Please welcome Terry R. Hill to SPE! We asked him some questions to get to know about his own publishing journey.
Tell us a little about
yourself.
I am a
Texas native, was trained with two degrees in aerospace engineering. I have
worked for NASA since 1997 with a very satisfying career as an engineer and
project manager spanning programs from the international space station's
navigation software, to next generation space suit design, to exploration
mission planning, to mitigating the health effects of space on astronauts.
While supporting the manned space program has been a lifetime passion, writing
of different worlds, alternate
futures and the human condition has filled my
spare time.
Always
looking to maximize what life has to offer, I have found myself singing on
stage, helping to house the less fortunate, skydiving, hammering away at the
Berlin Wall, wearing space suits, ice swimming in Finland in the dead of
winter, bathing in the hot springs of Japan, and forging into the unknown as a
parent. Life is too short to let opportunities pass us by as we only get one
chance to ride. But mostly, it's all about the people in our everyday as we
experience this thing we call Life.
What led you to your
decision to indie publish?
Well like
many major decisions in life, all the right things had to fall into place. I
won’t go into those in detail, but let’s say that one day last year I accepted
the fact that I probably had fewer days ahead of me than behind and that I had
best get to writing if I was to get serious about it. I had always enjoyed
writing and had received support from friends and co-workers over the years,
but never took the time to indulge myself with writing until one day I realized
I needed to add more Awesome to my daily life, and writing was my preferred
way.
What is the biggest
mistake that you’ve learned from when Indie publishing?
I would
say that my biggest mistake so far was rushing into the first print run. I put
a lot of pressure on myself to get it out the door and into people’s hands.
What I discovered was that there were a dozen or so typos that had escaped my
attention and now I had a hundred copies of my first publication with some
embarrassing typos. J I had a very good editor, but somewhere between his editing
and my acceptance of them, some snuck in.
The moral
to the story, unless your family is going hungry waiting for you to sell some
books, then take the time to have a person or two proof the copy before
releasing it and ordering multiples.
What is the worst piece of
advice you received when you started writing?
You know,
that’s a hard question. I can’t say that I’ve really gotten any really bad
advice just yet. I had a few people suggest that I go with a vanity publishing
company. And while one friend seems to be doing well with them, I don’t know if
he’s made back the out-of-pocket money he had to front to get started with
them.
What is the best advice
you received?
“If you don’t know what to do, ask a few
Indy authors – they’re, in general, a very helpful crowd.”
I whole-sale agree with that statement. I have reached out to many different
people and gotten excellent and enthusiastic advice and developed a few good
friendships along the way.
What is your advice to new
authors trying to break into the self-publishing market?
A large
part of it is what you make of it. You will get out of it what you put into it.
You are now your own sales team – it’s not just about writing any more.
A large
part of it is luck.
A
significant part of it is what is selling at the time, vs what you’re writing.
If this is
your only income, get used to eating Ramen noodles for a while. J
Research
writing in the Deep Point of View.
Use 5+
beta readers.
Put your
money in two places: Hiring a good cover artist, Hiring a good editor. Friends and Family are not allowed for
either!!!!! If your cover assaults the eye, no one will pick it up. If your
book is full of grammar, punctuation errors or typos, then the reader may not
finish your book and worse yet, leave a nasty review.
What has been your
favorite story to write?
Well, I
suspect like many authors, I’m a little partial to the first one I wrote.
However, each book is different and has unique things that you love and hate
about them.
My first
book…well, it was my first book. It was my baby. It was my first experience of
making something from nothing and calling it my own AND have had people say
that they really enjoyed it. It was what encouraged me to continue on this
journey and validated that I might just have something to share with the world,
and maybe making it a better place along the way.
Do you see yourself in any
of the characters you write?
Oh of
course! But not just one. I can’t speak for all authors, but each character
carries a little bit of me in them. We as people are not just one person, one
character all the time. We have good days and bad days. Some days we are saints
on Earth and others we deserve to be locked up for a very long time. Some days
I am deserving of the love of my wife and children and some days they are
clearly getting the raw end of the deal.
So by
tapping into those different facets of my personality, it allows each one to
become its very one character, and allows the author to explore what they would
be like if they were to think or behave like this all the time.
What is your most recent
release about?
Wow,
that’s hard to say in ten pages or less. J When I write, I like to give the reader a
good story that is entertaining, has action, adventure, death, life, a little
romance and some philosophy to ice the top.
However, in general In the Days of
Humans: Third Exodus is about a world after the computer singularity
happens, the struggle between Man and Machine took place and the world was
deviated. Not a new story, but that was my chapter 1. The bulk of the book is
what happened after the struggle where humans had to learn how to survive, and
of the ones that were largely spared, they would eventually have to come to
terms with the fact that they would soon run out of resources.
Faced with
this reality the remaining governments decided to go for broke and develop a
space program to venture out into the solar system to look for resources and
possible a new home. However – yes, there’s always a however – while they are
venturing into the blackness they run into an ancient intelligence, that was
almost as old as the solar system, which had been placed there to watch and
wait for space-faring life to evolve.
Corruption and politics prevail back on Earth, and faced with a new, unforeseen
forces that threaten human survival once again, the lead character must decide
where his loyalties lie – with a corrupt government back home, or with an alien
intelligence that might have some unknown agenda – in some hope of saving humankind.
Where did you draw your
inspiration for this book?
Wow, hard
question. I had the idea come to me on a bad day when I was frustrated with
work (I work at NASA) and I was just pondering “What if everything that NASA is
doing is for naught. What if we never achieve the goal of figuring out how to
live permanently in space or on another planet? What if it ends up being some
group or country that we never expect?” That was the catalyst that got my
imagination working and where ultimately I got the idea for the book. After
that most of my ideas would come while driving to and from work listening to
classical music.
I know, not terribly exciting, but that’s how it all happened. J
What has been your most
successful thing you've done to promote your book?
So far I
would have to say it would have to be using Facebook and personal connections
to spread the word. While I have not achieved nation-wide success just yet,
from what I have seen, one must be in the right spot at the right time to get
the visibility that stirs mass interest. Just waiting for the lightening to
strike for me.
Who is your literary idol?
Oh my, I’m
not sure I could tell you. There are so many out there that are masters at what
they did/do. Each of them brings forth something unique and different to the
reader and their experience in the different stories they tell. To name a few
would surely do a disservice to those I don’t. Wells, Heinlein, Clark, Butler,
Rothenberg, Anthony, Rand, Sagan, Hawking to name just some of the giants of
recent history. This list doesn’t do anything for the not as famous, but
equally talented authors or even many of the up and coming ones of today that I
for time to time get the chance to read, meet and get to know.
Do you participate in
writing events like NaNo?
No I
haven’t. Not that I’m not interested, but between a full-time job, a young
family and my own writing, I just have no way of squeezing in something else
like this with time pressures of its own.
Tell us where our readers
can follow you at. Twitter? Facebook? Google+?
Website:
http://terryrhill.net
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/t.r.hill.author
Twitter: N/A
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7348871.Terry_R_Hill
Google+:
https://plus.google.com/+TerryHill/
·
Also available
on Apple iBooks – just search for In the
Days of Humans
Will you be attending any
conventions or book signings in 2014? If so, where can we see you at?
I plan on having a few book signings in the Houston area, but none
with any firm dates yet.
Synopsis:
