I know, I know. I can hear the groans of ‘about freaking time, Sacha. What took you so long? It’s not like you’ve been writing for 7 years straight, Sacha, I mean Geeeez.’
All I can do is raise my weary eyebrow, wipe the sweat off my brow and down my glass of champagne.
FINALLY, today is the day I take the first steps toward fulfilling the dream little nine-year-old me had. Because right now, at this very moment, I get to put on that shiny gold badge I’ve been lusting after for an eon.
Today I become an author.
Fuck yeah, I do, people, Fuck YEAAAAAH I DOOOOOO!
The time for talking is over. 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft Superbad Villains, is here.
Let me ask you a question… Do you want to write the best villain you can?
I’m guna assume the answer is yes! Well, finally, I can help.
For those of you that don’t know, for the last few months, I’ve been writing a non-fiction book called 13 Steps to Evil. It’s been carefully designed to give writers a step by step guide to creating the most kick-ass villain possible.
And today is launch day.
13 Steps To Evil is now on sale and for one week only, you can get it at the bargain price of £1.99. After the 7th June, it will go up to its normal price of £2.99. So make sure you download it ASAP to avoid missing out on the launch promotion.
You can buy your copy here:
Also from iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Inktera and Barnes & Noble. Just click your usual bookstore or device logo and it will take you to the right store.
***
Alongside the launch of 13 Steps To Evil, I’ve created a short villain’s companion course and free checklist to help you put into practice all the things you’ll learn. In order to make sure you have the support you need, there’s an exclusive Facebook group where you can work through the course with others and ask questions. I’ll also be on hand to answer questions too. If you’d like to join the course, click here.
If you do purchase a copy of 13 Steps To Evil, and you have a few spare minutes, I’d really appreciate a short review on the site you bought it.
***
Want to know a little more about 13 Steps To Evil?
Here’s the book blurb
13 Steps To Evil has been carefully designed to give writers like you, a detailed guide to creating the most kick-ass villain you can.
Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain?
In the book you’ll learn all kinds of awesome stuff like,
- How to develop a villain mindset
- The step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
- Why getting to the core of your villain’s personality is essential to make them credible and believable
- What evil pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs
Finally, there’s a comprehensive writing guide to help you create Superbad villains. I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching and interviewing writers to make sure 13 Steps To Evil is tailored to your exact needs.
Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge. It will also help you master the perfect balance of good and evil as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs.
You’ll get the same dark humor, you find in my blog posts and newsletters and I use a ton of well-known examples to help explain the steps.
***
HERE’S A SHORT EXCERPT
Why Writers Fudge Up Their Villains
Villains are like newborn infants. So much glorious potential. Until we writers get our grubby mitts on them and balls it up. With the careless flick of a pen, we can turn a finely sculpted baby villain into a cringe-worthy cliché because we didn’t make him bad enough, or we create something so heinously evil it’s unrealistic.
A villain might be a plot device, but he still needs a purpose and a goal, or he’s unworthy as an opponent for your hero (See STEP 3 for motives and goals).
While researching this book, writers told me all kinds of problems they encountered while creating their villains. From getting the dialogue right and avoiding clichés, to knowing how evil to make a villain, to how to reveal her motives without using blatant exposition.
Behind all these issues lie two basic barriers that are the Achilles in every writer’s villainous heel:
- Depending on the point of view (POV) the book’s written in, the villain is usually seen through the eyes of your hero.
A solitary POV gives you a page-limited amount of time to show your villain’s best, most authentic and devilishly evil side. Page-limited to the point it makes it eye-wateringly difficult to convey her backstory effectively without information dumping. You have to be better, clearer, more tactical and more concise with your words to create superbad villains.
- Writers are hero worshippers.
We love our heroes and protagonists more than our spouses. And as a result, we spend shameful amounts of time honing our protagonist’s muscular heroics into shape. But that relegates our villain (the plot-driving conflict-creator) to the corner of our book, complete with a nobody-loves-you-anyway hat. In other words, writers don’t pay enough attention to their villain.
***
I’ll be on a blog tour for a couple of months, so make sure you check out these awesome authors sites for my guest posts.
Don’t forget to get 13 Steps To Evil while it’s on sale. You can use this link, just click the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page.
