Science Fiction for Thinkers

Michael Casher is an independent science fiction author whose six novels include The Evermore Trilogy. Each sci-fi thriller is part of his Science Fiction for Thinkers collection, published by Science Fiction for Thinkers.com using Print-on-Demand technology from Lulu.com.

Books by Michael Casher and Jonco Bugos are sold at Amazon.com, Blackwell.co.uk, Lulu.com and many other online bookstores worldwide. Ebooks of these written works are sold exclusively at Amazon.com's Kindle Store.

In 2008 Michael Casher wrote an eighth book that was completed and published in January 2009. "Blind Fool Running" is a literary novella written under the pen name Jonco Bugos. Because of this novella's metaphysical themes, he published this book as part of his Science Fiction for Thinkers collection, even though it is categorized as "Fiction and Literature".

In January 2010 Mr. Casher published a book of blogs under his own name entitled, "The Four Bloggers of the Apocalypse". The author is currently working on a ninth book under his real name, Michael Casher. This will be his seventh sci-fi thriller and another full-length novel.

In this Bio, Michael Casher responds to questions that he, in fact, asked himself over the past several years.

Why wasn't there a photo of you on this bio page for the first year?

I was hiding.

What is that supposed to mean?

It means that I don't look like a science fiction writer so I used to stay hidden. I look like a farmer, which is just fine with me, but I'm not a farmer. Sometimes I look like a handyman from the 1950s. Quite often I look like the old guy who sells you cracked corn down at the feed store. Actually, I look like all three. At one time I figured, Who would want to read a sci-fi novel written by someone who looks like this? But I don't care about any of that superficial stuff anymore.

Where were you born?

I was born in Philipsburg Hospital, Philipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania USA. But Snow Shoe Borough in Centre County was where my parents lived and that makes Snow Shoe my hometown.

What year were you born?

1951. Yes, there was electricity and television and even Kool-Aid.

Where do you live?

I currently live in Snow Shoe, PA. My hometown. I left town when I was 20 but returned when I was 49. (There is no accounting for taste or judgment). That was nine years ago. My, how time flies when you need to get a life.

What are your hobbies and interests?

Writing, reading, blogging, SETI@home, painting (fence posts, lawn furniture, "Keep Out" signs and things like that), bicycling (no serious stuff, I just jump on the Huffy and start pedalling), target shooting (not so much paper targets as things that splinter and/or fall over when hit), tying yellow ribbons on the tails of stray cats.

When did you start writing science fiction novels?

In 2002. I needed a break from the service industry where I was constantly being downsized. The advent of Windows 95 also had a lot to do with the spiraling demise of my service-industry career. I struggled a lot with DOS before Windows made its debut, barely keeping my head above water with green words and numbers on a black screen. Then along came Windows and chopped it off with a single stroke. Windows spawned multi-tasking which is a slick little service-industry term that was invented to mask the trendy practice of making employees do a lot more things each year for the same pay.

Why did you publish your own books?

So I could have control over their content, price and distribution. Another reason is so they would be published before the year 3000.

Why was Lulu.com once listed as the publisher of your books instead of you?

Because I decided to reformat my novels in 2008 so that Lulu.com could be the official publisher and distributor of my six science fiction thrillers.

Why did you do that?

I wanted to do whatever it took to get my novels listed by Nielsen Book Services, Bowker's Books In Print and Ingram Book Company so online booksellers like Amazon.com and regular bookstores like Barnes & Noble can sell them.

Why is your seventh book literary fiction instead of science fiction?

I wanted to see if I could write a literary novel in the first person, present tense. As the book reached novella length, I realized that the story was being told at novella length (17,500 to 39,999 words is the publishing industry's accepted range for a novella). Stretching it out to novel length would have done the story an injustice. As a novel, it would have been laborious and redundant for the reader. But, as a 31,000-word novella, it's a comfortable read.

Why did you use a pen name for this novella?

Because Michael Casher is "branded" as a science fiction novelist. Jonco Bugos, my alter ego, is not.

