Interview With Author Nick Pollotta
Nick Pollotta is a prolific professional novelist with over 70 published books, and plenty more to come. He writes SF and Fantasy/Humor under his own name, but he also writes SF/Humor as Jack Hopkins, SF/Military as (one of the many) James Axler. and Military/Thrillers as Don Pendelton. Nick was kind enough to take a little time and answer a few questions for Solar Flare.
Nick has some interesting things to say not only about his own books but about the state of the publishing industry and the process of professional writing:
Q) You’ve written books in a wide range of genre and styles. Do you have a personal preference? Is there a particular style that you keep coming back to?
A) Absolutely, I prefer the freedom of SF, and I especially like comedy. Or rather, Action/Adventure Comedy. Blowing things up on paper is fun, and don’t like anybody tell you different.
You can also explore unique characters and situations in SF that would never arise in a mainstream novel. Aliens from the stars land on an isolated farm. They’re super-intelligent vegetables and want to free the enslaved rutabagas! However, the poor farmer is deep in debt and this one crop is his only chance for a better life. Thus begins between the two a deadly, but ridiculous, war over the rutabagas! Or a senile Van Heilsing has become a bumbling locksmith tracking down imaginary ‘vampire doorknobs’ which he kills by hammering toothpicks into the keyholes. That can be both tender, and goofy. There were no limits in SF and F. Anything goes.
Q) In the books written under your name you are best known for humorous writing. Which writers of humor have inspired you?
A) Oh, lots of them. Bennett Cerf, Steve Allen, Jean Shepherd, Leonard Wibberly, Robert Asprin, Keith Laumer, Henry Kutner - his “Robots Have No Tails” is a classic of SF humor. But first and foremost, Harry Harrison.
Q) As a professional writer you have written books based on pre-existing worlds (or games in the case of Bureau 13). Do you find the restrictions that come with this sort of writing frustrating or do you enjoy the challenge that it creates?
A) Actually, a little of both. In the Deathlands series of novels, I can’t really change anything, just like a writer on a TV show. They can’t have Frasier lose a leg in one episode, no matter how funny it is. 
So a writer concentrates on refining the characters. In Deathlands, there is a time traveler from 1880 Vermont, now living in the 21st Century nuclear hellgrounds. He carries an old-fashioned black powder weapon (a .44 LeMat for all the gunbunnies out there). The guidelines for the series never gave a reason he carried such an oddball weapon, when he could easily update to a modern day revolver, or even a machine gun like all of his companions. So I wrote that he considered the gun a direct, physical link to his past. The antique actually came from 1880. To him, it was a part of home and his beloved wife, dead nowadays, but still alive in the distant past. He carries the gun as a solemn promise to someday get back to her. That changes nothing in the universe, but now the character had much greater depth.
On the other hand, running amuck in the Bureau 13 universe where crystal balls have fuses, and the Frankenstein monster has gotten so much plastic surgery that now he’s a Hollywood movie star, is a lot more fun.
Q) The most common advice that published authors give new authors is “Don’t give up the day job” or words to that effect. Nevertheless you have made a living from writing. What does it take to earn a living as a writer without getting lucky with that “magical” blockbuster novel?
A) Hard work, hard, hard work, and then some more hard work. For a couple of years I wrote ten hours a day, all year long. Didn’t go out on dates, stopped watching television, didn’t go see movies. I just worked. After a while, the word spread that I never missed a deadline, and wrote clean. (my work needed little proofreading, and I always got my facts straight) That counts for a lot in this line of work because it makes the editor’s job that much easier. Basically, I considered writing to be Show Business. Half show (the art) and half business. You have to keep them perfectly balanced or else down you go in flames. Concentrate on just the art, and you won’t sell anything. Concentrate on just the business, and your books will be crappy. It must maintain the delicate balance of fifty/fifty.
Also, keep all of your receipts. There is a standing joke in the writing business: Why don’t authors use whores? Answer: because they don’t give receipts.
A visit to H&R Block once a year can save you thousands of dollars. (and as an author, you are considered self-employed and will pay killer taxes) As soon as possible, get incorporated, and pay yourself a salary. You’ll save a fortune.
Oh yes, and don’t give up your day job until you’re making so much you need an accountant. 
Q) On your website I notice that you have tips for bookstore signings and dramatic readings. You also list convention you will be attending. A lot of new authors think that its all about writing the book and the rest will take care of itself. How important is, for lack of a better phrase, “self promotion” to success as an author?
A) Promotion is vital. Even Stephen King has a web site and goes to book signings. And unless you have gobs of money to buy advertising on television, you have to be very clever. (but then, if you’re not fiendishly clever, then what in hell are you doing trying to become an author?)
