Interview from 2010 between M. R. Mathias and David Wiseheart

I just don’t take crap from people. I am a convicted felon, and I wrote my earlier novels in prison. I am proud, and I have an attitude. It’s impossible for me to sit and read some post written by some other author whose sales rating is pathetic when they are telling me that my book is priced too high, or that the cover sucks, as if they were an expert. I just can’t do it. Who do some of these people think they are? A great cover and a perfect edit do not make a book good, and a good book can transcend a bad edit and a lame cover. I will prove it with two examples so that the discussion will be over.

Cover – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- As plain and unappealing as it gets. Bestseller.

Edit -- No Country for Old Men – Not even quotation marks around the dialogue. Bestseller.

Now to all of those people who chastised me, (you know exactly who you are, and I know you can’t keep from reading this.J) Quit clicking the “This does not add to the discussion” button every time I post, and quit hitting the “This review wasn’t helpful” button. You are wasting your time. My preview sells my books. Spend your time trying to write a good book. Or better yet, read a good book so that you will know what one is.

It has to be said, that not one of these Shakespearian prodigies even bothered to help me with the edit, or the cover work back then. They were gleefully intent on bashing, and provoking me, but all they were doing was trying to make themselves feel like they were superior by berating someone else. I turned the tables on them.

I started using Smashwords, and made the previously mentioned 300 page free preview of The Sword and the Dragon available. When I started a posting campaign about the preview my online presence became really volatile. When a reader has the option of reading a 300 page free preview, verses reading an entire book that size, sales start dropping for some people. There are a lot of authors out there trying to gain readers, and this ticked them off. Needless to say, my books were trashed even harder, and nearly all of my posts were suddenly complained about to moderators. I was quickly banned from a few places where the staple of users is Indie authors. Not surprisingly, I got a few terrible reviews that are obviously malicious. A moderator at an established Kindle user Board went so far as to post a review on Goodreads of a novella I wrote calling it “utter crap.” All I can say is: read the other reviews, better yet read the story. If you do, her intent becomes pathetically obvious.

Throughout that entire fiasco I was selling books. The Sword and the Dragon was fully edited in Aug.2010 and then proofread/re edited in early Oct.2010. I welcome an honest review, but I can’t stand jealous people who write reviews out of spite without reading a book. (Even after those edits there were still some sentences that needed restructuring. I wrote in the past tense a lot then. Thus The 2012 Revised version – But the 2012 version was mainly put out to let Amazon Prime Members read it free. Prime books have to be exclusive... thus an exclusive “Revised” edition - added 2012 – mr)

What can you tell us about your next novel?

I am doing NaNoWriMo this year and basically turning an old short story into a full length 75k+ word novel. It’s a haunted house/murder mystery sort of thing that I like very much. I haven’t titled it yet. It should be available for Kindle around Christmas. If you are on Facebook or Twitter you will hear about it, or you can check my cheesy website out for updates. www.mrmathias.com

I wanted to take a break from fantasy, because after NaNoWriMo I am finishing The Wardstone Trilogy. My goal is to have book two, Kings, Queens, Heroes and Fools, available for the Kindle next spring, and book three, The Wizard and the Warlord, available about this time next year. They are both already written. I wrote the whole 750,000 word ordeal all at once. After that is done, I will start adding to The Dragoneers Saga.

My most recent novel, The Royal Dragoneers, just came out last month and is doing extremely well. It was deemed a “Notable Release” by Fantasy Book Critic and their review of it should be posted sometime this month.

Why publish on Kindle?

Truthfully I did it because it was there. I just sort of read the online instructions and did it. I didn’t think about it too much. Even though I was ill prepared and my book wasn’t ready, I am glad I did. Instead of getting letters from publishers telling me that they liked my material but... Now I get royalty checks. It was easy, and if you are selling books it is very rewarding.

Amazon DTP is a big part of my continued abstinence from the lifestyle that landed me in prison. I am addicted to the sales stats page now... lol I couldn’t go out and get loaded now because I would be dying to know if I sold any books in the last hour. Seriously, the whole ebook revolution is growing fast, and after Christmas this year, when all the new Kindles are uploading content, and all the hand me downs are uploading new content, ebooks will probably replace print copy as the national preference. They might have already?

What advice would you give to a first-time author thinking of self-publishing on Kindle?

First buy a Kindle, then buy a half dozen books by self published authors in the genre you are writing in. Know what you are getting into. This all can be done for about $150 bucks (Kindle and case included.) Know who is selling, and try to figure out why, then take from that gathered knowledge and proceed with caution.

Remember this: Anybody can slap an awesome cover on some perfectly edited text and upload it. There are also a lot of great authors with awesome stories struggling to sell ebooks. The easiest part of all of this is writing the book. Selling it is a whole different animal. Be realistic, and don’t quit your day job. That said: Go for it!