A Tassie Author is part of ‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’, a series of interviews with authors who have worked with editors4you or WriteDesign Publications. The promotional opportunity is also open to other authors (contact us for details).
A Tassie Author: David Alomes
Promoting Your Books
Around Christmas 2019, I offered my authors a simple way to promote their books through an author interview.
As we writers know, it’s one thing to write a book. It’s quite another to promote it. Writers tend to shy away from promotion, but it’s vital to kick the shyness habit and get our books out there in the big wide world.
In this interview, the profiled author is David Alomes, an author from Hobart, Tasmania, whose sci-fi novel First Adult is his first novel and the first of a trilogy.
David, tell us about your book
First Adult portrays the type of world where humanity could very easily wind up, a divided world split into two competing and opposing philosophies. Into this broken world is born a healthy child, the first in generations, and he is raised away from the troubles of the world.
His story is one of struggle and loss but ultimately one of hope as he finds new ways to move his world past the troubles of old into a better way – for not only his world, but for the galaxy as a whole. With that hope comes a huge responsibility. He is faced with the challenge of changing millennia of conflict, with the possibility that it will crush him if he doesn’t succeed.
The book questions our values, and perhaps even has readers cheering for the bad guy – if you can figure out who that is!
How did this novel come about?
My professional career is based on numbers, not words. I’ve been a career CPA and financial planner all my working life but eight years ago, a discussion with my daughter spurred me on my writing journey. A simple ‘what if’ discussion ended up with a concept for a book. What would the world look like if…
The book I sought to write turned out to be a trilogy. I had to write a prequel first to make sense of what I had started, and one more to finish the tale. Hence, Book One First Adult was born and published, receiving five-star reviews from the likes of Pacific Book Review.
In between writing, I have retired and travelled and generally have lots of fun, but writing keeps pulling me back. Perhaps the tale wants to be told, or perhaps I’m just too stubborn to quit.
What helped you while you were writing this book?
Having written 15,000 words, I found I did not have enough experience using Microsoft Word to go any further, so I sought guidance. At that point, a discouraging word would have seen me put down my draft and retreat to what I knew. Instead, I received encouragement and understanding. The first words out of my initial coach’s mouth were, ‘You cannot edit what is not on the page.’ Truer words were never spoken.
Along the way, I seem to have taken an abridged writing course. In my numbers career, I quickly figured out you never stop learning – and I have applied this to my writing. Using resources like a professional editor, having my books reviewed and having beta readers has helped heaps, not to mention joining writers groups. I’m fortunate to have family and friends who have supported my endeavours. My daughter gifted me The Emotion Thesaurus, which I now cannot live without. It helps me add a lot of colour to my writing! And it helps me to show rather than tell in my writing.
It hasn’t hurt that sci-fi is now an accepted mainstream writing style! With over 6,000 hours of writing experience now, I’m more confident in my writing style, which has changed several times with experience. Now, being retired, I can focus more on a writing career. I still feel that someday I may be able to look myself in the mirror and see an author and not a numbers man.
Can you tell us about self-publishing your book?
You hear horror stories, and, well, sorry to say they are true. I tried a few authors’ reps and publishers but without success. I finally received a publishing contract with a UK publisher, but found they were more a vanity publisher (please read here to avoid this pitfall) and I would still lose control over my book, so I declined.
Self-publishing gave me control over most of the aspects of publishing, and I’m very happy with the final in-hand book.
Don’t start me on marketing, however! Just when you think your hard work is over, you realise it’s barely begun! My advice here is, make sure every sale goes through a platform (like Amazon), as the bigger your recorded sales numbers, the more you get noticed! Buying the books yourself at a discount from your publisher gives you $$, but does not get recorded as a sale.
Think long term and get noticed … I’m still working on this myself.
What are you currently writing?
I’ve just finished Book Two of the trilogy and it’s about to have its final edit. A complete rewrite of my original first draft has become The Death of Violence. This expands the story of Book One to our poor little planet and asks questions like, ‘Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?’ ‘Does the world’s master criminal have to stand up for us all and defend us from indiscriminate murder and mayhem?’ ‘When do things from our past hinder us and not help?’ ‘Wherever you live in the galaxy, why are there always foods that taste just like chicken?’
I’ve also written the first chapter of Book Three, but I have another story I’m busting to put to paper. Stay tuned! It seems words are rushing out of me at a rate of knots.
David’s book is a great read, and you can find it by clicking on the cover below.
