William: I spent a year pursuing agents and
traditional publishers. At OryCon, my local science
book, whether it’s submitting to agents or marketing
it. I’m all for perseverance, but a writer can’t make a
how long they pursued traditional publication:
anywhere from three to twenty years.
good.
I think this also points to the value of being engaged
with a community composed of serious writers,
whether that’s online or in the real world. Serious
doesn’t mean traditionally published, but it does
mean dedicated to being the best writer you can be.
There’s so much to learn and so much that’s changing,
My background is in the technology industry, and I
thought there was no way publishing was going to
stay the same for three years, let alone twenty. I also
met a self-published author, Annie Bellet, who was
making a steady income from her books. She was
also the only self-published author I met, so whether
right or wrong, I started with a mental model that
self-published authors tended to do well.
from everyone else’s experiences and wisdom.
S.E.: Who are your role models? Who has inspired
you in your writing career the most?
My background combines several diverse experiences.
I’m a computer programmer by education and
training, and spent many years developing websites.
So I’m not intimidated by technology, and I know
something of the theory behind websites: how to
William: Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross are two
writers I admire because brilliant concepts and ideas
are woven throughout their books. You can read a
Cory Doctorow novel, and by the time you’re done,
you’ve learned how to encrypt your hard drive and
set up a secure network connection.
to display information. I also studied business and
received my MBA, so I had a general background in
marketing, and understood concepts like exposure
and conversation rates.
They were also inspiring because their writing craft
is not as intimidating as, say, someone like William
Gibson, whose early prose reads almost like poetry.
I also have a long history with online communities,
from bulletin board systems in the 1980s through
online forums in the 1990s and social media. So I
understand a lot about the cultural norms of those
I could write.
depth throughout the trilogy; what did you do
I basically combined all of that – a general
understanding of marketing, using online presence
and social media – with an attitude of experimentation.
I would try new things, see what worked, and only
William: I got feedback on an early draft of Avogadro
Corp, when it was less than 30,000 words long. I
thought I was done, and my friends seemed to like it.
But the feedback I received from people I didn’t know
was that I still had a way to go: that I was telling, not
showing, and that everything took place in a white
room.
books.
How did you overcome them?
William:
from marketing so much as they do from getting
negative reviews. As a writer, getting those one and
two star reviews is incredibly painful. My coping
mechanism is to realize that those folks are saying
something important: either they aren’t the right
eight-week writing class, found myself a critique
cons, as well as dedicated writing conferences.
Through those experiences and the feedback I
received, I learned to explore the characters more
deeply.
so I reach the right readers),
or they are the right reader
b