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

Today we had a really awesome guest who is pretty much to thank (or to blame) for this podcast existing: Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man. It was Cliff's 100% free podcasting setup tutorial website at LearnHowToPodcast.com that I used to learn how to build SPP and make it the show that you love and loathe today. But before we started talking to Cliff about why and how writers can start podcasting, we answered a few… Voicemail questions! 1. Can you use using images in a Kindle file? After saying how awesome and buy-worthy he thought my book The Bialy Pimps was, Garrett asked about using small images as his chapter headings in Kindle docs. The short answer is that he can totally do it with no problem. And of course, knowing Garrett, he already had weeks before we answered this question. 2. Do writers really need websites? This question came as a result of some confusion. Sean once said that Amazon could distribute your work to WAY more people than most websites, but we clarify here that this does NOT mean that writers should not have websites. Writers need a home base, if for no other reason than to build an email list. If you'd like to know how to set up your own website, here's a tutorial showing you how to do it. Also, here's a tutorial on how to set up and use an email list. Podcasting for writers with Cliff Ravenscraft There's a ton of detail when we got Cliff on the line, but a few of the basic reasons writers might consider podcasting are because it allows you to form tighter relationships with readers and to share more of yourself with them, which will allow them to love you more. It can also act as your writer's platform. We run through all of the nitty gritty in this one about what kind of equipment you'll need, how much you can expect to spend, how involved it is to set up a podcast, and how to set expectations. And I'll also add this: The three of us here LOVE the podcast. I (Johnny) would go so far as to say that without the podcast, I wouldn't be producing 20% of the work I'm producing today, which leads to another reason podcasting can be valuable, and that's for the masterminding aspect of talking to other writers. If you want to know more, absolutely check out Cliff's Learn How to Podcast tutorial series and subscribe to his Podcast Answer Man podcast. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #44 - Podcasting for Writers with Podcast Answer Man Cliff Ravenscraft

Today we tackled a topic that I (Johnny) have been wanting to get to FOR-EVAH for my own nefarious reasons, but that we haven't been able to get to. True to form, Sean and Dave tried to cockblock me out of this topic halfway through because they wanted to answer all of your called-in questions, but I PUT A STOP TO THAT BULLSHIT and cut them off. We got to a few of your questions, but we have an increasing backlog that will have to wait again… sorry. We won't get to them next week, either, because we have a guest. Good thing I'm so apathetic and unsympathetic about other people's issues. (I kid, I kid.) Here are the questions we did get to: • Do you need to read a lot to be a writer… and if so, should you "cram" before writing? Short answer: You must read, but "cramming" all at once is a bad idea. • How do you handle descriptions of characters? Is there a best order or way? Short answer: Minimalistic description is the way to go in our opinion. this lets the reader supply his/her own description and hence feel like they're a part of the story more. • Are self-publishing awards worth it? Short answer: No. • What are the rules about exclusivity at different times with KDP Select? Short answer: You can't post/sell/make your work available anywhere during the 90-day period you're committed to Select (including your website), but you can have it anywhere else before and after. Then we got to outlining and story structure. I started by relating a story about how I, by myself, recently wrote Fat Vampire 4. Compared to what Sean and I do with Unicorn Western, this was hard, because I have to outline the story myself instead of Sean giving me story beats. Since I've never been much of an outliner -- and since working with Sean's outlines has shown me how fast I can write when I DO have an outline -- I wanted to learn more about it. And you get to listen in. We then hashed this out from seventy different angles. Awesomeness then ensued. We even get a step-by-step on Sean's own outlining process in this one, which I'm going use the next time I have to do my own outlining. Good stuff. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #43 - Outlining and Story Architecture

Today we had our first-ever returning guest - Ed Roberston. In case you missed Ed the first time he was on our show, he's one of those guys who studies shit rather than taking it for granted and hence has (along with help from a kind of think-tank, but a different kind of think-tank than Sean's) figured out a lot of details about how Amazon ranks books, what exactly drives a book up the popularity charts, how pricing affects a book's ability to rise in the rankings, how free book "sales" tally up next to actual purchases in determining ranking, etc. There's a ton to this episode, so I'm not going to list it all here. It's just too damn involved and I'm too damn lazy. But here are a few of the highlights: * There are two basic ways to use Amazon free promotions: 1) promoting one book and hoping for that same book to "bump up" in the rankings when the promo is done and hence sell a bunch of copies and 2) promoting one book in the hopes of driving sales of related books -- ideally others in the same series. Ed says that the first doesn't work well anymore but that the second still does. * Related to the above, Ed says that many authors -- including himself -- are leaving KDP Select in frustration and adding their books to other stores. From where I (Johnny) stand, this seems nuts, but I am not in the same place as these other guys, and it makes sense for them. It DOES also make me nervous to have all of my eggs in one basket over at Amazon, lending some credence to the other argument. * Ed gives his thoughts on the various odd observations I made when talking about two very different free promotions I did for The Bialy Pimps and Fat Vampire, as described in our last episode. Like I said, there's a crap-ton more here. Enjoy! To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #42 - Exploring Amazon's Algorithms with Ed Robertson

