I got an email today from a reader. Let me start by saying it was polite and you can tell she was nice, but she was also pretty blunt.
An honesty that left me pondering and made me realize that I, and other apocalypse writers like myself, are in a conundrum.
If you don’t think … let me explain.
She stated she lost interest in getting my books when I started to focus more on other types of writing. She mentioned aliens, vampires and other mythical creatures. You know what? I get it, I do. Those books were scattered within my other works. But this reader hadn’t given up on me, and for that I am grateful.
At first, I couldn’t remember what alien book she meant, and she looked it up. Then I remembered why I wrote that book and that’s when I started thinking. Normal virus books and zombie books just weren’t selling for me. Forget nuclear war, no one wants to read that. Trust me I know.
I mean, for a hot minute I thought maybe I was the Nicholas Cage of Apocalypse books. People loved what I was doing at first, then grew tired of me, and despite that I can still pen a good novel (Like Nick has some decent movies) people were leery about diving into something I wrote.
With diligence, I try not to deliver the same old, same old.
I try to write one book a year that is an original ‘end of the world’ scenario, and I think I do well with that. Above the Hush, 10:37, By Way of Autumn, Omnicide… there are a lot of them.
So when I wasn’t writing original end of the world, I expanded into different apocalypses, like Aliens and Vampires.
Stories I thought were good, characters I built in my head long before I write a single word of the book.
All I ever wanted to do was have people read my work, and I am blessed and fortunate enough that I have that. I strive to keep my readers entertained, take them away from troubles they may have or just take them to a different world. Make them laugh, cry, cringe.
Then … then … Covid happened. At first I didn’t think it would effect things, but it did. Suddenly, people were cast into a tamer version of my books, but much of human nature was the same. They don’t want reality, they want to be taken away from reality.
So with that comes the title of my blog. What is a writer to write? Or rather, what is an author who primarily writes apocalypse, supposed to write.
When I started to see the change in reading trends, totally lost at what people wanted, I decided, I was just gonna write good stories.
I would love … love … love to dive into a really awesome, heart wrenching plague.
Do people want that? Will they ever want that again?
I don’t want to touch EMP, that market is flooded almost as bad as zombies.
Civil unrest novels, society breakdowns … nah. I suck at military stuff.
Volcanoes .. did it. Earthquakes, yep. Meteors, solar … um … I hit them all.
The one I am finishing now is totally original. Never done. I am ending the world again, in a new way.
But is it what people want? I looked at the top 25 Amazon Apocalypse books. Absent are the virus novels, zombie novels.
So I wonder if readers are just tired of apocalypse novels.
One day I’ll figure it out. Soon I hope. I’m open to suggestions. In the meantime … I’ll just keep writing.
Three years late to the party… I hate EMP stories because the authors of those stories suck at writing a character. The EMP plot line seems, to me at least, the most likely-however remote- to become a reality given how prolific nuclear bombs are and how fucking crazy some despotic rulers are. :::: nods to Kim Song Un, Putin, and whatever Ayatollah is currently terrorizing Iranian women:::
What fascinates me about the apocalyptic genre is how a culture survives, or not, and how it changes. The characters reveal the culture by how their loss changes them. Like the gold standard Steven King set, society will change because the burden of loss and survival is carried by flawed people. Though I…
I'm diligently working my way through your books, I love them! I will read anything you put out, aliens/viruses/etc (but thank you for no gory zombie books. I will pass those by every time!)
I attempted writing an apocalypse short story, about a virus/bug/whatever that poisons the soil so survivors can't grow food, animals die, etc. I quickly realized why I'm a reader only! :) Although if you ever feel so inclined, I'd love your take on that scenario :)
I do believe you are the queen of apocalypse .......I hate to read zombie tales. And I am not fond of aliens Or fantasy, I could care less about anything political, and armed forces tech stories. I love a good plague or virus novel, probably because that is what I fear the most at this time...And what draws me most to read your books is the art of character building, and presenting the "human emotional " side of living, and surviving in a hostile terrifying world........ .I guess I just really enjoy your own unique style of storytelling. Please keep it up! I will remain an avid fan.
I LOVE your books BECAUSE they are apocalypse type books! They are my favorite genre, and if you stopped writing them, I would be heartbroken. I'm sick of all the EMP, Zombie and military books, so thanks for not going in that direction! I never get tired of nuclear war, comet, asteroid/meteorite stories. Would love to see more good/bad Alien invasion books. I also enjoy plague/viral pandemic books. I would love to read an apocalypse book where the world really DOES end!!! I'll make you a promise though, whatever you write, I'll read!
I see you writing a book about 'Premonitions'....
Maybe a young person that drives a delivery route, always takes their 2 German Shepard dogs with them.
Fill in the rest. - I'm waiting.....