Christopher Buecheler – 70,000 Downloads of his Ebook and Counting
How would you feel if you wrote a book and it was downloaded over 70,000 times by readers? Probably pretty chuffed, I would imagine. Well, that’s exactly what has happened to Christopher Buecheler and his book “The Blood that Bonds”.
When I conducted this interview, Chris had not made a cent from all those downloads. Instead, he was setting up a firm foundation for his future writing career.
Darrell - When did you decide you wanted to become a writer and how did it happen?
Christopher - I don’t know that I can point to an exact moment where I made the decision to become a writer. It was more of an evolutionary process. Probably the most significant individual event was receiving my first PC for my birthday in 1986, when I turned nine. It came with a rudimentary word-processing program, and being able to type my ideas instead of having to hand-write them definitely had a major impact on me. By the time I was eleven, I had written a bunch of short stories (all terrible), and was beginning to be comfortable with longer work. By the time I was fifteen, I’d finished a novel (also terrible). By then, the idea was firmly entrenched in my head that I wanted to be published someday, but it took another decade before I actually felt comfortable submitting my work anywhere.
Darrell - You've just published your first novel "The Blood that Bonds" on Amazon and via Createspace. As a first timer, how would you describe this experience of uploading your book and preparing it for publication?
Christopher - Well, there were two separate publications – the eBook first came out in late 2009, and then I released the print edition in early 2011. Both processes were fairly complex, and I think it helped a lot that I’ve spent most of my professional life developing web-pages. The type-setting, graphic design, and scripting skills necessary to create print and eBooks are quite similar to the things I was already doing on the web.
Of the two, I found the print publication more difficult, just because it required exacting attention to margins and bleed areas, page size, type-formatting (I spent hours just making sure none of the fleurons in the book were left hanging at the top of a new page) and so forth. Also, the feedback process on a print book is much slower – you have to upload your stuff to Createspace, order a proof, wait a week for it to show up, and then comb it for errors. With the eBook, you upload a file and can view it instantly.
In both cases though, what it really comes down to is following directions. Createspace, Amazon and Smashwords all have extremely detailed information on how to format your book for publication. If you follow their guidelines, things end up working pretty well. You just have to put in the time, both reading and working on the manuscript, in order to get the best possible presentation.
Darrell - Your book is currently a free ebook. I notice you've received 152 customer reviews (quite impressive). What's your reasoning behind releasing this as a freebie and do you intend to start charging soon?
Christopher - The eBook has been successful far beyond my expectations! In addition to the 152 reviews at Amazon.com, there are more than a thousand at Barnes & Noble, and several hundred more at various other websites like GoodReads and LibraryThing. The total download numbers have moved past seventy thousand, which is completely ridiculous. I was thrilled when I passed the five-thousand mark!
I have no intention of ever charging for The Blood That Bonds in eBook format. The decision to release it for free was one I made consciously. Unlike many aspiring writers, I happen to be in the lucky position of having an alternate career that pays me pretty well. I’ve been designing and developing web pages for a living since 1997, and it’s that work that pays the bills. When I sat down and asked myself what it was I was trying to accomplish with The Blood That Bonds, I decided that it was the exposure that mattered to me more than making any money off of it, and I thought that by releasing it for free – but giving it the same love and attention that I’d have given it even if it had been picked up by a publisher – I would be able to grow an audience, and that in turn might allow me to sell future books to them. That plan seems to be working! The sequel to The Blood That Bonds, Blood Hunt, will be out this summer as an eBook. I’m pricing it at $2.99, and the most common reaction from my fans to the news that I’ll be charging for it is “that’s not enough. I’d pay more!” … which is pretty gratifying.
I would love to write for a living, but I’m willing to let that be a slow and steady process as my books continue, hopefully, to find new readers. With any luck, eventually they’ll be earning enough money that I won’t have to work a full-time job at the same time. We’ll see!
Darrell - What authors inspire you and why?
Christopher - Any author who’s dedicated enough to the craft to have put something out there inspires me. It’s not an easy thing! That said, I certainly have my favorites. By far the most influential author as far as my own writing goes is Stephen King. I’ve been a fan of his work since my childhood (I started reading his books in the fourth grade), and I continue to enjoy it to this day.
Other authors have certainly influenced and inspired me as well:
Christopher Moore, Anne Rice, Chuck Palahniuk, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Orwell, William Golding, J.K. Rowling, Cormac McCarthy … the list could go on for a long time. Recently I’ve been reading stuff by China Miéville, who’s pretty awesome.
Darrell - What are your future writing plans?
Christopher -
Step 1. Finish vampire trilogy.
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit!
In all seriousness, I don’t have a specific roadmap for the future. I’ll publish Blood Hunt this summer and am working on the final book in that series, The Children of the Sun, right now. Hopefully I’ll put that out next summer, but it might take longer. Beyond that, I have a sci-fi novel finished that’s in need of a second draft, and about a dozen ideas kicking around in my head for other books. Also I periodically write short stories, so I might write more of those too. I work pretty quickly, averaging well over 1000 words per day when I’m cranking on a specific project, and assuming Blood Hunt makes any kind of money, I should be able to afford editing, so there’s no reason I can’t continue to release books. The real question is: will people be interested in what I have to say, once I’m done telling them the story of Two and her vampire friends? Hopefully the answer is yes.
Darrell - If someone is trying to make it as a writer, what is the main advice you would give them?
Christopher - Write. Write, write, write. Write until you’re sick of writing and then make yourself write some more. And when you’re not writing, read. It doesn’t matter what you read, so much – you’re going to learn from just about anything you pick – but it doesn’t hurt to mix in some more challenging work with genre fiction and graphic novels and so forth. I try to stick a classic or two into my reading list each year, and I try to read some “literary fiction” like Mark Haddon or Colm Tóibín along with the sci-fi, fantasy and horror that I often prefer.
The other thing is to just keep trying. I’ve submitted a LOT of fiction to magazines, publishers, agents, etc … the vast majority of it hasn’t been picked up, but some has. If you spend a lot of time worrying about what’s getting accepted and what’s not, then you’re wasting time that could be spent writing. Also, stop buying books that claim to know “the secrets” to getting published. They don’t, because there aren’t any secrets – all of the information is readily available on any number of agent and publisher websites. They tell you exactly what they’re looking for. It’s up to you to write it.
If you must have books, buy a copy of “The Elements of Style” by Strunk & White and “On Writing” by Stephen King, and you’ll get pretty much everything you’ll need to know to get published. After that, it’s just practice, dedication, and luck.
Important Links:
And just a couple of the locations where you can download “The Blood that Bonds”:
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