Over the years, we’ve had many 1000’s of apocalyptic books. Probably closer to a 100,000 different titles. Apoc which runs the gamut of Zombie outbreak, EMP, Ebola pandemic, Sharks and Tornado’s, aliens and who knows what. Zombie and EMP seem to be the most popular, with EMP coming out way on top at the moment. Zompoc, which used to have a good readership, some half-decent stories and even a few reasonably well told stories among the indy zompoc community. But, despite the fact that The Walking Dead still retains a good following on TV, the interest in stories of the foot dragging, decaying hordes has fallen from its once lofty heights. There are several reasons for this… I think. One is that many of the Zompoc stories so closely mimicked that of the TV series that there  was no reason to read it – after all, you saw it on TV in vivid color on your 42″ Sony right? Can an ebook from an unknown and not very good writer match the Televisual experience? Another point to look at is, if the books aren’t following the TV series or a Romero movie then they’re following one another. Almost copy/paste. And when you have so many self-publishing its pretty hard not to overlap particularly when all the authors are in constant contact with one another via FB groups. It’s a form of literary shedding. EMP has taken over by way of better written stories (in the main) and more engaging characters. It could be that the situation doesn’t always tend to lead to a massive shootout as it does with Zompoc. The situation in an EMP disaster might, for instance, call for an intellectual response rather than the stand and deliver with AK-47’s, M-16’s, M-4’s and who knows what else blazing away. Hard to “reason” when a 1000 shambling and drooling walking dead are attacking right? It’s the Alamo all over again. The David and Goliath syndrome. And yes, if you’ve not thought about it that is, I believe, the essence of apocalyptic fiction (and Horror,Sci Fi… all classic Westerns etc) it’s the never ending battle against what we perceive as indestructible. Be it City Hall, the Big Bully on the street corner, the entire Chinese Army, the mountain of bills to pay every week and so on and so forth. The monsters in books and movie represent all these things, but its how we (as authors) go about it that will determine the interest. Focus on one small part, as many zompoc writers have done, and what audience you had will soon drift away as something new and (for the time being) better comes along. Personally, I haven’t given up zompoc or apocalyptic altogether, not yet. When I wrote “Toward the Brink” and A Horror  at Pine Ridge” all those years ago my writing left much to be desired but I had a good strong story I believed and the thing I tried for most, was to add some originality to the story. I came up the potatoes idea and the French Fries that would then be the world wide catalyst for introducing the disease which killed all those infected but they would then rise and seek vengeance upon the living! I liked it, far fetched but we are talking fiction remember. And Horror at Pine Ridge had a lot of ideas from old black and white horror movies of the 1930’s. Recently I’ve added 2 books which, are a series of their own, are actually prequels to the events of “Toward the Brink” and tell the “personal” side from the point of view of the 1st to die and walk again. Both books have been novella size but the next should be a fully fledged novel and I can’t wait to “flesh” this one out. So, it’s never the genre or the category that is the reason for the lack of interest or falling interest but it could very well be the story telling itself. Relying too much of a one-dimensional “shoot ’em up” rather than a more detailed look at the situation. And I’m not immune to such criticism either. Weak storylines that read like last weeks episode of TWD won’t help and I would never recommend reading another contemporary writers book for any pointers. Read it if you must but do so only for pleasure. Look to old classics and short stories and – as mentioned above – old B&W horror movies for inspiration but ALWAYS  add something of your own to the mix, make it your recipe and not a copy/paste from another chef. Apoc, zompoc or Vampires with fangs who shun the light can be enjoyable and readable as long as we, the writers, do our part.