We announced a couple of changes today. We won’t be discussing SPP or STP during the show any longer, unless we think their show was really news worthy. We will instead be focussing the indie publishing news, and how it affects you, the indie author.
We also added a new member to our crew, someone most of you should be very familiar with, David W Wright.
Dave is part of the Self Publishing Podcast, as well as being a prolific and successful indie author.
So on the new format we discussed several articles this week, in between a lot of technical glitches.
A self published author who turned down an Amazon deal.
Hugh Howie’s new way to share his books with his fans.
Wattpad doing a ‘Kickstarter’-like program for writers.
Random House has launched a “choose your own adventure” game/book online.
Smashwords enables pre-orders.
Kobo hires Diego Marano to be a Writing Life Editor. John reached out to Mark LeFebreve for more details. Diego has a history of being an acquisitions editor. His hire could mean that Kobo is considering some type of curated offering such as Kindle Singles. (He is doing the same job as Mark but in Europe)
We didn’t get to a couple of articles, but if you’d like to read them here they are:
DRM issues when crossing borders with your ebooks.
Related: When content providers allow legal streaming of their content, piracy goes down and profits rise. Imagine that!
An article about how healthcare law changes in the US will affect freelance writers (and everyone)
The episode is live here. I am hoping you guys will be able to chat more freely that on YouTube.
Comments on the comments
crissymoss Commenting on the comment on the comments.
gregorylynn crissymoss Gregory Lynn in the hooouse.
Ooh, I’ve got a livefyre account now. Yet another password in my life to remember…
Carl Sinclair gregorylynn crissymoss Yes, yes he is. You can tell because your Doritos are missing and your dog is…wait…I think I should have thought this through a little more.
Oh, wait, EDITING YAY!
Buddy, you have to get Last Pass.
Nicholas Kahler I don’t know what than mean, Nick. Lol
BuddyGott Nicholas Kahler Google it! It’s a password manager. It will make your life a million times easier.
Hi everyone!
Hello everyone. Welcome to THE place to be.
Nicholas Kahler BuddyGott Thanks, man!
crissymoss Hi Crissy!
Howdy… Here for the first 30 minutes so you better start on time.
13 people here. Could be a good omen.
sryeager better watch it, steve. Carl has a ‘moderator’ tag next to his name.
Nicholas Kahler sryeager I’m trembling in both fear and anticipation.
Nicholas Kahler sryeager Yeah watch your attitudes.
So….our main discussion will be the news about Ben Affleck being cast as Batman, right?
BuddyGott I hope that is a fucking joke.
All this pre-game discussion makes me want to have popcorn or something. What an event!
Carl Sinclair BuddyGott Nope. He got the role in the Batman/Superman movie.
Bout to go live my pretties.
Carl Sinclair Yay…he thinks we’re pretty!
Carl Sinclair Can I just say? This is _way_ better than YouTube so far.
Nicholas Kahler Carl Sinclair Agreed…
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
BuddyGott Carl Sinclair Put that on my list of movies never to watch.
Cool, I made it before you went live!
Trish McCallan Welcome!
Carl Sinclair Lies! All lies!
And you’ve hit the big leagues with 17 people listening live. :0
Trish McCallan Yeah, we’re almost legitimate.
Trish McCallan Is that just here or on YouTube also?
Press play!
John just stepped out of the Matrix.
Gotta fix that intro music. Sounds like you are playing it through you phone.
Did John just come from a meeting with his parole officer?
sryeager He is
BuddyGott I’ll explain in the show.
Yay, more Dave.
Dave is like the dark version of Merlin for the round table.
Dave’s here now… gonna loose your “clean” rating.
sryeager I thought people wanted us to be more dirty mouthed.
Wait, he was a tenured college professor?
Fuck, man, he must be making a bundle to give up a job that’s basically guaranteed for life.
gregorylynn fiction is kind of evergreen _and_ it’s passive. technically speaking, it’s a better deal than working for your money, even in a guaranteed position.
Nicholas Kahler He wasn’t working, he was a college professor.
Nicholas Kahler gregorylynn I would have probably done both.
A quick question for the panel. Nutter Butters, best cookie ever?
Dave & Bill: Lower third!
gregorylynn I have never heard of them. Should I love them?
Carl Sinclair Yes, yes you should. Peanut butter sandwich cookies. They’re yummy.
I’m with Dave on this. There’s no reason to close any doors. There’s still value in traditional publishing if you negotiate properly.
Nicholas Kahler Totally agree, Nicholas. No reason to burn bridges.
gregorylynn Carl Sinclair Kickstarter to mail a case of Nutter Butters to Carl in Australia.
Nicholas Kahler Mr. Ander-so-o-o-n.
jlward Nicholas Kahler Even aside from burning bridges, I would imagine that having one novel promoted well by Amazon would introduce a lot of readers to you as an author. As such, the lower pay rate could be seen as an advertisement cost.
Can everyone here Billbo?
Carl Sinclair Yes
One of the reasons she said she wouldn’t sign with them was because they didn’t give her any guarantees for the promos, which is true, they can’t give you any guarantees.
gregorylynn jlward Nicholas Kahler Exactly, Greg.
jlward gregorylynn Nicholas Kahler Also, that makes it like baseball.
Is there a reason why my audio and video are a little out of synch.
gregorylynn black magic?
Nicholas Kahler gregorylynn Gremlins.
gregorylynn Mine is too. Listening instead of watching.
gregorylynn I’m getting a video lag too
I will say that if you are consistently selling well at the other distributors and you are consistently getting down to the bottom of the Kindle store all by yourself– then I’d think twice about taking a deal with Amazon publishing.
