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Those of you who watched, or listened to Sept 25th SPRT show already know that Carl had sent an email to the SPRT hosts that Thursday morning explaining that he was stepping down effective immediately due to time constraints. This created a domino effect and one by one John, Kevin and Wade stepped down as well. By the time the show aired, I was the only host still interested in keeping the show running. At the time I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to manage the show on my own. Luckily, I haven’t needed to. Almost immediately I found two full-time Indie authors with the experience, energy and drive to take the show to the next level.
I’ll introduce our two new co-hosts in a bit, but right now I want to address several changes we’ll be making to the show’s format. Several weeks back Carl polled our audience about what they felt were the weaknesses of SPRT and what changes they’d like to see us make. Many of the issues our viewers brought up, were issues we were aware of ourselves, but hadn’t taken steps to address: i.e.- too many hosts, talking over each other, the show being unorganized and going off track. But a couple of things were brought up that we were unaware of. For example, quite a few viewers requested more craft questions, and they wanted to hear the hosts’ opinions on the subjects being discussed.
Prior to the other hosts quitting, we’d planned to implement a new show format to address the above issues and provide a more organized show. This new format will start with our October 9th show. Moving forward, each author interview will be broken into four segments. Segment one will be the usual introduction, where the guest author will give a thumbnail account of their background, and how they ended up Indie publishing. Segment two will be craft sections. During this section we’ll ask questions about their process. Segment three will be a general publishing segment where we’ll ask about their publishing schedule, their publishing processes, and their production methods. Segment three will cover marketing and the final segment will cover viewer questions.
We will also be alternating the guest interviews with hot topic roundtable discussions. During these roundtable discussions we’ll take the topics everyone is talking about and hold a roundtable discussion on them. We’ll have two guest authors who are pro the topic and two against. The hosts will weigh in with their feelings/experiences during these discussions.
Thursday, October 2nd’s show will be all about the new SPRT. You’ll meet the new hosts, we’ll give everyone our individual industry biography and credits and we’ll explain the changes we’re planning on making to the show.
October 9th show will be with Indie author Kendra Highley who is writing Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction. She also has a Contemporary Young Adult out with Entangled Publishing.
October 16th will be our first Hot Topic show. We’ll discuss Kindle Unlimited. This should be a very interesting show considering the strong feelings this program has engendered within the Indie community.
And now let me introduce you to your new hosts.
Trish McCallan:
I write military romantic thrillers and paranormal romantic suspense. I have a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing. I spent several years querying agents and editors and got nowhere. In September of 2011, I self-published Forged in Fire, a military romantic thriller. A month after hitting publish, sales took off and Fire spent the next eleven months as one of the top selling romantic suspense novels on Amazon. Three months after publication I quit my day job to write full time. Four months after publication I was offered a four book contract by Montlake Romance. (Amazon Publishing). I pulled Fire eleven months after publishing it, so Montlake could publish their edition. In those eleven months as a self-published title it sold just over 45,000 copies and earned me around $90,000. (Note: I honestly don’t think I could replicate what happened in today’s self-publishing climate. Things have changed to drastically)
I have been incredibly lazy through the past few years. While the second book in the series, Forged in Ash, was published by Montlake last January, and the third and fourth books in the series are in various stages of production, I haven’t been writing enough to step back into Indie publishing. I plan to rectify that this coming year with a new series titled Spirit Woods- a paranormal romantic suspense series about resurrections and second chances. This new series will launch this fall with a 30K word novella titled Spirit Woods, which is slated for release on October 28th through the Twelve Shades of Midnight Box set. The second book in the series, Awaken, is scheduled for publication in early winter of 2015. It will be interesting to see how this new series fares compared to my SEALs series.
Lindsay Buroker:
When it became obvious that I needed to find a new co-host, the first person I thought of was Lindsay Buroker. Lindsay is best known for her fantasy novels and has been making a full time living off her writing as long as I have. She has been much more productive than me, however, and has published over a dozen novels across several genres in the past few years. She also pens a very popular blog on her site where she often tackles Indie related news or advice. We’d been getting requests to interview Lindsay long before we convinced her to join us on the show. The interview we did with Lindsay was back in May (SPRT 45, for those who’d like to check it out) and I remember thinking she’d make a great host for the show. Lindsay has tons of experience and knowledge and will make a fantastic addition to SPRT.
Adam Poe:
Our third host is Adam Poe. Unlike Lindsay and me, Adam is much newer to the Indie scene and a brand new full time author. He writes Young Adult/ Urban Fantasy along with his wife under the pen name K. A. Poe and will be launching a solo career later this year.
Adam started writing stories in elementary school and never stopped. He wed another writer during college in Tennessee, moved around the country, and then settled down into a traditional corporate job in Arizona. Shortly after having their daughter in late 2010, Adam and his wife Kayla began looking into finishing a fantasy novel together and self-publishing it through Amazon’s new KDP platform. This process took longer than expected, but the couple published their first novel, Twin Souls, under his wife’s initials (K.A. Poe) on Amazon during March 2012. Over the next year and a half, they wrote, published, and marketed as time allowed but made little money. At the end of 2013 Adam and his wife decided to take writing and publishing much more seriously and to develop it into a career and business. It was time to make strides toward leaving the corporate world behind and supporting their family through fiction. Over the first half of 2014 they streamlined their tag-team writing and publishing processes and increased their output and sales numbers by tenfold. Adam and his wife, Kayla, are now a full-time, independent publishing team.
Adam is also the owner and operator of Frostbite Publishing, a website dedicated to providing top notch beta reading, critiquing, formatting, and editing services for other indie authors. You can follow his blogging antics at http://adampoe.com or follow his writing and publishing advice at http://wayofthepen.com. He is also on track to put out a new novel under his own name in late 2014.
To date, Adam and Kayla have published ten full length novels and one short story. Total book sales are at 35,000 with most of these sales in 2014.
Adam is in the unique position of working as part of a team, as a solo author, and as an owner operator of a publishing service company. He will be a great asset to SPRT.
If anyone has any questions for Trish, Lindsay or Adam, please leave them in the comments and we’ll answer them during the show.
This looks like it will be great. Sounds like all three of you can walk the walk and talk the talk–or write the book(s)… 🙂 Looking forward to it!
BatmanErica Thanks Erica, looks like we’ll be able to seamlessly transition forward which is a relief. And yes, we’ll still be holding the after parties!
Good luck Trish! I’ll email you the deets tomorrow.
Honored to be offered a host position and am really looking forward to it! See everyone on Thursday night.
Trish McCallan yay, after parties! I should be there this week 🙂
Sounds like an amazing new team! I’m sad Carl’s leaving (nooo, Carl!) and will miss seeing the others, too, but it’s great that you’re going to be continuing, Trish. Hurray for Lindsey (who I love) and Adam (who I look forward to getting to know)!
I’m so relieved you got some help, Trish–looking forward to seeing the new lineup! 🙂
These changes sound great, and I am so happy that the show didn’t end altogether! This is definitely one of my favorite podcasts; I listen to almost every episode all the way through. I thoroughly enjoyed Lindsay’s interview and will look forward to hearing more from her.
I am crossing my fingers that things will stay on schedule and that I will publish my first two novels before the new year. Whatever marketing success I have will be largely thanks to this show. 🙂
I’m so glad that asshole kevin michael and his dark podcasting cave is gone. Now this show has a legitimate shot of succeeding without him!
KU apocalypse week 11. Sales status–live support. Must use auxillary Bezos power.
Hi, guys! We’re getting ready to go! Trish is here on a different laptop, so she’ll comment live next time! 🙂
Evening all.
kevinmichael3 I just assumed that guy was some kind of vampire, Kevin. 🙂
PatrickStemp Evening
PatrickStemp Heya! 🙂
Glad to be here!
*slides into the room*
Oh, hi there, my friends. 😀
Well hello there.
Carl Sinclair Hey, Carl, Did you bring the beer? 🙂
Carl Sinclair IT’S A CARL!
hi. 😀
S.M. Butler Howdy!
A wild Carl Sinclair appears.
Carl Sinclair sinclair, sans beard. Carl Sinclair would not approve of that.
Lindsay Buroker Carl Sinclair Gin and tonic Lindsay 🙂
Wait a minute, people are actually making money during the KU apocalypse? Their shit monster bunker must be well stocked.
Looking forward to the new format. Some of which we had began to discuss as adding before I left and some other stuff I know Trish wanted to do for a while (the topics)
Glad to see things are in good hands.
Friends don’t let friends post on kboards.
Lindsay Buroker?!!! Well, hot diggity dog. I am super excited!!!! And the new format sound awesome.
Hello everyone!
Hi Stacy Claflin ! You look familiar … 😉
Adam – did you start a new YouTube account?
Carl Sinclair Nope. I just know Google-Fu
Adam Poe Carl Sinclair Ah you’ve just renamed it.
Carl Sinclair That doesn’t sound as exciting, though
Stealing Erica’s line: Ohai 🙂
michelleread Hi Michelle Read.
Adam Poe So do you!
michelleread MICHELLE!! *pounces*
Hi Lindsay! 🙂
Howdy partner!
Rawr! hi Suzan!
Sorry I’m late. Just back from belated birthday lunch with my Dad
michelleread thief!
