Between them, blogging and twitter changed my life.

Seriously. If you’ve been around here long enough, you know I am an evangelist for both. They have brought me friends and peers, connections and speaking opportunities, customers, income and a regular writing practice that has given me the confidence to pursue a fiction writing career. But I have had to put the work in. Today I’m delighted to have Alexis Grant back on the podcast to talk about making your own luck in social media, which is definitely something I believe in.

At the end, I have added a short interview with me about my latest novel Prophecy which you can also view here. I also talk about the Pro Writer Novelist Academy with NY Times bestselling author CJ Lyons – you can sign up for advance notification here.

Alexis Grant is an entrepreneur, social media strategist, freelance journalist and travel writer who now helps other people with building an effective online presence. She has just released a course on ‘Using social media to make your own luck’. [Video at the end of the post]

• How to put your networks in place and make strategic connections so that opportunities to come to you. People say ‘you’re so lucky’ but actually you can make your own luck. The course is an email a  day for a month so you can put strategies into place to build your networks.

• For writers, it might mean meeting an editor, or a literary agent. Or connecting with other authors for peer support or blurbing books, or writing opportunities.

• Alexis was named as one of the bloggers to watch in 2012 on Problogger. I was on that list a few years ago and being on lists like that make a real difference. We both connected personally with the writer of the piece, Jade Craven.

• How Alexis met her agent, Rachelle Gardner through her connections on Twitter.

• Don’t just target the ‘big names’. Start the process with connecting with anyone who is interesting to you as well as people with lots of followers. But people with smaller and more targeted networks are great too. Alexis and I met on Twitter in early 2009 when we had little blogs and no real audience. We’ve both grown our platforms since then but we connected before it all.

• How long will it take to make an impact? It does take a while. You need to be consistent over time and make it a habit. How can you push your networks to the next level.

• Alexis recommends Rapportive as a Gmail plugin. It gives you all the social media links of the person who has emailed you.  [It's awesome - I now use it too] It means you can connect on multiple channels which keeps you in their mind.

• Who are you connecting with? Readers or other people in your industry. Word of mouth is word of mouth and people do share in their networks. Just connect on a personal level.

• How Alexis moved from her day job as a journalist to full time entrepreneur. She creates online products but also works with clients as a social media strategist building communities for people. She does a lot of blogging with start-ups.

• How Alexis uses her writing to make money. Creating content is a full-time job – blogging and tweeting for companies. She also writes creatively including an essay on Salon.com

• Alexis wrote a travel memoir a few years ago. It’s with her agent but the traditional publishing industry moves so slowly. She has published several ebooks since then, so it’s strange to experience both worlds of fast and slow. How Alexis feels about the control aspect of publishing and what she’s planning for her writing. The difficult of selling memoir as indie published. Non-fiction as more lucrative than fiction. Alexis has changed a lot since she wrote the memoir but it’s not her focus at the moment.

• On the lifestyle of an entrepreneur. Alexis is heading off to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in February. She will do some work while she’s there but it’s an experiment in running her business while traveling. I quit my day job a month after Alexis and so we’re both excited about what will change in the next 2 years

You can find Alexis at her site AlexisGrant.com and on twitter @alexisgrant .

You can check out her course at Make Your Own Luck.

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The indie publishing world continues in constant flux but a new strident voice has recently appeared on the scene. Today David Gaughran shares his story.

David Gaughran is the author of historical novel ‘A Storm Hits Valparaiso’ as well as several short story collections. He has also published ‘Let’s get digital: How to self-publish and why you should‘.  [Video at the end of the post]

• How David got started. He’s been writing for a long time but in 2005 he started seriously writing with the aim of publication. After a few attempts, he started historical novel A Storm Hits Valparaiso. He sent it out to agents and publishers as well as working on it to improve it over a number of years. After 18 months he was feeling quite down about the project and the continued rejection. In Christmas 2010, he heard from a NY agent who was interested, but then he never heard from him again. This is not an unusual story but David felt disappointed and in a negative place.

• It was around this time that Barry Eisler walked away from $0.5 million and then Amanda Hocking got her $2.5 million deal. This made David notice indie publishing and so he investigated further. On KindleBoards he found authors who weren’t household names but they were making a living from their books. Most of these authors were unpublished and unknown before going indie. Realizing one book is not enough, he started writing short stories and put them up on Kindle. He found the joy of writing again and decided that indie was the most empowering way.

• How David’s blog Let’s Get Digital has been his journey into indie and self-publishing. He started it at a time when self-publishing was going mainstream but his regular posts and strong opinions have made it a must read blog for those interested in the industry.

• On Amazon KDP Select. David personally doesn’t think it’s a good idea but for some writers, it is clearly a good thing.
  
• On subscription based reading. Readers will be offered a system for a monthly fee and they get a certain number of books for free. This will become a dominant model. It’s important to keep control of pricing as this is a key competitive advantage for indies. When we compete for the same amount in a pot we lose control of pricing and this is the bad side of KDP Select.

