Up Close & Personal with 'Ghost of the Gods' Kevin Bohacz
Up Close & Personal is one of The Writer’s Life newest features. Here we feature authors who don't mind spilling the beans and telling what it's really like to write, get published and sell that book. Today's guest is Kevin Bohacz, author of the techno-thriller, Ghost of the Gods. To learn more about Kevin, visit www.kbohacz.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kevinbohacz.
On Writing...
I became a writer because it is my essence. It is who and what I am. When I first started writing it was an unquenchable thirst that came out of nowhere. It
My first novel, Dream
Dancers was published in 1993. Ghost
of the Gods, which was just released in February, was my 3rd
published novel. Like Immortality,
which is a #1 bestseller, Ghost of the
Gods has become a bestseller and Amazon crowned it the #1 hottest new
techno-thriller.
A lot has changed for me since that first novel in 1993. I
have written several novels since then and I am currently working on two new
novels; one of which will be out later this year and is titled Dream Signs. For the past four years, I
have been working as a fulltime novelist but I really consider myself a
storyteller more than a novelist. I like to think of myself as a dream-catcher
because what I write are daydreams that I experience and then transcribe. My
style has improved and is constantly evolving. All my prior novels were written
in third person intimate past tense but my newest work title The Bridge is very personal and being
written in first person past tense.
On Being
Published…
When my first book was published in 1993 the offer from a publisher was
totally unexpected. My agent had been shopping my first novel, Dream Dancers for years and had all but
given up. I had an eclectic and burgeoning collection of rejections slips, but
I was not about to give up and was working on a novel that would later
radically morph and many years later become the bestseller that made me a
fulltime writer. My emotions when that first deal came in were off the chart!
It was everything from relief that I was not insane to the surreal feelings of
a long sought dream becoming real. To say I was bouncing off the walls would
have been an understatement. I was high on life for days and maybe weeks
afterwards.
Now, far too many years later, I’m a fulltime author. I feel
that I am very fortunate that I get to earn a living doing something that I
would do for free… and in fact did for free for many years before I was
published. Every day I get to spend luxuriously long periods of time doing
nothing but working on my novels. It’s like getting to eat dessert first. For
me writing and dreaming are one in the same. So I am literally getting paid to
dream. How can you beat that?
Most people tell me that when they start reading Immortality and Ghost of the Gods they cannot put the books down. People have
cursed at me for causing sleep deprivation! When Immortality was released in 2007 it quickly became a bestseller
hitting the #1 spot on Amazon in techno-thriller and sci-fi genres for weeks at
a time and it still hitting the #1 spots today. It has received glowing
critical reviews including a STARRED review from Publisher’s Weekly. The sequel
Ghost of the Gods was just released
with similar glowing critical reviews including a STARRED review from
Publisher’s Weekly and as I previously mentioned it is also a bestseller. So
for the past month I have had two Amazon bestsellers at the same time. Talk
about exciting!
Immortality and
the sequel Ghost of the Gods were
created to entertain. They are scientific but not to the same extent as a
science fiction novel. The epic story contains a lot of action and suspense but
at its essence the story is about people and so it is about love, triumph over
terrible adversity, and the human spirit.
The combined story also
has deep philosophical underpinnings or subthemes, but again, since I believe
the essence of any novel is to be a thrilling read, the ideas remain an
integral part of the mosaic and so do not detract from the entertainment as
attested to in the professional reviews of both these novels. Example:
Publisher’s Weekly STARRED review: “Bohacz provides mind-bending portrayals of
factions vying for power and reflections on the essence and fragility of
humanity. But philosophical concerns never obtrude on the fast-paced plot…”
On Publishing
Industry…
I think there is too much chaos. As a result the publishing
business seems to be relegating a lot of very talented people to oblivion, who
decades ago would have been published in a heartbeat. I don’t pretend to know
the reasons why the publishing business is the way it is… In my opinion a lot
of it has to do with the changes that e-books brought and the rest has to do
with consolidation. I think to some extend we are seeing a slow motion repeat
of what happened to the music industry when the iPod showed up. Publishing was
an old fashion business where they famously nurtured unknown talent because it
was in their best interest to do so. Now it feels like a business that is
chasing the blockbuster and ignoring almost everything else. To me personally
it feels like that old saying about banks: They
only want to loan you money when you don’t need it!
