due to the large number of genre fans who’ve “rented” so many books that Scribd is losing money. Distributor Smashwords estimates it may adversely affect 80–90 percent of the romance and erotica titles they handle.

But do you know what this shakeup doesn’t affect? The StarWarp Concepts dark-fantasy novels Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 and Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, which remain part of Scribd’s catalog!

Written by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!), Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is the critically acclaimed novel that begins Pan’s story, explaining how she, her parents, and her friends, are drawn into a conflict among warring vampire clans searching for the key to an ultimate weapon (or so the legend goes)—a key that just so happens to have been delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s father.

Blood-Reign-FinalCvrIt’s a character-driven action-fest that leads immediately into the second novel: Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, in which Pan faces even greater challenges as the clans draw up plans to go to war with humanity. Leading the charge is a fallen angel named Zaqiel, whose previous attempt at subjugating the world was stopped by Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Annie—who, back in the day, was Zaqiel’s lover!

If you’re a Scribd subscriber, or know someone who is, be sure to add Pan’s adventures to your book queue—and then get started reading!

Pandora Zwieback: Creating Blood Reign’s Cover, Part 2

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Zeu-Pan2TonedWelcome back to the story behind the creative process that went into formulating and executing the cover art and design for my second Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Reign. As I explained last time, it began with my commissioning of artist Bob Larkin to paint the cover art, using as a template a Tomb of Dracula magazine cover he’d done for Marvel Comics in 1979. But since the version I had in mind was going to replace the victim with Pan and Dracula with Lady Kiyoshi Sasaki, leader of Blood Reign’s House Otoyo vampire clan, and I knew that Bob was unfamiliar with the fashion style Kiyoshi favors—called Elegant & Gothic Lolita—I brought in Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia, artist of the Pandora Zwieback comics and the graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City, to design Kiyohi’s look.

Zeu’s first attempt (which I showed you in the previous post) was good, but not quite what I was looking for, considering both Pan and Kiyoshi were wearing black, which meant the potential existed for the characters to “bleed together” into one giant mass when seen at a distance. Something was needed to separate the two, and Zeu’s solution was to give Kiyoshi a white blouse. Problem solved! After he tightened the pencil art and inked the final illustration, I sent it over to Bob, who popped it into Photoshop to add the sort of cliff edge and lightning bolts found in his Dracula painting. The result was what you see up top (click to enlarge).

BloodReign_ArtOne change I asked Bob to make for the painting was to replace the heels on Pan’s boots with thick, flat soles, for three reasons: heels would be too impractical for all the adventuring (running, jumping, kicking, etc.) she’d be doing; thicker soles are her way of compensating for the fact she’s shorter than pretty much everyone around her; and Pan hasn’t mastered the art of walking on high heels—a scene in Blood Feud shows her wearing a pair of dressy pumps when she gets together with her friends, but spending most of her time wobbling around on them. She refuses to take them off because, well, she’s Pan. No stupid shoes are gonna show her who’s boss. But other than that, I told Bob, all systems were go for the painting. And, once again, when he delivered the final art he didn’t disappoint. (Of course, I knew he wouldn’t—that’s why I hired him.)

After that, it was just a matter of turning the art over to Mat Postawa, who’d set the tone for the series look with his design for the cover of the first Pan novel, Blood Feud. When all was said and done, the final cover came out as this:

BloodReign-FinalCvrSpiffy, right? Just as Blood Feud’s cover design had touches of red to complement the “river of blood” in Bob’s painting for that book, Blood Reign’s played off the blue tones in the stormy sky. Of special note is the “devil girl” symbol on Pan’s T-shirt—a manga-influenced version of the one on Blood Feud’s cover—only this one was whipped up by Pan’s original designer, Uriel Caton! I’d asked Uriel to contribute to the process in some way, and once I saw this design I not only wrote it into the novel (as a T that Pan’s boyfriend, Javi, gives her), but also decided that a running joke in the books (and covers) could be that folks are always giving Pan devil-girl shirts (the first, in Blood Feud, was a gift from Mom)—which she has to wonder is meant to be a comment on her personality.

So there you have it: the VH1 “Behind the Cover” story of Blood Reign. And what about the werewolf-centric Stalkers, the third cover that Bob painted so I’d have a complete convention banner? Well, that got bumped to book 4 in the series, replaced by Blood & Iron, which will wrap up the vampire war storyline of Blood Feud and Blood Reign—and whose cover was painted by an artist named Candra. We’ll get to the stories on each of those covers when the time comes.

Next: We’re not done with the cover analyses just yet! Tomorrow I’ll show you what went into the creation of the cover for the recently published IndyFest Magazine #85—an illustration by artist extraordinaire Zeu that depicts the first-ever meeting of Pan and StarWarp Concepts’ first lady of horror, the succubus called Lorelei!

