The Novel Always Rings Twice – Books on Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are now emerging as a viable distribution channel for publishers.  In this respect, the international publishing community is far ahead of their US counterparts.  According to a recent post on TechCrunch, in Japan, half of the top selling works of fiction in 2007 were composed for reading on cell phones (keitai shousetsu) rather than in print form.  This is opening up new opportunities for authors and publishers to reach a wider audience without necessarily going through the often slow moving bookstore channel.  

In some ways this is not surprizing; there are many factors driving this trend.  First, is the universality cell phone usage.  For example:

• 75% of adults and 90% of college students have mobile phones
• 1 in 8 homes no longer have a landline phone
• 62% of subscribers use text messaging regularly
• 80% of world is covered by mobile networks

Second is mobile phone technology.  Current generation mobile phones now come equipped with applications to download music, video and photos, so the leap to e-books was a small one.  A number of third party providers now supply reader software for cell phones.  And there are popular freeware applications such as Stanza for the iPhone.  About half a million people in more than 50 countries have downloaded Stanza (see demo video below).

A third factor is a widening availability of a content in e-book format.  The recent Google settlement with the book publishing industrypotentially opens the door to a wide range of works.  Neill Denny, editor of The Bookseller, a trade publication based in London, wrote that the agreement has possibly created

. . . the largest bookshop in the world has been built, even if it is not quite open for business yet.

 Google’s Book Search program has scanned thousands of books and made them available to be searched on the Internet.  Under the agreement, Google will share any revenue from online sales with publishers and authors.   In the future, Google may become both a powerful book advertising and sales venue.

In some markets, like textbooks, the experimentation with mobile phone book content is well underway.  This is helping schools manage the expense of print textbooks in a time of greater budget austerity for educaitonal institutions and families.  Libraries are becoming simlarly inclined to look at mobile formats for books.

The fourth factor is simply the fact that Millenials and the generations that follow them will expect to access books – like they now access other forms of entertainment – via their mobile devices.  

 The half life of technology predictions is short in our fast paced world.  But if the trends discussed above continue, books delivered to mobile phones will become a bigger part of the book publishing landscape.

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Beneath the Pale Surface of Book Marketing – An Interview with Author Janey Bennett

Janey Bennett

Here’s a scary story for you.  Imagine laboring on your novel for seven long years.  Finally – it’s complete.  You deliver your finished work to your publisher, who, at that decisive moment, closes his business.  As far as the marketing of your book goes, you are on your own.  And you don’t know the first thing about book marketing or promotion.  What would you do?  That’s what happened to author Janey Bennett.  Since that time, she has become a marketing dynamo, selling thousands of copies of her book, The Pale Surface of Things, and garnering seven book awards. 

Janey Bennett has enjoyed colorful and varied careers, from radio announcer to horse trainer and drama critic. She spent five winters teaching English to Buddhist nuns in Thailand. Her writings on architecture have been published in the United States and Finland, where she held a Fulbright research fellowship.  She has been writing fiction for eight years.  We spoke with her recently about her book and what she had learned about book marketing.  These days, publishers expect more of their authors when it comes to marketing and promoting their titles.  Janey Bennett’s story should give every author hope and the confidence to successfully promote their work.

FPP – Can you give us a brief overview of the story told in The Pale Surface of Things?

Western Crete

JB – It is a fast-moving novel in a Cretan village-kidnaps and killings, prayers and healing, ethics and ritual: When a young American archaeologist flees his impending marriage and secure future, he lands in the traditional world of a Cretan village, where he must confront feelings he’s always avoided: rage, fear, envy, and shame, as he becomes the central pawn in a vicious family vendetta. Years prior, in World War II, the village suffered horribly at the hands of the Nazis; now, its priest labors to heal the lingering wounds from that time.  It’s a story about love, loyalty, power and death pass set in western Crete.  I’ve been told that in many ways, it is a book that reads like a movie.

FPP – What motivated you to write The Pale Surface of Things?

JB – Most novelists, I think, write to figure out some puzzle about human behavior. In my case, it was the contrast between the joyous enthusiasm of my students in Thailand, young Buddhist nuns who had left their villages and ordained as nuns to learn skills to support themselves, and (the reason I was there) to learn to speak English and to read – contrasted with the dour self-pitying complaints from the well-heeled backpackers from the West who stayed at the guesthouse where I lived. I wondered if a life of material success doomed us to chronic complaint and dissatisfaction (my students were happy and they had nothing!) or if there was something else. It occurred to me that what freed the young nuns to be happy was that they belonged to a culture that defined who they were and what their lives would contain. Wherever they went, they carried their village and family traditions with them. They didn’t have to invent themselves. So the idea rose: what lessons would it take to bring a young, comfortable but insensitive American to a place of integration and social connection if he were thrown into a traditional village life.

FPP – Why did you set the story on Crete?

JB – I was enchanted but puzzled by the traditional life I saw in Thailand. Crete is specific in its traditions, and although I spent years researching those traditions, I knew they could be seen. If I were to create an image of the two locales: Thailand is filled with leafy deep shadows, and Crete has hot sunlight on hard rock. Emotionally as well as physically.

FPP – Who/what has had the greatest influence on your writing?

Paul Scott

Daniel Mason

JB – I didn’t grow up wanting to be a writer. I have read all my life and I learned to think because of the books I read. Since for me, writing is puzzle-solving, I think I was influenced by plays, movies, and all kinds of stories that taught some glimmer of information about how life works among us humans. Also, I was influenced by living abroad, in another culture, seeing how other places support different lives than ours. 

I loved the writings of Paul Scott, especially The Raj Quartet, and The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, because both writers allowed their locations to direct their stories, as locations DO direct our lives. Many other writers have delighted me, as well, of course.

FPP – Marketing and writing seem like such vastly different endeavors. How did you orient yourself to the marketing role after being so immersed in writing the book?

JB – Simple. I gave up writing for the first year of promoting the book. I became the book’s guardian and that was my full-time job. Now I’m back writing on the next novel, and it’s much harder because every time I stop to do something for Pale Surface, it shatters my story-generating concentration. I may need to postpone the writing a bit longer. They are two different jobs altogether.