• Is anyone challenging Amazon at this point? Nook is up for sale but it may be bought by a company that can aggressively roll it out worldwide. Kobo was bought by a large Japanese company which is strong in places Amazon is weak. In the US, Amazon are pretty entrenched. But e-reading is bring a renaissance in reading as it’s so much easier to experience and generally cheaper.

Since David and I talked, Apple has come out with the iBooks Author program. It has excited some people but others have been upset about its terms and conditions.

• Europe and ebooks. There’s a huge difference between countries with a Kindle store and those that don’t. Also holding back the dominance of ebooks is VAT or sales tax. There isn’t tax on print books in many countries (UK included) but there is on ebooks. This means print can be cheaper. There’s also an additional cost if you don’t have a Kindle store for your country. But the ebook market is still growing at a phenomenal rate so the revolution will happen, it’s just a bit slower. I mention India again – Amazon are opening a distribution warehouseand often the next step is a Kindle store. We shall see! But Brazil will likely be before that. Back on the subscription model, David thinks there will be free devices if people sign up for the subscription, as we already see in cell phone packages.
  

  Cheap print books mean slower uptake of ebooks

• What are indie publishers still getting wrong? They are getting better but the basics are still wrong. People need to spend more money on editing and cover design. The blurb has to be good. The front matter needs to be in the back of the book. The reader needs to be grabbed in the sample. Don’t wait. People say they can’t afford $1000 for the professionals but you have to do it in order to have a quality product. Or barter or find some way to get the money. Don’t go into debt but you have to make sacrifices. You need a pro editor and a pro designer. You need fantastic blurb. It has to be perfect. Skimping on these things is the worst thing you can do. You’ll end up spending more later otherwise. You will lose readers unless you produce a professional product. Your competition is every other book on Amazon. It’s about reading time – why should they give it to you?

• On marketing. It’s the old saying, 50% of marketing works, but you don’t know which 50%. You have to try a bit of everything and see what happens. Look at what others are doing. You don’t have to do everything and nothing guarantees success. See what works for you and your readers. Pricing is different in the genres. One thing is important – set up Google Alerts on your name, book title and more. Using free is a great marketing tool so definitely have that in your arsenal. It’s gives you more exposure.

• In 2012, David sees the traditional publishers following suit with indie tactics e.g. pricing cheap or free. They are now getting to grips with pricing as a tool rather than the emotional value vs price. Subscription models and e-readers priced at zero if they include ads. Everything will get cheaper but the average price of self-published work is now going up, so we’ll see what happens. Indie is a bit like day trading now with calculations on free and when to enter price points and leave them again. It’s an exciting time, there are new people entering the market all the time.

• ‘A Storm Hits Valparaiso’ has now been indie published and is available on Kindle. Yeah! David has no interest in a traditional publishing deal for digital as he wants to see what he can achieve on his own. However, we are both interested in a print deal or a foreign rights deal, but for ebooks, it’s worth trying alone

You can find David at his site Let’s Get Digital and on twitter @davidgaughran

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I love to learn from professional authors who are making a great income from their books, so today’s interview is a treat!

Michael J. Sullivan is an award-winning epic fantasy author. Michael has experienced publishing in all its forms and is currently signed by Orbit Books with his latest book Heir of Novron out this month. [Video at the end]

• How Michael got started writing. He tried to be a writer years ago while being a stay-at-home Dad (while wife Robin was the breadwinner). After 10 years of trying to be get published, he gave up because he was repeatedly rejected. He went back into mainstream work with a publishing agency. Harry Potter inspired him. It was fun to read and kids and adults loved it. He got excited about reading genre fiction again and then started writing again. I get excited about my own story where I was blocked by literary fiction for years and now find genre fiction is (at least currently) my niche. Michael re-frames those years as learning the craft.

• On epic fantasy as a genre. Fantasy has elements that really can’t exist. Science fiction is things that could happen vs. fantasy. They fall under speculative fiction which also contains horror. Epic fantasy is about scope and in most fantasy books, there are political aspects, history, religion described for whole new worlds. Fantasy is doing well because of the popular films of The Lord of the Rings and also the Harry Potter books. George RR Martin was also put onto TV so people who didn’t use to read fantasy are now reading it.

• Is fantasy a male dominated market? In general, yes. But a lot of epic fantasy written by women might not be classified as such because of the perception. I’m still considering changing my writing name for my thrillers to see if it makes a difference.

• Tips for writing fantasy. Mine history and use it in your books. Mix and match e.g. take Chinese history and bring it into the present. What would have happened if the US had taken over England instead of the other way around? It gives a certain sense of place and legitimacy if you base it on history. Writers have a tendency to create a lot but you don’t need to include all the detail in your book. You need the backstory for yourself but the reader will get a sense of depth even if you don’t include it all.

• On fantasy word count. It just seems to be genre rule that books are long. Michael’s are only 100 – 160,000 words and actually his publisher has put them together to make them longer.