Pandora Zwieback: Creating Blood Reign’s Cover, Part 1

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Yesterday, I finished up the story behind the creation of the cover for the first Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud. It was fairly simple in construct: I did a sketch of what I was looking for, handed it off to painter Bob Larkin, and he took it from there. Once Bob had delivered the final art, it went to designer Mat Postawa, who crafted the final look of Blood Feud’s cover. For the second novel, Blood Reign, however, I wanted something a bit more storytelling in its imagery—something that would end up making it a two-artist situation.

Now that the heroine’s-first-issue cover approach had been taken care of by using it for Blood Feud, the idea this time around was to create a dramatic image that would catch the eye of potential book buyers and entice them to explore the novel behind the cover. Of course, Bob Larkin was going to paint this cover, too, so I knew the final results would be amazing—but what, exactly, was I looking for him to paint? And then I remembered a first-issue cover that Bob had painted for Marvel Comics’ Tomb of Dracula magazine, back in 1979.

Tomb_of_Dracula1

The composition was exactly what I wanted, so I did what any smart-thinking publisher would do: I asked Bob to knock off the Dracula painting for Blood Reign. 😀 Just substitute Dracula with Lady Kiyoshi Sasaki, leader of Blood Feud’s Japanese vampire clan, House Otoyo, and replace the damsel in distress with Pan. Bob was okay with that, and was prepared to start sketching, but then I realized something: Since Kiyoshi’s wardrobe, as well as that of her entire clan’s, was based on Elegant & Gothic Lolita fashion—think nineteenth-century clothing with a modern-day twist, popular with not just Japanese youth, but American cosplayers—I’d be asking Bob to try and figure out a clothing style he’d never heard of, and be accurate about it so the image wouldn’t annoy Goth Lolis (as they’re known). My solution? Get another artist to design Kiyoshi and her dress, and then have Bob use that for the painting.

ZeuPanCvrEnter: Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia, then-artist of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, the free comic that introduces readers to Pan’s world (and still available for download; just click the link to obtain your own copy). Being something of a manga and anime fan, Zeu immediately understood what I was looking for, and soon enough came up with a design for Kiyoshi that he incorporated into the sketch you see here (click to enlarge), based on Bob’s Tomb of Dracula cover. A good start, but I thought the top half of Kiyoshi’s outfit was too oversized—she kinda looks like she’s wearing football shoulder pads—and that her all-black clothes set against Pan’s all-black clothes would be hard to see at a distance. Also, I wanted her looking forward; having her head turned sideways just raises the question “What’s she supposed to be looking at?”

So Zeu went back to the literal drawing board for a second-round sketch…

Next: The exciting conclusion to this pulse-pounding tale of cover artists and Gothic Lolitas!

Book Expo America 2015: The Goth Takeover

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Yesterday I attended Book Expo America—North America’s annual get-together of book industry insiders, held this year at New York’s Javits Convention Center—to wander the aisles and check to see the placement of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels, Blood Feud and Blood Reign, at the booth run by the IBPA: the International Book Publishers Association—a worldwide organization that StarWarp Concepts belongs to, dedicated to spreading the good word about indie publishing companies large and small.

So what were my impressions of BEA 2015? Find out by heading over to the StarWarp Concepts blog for my book festival report, and reading all about it!

BEA2015-PanBooks

The next three stops on the StarWarp Concepts 2015 convention tour are the Brooklyn Book Festival (September 20), the Collingswood Book Festival (October 3), and the “holy crap, it’s full’a zombies!” Walker Stalker Con (December 4–6). Hope to see you there!

Pandora Zwieback Mini-Story at Writing Belle

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Blood-Reign-FinalCvrThe promotional tour for Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 continues today at author Summer Lane’s site Writing Belle, where as part of her Spring Author Program, you’ll find a guest blog post from author Steven A. Roman (that’s me) in the form of a (very) short story about Pan being asked to write a guest post for a horror site’s blog, to promote the book series about her. How meta can you get?!

“Pandora Zwieback and the Bloggy Thing” is a 1,300-word mini-adventure that involves Pan racking her brains to find something to write about herself for the fictional horror site The Society of Classic Monsters—the major problem being she’s never written a guest post before (like her creator!). Coming to her aid is her best friend, Sheena McCarthy, who has an idea or two about how the Goth adventuress can promote the books. Think of it as a sequel to the non-canonical The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, the free digital comic in which Pan introduces herself to the reader and shills for the first novel, Blood Feud. In this marketing “splinter universe,” Pan is very much aware that I’m writing books about her—because StarWarp Concepts is paying her royalties for her monster-fighting life story! So head over to Writing Belle and check out her latest effort to help spread the word.