FPP – How did you go about organizing the marketing for your book?

JB – I had no plan when this started. My publisher went back to graduate school and I took over the task of marketing and I simply did everything I could think of to do. I respected the book. I respected the markets. I showed up wherever I saw the possibility of introducing the book to new readers.

FPP – Which of the various marketing efforts has been the most effective? The least effective?

JB– It’s hard to make a direct correlation between a marketing effort and a result, because they all feed the buzz about the book. My advice is make every effort you can. You never know what’s going to link up to something big. I’m not sure I would take a booth at all the bookseller tradeshows again. I’d be there, standing near a group display, but the booths were a lot of money for attention that might have come anyway with a lesser expense. But I’d go to those shows, for sure. Nothing is wasted. No effort is a total dud. Do it all.

FPP – What marketing techniques would you like to try, but haven’t yet?

JB – I don’t know. I’ve tried every one I could think of, and I’m sure I will think of more as the months roll by.

FPP – What is personally the most difficult aspect of marketing your book?

JB– Redesigning graphics for posters, postcards, ads, etc., on short notice. I’ve done much of the graphic design – I have training in it – but I don’t do it daily and I am slow at it. I know what I want but I forget how to ask InDesign or Photoshop to give it to me. I don’t like accounting much, either. I didn’t like cleaning my room as a kid, either. Lemme do the fun stuff!! Meet the people!! Talk about the book!! Share ideas!!

FPP – What would you do differently, knowing what you know now?

JB – I would have hired my book marketer sooner. I didn’t know that such people existed until I met her. She has saved me hours of effort by knowing how to do some of these things.

FPP – You have said your book reads like a movie. If it were made into a movie, who would you like to see play the roles of the leading characters?

Tom Hanks

JB– I’m so glad you asked!! I would like Tom Hanks to play Fr. Dimitrios, the village Greek Orthodox priest, who is the mentor for the young American and who has to uncover dark secrets in his own family’s past. I would like Keanu Reeves to be the young American, because he has the range to move the character from numb through shaken to compassionate. And I would like George Clooney for Spiros, the Cretan bully. I know that’s casting against type, but he’d be so good at it, and I think he might like to do it for a change. That’s enough dream-casting for now.

FPP – What is your next writing project?

JB– I’m two-thirds through writing a tale of domestic crisis set in central California,–in Big Sur and the Carmel Valley, where I used to live. And I’m starting research for a sequel to Pale Surface of Things, which will involve saving the village after the young men all move to the city for work. I don’t know how they WILL save it, but that’s the joy of writing: learning what might be.

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On Being Visual – Author Video Blogs

Authors have one more tool they can use to build community around their work – the video blog.  A video blog (also called a vlog) is essentially a blog that uses video vs. text as its primary way to communicate.  According to Wikipedia, video blogs have been around in one form or another since 2003.  Today there are thousands of video blogs.  For authors, video blogs offer yet more way to connect with their audience. 

Many authors are already using book trailers as a visual medium to communicate the message of their book and perhaps offer a little bit of their own background.  However, book trailers are limited in the goals they are trying to serve.  Book trailers are aimed at getting potential readers interested in a title.  They are typically 1.5 – 3 minutes in length.  This makes them an effective promotional tool, but not a good way for readers to get an in depth understanding of the author.

A video blog on the other hand is something that is ongoing.  It provides a recurring engagement with the audience.  While it makes sense to keep any given video blog short (probably 3 – 5 minutes tops), the author can address a variety of topics across multiple video blog posts.  The visual presence of the author provides a stronger impact and a keener sense of his / her personality and temperament. 

Some publishers are already encouraging their authors to experiment with video blogs.  Koldcast is an online video channel that publishes book trailers and video blogs from Doubleday’s authors.  AuthorCams offers another use of author video.  It showcases a variety of author video book tours readings through three author news networks—PubBuzz (fiction and non-fiction), CooksRead (cookbooks) and KidsRead (children and young adult books). 

Setting up a video blog is straightforward and inexpensive or free tools abound to help authors wanting to explore this new avenue of outreach.  For a good list of video blogging resources and tips, check out Christina Laun’s post. 

Happy vlogging!

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Author Lofts and Pyramids of Value

Why do authors write?  They want a wide exposure for their ideas and stories.  Publishers have generally focused on playing the role of Darwinian gatekeeper for those ideas; determining which will live and die accoring to often opaque criteria.  This has been driven in part by the investment required to successfully produce and market a printed book in a few crowded and competitive channels. 

In an interview on The 25th Story, Seth Godin chided publishers for misunderstanding their true role in the book industry.  He noted:

Publishing is far too focused on the pub day. The event of the publication. This is a tiny drip, perhaps the least important moment in a long timeline. As soon as publishers see themselves as marketers and agents and managers and developers of content, things change.

If they would help authors find that wider exposure for their ideas, and not be locked into the concept of printed books and sales in bookstores, they could leverage that intense desire and potentially be more profitable than they ever dreamed, he insists.  What would such a publishing model look like?  Here are some thoughts.

Author “lofts” – In a idea driven book industry, publishers provide online spaces where authors are encouraged to develop their content and build an audience around it.  As I have discussed before this could include, but not be limited to, blogging, building socials networs around content and carefully tracking the size, engagement and needs of that audience.  These lofts are essentially incubators for authors and could be dsigned to be self funding.  Not every author becomes published in the traditional sense, but they have a real opportunity to move their ideas forward.

Pyramids of values – Not every idea will (or should) become a printed book.  The ideas may be most effectively expressed in a blog, or best distributed in some digital form – e.g. widgets or e-books.  Or shared out on social networks.  Books are being delivered in chunks – via e-mail, on CD (ala the NetFlix model) or to iPhones.  Any of these idea distribution modalities can serve to create an audience. 

Free (and sumptuous) samples – Just like fine cuisine, ideas should be sampled to be fully appreciated.  In the past, this has been limited to reviews, carefully controlled excerpts and author appearances.  However, the degree of sampling necessary to become a loyal member of the audience varies by individual.  This calls for broader and more flexible sampling tools – e.g. Google Book Search.  Google has settled the lawsuit with the AAP and the Authors Guild, opening the door to wider access to the content of books.  Despite the fears of the publishing industry, this will increase book sales, but it may reallocate the revenues.