• On what an author needs to know if they want to make a living as a writer. Don’t write in a vacuum. Learn from other writers and understand the craft. Write a good book, something that you want to read. Don’t write like someone else. Break down the aspects of what you like and write to that. Writing in a genre is also good as it is popular/ commercial. If you want to sell, then you have a market ready for you. Write a series as well because you pick up readers over time. If you want to make a living, you need to be prolific and have a number of books. You also have to market, that’s the reality of the writer’s life these days! If you want people to read it, you need to let people know it’s available.

• Being prolific and writing fast doesn’t mean the quality is bad. Even traditional publishers expect more than one book per year. The number of books you have out there is a huge marketing tool. Self-publishers can do things faster than traditional as you can bypass the overheads. Quality is not reflected in speed. A lot of people are not just writing, people have day jobs so it takes longer. If you’re writing full-time, you can get the words down and out there. Some writers are also polishing forever and never getting the books out there. Quality should be judged on how many people are buying it.

• Life as a pro-writer. Michael writes in the morning as many authors do. Then in the afternoon, he does the admin side/ interviews/chores/blogging/errands etc. A lot of the work is also thinking and that can happen all the time. You do work a lot of hours but people only give you credit for the time typing!

• On publishing. Michael has done self-publishing, small press and mainstream publishing. It depends on what you want for you and your book. Most authors don’t really know what they want. Do you want money and fame? Yes. Do you want absolute control over your book? Yes. Well, you can’t have everything. So decide what you want and go from there. There are pros and cons each way. Michael has to sell a lot more books to make comparatively little money with traditional publishing. But he had already sold a lot through indie so this is a new way to reach people and new goals for the books. He’s getting repeated buzz and access to new opportunities. Michael got his deal through an agent who was able to leverage the existing sales. Showing sales figures meant that the publishers were more interested. I’m interested in this from my own point of view with a series that is selling already.

• I previously interviewed Michael’s wife, Robin Sullivan on 6 figure indie publishing which is another great interview

You can find Michael at his site Riyria.com and his books on Amazon and other online bookstores.

They are fun adventure fantasy books. Two thieves are hired to steal a sword and instead they find the murdered body of the King. The books are their adventures as they find a conspiracy that extends over the course of 6 books.

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I’ve spent the last 4 years learning about marketing from books and information products. It’s been a real-world education that I use every day, so today I’m thrilled to bring you Jim Kukral who is a specialist in this area, as we talk about book marketing.

Jim Kukral is the author of 5 books and a serial web-entrepreneur, as well as a professional speaker and specialist in internet marketing. His latest book is ‘No Publisher Needed: Crowdfunding your book. How I raised over $30k in 30 days.’  [Note: Affiliate links used in this post.]

• Jim has been in internet marketing for 16 years. He’s been involved in all aspects including web design, affiliate marketing, search, Now he focuses on self-publishing and he loves to produce and market books.

• ‘No publisher needed’ was written after he crowd-funded a series of books called ‘Business around a lifestyle’. The problems of marketing and sales are basically dealt with in this way. Jim thinks that anyone who knows something about something should transform it into a book (or other product). When you learn how to do something, you can teach others.

• I promised to come back to crowd-funding as a question, but I didn’t! Sorry about that. [As I write, the book is free on Amazon Kindle] I read the book and it has some good information on what crowd-funding is and how to go about it. Jim didn’t use Kickstarter.com preferring to use his own methods to raise money. It’s based on the idea that people want to be part of something. The book also has ideas and tips on building a platform, and tackles the main issues people have about it – no time, no money, no knowledge. It then has a step-by-step guide on how to pre-fund your book and the options you can offer people, as well as what to do when the money starts to come in.

• The broader indie publishing perspective. In 2010, Jim had his first Attention . The business of traditional publishing is too slow. You don’t own your work when you’re done with it. Bookstores are dying so the one thing they had is fading away. The royalties are also not great. Jim realized that it was a bad business decision to use a publisher for your book. As an entrepreneur, you can do so many more things when you do it yourself. Jim did earn lots of money from his mainstream book from consulting revenue and the cachet from having a hardcover book.

• The stigma is disappearing and there doesn’t have to be a difference between traditionally published and print on demand books anymore. Jim really believes in self-publishing right now.

• Is crowd-funding and effective indie publishing only possible when you have a large existing platform? Jim understands this objection. But anyone can build a platform. Yes, Jim did start with an email list which is critical for anyone these days. Even a small, targeted list of people who are interested in what you do is good. But the majority of pre-funding came from new people as it was shared with other people. Emotions create reactions and people only share when there is an emotional response. So Jim included emotion and story as part of the campaign. He told a story about why he was writing these books. That’s why it spread. [This is a great idea for all of us - how can you use your own story to sell your books?]

• What are the must have marketing tools? The email list is critical – here’s how to build your own list using Aweber as mentioned by Jim. A great tip is to ask your customers what they want or need. [Yes, The Creative Penn annual survey is coming soon!] It’s also important to have a website/blog which you can have put your list-building on. You drive people to this site through all the other channels. People will find you in different ways. That’s how you build a platform. You need to start thinking like a marketer.

