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On episode 106 of the Self-Publishing Roundtable we are building the ultimate author career. Well sort of… Robert Chazz Chute and the rest of the panel will attempt to lay out the perfect scenario for forging an author career that you can actually live off. The dialogue will revolve around decisions you can make as your starting out and will focus on the best decisions that not only make creative, but financial sense. Join us in our little experiment. There will be some surprises along the way.
Alright, listen up, ya shitbirds! I want a clean fight, youse guys. No hittin’ below the belt. Separate when I tells ya and go to your corner if somebody falls down and starts cryin’. When the bell rings, come out swingin’. Got it? And no hair pullin’ like last time, fer Chrissakes! We’re supposed ta be adults, here! Jeez!
Waitaminute. Posted the previous message to the wrong forum. Ahem. The first rule of Fight Club is don’t post to the wrong forum.
Yo yo yo yo yo
matmorrisauthor Hello (waving)
Good evening, folks!
matmorrisauthor Hey, didn’t I just see you somewhere or something? STOP FOLLOWING ME. *paranoid*
xgranville Who are you, and what have you done with Michelle? o_O
CateMorgan xgranville I am Xavier, and I have done nothing whatsoever to Michelle beyond be her friend and do her covers 🙂
xgranville Then please tell her that her tea is getting cold. And she is missed. But, mainly, cold tea. Yuck.
CateMorgan xgranville Indeed! I like cold coffee but not cold tea. Unless it comes in a can, in which I drink it in one gulp.
G’morning 😀
DemelzaCarlton Hey Demelza!
Happy to be here! Woohoo!
Better late than never! Hello 🙂
I would say generic “like-clicks” are actually an expense and not an income.
Pound for pound, are words spent blogging worth more than writing more books upfront?
I’ll say BULLSHIT… haven’t done anything Xavier was just saying he wants to do.
There… it happened…
(That’s not to say what he’s shooting for is wrong.)
Whoop Whoop Xavier! I love to be a critic! I expect a great podcast tonight!!!! You have a capable, capital conceptualizations!
matmorrisauthor You do write under pen names, so it’s not like you are selling your one personality, so much as your ‘brands’
Because I love making singular things plural..
I spent a lot of time/money at the start trying to build things like a blog, twitter, FB etc at the start and it was so much work for so little return… since then I’ve decided to focus on writing, and improving said writing – and that’s sold more books than anything else has (Except updating covers…). I have 9 books out now and I do almost no marketing (except specific promos e.g. Bookbub (I wish)) and they just sell themselves. Something that hours spent slaving on my blog never did…
SaffronB Very good point, Saffron!
SaffronB And writing books is way more fun than writing blog posts.
Yeah, I think we’re talking 2 different things now. I agree with the 2nd example you gave.
matmorrisauthor I’m late. What did he say?
One of the ways I pitched Nancy on ASP was to tell her she could build an audience before writing a book…
True story.
Lies!
waiting for DN2…..
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor I’d want to establish myself more before putting out a book, kinda deal
xgranville how would you do that?
BatmanErica xgranville The slow and painful way.
matmorrisauthor BatmanErica xgranville Ed Zachary.
matmorrisauthor ah. I’d rather just read a book than read a person 😛
I am Spartacus.
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor I agree. I just think that eventually you’re buying the person rather than the product once the relationship is established
WHO ARE WE EXECUTING??!?
xgranville I’d still rather read the books. I don’t care if the author likes peanut butter or nutella :p
matmorrisauthor The people we don’t like, OBVIOUSLY!
Are you proposing we execute Armand because he works on things faster than us?
matmorrisauthor who is Armand?
BatmanErica xgranville I don’t think anyone does :p
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor Dead man walking, apparently.
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor He was on a few or two ago. Armand Rosamillia
xgranville I must have missed that episode o.O
BatmanErica xgranville It was a good unn.
bakwudzbutcher So am I… haha
I’m on a sweet forum that is fun, informative and supportive 😀
Who DOES recognize Canada as a country?
More like a suburb…
ACX doesn’t recognise any country outside of US and UK. Joe Nobody on Kboards used to have a middle-man way of using ACX though. Not sure if it’s still something he does.
matmorrisauthor HEY NOW….you’re a rock star. Get your show on. Go play.
