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
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