• For authors who might be shy. You can make video without being on camera. It’s screen-casting. Jim talks about his Online Video Toolkit which helps you to learn how to do it. Video is the #1 way to really make a connection with people. You look the way you look. Get over it. Video is so powerful. [Google has also just redesigned YouTube so it is becoming more respectable and not just about comedy videos.]

• The mindset of the marketer. There’s never been a better time in the history of the world to get your work out there. But the trade-off is that you generally have to do it yourself. In the old days, you just paid other people (or the publisher did it) but it’s too expensive and so doing it yourself is the better option. You need to do it when you start your own business, and yes, your book is a business. To be a successful artist, you need to think bigger than being just an artist. You have to decide if you really want success and then decide you want to get into marketing.

• On fiction vs non-fiction for marketing. Jim talks about pricing and KDP Select. For non-fiction, pricing can be higher as that’s what people expect and they see it as an indication of quality. Fiction is different, it needs to be cheaper as people buy more of it. Get into the head of the consumers. Read Influence by Robert Cialdini [I endorse this too, amazing book!] Jim also suggests Consumerology. Start learning about why people buy.

• Book reviews are critical for social proof. Book marketing begins at inception (for non-fiction at least). Write a synopsis, get a cover designed and a page up so people can start signing up for the email list. It’s got to happen right away. Before the book is available, get reviews. You can’t go into a launch without reviews on your landing page. One of the main purchasing decisions is that people look at reviews.

• Creating a product vs. a lot of books on Amazon. You have to price Amazon books cheaper than full multi-media products so authors might consider different options depending on their strategy. Make sure you don’t fall foul to Amazon’s price matching which has affected some authors when they might have run a promotion on it and then Amazon discounts the price. Jim aims to release a lot of books himself over the next few years, and he believes shorter books are the way forward.

• The biggest fail on marketing assuming they are doing it – authors don’t think like marketers. It’s not your fault. You weren’t trained to think this way. But you do need to learn, or you need to pay someone else. The cost of not being a marketer is advertising. Follow what other authors are doing and model their platform building activities. Write a blog about the business of what you do.

• Jim also comments on KDP Select and says it’s a game-changer for non-fiction authors to get noticed. It helps you stand out with your ranking as you can get a lot of downloads and people will start reading it. It’s a great way to kickstart your book marketing. [I'm taking action on this and updating my non-fiction book, How to enjoy your job...or find a new one, and putting it on Amazon KDP. I'll report back!]

You can find Jim at JimKukral.com and NoPublisherNeeded.com and on twitter @jimkukral

His latest book is ‘No Publisher Needed: Crowdfunding your book. How I raised over $30k in 30 days.’

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In the first podcast of the 2012, I discuss The Domino Project with Ishita Gupta who has worked with Seth Godin on this exciting publishing experiment. [Video version at the end of the post along with notes].

In the introduction, I also announce the publication of my latest novel, Prophecy. It’s currently in ‘soft launch’ phase as I gather reviews. Other achievements in 2011 include: The Creative Penn made the Top 10 Blogs for Writers for the 2nd year running. Pentecost has sold over 16,000 copies. I have moved continents from Australia to London and also quit my consulting job for full-time author-entrepreneur status. I also discuss some of my goals for 2012 and some publishing rumours about Apple.

Ishita Gupta has helped create 6 bestselling books as Head of Hoopla for The Domino Project, Seth Godin’s publishing experiment. She also runs Fear.less online magazine, described as Fast Company meets Oprah.

• How Ishita got started with her online magazine, Fearless, and as a participant in Seth Godin’s alternative MBA course. She had previously learned about stories and how powerful they can be. The alternative MBA introduced her to all the real-world necessities for running a business online. There are so many aspects to a business: personal initiative, writing, marketing, sales and much more. Working with Seth meant things took off.

• Ishita and I wax lyrical about the opportunities of the internet these days. We’re both so excited!

• On the Domino Project, a publishing experiment. It was a short project and here’s Seth’s post on lessons learned from it (must read!) It was powered by Amazon so they partnered with Seth to publish the books which were all short, inspiring business books. The main difference was the internet which means speed and targeted marketing as well as mass distribution. They produced a book a month and brought them to market much more swiftly than traditional publisher. But Domino was still a ‘traditional’ publisher in terms of curation, editing, design, marketing etc.

• Domino targeted Seth’s tribe by writing books for them – entrepreneurs, marketers, business people. The aim was to make books that people want to buy, aimed at that market and building in the ideas of the internet. [Note: this tribe includes me - I bought most of the Domino books & have all Seth's books, so I know this works!]

• Failure is hugely important in order to push the envelope on what you can achieve. Domino was trying to teach that there is not only one way to publish. Embracing change is important in publishing but people are scared of their system disappearing. Authors do have more power these days. They can create their own lists, they can be their own sales & marketing force, you can speak directly to readers. It does beg the question – what can a traditional publisher provide? If that’s the question, you have to be able to differentiate yourself. [Note: we love publishing in all its forms and we want to help them through!]

