I wasn’t sure if I had fallen back into loving horror. Then I bought a box set of Five Nights at Freddy’s Fazbear Frights (the covers remind me of classic Goosebumps—both have bold, creepy designs that don’t rely on gore). Then I binged multiple episodes of The Magnus Archives (the first episode is so good and utterly horrifying). Then discovered, all over again, how much I like Lovecraftian horror in general. Continue reading
Category Archives: Books
Reading A Big Paperback
It’s been a while since I’ve read a massive paperback book. The kind of book so large that it’s not fit for the human hand. The kind you hold up with spread fingers, and it’s way too heavy, but you need to keep it aloft or it will fall on your face.
And, well, it’s just been nice. The look of ink on real paper and watching the remaining pages shrink. It’s satisfying in a way that digital books are not—and could never hope to emulate. Continue reading
Ads and More Ads
They were not kidding when they said it would become hard to find time to write when you started to see some success. My Actually Author series is going pretty well (I’m at 974 orders!) and I spent a lot of time on ads.
A lot. Continue reading
My Non-Fiction Trilogy
I got the paperback of my recent book.
And that makes three. This is the first trilogy I’ve ever published. Though I do plan to write future books in the series, I cannot explain how proud it made me to hold what I’ve been working on for the past few months.
Collectively, it’s over 300 pages of my musings, thoughts, advice, and experiences with writing books and being a storyteller. Continue reading
New “Are You Actually” Book!
When I said I would publish books faster, I was not kidding. Behold, the newest of my continuous stream of creations: Are You Actually Going to Improve as A Writer or Just Fade into Obscurity?
This one is exclusively writing advice. Stuff like plot, characters, and how to world build without expositioning all over the place for the first few chapters.
It was also, by far, the hardest of the Actually Author series to write. Though the next one in the series is also proving to be a difficult one to handle. It’s about Amazon Advertising, and what stuff I’ve found to be effective after testing for the past year or so.
I may take more than a month on that one.
Anyway, here’s the cover of the current book: Continue reading
What’s My Genre?
I don’t know what type of writer I am.
When I tell people I’m an author, you might guess what they assume. Science fiction. Always, always science fiction.
I guess I give off that vibe.
But it’s not what I always feel like writing. I quite enjoy technology and speculating about the future, but it’s not the genre that fills my head. Continue reading
Revisiting Old Books
I was a voracious reader growing up. I still am, but it has nothing on how fast I chewed through story after story when I was a kid. I would go to the library and easily fill a bag with twenty books, then finish three or four within a day or two.
And lately, I’ve reread some books from back then. The pulpy fun novels that got me into the stories I now write myself.
Continue readingWhat I’ve Been Up To For The Last Few Weeks
Sorry about how late this article is. I try to get them up in the morning, so my readers can see them, but this one is very overdue.
But this time I have an excuse!
And it’s an excuse in the form of another book!
For those that did not read my recent post, I wrote a book in nine days. Well, now I’ve published that book in about 20 days. Because of my irregular sleep patterns, I’m not sure if it is 20 or 21 days—but that’s not the point, is it?
No, the point is this: NEW BOOK!
Are You Actually Going To Write A Book Or Just Talk About It?
When you’re a writer, and you tell people that you are, you end up getting a lot of people asking questions about it.
And when you tell them that you’ve written, like, 20 novels/novellas, you get the obvious question:
How did you do it?
Well, here’s how I did it, in book form:
I’m Scared To Write A New Book
Let’s talk about my writing history here. I don’t mean it as a brag, not much anyway. It’s just context, and it’s interesting context.
I spent about 2 years writing like a madman. A book a month or so. Massive, massive amounts of content. I kept it going even through some pretty intense exhaustion, and I don’t regret that.
