Scott Sigler

Readers who only know Scott Sigler as the author of the “Infected” series (Infected, Contagious and the upcoming closer, Pandemic) only know the tip of the iceberg. The man is a writing and marketing machine, maintaining an overwhelming social media presence that combines free podcasts, a website, Facebook, Twitter and more into a highly successful branding operation. In addition to the “Infected” books he’s writing a young adult series combining football, race relations and outer space, rewriting an early novel, and compiling a digital-only short story collection.

In today’s shifting publishing landscape, aspiring authors could learn a thing or two from Sigler’s approach to the business. Studying his writing wouldn’t be such a bad idea, either, as he obviously knows how to connect with an audience. Recently, Sigler stopped his juggling act long enough to share a few words with Horror World.

HW:  Before the Infected trilogy it was just Scott Sigler, his "Junkies," and his podcasts. Tell us how you got into recording your own stories and giving them away via the podcasts.

SS: It actually started because back in late 2000 I landed a print deal with an imprint of AOL/TimeWarner, and EarthCore was supposed to be out in mass market paperback in May 2002. However, in the post-9/11 recession, TimeWarner scrapped everything that wasn’t profitable. My imprint wasn’t profitable yet, hence, the whole project was shut down. It took me about three years to get the rights back, which brought us to 2005 -- right around the time I learned about podcasting. My first reaction to podcasting was that it was ideal for serialized fiction, and would be a great way to deliver audiobooks. I went looking for novel podcasts to listen to, and after hours of searching and finding none it hit me -- no one had done it yet! I knew that if I could be first to market, so to speak, I could get some publicity for my work. I had a professionally edited novel in EarthCore, so I dove into a crash course on recording and making an RSS feet. I posted my first episode on March 1, 2005, and have been rolling ever since. 

Was it a deliberate strategy to build up your audience while working to get published, or just something fun and fulfilling to do that eventually paid off handsomely?

It was all of those things: a huge opportunity to be the first to do something like this, and of course my intention was to use that to build an audience. I saw the connections people make online, and knew that if I created a great product, some people would like it and instantly send their friends MP3 links via IM, forums, chat rooms, blog posts, email, etc. Giving the first book away was about building a brand name, and proving that my work resonated with the marketplace. At the time, I assumed I’d pick up 10,000 subscribers and land a print deal. I hadn’t counted on the fact that publishers had no idea what podcasting was, what MP3s were, what the word "download" meant or even understand the fancy series of tubes, for that matter. I accomplished the goal, but it took five books and three years to get there.

You've continued to maintain a vast social media and online presence - why is it so important to you to keep it all going?

It's a numbers game, and it's all about exposure.  The more folks who know about my books, the more folks who might try one of them. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, now Google+,  and also on my own site scottsigler.com. Simply making the product information available in these different areas lets people find the book based on their preferences. Some find it via Twitter, some via Facebook, and some via my podcasts or my website. The larger the following, the more people want to buy the product, so that’s why being consistent and (hopefully) engaging and responsive gives me the best chance to find customers that really want the book.  

That’s what social media does for me -- when my fans finish a story, I’m still right there, accessible, they can stay in contact and monitor what’s coming next. And even though it's not a face-to-face connection, it's a connection nonetheless, and that's important. 

Does it take away from your writing time, or is it such an integral part now that you don't consider it a distraction?

It's a huge time commitment. Social media and podcasting is a long-fanged vamp sucking at the neck of father time. Every minute I spend podcasting or working social media is a minute I am not creating an new story, but if you want to have long-term success you need to learn how to market yourself and put in that time. Over are the days of the Ivory Tower author who writes all day and leaves the marketing and management to the publisher. Being a full-time writer means engaging in the marketing of you and your work.  

You're currently self-publishing a series of books concerning the "Galactic Football League," a Young Adult sports/science fiction series that blends elements of professional sports, aliens, and organized crime. Tell us a little about the inspiration behind the series.

It's been called a mash-up of Star Wars meets The Blind Side meets The Godfather. Football has been a part of my life since before I could walk. I was lucky enough to play for my dad, who is a two-time state champion coach in Michigan. My brother is also a head coach. I think sports, and especially football, is a truly unifying force: to succeed, you must be able to play as a team, regardless of any prejudices you might have had walking into the locker room. And once you're a team, the prejudices no longer matter. 

The entire series focuses on overcoming racism and confronting the prejudices taught to you by your culture. 

The latest in the series, The All-Pro (following The Rookie and The Starter) is due out in September of this year. Is this the last one?

No.  It's number three in a seven-book series.  The book we'll put out next year is called The MVP. Any titles after that have been redacted for spoilers, but there are total of seven planned. 