Quote from Seth from his lessons learned post: “If you’re an author, pick yourself. Don’t wait for a publisher to pick you. And if you work for a big publishing house, think really hard about the economics of starting your own permission-based ebook publisher. Now’s the time.”

• On permission marketing and having your own list. A lot of the authors for Domino had their own list already and it is a critical part of book marketing. However, clearly people can achieve without a huge list but in general, you need a communication channel to your readership. But it shouldn’t be me, me, me; it should be more attraction marketing when you create value and people come to you. That is the asset of a list or a blog. You can then see how word of mouth makes a difference these days. Specificity is everywhere on the internet so you have so much choice. People need a way to find things, so be useful and people will come to you. Time and attention are scarce and your recommendations can cut through the noise if you build your list. [Check out How you can build your own email list here]

• Other book marketing techniques. The online media tour / virtual book tour means you schedule online appearances in a specific period. Ishita talks about the process and you can see Seth’s Book 2.0 media tour here from Linchpin. Traditional media was used but mainly picked up the stories from the web. The default was web first, you can control, measure and see direct results. [You can see my slightly smaller launch for Pentecost here.]
  

• Creating an opt-in list specific to books is also a good idea, even before you have the book ready. [I did this for Prophecy, check out how to do it here]

• Ishita is now working with authors on book marketing and will definitely be staying in publishing. She has some information products coming out. She is also continuing to build Fearless magazine which has morphed over the years but tackles these difficult issues.

You can find Ishita at IshitaGupta.com and at FearlessStories.com and on Twitter @ishitagupta

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It seems that every week brings a new development in the world of digital publishing and indie authors have varied opinions on what’s happening. In this interview I discuss some of the latest events and also debate what 2012 holds.

Steven Lewis is an author, podcaster and at Taleist he helps writers become published authors. He has just posted Self Publishing and Ebook Predictions 2012 on his blog which we discuss today. [Video at the bottom of the text]

• One of the comments in the article is ” 2012 is the year things get bad for traditional publishing industry”. My thoughts are more that there’s a split between publishers going digital and those that are not. Steven comments that for publishers going digital the problem is pricing and customers think the price has to be low. 99c – $4.99 which in some cases still doesn’t cover the costs of all the editing, design etc. People won’t pay print prices, that’s a given but where is the limit. Publishers will find it tough to run the publishing machine with less income.

• Publishers will be trying new things in 2012. Penguin opening up to ‘self-publishing’ is actually more like vanity publishing. None of us want to see the end of publishers and bookstores but things will continue to shift.

• Steve thinks Amazon has to start doing something about the crap that is being published in 2012. The spam, the hardcore pornography and the things that come up in searches. They have to clean it up but there have been problems with Amazon trying to get rid of what some people think is wrong e.g. gay/lesbian writers. We have to balance free speech with what is genuinely awful. I prefer to think of the customer as the gatekeeper as I am browsing by categories, ranking etc. The new stigma will be ‘not selling’ as opposed to self-publishing.

• What else will Amazon do in 2012? We discuss Kindle Select. It’s basically a way for self-publishers to put their book into the Kindle Prime lending program where members can borrow books. Amazon has put $500,000 in a pot and that is shared pro-rata depending on how many books & how many borrowed. You have to commit to 90 days exclusivity, so you can’t publish it elsewhere. It’s not an income strategy really. But what is interesting is that you can put your book for free for 5 days so you can control your timing on using free as a marketing tactic. Steven isn’t happy about this as he says we’re training readers that books should be free. I disagree and point to CJ Lyons’ article here as she uses free as a teaser to boost the sales of her other books. Steven has a full article here on KDP Select  if you want to read the long version. Amazon’s job is to make an offer and it’s up to the author to decide what’s best for their book. We’ll also re-examine this after at least a month’s worth of data.
• Check out David Gaughran’s article on KDP Select: How much do you want to be paid tomorrow?
  

• Steven gets upset at my comparison of KDP Select to a library. My point is that it’s more about marketing and getting your books in front of more people. Personally, I will probably put one book into KDP Select but keep most of them out.

• Will there be better tools for authors in 2012? Steven says it’s unlikely we will get much further than the basic formatting for mainstream books. I mention the FutureBook conference where I met publishers doing some really interesting work with transmedia and apps. This is something that we as self-publishers can’t do ourselves so if you have these ideas for cross-media ideas it would be better to work with a publisher. Authors also underestimate the amount of time to do all the things you can do and focusing on what will work for you. It’s a triathlon – you write, publish and promote but promotion also goes on forever. The cost is often in the time.

• If we’re basically seeing an expansion of mainstream print books, we have to get better at marketing. Reading works as it is, there doesn’t have to be a change. You really still only have to write books. You don’t have to do apps and all that multi-media. I’m interested in doing audiobooks. Steven has some experience of this and doesn’t find it a huge market but it’s definitely something that we are keen on taking further. It’s not about the money, more about the marketing.