Will there be other literary novellas written by Jonco Bugos?

No doubt about it. When I'm not using the keyboard, Jonco will be keeping it warm for me.

Does that mean that Michael Casher will keep penning science fiction thrillers?

That's the plan. Some people live to eat, drink and shop. I live to write.

Your official website is "Science Fiction for Thinkers.com", which you simply call "Science Fiction for Thinkers". But that wasn't the original name, was it?

Nope. In 2004 my official website was called "michaelcasher.com" with the tagline "Science Fiction for Thinkers". Back then my "official website" was a free Yahoo personal page. I got my first domain (michaelcasher.com) from Yahoo. I had to start somewhere and I knew nothing about building a web page. That tagline matched the Lulu store I opened in 2004 called "Science Fiction for Thinkers".  In 2005 I moved michaelcasher.com to Freewebs.com, which is now Webs.com.

In April 2007 I changed the name of my official website to "Science Fiction for Thinkers" at the Internet address of "sciencefictionforthinkers.com". My tagline became "Your world may never look the same." The dot com is the web address, the name of the site is Science Fiction for Thinkers. Just like when you're at Sears.com. You're shopping at Sears.com but you're buying from Sears.

At the end of 2009 I moved the tag line to another spot on my Home Page and replaced it with a website description that reads, "The official website of science fiction author Michael Casher..." I  also updated the name of my Lulu store in 2009 to "Science Fiction for Thinkers...at Lulu" to keep them separate in the search engines as different websites altogether. My official signature has always been "Fiction is real life without its mask."

It's all a matter of semantics. I am Michael Casher. As an author, my books have always been a collection that I called Science Fiction for Thinkers. My first Internet domain was michaelcasher.com, which was about me and my books. Now my official Internet domain is sciencefictionforthinkers.com, which is all about me and my books.

Science Fiction for Thinkers = sciencefictionforthinkers.com = michaelcasher.com = Michael Casher. We're inseparable. It's not duplicity. It's all about "branding". I branded myself with an official worldwide presence. The steps and the time it took me to achieve that brand I chalked up to experience and personal evolution. Just like a shark, a writer must constantly move forward or die.

I see. So, do you write anything besides novels?

I write nine blogs altogether under several different names and one monthly newsletter, mostly for therapy. This iincludes my Windows Live Space blog which is basically a marketing tool designed to make people comfortable enough with my humanity that they might just take an interest in my science fiction.

My first blog was "Thinker's Corner", which I started writing in May 2005. I figured blogging would be a better outlet for disappointment, frustration and bewilderment than running naked through the back yard and screaming, "Why me? Why me?"

I also believed back then that my blogs would eventually generate some interest in my books. But that doesn't seem to be the case. So, I'm not really as enthusiastic a blogger as I used to be but I still blog. Just not as often. Maintaining a blog can be a real pain-in-the-ass. The only blog I really enjoy writing is Think-A-Holic Lounge.

Writing is a "learn-as-you-go" experience, just like real life.

Why did you join "Amazon Connect" in February 2009 as an author?

I figured Amazon would be selling more of my books than anybody else so I wanted to have the best exposure there that I could have. I also wanted to be available to readers, potential readers and Amazon.com customers who might want to know more about me and my books. But Amazon scrapped "Amazon Connect" in May 2009 and began a new program called "Author Central".

Did you join Author Central?

I didn't want to, at first, because I knew I'd have to re-establish my presence at Amazon.com all over again. And that reminded me of what General George Patton said about retreating, which is how I feel about jumping through another hoop just to wind up in the same spot. He said, "I don't like paying for the same real estate twice." For General Patton, American lives were at stake. But, for me, it's just another hoop in the author-and-pony show that everyone seems to love so much, so I figured what the hell.

So, if you didn't pen your first novel until you were 50 years old, what were you doing before that?

Research. Some people would just call it "living" but I've never really just lived my life. I gathered data as I went.

Would you ever want to be published by a traditional publisher?

