We recently connected with Joshua Grant and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joshua, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Hey! I’m bestselling author, comic creator, and video game designer Josh Grant. I developed the website community Diabolic Shrimp that went from a group of around six people to a community of creatives (authors, readers, artists, etc) of around 5,000 people in the span of a few years. Diabolic Shrimp started as my crazy idea to support other authors but has since grown into a business that has enabled me to become a bestselling author and comic creator, a video game designer, a professional reviewer, a professional Youtube talk show host, and a philanthropist that gets to give back to universally good causes like childhood disease research.
Over a decade ago, I was a counselor at a summer camp. One night, we had this insane flash flood. Rain was coming down from every point of the sky, and the brook that went through camp went from ankle deep to ten feet tall in the span of minutes! My co-counselor, kiddos, and I were all in our cabin up the hill getting ready for bed when water started coming through the wall (it looked like the wall was crying). Suddenly, the wall burst through with water, a freezing cold wall up to my waist. It slammed us, sucking us under in the dark as the building collapsed around us like a landlocked Titanic. Is was terrifying trying to sift through the chaos and find the kiddos. Fortunately, we were all okay (just banged up a bit and missing our shoes). We all went up a hill and hunkered down as camp came apart around us.
We were stuck in the mountains for three days while we waited for emergency services to dig out the highway (it had been covered with 10 feet of mud). Red Cross brought me and my kiddos some blankets and pillows to use while we hung out. It was in one of those long days that I had this incredible moment, one of the most meaningful moments of my life that sticks with me still. The kiddos were playing, using their Red Cross blankets to build this sprawling tent fortress, and they were laughing and having a great time. It was in that moment it just hit me. These kiddos had lost all their stuff. They had very nearly died. Yet, in the midst of all that, they were laughing and having fun with the use of just a bit of cloth. I sat back and just teared up because I realized that we don’t need a whole lot in life, just each other.
Flash forward some years. I just became a brand new Indie author. Like all new authors in a field flooded with literature, I discovered very quickly that it’s really hard to get your work out there and get noticed without investing loads of money and time (and without navigating a million sites’ complicated rules or even hostile communities). I decided I wanted to make a place for creative people and readers to come together and receive actual support or books that might interest them, all for free. I set out to create Diabolic Shrimp (the ‘Diabolic’ is for my diabolic plan to get everyone in the world on there and take over the world, and the ‘Shrimp’ is because authors are little guys like shrimp, but together we’re pretty impressive). I began writing honest reviews for authors for free, and I gave a percentage of any profits I made from my books or advertising to universally good things like childhood disease research or ocean exploration. I found the kindness and actual human interaction I provided on Diabolic Shrimp really resonated with people, and like those kiddos with their Red Cross blankets, we’ve built quite the castle through basic care for one another. These pillars of kindness have brought in people from all around the world who have often supported my books, Youtube talk show, and advertising on the site which have helped me create a successful business on top of supporting some great causes!
Joshua, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hey! I’m bestselling author, comic creator, and video game designer Josh Grant. I have been a part of a number of really cool projects, and I’m the creator of the website Diabolic Shrimp as well as the host to the talk show Diabolic Shrimp.
Years ago, I was a successful actor. I acted on the stage starting with comedy, then moving on to Shakespeare, and finally rounding out with tragedy (so I like to tell people my career ended in tragedy). Then I just had a night where I needed something less me focused and more people focused. I quit acting and became an elementary teacher. I taught for several years, while writing my first novels during that time. Eventually, my novels took off and I left teaching to focus on being an author and businessman (although I still love working with kiddos and going to back to give author talks to students).
I’ve had kind of a crazy life, especially for being kind of a young guy. I’ve survived a crazy flash flood that stranded me and a bunch of kiddos in the mountains for several days (I detail this a bit in the previous question). I was the first officer aboard a 40 foot sailing ship where I accidentally swam with a big mean shark, and we faced off with a tropical storm out at sea. I’ve even had close encounters with several bears, moose, and a mountain lion! But despite all this adventure, my favorite thing is people, laughing and growing alongside each other.
I pour all this experience and love for people into my books, website, talk show, and business. I started in writing with a couple of horror books (for some reason, since I’m kind of a scaredy cat!). I wrote my bestselling horror book Pandora where a cruise ship goes missing, returning mysteriously a week later prompting a group of soldiers to fly out and investigate what happened to it. From there, I wanted something just as deep and meaningful, but a bit brighter. A guy can only write about creatures killing people horribly for so long! I wrote my epic fantasy series The Fifth Ascendant, and a deep young adult sci fi novel called Nexus.