If you’d like to join the villain’s short course, click here.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads
Woooooo! Congratulations! You did it!! You are amazing. 🙂
awww thank you and thank you for such a lovely review too <3 <3
Huge congratulations Sacha and good luck!
Thanks Linda, just doing some morning stuff for the launch then I’ll be over to share the interview 😀 😀 <3
Congratulations and good luck!
Happy Publication Day, hope you and your book have a fab day xx
Thanks my lovely, can’t believe it’s finally here!
Yaaaay! You are an AUTHOR! FINA-BLOODY-LY! Well done and huge congrats, the first of many more, I’m sure. This is the book all writers need. Wishing you lots of success, Sacha! Xxx
LOL I know right! HOW LONG?? ugh. Hopefully the next one won’t be too long away! thank you for all your support. xx
Looking good, Sacha…
hehe thank you 😀 can’t believe the day has finally arrived !! x
Huge congrats hun! You DID it!!!!!! So proud of you Mwah!
Thank you Ritu, and thank you for all your support. I can’t believe the day has finally arrived 😀 😀 😀
I hope you’ll be cracking open the bubbles officially tonight!!!! 😀 😀 😀
lol, if I get the chance! I’ve now plucked my eyebrows you will be pleased to know haha! At least I did something for myself
Lol!!! Way to go! Mine will be getting threaded this weekend. I was Hoping to wait until the day before the bash but they are horrifying right now!!! 😂😂😂
Man do I wish I knew how to thread best brow trim EVER
I have to get them done, once you thread you can’t do anything else!
Congrats, Sacha!
Thanks my lovely and is it your birthday too? <3 <3
It is, I admit it. But older than I care to admit!
ha! lie. I do! ;p hehe
I fear it’s too late for that.
lol never too late for anything :p :p :p
Oh, okay. Twenty one today, la la
lol that’s more like it! :p
Great Book Sacha my review is going up today! Well done it’s a brilliantly informative book and fun to read! 💜
ahhh thank you Willow. I really appreciate the support
It’s a pleasure honest 🤗
Well it means more than you know <3
💜💜💜
Well, who’s got the creme de la creme this morning? Go strut your funky stuff. It’s the end of the beginning, the start of the new world order, the moment after you wake up for all the rest of your natural saying ‘fuck me I Am an AUTHOR’. I understand your name has gone forward for a gong, the rarely awarded SBA the Sacha Black Author Golden Eyebrow for services to Villians. The Dulwich Royals awoke this morning and announced ‘We are Very Pleased.’
BAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHA Ohhhh Geoffle you crack me up. You’re at your best Douglas Adams this morning. I can’t believe I did it. BIG CHEEZY GRIN. Now excuse me while I go pass out! p.s. *snatches the eyebrow award*
Sacha you’re amazing!!! And an inspiration. Thanks for your motivational blogging and so much luck with your book!! xx
aww what a lovely thing to say, thank you so much 😀 😀 I can’t believe I FINALLY did it!
WOW!!! Here we go! Congratulations on your new book, Sacha! That is so exciting! I wish you so much joy with all that comes with it now 😊
ahhh thank you so much Erika, I am soooo happy it’s finally here.
I so understand your excitement and I am so very happy for you, Sacha! Again, big congratulations 😘 The timing is perfect, so the peeps at the Bash can have a signed copy of your brandnew book!!
I probably should have thought of that and ordered some copies. DOH. Lol, live and learn – that’s clearly the school boy error of a first time author! haha
You know, I really thought it was more or less timed. Oh well, but I am sure that everybody will already come with a copy and doesn’t want to miss the chance of having it signed!!
haha I’m not sure about that! It’s just little ol’ me! But thank you, the thought made me smile 😀 😀
😉😘
This couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Have just finished the first draft of an urban fantasy novel, I’ve been worrying that the villain wasn’t scary enough, that he was two dimensional, an unengaging panto villain. And then I see the link for your book on lovely Helen Jones’s blog.
Bought and downloaded and ready to roll my way to a better villainhood!
