Interview with Horror Author Jack Pierce
I recently came across an interesting character online who I have decided to write some articles on because I find him utterly fascinating. Jack Pierce (one of several names he goes by) is a fiction writer of a high caliber. This man writes fiction so fluently its practically his first and most profound language of communication. Some would call him a pathological liar, but I feel those people miss the forest for the trees. I'm starting with an interview I had with him, which despite it being chock full of lies and misinformation and deception, I will present it unedited except for grammar and formatting. In a follow up article I will start peeling back the layers of fiction with facts and receipts to show you why Jack Pierce may very well be the most profound fiction writer of our time.
For some brief context that will be further explained in follow up articles, Jack removed co-writer credits from someone named Lotus Token who did ghostwriting and editing for Jacks books. After several falling outs and online slap fights with this person and their friends and brother, Jack removed all mention from his books that he was still selling, aka Plagiarism. Speaking of plagiarism, full credit to Max Sand and Lotus Token for introducing me to Jack and providing me lots of information, lore, and receipts to prove Jack has a habit of making things up and outright lying.
Enjoy the Q&A.
GA=Genius Anus
JP=Jack Pierce
GA: Did you really have an editor?
JP: Yes.
GA: Did you have an arrangement to credit your editor?
JP: No
GA: Did you remove the editors credit?
JP: No.
GA: Was there a written agreement?
JP: No.
GA: Did you have publishing deals?
JP: Depends on time period and what you define but I do have contracts with my audiobook producers.
GA: Where are the contracts?
JP: Ask the people on Audible for those. Nobody else got contracts written. The Audible deals are 7 year contracts at 20% commission per copy on audible sold. Audible takes 60%. I get 20%, the reader gets the other 20%.
GA: What are the sales numbers on your many books, like top three or five?
JP: As for copies sold total I don't know. All of them sold at least 2k a piece. Highest one was 10k.
GA: Do you have more books in the work?
JP: Yes. I have about 5 other WIP going right now. The main one is a sequel to 'The Snow White Murders' called 'See No Evil'. 'Slash' is also getting a sequel called 'ICU'.
GA: Ok to specify on publishing deals, have you ever had a written contract with a publishing house such as Penguin?
JP: We are working on the details now. I have a literary agent who is talking to them but the documents haven't gotten signed yet. I have to let my lawyer review them so I don't get screwed for being a first time author on a big publishing label instead of a publisher I had a stake in financially.
GA: Has any of the online stuff ever influenced your work?
JP: Kinda sorta, not really. The only book that remotely would remotely check that box is 'Kay is Away' which has been unpublished. I guess 'Nuke Your Brain' and 'Rat race' were inspired on some level even though, fiction wise, not that I can recall. I don't really write techno thrillers.
GA: So never inserted someone you liked or despised as a character or reworked a scenario?
JP: You are asking me about 15 books. I can barely remember what the fuck the main characters names are in pretty much 13 of the 15. Well let me step back, Ralph was inspiration for a character in 'Slash'. That's the only direct inspiration and that was mainly because chat thought it would be funny to add Ralph in the book since it was a meta slasher story akin to 'Scream'. Otherwise none that I can think of. Chief Lewis in 'Second Sight' was vaguely based off my dickhead ex-boss at Microsoft in 2016. Star from 'Second Sight' was based on an amalgamation of like 5 different woman I knew; not a direct insert.
GA: I've read somewhere that at one point you did a reddit AMA for one of your books. Have you, and also have you done any other slimier PR events for your books?
JP: I was on tour last year. I did I believe 40-50 podcast appearances last summer and it was brutal. Don't know how many were posted but it was a really intense tour. Like I was doing 2-3 interviews a day sometimes for all sorts of different shows. I might have done more than 50 I can't remember, it was like 10 shows a week if not more at one point. I'd jump out of zoom calls into a zencast call, then skype, then this guy over here from Malaysia, or this guy on discord, it was just psychotic. I have no idea how many or who, but you can find them out there. I also did a text interview for promotehorror(dot) com.