All of this is leading to a new concept of book.  It begins as a “digital haze” where consumers can sample content and publishers can see whether the idea should be promoted to a higher place on the value pyramid.  Some ideas will find their audience and may eventually form a (solid) core: a printed volume which represents to the consumer, author and publisher the highest expression of value.  Not every idea makes it all the way up this pyramid, but not every idea has to. 

As Godin points out, there are many ways to monetize ideas.  The key is to build an audience for those ideas by being creative in the way you develop, promote and manage them.

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DIY Book Widgets May Soon Be Sprouting Up All Over

Today, authors and publishers have a number of powerful online book marketing tools at their disposal.  One example is the book trailer or book video.  In just a few years, this has become an important adjunct to the book PR campaign to build excitement and buzz about a new title.  Another tool that may be a little less familiar is the book widget.

Widgets are small snippets of code that make it easy for anyone to add functionality to a website.  As we move into the era of the “cut and paste” web, authors have more options than ever to construct snazzy book widgets.  Widgets have the advantage of small size and can become viral quickly.  Book widgets can also provide a quick way to create a super low cost, surrogate book trailer.

The pictures below shows an example of a book widget, for a book called La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock, created using a tool called Sprout. 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The top picture shows how the widget looks on your website.  It contains buttons that provide interactive access to:

• Story line
• Setting
• Author information
• Quotes
• Purchase link
• Sample chapter

The widget also prominently features the book cover and shows some rotating testimonials.  All in all, a pretty powerful widget for conveying to a potential purchaser what they are likely to encounter in the book.  It is the “widget-ary” equivalent of quickly browsing a book at the bookstore.  The bottom picture shows the code snippet you need to embed to drop this onto a website or blog.

The process is pretty straightforward. 

1. You select a template (or you can build your own widget
   from scratch).
2. Add and lay out content – graphics, text, audio, video, etc.
3. Accessorize with drag and drop object – think of these as “mini-widgets.”
4. Then publish to websites or blogs, or use the company’s partners as a way to get your widget into distribution.
5. Track downloads and copies.

The simplest book widgets probably only need a book cover graphic, author picture and some excerpts from the book, as well as an Amazon or other purchase link.  A nice touch would be a short author reading.  All of this is easily accessible to most authors.  When you change the content of your widget, it automatically updates every copy.  So if you want to use your widget as a way to deliver sample content from the book, you can periodically provide new excerpts to build interest. 

Book widgets are like book videos in that they are viral.  However, the interactivity of book widgets lets the user to explore the book to a degree that the book video cannot.  These two web marketing cousins will no doubt both claim an important role in the book marketer’s promotional strategy.

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Booktour.com – A DIY Publicity Tool for Authors

Whether authors like it or not, more publishers now expect them to shoulder a significant portion of the marketing and publicity for their books.  A variety of useful tools is now available to ease the burden.  We’ll talk briefly about one of them – Booktour.com.   The site was founded by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail who wanted to provide a way for authors to publicize their work and help readers find them.  The tool is simple to use for both readers and authors.

Here is how Booktour.com works. 

• Set up your basic profile – Authors provide some basic information about themselves and their books, including: name, e-mail, publicist e-mail, home zip code, biography and author picture.
• Add online media– These can be links to your book or author homepage, blog or other website, as well as audio, video (e.g. book trailer), online press releases and interviews.
• Add your book titles– Type in the ISBN for each of your books.  Booktour automatically pulls in your book cover and title.
• Add tour events– Booktour.com lets you select 5 different kinds of events:  in-person events, virtual events, radio, TV, virtual (e.g. blog tour) or one selection for “just visiting town.”
• Add book tour commentary – The commentary can be anything relating to people or happenings at your tour events.

Authors can also ask Booktour.com to suggest places to have events.  The site uses the author’s zip code information to craft recommendations for physical venues close to the author, as well as virtual venues.  Once you’ve done this modest amount of set up work, readers can find you, your books and your events via the site’s search function.  Users can search by author, title, or location.  They can view your profile and see events where you are speaking.  The site also adds links to Amazon and retailers who carry your books.

Another useful feature of Booktour.com are the multiple ways it lets readers follow your tour.  For example, readers can keep in touch with what you’re up to via e-mail, RSS feed or a customizable widget they add to their web page which displays speaking events of authors they are following.  You can add the widget to your own book or author site to make all your events available there with no extra data entry work.  Readers with a standards based calendar programs can have events added directly to their calendar.

In summary, Booktour.com is one of a new generation of online pubicity tools that simplifies the work of getting the word out about your book.  It aggregates all of your events, interviews, signings, etc. in one convenient place and makes it available to readers most likely to be interested in your book.  In doing so, it makes life a little easier for authors living at the narrow end of the long tail of book sales.

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Smart Tradeoffs in the Battle Against Book Trailer Trash

Book Vid Lit

by Sheila Clover-English

Sheila Clover English, the CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, has been a pioneer in book video production, marketing and distribution for authors and publishers.

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A key consideration when producing a book video is the tradeoff that frequently arises between production values and budget.  Book trailers run the gamut in terms of quality.  Some high-budget book videos use HD or film and have movie or TV stars in them.  At the other end of the spectrum are amateur videos, that may have serious creative and technical problems.  Both types get posted to the same distribution sites, such as YouTube.  People watching the amateur videos may decide that the low quality book video reflects the quality of the book it is intended to promote.  If video isn’t your avocation, it is worth consulting a video production firm to find ways to manage the budget / quality trade-offs and still produce an effective trailer.  Here are some questions we frequently get asked about book videos.

How do you work around a limited budget?

Most of the trade-offs in production values originate with the budget.  Since the primary client is an author with limited funds, we must respect what this imposes on the trailer we make.  One trade-off is the number of scenes.  Often we are asked to do several scenes for a minimum budget which means that our props or actors may have to reflect that budget.  It might be better to have fewer scenes and invest more in the quality of each scene.  Another trade-off occurs around the use of professional talent.  For instance, an author may want a friend to be in the trailer or to do voiceover narration.  Unless that friend is a professional, it usually just creates more work for the production company without resulting in a higher quality video.

