Author Interview with Adam Dreece

The Author

Adam DreeceIn 2014, Adam Dreece stopped hoping to be an author one day. Since then, he’s written his best-selling, 5 part steampunk meets fairy tale series, The Yellow Hoods, introduced the world to his science fiction side with The Man of Cloud 9, and brought out his all action, post-apocalyptic fantasy side in The Wizard Killer.

These days, the multi-award finalist author is working on kicking off his fantasy space-opera series, Tilruna, with an initial installment that will pull from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, called Tilruna: Fall of House Andes, due this fall.

He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his wife and children. He is an active public speaker, panelist, and author in Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

Author Interview

About You

Donald: How long have you been writing?
Adam: For about 25 years I did nothing with my writing, other than share it with a few friends. Then in 2014, I changed all of that and have since written 10 books. There’s no stopping me now!

Donald: What is the best thing about being an author? What is the worst thing?
Adam: I love being able to bring an idea into being and then having the ability to share it with people, bringing it to life within them. It’s simply amazing. The worst thing is how I constantly feel behind, like my writing legs are made of lead and I need to run faster. As a stay-at-home dad who is highly engaged with his kids and wife, and as an indie author who needs to run all of the promotions, maintain the website, etc. it’s a miracle that I get more than 1 book done a year, let alone three or more.

Donald: How can people find out more about you and your books? What is your official author website? What are your social media author webpages?
Adam: My books can be found on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, GooglePlay and other places. My official website is at AdamDreece.com, but you can also find me on Facebook /AdamDreeceAuthor and on Instagram and Twitter as @AdamDreece.

Your Books

Donald: How many books have you written?
Adam: To date I’ve written and completed my first steampunk meets fairy tale series, The Yellow Hoods (5 books + a novelette), 2 books in my post-apocalyptic fantasy series, The Wizard Killer, and a stand-alone science fiction novel, The Man of Cloud 9.

Donald: What are the genre(s) of the books you write and why?
Adam: Fantasy, Steampunk, Fairy Tale, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, and shortly, Space-Opera and SuperHero. If you see my name on a romance novel, it’s a lie

Donald: What is the title of your next book and what will it be about?
Adam: My next book comes out this fall and will open up an entire new universe to my readers, called Tilruna. The first book in this fantasy/space-opera series is called Tilruna: Fall of House Andes, and is inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The early feedback is that it’s amazing, and whether you like Hamlet or not, it’ll grab you.

Donald: When do you think your next book will be available?
Adam: Tilruna: Fall of House Andes will be available in paperback at the end of September, and will be available in a multi-author boxset in December. It’ll be available as a stand-alone eBook in June 2018.

Donald: What formats are your books in (e.g., paperback, hardback, ebook – Kindle, epub)?
Adam: Paperback, eBook (Kindle, Kobo, everything)

Donald: What audience are your books intended for?
Adam: The Yellow Hoods series is for ages 9+, like Harry Potter. My other stuff is really for ages 12+.

Publishing

Donald: What are your thoughts on self-publishing as an indie author as opposed to going with a traditional publisher?
Adam: There’s a lot of strategic pivoting that’s available to you as an indie that isn’t available to traditional publishers. Changing the blurb or cover, for example, is huge. My first book needed a cover update, as did one of my later books. Why? I discovered who the actual audience who loved it was, versus who I thought would like it. That required me to reconsider how to position it.

Another thing is that traditional publishers, having a portfolio of releases, only push for 3-6 months, whereas Indies push often their entire catalogue as they go on. This means that an older novel will still be getting promoted and potentially discovered, instead of only what’s hot. I’ve heard plenty of frustration from friends who are traditionally published who saw their release falter and then there was no opportunity to recover.

Words of Wisdom

Donald: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
Adamr: Learn to finish a story, and then learn to let it go. I’ve met too many writers who become curators of the Only Good Story I Will Ever Write, though they don’t call it that. They do, however, edit and rework and edit and rework what was once a great redwood tree into a thin toothpick.

Finishing a story is about learning to bring that arc to an end and what I call, land the plane. But then being able to walk away from it, declaring it as done, is even harder. The tendency is to want to mess with it. You need to figure out when are you at the point that if you touch it any more, you’re going to make it less good.

Comments are closed.