The Story Studio Podcast - Writing, Storytelling, and Marketing Advice for Writers & Business

Jim Kukral is the creator of Author Marketing Club, which we use and love, but we had him on today to talk about direct selling -- basically, opening your own channels of sales rather than relying entirely on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and the other marketplaces for 100% of your book sales. We talked about a lot of stuff on this show, but it's equally divided between practical stuff that you can do now vs. stuff that we think is going to happen in the future, as indie publishing evolves. We talked about selling on your own site, building your own platform, and the idea of having author apps that will deliver your content. We also talked about some of the difficulties with all of those right now… and there are a bunch. But it won't be that way forever, so remember: as an indie, you've always gotta be asking where the puck is GOING, not just where it is right now. Here's the video version of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQaGQv10w2o

We get a lot of questions from you guys that we can't legally (or responsibly) answer, about legal stuff. So to answer them, we had on M. Scott Boone from Writer In Law this week. Some of the questions we tackled were: • Do you need a corporate structure like an LLC for your writing business? • What does copyright really mean, and what do you need to know about it? • When do you need to worry about trademark infringement? • What do you need to keep in mind about publishing contracts? • Should you be concerned about being sued for something you wrote? • Are you allowed to create parodies or fan fiction of other works? Where is the line in doing so? Here's the video version of the show: http://youtu.be/FWTtGzwgB_8

This was one of those episodes where we had thirty things to talk about and only one week to talk about it between guest appearances, so we jammed it all in. Here's some bullet points of what we discussed: • We took voicemails about release schedules, print vs. e-book publishing, pre-sales, and more • After getting a Tweet that enraged him, Dave railed a FUCKLOAD about why none of the three of us on SPP are women and/or why we don't bring a woman into join us every week to add gender balance • How Lexi Maxxwell (link NSFW) is gaining reviews and no longer discounting her books for her list, and why • What Dave REALLY thought about me (Johnny) before he met me, and how I may have dodged a mail bomb • The very first "someone else writing in the world of The Beam" story is written: The Future of Sex by our erotica author friend Lexi Maxxwell. Sean and I were directly involved. Basically, we entered into an awesome collaboration with Lexi from two bullets above (Lexi wrote the sex parts and came up with the concept; Sean and I story architected it and wrote much of the rest). The result is very explicit sexually but is also VERY "Beam." Personally, I think that even if you're not into erotica, you should read The Future of Sex because it explores so much in the background of The Beam. (You could even skip the sex scenes. I sure didn't when I read it back, though.) • We are no longer doing weekly releases (and we discuss why) • Sean and I started an email-only serial that we're sending out to our list subscribers every week. Join the list on the Realm & Sands site to read it for free. • We talked more about birthing the Self Publishing Podcast blog, and the co-existing reasons behind it: publishing a book on the same concepts as an authority piece and starting speaking careers • Why Dave writes so well about food and Sean writes so well about weed • Sean attempts to change our Better Off Undead podcast yet again To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #72 - Switching Up Our Strategies and a Virtual Grab-Bag

This was a hum-dinger of a show, already lauded by many of our viewers who watch us live on our YouTube channel as "the best episode yet." We spoke to two very well-known names in indie publishing (which they refer to as "the new world of publishing," Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I've been wanting to talk to Kris and Dean for a while and we've gotten a lot of listener requests about it, so finally Mark from Kobo (poor guy, we'll never be able to call him by his full name because he's forever "Mark from Kobo") made the introduction. It might be worth checking out the YouTube video for this episode to watch Sean's antics as he vehemently agrees with 99% of what they say, going so far as to make hugging and other gestures the whole time. Some hot-button topics we touched on were: * Pricing your writing higher * Writing in various genres (under the same name) is good * Treat your writing like products more than art * Write a lot, and release new stuff as fast as you can … and basically a ton of other stuff that made us want to join their family. They're married to each other now, so we figure we're halfway there already. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #71 - Killing Sacred Cows with Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This week, by popular request and also badgering by our fans, Chuck Wendig gamely stepped up and joined us for an interview. We took the criticism wherein y'all said that Sean and I talk too damn much and let Chuck talk this time. We got the whole spectrum, from learning about Chuck's writing process and schedule to writing in multiple genres to promotion avenues to pricing. There was also much swearing, much agreement on the strategies (not tactics) to use, and many squirrels. Okay, no squirrels. So settle in and enjoy this slightly more irreverent and profane than usual episode...

