The Evolution of Erik Williams's PIGS

UPDATED AGAIN!!! - Another New Cover!

Yes, another new cover.  This one embraces the larger "crime" element of the story.

UPDATED!!! - New Cover!

Well, the old cover, although I liked it, wasn't doing anything for anyone.  So, I tried something new.  Above is the latest cover.  Evolution, indeed.

 

Yes, here we are again, talking about one of my previously published works that's now a stand alone e-book. What can I say other than:

• It's my blog to pimp as a I please
• I need to give myself some love cuz who else is gonna?
• Publishing another story gives me another excuse to play with covers and Midjourney

So, here we are.  This time around, we're talking about Pigs.

So You Wrote a Story about Pigs? Sounds Delightful

Nah, it isn't exactly about pigs.  Nor is it any homage to Animal Farm.

No, this fair story was written back around 2012.  I had recently fallen into a rabbit hole of true crime research. A hole I haven't found a way out of.  At the time, I was diving deep, deep into Son of Sam and Manson.  I was part of a Facebook group that was doing further research on SOS, working with the late Maury Terry. I was also reading a lot about Santa Muerte cults and drug trafficking.

The results of those obsessions include my novel Progeny, my story Dying of the Light (part of the Tales from the Yellow Rose Diner and Fill Station antho), and my story Pigs.

Where Progeny and DotL focused on Santa Muerte stuff, Pigs really delves into the idea of being obsessed with true crime itself.  So much so that it may unlock a door into a world you weren't sure you wanted to know about.

The First Go-Round

When I finished Pigs, I sent it to a handful of places for consideration.  At the same time, Tom Moran, the publisher of Sideshow Press (who did a lovely limited edition of my novelette The Reverend's Powder) was putting together a new imprint called Gallows Press. Instead of limited editions, the goal was to fill the void that a lot of shuttered mass market horror paperbacks had left.

There were a couple of successful ones already doing the same thing. Places like Deadite Press.  And I believe Tom wanted to do the same thing.

To launch the imprint, he put together an antho aptly named The Gallows and asked a bunch of previous writers he'd worked with if they'd be willing to contribute.  I had Pigs already done and said, "But of course."

Side Note: The Gallows is a cool little antho with work by a bunch of well-known horror writers like Gene O'Neill, Shane McKenzie, and some asshole named Sam W. Anderson.

Erik Does An E-Book...Briefly

Fast forward to 2015.  It's October and I just got downsized from my job.  I'm getting five weeks of severance and looking for a new gig.  Meanwhile, I figure I need to get my hustle on and start reprinting stuff.

So, having had experience self-publishing through Kindle and always looking to monetize my stuff that I have the rights to, I made an e-book version of Pigs.  Even got a cover made by a pro and everything.  Here it is:

Now I know, it's not the best cover.  Nor does it remotely fit the story.  However, it was a premade cover, only cost $35, and I was trying to get my hustle on.

Not surprisingly, I never made the $35 back.  Let that be a lesson to you writers.

I think I kept it on sale for a while, forgot about it, pulled it down, put it back up again in 2017 for a small amount of time and then took it down.  I took it down to re-evaluate not only the cover but also if it was worth keeping it as a standalone e-book.

Welcome to the Present

I've decided it is worth doing as a standalone e-book because it sure as hell isn't hurting anything.

Unlike my experiments with The Yellow Bug and The Long Bright Descent, I didn't play with the cover for this endlessly.  Nor did I post a new cover with the e-book only to redo the cover again and again.

Why?

This is not an easy story to capture a cover for.  Yes, it deals with true crime but it also tackles a freaky cult whose members like to wear skinned pig's faces as masks.  The cover couldn't look like a true crime cover, IMO, but it couldn't look as goofy as the one above.

I wanted something pulpy, with a Hard Case Crime feel but also let you know it was a horror story while capturing a bit of that L.A. feel.

Once I had this:

I felt that was it and could move on without tinkering with it anymore.  I also know I'm not likely to do much better on my own using Midjourney and Canva.