On the Gathering Storm of Indie Publishing with Author Jason McIntyre

It’s no secret that independent (indie) publishing is hot these days, particularly because of the rise of ebooks. We were curious about the success of an indie author who, just under a year into publishing his first ebook, has had more than 33,000 downloads of his work. Jason McIntyre, author of several stories and books including  On the Gathering Storm and the hot new novel Thalo Blue sits down with us for a brief interview about what he does, how he got started and his strategy for reaching an audience.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: Who are you, anyway?

Jason McIntyre: I’m Jason McIntyre, author, goofball and private investigator. Okay, I’m not a private investigator. I do all my investigating right out in public view. I’ve been writing stories, making things up, and telling people things close to the truth for about twelve years. I’ve lived all across North America, primarily in urban settings where I’ve met loads of interesting people. When I started writing novels inspired by these interesting folks, I found a new way to communicate with people that seemed to touch them in a very personal way. I also discovered it was a satisfying way to deal with issues in my own life. I write about people I bet you know: whether its someone you went to school with or someone in the next office, or your own children. My goal with the stories I tell is to entertain but also reveal human nature in a way that sparks the imagination of readers.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: You have a background as an editor, writer and communications professional and spent several years as a graphic designer and commercial artist. How do you make a living now?

Jason McIntyre: I continue to work in all those areas. Add website and online manager to that list. Photographer, and project manager go in there too, as I’ve done those things in the last five or so years. I only mention the editing and communications in my ‘about’ pages on the web because it relates more directly to the world of writing and marketing of fiction books, for which I’m getting more well-known.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: When did you decide to become a professional writer?

Jason McIntyre: Tricky question because we need to define ‘professional’. If it means that I make my living primarily as a writer, then I’m not yet professional. If it means I have a lick of sense and know that most writers will never generate all their income from writing, then I’ve been at the pro level for a number of years. If we’re talking about how long I’ve been sharing my work with readers then I can definitively say it’s been about ten months. I started actively marketing my work about eight or nine months ago, in the late summer of 2010.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: What led you to being an indie author–did you try the “traditional” route?

Jason McIntyre: As mentioned, I’ve been writing for a long time, going to writers’ groups and honing my craft. Erroneously, I always thought that if you write a good book then publishers would want it, then readers would buy it and read it and either like it or loathe it. What I was hearing is, “Jason, you tell a mean story. You really understand how to engage the reader and get me excited. What I’m not seeing here is a clear-cut way to sell this book in a book store. You don’t stick to one genre and your characters aren’t always perfectly likable. I’m afraid we’re going to pass.”

I knew that readers would connect with my work but it wasn’t until last year when the iPad was introduced that I realized a writer like me could establish a connection with an audience on my own terms and with my own energies. I could do the editing, proofing, design and distribution in a grass roots way and use social media to get the word out. It began as an experiment of sorts and I found a decent footing so I continued. First I was a bestseller at a book distribution site called Smashwords.com and then, in October of 2010, I shared a couple books on Amazon’s Kindle, currently the biggest distributor of ebooks. Now my books are available on all the major ebook sites and selling well.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: You enjoy a robust fan base. You have a great website. What do you do to market your work?

Jason McIntyre: The biggest thing I do for marketing is one-on-one communication with readers. I use Twitter and Facebook and Goodreads to connect with people I believe will have an interest in what I’m writing, then I offer discounted copies and discuss the books directly with them. After years of hearing other authors and agents and publishers telling me what I was doing wrong, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear directly from a reader who has had heart palpitations from reading a particularly engrossing scene or chapter. They are the audience. I believe in letting them decide what’s good and what isn’t. For the most part, I’ve found tremendous enjoyment in interacting on such a close level with these readers. They’ve made short stories better when I’ve offered them beta copies to read and told me that an idea sucks when it actually did. Generally, they get very excited over small discounts, free copies, and especially advanced access to a story as I’m working on it. You can’t pay for the kind of publicity you get from a genuinely interested reader who tweets or brags about a book they liked.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: What is your biggest challenge when it comes to getting the word out about your novels?