Another tradeoff is using digital vs. film or HD.  Originally, we used digital to keep costs down.  Our intent was to create a look specific to trailers and not attempt to compete with movie trailers.  However, publishers or wealthy authors may be willing to pay the tens of thousands of dollars for a book video shot with the higher quality media.  

Sometimes a client will insist on having something in a trailer that is NOT appropirate for what the video is trying to accomplish.  All to often this is more about ego than effectiveness.  For example, COS Productions created one trailer where the author insisted upon choosing the actors.  In particular, she had the male actor in mind when she wrote the book.  In fact, she wrote the book with this person in mind and described him knowing he would, one day, be in the trailer.  But, the majority of people commenting on that trailer said he looked nothing like the hero in the book. The trailer took a huge hit.  But the author loved it, the booksellers used it and a fair number of bloggers said it influenced them to purchase the book. Obviously, anything creative that you make will be viewed through the filter of what that viewer feels at the time they watch it. It’s all subjective.  Sometimes you win with fans and sometimes you lose.

Do bad videos affect customer loyalty?

Loyal readers will see a video and if they like it they will credit the author. If they don’t like it, they usually blame the producer. Even if the client made creative decisions that the readers didn’t like, the producer will be held responsible because fans like being fans and they will always support the author, even to the detriment of the producer, even when it isn’t the producer’s fault.  In this respect, having someone else produce your trailer provides a buffer for the author. 

Do bad videos negatively affect sales?

Though the general consensus from booksellers has been that they see an increase in sales when a video goes up, there’s really no hard evidence on this issue yet.  With thousands of books coming out every month there is one thing that is for sure; if people don’t know your book exists they won’t buy it, the quality of the book video notwithstanding.  If on an average 10,000 people hear about your video through normal channels then the most you can hope to sell is 10,000 books. With video, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people will learn about your book; so your potential sales above the normal channels stands to go up. Even if they don’t like the video, they may like the story. Or they may still check out your site. If only 1,000 people buy the book because of the video, and 5,000 won’t because of the video, you are still gaining 1,000 readers above what you would have gotten through normal channels of marketing. Readers who depend on normal channels of marketing (word of mouth, back cover copy, RT ads, book reviews) are less likely to be influenced by a book video one way or another.

People who work in a creative field, such as writing or making entertainment videos, will always be subjected to the opinions of the general public. Bad book reviews, like bad book video reviews, come from a lot of places. Just because someone gives a book a bad review doesn’t mean the book isn’t good. It just means that that person didn’t like it. For whatever reason.

How much should you pay attention to bad book video reviews?

As with any creative endeavor, a few bad reviews are expected.  But, if the majority of the reviews from a variety of sources say the video has problems then let’s face it; it has problems. But, that doesn’t mean your career is over. It means that you need to take that input seriously and DO something with it!  At COS Productions, we set up a beta tester program back in 2006. We have reviewers watch our videos and they answer questions about it such as: “What was your least favorite scene and why?” and “Was the music appropriate throughout the video?”

We won’t beta test all videos because we produce too many and it isn’t always necessary.  However, we do test our full production videos and we sample test our videos using a maintenance schedule. So all types of videos are occasionally tested as are all of our producers. So, even if we have one that ends up not being well received we know we can do better next time because we take comments, constructive or otherwise, into account.

Not every book video is going to be a Telly award winner. But when the majority of them are, you can withstand the occassional bad comment and still feel successful.

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Four Quadrant Zooming – An Interview with Max Quick Series Author Mark Jeffrey

Mark Jeffrey

Most of us have enough on our hands just keeping up with our day jobs.  But Mark Jeffrey, author of the ultra popular Max Quick series of books and podcast audiobooks has two day jobs.  His first podiobook, Max Quick 1: The Pocket and the Pendant, has received over 2 million downloads to date.  And he is currently CTO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search service.  Previously, Mark co-founded ZeroDegrees, a business social network (sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2004).  He was CEO and co-founder of SuperSig in 1999. Mark also co-founded The Palace, Inc., an early (1995) avatar chat platform backed by Intel, Time Warner and Softbank with 10 million users (sold to Communities.com in 1998). Mark lives in Santa Monica, California. 

We recently interviewed Mark about his work, as well his thoughts about writing and the future of publishing.

FPP:  How did you come to write the Max Quick series and why did you choose to pursue the young adult audience?

The Pocket & the Pendant

MJ:  Initially, it was because it was something I thought I could do, that it was within my abilities as a first-time writer. I thought I would start with a ‘toy world’ and graduate from there to more serious stuff. But I quickly realized that I had actually, unwittingly, begun writing in one of the most serious of worlds possible. Paradoxically, it’s adult fiction that is usually rather trivial. Think about it. Who’s zooming who, who killed who — it’s all the same stuff, over and over. But Young Adult (YA) deals with large, archetypical themes. We are dealing with stories from the collective unconscious. That’s explosive. That’s handling nitro, baby.

Carl Jung once said, “One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves.” I think the same can be said of good YA fiction (though I don’t think it’s as much despised these days 🙂 )

The Two Travelers

I think Harry Potter and His Dark Materials opened some eyes to the fact that this sort of thing could be successful in recent years. Of course, there have been countless similar examples over the last century: Star Wars, the Oz books (easily the ‘Potter’ of the turn of the century), Narnia and Lord of the Rings are all supposedly ‘young adult’ content. In fact, I find the stuff I like best tends to fall into this category.

One other bit of ‘young adult’ content I would highlight includes ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card. I had not read it before I wrote ‘Pocket’. But a lot people told me ‘Pocket’ reminded them a lot of ‘Ender’s Game’ in that the children have to grow up very fast, and they’re kind of on their own. The children are not there to be cute. Nor are they sort of half-people. Rather, they are narratively full, rich individuals and are taken very, very seriously as people. Same thing with ‘Stand By Me’, actually. I tried very consciously to do the same thing.

