Very chaotic. I frequently refer to it as an absolute storm of an industry as everything either gets upended or is trying not to be upended. Publishing managed to put off the changes brought about by the internet era for as long as possible, but they couldn't hold it back for every and now everything's crazy.

Trad-pub still exists, the ol' "I'll send a manuscript to every publisher in existence and hope someone bites." But the royalties are a fraction of what they once were, and you give up a lot of control in exchange for less with each passing year (it used to be that if there were signings or promotionals the publisher would pay for them, now it's the author most of the time).

Hybrid-Publishing is rapidly becoming the new force, with authors "double-dipping" into being both indie and traditional. They'll make the trad-pubs bid on upcoming books, or sign a contract that lets the publisher get one book for every 2-3 that the author releases on their own. Publishers don't like this, but it's better than being left out in the cold. Many people would also be surprised how many "big name" authors have switched to this model.

Lastly you've got full indie publishing, like myself. No deals with any traditional publishing house, and selling books either directly or through a traditional middleman without the publisher.

I've written a few pieces about it on my site. Trad pub also spends a lot of money getting pieces written about how the sky isn't falling, ebooks are a fad, or indie publishing will never work for anyone even as they shell out millions of dollars for the rights to publish paperback copies of The Martian, because they don't want the boat rocking.

It's far from over, but seeing as we've gone from the "Big six" traditional publishers down to the 'Big four" and one of the green rooms I've hung out in had a bunch of authors making bets on which would be the next to fall, there's still some shakeup coming.

To discover that, you'll have to read the book!

So is a starforge a star used as a forge, a forge that makes stars, or a floor wax and a dessert topping?

What does the business model of being an author look like these days? Traditional you'd expect to get a publisher. How much has self publishing changed that market?

> Thank you for the great answer! I can see how tropes are a necessary short hand to bring the reader along for the ride.

You're welcome, but note that it's not just that they're necessary shorthand, but that they're fundamental structure. You want a team of characters for any reason? That's a trope. The only way not to have it is to have only one character. But that's also a trope. "Eliminating tropes" is like saying you want to build a bridge but without any atoms. It's just not feasible. Understanding tropes is akin to understanding your building materials and using them properly or in clever ways.

> Has there ever been a story line you had to abandon because you strayed too far from a recognizable setup?

In that regard, no. I've had to abandon a few because plots or characters didn't work the way I'd hoped, or not been as fun as I'd imagined. There's a whole completed manuscript on my drive that never got published because it was just too rough, and I'm not sure it'll ever be (I'll likely just take stuff from it for other stories).

> Looking through your library I can't see if you're working with a publisher. Are you freelance?

I'm Indie, yes. I prefer the freedom.

> Have you ever considered producing any of your books into audio? Have you considered who you would choose as a narrator?

This is a common question, but the answer is always "cost, cost cost." Audiobooks aren't cheap to produce, especially big ones. Someday I hope to, but until I'm selling a few thousand copies a week it's going to remain a pipe dream. As far as who I'd pick for a narrator it'd depend on the book.

Thank you for the great answer! I can see how tropes are a necessary short hand to bring the reader along for the ride.

Has there ever been a story line you had to abandon because you strayed too far from a recognizable setup?

Have you ever considered producing any of your books into audio? Have you considered who you would choose as a narrator?

Actually no. I didn't know it was a crowdfunding disaster until you just said it, and the first I knew that there were other properties that had used the name was when I started promoting Starforge on Twitter. And since the book itself is the finale to a series that I've been working on for eight years, I think it's safe to say there would be zero crossover, and the only similarity would be in the name. Starforge's plot, characters, and setup were all laid down back in 2014 when I began writing Colony, and set in stone when Colony came out in 2016. The journey inside its pages is completely linked to the other two books in the series.

I do recommend giving it a look, especially if you're a fan of huge Sci-Fi adventures. Do recommend starting with the first book in the series, Colony, though. Whether or not you do is entirely up to you!

And hey, maybe you will work on it someday. I'd like the whole trilogy to get an audiobook set. That'd be something like 130 hours all said and done, but it'd be amazing to listen to!

My tip-of-the-tongue answer is Star Wars. Specifically Return of the Jedi. I know, I know, most people prefer The Empire Strikes Back, but I love fleet engagements, and that final fleet battle in RotJ is one of my favorite cinema moments of all time. I love fleet battles in general—big and small—which is why I also why I was so thrilled to have several ship to ship battles in Starforge.

However, my answer would not be complete without noting two other films that I absolutely have a soft place in my heart for, one which is very much Sci-Fi and one which really isn't but I'll list it anyway. The first is Predator. Yup, with Schwarzenegger. I love the way that movie upends its tropes, and the Predator itself is just an amazing design.

The other movie isn't really a Sci-Fi, but it is the perfect film. I speak, of course, of the Kevin Bacon film Tremors.

Now series ... that's a tough one. There are a lot of Sci-Fi series out there, some of which are very good, and it's hard to pick just one. But I'm going to go for an odd shot and say that while I'll love Star Trek for its approach and Star Wars shows for theirs, and I love Firefly ... I'd have to say that all of those, I feel, owe the original Twilight Zone. It's Sci-Fi—sometimes fantasy—that asked tough questions or posited moral conundrums often without an answer.

Picking a favorite is nigh impossible, but I do have a place in my heart for The Twilight Zone and its approach to making us think about ourselves.

What is your favorite Science Fiction Movie - and series?

A bit of a silly question, but have you heard of the crowdfunding disaster that was the game "Starforge"? If so, did you happen to get any influence from it?