I (Johnny) started the show this week by talking about two KDP Select promotions I ran for Fat Vampire and The Bialy Pimps . These promotions went very well, and led to Sean getting wood or something about some KDP Select ideas he had. So although we had another topic planned, we decided to bump it and talk about Select instead. Here are some of the conclusions we arrived at throughout the course of this rather complicated and convoluted show, in no particular order. 1. Submitting your book to sites that feature free titles is worth it. I used AuthorMarketingClub's book submission tool to let a bunch of sites know that Fat Vampire would be free. As a result -- and we're sure this is only PART of the reason, but it did have to be part -- the book went up to #90 on the overall free list and was downloaded around 2500 times the first day. 2. Pixel of Ink is still the big dog. Of all the free book sites, the one you most want to get mentioned by is still Pixel Of Ink. Even though I didn't submit it, The Bialy Pimps got picked up by PoI, and that drove over 2000 downloads in the first few hours. 3. But Pixel of Ink seems to prefer full-length novels. I submitted FV, but tBP was the book that Pixel featured. This despite the fact that FV sells better, is ranked more highly, and has more reviews. I wanted FV to be featured because that's where I have a funnel (more sequels to buy), but it wasn't featured. Instead, they pulled my other book, which barely sells, out of obscurity… for the SECOND TIME. Our only guess is that they want longer books. (FV is around 35,000 words, whereas Bialy is over 120k.) 4. And this sucks for people who want to offer "full length" stuff as compilations of shorter works, but whose reviews are all on those shorter works. I have a Fat Vampire books 1-3 bundle that should be long enough for Pixel, but it has no reviews, which would make Pixel turn it down. All of the reviews for the FV series are on the three books that make up the bundle. This led to a discussion too convoluted to go into, but it's where the real meat is. 5. It may be worth it to end your promo on a high note. For reasons I go into on the show, my free promo for The Bialy Pimps was cut short when Amazon kicked the book out of Select. The book was ranked at #70 free at the time, which is pretty high. I was bummed out at first because I wanted to see if it could climb higher, but I felt better the next day when I sold like 85 copies of Bialy -- a book that usually only sells only a few copies of a month. I attribute this to the book becoming paid again while it was still popular, and possibly also to Pixel's link to it being relatively "fresh" when the book went paid. I don't know if this makes me want to cut promos off early, but it definitely has given me something to think about. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #41 - Insights on KDP Select and Its Use for Serials

On today's show, we had a special guest in Garrett Robinson, who we figured could represent all of you out there in self-publishing land who had questions for us. We picked Garrett because he always has a ton of questions, and having him on was easier than filing a restraining order. Live from his closet, here are just a few of the questions Garrett asked us and that we then discussed while stupid jokes were tossed about and Sean and I yelled angrily about Garrett making us be on the podcast in the evening: 1. Do you need a publishing house, or can you publish under your own name? Short answer: you don't need a house. I (Johnny) don't have one. Sean says you might consider it if you want to act like a publisher. Whatever that means. 2. What's the best way to price serials? Answer: It depends. Listen up to get the full details. 3. What is the best timing for KDP Select promotions? Answer: Undecided. Sean wants to try running his promos on Saturdays and Sundays, while I still tend to go with Tuesdays. It may not matter. There was much confusion about the timing of sending emails. 4. What's the best way to collaborate and write fast? Answer: A bit too convoluted to write out here. I'm also too lazy to listen and find out what we said. We also took a voicemail from Gareth and did some other dumb stuff. I was tired. The end. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #40 - Your Self-Publishing Questions, Answered by Proxy