But finally, there is a certain marketing logic to YA. The movie industry whispers in awe about a ‘four quadrant’ hit — one that appeals to young and old, men and women equally. Good YA is likewise ‘four quandrant’. It has much more hit potential than anything narrowly focused. Why? Because it is archetypal. It is universal and timeless. At least when it is done correctly 🙂

FPP:  What do you think has been responsible for the tremendous success of the Max Quick series?

MJ:  It’s simultaneously very similar and very different to other things out there right now. ‘Potter’ opened everyone’s minds, of course. And created an audience. But after that, in the book world, you pretty much have Pullman, and that’s it. Nobody else has delivered! Space has been done to death. Sword and sorcery has been done to death. But YA … its been done well very few times. I like to think I’ve done it pretty well 🙂 At the very least, I’ve done something people like, judging from the reviews in the iPhone App Store.

Secondarily, the podiobook version of ‘Pocket’ was early enough and popular enough (it’s gotten 2.3 million downloads to date) that it provided the early explosion in the fanbase. That was certainly a factor, and I owe a thanks to Evo Terra and podiobooks.com for that early success.

FPP:  Are there particular authors who have influenced on your work?

MJ:  Absolutely. I am a huge fan of Stephen R. Donaldson and Anne Rice in particular. I’ve also read lot of Carl Jung, Stephen King (specifically Dark Tower), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), Mervyn Peake, Karen Armstrong, JRR Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, JK Rowling, Carlos Casteneda, Frank Herbert, Phillip Pullman — all great stuff. Movies and television influence me as well — some of my favorites include Star Wars, Amadeus, Somewhere In Time, Fight Club, The Natural, Blade Runner … and TV: LOST, Battlestar Galactica (new, not disco version), Deadwood, Carnivale … it’s an interesting mix.

And all of this stuff influences me, of course. There is a theme of both Philip K. Dick and Donaldson that is a big one in ‘Two Travelers’. As Dick puts it: “Anyone who defeats a segment of the Empire, becomes the Empire.” In Donaldson’s ‘Thomas Covenant’ series, Covenant thinks he is supposed to destroy the Banefire — and he very nearly does — which is exactly what the Enemy wants him to do. Lastly, Jung has a saying: “The which we resist, persists.” I find this paradox fascinating, that the more we fight something negative, the more we actually give it power. Kind of a Chinese finger-puzzle, if you will. So that became a big theme of ‘Travelers’.

FPP:  You are a serial entrepreneur who has started a number of businesses based on new Internet technologies. How has that influenced your writing and marketing of the Max Quick series, if at all?

MJ:  Oh, it has influenced the marketing of it quite a bit. A lot of my previous businesses succeeded because myself and my partners were among the very first people ever to do them. ZeroDegrees, my third company, was the very first win in the social networking space. It was sold to Barry Diller’s IAC/Interactivecorp in Feb 2004. At the time, we didn’t even have the word ‘social network’ anywhere on our business plan! We didn’t know it was called that.

Similarly, the Max Quick Series has been marketed in many innovative ways — and was among the first in each case. And that can be directly traced to my ‘DNA as an Internet Guy’, if you will. I released the book first via Lulu.com in 2004 as a self-published paper book and as a downloadable PDF. In the beginning of 2005, ‘Max Quick 1: The Pocket and the Pendant’ was one of the very first podiobooks ever released (Scott Sigler’s Earthcore and Tee Morris’ MOREVI were the other two). I also released ‘Pocket’ on the Kindle. And most recently, ‘Pocket’ and ‘Max Quick 2: The Two Travelers’ were both released in the iPhone App Store as $5.99 ebook downloads.

FPP:  You’ve distributed your work as podcast, in print form, as a download, an e-book on Kindle and now on the iPhone. What adaptations, if any, did you have to make for each of those formats?

MJ:  The Kindle was a bit of a pain. The iPhone was quite easy — my partner on that, Tom Peck, took my original Word documents and converted them to his iPhone e-reader format — and it was some work on his end, but nothing terrible, I’m given to understand.

FPP:  Has the free podcast version aided or detracted from sales in print and other paid formats?

Abigail Breslin

MJ:  Definitely added. The free podcasts have gotten over 2.3 million downloads. And as a direct result, Oscar-nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) heard the podcasts and recently called it one of her favorite books. Which was great marketing, of course — nothing better than one of the top child actors in the world saying nice things about your books!

FPP:  Could you tell us a little about how the community of readers / listeners for the Max Quick series has evolved since you began writing it?

MJ:  A lot people follow me on Twitter and friend up with me on Facebook these days. Some people email me. It never gets old, either. I love hearing what people think about the series — the good and the bad. I love hearing how they found out about it. It’s still sort of something that you have to discover somehow on your own.

In the second edition of ‘Pocket’ I included a lot of fan art that people sent in to me. Most of it is quite good! There are some seriously good artists reading the books!

FPP:  How do you see technology changing the way consumers read and authors write over the next several years? Is the printed book in danger of extinction?

MJ:  I don’t think so. Personally, I am still a big fan of being able to have a book on my bookshelf — and I think a lot of people feel the same way. Maybe if I were younger I would feel differently — I might be too old to adopt fully digital books.

However, I was shocked at how much I liked reading books on my iPhone. I wouldn’t have called that one. I am personally not a big fan of the Kindle or the other e-readers out there. Probably because I already have in my iPhone a multi-purpose device, and the Kindle is a one-trick pony. It seems ridiculous that I should have to purchase a bit of standalone hardware like that. My iPhone is already my email client, iPod, web browser, ebook reader, GPS device, camera, etc. It’s already in my pocket. You get the point. And I’ve sold way more iPhone copies of my books in the first two weeks than I’ve sold on the Kindle in the last year. So, I think the iPhone — or other multipurpose mobile device — crushes the Kindle. You heard it here first! You can’t be a one-trick pony hardware device anymore.

I also love the fact that I can go direct to a market of millions without a publisher as an unnecessary intermediary. I published directly to iPhone via Tom Peck’s wonderful e-reader application. Apple takes a cut, Tom takes a cut, but I — the artist — take the biggest cut. Now that is a proper world! And of course, I am very happy to see both Tom and Apple do very, very well. I want them to do well!

