Author Boot Camp

At AWP this year, I'm presenting as part of a panel on "The Tech-Empowered Writer: Embrace New Media, Experiment, and Earn" along with awesome writers Christina Katz, Robert Lee Brewer and Jane Friedman. Check them out, really! These three are ones to watch! The panel is on Thursday of the conference (3/1) from 1:30 to 2:45 in Boulevard Room A,B,C, at the Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor. More info is here: AWP Conference Schedule.

I'll say the names of these three again: Christina Katz, Robert Lee Brewer and Jane Friedman. Outstanding, all! And go here for where I mention Christina's awesome book, The Writer's Workout!

But what I'm really here for is to add more content to the panel presentation so folks can find more links to others I think are doing a great job. I'll be talking about how I raised significant capital for my last two novels This Is Life and Young Junius by doing a highly successful (if I do say so myself) Kickstarter Campaign and a Special Edition Pre-Order event that I ran through PayPal. Both of these really put me in good shape to work with a publisher and to do a lot of the freelancer-comissioning myself! Totally awesome! Of course, none of this would've been possible without the support of my awesome group of fans, the Palms Mommas and Palms Daddies, who I connected with through producing my novels as free, serialized audiobooks (podcasts) that I distributed here and at iTunes. For more on how I did that, see this link and the upcoming online Author Boot Camp class I'll be teaching in April and May. Hurry, just a few spots remain!

So, what other writers are doing awesome stuff?

First, I'll start off with Jeff Shelby, who blogs here about how he set up his eBook Thread of Hope on Amazon's Kindle store and planned a release all on his own. And then guess what? Thread of Hope hit #1 on Amazon!! Yes, it did! Slid right past Stieg Larsson and everything! Jeff tells all in this easy to read and understand blog post about how he listed the book, made it free on Amazon to jumpstart sales, then contacted biggie blogs like Pixel of Ink and eReader News Today to let them know when it'd be free. Next up... well, read it all here. How Thread of Hope Hit #1 on Amazon

Second, let me tell you about Neal Pollack, whose piece in the New York Times Book Review here tells about how and why he decided to leave traditional publishing to put out his book Jewball himself. Neal used Kickstarter to build a source of funding and Createspace to publish the book in Print On Demand format. Know what? Both of these are totally easy to do. Read more about Neal in my post at AuthorBootCamp here.

Mur Lafferty, a fellow podcasting author, really rocked the Kickstarter world and broke the mold when she did this wildly successful campaign. Just look at the funding: 969% funded! Wow!

Want more? Check out podcasts by students of my recent Author Boot Camps and how they're connecting with an audience using just their voice, their words, and a little technology! That, plus more info and lessons from J.A. Konrath, Barry Eisler and Paolo Coehlo are all below. If you're interested in learning how to podcast and release your own eBooks, consider joining me for the online installment of Author Boot Camp in April and May. Filling fast!

This has been a long-running request from many of you and I'm happy to say it's finally here: I'm finally teaching a fully online 4-week Author Boot Camp class!! It's this April and May through the Stanford Online Writer's Studio.

The class covers methods and practices for podcasting, but also a lot more: we're going to get into eBook production and distribution, social media (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) as well as blogging and community-building strategies.

This course is limited to 21 students and filling fast, so sign up now!

Course title: Getting Your Story Out There: Social Media, eBooks, and More

Dates: April 16th to May 11. 4 Weeks, all online, all at your schedule and convenience No Matter Where You Are!

Cost: $300 - a steal for the amount of community, guidance and strategy you'll be getting! Download the Syllabus here to learn more. 

Visit the Continuing Studies website to read more about the class, see the full description, and enroll.

This is the last homework assignment before our next session at Stanford on 10/22 and 10/29. More info on that here. Spaces are still available.

Authors JA Konrath and Barry Eisler are trendsetters in the self-publishing and eBook marketplace. Last spring, Eisler made big news by turning down a $500k contract for two books with St. Martin's Press to go the self-pub route. He later signed with Amazon, but that's another story. Here, he and Konrath talk over the changing face of the market, why Eisler did what he did, and the long-term prospects for making money in eBook sales. Some might say this is a great time to be an author. I hope you'll come to agree!

On a side note, I'm so convinced by what these guys have to say that I've jumped into the affordable eBook marketplace myself with both feet. I've just released THIS IS LIFE for Kindle and Nook, and plan to follow it with three more eBooks over the next 4 months! Stay tuned!

I've trimmed their Google Docs discussion to a more ABC-appropriate size. You can find the original material here.

The Rise of eBooks and Self-publishing

Joe: To the casual observer, you appear to be heavily invested in the legacy publishing system. They’ve been good to you, they helped you get onto the NYT bestseller list, made you wealthy with several large deals, and seem to have treated you fairly.

Barry: Well, I don’t know about wealthy, but I’ve been making a living writing novels for almost a decade now, which is a pretty great way to live.

Joe: You had six-figure and seven-figure deals. Logic dictates anyone offered a deal like that should leap at it.

Barry: You wouldn’t.

Joe: But I never had the treatment you had from legacy publishers. I would walk away from a big deal now, most certainly, because I have two years of data proving I can do better on my own.

However, what if a NYT bestseller were offered, say, half a million dollars for two books?

Or, more specifically, let’s say you were offered that.

You’d take it. Right?

Barry: Well, I guess not… ;)

[For more, read on, after the break! or Download the full PDF]

Click here to listen or to download the interview for free!

Here's an interview that I just did with fellow podcaster John Mierau about my views on podcasting, publishing today and the new trends in eBook sales. We discuss some of the subjects to be covered in the next Author Boot Camp class, as well as what I'm doing to put the word out about my own new fiction.

John's been podcasting for over two years now and has plenty of great thoughts, insights and free fiction over on his site, here: johnmierau.wordpress.com/ I'll see you there!

So check out this interview, have a listen and if you've got questions, I'd love to hear from you! You can email me here or simply register on the site and leave a comment that I'll respond to soon.