About

fic·tive/?fiktiv/
Adjective: Creating or created by imagination: “the novel’s fictive universe“.

: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of fiction.

 

Welcome to my fictive universe! My name is Alan Petersen. In 2011, the success of self published author’s John Locke and Amanda Hocking inspired me to finally write the fiction book that had been stuck in my head for around five years. I took fingers to keyboard and started to write my book. I’ve been blogging on other subjects since 2006, so I decided to start blogging about the process of writing and self publishing fiction; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

My Book

I started writing my book in March of 2011. Although I had written and published several non-fiction “how-to” books, I hadn’t tried writing fiction in almost fifteen years. I had a few writing blocks to stumble through, but finally in January  2012, and 90,000+ words later, I finished my manuscript. I was pretty unsure of the next steps, I knew I didn’t want to rush into publishing it, so it would take me another 14 months before finally, in February of 2013, The Asset was published. During that time I hired two editors and two proofreaders. I cut out big chunks of prose, re-wrote, and edited until finally I had an 80,000+ word manuscript that ready to be published.

The Asset

The Asset went live in Amazon’s Kindle Marketplace on January 29, 2013. It was nerve-wracking. Writing is a solitary, personal endeavor. I control who reads what I’ve written. Once I hit the KDP publish button that control goes out the window. It’s out there for anyone to buy and read. Will they hate it? Will they think it’s okay? Will they love it? Only one way to find out.

The Asset has now been published for almost eight months (from the date of this post). Over 6,000 copies have been sold. 38 readers have left a review on Amazon. Some have hated it. Some have thought it was okay. And some have loved it. It’s been a surreal experienced and I’ve loved just about every moment of it.

What’s Next?

The feedback from The Asset and my protagonist, Pete Maddox, has been awesome, so I’m writing a Maddox series. I have two books in progress so far. I finished writing the second book “She’s Gone” over six months ago, but the re-writing process has taken a long time. I had beta readers this time around and their insight has helped me craft a better book. “She’s Gone” should be published by the end of 2013. I’m currently writing book number three in the Maddox series which I hope to publish in January 2014.

The Blog

This blog captures the ups and downs of writing and self-publishing fiction. I share milestones, tips, and advice (as written posts and videos). For example, I’m now in the production process of turning “The Asset” into an audiobook, so I’m blogging about that so you can have an ACX audiobook case study. If I can help aspiring writers become self published authors or help a writer from getting scammed, it makes this blog worthwhile. I do have some ads and affiliate links (read my affiliate disclosure here), but mostly this blog is to keep me in check with my writing career and to help other writers achieve their goals and dreams in the fictive universe.

My Blog Writing Style

When it comes to blogging, I try to write like I talk. I hire editors and proofreaders for my books, but not for this blog, so you’ve been warned. 🙂

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