FPP:  How do you balance managing your new startup, Mahalo, and your writing?

MJ:  Ha. Well. 🙂 Mahalo.com — where I am CTO, for your readers who do not know — is a new human-powered search engine. All the results are hand-crafted by humans. No spam! The best links always on top, not buried on page 32 or 47 of the results. (Short-form information is also presented with the links, so if it’s just a factoid you’re looking for, you’ll generally get it.) It’s really pretty extraordinary — and a big leap beyond the machine-powered search engines. It’s all information you can trust 100%. Sorry to sound like a commercial, but Mahalo is really an awesome idea (and it wasn’t mine, I’m sorry to say 🙂 it was the idea of Jason Calacanis, our CEO and personal friend of mine) and it’s sorely needed: the Net is getting more polluted every day — and that’s why I signed up.

But Mahalo is an internet start-up. And it is intense, with very long hours. Which doesn’t leave a lot of time or ‘psychic energy’ for writing. I come home drained a lot. You’ll notice there is no Max Quick 3 yet. True, I am doing Max Quick 2 as a podiobook now, but I’ve got that down to a science — only takes me 2 hours per episode now, it used to take me 8. And it is kind of ‘rote’ — I just have to do a performance of something I wrote awhile ago, edit it, release it. Very different from finding the proper ‘head space’ for writing a Max Quick book.

At some point that will be finished with the podiobook, and I’ll slowly begin work on MQ3 (I do have an outline). I’m guessing by October I’ll break ground on it.

But I’ve done several internet startups of my own before, as you note. I knew what I was signing up for with Mahalo. And so far, it’s been one of the best startup experiences I’ve had.

FPP:  What writing projects would you like to pursue after Max Quick?

MJ:  I have no idea. The Max Quick universe is large enough to encompass just about any story I want to tell — sort of like Star Trek or Gate.  At least, for me it is.  Every time I toy with an idea outside of the Max Quick universe, I end up integrating it. In ‘Two Travelers’, the Casey storyline was a separate book — until I realized it was perfect for the Casey story that had been eluding me. Likewise, I had an idea I called ‘Bondsman’ that was to be a series parallel to Max Quick and end on the same book — until I realize it was perfect for the Max storyline in book 3.

So when I figure this out, it’ll be as much a surprise to me as it is to you.

FPP:  Based on your experience, what advice would you give new writers today?

MJ:  Take advantage of the new distribution mediums! Own your own future! Get it out on Lulu.com, the Kindle (why not?), iPhone, PDF, podiobooks.com — whatever. You’re problem is not that you’re not rich. Your problem is nobody has ever heard of you before. It’s a privilege that someone else will take the time to read your stuff.

Also, the definition of what a book actually *is* … is pretty fluid now. It’s more like software. For example, what is out right now for ‘Pocket’ I consider ‘Pocket 1.0’. I may do a ‘Pocket 2.0’ with expanded scenes, new scenes, etc. I may double the length of it — like an extended edition DVD. There’s a lot of things I wanted to do with the journey across America that I could not get to and remain under 100,000 words. Now that there are so many fans of the book, I feel I have permission to expand it. There’s no reason not to.

I may release the first six chapters for free in the iPhone App Store (in fact I probably will) like a sampler game level.

The point is: we are no longer in a world where you publish it and it is set in stone for eternity. You can keep upgrading it. You have to be careful so you don’t destroy the illusion of continuity — you can’t be completely fluid to the point of silliness (for example, in the newer ‘Star Wars’, Lucas has Greedo fire at Han Solo first — and miss at point blank range! — that is silliness, don’t change your stuff THAT much).

Finally, your early audience can help you write your book. Readers have found consistency errors in earlier version of Pocket that I’ve since corrected. They are basically beta testers. Take their feedback, fix your book, re-release it. Scott Sigler, JC Hutchins (7th Son) Matthew Wayne Selznick (Brave Men Run) have commented on this at length. The audience can help you write. Take advantage of that. Again, books are more like software now.

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• The End of Influence as We Know It
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• You’re on the Air . . . a Podcast of One’s Own
• Social Vampires & the Art of Bookselling – Lessons from the Twilight

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Podcast Novelist Extraordinarie – An Interview with 7th Son’s J.C. Hutchins

J.C. Hutchins

J.C. Hutchins is a groundbreaking pioneer in the realm of building participative fan-based communities around works of fiction.  He is the author of the 7th Son trilogy, the most popular podcast novel series in history.  The technothriller trilogy, distributed as free, serialized audiobooks on the Internet, has featured cameos by science fiction/horror icons Nathan Fillion, George Romero, Richard Hatch, Alan Dean Foster, Kevin J. Anderson and others. Hutchins’ work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and as a Blogger & Podcaster magazine cover story.  Affter a successful career specializing in feature and entertainment reporting, in 2002 he left journalism to begin writing the 7th Son trilogy.

He recently agreed to talk with Future Perfect Publishing about his writing, the 7th Son fan community and what’s next for himself and the future for writing.

FPP:  What prompted you to start 7th Son originally and what gave you the idea for the characters and storyline?

JCH:  I’m a huge fan of superhero comic books and wanted to write my own. But as I developed the idea for 7th Sonand its core concept – seven human clones who had identical childhood memories, thanks to an ultra-secret technology that records human memories and “downloads” them into human minds – I realized that the story would be better served as a prose fiction novel. Since I believed then … and still do .. that it’s very difficult to convincingly tell a superhero story in a prose novel, I cast aside many of the “super” elements of my ideas (spandex suits, powers such as flight, ray guns, etc.) and made my seven clone protagonists “everyman” characters. Despite some of the high-tech plotlines and tech still seen in 7th Son, this creative choice grounded the narrative for me.

The story line – seven unwitting participants in a human cloning experiment brought together by the government to stop a megalomaniacal villain, the very man they were cloned from – unfolded organically during the writing process. Nearly all of the conspiracies, technologies, characters and plot twists revealed themselves to me as I wrote. It was a blast to discover this world as I wrote the book.