It all depends on what kind of a deal a traditional publisher might offer me. If the deal is that I let them cut, trim and dilute my novels to fit an overused and worn-out marketing cookie cutter, then I'd definitely opt out, no matter how much money was involved. The biggest benefit of writing and publishing your own work is that you don't have to write only what the researched genre market will bear. You write what you have a mind to write.

In fact, between 2002 and 2004, I queried a total of 47 literary agents and 45 publishers, all of whom rejected me and my particular brand of science fiction without even taking a look at my manuscripts. So I did give the traditional publishing "community" the first option to publish my first three books but they turned a blind eye on me and never looked back. Mostly because I'm not a market-driven author (the biggest strike against me) and, secondly, because I don't write decadent trash and copycat junk (the second strike against me). Strike three was when I self-published my own books. But I might consider giving them a second chance. On my terms, of course.

You might be inclined to think that I write what I want to write and then try to shape a market around that. But that's not really the case. A market for the kind of crossover, non-traditional science fiction I write has always existed. The traditional publishing "community", which is controlled by six major global-media conglomerates, five of which have headquarters in New York City, just pretends that it doesn't exist because they haven't tapped it yet. But I have. That's what I do.

Will you be self-publishing your own books again in the future?

I'd rather be vivisected by extraterrestrials. But, in February 2010, Science Fiction for Thinkers.com became the official publisher of all my printed books, using Print-on-Demand technology from Lulu.com. In October 2009 Science Fiction for Thinkers.com became the official publisher of all my ebooks which were published exclusively for Amazon's Kindle Store.

Are you excited about having your books published by your own domain?

Uh...that excites me about as much as watching a fly buzz around a hot turd. But, then, experience has shown me that it's always better to get all excited over a little thing than to not be excited about anything at all.

Well, if you hadn't decided to publish your own books under Science Fiction for Thinkers.com and Lulu.com is no longer the publisher what would you and Jonco Bugos have done after each of you had completed another book?

We'd probably resort to doing what we did for the first few years. Put the manuscripts in boxes and stack them on the floor.

What good would that do?

Well, since neither of us writes traditional, copycat, genre fiction, our chances of being published by a traditional publishing house is about as slim as either one of us winning the Powerball jackpot twice in a row. And since the writing room we share is small and cramped, we could use the stacks of boxed manuscripts to build cubicles that would allow each of us our own, personal breathing space. If there are any boxed manuscripts left over, we could seal them in concrete and add on to the garage.

So, with a Kafkaesque future like that staring us in the face, we decided to let Science Fiction for Thinkers.com be our new publisher.

I see. Then, would you recommend self-publishing to anyone else?

It would be much kinder of me to suggest a coffee enema followed by a ten-mile hike. Lulu.com is a monolithic, cybernetic organism without a brain, spinning a customer service spider web that can trap and kill an unsuspecting author. Self-publishing my eight books at Lulu.com was not only a nightmare for me but the proverbial kiss of death.

I already rue the day that I first self-published through Lulu.com, which is run by a bunch of smart aleck kids who think they know it all just because they possess certain technical skills. If you are a Lulu author who has a problem with distribution (or anything else), they treat you like vermin. It's too late for me. I've already got the tainted Lulu brand all over me. But I can help other unsuspecting authors from becoming desperate suckers by simply not recommending Lulu at all.

When the American publishing industry in Bad Apple City rejects you because you're not represented by a literary agent, or because you don't write market-driven garbage that has no socially-redeeming value even though you know it will sell like hell nonetheless and you know damn well that you're a good author, publish your books through Amazon.com Create Space and skip the middleman altogether.

Or, better yet, publish them through a small press somewhere (even a struggling POD press) that's run by good people struggling against the big publishing tyrants. And, yeah, the big boys are the world's publishing tyrants and they sell a lot of cookie-cutter junk, filth and decadence, like dragon-slaying fantasies and vampire erotica posing as science fiction. What crap. What gall! Dastardly deeds that writers, agents and publishers commit without conscience just to be on top and to make money.