The trick is not to waste your time and precious money doing promotions where they will not help your career/sales. Example: always talk nice to your publisher (especially the Art Director), and get as many copies of your new book as possible. Then send out review copies, but (and gang this is a major freaking ‘but’) send them out using the return address of your publisher, and on their stationery. (also with a non-removable sticker that says ‘REVIEW’ copy). Many newspapers will not review a book sent in by the author, but will review the exact same book if it was sent in by the publisher.
Ah ha! So, pretend to be the publisher. (just don’t use their actual name on the cover letter, or claim this is the greatest book ever, etc., etc.) Be sensible. Be polite. Always be polite. As Ben Franklin liked to say, “Keep your words soft and sweet, in case you have to eat them.”
Promote hard, but keep clean. No spamming! If your book is any good at all, people will notice.
Oh yes, and the minute your first book has been purchased (yeah!), immediately start on your next book. Keep up the momentum.
Q) Lately the fantasy market has been almost entirely dominated by a handful of giant never ending series. There’s been a similar reduction in the science fiction “mid-list” from the big print publishers. Big Name authors can still rely on getting their books published, but it seems to be getting harder for everyone else. Are new publishers stepping up to publish these authors or is there less variety getting published these days?
A) Sadly, Big Name authors can’t rely upon getting new contracts. The international corporations that own most of the publishing industry these days have zero tolerance. One bad book can mean the end to a long and otherwise flourishing career. One German CEO (whose name has been tactfully withheld) asks, “How many little white bricks have we sold this month?” That’s what he considers books, little white bricks, as interchangeable as cans of soup. To him, Isaac Asimov is identical to Travis Tea. The big corporations do not want variety, or quality. They only want every book to be a best seller. Obviously, so do we authors, but that’s flatly impossible. Thus we have the current state of literary dichotomy in the world.
Happily there are some independent book publishers out there, and yes, more are swelling on the horizon. Hope is on the way!
Q) A number of your books have been released via Fictionwise in ebook format. Do you see electronic publication as the future of book publishing or will it always be a niche market?
A) Even with the coming advent of e-paper, and such, I do not think that ebooks will ever achieve a dominance in the field. Part of buying a book is that you physically own the damn thing. People like that. It’s hardwired into our genes. We like to touch things. The walls of my home are covered in books just because I like their look and smell. Ah, there’s nothing like that old-bookstore smell. Lovely!
Also, physical books are cheaper, and last longer than ebooks. There are no batteries to replace, no software to update. That hardback book will be readable for the next century, maybe more. Whether or not your great-great-grand kids will understand why “Harry Potter Goes To Hawaii” was popular is another matter entirely.
Q) Several books in the Deathlands series have been released in audioformat. Have you listened to them and if so how well do you feel they have translated to the audio format?
A) I heard most of them, and like most of them. Although, to be completely honest, I’ve only listened to my own books “Gemini Rising” trilogy and “Savage Armada” trilogy are perfect. Sadly, I can not recommend “Zero City” (which until now was my favorite Deathlands novels), because for some unfathomable reason they changed the ending. Tre’s bizarre.
But the production quality on all of the books is top notch. Instead of just one person simply reading the book aloud, there is a central Narrator, along with a dozen other people doing character voices for the dialogue. There’s incidental music, dramatic, spooky, erotic, whatever is needed, and full sound effects. The wailing cries they created for some of the radioactive mutants and energy weapons have been very inventive. Good stuff. ‘Nuff said.
Q) You have several books scheduled for release in the next couple of years. Please tell our readers about your upcoming books.
A) Oh, goody, the time for some blatant advertising! Let’s see, “Damned Nation” will be out in an early June from Wildside Press. It’s a Dark Fantasy/Comedy (yes, that’s what I said) set in the early days of the American Civil War.
I have two more Deathlands novels coming out this year, “Bloodfire” and “Shatterzone” (please note that these are gritty tales of bloody combat intended for Mature Audiences Only.) , in October will be a new Stony Man novel, “SkyHammer”, and the newly revised “Bureau 13 Sourcebook” for role-payers will be released in November.
Sample chapters from several of my books, more sage writing advice, and other assorted cool things, plus some silliness, can be found on my humble web page www.NickPollotta.com See you there.
Thanks Nick! We really only scratched the surface of Nick’s writing career so let me just urge everyone to pop on over to his website and sample a little more of Nick’s writing.
Also if the mention of audio versions of the Deathlands books are of interest to you head to CuttingAudio.com where you can sample and perhaps purchase the audiobooks.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
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