BatmanErica Yarn…
Uh oh. I don’t write all the time…
I am a truck driver, and as such audio books are my life. I couldn’t do my job without it. Radio is garbage, and I have never been more inspired to write than listening to books. It is the best medium for me. Assuming you don’t have some mundane speaker reading your words…
WadeFinnegan , I have 60+ books in my queue so talk me when you’re buried IN ALL THE BOOKS IN THE HISTORY OF EVAR.
I’ll delete ASP before getting Patreon.
#boom
bakwudzbutcher like the university lecturer I had for medical fantasy o.O Monotone >.<
matmorrisauthor I think it’s good for web comic artists.
smut is where the money is.
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor That wasn’t a commentary on Patreon in the slightest.
BatmanErica matmorrisauthor I think Garrett Robinson does pretty well on it.
Ah, my computer won’t play the video and my phone has died… someone want to write a live transcript for me?
Good books are where the money is.
bakwudzbutcher ehhh. Romance or erotic romance seems to be a better performer, especially long term.
Hmm. Good point about finishing projects.
SaffronB don’t do dumb stuff. Only do smart stuff. There you go 🙂
BatmanErica It’s so annoying… Australia isn’t a country either.
SaffronB yet it has it’s own Amazon store!
BatmanErica SaffronB ahaha… ok *Writes down*
SaffronB write. publish. market. repeat 🙂
Off topic. Finally gave in and watched Longmire. They did a really good job of translating it from the books. Hurry up and finish the podcast so I can go back to watching :p
William Goldman!
Rabbit book on TPV: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2015/sales-of-self-published-rabbit-sleep-book-top-29000/
BatmanErica I’d start but I can’t stand Katee Sackhoff. LOVED Deadwood and Justified, tho.
CateMorgan I don’t have a problem with her. I’m keen to see if the relationship from the books still happens in the series.
BatmanErica I’ll have to check out the books, then. I know I was disappointed when there was no Phryne/Jack interaction in the Miss Fisher books–I love them together in the show.
capital x. totally you are that guy. another one of his books. like how I treat Clive Barker.
bakwudzbutcher No genre beyond myself. SORRY! haha
CateMorgan I’ve not seen or read the Miss Fisher books/show. There are differences though in Longmire but some of it is due to how long ago the earlier books are set.
BatmanErica This Miss Fisher books are okay. The show is AMAZING.
Robert, I think you had to write around to find what worked for you. You might not have found that out without doing that though 🙂
CateMorgan I hear Miss Fisher is interesting because of how independent, open minded and sexual the character is for that time period.
matmorrisauthor do you have a business plan?
deep man..
BatmanErica I ave Marathon Man on my Kindle. All I’ve read of his is the Princess Bride.
Why would I have multiple social media for multiple pen names?
BatmanErica There are NO APOLOGIES for her lifestyle. And the actress really embodies the character. Miss Fisher is my hero.
Plus, COSTUMES.
bakwudzbutcher We go there at times haha
go audio. i’ll hear it all guys!!
BatmanErica Yeah that scares me.
bakwudzbutcher Check Robert’s stuff I’m pretty sure he has audiobooks. I recommend him always.
xgranville then don’t have social media for your multiple pen names. Just a separate mailing list.
BatmanErica xgranville That’s what I do. I have two newsletters, one for my Spec Fic and one for romance. But it’s all under my one pen name/website.
BatmanErica I’ve heard it’s good but I couldn’t deal with Lou Diamond Phillips. They needed a bigger (physically) actor. Like casting frickin’ Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher – should have been The Rock in that role.
xgranville bakwudzbutcher Link me bro I will d.l …. and pay!!! lol! ur word recommendations alone of course.
I like that Rob, that’s why I follow Stephen King. “Easter Eggs” are my life.
I like that Rob, that’s why I follow Stephen King. “Easter Eggs” are my life.
PatrickStemp yeah, that was one of the reasons why I was against watching the show. So far he’s not too bad. This version doesn’t have the gravitas of the book Henry though. I’m only two episodes in.