Yes, Forged in Fire had been self-published and then they bought the series.
Agree with Dave on the promotions too- Amazon does promote all publishers as well as alot of self-publishers.
Well this is awkward.
Carl Sinclair It’s fine, dude. Good show.
I only missed a couple of seconds of Crissy talking.
Sorry everyone it seems Google Hangouts is fucked up pretty bad today.
Carl Sinclair are you able to join again?
So…uh….how’s everyone doing?
BuddyGott Buddy, it says we’re back on-air. Can you see us?
jlward BuddyGott Nope
So for anyone who wants to reproduce what Hugh Howey did: “Contact Shawn at Fine productions: shawn@fineproductions. They are amazing.”
That quote is from his live unboxing of the cards for the giveaway. A response to a comment by none other than Z. C. Bolger!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_7hNQJzW_Qw
Now you’re back…..and no, you don’t have to stop sex stories
BuddyGott jlward Yeah, nope is right.
Oh, you’re back.
Welcome back.
Nicholas Kahler Thanks for sharing that. This is actually a good feature for this commenting system that you’re able to embed video
jlward Nicholas Kahler I had no idea it would do that. I’m loving this new comment system!
sryeager Thanks for hanging in there, Steve.
Nicholas Kahler jlward Yeah, this is awesome
Uh-Oh, what did you guys do the the Google gods? Did you forget to make your sacrifice before the show?
So wait…Dave smiles and Google crashes…hmm. Clearly we shouldn’t introdue him to any athletic young blonde girls.
Trish McCallan Yeah it seems I pissed them off.
Awww…I missed all the fun.
Jeff Moriarty from Books and Beer is doing some interesting stuff on Wattpad with a CYOA (choose your own adventure) style story.
shroudbetween I told them to not start without you, but they wouldn’t listen.
Nicholas Kahler Agreed. I’ve subscribed to him there as well.
I posted scenes from Forged in Fire when I first self-published it, my very first sales and reviews were from Wattpad users.
Trish McCallan That’s good to know.
Gotta go. I’ll catch the rest of the show sometime later. First impression is I like it a lot. Serious and on topic, which is nice (technical glitches aside).
sryeager See you, Steve
sryeager Thanks for the feedback, Steve. I’m enjoying the new format as well.
sryeager Wait, serious and on topic?
sryeager Farewell my friend.
gregorylynn sryeager Greg…damn you…I’ve been craving Nutter Butters for the past half hour…
I’m gonna have to come back and listen to the first half. The topic is interesting, but I missed a lot (damn you errand-run), and feel just a little lost.
I barely have supermarkets I can get to let alone ones that deliver.
gregorylynn But, you have a plethora of places to purchase (please notice the alliteration) boiled peanuts.
BuddyGott gregorylynn sryeager Yeah…I’m a bastard.
jlward gregorylynn I really don’t, and I am very thankful.
This is insane. There’s been like half a dozen topics and the hour isn’t even over.
Nicholas Kahler Bad insane?
Carl Sinclair Nicholas Kahler Pretty great!
Carl Sinclair Nicholas Kahler It’s insane because the comments can keep up, and I can pop out to grab almost any piece of content (including other YT vids) and bring them back in a timely fashion.
Carl Sinclair Nicholas Kahler I’m enjoying it.
shroudbetween Carl Sinclair Nicholas Kahler I’m digging it.
Also, Mark has a podcast called the kobo writing life podcast that features an interview with Dave and his sidekick in a recent episode.
Yay! Crissy’s back!
shroudbetween Carl Sinclair Nicholas Kahler We did a lot of prep : )
Carl Sinclair shroudbetween Nicholas Kahler It shows. Good job, peoples =D
Dave’s rant broke the hangout.
Did Wade just totally call that?
I am almost but not quite convinced that Kobo is the second most important place to put your books now.
Ahh fuck it, I’m all the way convinced. Kobo is doing things to get bigger and better and goddamnit Dave, you’re making the point I am trying to type you rat bastard, ,which is to say B&N isn’t doing things to get bigger and better they’re doing things to go out of business.
I miss Borders.
If bookstores liked readers better, they wouldn’t have to worry about Amazon.
I love Dave. Lol
I don’t read erotica. I read “aggressive romance” novels.
shroudbetween Aggressive romance…yeah.
Love this new format!!!
Wait…what did Dave just say about me? PEOPLE WERE TALKING OVER THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE SHOW!!
SPRT just trumped all other podcasts. Sorry Dave.
Actually I’m the same. Listen every week, but only went to the website once to send them an email.
gregorylynn I’ll find out and reply here.
Go Dave, Go.
gregorylynn I said your name.
He said, “The always sunny and funny (and sexy) Gregory Lynn.
Do you really want to call the show spurt?
gregorylynn Yes we did that on purpose.
Yes, love the new format, the new website and your new co-host. Great job everyone!
Trish McCallan Ditto =)
Glad you guys liked it.
gregorylynn That’s the joke 😉
BuddyGott Then it probably wasn’t that interesting. Especially with my internet crashing.
BuddyGott Nicholas Kahler jlward Yeah I am happy with it. It just doesn’t seem to lag out like YT does.
BuddyGott Carl Sinclair Oh jesus titty fuck…
BuddyGott Thanks Buddicon. Get yourself a picture… you have many of them.
gregorylynn jlward Nicholas Kahler Too add to this comment, when Amazon pushes Montlake author’s house titles, their self-published titles (if they’re within the same genre) get a huge boost. The best of both words, IMHO–the promo pushes the titles you get a higher percentage rate on too.
checking in.
Trish McCallan Looking back down memory lane. Seems so long ago now!