I blame Akira. The first time I sat down and saw Akira in all its big-screen glory (at, bizarrely, the Welsh premiere), I had to go and dive into similar worlds. Soon, I was reading Walter Jon Williams, Pat Cadigan, and some guy named William Gibson, and playing the Cyberpunk role-playing game. The urgency created in worlds where technology is the daily tool and constant risk facing our heroes, where corporations dominate over nationalities, and where politics is about who wields the most cutting edge technology is a heady mix. It is a pleasure then to introduce Drew Cordell, who has just published his first novel in such great company. Without further ado, Altered Instinct is delighted to welcome Drew as a guest. Take it away, Drew.
Hey everyone, my name is Drew Cordell,
and this is my first guest post on Altered Instinct. I’m a new
author that just published my first cyberpunk science fiction novel,
Absolute Knowledge. While I’m new, I’ve learned a lot in these
past two years as I finished my novel and prepared it for
publication, first through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign then
through Amazon in both paper and digital formats. I’m excited to
share a truncated version of my experience with you.
If you’re not familiar with the
cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, it’s typically represented
by societies (often in the near future) that are dominated by
technology, automation, and large corporations or governments that
have taken more power than they ought to. A lot of books, movies, and
games can be considered cyberpunk, but the main overarching theme
that unites most of them is the idea of high tech and low life.
Citizens are often oppressed by the very technology that enables the
standard of life set in the society in question.
To me, cyberpunk science fiction,
particularly science fiction that’s set on our own world, is
fascinating. As we grow closer and closer to advanced AI taking over
many jobs, it will be interesting to see how the world changes and
adapts. Technology today plays a bigger part in our lives than ever
before, and it’s not hard to see why many people fear an AI
takeover. Whether utopian, dystopian, or something in between, AI
will have a lasting outcome on our everyday lives going forward.
Having been an avid reader all of my
life and reading countless science fiction, fantasy, and horror
novels, I became fascinated by the idea of what would happen if
everything in a society was automated? What would the people do for a
living? What would control society? These ideas progressed into the
idea that sparked the premise of my trilogy, Absolute Knowledge.
Initially, Absolute Knowledge was
supposed to be a fantasy novel. There was supposed to be some sort of
wizard’s alliance where the wizards used spells, and enchantments
to collect people’s thoughts, improving their own knowledge and
growing more powerful. I started writing, and it just didn’t work.
Fast forward a few months, and I had pivoted the idea into a science
fiction shell. The words (and coffee) flowed, and I had the completed
first draft within eight months, a hefty 115,000 words and I had the
smug attitude that I was done. This being my first novel, the truth
of how much work goes into a book AFTER writing the first draft hit
me like a brick. Months later and with the help of several trusted
beta readers and editors, I had something that more or less resembled
a completed book. It was time to figure out how to get this thing
published.
With my entrepreneurship business
degree (currently one year away from graduating), I settled on
launching a crowdfunding campaign for my novel before my retail
launch and managed to double my funding goal for the project. This
helped me recuperate my expenses for editing and graphic design
before my book even hit the shelves, all while doubling my initial
funding goal for the project. I’m just about finished with my
campaign,
(just waiting on deliveries in order to ship rewards to my backers),
but I’ve started a series on crowdfunding for authors which you can
read right here.
Despite doing a ton of research before launching my campaign, I still
learned a lot (and am still learning) during my campaign.
If any other authors are interested in
pursuing crowdfunding for their work, I’d be happy to provide free
crowdfunding consultation and give feedback on your campaign prior to
when it goes live. I want to share my experience with others and help
them in their self-publishing or hybrid-publishing experience. If
you’d like feedback on your project, just shoot me a message on
facebook,
or twitter.
As of right now, I’m transitioning
into my retail launch and working hard to market my book as a blend
of cyberpunk and hard science fiction which emphasizes technology and
scientific accuracy wherever possible. I’m currently running
several marketing campaigns through multiple outlets with varying
success, and will hopefully have some good insights to share going in
a few weeks once I’ve compiled all the data, but as of right now,
my retail launch is going fairly well.
Hopefully, this
will be the first of many guest posts on Altered Instinct, and I look
forward to sharing insights on science fiction, writing, and do some
book reviews on here as well. If you’d like to take a look at my
novel, Absolute Knowledge, you can check it out right here.
Until next time,
Drew
No comments:
Post a Comment