I am happy to present my interview with Phil Tucker, author of the Chronicles of the Black Gate series. The first book, The Path of Flames, was a finalist in Mark Lawrence’s 2016 Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off. He launched a Kickstarter today for the first book in a new LitRPG trilogy, and I am a happy backer. I also received an ARC of Death March and will be releasing a review of it a little later today.
The Interview
MBS: When did you transition from the “day job” into being a full time writer?
Phil: I started writing full time in January 2017
MBS: That first morning after you left your day job what were you thinking or feeling?
Phil: Well, for about 6 months after moving up to North Carolina I continued to work for Florida International University in a remote position. But shortly after moving up they hired a new dean, and he was like, ‘why’s my marketing guy in NC?’. So the writing was on the wall, and I knew the position was going to come to a close. He talked to me and told me that if I wanted to stay in the position that I would need to move back to Florida or they would need to open the position to someone else. At that time I was making more with my book sales than with my job so it was a natural transition to move to writing full time. Everything just fell into place so it was a pretty smooth transition. But it’s been great
MBS: How did you first hear about the LitRPG genre.
Phil: I think the genre has been around for several decades though it wasn’t called LitRPG. I remember reading The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg in the early 90’s where a group of gamers were transported into their D&D campaign. I haven’t played a lot of MMO’s but I’ve been playing table-top games since 8th grade. In fact, I still play D&D with a group of high school friends via Google Hangout. But when I saw these LitRPG books popping up on Amazon I got excited. Gaming and writing have always been separate things for me, but suddenly it looked like there was a hungry market for those kind of books. I read Awaken Online, Ascend Online, Dungeon Master and more and they were just these fun books and I felt intrigued and thought it would be interesting to write my own story in the genre.
MBS: You mentioned on your Kickstarter that you are launching May 1st that you have your LitRPG trilogy already written, with the first book to be published in August. What’s the plan on publishing the other two?
Phil: The plan right now is to publish them a month apart from each other. So the second book would be released a month after first and then the third a month after the second so they should all be out this year.
MBS: Do you plan on having a Kickstarter for the second and third books as well?
Phil: It really just depends. Right now I am really focused on making the Kickstarter for book one a success. I could see doing a Kickstarter for an omnibus collection of the whole series. It really just depends on how this first one goes and what my readers ask for.
MBS: What are you currently working on and what’s in the works for the future?
Phil: After Chronicles ended I started working on finishing the Godsblood trilogy and this LitRPG series which are short, fun books. Kind of palate cleansers. Once Godsblood 3 is done, I plan on starting another big epic fantasy, as long as I can remember how.
MBS: When Chronicles started getting big and you started advancing in the ranks in the self-published fantasy blog off were you contacted by traditional publishers interested in your book?
Phil: I was contacted, and entered talks with a traditional publisher who was interested in the Chronicles, but I ended up backing out. Not from a lack of enthusiasm, but they couldn’t maintain the publication pace that I wanted with the books in the series I had left and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice the momentum I’d built up to get traditionally published. Traditional publishers, with a lot of their clients like Mark Lawrence or whoever have a name recognition that allows them to release books at a slower pace than I was comfortable with. When you’re just starting out as I was I feel that it’s important to get your books out there so that people don’t forget you.
I’m not against being traditionally published but I am also not gunning exclusively to work with a traditional publisher. Instead I’m simply focused on doing what’s best for my career and I would be willing to go the traditional route if it made sense at the time.
MBS: Technology nowadays allows writers to find editors, find a cover artist, and publish their books themselves. What do you think the future holds for traditional publishing houses?
Phil: Traditional publishers are always going to be around but their role will change. I see them becoming more streamlined, more responsive to the market, more flexible with their marketing and release schedules. Many indie authors aren’t huge fans of the business side of being self-published, and will always want to work with a professional team that can handle the marketing, editing, cover art and so forth.
But I do think they will need to evolve to remain competitive and that right now they are a little behind the curve. I think traditional publishers will approach indie authors with increasing frequency, giving rise to ever more hybrid authors. They might need to change their business model, such as ditching the $500,000 monthly rent for office space in NYC. While the change might be painful I think it will be necessary and consequently they’ll be able to remain in the game.
MBS: Then there was some closing conversation stuff but if I told you (the audience) what was discussed…lets just say it wouldn’t end well…for you. Buhahahhaahahahahahaha…ahem (cough)
All around it was great talking with Phil, and I hope you remember to check out the Kickstarter for Death March! And my review of it a little later today.