Sep 9, 2013
Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Douglas Smith, an award-winning Canadian author of fantasy, SF, horror and supernatural fiction with over 100 short story sales in 30 countries and two dozen languages.
Doug and Mark discuss the following:
• Doug’s start to writing in 1995 stemming
from a “mid-life” crisis
• How Doug’s new novel
The Wolf at the End of the World ties back to the very first
short story he wrote in 1995, Spirit Dance
• Doug’s prestigious career as a short-fiction
writer (how he turned the sale of 40 short stories sold into
re-selling them to 170 markets globally), the importance of taking
advantage of reprint rights
• Doug’s outstanding foreign language rights
sales of short fiction: 25 languages in 30 countries
• Ralon.com –
online free short fiction market listings
• Doug’s strategy for hiring a cover artist, an
ePub formatting conversion company to create a consistent
professional look and feel to generate a catalog of eBook versions
of his short story fiction collection. (And how he made his
investment back within a year selling short stories in eBook
version for 99 cents – where he keeps 35 cents on Amazon and 45
cents on Kobo per unit sold)
• The adaptation of one of Doug’s short stories
“By Her Hand She Draws You Down” into a short film of
the same name.
• Doug’s penchant for writing fiction that
references Bruce Springsteen’s music
• How Doug discovered he had written a vampire
story only after reading customer reviews
Mark also talks about discovering ingenious use of social media by
authors and cites author Chele Cooke’s intriguing use of
Pinterest for her forthcoming novel Dead & Buryd as an
example. Here’s a link to Chele’s website and her
forthcoming book on
Kobo.
OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES
Daniele Serra – Italian
Artist
Doug's website: www.smithwriter.com
Twitter: @smithwritr
Doug’s article on Selling Foreign Language
Rights
Doug’s Foreign Market
List
Doug’s Amazing Stories
Blog Series
Short fiction recommendations to check out Doug’s writing:
If you like Horror check out
By Her Hand She Draws You Down
If you like Urban Fantasy check out Spirit
Dance
If you like post-apocalyptic science-fiction check out Memories
of the Dead Man
If you like revenge/science-fiction/time-travel stories check out
State of
Disorder
If you like martial arts/Japanese fantasy check out The Red Bird
If you like modern thriller/fantasy, check out The Wolf at the End of the World