Thanks for this, Sacha and well done for becoming a published author. Huge success to you 🙂
awww I love a bit of synchronicity I really hope the book helps you. I’m also in the process of creating a Facebook support group for villains. It’s not up and running properly nor have I invited anyone yet, but hopefully, lots of people will join shortly if you’d like to the link is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/13STE/
Thank you Sacha – I’ll let you know how I get on. And thanks for the link to the fb page – request sent. Wishing you much success 🙂
Thanks Lynn look forward to hearing about your villain 🙂
Let’s hope I get some success with him 🙂
<3 <3
Congratulations, Sacha! Well done. I already have my Kindle copy. 🙂
ahhh thank you so much Norah really appreciate the support 😀 😀
Yay, Congratulations, Sacha, and may your villains be ever villainous
Haha!! Cracking phrase and thank you – congrats on your recent launch too woohoo 😍
Congrats… will do a review soon on Kyrosmagica – sorry haven’t had much time recently been so busy formatting, The Curse of Time. But sharing this to get the word out. Perhaps you can pop over to Kyrosmagica later on to do an interview. Wishing you much success:)
That would be fab I would love to do an interview. I have (I think) a two pronged tour, I had so many offers (and I want to take them all up) but I need to spread them out. Let me know when suits and I’ll make sure I can answer all your questions. Thank you for the support and I hope formatting goes okay – it was fairly easy ride using Vellum for the ebook but the paperback was a bitch!
Oh great, would love to join in later once I’ve got everything organised for my book launch.. Fingers crossed, and toes… 🙂 x
Huzzah! xx
hehe thank you 😀 😀 😀
So happy for you! Rock it, Lady!!
Thank you Annette <3 <3
You know I am so happy right now. 💜 Go on…bask in the book love, my fellow author friend.
Awww, I love that we are both actual full on AUTHORS. Boom.
Congratulations, Sacha!
Thank you Charli, I am sooooooo happy 😀
I think every other post I’ve read today is about Sacha! If I hadn’t already purchased your book I sure would. Congrats on an amazing roll-out, my friend. 😀
Lolllll, I’ve had a couple of people say things like that. Honestly, I am so astonished by the support. It’s so humbling and amazing I don’t know how to even fathom it. Let alone find suitable words to thank everyone. Blown away!
Well deserved, Sacha. You have developed a lot of great relationships AND did all the hard prep work! It shows. 😀
awww thank you so much Diana <3 I am still buzzing 😀
Yaaaaay!!! … you must be so beside yourself. I bet there are three of you! 😀 Congratulations.
I am. Literally. Although that may now be the celebratory cider… Hmm. Thank you 😀 😀
Congrats–I hope you had a super book baby day! 🙂
OMG SQUEEEEEEE I love it when you come on over here and comment I’m all like flapping and trying not to faint! God forbid I ever meet you. Have you ever been fangirled? CAUSE YOU WOULD BE! bahaha!
Congratulations Sacha! It’s starting—the road to stardom lies ahead 🙂
haha! Not sure about that, but thank you I am SO pleased I finally made over a finish line, more than anything I’ve proved to myself I can actually do it.
That first time is the test. Now you’ve done it once, you know you can do it again. And better!
Lets hope so. Keepers is SCREAMING to be finished. MUST KEEP TYPING! lol
You will. When the excitement of everything else dies down, you’ll storm away with it 🙂
Once again congrats my lovely! Welcome to authordom!!!! Sharing this all over!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 🙂
You’re a star, AS ALWAYS. Honestly don’t know how you do it, you’re a machine, thank you for the support.
True pleasure my friend. Looking forward to having you over in a few weeks. <3 <3
me too 🙂
<3
Congratulations, Sacha! I can see a very evil future ahead…!
haha! Let’s hope so and thank you Olga 😀
Well, it’s about time you joined us in the ‘1st publication author’s club. ‘ Great cover and I do love the colours and the design. I hope you’ve had a chance to celebrate (even with the upcoming Bash). If not, we’ll raise a glass to you then. Congratulations, and looking forward to seeing you over on my blog on 2nd August. ❤️
xx
Ha! I know right, it’s taken an obscene amount of time, at least I finally got there. Thank you, I love the cover too 😀 😀 Can’t wait to be a guest on your blog FINALLY <3
Thank you so much Judy <3 <3 I hope it is the start of a big adventure it kinda feels like a big ass mountain right now!