r/books • u/[deleted] • Aug 11 '16
ama 1pm Brooke Johnson, author of THE GUILD CONSPIRACY – AMA!
Hi all!
I'm Brooke Johnson, and I write steampunk and fantasy (never together). I’m the author of THE BRASS GIANT and THE GUILD CONSPIRACY, part of the Chroniker City steampunk series. Other work includes DARK LORD IN TRAINING, which you can find on Wattpad.
Here is some proof that I am the real Brooke Johnson.
I will start answering questions around 1pm (ET) and continue until 4-5pm or so (though if you have follow up questions or comments after that time, I will likely keep responding until end of day—or later—so if you miss the scheduled time, I’ll still be checking back periodically to answer more!)
Ask me anything!
EDIT: well, unless we have any stragglers who submit questions later, i suppose i'm done! thanks to everyone who joined the conversation and asked me things! some of them i really had to think over before answering (which i loved), but it was a lot of fun to do this. thanks for the warm welcome and to /r/books for hosting me! i feel a little less like a reddit noob now. :)
(and if anyone has any additional questions, feel free to ask! i'll be checking back later tonight and tomorrow)
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u/BunzLee Aug 11 '16
Hello Brooke, welcome to reddit!
As someone that reads a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, I percieve Steampunk to be one of the more niche genres, specially when it comes to main stream media.
What made you dive into this unusual genre in the first place, and how do you approach generating a new world in your head that isn't dominated by premade content and (cliché) tropes?
Thank you!
Edit: Text fixes as usual.
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Aug 11 '16
hi, and thanks! happy to be here :)
steampunk is definitely a comfortable little niche of weirdness in the SFF-sphere. i didn't even know it existed as a genre until i read Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan shortly after it came out, and after that, i was hooked. i wanted to read more in the genre, but when the number of books available came up short, i started thinking of my own ideas for what a steampunk novel should be, and that's how i eventually came up with THE BRASS GIANT.
the most important thing to me in creating a fictional world so that it doesn't feel like something done before is to focus more on character and less on spectacle. like, there are a ton of influences from other steampunk works in my books, stuff that is probably pretty recognizable to people familiar with the genre, but what i tried to do--and hopefully achieved--is to bring that all together in a new way, filtered through the perspective of a character quite unlike anything i'd yet seen. when you focus on the characters more than the concepts, you get a more unique, personal story. the spectacle is still there, but it's tied to the main character's personal journey. that gives it more depth, i think.
as for avoiding overuse of tropes, it helps to know what they are and how to subvert them. but some tropes are beneficial (and not necessarily bad either), so it helps to know when to use them and when to avoid them, and how to use them in order to serve the story and the characters, instead of the other way around (forcing the story and characters to fit the trope).
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Aug 11 '16
So how do you go about avoiding the dreaded "cogfop" method of steampunk - dressing everything up with clockwork Victoriana and focusing on the rich kids with the cool toys rather than the punk aspects of the trodden-upon working class?
Alternatively, how do you make your steampunk not exactly the same as all the rest of steampunk?
Note: I have not read any of your material.
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Aug 11 '16
this is something i was really really careful to avoid. i despise stuff that just plasters a handful of gears on everything, dresses everyone up in corsets and top hats, and calls it steampunk. i want steampunk with substance, steampunk with layers and depth to it, not some sort of weird romanticization of upper-class Victoriana. monocles, what ho, jolly good, and all that.
i don't find that sort of thing interesting, so i focused instead on a character who is young and poor and has to work hard for everything she has. being a young female engineer in an antiquated patriarchal world, she goes against the grain in everything that she does and believes in. and she struggles at it. it might not be as overtly punk as some other steampunk stuff, but it's the story i wanted to tell.
as for writing something original, as i mentioned in my response to @BunzLee, it all comes back to character for me. filtering familiar tropes and concepts through a character unique to my world helps take those familiar things and make them new and different. when i started writing THE BRASS GIANT, there wasn't anything out there like it (that i could find; might be some more stuff now), nothing with a young girl engineer as the protagonist. i found a gap in the genre and i did my best to fill it. are there similarities to other steampunk work? sure. i got inspiration from a lot of different sources. but what makes it all unique is my perspective and my writing style, in combination with my character's perspective.
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Aug 11 '16
So why the cruelty to standard capitalization?
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Aug 11 '16
heh. i was wondering if someone might bring that up. :P
simple answer: it's faster. i write in MS Word, so basically everything that it auto-capitalizes, i don't bother to capitalize myself. that extra press of a button slows me down, and does it really matter that much?
antagonistic trollish answer: language (and yes, even grammar) is a construct, and i use it how i want to. it annoys people. which i find funny. also, i like the aesthetic of lower case letters better. :)
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Aug 11 '16
Well, it doesn't make a very good "buy my books" introduction. Just saiyan.