Quentin Barnes began the series battling more than his alien opponents in the game - he was battling a fundamental mistrust of anything different than himself, which certainly must strike a chord with young readers. Where is he in that journey as the third book comes out, and how has the audience responded to the changes and growth of the character?

Quentin is still learning about the big wide universe around him, but he's more comfortable with his alien teammates than he was in The Rookie. He's still just 20 years old, so there are struggles that he's never faced.  His rookie season put him on the field with races he had never met in person, races he had been taught to hate. As he learned how to evaluate sentients as individuals, he learned how to lead and how to forge a team. As we move into The All-Pro, he is the undisputed team leader and now has to produce results -- like all professional sports, it’s win or be replaced.

You're perhaps best known as the author of the "Infected" series (Infected and Contagious). How is the third and (presumably) final book, Pandemic, coming along?

Pandemic is the final book in that series. It is outlined and I’m 10,000 words into the first draft. Pandemic will be out Spring of 2013. I think the story arc is an up-level from where Contagious left things, and I think folks will dig it.

A lot of the fear in those books comes from the idea of losing control over yourself - something main character Perry Dawsey had already struggled with before the "Triangles" took hold of him in Infected. Do you find that's a relatable fear in today's world, that people are rapidly losing control over their own lives?

I know it's a relatable fear for me personally, and I assume I'm not the only one. We are more connected than ever before, but also more dependent on the technology as well. To lose control due to outside circumstances, or even your own biology working against your "control"  happens all the time. Natural disasters, cancer, even everyday traffic jams cause chaos to flourish, and we're more and more unused to that as our interconnectivity increases. That said, I also think humans are survivors exactly because they've adjusted and adapted to these adversities along the way. 

Did you have the series mapped out when you started Infected, or at least a general idea of where you wanted to end up in Pandemic?

I knew I wanted to look at the classic “invasion” template from a different angle -- one story up close on a single infected individual, a second book where you pull back the camera and show the national response, then finally the full view as a global cataclysm sets in. Infected gave us Perry Dawsey and his lonely, brutal struggle to overcome not only the disease, but the cycle of violence begun by his abusive father. Contagious moved us to the national scene, where a new president that campaigns on openness and transparency quickly learns that some things need to be secret for a reason. Pandemic is going to take everything to another level, a balls-out nightmare of humanity smashing head-first against a genocidal enemy, an enemy that is us as much as it is alien. 

Okay, we've got a series centering on a former pro football player, and another series about football in space. Who do you follow in the NFL? College?

I'm a lifelong, diehard Detroit Lions fan.  I don't watch as much college ball, but am partial to the home state Spartans.

What's your stand on the recent NFL lockout (if you have one at all)? Greedy owners demanding more, overpaid players demanding more, or did both sides have some valid points in the argument?

The biggest thing for me was the impossibility of a year with no football.  It's such a big money-making machine, it was ludicrous to think they wouldn't eventually make a deal.  So both sides had valid points, and useless points too, but it was silly to wait until two days before training to settle things.  

Let's talk about Nocturnal, which is set for a hardcover release from Crown Publishing in 2012. I understand you're doing a complete rewrite of the book for this release. How/when was it released originally?
The new version is out April 3, 2012. It was originally released as a podcast that I recorded during the creation of the first draft. It was an experiment to see how listener feedback could help shape a story. As a small example, one of the main characters, Pookie Chang, was introduced to be cannon fodder after a few episodes. And the day after he was introduced, I received dozens of emails saying "you better not kill Pookie.” I was surprised to see how quickly people embrace that character and how quickly they saw right through my plan.

What's it like rewriting a work that's already been out there? What kinds of new things have you discovered about the story and the characters as you revisit them?

This has been the hardest book yet. I liken it to a cold chisel pressed against the base of my skull every day, fourteen hours a day for months on end, and there’s a dwarven warrior holding that chisel in his left hand and waving a hammer in his right. Make it good, or else!

The story was long and epic, and the characters were slow-building and sometimes overly broad.  The original draft was 225,000 words.  I had to essentially pull it all apart and pick out the threads that work in a thriller, more fast-paced, but with the fun and flashy parts of the original.  Plus, after three years as a full-time writer, I'm simply better at my job, so there's always tightening to do. 

You seem to keep a lot of irons in the fire, so I'll open it up now to you - what else is Scott Sigler working on that fans need to get ready for?

As you mentioned, Dark Øverlord Media is releasing the third book in the GFL series in early September in hardcover, ebook, and digital audiobook.  We're also working on the second ebook-only short story collection for release in time for Christmas. And with all our free time we're redesigning our website, working on a graphic novel, and still putting out the free, weekly podcasts over at scottsigler.com.

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