But there came a day when I was working on a book and I wasn’t exactly blocked, I was just…off. I felt tired of it, unwilling, though not unable, to write another book. The stories I already created, that only I had seen, felt like they were staring at me with menace. Like they were angry with me for letting them rot and gather dust. Continue reading
Announcing: It’s A Big Dystopia Out There
The second book is out and ready!
Behold!
It took me a little longer than expected to get this one out with everything going on in the world right now, but it’s available for purchase or for borrow on Kindle Unlimited.
It picks up a little later in the timeline from the first book and introduces honestly some of my favorite characters I’ve written. The satire aspects of the series are also, arguably, even more extreme than they were in the first book, but you’ll have to read the book to see what I mean.
I’m now trying to publish a book every month and so far I’m mostly on track. For as long as I can, I’m publishing and improving and trying new things. I’m even making some money at this author game.
So, yeah, I’m very excited to see where this all takes me and looking forward to finally, finally getting all five books in the Quintet out for people to read.
Stay tuned. The books only get more insane from here.
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Special thanks to: Melissa Potter
Did you like the article? Dislike? Tell me about it in the comments. I would love to hear your opinions! If interested in specific articles, or want to write as a guest, you can message me at scifibrandonscott@gmail.com. If you want to help keep this blog going, consider becoming my patron at https://www.patreon.com/coolerbs. Thanks for reading!
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Want to read something longer by me? How about a whole novel!
Advertising Is Hard, You Guys
As an author, I am bullheaded. And the latest thing I’ve been slamming my noggin at over and over is getting my advertising to work. I’ve published 3 books so far, and, as a very small author in a very large pool, I know that the only way that anyone is going to know about anything I write is to advertise, either on social media or in person or through paid advertising. Continue reading
FREE Book Giveaway! Yes, Really!
Hey everyone! Bonus post!
I Have A Question For You…”Is It Dystopia Time?” https://t.co/nH5eLfYSPF #giveaway #win via @RealKingSumo
— Brandon Scott (@coolerbs) April 4, 2020
I realize that a lot of people aren’t really in a place where they can justify buying books. So, I thought I’d make this free for a few people.
All you need to do is enter your email. And, then, at the end of the month, I’ll send three digital copies to people.
And I think some of you will really enjoy it.
If you like Dystopian Satire, this is perhaps the most ridiculous one you’re ever going to read. I decided to take the tropes of the genre and dial them up as high as I could go.
Surveillance cameras in a doorway? Try 11, all jockeying for the same view.
It’s silly, absurd, but still has fun characters and an exciting plot.
It’s the first of a five-book series that I’ve been working on for years and finally am getting into publishing each book. I expect to get the next one out within a month.
So, yeah, if you want to get into the story without spending any money, enter now!
Announcing: Is It Dystopia Time? by Brandon Scott
I told you I was going to publish faster now.
(Oh, and I’m doing a FREE BOOK giveaway for this one.)
Yes, this one is only a novella, but still, I’m ramping up to being faster. This is the first in a five-book series I’m working on that seeks to lampoon the Dystopian Fiction genre by taking its tropes and dialing them up to eleven.
It is, admittedly, not a child-friendly book. Not by a long stretch. Content warning for you all.
But, if you like social commentary, very dark comedy, and villain minions that I literally keep getting compliments on whenever I show someone the story (I really didn’t expect them to get the most praise, but I’m not complaining) then come and give it a look.
I mean, you’re likely socially isolating anyway, so why not?
Announcing: Reading Away The Hours by Brandon Scott
I published another book!
I’m now the author of two books!
I’m excited to have another one of my stories out for the world to see. I’ve been editing it off and on for like a year now and finally got the push to finish it. I originally wrote it as a horror novel that a kid could read and enjoy, but it ended up growing into something a lot more disturbing, so now it’s maybe PG13.
If you’re interested, the entire first chapter is below along with a link to the Amazon page. I don’t usually ask this, but, if you could share it around or post it to your social media, I’d really appreciate it. Continue reading
Coolerbs Writes 