Scott Sigler has long been infecting people with his horror rich podcasts. Now on tour for his novel Ancestor, Sigler has made the transition from independent horror sensation to traditional publishing, but continues to hold true to his independent roots.
Reflection’s Edge: You are known for your vast catalog of podcasts, including several
short stories and full-length novels. Why “give away” so much content?
Scott Sigler: Very few authors get a major publicity push from publishers. The kind of hype generated for Justin Cronin, for example, costs millions to generate and is extremely rare. As publishing marketing budgets shrink, authors have to find ways to get in front of new readers. Giving my content away for free online is the best way I know to get people to try my stories. There is no risk for the reader, so many readers/listeners can find out if my style of storytelling is worth their hard-earned money.
Reflection’s Edge: It seems like you’re always on tour. How do you manage marketing your work and turning out content on a regular basis?
Sigler: The main reason is I have a business partner, A Kovacs (together we own Dark Øverlord Media, publisher of The Rookie and The Starter). She manages the tours and the logistics, which gives me the ability to spend more time writing, even when on tour. In the past twelve months, we’ve done three tours and been on the road for 78 days. Crown Publishing funded one of those tours, while Dark Øverlord funded the other two. I honestly couldn’t manage that kind of touring all by myself.
Reflection’s Edge: You are currently on tour for your novel Ancestor. Tell us about it.
Sigler: Crown Publishing, A and I combined to engineer a three-week, nineteen-city tour. It has been very demanding, but also very rewarding. We originally had a budget for seven cities, which A was able to extend to nineteen with some excellent budgeting work. No four-star hotels or first-class airfare, but instead I get to meet hundreds more fans. Meeting people face-to-face helps establish a long-term connection. People are excited about the books and my writing, so I have to find ways to get out and say “hello.”
Reflection’s Edge: You originally published Ancestor under Dragon Moon Press. Now it’s under Crown Publishing, a Random House imprint. How did you make the transition to a big publishing house?
Sigler: The transition was excellent. I enjoyed working with Dragon Moon Press and Gwen Gades, who is very hands-on with editing and marketing. Crown’s editors are exceptional. They understand my writing style and what I’m trying to accomplish, while at the same time keeping an eye on the bigger goal of commercial success. Every time I visit New York, I get to sit down with Crown’s editorial, publicity and marketing folks. I’m constantly pushing for more and bigger marketing, but outside of that everything with Crown has been a dream. All the horror stories you hear about the impersonal Big Publisher just haven’t happened for me.
Reflection’s Edge: Your fans were able to create video trailers for a special contest associated with Ancestor. Why hand such a big marketing endeavor over to fans?
Sigler: I did my own trailer for Ancestor. On top of that, I wrote five short screenplays featuring scenes from the book. We turned those screenplays over to the fans and let them go crazy. We did it because there are some amazingly talented folks out there. If my fiction excites them and makes them want to create related works, I want to facilitate that as much as possible.
Reflection’s Edge: You also host fan forums on your blog. How does community (online
and/or off) play into your success as an author?
Sigler: Community is critical. Any author is going to find a certain number of fans who become “superfans,” if you will. Letting the superfans interact with each other builds friendships. The superfans also serve as brand ambassadors, talking to new people on the site, welcoming them and answering questions. An author that writes as much and tours as much as I do can’t be on the site all of the time, so my hardcore fans basically run the thing.
Reflection’s Edge: Your content walks on the dark side of the speculative fiction genre.
What attracted you to horror?
Sigler: I’m not entirely sure. I used to watch creature features with my father, and always liked the big monster movies. I just found the first story I ever wrote, called “Tentacles, Tentacles and more Tentacles,” penned in the fourth grade. Of course, it’s a monster story. I like well-constructed movies and novels that create realistic terror, so it’s natural I want to make the same kind of content.
Reflection’s Edge: What new work do you have in the pipeline?
Sigler: I am working on Pandemic, the sequel to Infected and Contagious. It will be the final book in that trilogy. A and I are also shipping The Starter in September. The Starter is a sequel to The Rookie, a YA novel that we describe as Any Given Sunday meets Star Wars meets The Godfather. Aside from those, I will be working on a novel called The Crypt and a few other things as well.
Reflection’s Edge: What advice would you give to writers?
Sigler: You have to write every day. Period. And you have to plan for the long haul. If you think you’re good, you’re not—that comes with time and perseverance and sweat. If you can’t write a good story, if you can’t communicate the vision in your head, then all the marketing and hype and social media don’t matter a lick. My advice is to write every day for three to five years, build your skills and craft, and only after you have three or four novels in the bank do you start trying to “get published.”