Looking forward to checking it out, maybe I'll work on it for an audiobook for the company I work for if it gains traction!

Hey, no shame there. Now that I'm done editing Starforge I'm getting back to my own list (And reading NOT for work. It's amazing!).

Though I would advise grabbing Colony today, while it's still on sale, and will save you a few bucks. I'm frugal, and as much as it's my income I know the importance of saving a buck!

Thanks! It has been a journey. Six years from the reader's perspective, and eight years from mine. 1.3 million words all together. My next projects will be a bit more sensible. But it does feel good to finally have the trilogy be complete.

Good luck to your father in law with his first novel too! I know exactly how good that feels to hold the first one in your hands!

I've actually just gotten back into reading but I've gotta finish the books I currently have. You're on my list though.

Thanks so much for the detailed answer! My father in law has just self published a novel, but gone about it very old school (garage of books and all). That made me very curious as I've always fancied the idea of finally pushing one of my drafts to completion one day.

Ten months of editing is mad, but your books are huge so I suppose I'm not so surprised. Massive congratulations on the completion of the book and it's trilogy, you must be both proud and relieved!

Even buying the equipment and doing a "homebrew" audiobook would still be quite expensive, largely due to the lengths of the works involved.

There have been discussions about using such methods, and I've even run the prices on a few of them, but still found them wildly above my annual budget, sadly.

But the good news is ...

> ... I don't know your books or anything like that ...

You can buy a few, which would increase your familiarity and help toward making audiobooks a reality!

Hey Max, I don't know your books or anything like that, i just found this post by chance. But, is it out of the realm to cut your costs by simply buying a microphone and a recording software and other such equipment and producing it your self? I mean maybe you have an actor friend or ask someone with a nice listenable talking voice to read your book for you. I am of the mind amateurs can be deceptively valuable and talented. I'm an audio engineer and I work in music but in my experience things like this while not easy, are much easier than many people might believe.

Just saying, could be a fun project for you and the idea of home producing your own audio book could be exciting.

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No worries. Publishing has changed rapidly in the last two decades, so much of the "traditional" publishing methods are being upended right now. Even two decades ago, I'd have needed a garage to store Axtara paperbacks in ... now the bookstore just says "Hey, I want that," and places an order, which is then printed on demand and shipped to them without any involvement from me (at least, in that end of the process).

As far as what I do manage, I handle the writing, editing, and marketing entirely on my own. I oversee the whole editing process, with an extended team of other people, and I manage all the marketing. If I go to a con or a signing, it's on my own dime (though this is now true for "classic" trad-pub authors as well).

The downside is I have to know how to run everything. The upside is I'm not losing 90+% of the profit to a publisher.

But as an immediate example, editing on Starforge started in February of this year and only finished literally last week. It took ten months of work to edit, which was about how long it took to write.

Easy answer: Timothy Zahn's The Icarus Hunt!

Naturally, I do encourage checking out my own books as well. ;)

Whats your favorite sci-fi book? Thanks for the ama

Sorry to extend this with another question, but how much of the publishing process do you do yourself? I assume not printing, but how much distribution and such do you do?

It pays ... not a lot, though I'm better off as an Indie Author thanks to the much better royalty rate. 80% of authors have a second job (last I checked the census, anyway), and I've bounced in and out of that over the years. I write full-time, and it pays for a good chunk of my expenses, but I still have had to do some work on the side outside of that for the last two years. There was a brief moment where it was all I needed ... and then the economic death of the last two years hit.

That said, each release I have moves my monthly income up another few notches and brings me to a wider audience. I've got people buying books all over the world now, with sales in Brazil, Germany, and Denmark (Axtara has been a real hit in other countries). It's a slow but steady process, but most authors who "make it" don't make enough to live off of for the first decade or so.

EDIT: I got time, so I'll run some math by you. Starforge, my newest book (the one that comes out tomorrow) is selling at $9.99. Which seems like a lot, but then my rate for the royalty is 70%. Which is really high, because I'm an indie author (a trad pub would be a lot less, in the realm of 15% if you're a rock-star to less than 5% if you're a nobody).

But for ease let's say I make $7 on each copy sold. So in order to make a minimum wage of $15 an hour, I'll need to sell more than three books an hour for eight hours. Let's chop a few sales off at the end of the day to account for rounding with our quick and dirty math, but that's still 18 copies in a day to make a minimum wage.

Now, I do have other books, but being older they're priced lower. Colony will be, once I do my inflation price adjustment (it's been a decade since I changed prices) $4.99. Roughly $3.50 per copy sold. So to make a day's minimum wage that's 36 copies sold in a day.

But printed books take things a step further. The bookstore wants their cut, which is usually about 50% of the cover price. In order to keep Axtara's paperback at $12, there are some markets where a sale of that $12 paperback only nets me about seven cents. Imagine how many copies I'd have to sell then to make a day's minimum wage. Since publishers want their share before the author, this is why that $45 hardback you just bought paid the author a dime (if they were lucky).

Point being, a lot of authors don't get paid a lot, and you need a lot of sales to make things work. I've been clawing my way up for ten years now, to the point that I make more in a month than I used to make in a whole year, but there's still plenty of room to grow.

How well does the job of a fiction author pay? do you get enough money on a monthly basis to live, or do you have some side-job beside it?

The mnemonic device I use to remember the spelling is: What did the ant queen say to her army? "Lie, u ten ants!"

I think about it (and ants) every time I need to write it now.

That's a bummer - here's to hoping your annual income will continue to increase from your work!

Thanks for the AMA!