FPP:  Who are the writers that you most admired or had the most influence on your work?

JCH:  My inspirations are all over the place, found in many media. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Jeffrey Deaver, Brad Meltzer, James Cameron, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Joss Whedon … the list goes on.

FPP:  You have developed a very active community of listeners for the 7th Son trilogy. Was that surprising and can you tell us how that has evolved over time?

7th Son fan content

JCH:  It was surprising, yes. I was initially shocked that so many people wanted to contribute something to “the 7th Son experience,” as I call it. But after receiving a few fan-created stories and pictures, I began to actively solicit such content from my listeners. Soon there were galleries and pages on my site filled with artwork, music, photos, poetry, fan fiction, screen savers, images and more. I still receive photos and artwork from listeners, even though the 7th Sontrilogy podcast concluded last December. It was incredible and life-changing, knowing that people were so invested in my fictional world.

FPP:  Was it a little scary when your fans first began creating and sharing their own content based on your work?

JCH:  Why would I be frightened? I believe the contract between an author and his audience is straightforward: authors produce entertaining content, and the audience consumes it. That’s it. Anything else the audience may do – tell a friend about the work, send the author an email, buy a branded T-shirt or other merchandise – is positively heroic in my world view, and far above and beyond what any author should expect. In that context, the fact that people quested for my content, leaped through a few technological hoops to obtain it, listened to it, enjoyed it … and then invested even more of their personal time and creativity to create their own art inspired by my story is as staggering as it is humbling.

There’s nothing frightening about that. It’s nigh-miraculous, and I’m touched by my fans’ generosity.

FPP:  To what extent has the community influenced the development of characters and storyline in your novels?

JCH:  None. I wrote and edited the 7th Sontrilogy long before I released it as a podcast. I did not write the series as I released the content, and I don’t recommend authors do it that way. I believe the work should be as tight and polished as it possibly can be before it’s released in the wild, and that nearly always means completing the work, editing, rewriting, rinse, repeat. I know a few writers who are good enough to release serialized fiction as they write it week-to-week, but I’m not one of them.

FPP:  What is the process you would go through to create a podcast episode? What were some of the things you had to learn or hurdles you had to overcome in the production of the podcasts?

JCH:  Creating a typical podcast episode for a serialized audiobook such as mine involves recording what I call the “core content” (the chapter that will be released in that weekly episode), editing out all the reading flubs, writing and recording timely announcements that preclude and conclude the core content, adding promotional recordings for other podcasts, mixing the entire production down into an episode, uploading it to a Web server, and then activating the content in my podcast feed.

I won’t bore your readers with the minutiae of the things I had to learn in those early days, but they involved learning what affordable recording gear to purchase (in 2006, I spent around $100 for the microphone and mixer that I still use), using an audio editing program (I use the free Garageband program for the Macintosh; there are free programs for other computer platforms, as well), understanding the fundamentals of what powers a podcast (RSS and XML technologies), and how to build and manage a website. It sounds daunting, but nearly all of this stuff was easy to grok, once I realized that I didn’t have to be a “master” of all of these things at once. LIke writing a novel, I baby-stepped my way through learning these things, and only after I was confident that I knew the basics did I launch my podcast.

The greatest revelation I made about podcasting my fiction was that it can be a colossal time suck. I’m a solid performer of my work, but I’m a terrible reader. Recording a typical 45-minute episode takes around 90 minutes for me, and another three hours to edit it. Even more time is required to write and record the timely announcements. The mixdown of an episode can take as long as 30 minutes. Even more time is taken uploading the final audio file to the Web, and activating it for people to download.

The technology is relatively easy to master, but the time investment can be enormous.

FPP:  In the past, you have delivered your work through podcasts. Now you’ve announced a print title for summer 2009. Why did you choose the podcasting route first and how do you think your listeners will respond to seeing your work in print?

JCH:  From 2002 to 2004, I wrote what we now know as the “7th Son trilogy” as one long manuscript. The complete story – nearly 1,300 pages in length – was far longer than any publisher would purchase and release from a first-time novelist. Egotistically, I ignored this and spent 2005 querying literary agents. I received deserved universal rejections from the industry. The project I’d spent two years of my life writing (and breathing) was dead on arrival. It was disheartening.

During 2005, I was listening to podcasts and discovered the serialized “podcast novel” works of Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, Mark Jeffrey, Jack Mangan and others, and realized that if I couldn’t sell 7th Son, I could at the very least share it. In early 2006, I chopped my monster manuscript into thirds (act one became Book One: Descent, etc.) and began releasing it as a podcast. More than two years — and more than 40,000 listeners and nearly 2 million downloads later — I now have a print deal for that first novel in the 7th Son series. It will be released next Fall by St. Martin’s Press.

And yes, I have another novel that will be released in Summer 2009, also by St. Martin’s. This for-hire project, called Personal Effects: Dark Art, is an ambitious novel-meets-Alternate Reality Game supernatural thriller that will break more than a few rules in the way readers perceive and experience prose fiction. This deal also hailed directly from the success of the 7th Sonpodcast. St. Martin’s Press associate editor David Moldawer facilitated both deals.

How do I think my audience will respond to these two print releases next year? I think they’re going to love it. I’ve received thousands of emails from fans during the past two-and-a-half years as a podcaster, and a great many of them specifically mention how excited they are to know that these books will be published, and how they’ll purchase copies for themselves and friends. I’m humbled by this, as I believe they – the fans – are the No. 1 reason for any success I’ve experienced as an author.

FPP:  How would you like to extend the community in the future?

JCH:  This is an excellent question, and one I’ve yet to answer for myself. I believe the key to audience and community growth will come from extending my reputation and work beyond the microcosm of podcasting. When my current podcast fiction project – called 7th Son: OBSIDIAN – concludes in September, I’ll be thinking very seriously about this. How can I present myself and expertise in more visible places? What advice can I offer the fiction and social media communities to help creators explore this exciting landscape?

While I have no satisfactory answer for myself (or your readers) yet, it’s something that’s on my mind. I want the print releases of my novels to be successful in 2009, and I want to do everything I can to make that happen. Growing my fan base – and the awareness of what I’m doing – will become my absolute priority, rolling into the new year.

