Tim Miller on Writing Fifty Shades of Hell and Fifty Plus Other Extreme Horror Books

In this interview, Tim Miller talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com about his book, Fifty Shades of Hell, a novel where Hellraiser meets Fifty Shades of Grey, as well as his body of work.


“Sometimes, you have to write the crap to get to the good stuff.” ~Tim Miller

Tim had been writing ever since he was a child, and he was influenced by authors such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, Michael Connelly, Thomas Harris and Jack Ketchum. It wasn’t until he was undergoing a divorce that he decided to venture into writing books as a way to relieve the stress he was then experiencing. After finishing his first book, The Hand of God, he signed up with a small publisher which, after a year, was bought out by another publisher, with whom Tim didn’t get along. The publisher then gave the rights to the book back to Tim, who then self-published it on Amazon, and ever since then, he has self-published some 53 books, in total, to date.

Tim, at the start, wrote extreme horror, which is essentially horror which goes into the taboos which aren’t done in mainstream media, such as details on what happens to the body when things such as a knife is plunged into it, which is presented in the messiest and most horrific way possible. He remarks that a lot of his readers are stay-at-home moms, although he admits, he has gotten e-mails from readers who have actually been aroused by the horrific scenes he writes. Recently, however, Tim has moved away from extreme horror and has gone into writing in other genres.

Tim’s books are relatively short, at around 30,000 words, which is how he is able to write so many in so short a time; he even remarked that, in the past two years or so, he has written around ten books a year. The ideas for stories come to him so fast that he has often decided to not create a sequel based on a book and characters he has already written and instead write a totally new book.

From his own experience, Tim noted that, for an author to get his book accepted by a publisher is a difficult process, necessitating the hiring of a reputable agent, who will then shop the book - as well as the books of the possibly hundreds of other authors that he represents - to various publishers. Once a publisher is interested in the book, the publisher then gets the rights to the book, which includes control over the cover and editing; and once the book is published, it usually isn’t marketed much by the publisher, which means that the author has to be the one to do the marketing himself. The publisher does give an author an advance payment, but Tim noted that the costs of marketing the book, by an author, come from this advance payment, and that the publisher doesn’t give additional money until the advance has been earned.

Self-publishing his own books works out well for Tim, as he has total creative control over his works, rather than having a publisher dictate changes to him based on market research. He has some model friends who help him come up with the cover images for his books, and he also works with an editor and designers who help him out with the graphic aspects. Tim also has beta readers who check on how the stories go and who give him the necessary input he might need to change a book’s title to make it stand out more. That said, Tim remarks that he has to contend with Amazon’s own internal censorship, which doesn’t tell authors why certain books get banned.

Tim notes that being business-minded is necessary to succeed in self-publishing, and that his willingness to learn is what enabled his present degree of success. He does all his marketing himself and has built up a good Twitter following. Tim remarks that marketing through Facebook is somewhat limiting, as Facebook presently doesn’t allow for too much advertising and promotion, but that he can post every hour, if he wanted to, on Twitter, which works out, as it relies on a chronological news feed. He also buys Amazon ads, and while he does buy Facebook ads he has noticed that these have become less helpful of late.

Tim remarks that Amazon pays 70% royalty on retail price, which means that, if a book sells for $2.99, the author gets $2 per book. This is in contrast with going through a small-time publisher, where an author will get around $1 per book for the same price sold on Amazon, and far less when going with a traditional publisher. Tim notes that small-time publishers are run by only one or two people and don’t do marketing or promotion for a book. He also shared his experience with a small publisher when he needed to order a batch of books to be printed for a book signing, and the publisher charged him more per book than these were being sold on Amazon. Tim also remarked that, as the press is small, any printing requests are dependent upon their printing schedule, and that the disreputable small presses don’t pay royalties to their authors. Moreover, when a small printing press stops operating, the book effectively dies, as all of the rights belong to the press, which means that the authors can’t get their books back for future reprints.

Where traditional publishers are concerned, Tim advises authors to go over the details of the contract given and then negotiate with the traditional publisher on the details of the contract. He also advises getting legal aid for contract negotiations, as he believes that it is ultimately the author’s responsibility to get the best deal he can for himself, and that, if there is something in the contract that an author isn’t comfortable with, the contract should not be signed.

To would-be authors, Tim recommends that they write the book out, first and foremost, before figuring out what to do with it afterwards. He also recommends that authors get clear on their goals, as how they proceed will depend on these. A horror writer who wants to win a Stoker award and get recognition, for example, should go with a small, reputable publisher, rather than self-publish, while those who would want to make money from their work would be better off self-publishing and then promote their book on various social media. Tim also notes that there are a lot more books being published nowadays compared to even a decade previously, which means that his earnings from his books has gone down somewhat, due to market saturation.

Tim has a “sidekick,” Sancho the chihuahua, who literally walked up to him one day. The chihuahua was friendly, and after Tim checked if there were any missing dogs around and couldn’t find any, decided to adopt him for good. According to Tim, Sancho oversees his writing and is in accord with his present shift in genres.


Purchase from Amazon: Fifty Shades of Hell by Tim Miller