This week, we focused on a question raised by David like three months ago: how the hell do we accomplish so much stuff? Not just the writing, but the collaboration, the podcasts, other aspects of our business, etc? There were two big keys, plus a TON of very specific minutia. The two big keys were: 1. Know thyself. Your ability to use your time well starts with knowing yourself, your tendencies, your strengths and your weaknesses… and being brutally honest about all of it. 2. Work smarter, not harder. It's not that we get more done than most people… it's that we have optimized our work to coincide as closely as possible with our most productive times and using our most productive habits. Don't just get more done… get more done intelligently. Tons and tons and tons of specifics in this one. Enjoy! To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #69 - How We Get So Much Shit Done

Today our guest was Stacy Ennis, writer, editor, book coach, and author of The Editor's Eye: A Practical Guide to Transforming Your Book From Good to Great. In this show, we covered a lot of detail about how to work with an editor, with a VERY big focus on this idea, which I'll put in bold because it's important: Hiring an editor is like hiring a partner, and finding the right "fit" is very, very important. (Let's just say that most of my objections to editors go away if you can find the right person who is the right fit.) We talked about how to find an editor, what to look for, what to expect to pay, and all sorts of other good stuff. Here are some resources Stacy mentioned on the show: To find editors: • The Editorial Freelancer’s Association • PublishersMarketplace • The Editors’ Association of Canada • Editcetera • BiblioCrunch To outline online: • Microsoft online (search "flow chart") • Gliffy To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #68 - Working With Editors with Stacy Ennis

Today we had two guests in to talk about publishing print editions or your books: Kamal Ravikant (who does some ninja shit to get the best books at the best places and, according to Carl Sinclair, looks like Raiden from Metal Gear Solid and Garrett Robinson, who does all of our formatting and who is beloved by all. Well, except for that one guy. There's a lot to print, and a big part of it is understanding what exactly you want. How do you get the best looking books, yet make them available everywhere? Do you want to make money on print books or use them for marketing? All that plus a lot of how-to are in this week's show. Links we mentioned on today's show: • Garrett's "how to format your stuff" tutorial • The survey Garrett mentioned about book consumption • The software that may or may not help consolidate multiple selling dashboards To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #67 - Getting Your Books Into Print with Kamal Ravikant and Garrett Robinson

We spent a bit of time at the beginning of this episode talking about last week's discussion about Sean's and my decision to price The Beam's full season collection at $9.99. The upshot is that we took the spirit of the criticism (that we weren't effectively communicating the bundle's value) while simultaneously standing our ground (and keeping the pricing the same. Check out the new page for the The Beam's Full Season Collection. You'll see how we changed the image and the wording to better indicate the value. Then we transitioned into talking about support systems and how to maintain your confidence when people don't understand what you're doing, criticize you, or think it's cute that you write rather than being a legit art or business. Spouses, family, friends, fellow writers… and also listening to cool but foul-mouthed writing podcasts can all be sources of support, for starters. Oh, and one correction I wanted to make. For some reason, I said that "Blair Moore" left us a review when I knew full well (and heard it instantly when I listened back) that it's Blaine Moore. I really did know that, Blaine. Brain fart. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #66 - Maintaining Your Confidence as a Writer When Others Don't Understand

This episode was a clusterfuck. Hopefully an interesting clusterfuck, but a clusterfuck nonetheless. The day before we recorded this, Sean and I released The Beam: The Complete Season 1 Collection. We priced it at $7.99 to introduce it to our peeps, then raised it to $9.99 for its permanent price. In Sean's and my opinion, the logic is nothing but sensible: 1. The episodes are 30k each, longer than the Unicorn Western books. So $2.99 each makes sense for those. 2. Bundling six $2.99 titles and giving people all of them for $9.99 seemed like a great deal (instead of $18 for all of them individually). 3. We'd already established that $5.99 was a good price for a season of six 15k episodes, and these are twice as long. But, everyone still argued, including Dave, that $9.99 is just too fucking much. As usual, there's little point in arguing with Sean and I because we're just going to do what we want to do regardless of how dumb everyone thinks it is. :) To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #65 - The One Where We Argue About Indie Pricing