PatrickStemp yeah, that was one of the reasons why I was against watching the show. So far he’s not too bad. This version doesn’t have the gravitas of the book Henry though. I’m only two episodes in.
bakwudzbutcher Flagg. The Crimson King.
bakwudzbutcher Flagg. The Crimson King.
Yay, short fiction!
Yay, short fiction!
BatmanErica Robert’s right–30k is a real sweet spot on so many levels. This makes my writerly heart happy.
BatmanErica Robert’s right–30k is a real sweet spot on so many levels. This makes my writerly heart happy.
Any questions/ things you want us to cover in the next 13 mins?
Any questions/ things you want us to cover in the next 13 mins?
CateMorgan Mine are all under 37k words. In fact, other than the bundle, that’s the longest one I have.
CateMorgan Mine are all under 37k words. In fact, other than the bundle, that’s the longest one I have.
xgranville yes, will Robert be on my podcast when I get it set up? 😛
xgranville yes, will Robert be on my podcast when I get it set up? 😛
xgranville Can Robert expand on self-hosting vs otherwise when it comes to building a list? Why couldn’t build a list through your blog/site when it’s not self-hosted?
xgranville Can Robert expand on self-hosting vs otherwise when it comes to building a list? Why couldn’t build a list through your blog/site when it’s not self-hosted?
BatmanErica xgranville I’ll just say probably. Given he’s awesome and Canadian
SPRT – the only podcast that isn’t actually on any of the podcast feeds. Get on that, fellas! 🙂
PatrickStemp My bad, as always!
How do you limit your character numbers? I find myself flooding my stories with unrequired people, likely belonging to other stories. What number of active characters do you recommend per novel?
BatmanErica What are you going to cast?
CateMorgan xgranville Not sure, but I think that there are significant limits on what you can do on sites like Blogger or WordPress.com. I don’t think you can link Aweber to a site that isn’t self-hosted, and you for sure can’t sell from those sites.
CateMorgan xgranville For extra fees, you can use a regular dot com URL, and for more extra fees, you can get rid of the ads. All in all, it’s just easier to get a self-hosted site.
Got to hang out with more people who are actually encouraging.
General NZ public don’t know about self publishing. So I just ask if I have books out.
EF those people.
BEVERAGE ALERT.
I listen to successful people. It’s that simple, really.
CateMorgan Just ice water. Tomorrow is a work day. 🙁
LRDennis Thank goodness–that would have been alcohol abuse!
AKA Telling It Like It Is
CateMorgan LRDennis I never abuse alcohol, but always treat it with respect.
@LRDennis With Reverence, even. It’s an Irish thing.
CateMorgan It is a thing. Promise.
xgranville Remind me one day to tell you about my shipwrecked vodka. It’s EPIC.
CateMorgan xgranville Makes a nice change from rum. Or rye, I suppose.
LRDennis xgranville I do rum in summer, when fresh seafood is plentiful. YUM.
Gotta go. Laters all 😀
Wow, guys, that most the most amazing answer ever! thank you!
BatmanErica SaffronB I know… I mean, really ACX? Surely it can’t be that hard to open up services… right?
When in doubt, put out.
Ah, specifically WordPress.org.
matmorrisauthor Um….are you sure about that?
This is how I approach both my personal AND professional lives…
matmorrisauthor Bet you haven’t had to research brothel laws for your current WIP, though…
That’s not the drink I gave you!!
bakwudzbutcher I’ve saved the last bit of Bushmills :p
xgranville bakwudzbutcher So not catholic of you!!
Rob links please!!
xgranville bakwudzbutcher I think I might have some Tullydo somewhere…*searches*
https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/hoaevent/AP36tYfHJ_zSsTtueBB16VIBsZxuPjipqbye7-sdXq3_uP9xJv2xyA
After party
writerwade Can’t…sick child says no. Have fun guys 😀
bakwudzbutcher Apparently Robert doesn’t have audiobooks. However, his Kindle books and paperbacks can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Chazz-Chute/e/B007D97QCQ
bakwudzbutcher Damn Canada and its inability to make money at things…
xgranville bakwudzbutcher thanks bro