If anyone bothered to read my fiction, they'd soon realize that my science fiction is hard sci-fi, thematically unique and that it offers adventure, humor and even romance. What I dislike is being ignored because I don't write the kind of crude, stamped-out sensationalism that the television and movie industries and the Internet try hard as hell to sell us. But no one ever took a look at my work and now I've been labeled as an "indie author". To much of the reading public that means "not a real author".

Well, screw that. I'll stand my science fiction up against any of the bestselling sci-fi authors and feel better about myself in the process. I'd even match my writing with some of the best science fiction authors in history. That's right, because, like them, I create, not copy. Besides, I hate labels. Life's too short (in some cases too long) to be stuck in a independent author pigeon hole and never let out.

So that's my simple advice about self-publishing.

Wow. OK, then. So, on a lighter note, is writing what you want to write and then finding your own following a big deal for you?

It's a very big deal for me. I have no desire to be a writer on anyone's payroll but my own or to write the kind of market-driven, sensationalist, copycat stuff the world had been duped into reading.

In 2009 and 2010 your official website, Science Fiction for Thinkers.com, published digital editions of all eight of your books for Amazon's Kindle Store. Why did you publish Kindle Editions of all your books?

It's not so much a question of "Why?" as "Why not?". When I published Kindle Editions in the fall of 2009, there were only about 360,000 books in Amazon's Kindle Store, as compared to the millions of paperback and hardcover books in the regular Amazon bookstore. So, I wanted to get in on a good thing before everybody else jumped on that bandwagon. Besides, Amazon was the pioneer in wireless reading devices and I felt honored that they approved all my digital text manuscripts.

Sales are slow right now, but maybe they'll pick up. The Kindle Editions I published are a fraction of the cost of the trade paperbacks. And the paperback prices were very affordable for U.S. Trade Paperback books, despite the fact that I had to agree to  a very significant price hike between the original Lulu Marketplace price for my trade paperbacks (the price of a printed book sold through Lulu.com before Amazon hikes it way up for their website and their distribution channels) and the resulting retail price for Amazon distribution. Once Amazon.com gets your printed book, the Lulu Marketplace price must be the same base price in order to compete fairly with the other booksellers in the Amazon network. In comparison, the Kindle Editions of my books are a real deal, even for e-books.

Lulu makes the least profit off my books and Amazon.com, the real winner in this self-publishing game, makes the most. My own profits are somewhere in the middle. By the way, I make a lot more money when people buy my printed books directly from Lulu.com and that's because Lulu is not really in the self-publishing business for big profits from book sales. Helping authors get published and noticed is their goal. You've got to give Lulu credit for that. By the same token, Lulu poses as a free Print-on-Demand technology service but not much is free there. If you want your books to be sold anywhere else besides Lulu.com (and who buys books from Lulu?), or  you want them in the Amazon distribution channels, then you pay for that. In proof copies, pricey distribution packages, editorial services, cover art services and the list goes on. This is how Lulu makes its real money.

By the way, for those who don't know, a U.S. Trade Paperback is a 6 in. by 9 in. softcover, which is the same size as a hardback (hardcover) book but with a paperback cover.

And have you made a good living, then, as a self-published author?

You've got to be kidding. I wrote my first novel in 2002. After being rejected by the  money-driven American publishing industry for two years, I finally self-published my first book in 2004. That was six years ago. Until March 3, 2010 I didn't see a single dime in royalties. Not one penny. And I'd written and published eight books in that time frame.

Then, after all that time, I finally received $12.25 from Amazon on March 3, 2010 for sales of my Kindle Editions during the last quarter of 2009. Whippy do! That's the fiscal reality of self-publishing for many authors. But I am eternally hopeful. Talk about desperation.

What are the three biggest reasons you chose to be a science fiction author?

Yeah, I'm all booked up. Unfortunately, most of my upcoming public appearances will be in local supermarkets and hardware stores as a customer.

What tips or advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

Go fishing instead.