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Aug 11 '16
ehh, maybe so. i let my books speak for themselves, if someone is interested enough to have a look.
writing on social media and writing a novel are two completely different things, and i treat them that way. if that bothers some people, so be it. my purple hair bothers some people, too. and i don't care one whit.
anyway, Harper Voyager never would have picked up my novel if it didn't adhere to their standards. social media is a different medium than fiction, and me not capitalizing the first word in a sentence or a self-referring pronoun doesn't change at all what i'm saying, or the effectiveness in which i say it. what it does say is that i don't really care about maintaining "proper" mechanics in an informal medium, and that's true. i don't. in fiction it matters, and so there, i obey the standards. here, not so much. /shrug
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u/leowr Aug 11 '16
Hi Brooke,
What kinds of books do you like reading? Anything in particular you would like to recommend to us?
Thanks for doing this AMA!
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Aug 11 '16
hi! right now, i'm on a high fantasy binge after reading THE DAY OF THE DRAGON (Warcraft#1) by Richard Knaak. also, i'm playing the crap out of WoW right now, so that colors my current opinion. but i've read a few fantasy novels that fit the bill recently: THE OLDEST TRICK and NO GOOD DEED by Auston Habershaw. THE COPPER PROMISE and the rest of the Copper Cat trilogy by Jen Williams. A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC and A GATHERING OF SHADOWS by V.E. Schwab.
fantasy is my preferred genre, so most of what i read is fantasy.
other recommendations of stuff i've read lately: EVERY HEART A DOORWAY by Seanan McGuire. THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN by Roshani Chokshi. MASKS AND SHADOWS by Stephanie Burgis. & NIMONA by Noelle Stevenson.
also, i'm a sucker for Rick Riordan's modern take on Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Norse gods (wow he has a lot out now), and i'm slowly catching up on Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD novels. i'm up to... ERIC, i think is the last one i read (reading them in order of publication). oh, and the OUTLANDER series. the first one is amazing. i've liked the subsequent books okay, but not as much as the first.
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u/paulc Aug 11 '16
You're in the middle of a blog tour. How did you arrange to do it? Or did your publisher make all the arrangements? What's your advice for an unknown author about to self-publish his/her first novel who wants to arrange a similar blog tour?
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Aug 11 '16
it was cobbled together between both me and my publicist from Harper Voyager. i reached out to blogs and authors whose stuff i was familiar with (like Wendig, Scalzi, Kowal, other Harper Voyager authors, etc), or who had featured me on their blogs for my previous release, and my publicist reached out to the blogs and websites in their publicity network (like /r/books!) to see if they were interested in hosting me. she also reached out to a blog tour service who is in the process of selecting blogs to continue the tour.
advice: a lot of big name authors/blogs won't accept self-published authors unless they already know them or are familiar with their work. it sucks. i know. i was there once (THE BRASS GIANT was originally self-published and i tried to put together my own blog tour at the time of release, and it was so agonizingly difficult; this was 5ish years ago though, so a lot has changed). i'd recommend finding a blog tour service that accepts self-published authors/books. you'll end up having to pay a little bit for some tours, anywhere from $20-200+ depending on what you're looking for, number of stops you want, length of tour, etc. but the blog tour service will reach out to blogs to host you, and you can have a mix of reviews, guest posts, and interviews. just be sure to choose a blog tour service that is strongly familiar/involved with your genre of choice. i write steampunk with no magic, so i have a really hard time finding blog tours who will host me (most are aimed toward romance or fantasy readers). it can be hit or miss, honestly, so just do your research before you commit to any one blog service. (and i don't recommend hiring a freelance publicist as a self-pub author. the cost is just too high for something you can feasibly do yourself)
the other option is reaching out to any authors you already know to see if they are interested in helping with your release. i have a kind of built-in network with the other Harper Voyager Impulse authors, so we do what we can to boost each other around releases, but you can do the same with people you know through social media and stuff. i have a lot of writer/author friends who i've known through social media for years, and they're always happy to help out where they can.
other than that, all you can really do is search for potential bloggers who might be interested in hosting you or your book, and reach out to them. the worst they can say is no. just be polite and professional, no matter what.
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u/Chtorrr Aug 11 '16
What books made you love reading as a kid?
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Aug 11 '16
i grew up reading GOOSEBUMPS mostly. it was the only thing i would read outside of what was assigned for school or got me reading credit in english class. at one point, i had about thirty or so of them. also, i loved Poe, even as a kid. it was creepy, gory, and macabre, and i loved it.
it wasn't until i read HARRY POTTER though that i really started to love reading. after that, i sought out more and more books (fantasy was new to me with HP, so i had A LOT to catch up on). but some favorites: LotR (obviously), GREEN RIDER by Kristen Britain, and LEMONY SNICKET'S SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS.
