Author Archive: Eric San Juan
Eric San Juan
April 24, 2009
People have the impression that writing a book = making money. That by writing a book you’ll suddenly be rolling in dough. Advances! Royalties! Cash! But it just doesn’t work like that. Not only is this an absurd notion for a little book like mine — I’ll be happy if it covers the expenses we incurred while writing it — it doesn’t even hold true for New York Times bestsellers, as author Lynn Viehl outlines in this blog post. Her bottom line is simple: Despite a $50,000 advance, selling about 73,000 copies and hitting #19 on the New York Times bestsellers list, you’d make more money stocking shelves at the local supermarket than she did on book sales for this book. It’s important to know…
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Eric San Juan
April 23, 2009
I think I’m close to ready to begin pitching my next book. This one is a middle grade adventure novel in the spirit of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. You might remember them from when you were a kid. Earlier this week I finished the umpteenth or so draft of my query letter (I talk more about queries here), and last night I think I nailed down a pretty solid synopsis. They’re both essential ingredients in getting the attention of an agent. Nailing them is vital. Of course, the best query in the world doesn’t mean squat if your book has glaring flaws. That means I have to give the first three chapters one last pass to ensure I’m not missing something that will trip up…
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Eric San Juan
April 22, 2009
Here is another bit o’ preview art from my upcoming comics anthology. The work is by Artist Unnamed and is for an adaptation of a short story I wrote called The Last Shot. It is, obviously, a western. These are early pencils. Enjoy.
Eric San Juan
April 21, 2009
As mentioned in a previous post, I recently had the chance to do some video game reviews for Havoc PC. The last of my initial three reviews is live. Take a look if you’re so inclined. Here’s a preview: Halo Wars Despite there being just one on the Xbox 360 console and only three previous games in the series overall, the Halo franchise is a juggernaut of epic proportions, the kind of money-maker video game execs would sell their children to have. The Halo brand is a record breaker. A system seller. A guaranteed payday. So it comes as no surprise that we’re beginning to see the start of what will presumably be a whole roster of games expanding on the Halo universe — and…
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Eric San Juan
April 20, 2009
I’m used to seeing my byline. Over the last 10 years it has appeared on thousands of news stories, photo credits, film reviews, and various other pieces of writing. At this point it’s really no big deal. Just part of the job. Still, it’s odd to see yourself listed at Goodreads.com. Hell, the book is even listed on Living Social, that Facebook app people have been using for top 5 lists. So that’s pretty neat. Two other quick side notes: 1) You can see four preview pages from a comic I’m doing with artist Rick Lundeen in this gallery. His work is great, isn’t it? 2) And I’m honored to have had a quote pulled from my review of 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America…
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