• Amazon moving into international markets. I specifically want India to come online as a huge English speaking market. We note how Amazon keeps surprising us. There are no rumours, they just do it. They can move into these countries very easily and will do as soon as they are ready. Steven & I get annoyed about all the differences in pricing and sales tax.

• Advertising in ebooks. Authors will do it and Amazon is also putting ads on the Kindle. Steven even likes the advertising on his Kindle as it offers things the reader wants. Seth Godin with the Domino Project did get companies to sponsor the book and give it away for free. It’s not radically different to what we are used to now. Authors will also be able to advertise in each others books. Bloggers can join in an advertising network, so why not authors? Join in an advertising campaign and see what happens with it. You definitely need to use your Kindle book to advertise your own books. Make sure you hyperlink to Buy Now for each of the books you have available. Think about linking up with other authors and advertise each others but be careful.

• We talk about Scrivener and exporting to Kindle formats. The pros and cons. Check out David Hewson’s book “Writing a book on Scrivener“

• Amazon continues to dominate but we discuss Kobo which has great statistics, like when people stop reading your book & people can interact socially about it. Nook Color vs Kindle Fire. What’s happening with the other players in the market? It’s very hard to challenge Amazon’s place in the market now, they are so entrenched. They are also selling their devices at less than cost. It would be great to see some decent challenge to Amazon as with great power comes great responsibility and with all our eggs in one basket, they could turn around and change royalty rates later.

• As indies getting on everything other than Amazon KDP, our options are Smashwords and BookBaby, that’s about it. Will there be other options for us? or will Smashwords expand their offering. We love Smashwords but recognise the immense amount of work it is for Mark Coker to manage the company now it’s really taken off.

• Steven reckons Amazon will play hardball with the other players in 2012, e.g. asking for exclusivity. They also might move to a verification method for self-publishing e.g. paying $50 instead of free. It’s Amazon’s reputation at risk with the crap that is flooding the store. Serialization may also become available as a new model. Exciting times overall!

You can find Steven at Taleist.com and also on Twitter @Rule17

What do you think will happen in publishing in 2012?

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Earlier this week, I defined what I think an indie author is and in today’s interview we further explore what indie books are. In the intro I discuss how my next novel Prophecy is going as well as some of the takeaways from the #FutureBook conference that authors will find interesting.

Amy Edelman is the author of 3 books and the founder of IndieReader.com, the essential guide to self-published books and the people who write them. She has also started the Indie Reader Discovery Awards.

In this interview, we discuss:

• How Amy got started with her own books. She had an agent but originally self-published The Fashion Industry Resource Book and then The Little Black Dress, a fashion history book, was published by Simon & Schuster. “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times” in terms of experiences with traditional publishing. Amy has also written a memoir/novel but her day-job has been PR & marketing.

• She started Indie Reader after reading about the state of self-publishing and the growth in the market. There are obviously good books to be found but traditional publishing houses weren’t picking them up. Branding an entire category of books as ‘not worthy’ seemed short-sighted especially based on the success of indie film and indie music, so indie books were just waiting to happen. Indie books needed to be branded in a way so that the book lover could see that incredible books are available but in a separate category. It’s different but not inferior.
• The site is designed as more of a consumer guide to self-published books. The main goal is to be a Rolling Stone magazine for indie books. It’s not just mainstream fiction but also art books, comics and lots of other types of books. Indie is a wide field full of people who are creating.

• Indie is really about control. You get to decide what you want as the cover and how you market it. People should feel empowered. Traditional publishing does offer new authors a lot but it isn’t the fantasy of huge advances and book tours, fame and fortune. A lot of indie authors are working very hard and doing the PR & marketing themselves, taking the risks themselves.
• An indie book is when an author has published it themselves. The book can’t have been published before as that means a lot of help has already been given. A traditionally published author with a new indie book is still indie.

• Has the stigma of self-publishing gone away yet? People couldn’t tell you who publishes the books they read, they don’t care but they would still decide it was bad if they knew it was self-published. Claiming the word ‘indie’ is better as ‘self-publishing’ as a term is forever tainted. Within the ‘indie’ group there are also lots of differences – there are writers who understand you need editing, it helps if you have a great cover – there are certain things you need to do, not just write. The quality is unbelievable for those indies taking it seriously.

• Great indie books are the same as any other type of good book. Indie Reader is looking for books that aren’t the same as traditionally published books but there are also a lot of books that could be found on any bookstore shelf. There is quality across the board. Good writing, strong characters, imaginative story is the same whatever. IndieReader is aiming to aid discovery of great books that others might not know about.

• Readers don’t know anymore who is publishing the book. The consumer doesn’t know or care what is indie. The NY Times list contains indie books but they seem not to notice.

• Media don’t cover self-published books as there is no money in it. Traditional publishers advertise so it comes down to money. Mainstream media need the dollars. But the consumer wants a good book.

• On the Indie Reader discovery awards. The thing that makes the competition stand out are the judges who are the top people in the industry including agents, publishers, book reviewers. The important thing is discoverability and this gives authors a chance. Most indies are interested in a traditional deal, they want to be offered it even if they wouldn’t accept it.

