J.D.Barker Guest Post!

I'm very excited to bring you a guest post from J.D.Barker for my stop on the #4MK Blog Tour today! Thank you so much to J.D.Barker for taking the time to write the post. I hope you all enjoy it!

The difference between the writing and publication of Forsaken and of The Fourth Monkey.

Oh, this was night and day. When Stephen King read my first novel, Forsaken, and granted me permission to use some of his characters from Needful Things, I figured the submission process would be a piece of cake. It was anything but. I sent query letters off to more than 200 agents and couldn’t get a single response. I submitted to some publishers directly and although I received offers to publish, the advance numbers just didn’t make sense. Ultimately, I decided to indie publish the book and hope that I could use it to draw the attention of the larger publishers and agents down the road. I knew if I indie published though, I’d have to put out a product that could compete with traditionally published books. I couldn’t just upload it to Amazon and hit GO. So I hired the best editors, cover designers, and publicists. I released the book on 11/14/2014 as a hardcover, softcover, and audiobook, and followed this with a mass-market paperback. Then the real work began with marketing. Ultimately, the book sold well and more than a little bit of that was timing, luck, and more luck.
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When it came time to publish The Fourth Monkey, I fully expected to indie publish it like the first book. Financially I did well and once I got used to the added workload, I didn’t mind it much. It seemed like a fair trade for the control I was able to retain. My wife (who is way smarter than me) told me I should send the book out to agents, give it a few months, and if I don’t get anywhere, go ahead and indie publish again, so that’s what I did. On February 11, 2016, I sent query letters out to 53 agents for The Fourth Monkey. Within a week, I had eleven requests to read the book and eight offers of representation. I didn’t expect this at all. The publication process went just as fast with film and TV rights selling before the book.

Expectations on my third book (a prequel to Dracula) are even higher than The Fourth Monkey. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I welcome the pressure to top the previous success, it keeps me motivated. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I take a step back and remind myself - I make a living making shit up. It’s as fun as it sounds, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Once again, thank you so much to J.D.Barker for my very first guest post!

​(Here's a link to my review for #4MK in case you'd like to read it! http://www.mistimoobookreview.co.uk/home/the-fourth-monkey-by-jdbarker )

​Brilliant. Complicated. Psychopath.
That’s the Four Monkey Killer or ‘4MK’. A murderer with a twisted vision and absolutely no mercy. Detective Sam Porter has hunted him for five long years, the recipient of box after box of grisly trinkets carved from the bodies of 4MK’s victims. But now Porter has learnt the killer’s twisted history and is racing to do the seemingly impossible – find 4MK’s latest victim before it’s too late…

With echoes of the films Se7en and Silence of the Lambs, THE FOURTH MONKEY is a rollercoaster-paced reading experience which will have you white-knuckling the pages at every heart-pounding twist and turn.


About J.D Barker:
J.D. Barker is the international best-selling author of Forsaken, a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Debut Novel. A strong emerging voice in the horror and crime world, J.D. Barker will be setting the bar high for a new wave of serial killer thrillers with #4MK.