Jason McIntyre: Finding readers as opposed to other writers who also read is a big challenge. Don’t get me wrong, the writers’ communities on the net are a joy and a value in terms of camaraderie, spirit, knowledge and help. But readers are harder to come by. Generally, they are living their lives, reading books, going to their jobs and spending their social media time with their friends and families and coworkers. Their goal isn’t to help you by reviewing or advertising your book. You can’t hit them over the head with a sales pitch or they will bolt. (Have we mentioned he has a great blog? It’s called The Farthest Reaches. Check it.)

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: In what format is your work available–is it strictly ebook? If so, why not Print On Demand (POD)?

Jason McIntyre: I had some really strong success in the first five months offering my books as e-only. As of today, I’ve seen close to 33,000 downloads of my various stories. My approach is tied to various things I’ve gleaned from the Internet through the work of other authors and small publishers. Their recommendation is to build a platform first and then launch books.

Of course, I didn’t do that. Being fresh off the boat, as it were, I did things backwards. But what I learned quickly is that I actually am building a platform of readers, fans, other writers, bloggers and book sellers. I look at it this way: this first ten months is part of the building. Yes, some of my stories are available, but that doesn’t preclude me from doing a major book launch and offering them in print format in the future.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: What do you see as the future of publishing–in particular indie authors–is it a fad, or do you see it as a sea change in the way people get their books?

Jason McIntyre: Tied to my previous answer, I honestly think that print books are on their way out as a mainstream consumer product. Yes, print books will remain in production for years to come. No one can argue with their aesthetic appeal.

By the same token, records and record players are still being produced but you won’t find them on iTunes or Amazon (actually, you probably can buy both the records and the players through Amazon’s mail order side). But music is becoming an increasingly ‘soft’ medium. You download it, consume it, and either throw it out or store it in something other than a CD tower or cassette holder (sheesh, remember all those plastic and film cassettes?). Same deal with commercial films. DVD rental places are becoming farther between, aren’t they?

Books will go the same way. Digital or soft, supplied through the web for ninety per cent of people who procure them. Printed books will slowly (or quickly) become a niche product for collectors and those reluctant to switch over. Electronic book readers will continue to drop in price. Multi-use items like tablets, the iPad, and smart phones will continue to develop.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: So, what’s it all about, Jason? What’s your dream?

Jason McIntyre: My dream? To keep at it. I’ll keep writing and sharing stories until enough people shout at me to stop. I’ve had some successes and some good fortune and I just use this as an excuse to keep telling the stories that pop into my head. Is it a struggle? Sure it is. Will I get rich doing it? Not a chance.

Is my goal to sell a million copies of something? Not specifically, because I don’t vest a lot of interest in numbers or dollars as long as I have enough to feed the kiddos, but I’d love to know that, somewhere, some time, there are readers who are getting something valuable from something I wrote. If it was ten times or a hundred times as many as there are today, I would feel so blessed and proud. But then I’d sit down to write the next story for that group of people. If they want it, I want to give it to them.

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: Anything we missed you’d like to talk about?

Jason McIntyre: A big thank you to Alex Greenwood for giving me a moment in the sun here on his blog. Thanks, mate. I’ve met a lot of super generous writers just like Alex –plus bloggers and readers– in my last ten months on this train. It’s folks like Alex who’ve shared the seat next to them that allow each of us to find a destination. My thoughts echo some others: we’ll get there faster if we all feed the same locomotive. Just something to think about: an avid reader with a few dollars’ room on his credit card will just as easily buy all of Alex’s novels in addition to mine if both appeal to him. Alex’s sales rarely come at the expense of my own.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

AlexanderG Whiz Blog: Thank you, Jason!

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You can easily tell that Jason is a great guy who will have no trouble engaging an audience. His writing is superb, as well. Here’s my review of On the Gathering Storm:

Jason McIntyre possesses the most rare of gifts: the guts to open himself up completely combined with the ability to get it on the page. “On the Gathering Storm” fearlessly engages the reader with lush depictions of acts of cruelty, daily life and yes, horror. Perhaps most interesting, however, are the vulnerabilities of the characters–fully on view and intertwined with their determination to survive the trap in which they’ve been ensnared. I won’t make the easy comparison to other great thriller writers–McIntyre’s his own writer, one I’m delighted to read.

–Alex Greenwood

Disclosure: Mr. McIntyre is not a client of AlexanderG Public Relations.