• On discoverability and marketing. It’s so hard to get attention. Even if you get some really big media, it might not result in sales. It’s important for everything to look professional and you need to have author contact information available. There’s lots of things that aren’t worth paying for, like a book trailer. It doesn’t cost anything to build a large twitter or facebook following. You can’t just be a writer anymore, even if you’re traditionally published. You need to be a business person and a PR person as well as a writer these days.

• Not every writer can be as prolific as John Locke. It’s a different kind of success than a literary novel that takes a lot of years with no backup novel coming up soon after. The multi-book model doesn’t work for everyone. You need to define your own success. I talk about meeting the financial amount that I would have got (potentially) as an advance but I made it my way. As an indie, you end up with a book that is all your vision. There is no bad genre. It’s about what book lovers will enjoy.

• Amy talks about how she has discovered the Kindle recently and how the next 6-12 months will take ebook reading mainstream as it reaches a market who may have been resistant before. Print books won’t go away but ebooks will continue the march onwards.

You can find Amy at IndieReader.com and on Twitter @indiereader.

You can find the Indie Reader Discovery Awards here.

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As writers, it is our responsibility to know about grammar, language and words in general. Some people love wading in this stuff and Jesse K is one of them. Today we talk about the Joy of English!

Jesse “Kay” Karjalainen is a writer, journalist, sub-editor and fashion photographer. He’s the author of The Joy of English: 100 conversations about language. [Video below]

In the interview you will learn:

• How Jesse discovered a love for all things language and a bit about his background.
• On why language and grammar aren’t boring! The book is more about English usage and how to improve it, not just grammar. It’s like when you buy a computer for someone, you don’t buy them a book on programming, you buy them a book on how to do email & surf etc. So the book is about usage and not the nuts & bolts.

• On the word ‘very’ and over-use of it. When you should use ‘very’ and when you shouldn’t
• Can you use ‘And’ or ‘But’ to start a sentence?
• On the model sentence and sentence fragments. The challenge of describing grammar without using grammatical language.

• Active writing and breaking the cycle
• Ideally, you should write without commas. More than 2 commas needs editing. I mention Umberto Eco’s latest book, The Prague Cemetery which has the longest opening sentence you can imagine. Are long sentences ever acceptable? There’s acceptance and there’s taste in writing.
• Writing is about communication. It’s important that it’s enjoyable and not difficult for the reader.

• On writing in British English vs American English. Some of the differences and how to decide which to use.
• Some things that annoy us both
• On tenses and mixing them up in writing.
• On dialogue vs ‘proper’ english – so people say I’d rather than I would – this is contraction and is common in speech. Let’s have coffee vs Let us have coffee. Consistency is key.

The Joy of English is available at all online bookstores & local stores in the UK. You can find more information at TheJoyOfEnglish.com

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Let’s get excited about indie publishing serialized fiction! In this exuberant interview, Sean Platt talks about the publishing and marketing lessons learned from serial fiction project Yesterday’s Gone. I really appreciate his positive approach and ‘can-do’ attitude so I hope you enjoy it.

In the intro, I talk about writing in the London Library as well as cutting 20,000 words from Prophecy and how I’m coping with life as a full-time author-entrepreneur.

Sean Platt is a prolific author, copywriter, publisher and online entrepreneur. He has written business and writing books, children’s books and also co-authored the recent Amazon bestselling Yesterday’s Gone, a serialized post-apocalyptic thriller. [Video at the bottom if you prefer that!]

• Sean & his co-author love serialized content in terms of TV – “good junkie” TV series like Lost which drag people in and keep them hooked. The grand openings and the endings that make you desperate for the next episode. As writers, that’s what they wanted to achieve.

• As publishers, they want to hit the same type of numbers as Hocking, Locke, Konrath etc and to do that you need to have multiple titles in the same niche. Now their model is to create a lot of great books available for low prices. Serializing . It’s fiction with a funnel. All the things Sean has learned as an information marketer he is now applying to fiction.

• The pilot grabs you and they made this free to hook people in. You can do this by making it free on Smashwords and it trickles through to Amazon. This only works if you put out the very best and it over delivers. It’s got to be your best work as people are paying for it with their time, if not their money.
• If you wouldn’t charge for it, it’s not worth being free. You also have to have somewhere for them to go if it’s free e.g. a sequel or another book to buy. You waste your time unless there is a return.
• I mention CJ Lyons who also blogged here about ‘free’

• Using episodes as Kindle & print books as well as putting it into a Series book with 6 episodes. Some people want to buy in episodes and others will buy in the series.

• Writing fast and with quality. Sean is a retired ghostwriter so he learned to write fast as time was money. Writing fast enables your true voice to emerge as you don’t self-censure so much. You can find flow that way. The quality doesn’t decay.

• Sean postulates that taking writing classes slows people down as instinct is un-taught. Writing based on what you love and your passion rather than what you are taught at school means you can be freer in your expression. You can edit a lot but the basic first draft is very fast if you write this way.