From there, I had this crazy idea to retell the Peter Pan story, but where Peter becomes a vigilante crime fighter like Batman! I knew a story like that just had to be a comic, so I set about making one (even though I knew nothing about the process of making comics). I used my old Theatre skills in the costume and concept design as well as the script. I had to teach myself a lot about layout design and formatting (which is nightmarish and a bit like rocket science, I literally dream about paper measurements in my nightmares!). Fortunately, I found some very talented artists along the way to bring my vision to life (and make my junky concept art look pretty). I actually didn’t think anyone would read my comic and that it would just be my really expensive pet project, but then came the day of the release. I was blown away as I watched it shoot to #1 on Amazon almost instantly! I went from planning just a pilot episode for the year to publishing the full The Lost Boy season 1.
I instantly fell in love with making comics and haven’t looked back since! I’ve had the joy of creating stories for the vampire fantasy series The Attack on Vitalik as well as the Star Wars-esque Adventures in Cardano Space. I’m currently about to roll out Another Zombie Apocalypse (a collection of short comics that are very different takes on the classic zombie apocalypse formula). My talented artist and business partner Laszlo Nemeth and I are also feverishly working on converting my novel The Fifth Ascendant into a graphic novel and we are in the early stages of a Star Wars story. And if that’s not enough, I’ve begun writing The Lost Boy Season 2 (which incorporates Wizard of Oz characters) along with working on some projects with some companies that I can’t talk about yet. You can find all my books (and even free books) on my website Diabolic Shrimp or Amazon.com. I’m also a freelance comic writer if you’re looking to create one!
In addition to comics, Laszlo and I are heading up a team in developing our first video game Project Ego. This will be a classic 2D sidescroller (similar to classic Metroid) where players play as a robot named Ego. In the future, two AI have gone to war with each other, with humanity trapped in the middle. Out of desperation, a human named Jane Doe has revived a third AI, Ego, to aid humanity in their fight for survival.
All of my creative works tend to be filled with lots of action and interesting creatures, but their heart is wrapped around a core theme. I love building deep and meaningful characters and worlds around an equally deep and meaningful question. My life has brought me along some crazy adventures, but also some challenging emotional pathways, and I try to instill this into my work. Pandora is about the Pandora Greek creation myth where all the evils of the world leaked out of Pandora’s box, leaving only hope left inside. Thus, all the people and situations in Pandora are wrapped around that idea of finding hope even in the darkest of places. Every one of my stories are built this way and designed to entertain, but also leave you thinking when they’re done. I also love a good twist, so my stories all have some twist that hits you at some point!
Out here in the real world, I have the other aspect of my business. I found things to be rather lonely and challenging for authors shortly after I published. I quickly decided to form a community where authors and creative people could come and receive support entirely for free. I started writing honest (and free) reviews for anyone that joined my site Diabolic Shrimp. This eventually bloomed into the empire it is today. Now I offer a variety of free programs to authors, including public spaces to display their books, honest reviews, and the Shrimpy Awards (the smallest award show on the internet)! I also get to give a lot of books away to readers as I try to connect authors and readers. It’s a lot of fun, and I honestly never expected it to grow into what it has become! I’ve recently launched Diabolic Shrimp’s advertising program where people can purchase inexpensive advertising on the site and my talk show, both of which have accelerated my ability to give a portion of my profits to universally good things like childhood disease research (you can see a full list of Diabolic Shrimp’s impact on the ‘Our Difference’ tab of Diabolic Shrimp).
From the website, I spun off into creating my Youtube talk show (also called Diabolic Shrimp) where I interview interesting and famous people from around the world. It has been really fun getting to connect more with people this way, and the show’s popularity has really been growing! I’ve had the joy of getting to learn about the lives and connect with film makers, game designers, musicians, scientists, authors, and even a shrimp farmer!
My business and the Diabolic Shrimp brand aren’t the typical model, but they work well because I’ve placed people and community at the heart of everything I do. I love to connect with people directly, so even though Diabolic Shrimp is growing exponentially, I still respond directly to everyone who joins the site or comments on my show. People really resonate with that. That and the fact that Diabolic Shrimp offers entirely free and genuine author support, honest reviews, and connections with readers, as well as really inexpensive advertising options really sets my business apart and makes it unique. It’s also really just fun connecting with people, so come say hello by checking out Diabolic Shrimp, my Youtube talk show, or my books!
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
One of my breakthrough ideas in marketing actually came from writing. I was writing a short story called The Lost Boy, where I retold the Peter Pan story, but where Peter becomes a vigilante crime fighter like Batman. I hit a point where I was like, ‘this just has to be a comic book, there’s no other way!’ And then I was like, ‘I don’t know anything about making comic books!’