My career began before the e-book revolution. As I
mentioned, my first novel was purchased by a publisher. My second and third
novels were self-published. Deciding to self-publish my second novel, Immortality was filled with anxiety.
Self-publishing was not the right decision, it was my only decision, even
though Immortality did become a
self-published bestseller. This publishing dilemma is a long story and one I’ve
told many times before. I like to call it “The Three Bears” story – as in the
fable.
My first novel, Dream
Dancers was conventionally published in 1993 in a deal closed by the agent
I had at that time. In 2003 when Immortality
was finally completed I assumed I would be able to get it published since I was
already a published author. I soon found myself waist deep in rejection notices
from both agents and publishers. All the rejection notices basically said, “We
are sure this is a wonderful book but we don’t have the time to read a long
manuscript by an obscure author.” In
other words, I wasn’t able to even get into the Three Bear’s house, let alone
try the porridge or sleep in their bed.
I knew Immortality
was a timely, entertaining, and marketable novel. Some extremely successful
literary professionals including more than one famous writer had read it and told
me they loved it. So here I was a published author unable to open a single door
into the major publishing houses. Three years later I had reached the point
where I either had to give up or publish it myself. Back in 2006
self-publishing carried the stigma of failure but I had no choice. I knew in my
gut Immortality was a fantastic
story. So I started a small publishing company, hired an offset-printer, and
proceeded to manufacture and sell Immortality.
In 2007 Immortality
took off becoming a #1 bestseller on Amazon. Using my bestseller success as
bait, I was able to sign with an agent who had represented a smattering of
NYTime’s bestsellers. My agent proceeded to shop Immortality to all the big publishing houses. My wife, Mazelle and
I were deliriously thrilled. This time the responses from publishers were very
different from when Immortality was
unpublished and I was un-agented. Across the board the feedback was
surprisingly similar, “We love the book but who are you?” What the publishers
were really saying was I had no massive following. I did not have a million
readers chanting in unison, “We want to buy more books by you…” In other words, the porridge was too cold.
Fast forward to 2010,
Immortality was still selling almost as well as it was in 2008, constantly a
bestseller in its genre and often hitting #1. In fact 2010 and half of 2011 was
one of my best grossing periods ever. By now my agent had done all he could and
given up six months prior in 2009. He loved Immortality
and was very frustrated and baffled by his inability to close a deal. It was
then that I was contacted out of nowhere by a veteran NYC agent who was a
senior member in a super-agent firm. This agent told me they had read Immortality and loved it! This agent was
convinced they could sell the book. Mazelle and I were wildly excited and told
the agent to go for it. This new agent got the book read by a different group
of more senior editors. This time the responses really threw me. The feedback I
got was essentially, “We love the book but why should we buy it when you have
already sold the heck out of it?” In
other words, the porridge was too hot.
At this point I felt like I just could not win. Years ago I
didn’t have a big enough following, and now that I had a following, it seemed
the publishers wanted something more. They wanted an unpublished book. I
explained that 95% of the copies of Immortality
had been sold on Amazon, which meant that I had tapped less than 50% of the
potential market for a book in this genre. So while it was a bestseller, the
lion’s share of the meat was still on this bone yet no publisher was interested
in the feast. With fractional market penetration I had made a pile of money but
there was many times more to be made if a big publisher would get behind the
book. Yet it now felt like with regard to attracting a publisher, success was
my worst enemy.
Today, three years later I now have a new amazing NYC agent
from a top firm, Inkwell Management. This agent has closed deals for other
indie authors in exactly the same “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” predicament
as me. In the last six months I have received glowing critical reviews,
including Publisher’s Weekly who has awarded STARRED reviews to both Immortality and Ghost of the Gods. Both Immortality
and Ghost of the Gods are on the
bestseller’s lists at the same time. Immortality
hit #1 again achieving it’s best ranking ever and Ghost of the Gods was crowned by Amazon as the #1 hottest new
techno-thriller. Later this year my fourth novel titled Dream Signs will be complete and a fifth novel is in the works.
