If you've spent enough time in the world of self-publishing, it's impossible to miss the story of Hugh Howey. His Wool series hasn't just skyrocketed him to the top of the game, but it's also kind of changed the game.
He is undoubtedly the "Cinderella story" of the self-publishing world. Here's a fellow that went the non-traditional route. Rather than listen to the endless sea of rejection letters that await 99% of us, Hugh Howey opted for self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle program, and then watched as the first in his series took off. Seeing its popularity, he quickly scrambled to write more in the series, and eventually caught the attention of Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian, who optioned the Wool series for film.
Howey has been understandably busy these days, between his duties as family man and writer, but I recently had a chance to pin him down and ask him a few questions.
HUSKINS: Hi,
Hugh. Thanks for joining us here at
Realm of Ideas. First, just let me say
that I’ve only just started to read your Wool
series, and it is fantastic. I picked up
on it in an article for CNN. It seems
like you’ve had a heck of a year. Can
you tell us a little about what it felt like when it first started changing, what
was going on in your and your wife’s head when this success started coming
around so suddenly?
HOWEY: It started in October of last year. Sales began
picking up and reviews started trickling in. At every stage of this wild ride,
my wife and I have looked at each other in disbelief. Just when you think
things have gotten as nutty as they possibly can, something bigger and crazier
happens. So, in one sense, it’s seemed sudden, but really it’s been a very long
upward journey full of many neat surprises.
HUSKINS: Wool is a post-apocalyptic series
taking place in the subterranean Silos.
Are you attracted to the post-apocalyptic genre, the themes in The Road and The Walking Dead, or did you have a specific story you were trying
to tell and felt that only a post-apocalyptic setting could suffice?
HUGH: The latter. I had a story I wanted to tell, and it
only made sense in a wasteland setting. This isn’t the type of story I read or
normally write. It’s just the world that the first short story needed to take
place in.
HUSKINS: Describe
your writing process. Do you listen to
music, or maintain silence? Do you have
a schedule you try to maintain?
HOWEY: I prefer silence. I write best in the morning, so I
get up and start immediately and try to go straight to lunch. I usually break
around 10:00 in the morning to check email and post on Facebook and Twitter. My goal
is to get a good 4-6 hours of writing or revising in each day. It’s just me and
a laptop and my dog.
HUSKINS: You’re
pretty much the “Cinderella story” of the self-publishing world. Can you describe how this happened? That is, did you merely put the book up on
Amazon Kindle and “wait and see,” and then just get lucky, or were you
constantly promoting it on Twitter and Facebook, marketing it and so forth?
HOWEY: I didn’t promote Wool
until after it was already taking off on its own. The best thing you can do to
give yourself a shot at success is to keep writing and publishing. The sort of
sales you get from tireless marketing are the kind that require more marketing
to maintain. In order to have a blockbuster, you need readers telling each
other about the work, not you telling enough people that you get a sale or two.
I know a lot of writers will disagree with me on this, but I wouldn’t spend a
lot of time on marketing until you have five or six novels or a few dozen short
stories under your belt. Just write. And don’t expect to make it big, that can
be dangerous. Write because you love to, because you have to, not because you
want to get rich.
HUSKINS: When
you were first starting with the ideas for Wool
and other stories, did you find that your wife, friends and family were supportive
of you? Did anyone think you were crazy
for trying your hand at writing and publishing?
HOWEY: Nobody thought I was crazy. Everyone I encountered
had mad respect for me. Writing is a very common aspiration. Very few people
stick with it to completion, and so it mostly draws awe from others. It’s
similar to the admiration I have for those who stick with a musical instrument
or a foreign language until they become proficient. I’ve had nothing but
support and encouragement from friends and family. In fact, I started writing
primarily to hand my stories to people I knew!
HUSKINS: I’ve
read that you’ve drawn inspiration from some of the “awesome women” in your
life. Besides your wife, what other
great women have inspired you?
HOWEY: My sister and my mother. Both are brilliant women
with enormous hearts and mountains of courage. I aspire to be more like them in
many ways.
HUSKINS: You
were a yacht captain for a while, and traveled the globe. Miss it?
Still do it?
HOWEY: I don’t miss running other people’s yachts. It’s a
lot of work and it takes you away from family. My dream now is to get back on a
sailboat of my own one day and take it around the world. I think within a
decade that I’ll be on my way.
HUSKINS: What
else do you do with your time besides writing and family time? Have any hobbies that keep you occupied?
HOWEY: I love to take pictures, especially of people. My
dog keeps me busy with long walks and fetching sticks (that would be me fetching the sticks, mostly). My wife
and I really enjoy our time together reading or watching a film. We’re very
boring people.
HUSKINS: What
are you reading now?
HOWEY: The latest Jon Ronson book. This man is a genius.
He’s hilarious, and I love the way he strings words together. I highly
recommend all of his books.
HUSKINS: Lots
of writers and artists have that “watershed moment” when they decided they
wanted to write and create. For me, it
was reading Sphere by Michael
Crichton when I was like 15. It kind of
planted the seed, which grew into a burning desire. Was there a book that did that for you?
HOWEY: Ender’s
Game.
I was 12, and it was when I knew I wanted to be a writer. The fact that Card
was a fellow North Carolinian made that dream seem attainable.
HUSKINS: Wool has been optioned for film by
Ridley Scott, the man behind the original Alien,
Gladiator, Blade Runner and numerous other epics. Tell us how that came about, and what was it
like? Did you get a phone call from an
agent, e-mail?
HOWEY: My agent sent Wool
around Hollywood. One of the people who got a copy and loved it was Steve
Zaillian, one of the top screenplay writers in the business. He loved it enough
to send it along to Ridley, who also fell in love with the story. This duo
bought the option in conjunction with 20th Century Fox. They are set
to produce, though I doubt either of them will write or helm the work. They
have a lot in the pipeline.
I did receive an email from Ridley. He was busy with
the release of Prometheus at the
time, but was extremely complimentary of the book. It’s amazing that someone of
his stature sat down and read something I wrote from cover to cover. That’s
humbling.
HUSKINS: It’s
been a little over a year since all this success started rolling your way. Have you and your family had any kind of big
celebratory moment for all of these achievements? If not, you should!
HOWEY: We’ve had a lot of little celebratory moments.
Mostly meals out. My way of celebrating is to go get pizza and maybe splurge
for a beer. Or go eat somewhere with a view of the water.
HUSKINS: When
can we expect the next book in the Wool
series? Can you tell us anything about
it?
HOWEY: I just released Second Shift, part 7 in the series.
Third Shift should be out in late January.
HUSKINS: Thanks
for joining us, Hugh. But before you go,
we have to ask you for any piece of advice you can give to writers out there,
or artists of any kind for that matter.
HOWEY: If you love creating, then do it. Art should be an
outlet for everything except our desire to get rich. You’ll go mad with that as
your motivation. If you view it as a hobby, but one you take seriously enough
to generate the highest quality output possible, then the sky is the limit. But
that’s just me. There are a million other ways to handle being an artist, and
I’m sure most of those alternatives are superior to my way.
(To find out more about Hugh Howey, visit his website www.hughhowey.com. To find his fabulous Wool series, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354623922&sr=1-2&keywords=wool. To read my new book, Psycho Save Us, check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Save-Us-ebook/dp/B009DL5WEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348353493&sr=8-1&keywords=psycho+save+us)
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Visit my website: www.chadhuskins.com.
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