GA: I noticed some of your books have alternate covers and reprints, whats the story behind that?
JP: Some books performed poorly when they were first released so it was experimentation to see what stuck and some worked some didn't. Some still don't. It's standard practice though in the industry to have many different book covers and print shapes; like Stephen King's 'It' has had like 15 different covers or more, plus its been in the 8x11 hardcover, 5x8 mass market paperback, just crazy. So it's normal. Books aren't like music albums that just keep the same cover, they change frequently.
GA: Do you have different edits as well? Such as abridged vs unabridged, or adding an anniversary forward?
JP: No; not at this time. I've considered doing that for 'Second Sight' but it wouldn't be fair to the people who already paid and love that book. I don't want to add something or subtract something that would ruin their fond memories of that story. There have been some updates if that's the question. Yes I've had my new editor, who shall not be named, a wonderful girl who is a grad student and is very good at her job as my editor and she's going through all the books now to do updates and corrections, because no matter how many line edits you do for a book, it'll never be perfect. I don't expect perfection, but she's very good and is the reason 'Slash' was able to come out. God bless that woman, she's a life saver. Before you ask yes she is paid. I pay her a fair wage and she's happy with that arrangement. We do have contracts per book written up and agreed on both ends; not a verbal deal.
GA: Have you ever done a book start to finish without an editor? If so how did it go? Would you say it was a noticeable improvement, or that it helped your writing process?
JP: In the beginning I had no editor. Grammarly, prowritingaid, google docs spell check, word online, all used, plus a TTS to go line by line to listen and adjust. There was no outside editor until 'Slash', which was my newest full length novel, 'Truth or die' was also handled by the editor but that's a short story. So the answer is for most of my writing career, it's been in house until I hired an editor because I could afford one on the payroll. It was very difficult and it kept 'Dreamer' and “Snow White Murders' on the shelf for almost 2 years because I flat out did not want to go through the absolute torture that is editing a novel. It's a horrendous job and I gladly pay over a grand to have someone else deal with that slog since I can afford that kind of deal now. It was horrible, it's the reason why so many books are unpublished is I said “I don't feel like editing this shit”, and I'd quit for a few months. Noticeable improvements not really, I still check everything after she's done with the editing just to make absolutely sure since I'm very stubborn and demanding as a boss. It has helped in the fact that I feel more free to write something and not worry about “oh fuck I have edit 450 pages fuck this book”; so it gives me more freedom.
GA: So I was looking through the covers for your books, some of which are pretty awesome. Who does your cover art?
JP: For the most part it was random people on Fiver, then I started making them myself. All the ones you see now are made by me. The 'NukeYour Brain' and 'Kay is Away' covers were done by a 3rd party, the rest were mine.
GA: So it was one time work for hire? And then I'm assuming that also is one of the reasons for alternate covers and reprints, to swap out cover art?
JP: It was a one time hire per cover. Sometimes with the same artist, sometimes not. I can't remember the names of the sellers but I'm sure if someone pressed me on it I could go find the order forms. But they were paid, up front, no issues on either end.
GA: Did you decide to reprint and then do the new covers as an afterthought to differentiate them?
JP: The reprints were due to sales slowing down. Sales go down, you make a new cover, sales usually go up again. Sometimes you just see a cover and realize it could be better or you just don't like that branding anymore. Same product, different graphic.
GA: Did your current editor work on any of the reprints or was she hired after?
JP: She was hired right when 'Slash' was in it's finishing stages. Which was around the time I went on hiatus and wrote 'Truth or Die'. So she's currently working on reprints.
GA: Is she the second person listed on some of the covers or is that the artist who did the cover art? A “Lotus Token”? I swear I've seen that name somewhere but can't place them, do they write books too? Or have they worked with other writers in the genre?
