John Pulver: 13th Annual Self-Published E-book Awards Winner
Mystery author John Pulver discusses writing with a co-author, how he began his daily writing practice, and the biggest challenge he faces in self-publishing.
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It’s 1987, and once-famous rockstar Glenda Birdsong is making a comeback. Or, at least she’s making a comeback album—until her sleezy manager has to go and steal her best song before turning up dead.
Thus begins the fun, pulpy mystery ride that is Hollywood Bodies, brainchild of co-authors John Pulver and Robert Jablon (publishing together under the penname JR Waterbear) and winner of the Writer’s Digest 13th Annual Self-Published E-Book Awards. This grand-prize win netted Pulver and Jablon a prize package of $5,000, a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, and more.
“It’s fascinating to me, the challenge of [writing mystery],” Pulver says, “because a character will take you in one direction, and it’ll present a new problem. And then you have all these different possibilities of moving around that problem. But you want to do it from inside, how the character would really address that problem and what their reaction would be. It takes you in different directions than you plan. You may have an end point that you’re shooting for, but getting there is really an exploration in itself. That’s really a fun part of the mystery. It’s very challenging at times. It’s very hard to come up with what would be believable and realistic, but at the same time will offer surprises. So, it’s a lot of fun writing the mystery.”
Part of the pleasure of Hollywood Bodies is that it doesn’t neatly fit into one category. But that made it hard as a writer to find a place in traditional publishing. Pulver says, “I went to the [Writer’s Digest] conference in Manhattan back in 2019, and I met with agents there and talked about it. But this particular book doesn’t really fit a category well; it’s not a dark mystery and doesn’t fit into cozy. Also, there’s a romance involved, and there’s comedy. So, I didn’t feel in talking to the agents that they could place it in a particular category.”
The fun didn’t just come from the mystery but from the writing partner. “This one I wrote with my co-author, Robert Jablon. We had started writing together accidentally when we were in a diner one time,” Pulver says. “There was this group of bikers. We wrote our first book just about them as a comedy. And then we sat down and said, ‘What do we want to write next?’ I loved Hollywood in the ’80s; it was a crazy period. We took some of his relatives and people we knew, and we just started crafting a story about it. It was just something we thought would be fun for readers to explore.”
This excitement and curiosity lead Pulver and Jablon to create some memorable characters in Hollywood Bodies. When it comes to crafting, Pulver says, “I think what we like to do is show the characters’ vulnerabilities and their strengths so that they become an embodiment of a real person. I mean, they’re not real people, but they feel real, and they have weaknesses and strengths that sometimes make their journey more difficult. And other times, they’re able to solve things better than other people.”
Self-publishing gave Pulver and Jablon the freedom to reposition the novel the way they wanted but came with added challenges that every self-published author will come up against. “The marketing is by far the hardest [part]; I still don’t really have a handle on that. Other parts of it were challenging. For instance, for Hollywood Bodies, we used a professional illustrator, but he mainly worked in science fiction. So, we had a lot of back and forth of things, how to get the mouth of the singer and where she held her microphone—a lot of back and forth. But I think it turned out. It was just one of those where you have to be really involved.”
And while all self-published authors ask themselves what work they need to outsource, Pulver has a good strategy for where to spend money. “I think you need to be very particular and know your strengths and weaknesses,” he says. “I mean, you could spend a fortune doing a book. For instance, I think a professional designer can be absolutely wonderful. But I’ve also done a book that I designed the cover myself, and it sold better than ones with a professional cover. But I would still, when you can afford it, I would go with professionals as much as you can within your budget and just prioritize where you feel you need the added strength.”
He does warn against the rise of scammers out there, trying to prey on self-published authors. “This morning, I got an email from James Patterson saying how he loved my work and wanted to talk to me!” Pulver says with a laugh. “It’s so sad, but they’re really out there.”
“We’re still learning the marketing,” Pulver admits. About a different publication of his, he says, “I did some ads on Amazon, but I found that I wasn’t really getting readers from that. I think the best thing that I have found is just word of mouth. Talking with other writers, going to events, and chatting with people, passing out a business card and talking about your work. That can generate excitement.”
Pulver has published novels under his own name, but when he writes with a co-author, it’s a different experience. A self-proclaimed pantser, Pulver says that working with Jablon helps to push through writer’s block and stay structured. “Writing with a co-author? I would say we have an embarrassment of riches. We’re really lucky. We’ll sometimes get stuck on a scene, so we’ll just take notes for that scene and keep moving along. When I’m writing individually, like this one book that I’m working on now, I’m halfway through, and suddenly something just isn’t right. And so, I’m stepping back from it. Sometimes that’s the right decision; sometimes that isn’t.
“I think the important thing to me if I’ve learned anything about writing is, especially when I have a very challenging making-a-living time, I had to make time to write every day. Even though I’m no longer working for a living, I’m typically up at 4:00 a.m. because that was the only time I could write before taking on all the day’s activities.” Pulver says that he’s continued this daily writing practice for over 20 years—only skipping twice!—and it keeps him going.
For other writers, Pulver has this to say: “My best piece of advice would be to choose to walk on the sunny side of the street. Don’t get yourself bogged down in the business side of it, but keep enjoying the writing, and nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”