Whew, she put me on the spot while I was posting on Kboards. But it was about the show, so it’s okay. I think. *innocent whistle*
Lindsay Buroker You did fine 🙂
Hi Trish and Lindsey! I’m on my phone so I’m not getting everything as quickly but I’ll try to keep up. Kiddo has the computer for debate homework.
TarynMarkele Will try not to disappoint. 😀
Woo advanced hangouts!
Just out of curiosity, how come it’s stuck on Adam and doesn’t switch around like normal?
michelleread Hey there you.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
michelleread Hiya! 🙂
S.M. Butler Eep, it should switch. I’ll ask him in the chat there.
S.M. Butler someone in the hangout clicked on him. If they could click on him again, they should be able to undo it.
Hi Patrick
michelleread debatable…I had beef and bean nachos for lunch!
BatmanErica S.M. Butler I’ll click on whatever I can. (Or maybe we just decided he’s the prettiest one here and that he should be the face…)
Lindsay Buroker S.M. Butler He probably has it clicked on himself. As the host that wont allow it to switch people. he needs to uncheck himself.
Lindsay Buroker S.M. Butler this happened once before. It might be Adam that needs to click on little version of him.
Carl Sinclair Thanks, Carl! I’ll let him know. S.M. Butler
My hubby and I nutted out an idea for a sci fi novel. He doesn’t write though but he’s a reader of that genre so I’m picking his brain for what is in the books he reads. It’s on the back burner though. I want to put it out under his name, but he’s partial to the name ‘Dave’ or ‘Steve’ >.<
I do that when I’m nervous so I don’t have to look at the people…!
Beavers and ducks!
michelleread you’d rather look at yourself? Isn’t that a bit vain?
It’s switching now just fine.
Do you guys have any questions we should ask Trish? Like how she got 1000 reviews on her first book? 😀 (I’m totally asking that one.)
Lindsay Buroker I missed the first 20 minutes, so I don’t know what she’s already said…
Mimi Werebeaver a wereduck?
She interviewed me (these are mini interviews) and now Adam but hasn’t done her own background stuff yet. She’s up next!
BatmanErica Lindsay Buroker Damn – so have I. I’ll have to watch this one later when it’s not school holidays
hi
RolandDenzel ohai 🙂
Demelza Carlton school holidays here too. Luckily the children in this street are elsewhere 🙂
Mimi Werebeaver Ah! I had to hit up IMDB to remember which Billy Bob movie that was. Bandits, right?
PatrickStemp Mimi Werebeaver Yes! I just like to say it randomly. 🙂
kevinmichael3 Stay strong, kev!
S.M. Butler Sorry about that. Definitely not used to being the host. Should be good now I hope 😛
Things that make you go hmmmm.
kevinmichael3 I have one series that has doubled in sales!!!! From 1 a day to 2 a day.
Oh my word no! I don’t look at myself either! *Michelle turns camera off forever*
Mimi Werebeaver kevinmichael3 when i see a thread about whether street teams are a form of sock puppetry, it’s hard not to.
Adam Poe No biggie. Just thought I’d mention it in case you didn’t know. Or maybe it was a new thing I didn’t know about. LOL. And yeah, it’s working now. 🙂
Mimi Werebeaver kevinmichael3 how dare you downplay your success. pitchforks.
michelleread 😛
Question for Lindsay: Just wondering where you find such great beta readers. Asking for a friend.
HitchedSoldier Flagging to make sure she sees. Thanks for the question!
Trish McCallan is my new hero!
Interesting new format. Can’t believe everyone quite at the same time! 0.0
Glad to see you didn’t give up, Trish. Go Girl!
The show is about to hit an hour. If anyone had a question for myself, Lindsay, or Trish, let us know now! It won’t be long before we’re finishing up!
michelleread this scares me >.< http://slittens.tumblr.com/
Okay! I’ve missed like, the whole thing. Had a child barfing next to me. I’ll watch it tomorrow.
michelleread Poor sick baby.
BatmanErica michelleread Erica that’s disturbing!
michelleread Always fun … :s
michelleread I did say it scared me!
S.M. Butler michelleread He likes me to rub his back while he sicks up. It’s super sweet! And also makes it difficult to plug my ears.
.
Adam Poe michelleread Yeah – yucky. BUT…..in our house, after you barf, you get a high five.
michelleread S.M. Butler give him a bucket and put in your headphones
michelleread My kids learned early on that I am incapable of being in the same room when they upchuck unless they want me to be right there upchucking with me.
michelleread I do not envy you, Michell.
michelleread Adam Poe lol
crissymoss Hey Crissy
BatmanErica I think “Dave Steve” is a nice pen name.
street teams are sock puppetry. kboards says so.
crissymoss michelleread I’m not a sympathy puker, thank goodness! Not for kids, anyway!
How should authors of frequently published short stories manage the cost of cover art? Covers should be quality/expensive to attract interest, yet paying as much for a short story cover as you would for a full-length novel cover is less than ideal.