JP: The artist is not credit, nor did they ask for credit. Lotus Token, AKA Maxx Sand with 2X's, is a wonderful author. He's a good writer who hasn't published anything on his own. It's a shame he hasn't because he's a talented guy and I hope he becomes a big shot one day with one of his great ideas. He had two books in the works, one called 'Chased' and one called 'The Bunker', or something like that. Good writer, good mind on him when he wants to use it for good things. We have some personal and legal issues going on that I can't really discuss, but for the record he was a beta reader of mine. That's the industry term for what he did, which is a person who reads your book and gives feedback before it's published. They are never credited or paid, or contracted. It's an informal thing that I have many of now. He asked me not to put his name on the stuff, he wanted to be an anonymous figure in the book's publishing. In past printings I did add his pen name 'James Kross' as an acknowledgment and if I recall correctly, it's still there. That's more than most authors would give to a beta reader, which usually get nothing. I granted him that wish of him being the anonymous person who has no public appearance because he didn't want to be a public figure who did interviews, podcasts, etc to promote the books. I am fine with that, I hope he is doing well, living his best life, and I'm excited to read his upcoming work when he publishes it under whatever pen name he chooses.
[GA shows JP 2 pictures of his book covers with 'Lotus Token' prominently displayed as co-author]
JP: I understand that; that was a mistake on the covers. He was a beta reader. If you look up the term “beta reader”, that's what he did. I have nothing else to say about the Lotus token question because that's currently a legal topic. But for the record he was a beta reader. He never edited a line of any of the books, nor did he do any cover art. He was a beta reader. I gave him a credit on the cover because he was my friend, and I thought him giving my work a chance was worth having an extra name on the cover at the time. Next topic.
GA: Not to go into the legal stuff for obvious reasons, but just as general clarification is the legal matter pertaining to any of the books or is it separate from the writing?
JP: If I ever did claim he was my editor it was a typo or a mistake on my part due to ignorance of the term beta reader until later in life. That's a question I can't answer, sorry.
GA: Fair enough.
JP: There's nothing wrong with being a beta reader, it's literally the game tester of the book industry. They are very valuable and finding one with any damn sense is amazing. I give Maxx all the credit in the world for being great at that particular job. I don't fault him at all. He's just not an editor because that's not what he did. He never did actual you know, copy editing, or all that English teacher shit. He has a good mind, and his feedback was invaluable to my early writing career. I will give him all the credit in the world for him being a damn good beta reader who knew the market and insured the success of the early titles by giving his opinions. I truly mean that. He's the best beta reader a horror author could ask for because he knows what works and what doesn't. Next topic.
GA: Did you ever credit any beta readers in the acknowledgments section or marketing material for your books?
JP: No. Well, directly? I did name James Kross, the name I picked for him that I felt would work for his solo ventures to give him some credit so hopefully when someone bought a Jack Pierce Book they might think “hmmmm who is that James Kross guy. Let's see if he wrote a book.”, and that's what I did. But industry standard as far as I know, nobody every names or even acknowledges the beta readers. I always put in the authors note a thank you “to my fans and friends who make these books possible”.
As you might be able to tell when I bring up Lotus Token, Jack got very aggressively defensive and began trying muddy the water and throw me off by using industry jargon such as "beta reader" as a way to bury the lead. I am genuinely fascinated by Jack, and I might dare to call myself a fan of his. I have no idea how good his books are, but the amount of fiction he writes in his web of lies and deceit is actually quite impressive. If he can write fiction as compelling as this interview was factually incorrect he might one day rival Stephen King in his prose. For the record 'prose' is writing jargon, here is a brief definition from wikipedia in case you have no idea what it is.
"Prose is a form of written or spoken language that typically exhibits a natural flow of speech and grammatical structure. A related narrative device is the stream of consciousness, which also flows naturally but is not concerned with syntax."
Anyways, soon I will release a follow up article further exploring this interview and debunking its biggest fictions, as well as Jack and his writing career. For now I hope you have been entertained and/or informed.
Castigat Ridendo Mores