This month Xomba had the chance to get inside the head of up and coming author David Wellington, whose novel Monster Island recently made the Barnes & Noble genre fiction Top 5 list for best books published in 2006.

David is currently the author of 2 published novels and 5 web serials, several of which are expected to be published in 2007. His website is located at www.brokentype.com/davidwellington/

Monster Island Novel

Scifi.com had the following to say about Monster Island which started out in blog form and continues to be available on his website "...what sets this gleefully apocalyptic first novel apart from the pack is the witty intelligence with which Wellington reinvigorates zombie clichés and the cast of richly developed characters he puts through their paces."

David is a pioneer of the "blogger turned successful published author" phenomenon of recent years. The online success of Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet, a cataclysmic trilogy involving the take over of zombies, has guided Wellington on the road to becoming a highly recognized talent in the published world of horror fiction.

Would you mind describing how you went from blogging a book to selling your book in major retailers?

The serial was supposed to be an experiment, or maybe a dare. I did it in real time, doing all my research, plotting and so on while I wrote each chapter. At the time I wrote Monster Island I was working full time. I wrote (and
did research, outlining, etc.) the book on my lunch hour and after work. Sometimes I stayed two or three hours late to work on the book. I've never had trouble finding time to write--it's enjoyable enough to me that I don't mind spending the time. I never really thought it would come to anything and that gave me the freedom to really try something new. Then it just sort of caught on--the readership grew, very quickly, as people passed around the link.

Finally I got a great review on www.BoingBoing.net. Mark Frauenfelder over there liked the book so much he recommended it to his publisher. The publisher was so impressed by how many hits I was getting that he bought all three books, even though Monster Planet hadn't been written at that point.

Roughly, how many copies of Monster Island have you sold? Is this your only novel published so far?

Monster Island came out in April, 2006. Monster Nation came out in September, 2006. Both have sold about 10,000 copies.

Are you still having to work your day job?

As of now I'm making a living from my books. I recently got my degree in library Science, and though I'm not using it right now it's nice to have something I can fall back on.

You blogged your book before getting it published, did you have any problem with the publisher when you were in initial talks with them?

Every time I meet with a new publisher they say they want me to take down the website. They never push for it, so I just nod and smile. I think once it became clear that I had an audience built-in with the online readership there were no more problems.

Weren't you scared someone would steal your idea? What (in your opinion) can a writer do to protect his/her copyright when posting a novel as a blog?

Copyright's tricky--so I basically ignored it. I put the books under a Creative Commons license www.creativecommons.org which theoretically protected me but let everybody do whatever they wanted--copy the books to their blogs, make mashups and remixes, etc. What people did in the end was translate it into different formats--one reader adapted it for Palm devices, one for old Apple Newtons, we had it on cell phones, people could read it on
the screens of their iPods, and so on. When the book went to publication the publisher took care of getting an official scary legal copyright on it and that was that. The book was free when it was only online; copyright is only important (to me) as a way to protect your income, and that only mattered for the printed book.

Many writers on Xomba want to be published either non-fiction or fiction, do you have any secrets or successful strategies that every writer should adopt?

Write more. The business side comes along or it doesn't, it will absorb as much of your time as you let it. It won't matter what kind of contract you get if you're not prepared to do the actual writing. Everything you write makes you a better writer, every word, even if it fails--especially then. I learn best from my own mistakes.

Do you have any advice for writers who are just beginning to write a novel?

Well, it's nothing new, but just write some more. A first novel is a daunting task and there's a very steep learning curve. My advice is to write at least one novel, and preferrably several, that you don't intend to ever publish. You need to get a feel for it before you can do it right.

Where's a good place to start for writers trying to get published?

Writer's Marketplace gives you all the information you're ever going to get, really. Don't send unsolicited manuscripts to publishers--they will literally get shredded. The magazines are more open to new writers. I'm partial to just publishing on the web--if anyone can read your work for
free, it's possible that somebody will. Tell all your friends where they can find your stuff and ask them to recommend it to anyone they think might read it. Email bloggers and websites and ask them to link to your story--though they may want some kind of hook to explain why their readers should become your readers.

If you had to pick one critical thing or strategy you did to get where you are today, in terms of being published, what would it be?

The main thing is not to get complacent. Don't assume that there's only one way to get published--most likely that channel has already been flooded with unwanted manuscripts. Every writer needs to find their own route into the business. Don't pass up an opportunity just because it doesn't seem like a good fit.

Did you ever feel like giving up and just quiting? How did you force yourself to get over those feelings?

I've never had the option of quitting. I've been writing since I was six and if I don't write for more than a week my subconscious starts to rebel--I have weird, insanely detailed dreams as my brain tries to write in my sleep.

What's next for you and are there any movie rights being discussed?

My next published book will be Thirteen Bullets, a vampire novel being published at the end of May by Three Rivers Press. Movie rights are in discussion but I can't comment more on that.

For more information on David Wellington's acclaimed book, Monster Island, and his other novels please visit www.brokentype.com/monster/