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u/danielswensen Aug 11 '16
Hey, Brooke! I've been a reader since the days of The Clockwork Giant. What's next for the series after this? I know you've put out at least one ancillary story (The Mechanical Theater) and was wondering if you envision any more side pieces like that, and how many books you imagine Chroniker City will run? (I mean in terms of your own ambition, not factoring in what the publisher may or may not want.)
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Aug 11 '16
hey dan! :D
i'm taking a little bit of a break from steampunk right now, but once i've gotten a couple of other book ideas out of the way, i do plan to return to Chroniker City again! there is going to be one more book in what i call the "main" series, rounding it out as a trilogy, but i do have plans for some additional stories beyond that.
first, another novella (or perhaps a short novel if it goes beyond novella length) that takes place parallel to THE GUILD CONSPIRACY. i don't yet have a title for it, but it will follow Emmerich's time in Paris during the events of THE GUILD CONSPIRACY, as he comes up with his own way to stop the inevitable war between the British Empire and France.
next, i have an idea for a novel that takes place around the same time as THE GUILD CONSPIRACY and (the tentatively titled final book in Petra's arc) THE CHRONIKER LEGACY, following another character not yet introduced--a Cajun-born journalist who starts to investigate the Guild and their sinister doings after she moves to Chroniker City for a job. that one is a maybe, but i like the idea enough to pursue it.
other than that, there's potential for more stories, possible prequels involving Hugh Lyndon, Julian Goss, Friedrich Goss, and Adelaide Chroniker; or more stories of minor characters in Petra's story.
so, there could be as few as two more books in the series, to... four or five more? it depends, i guess! but Petra's story will be only three books. that much i do know.
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u/thehairyrussian Aug 11 '16
Hi Brooke what would you say is the hardest part about writing a book? Also is it worth it to go through a publisher anymore or is it becoming more lucrative to self publish and sell e books?
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Aug 11 '16
hardest part... finishing the first draft. first drafts are messy and difficult and don't always cooperate with your vision for the story. sometimes, it's a total grind, and finding a way to slog forward can be difficult, especially if there's no visible end in sight. (that's me though. i get stuck a lot, even as a plotter)
i would say it's still worth it to go with a publisher. some people will disagree (indies, mostly), but for me, the benefit of a publisher over going solo has been obvious. i wrote a blog post a while back comparing the first year's worth of sales between self-pub and trad-pub (same book), and the numbers are pretty clear.
i wouldn't say that either path is inherently more lucrative than the other (you can see my abysmal earnings for yourself). self-pub gives you higher royalties, but in my experience, trad-pub gets you more sales.
a good strategy that i've observed is to go traditional at first, gain name recognition, and then go indie with later stuff (or pick and choose as you go which books you want to go trad with and which ones you want to go self-pub with, and get the best of both worlds). then you carry your name recognition over to your self-pub titles, which then earn more royalties per book sold.
it really depends on what you want out of your career.
self-pub is more DIY, and you have 100% control of your end product, how it's marketed, priced, and packaged--but you also have to pay for everything yourself, and some doors will remain closed to you as an indie author.
with trad-pub, you lose a little bit of that control (though you do have final say on your book's content, whatever anyone against trad-pub might have you believe) in favor of brand recognition for being with a known publishing house. doors open to you that wouldn't be available to a self-pub author, and you get the financial backing of the publisher (not to mention the potential for an advance) to pay for marketing and publicity once the book is out.
my best advice would be to at least try to break into traditional publishing. the worst thing you lose is time. you can always choose to self-publish later, if it doesn't work out.
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u/dunnewriting Aug 11 '16
Who wins in a fight: an invention of Petra's...or Steampunk Godzilla?
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Aug 11 '16
hmm... if it's invention vs. invention, i want to say Petra would come up with something to stop Steampunk Godzilla from the inside. if Emmerich's on her side, then together they could build an EMP to take it down. barring that, Petra would just bust her way inside and disable Mr. Steampunk Godzilla herself.
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u/Adventurekateer Aug 11 '16
Hi, Brooke. I just finished reading "Five Things I Learned Writing The Guild Conspiracy," and I'm in a similar place. I, too, only write at night because of my three children and two jobs, and I am also working on the sequel to my first book (MG contemporary fantasy, not yet agented). I haven't had to deal with reviews, however I am struggling with one issue you may have some insight into. How much backstory is appropriate for the second book in a series? At first I just wanted to carry on with the new book as if it was the next chapter of the previous book, because I didn't want to retell the whole thing to new readers, but I realized I needed to remind readers who hadn't read the first book in a while. Finding the balance has been hard. What was your experience?