FPP:  You’ve described yourself as “a shameless (but tactful) self-promoter.” Can you elaborate on that?

JCH:  Sure. Maybe it’s my folksy Kentucky upbringing, but I try to treat others the way I’d like to be treated. That’s why I’m as cheerful as I can be on my podcast, I answer every email I receive from listeners … and when I promote myself and my work – and I do it quite often, and quite vociferously – I try to be as kindhearted and realistic as I can be about it.

This might be an affront to traditional authorial sensibilities, but I believe my job as a writer is not only to entertain folks with my work, but to shake my ass and get as many newcomers to my content as possible. To do this, I often ask my audience to evangelize on my behalf, and will occasionally provide incentives such as merchandise, exposure on my podcast, etc. to make it worth their time. I make sure that the promotions I create are not morally offensive, are generally fun (or funny), and have an “opt out” clause for my audience. I try not to make people feel obligated to promote my stuff, and I try to be as up-front with my listeners on how I might benefit from their hard work.

In addition to this, I personally promote my work on my podcast, on social media sites/services, and to other podcasters. Whenever possible, I make an offer of reciprocity to colleagues who help me. I want to be treated with respect, and I do everything I can to do the same for my fans and peers.

FPP:  How much of your time is divided between interacting with the 7th Son community and writing?

JCH:  Podcasting, keeping up with fan correspondence and managing my social media persona and all that comes with it – my website, etc. – currently consumes nearly all of my creative time and energy. Times such as now, when I’m releasing podcast content, force new projects to the backburner. This is a dangerous game for authors, and it’s challenging to keep all the plates spinning.

Despite my love for podcasting, I believe I was put on this planet to tell stories. I’m taking the risk that this “front end” work of community-building, podcasting, etc. will help create a supportive network of fans that will purchase my work when it’s released in print, and make those releases a success, so I might someday make this my full-time profession.

FPP:  What would you like to do after 7th Son?

JCH:  The podcast release of the 7th Son trilogy concluded last December, and 7th Son: OBSIDIAN’s finale will debut next month. When 7th Son: OBSIDIANconcludes, I plan to take a well-deserved vacation from podcasting, and begin focusing my efforts on creating new stories and content. Some of this will be used to promote the Summer release of Personal Effects: Dark Art. Some of this will be new novels and short stories.

FPP:  How do you see the emerging social media affecting the way writers create and market their work in the future?

JCH:  It’s mission critical. The frontier for self-promotion, content creation and ways of telling never-before-seen breeds of stories is changing rapidly, and for the better. Technologies and services are so cheap – or in many instances, free – that the tools for creative expression are accessible to nearly everyone with a computer and Internet connection. Combine this with the inarguable reality that digital distribution of stories and promotional materials is becoming more and more mainstream – and will someday become ubiquitous – and it’s obvious that writers must explore this new Wild West. They must carve a place for themselves in it.

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400 Ways to Move your Trailer – Book Video Distribution Takes Off

Book Vid Lit

by Sheila Clover-English

Sheila Clover English, the CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, has been a pioneer in book video production, marketing and distribution for authors and publishers.

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As book videos become more important in the book marketing mix and book video distribution options expand, it is critical to distribue tyour video on sites that closely match your audience demographics.  Distributing effectively is part judgment, part technology and part experimentation.  The technology aspects of book video include: formatting, search engine optimization (SEO) and distribution.  These represent major concerns and hot topics for the COS Productions‘ R&D team which is made up of internal employees as well as contracted specialists.

Last year our primary focus was on book video distribution.  We worked on establishing relationships with booksellers and specialty sites.  We submit our videos to over 300 booksellers and 5,000 libraries as well as specialty sites such as: Watch the Book, Preview the Book, DigiGirls Library, TerrorFeed, Dark Scribe Magazine, Romance Novel TV, and so on. More recently we’ve been working with BooksiRead and GoodReads and delving into more niche communities while continuing to reach out to additional booksellers and book clubs.  We’ve mastered the RSS feed and are now able to do more with less time invested. We can even use RSS to get our blogs out to several areas and then monitor comments using Friend Feed.

Our big focus in R&D right now is video SEO. Now that technology has caught up with SEO opportunities for video we plan on taking full advantage of that. Our team is currently working on a tutorial video and guide for our network partners that will help our videos have greater SEO.

Today there are many distribution options.  We have a list of over 400 sites that we can distribute to online.  We believe this gives us the broadest possible coverage for our book videos in the various social media. Here is a small sample of sites that provide some basic distribution opportunities.

5min (when applicable)	Meebo	Viddler
Addicting Clips	MeeVee	VidPow
AOL	Mefeedia	Vimeo
AtomUploads	Mixx	VSocial
Backflip	Myjeeves	Yahoo Video
Blinklist	MySPace	YouTube
Blinx	Pando	Borders
Blip TV	Photobucket	BN.com
Bluedot	Propeller	Powells.com
Break	PureVideo	Southern Independent Bookseller’s Association- all bookstores
ClipBlast	Putfile	Watch the Book
Crackle	REAL	Preview the Book
DailyMotion	REC TV	DigiGirls
Del.icio.us	REC TV Blog	Dark Scribe Magazine
Digg	Reddit	TerrorFeed (Horror only)
Flickr	SearchforVideo	Romance Novel TV (Romance only)
Flurl	Sevenload	GoodReads
Folkd	Spash Cast	BooksiRead
Furl	Spurl	Ebookisle
GoFish	StumbleUpon	Night Owl Romance
Google Video	Sumo	Romance Designs Theater
Internet Archieve	Technoratti	COS Productions website and newsletter
iTunes	TotalVid	Find Me an Author
Lycos	Twitter	Kim’s Wonderful World of Books
Magnolia	Veoh	OverDrive (sends to 5000 libraries)

Some of these sites are very specific to genre and allow you to target your book video to the most receptive audience.  So, for example, if you have an inspirational book, we won’t send your book video to TerrorFeed.  In this respect, it is exciting to see book video on the same playing field as video game trailers and movie trailers.  2009 promises to be an exciting year for book video!

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