Still, I knew it had to be done, so I took a chance both with money and time to develop The Lost Boy into a comic. I really didn’t think it would sell, but I was shocked to see it top the charts right out the gate! The Lost Boy taught me that I need to take some chances and just have a bit of fun with my marketing. It also taught me to trust my gut, even if the marketing idea is a strange one.
I now have three marketing categories: sustained, timely, and out there. ‘Sustained’ are the things I do every month (ads, posting in groups, etc). ‘Timely’ are those targets of opportunity (if a sci fi monster movie is coming out, I’ll promote Pandora since it’s a creature feature through and through). But The Lost Boy helped me to create ‘Out There,’ where I pick some strange long shot for each book when I release them. This marketing strategy has led me to produce music, toys, a video game, movie trailers, and even have my book loaded onto a cruise ship! Some of these things have been successful for marketing, and some haven’t, and some even led to new products to sell (and even led to me becoming a successful Youtube talk show host)! Ultimately, this led to making something that all authors hate, marketing, into something that was fun (even if it doesn’t always succeed).
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I was an author first, but I’ve become this sort of media mogul somehow. Back when I published my first book, I found that it was extremely difficult to get noticed. I also found that many ‘author support’ sites and groups were either very unfriendly, ineffective, or cost an arm and a leg.
I had an author website (because I figured that’s what authors did, get a website). I wasn’t really using it for anything, so I opened it up to the public, inviting other authors and readers in. I offered to buy authors’ books and give them away to readers to try to connect them, all of this for free. I didn’t see much growth at first (I think I only had like six people on there for the whole first year, haha!). But then I had this realization that other authors, like myself, really just wanted reviews. I began giving out honest reviews for free (I don’t accept free copies of books to preserve my independence). That’s when things really took off! I gained a thousand people (and a REALLY long reading list) almost overnight! I had to really adjust things, both in my schedule and on the website, in order to compensate for the mass influx. It actually really surprised me that there was such a need.
I suddenly became a professional reviewer, which was a hard pivot at first, but I soon discovered the inverse power of genuinely helping others. I never asked anyone who came to join Diabolic Shrimp to buy my books, but people really appreciated my support, genuine spirit, and how I give a portion of my profits to good causes, so I soon found my book sales and name’s popularity growing.
Over time, I’ve looked for more ways to support authors and other creative people, as well as connect authors with readers that might enjoy them. I looked at what features are missing on other author support sites, or what features I as an author would love, and began adding them. This led to the creation of the Shrimpy Awards (paid awards for short literature, chapter excerpts, cover design, people who love to review, etc), author book display pages, and inexpensive advertising spaces.
There were a lot of things I tried and that failed along the way too. I used to do this whole crazy Shrimp Bowl arena thing where authors would compete for prizes. This turned out to be way more work than it was worth (for everyone involved)! I tried several other programs too before the version of Diabolic Shrimp that exists today.
Diabolic Shrimp has seen its fair share of strange milestones and challenges it had to overcome. We went from the first people joining, just six (which was an exciting milestone at the time), to eventually our first 1,000 members! I went from doing one review to completing 1,000 reviews recently! I had to learn some coding, which was such a personal milestone when I actually made the website work and do things its original template wasn’t designed for. Then I watched in horror about two years in when the site’s database collapsed and I lost everything! I rebuilt from scratch then, working in some new directions. Then there was the triumph of making it to the first page on all the search engines (take that tasty food dish also called Diabolic Shrimp!).
Now my network has evolved to a live talk show where I interview interesting and famous people from around the world. I’ve had the joy of interviewing lots of cool people and building out the brand. I’ve recently also started selling inexpensive advertising on both the website and talk show.
It has just been a surprising journey of seeing this thing I started doing on the side while selling books turn into a major aspect of my job! I never truly thought I’d actually be able to create a thriving community or that I would become a talk show host that thousands of people show up to watch. I also never expected this side thing to become my money-maker and a great marketing resource, not just for me but for others too.
Therefor, my advice to you is to always look for those little things you can do to improve something for others. Don’t be afraid to pivot either. When I saw that authors badly wanted reviews or wanted a talk show, and that no one else in town really offered that, I jumped on it and was shocked by the results. And always remember to put people first, you won’t regret it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://diabolicshrimp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diabolic_shrimp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rubido.Jolinar
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-grant-25193022b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@diabolicshrimp
- Other: Fiverr (for anyone that wants to hire me to write their comic or purchase my advertising options): https://www.fiverr.com/gran7973
Image Credits
Joshua Grant, Laszlo Nemeth