• As a self-publisher you can’t put out anything that isn’t your absolute best.
• The gatekeepers are now the customer, not the publisher. This is great because it’s easier to speak to those people. You also need ‘to work your face off’. We use the example of Stephen King who works extremely hard and puts out books people love year after year.
• There is no writer’s block. It’s procrastination!

• On book marketing. Sean has been everywhere in the last 4-6 weeks including some massive blogs. He has been online for a good few years so he has a network that he could tap into. He knew he had no fiction readers so he aimed for the influencers. This has created an audience for the fiction so next time he can market to them specifically. You have to do this for a first book but the 2nd would be done differently.
• What really helped was being free on Amazon as they peaked at #1 on Horror (although it’s not really Horror) and that spilled into sales of the other episodes. But it’s only worth being free if you have a load of great reviews already. You have to have the social proof. You can’t game Amazon. Write for the readers.

• For the next book, Sean is looking at actual mainstream media to get rid of the final stigma of self-publishing. It is fair as self-pub needs to earn it’s way. A lot of it is crap and it is different. We need to earn respect. We’re legitimizing it. He is focusing on getting a great quote as well as book reviews. The online network is now leveraged, it needs to more into another game. It’s proved in the market place with sales and reviews so they are able to approach people with some evidence.

• The best way to market is to create more content once you have started the ball rolling.

You can buy Yesterday’s Gone at Amazon here. If you like Lost and Stephen King, it might be your thing!

You can find Sean’s site for writers GhostwriterDad here and you can find him on Twitter @seanplatt

Please do let me know what you think in the comments below. Thank you!

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I love talking to professionals who can break story down to elements we can reuse as writers. It can be so easy just to write away without considering some of the key aspects of what we need to convey. Thinking about these in advance can save us time in the editing and rewriting process.

Victoria Mixon is a professional writer and independent editor and has worked in fiction, nonfiction, technical documentation, and poetry for over thirty years. She is the author of “The Art & Craft of Story: A Practitioner’s Manual” which we’re talking about today. Victoria’s blog was also voted one of the Top 10 blogs for writers.

In this interview, you will learn:

• What Victoria does: She basically helps authors take their story and develop them further into something that an agent or publisher would consider publishable.
• The principles of story have been internalized by authors who have been writing a long time but new authors need to consider how to improve and deepen their stories. It is recommended to plan at least a little and a lot of what you write will be cut out in the final draft, but it’s good to know where you’re going otherwise your story will just fizzle out.

Reader addiction

• How do you make the reader care? Sympathetic characters aren’t necessarily nice. There has to be conflict between two choices that are very hard to resolve. The bouncing back and forth between intense needs is a very human thing. The more powerful and important the needs the more the reader can identify
• Generating addiction in a reader. It’s a push/ pull mechanism. The push is based on the tension in the plot and the characters which generates a tension inside the reader. Alternate this with a reward to pull them on and you have a way to hook them into your story.

Character arc and the series

• I wrote recently about issues with continuity in a series including how some characters don’t seem to have an arc within one book.
• Victoria recommends creating someone who is so complex and has powerful needs with multiple conflicts. The protagonists of big thrillers have the need of seeing justice done vs saving themselves from being killed. This can be played out multiple times with different variations and sub-plots.

Turning a one liner into a story

• Victoria takes my own one-liner and expands it. My third book in the ARKANE series will be based around ancient Egypt and the plagues of Exodus set in modern times.
• The important need is to stop the world being destroyed but this conflicts with the need to save the protagonist’s own life. The protagonist must be forced to choose. This is the tension. We also talk about sneaky foreshadowing that makes the reader think you’re smart!
• Take your idea and ask questions and create conflict, within the rules of your genre, to a point.

On Kindle sampling and hooking the reader in the first 2 pages

• It’s not just ebooks, we have always done this with books in stores as well. The powerful hook is critical and a lot of writers start way too early. The hook has to be the point of the actual beginning of the store, the crux point where the characters are forced into it. They have to go down this path. Not when the character is born but throw the reader right into the story. You may not know what this is until you have written the first draft as you have to find the key point of no return.

On self-editing and developmental help

• Authors with little experience will need more editing and development help than established writers. The first draft often includes a lot of back-story or notes that won’t go into the book but you need to know it as the author so you know how your characters behave. You also need to answer a lot of questions for yourself but it might not be used later.
• There is a lot of moving scenes around a lot in redrafting. Victoria works in MS Word and breaks it down into chapters for more manageable chunks. [I'm now using Scrivener which is awesome for ease of moving things around.]

On writing fast and writing quality

• Literary fiction takes a long time to gestate in a writer’s mind which is why genre is where people make a living. You can set your characters up with a series protagonist and then just put the characters into a situation. Get plotting sorted and then you can just write. You will have to do editing but you will be able to write much faster than a literary tome. You do lose some of the depth but you get speed. [Victoria also mentions the interview on literary fiction with Roz Morris]

You can find Victoria and The Art of Story and her other books at VictoriaMixon.com or on twitter @VictoriaMixon

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