Speaking of promos for The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, over at my Goodreads author page I’ve activated the “Ask the Author” function. So if you’re a Goodreads member and you’ve got a question about Pan’s saga, Lorelei: Sects and the City, X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy, Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand, or any of the other projects I’ve written over the years, head over there now and ask away!

Blood Reign: Author Steven A. Roman Interview at Smashwords

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Blood-Reign-FinalCvrThe promotional tour for Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 continues at the site of digital book distributor Smashwords, with an interview with author Steven A. Roman (that’s me). That’s where you’ll find me discussing Pan’s adventures, as well as topics like the benefits of being an indie author and publisher, my favorite books, and what’s my greatest joy as a writer.

Smashwords is the company through which StarWarp Concepts makes Blood Reign and its preceding volume, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, available for sale through iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, and Oyster Books (as well as at Smashwords itself). Head on over to Smashwords and give the interview a read.

And in case you hadn’t heard the news, Smashwords isn’t the only place you’ll find me chatting about my work. Over at my Goodreads author page I’ve activated the “Ask the Author” function. So if you’re a Goodreads member and you’ve got a question about The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy, or any of the other projects I’ve written over the years, head over there now and ask away!

Author Steven A. Roman on Sci-Fi Saturday Night This Weekend

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scifi-satnite-brainA special programming reminder: This Saturday, April 18, I’ll be appearing on the popular podcast series Sci-Fi Saturday Night. It’s not a live event, though—we’ll be taping the show on Wednesday night for broadcast on Saturday. Showrunner The Dome and his crew of pop-culture lovers will be interviewing me about Pan’s latest adventure, Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback: Book 2, and probably a few other topics as well. Don’t miss it!

In case you’re interested in hearing my previous appearance, which took place back in December 2011 to promote Blood Feud, the first Pandora Zwieback novel, you can check it out by visiting the Sci-Fi Saturday Night website and downloading it from right here. I come in along the thirty-minute mark. And then be sure to tune in on April 18, 2015 for my triumphant return!

And in case you hadn’t heard the news, over at my Goodreads author page I’ve activated the “Ask the Author” function. So if you’re a Goodreads member and you’ve got questions of your own about The Saga of Pandora Zwieback or any of the other projects I’ve written over the years, head over there now and ask away!

Taliesin Meets the Goth Loli Vampires for Blood Reign Review

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Blood-Reign-FinalCvrThe first review has come in for Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2—and naturally it’s a positive one! Over at the vampire-centric site Taliesin Meets the Vampires, reviewer and site owner Andrew Boylan—who also gave a glowing review to Blood Feud, the first novel in the series—shares his opinion of Pan’s latest adventure:

“If the first volume took some deliberate pacing steps to build Pandora’s character, this volume eschews that as it thunders along at breakneck speed, barely pausing for breath at any given time (and, I must say, the volume was devoured at speed as well). The book doesn’t suffer for this…I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.”

You can read the entire review here.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with this project (and if you are, how did you wind up at this site? 😀 ), The Saga of Pandora Zwieback is my young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series, starring a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world.

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is the beginning of Pan’s story, explaining how she, her parents, and her friends, are drawn into a conflict among warring vampire clans searching for the key to an ultimate weapon (or so the legend goes)—a key that just so happens to have been delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s father. It’s a character-driven action-fest that leads immediately into the second novel:

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2: Pan faces even greater challenges as the clans draw up plans to go to war with humanity. Leading the charge is a fallen angel named Zaqiel, whose previous attempt at subjugating the world was stopped by Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Annie—who, back in the day, was Zaqiel’s lover!

Visit each of the titles’ product pages for more information, including sales links and sample chapters.

Blood Reign: Author Steven A. Roman Returns to Sci-Fi Saturday Night

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Blood-Reign-FinalCvrThe promotional tour for Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 continues to take shape, now that I’ve been booked to make a return appearance to the popular podcast series Sci-Fi Saturday Night; my episode will air Saturday, April 18. Showrunner “The Dome”—who fell in love with Pan after reading her debut in the first novel, Blood Feud—and the rest of his crew of pop-culture enthusiasts will be chatting me up about Pan’s latest adventure, and probably cover a few other topics, as well.

In case you’re interested in hearing my previous appearance, which took place back in December 2011 to promote Blood Feud, you can check it out by visiting the Sci-Fi Saturday Night website and downloading it from right here. I come in along the thirty-minute mark. And then be sure to tune in on April 18, 2015 for my triumphant return!

And in case you hadn’t heard the news, over at my Goodreads author page I’ve activated the “Ask the Author” function. So if you’re a Goodreads member and you’ve got questions of your own about The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Lorelei: Sects and the City, or any of the other projects I’ve written over the years, head over there now and ask away!