I’m very happy that the show will continue. I’ve learned a lot about the industry through watching and taking notes.
BatmanErica michelleread Roland wants
@RolandDenzel @michelleread @S.M. Butler I did actually put in my headphones!
kevinmichael3 You definitely need to believe everything you see on Kboards. It’s all true! 😀
Spencer Wightman The thing is… for cover artists, it doesn’t matter if it’s a short story or a novel. It takes the same amount of time to do that cover.
But if they’re connected, you could do one as a template and do different hues or background images or something of that nature. 🙂
S.M. Butler Spencer Wightman That’s a good idea. Anything to keep the cost down, as well as the time investment (which is also money)
Lindsay Buroker kevinmichael3 when i crash and burn from kboards advice, i’m blaming you buroker.
kevinmichael3 My street team isn’t nearly as obedient as kboards seem to think it should be.
ZoeYorkWrites kevinmichael3 I told you you need to use that whip more. LOL
Spencer Wightman I think you can get away with minimalism. Perhaps do the covers yourself to minimise the cost.
Spencer Wightman in the print world, anthologies have a similar cover from issue to issue, so you could do that. Same basic cover, but different color banner, symbol, text, etc. Maybe a simple foreground subject change, but not a whole new cover
S.M. Butler ZoeYorkWrites kevinmichael3 there’s a site that can help you out with all your publishing dilemma’s. you may have heard of it. www.romancedivas.com
S.M. Butler ZoeYorkWrites kevinmichael3 but that’s a different type of book, altogether!
kevinmichael3 S.M. Butler ZoeYorkWrites Haha. Never heard of it! But I bet they rock.
Also? DRINK!
Spencer Wightman If you are doing short stories that are similar, or are in the same world then get one cover with different color background or something. Also don’t get them from the REALLY EXPENSIVE people. Get one from someone who’s doing good ones, but doesn’t charge a whole lot. Cheapest way is to get stock art and do your own typography, but you have to learn typography to make it look alright.
Totally agree with Trish on the bundling issue. Anthologies sell a little better then single shorts.
I’ve got lots of short stories and have learned to make decent covers. I just figure I’ll save up till I can afford a really good one to do them all together.
^^ this too. Three of my shorter stories have the same background image with a different foreground image. Another series has the same typography with a different image on them.
Okay so I’ve missed THE ENTIRE THING. Who wants to SPRT with me tomorrow?!?!?! I’d like a redo.
michelleread I can!
michelleread crissymoss Ya, it’s still gross, and smells bad.
michelleread crissymoss it’s not sympathy, it’s cause it grosses you out and makes you puke. Seeing other people’s boogers has make me barf up in front of them (this was when I was a child).
crissymoss michelleread True – this wasn’t actual barf, though. He was just stopped up and choking on snot. Not smelly or super disgusting, but did have all the sound effects. AND I’m done talking about it.
Thanks, everyone, for the helpful responses 🙂
BatmanErica michelleread crissymoss Gross!!!! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew
After party?
BatmanErica uh, isn’t every day a party?
afterparty me. kevinmichael3@gmail.com
Afterparty? I’m in! rdenzel@gmail.com
me afterparty! zoeyorkwrites@gmail.com
michelleread these days my husband does something that grosses me out and makes me puke >.<
Me please erica@ericaconroy.com
Afterparty me! suzanbutler01@gmail.com I need more ways to avoid working tonight.
me rtinder2006@gmail.com
kevinmichael3 Are you doing hangout?
Good job ladies and gentleman : )
Want in the afterparty? Post your e-mails.
Adam Poe zoeyorkwrites@gmail.com 🙂
Adam Poe yes. kevinmichael3@gmail.com
Adam Poe yes. rtinder2006@gmail.com
Adam Poe erica@ericaconroy.com
Adam Poe suzanbutler01@gmail.com
Lindsay, it’s absolutely adorable that you think your betas aren’t getting anything out of the exchange. Not that I don’t want you to send me chocolate, but you don’t have to. Listening to my very many opinions is enough!
kevinmichael3 Adam Poe Sent!
rdavis Adam Poe Sent!
BatmanErica Adam Poe Sent!
S.M. Butler Adam Poe Sent!
RolandDenzel Sent!
Adam Poe Maybe next week. Would defeat the purpose of leaving the show to finish this book if I spend my time watching it and being in the afterparty. : )
Adam Poe rdenzel@gmail.com
Adam Poe RolandDenzel I’m not getting any invite this time
SarahAlias lol, thanks Sarah. Hey, is that yet another last name? Who *are* you, lady?
I am vast; I contain multitudes. Also, I decided to use an alias that was interchangeable with all others because it WAS Alias. What Sarah am I? I am everysarah.