There is even interest from Hollywood
in making Immortality into a movie. I
have confidence that this time we’ll succeed by getting a publishing deal for
all three books. In other words, I am
hoping the porridge is just right.
On Marketing…
For me selling my books is one part inertia from the
bestseller universe of Immortality
and now Ghost of the Gods, and one
part doing everything I can possibly imagine to get attention drawn to a new
book. I am maniacal and I will try almost anything as long as it seems
plausible. If it works I’ll keep doing it and if not then I’ll stop. I have
great critical reviews of all my books including STARRED reviews from
Publisher’s Weekly and high praise from Kirkus. I have some advertisements
which are running in print and online but more to attract publishers than
readers. I have not seen any real connection between the advertisements and
sales. I have held the Kindle price of Immortality
down to $0.99 and have a match book deal going where you get the Kindle for
free if you buy the paperback. I will not keep the price this low for too much
longer and plan to bring the Kindle price back up to $2.99 in the near future.
The same is true for Ghost of the Gods.
The initial low introductory price will go up in the near future. I have used
social media and it definitely works. With some of the bookstores dropping
access to paid merchandising for self-published books, social media is also
rapidly becoming the only game in town.
You can spend as little as possible to promote a book until
it proves that it will pay for itself. To me this is like tossing your book
into the winds of chance to be discovered. I have two friends who are famous
writers, one a NY Times bestseller, who did just this for their first foray
into self-publishing and their excellent books went nowhere! So if you want to
build a career you must be ready to spend a lot of time and money promoting
your book. This means endlessly hawking your book. This means truly believing
in your book enough so that you take the real risks... I guess it all boils
down to determination. Determination is the critical ingredient, the spice that
makes the meal. You must be dogged and unwavering. If you have a good book and are
willing to stop at nothing, you can end up with a bestseller… I did.
On Goals and Dreams…
I am far more interested in obtaining as wide a readership
as possible than making money. My interests lie in making small positive
differences by getting interesting ideas out there to a broad audience while
entertaining people.
I write because it is my passion. As I mentioned, if I had
to pay people for the privilege of writing I would. So the best advice I can
offer is write without a profit motive. Do not write because you want riches or
fame or even a very modest income. The money will come if it comes but focusing
on money will take your eye from what really matters which is first and
foremost to write a book people will love.
About Ghost of the Gods:
About Ghost of the Gods:
Was it the accumulated wounds to the
environment that had finally triggered the nanotech plague or was it simply one
more step in a shrewdly crafted plan to replace us with humans 2.0? As I write
this at least one pair of these transhumans breathe the same air as us, and
there are likely many more. They may look like us, they may even be almost
human, but they are also cybernetic and will live for an extraordinary length
of time. Trust me, their goals are not the same as ours. It was not a natural
plague that almost drove humankind to extinction but an attack from within,
turning our own biology against us. Scientists discovered all too late an
artificial entity, a sentient machine foolishly created in the image of god,
had been studying us and genetically altering us for longer than we can
imagine. Perhaps it is because of this god-machine that we evolved into
creatures who can think and speak and know our own mortality? This silicon god
is so different from us that we may never truly understand it, but what we do
know is that it is terrifyingly intelligent and it hates us. What we do know is
that it tried to eradicate us from the face of our planet and then stopped for
no discernible reason. What we do know is that its work is not done.
Kirkus: “If you thought Immortality was
powerful, just wait until you read the sequel…”
Publisher’s
Weekly STARRED review: “Bohacz provides mind-bending portrayals of factions vying for
power and reflections on the essence and fragility of humanity. But
philosophical concerns never obtrude on the fast-paced plot. The question of
who can be trusted impels the reader to keep turning the pages of this highly
satisfying and dynamic techno-thriller.”
S.J. Higbee: “Bohacz manages to provide a gripping
plot with plenty of twists and turns that kept up the tension right to the very
end. I’m betting that you’ll still be thinking about it when some of your
favorite authors have faded into the furniture.”
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