Indie Tuesday — Writer James McCann

This week, I’d like to welcome my friend and fave Vamp & Wolf writer James McCann to the Indie Tuesday blog.

James has published several books for young readers via the traditional route, but recently he’s jumped into the Indie pool with the republication of his book RANCOR. I’m going to let James take over here, but pay attention — there’s a contest at the end!

Okay, James — a few questions for you…

To begin with, are you an outliner or a seat-of-the-pantser when it comes to writing your books?

I am a seat-of-the-pantser when I write my books. Considering that’s also pretty well how I live my life, why should it be any different in my fiction? I like to create an interesting character, then give him or her an dangerous place to live, and just see what happens. The story always surprises me, and that keeps the writing fresh and fun. Kind of like real life!

Why Indie publishing instead of the traditional route?

Rancour was traditionally published first in 2005, and then a second edition (from the same publisher) was released in 2011. I acquired the rights back to Rancour in 2013, and had a choice to make to either let the file sit on my hard drive in hopes that the vampire genre will one day rise again or to put the book back out into the wild so anyone who wanted a copy still had it available to them. I chose the latter as I didn’t see a market resurging for that kind of fiction, and since it had once been published I was confident it was a good book (and not just to me).

Do you have a preferred format for your books? E-book vs paperback?

I’m still not won over by the ebook as an author. It’s a format that is far too easy to copy and share, and unlike photocopying a book an ebook has no loss of quality. Rancor is now on dozens of torrent sites where it’s being passed around and shared – and I don’t get a dime for it. It’s a shame that people won’t think twice about spending $5 on a cup of coffee that lasts as long as it takes it to get cold, but won’t spend the $10 on a book that will last you your lifetime. What I would say to all the people who simply refuse to understand the equation of buy book + spend money = author publishes more books (and eats and pays rent) is that you could at least review the book on one of the many book sites over the Internet.

Can you share a favourite review one of your stories has received?

My favourite is from a site called, Pick Up A Book Today. Mine was the first book she reviewed (the traditionally published version) and she even uses Rancor’s cover (then it was Rancour) on her homepage. You can check it out here: http://pickupabooktoday.weebly.com/young-adult-fiction/rancour-by-james-mccann

Can you name a favourite Indy author or two, and recommend a book?

My favourite hasn’t been published yet. But at the moment, I’m writing her something for her blog and I believe her book will be called, “Finding Fraser.” 😉

Aww — I told you he was great, didn’t I?

Thanks, James!

If you’d like to follow the further adventures of James McCann, you can find his website HERE. And if you’d like to read RANCOR, or his other books PYRE and FLYING FEET, click the titles, and magic will take you to where you can buy a copy. [Okay, not magic. Tho’ the internet is kinda magic, right…?]

And now for the contest. James is offering two copies of RANCOUR to readers of this blog. It’s going to pop up on Facebook a few minutes after I post it, so the first two people who ‘like’ this post on Facebook will be this week’s winners.

Ready? Go!

 

And, as always,

 

More soon…

 

~kc