Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
Today we’re interviewing Matthew Siadak, author of The Dark Side of Super and more, as he launches his crowdfund campaign on Backerkit as part of The Book Bazaar 2025.
Matthew is raising funds for an audiobook for The Dark Side of Super, an interconnected collection of super-powered shorts. Each features a dark, gritty, realistic take on powers, and adding another layer to the larger story arc being told.
Follow the campaign and pledge your support!
Please tell us a little about yourself and your Backerkit project.
I am seeking to bring to life an audio book edition of The Dark Side of Super with Adler Audios on board to narrate. I want to make this novella even more available by getting it narrated. This is an interconnected collection of dark, gritty, realistic shorts about super powers and their costs.
Why did you join The Book Bazaar 2025?
The collaborative crowd-funding of The Book Bazaar drew me in, and I knew that this would be a great way to do my first crowd-funding campaign.
Have you crowdfunded before? What do you hope to achieve with your project?
This is my first! I hope to learn the ins and outs of this, and to better prepare to tackle more in the future.
Tease us with your Backerkit campaign! What rewards can we expect?
I have everything available…swag packs with stickers and bookmarks, physical copies of the book, e-book copies, and an entire bundle!
Why did you decide to self-publish/publish with a small press and what has been your biggest success so far?
I decided to self-publish this novella (and others), because at the end of the day, it’s another process for me to learn. This allows me to have full creative control and to be able to collaborate with my wife, who does my cover art and other illustrations.
What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?
Fellow indie authors! We are stronger together, and there’s so many wonderful stories out there with people who we can learn and grow with.
What tips can you share on self-publishing or crowdfunding with your fellow indies?
Find a support group. You cannot go this alone.
Can you recommend a few of your favourite SFF books from indie/self-published authors?
The Warm Machine by Aimee Cozza, When Her World Went Away by Alexis Carroll, His Ragged Company by Daniel Quigley, and so many more. Seriously, there’s a never-ending supply of great indie/self-pubbed books!
What are you working on after your campaign?
I’m already working on editing The Forgotten Princess, sequel to my just-released eldritch fantasy novel The Backwards Knight. I started drafting The Light Side of Villainy, the sequel to The Dark Side of Super.
Too many projects. Help.
Do you have any last words?
Be kind. Take care of one another. Read. Love. Fight.
About the Author
Somewhere in the St. Louis area, there lives a weird goblin named Matthew Siadak who never quite grew up. Adventuring with his wife and daughter, he bridges together a day job filled with logic to a life of creativity. He spent most of his youth escaping in stories, slowly fostering a need to return the favor. After graduating with a Computer Science degree, he was able to eschew the logic of his daily life to lose himself further in the written word.
- Website: BackwardsKnight.com
- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/backwardsknight.com
- Instagram: @backwardsknight
- Threads: @backwardsknight
- TikTok: @backwardsknight
