Anderson O’Donnell specializes in dystopian fiction and constantly feeds his healthy addiction to the art of writing.  Anderson talks about making the most of social media and going beyond its superficial uses to enhance his marketing efforts.

1. Pretend for a moment I’m a reader looking for my next book.  Pitch me your book in five to ten sentences.

Kingdom is a thrill-a-minute, bio-punk myth that manages to wrestle with the most pressing issues of the new millennium.  It’s a novel of tomorrow night, when the big party gets raided by the monsters we’ve been building for the last half-century.  Hip and hellish, wild and weird, Tiber City is the dystopian megalopolis into which we will all soon move—whether we know it or not.  Toss William Gibson, Andrew Vachss and David Fincher into the petri dish, irradiate them, then infuse the result with Transylvanian meth, and you’ll have some sense of what the reader can expect.

2. What motivated you to become an indie writer?

Frustration with how risk-adverse the traditional publishing industry has become.  I get it: sales margins are razor thin, and the natural inclination, in any industry, is to reduce risk.  But for the writing and publishing industry, risk reduction means going all in on books by a recognizable brand name—Snookie, for instance.  I mean, that’s their answer…Snookie.  But like I said, I can’t blame them.

3. Have you been traditionally published?  Why or why not?

No, I haven’t been traditionally published, but not for lack of effort.  I sent out query letters to a number of agents and publishing houses, and while Kingdom attracted some interest, nothing panned out.  But I received good feedback from a few other traditionally published authors, enough so I decided not to stick the project in the desk drawer.  I believe in Kingdom; and I think readers are going to respond to the world I’ve created.

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