In this episode, we FINALLY got around to talking about "story beats" after being harassed by all of you about it. Story beats are basically what we call our outlining and story-planning process. For discussion, you can download the original story beats for Unicorn Western book 1 here. (And so that you can see what those beats became, you can get Unicorn Western for free on Amazon US here, or search Kobo, B&N, and other stores to find it there.) There's a ton to this discussion, but suffice to say it just makes sense to listen to it rather than me typing it all out here. (Oh, and Dave thought this discussion was useless. Let him know if you disagree.) To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #64 - How to Write and Use Story Beats

We weren't able to record this week, but lucky for you, the episode of our Better Off Undead podcast that we recorded last week was actually incredibly SPP-like… despite my protests that it shouldn't be. So we've repackaged that BOU into this week's SPP. How efficient. Basically, Sean and Dave are going to be releasing Yesterday's Gone's 4th season soon (get the other seasons here) and they've been debating over the best way to release it: 1. Their old way, wherein they release all six episodes, one each week, before offering the "full season" compilation, or 2. The "Netflix model," which I foolishly thought we'd decided was better, where the full season is available right away as a logical upsell for readers. I say "foolishly" here in sarcasm because Sean is now pushing for #1 again. You'll hear the debate in its entirety here, but basically he thinks they can gain more visibility with option #1… and restore the purity of their serialization model. In fairness, in this particular case, I came to agree with Sean after listening back to this, despite what I say on this show.

Today we talked to our good friend Joanna Penn about a hodge-podge of topics that tickled our collective fancy. Here's some of what we covered: • The value of doing research, and why we think that using the word "research" kind of gives it a bum rap (because it can be awesome) • When it's good to be patient and why we're sometimes impatient • Why it's usually a mistake to compare yourself, your work, and your marketing directly to other writers, their work, or their marketing without allowing that everyone is different • Going onto Audible with audiobooks • And a ton more! To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #62 - Research, Comparisonitis, and Being Patient with Joanna Penn

Today our guest was David Gaughran, author of the awesome "how to e-publish" book Let's Get Digital and -- most relevant to today's discussion -- the AMAZING "how to get your work seen" book Let's Get Visible. Sean, Dave, and I 110% recommend Let's Get Visible. It made us feel stupid because there was so much in here that we didn't know. Anyone who listens to the Self Publishing Podcast should read it. You can get it here. Just a few of the topics we covered are: • Which places Amazon offers you exposure and how to show up in those places • Which factors count in the various lists (i.e., ONLY your number of sales and the recency of those sales count toward your bestseller rank and NOTHING else) • Why your choice of categories is essential and how to get the most out of them • When and why to change your categories • How to advertise most effectively and how to time your promotions • And a TON more! To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #61 - How to Increase Your Visibility with David Gaughran

We had a miscommunication today with our guest David Gaughran (who will actually be on NEXT week), so we were a little discombobulated today and ended up jamming on a handful of random topics. We answered some voicemails (about KDP Select rules and Podiobooks) and talked about a gaffe wherein a Lexi Maxxwell erotic podcast episode ended up on the Collective Inkwell podcast feed, but we spent most of the time talking about what to do when things flop. I wouldn't say that our Realm & Sands release of Space Shuttle: Episode 1 was a FLOP, per se, but it underperformed and some people didn't like it. So there was a ton of discussion/argument about that which consumed the rest of the show. Sean and I were all about taking more shots (keenly noting that we think that Chupacabra Outlaw, the following week's title, KICKED ASS), but Dave said we should only release stuff we were sure was A+ material. Sean and I countered that it was a pilot and was there to test the waters. A melee ensued, and it was like watching a marriage break up. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #60 - Dealing with Flops and Taking Shots