In a way, the start of today's show was a bummer because nobody used the word "cum slut," which we'd gotten used to from our last show. But we quickly got over it and got on with business. A bit of a KDP Select review As a way of talking again about Amazon's KDP Select program, I announced that I've sold FOUR copies of The Bialy Pimps. I during its time on both the Nook and Apple iBooks bookstore over the entire year… which really makes me wonder why the fuck I'd bother putting any books on platforms OTHER than Amazon. Sean laid out what they're doing now, which involves "graduating" books from Amazon only to other platforms. We argued a bit about this, and the best way to break out promos, and so on. Questions! Questions! I mentioned that I've decided to bundle my Fat Vampire books differently than the way Sean and I have decided to bundle Unicorn Western. Sean's current favorite bundling model combines three novellas which are priced at $2.99 each into a bundle that costs $4.99… and then once there are three bundles at $4.99, you combine those into a nine-book bundle that costs $9.99. Instead, I've decided to bundle three of my $2.99 Fat Vampire books into a collection that costs $5.99 (I published the first Fat Vampire "Value Meal" this past weekend)… and then to combine two of those into a 6-book bundle for $9.99. My argument is that the Fat Vampire books are longer than Unicorn Western books. This led us to a discussion of price and value, which was a perfect segue into a voicemail question: What is the VALUE of your book vs. what you can PRICE it at? The answer is that value is a pretty useless concept if you are the only one who thinks it has a value of X. What the MARKET thinks its value is matters more. Fierce discussion then ensued. Garrett then called in because he's being really neurotic and comparing Amazon's actual paid royalties to what he thinks they should be and says they seem low. Dave said that it may have to do with currency differences between the US and people in other countries buying your books, and Sean and I told him to chill the fuck out and stop obsessing over his numbers. I mean, SHIT. Serials, Series, and Standalones… oh my! We spent the rest of the episode talking about how you'd go about approaching a standalone novel (like The Bialy Pimps, which has no connection to anything else I've written) vs. a series of novels (like Unicorn Western) vs. a true written serial, which is structured more like an episodic TV series (like Yesterday's Gone). We get into a ton of detail, but basically the difference between a series and a serial is that in a series, each book needs to truly stand on its own as a whole story even though it may/should depend on what came in the book before and lead into the next book. A serial can have truly assholish cliffhangers and leave people feeling a lot more incomplete from episode to episode. It's kind of a gray area, but etching out some of the black and white particulars is what we spent a ton of time doing this week. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #39 - Series, Serials, and Standalone Books

Well, this is the show we've been eagerly anticipating for weeks, wherein we talk all about sex, writing about sex, getting down and dirty, and Dave's new nickname: "cum slut." DISCLAIMER: Although our show is normally kind of explicit, this show takes it to a whole new level. Today's guest has an absolutely FILTHY mouth. Get the kids out of the room, okay? ALSO: You should assume that all links in this post are at least somewhat NSFW. Act 1: Lexi Maxxwell stalks us Lexi Maxxwell -- who, shockingly enough, we discovered uses a pen name -- says she's been listening to our podcast from the beginning. She's taken all of our advice and has run with it, even going so far as to create a "Sean Platt style" marketing funnel. So it wasn't surprising that when we indicated that we really wanted to have an erotica author on following the worldwide phenomenon self-published dynamo 50 Shades of Grey, Lexi totally stalked Sean and pestered him until we 1) inspected her work and her promotion plan and found both awesome (unlike the TONS of shitty erotica out there) and then 2) agreed to have her on the show. Act 2: Lexi stalks Tucker Max Lexi really stepped up her pestering after our Tucker Max show. She had a hilarious idea involving Tucker that she needed to -- and subsequently DID -- clear with Tucker. Specifically, she wanted to write a story called "I Fucked Tucker Max." We'll obviously need to keep on top of this story and let you know what happens with it. Act 3: Lexi makes our podcast even more NSFW than normal We talked about everything on this show, and that talk was absolutely filthy. New words we debuted this week include "cum slut," "cum whore," and the concept of "being fucked hard against a wall." To be fair, all of these phrases and concepts were always latent at SPP, but Lexi brought them right out into the open. We talked about how to blend explicit sex with characters people actually will like and care about. We talked about the spectrum of erotic writing, which goes all the way from scene-based, very explicit "written porn" to softer, more romantic writing using words like "mound" (which Lexi felt to was "not an accurate description.") We talked about different formats in erotica, ranging from gonzo-style short stories with "pornish" titles (of which Lexi has many; I was most amused by "Call of Booty: Modern Whorefare") to longer, more-complete-and-not-100%-sexual works like her novel Bitten, which Lexi says will become a trilogy. We talked about how to market erotica, and how it differs from other fiction. (Sean even critiqued Lexi's marketing funnel, which looks EXACTLY like his own funnel for his kids' project. He then ends up advising her to move to a slightly different funnel... that would look EXACTLY like what Sean and I are doing for Unicorn Western.) We talked about women writing erotic vs. men, and Lexi mentioned her friend K.R. Gray, who IS a man. Dave was weirded out by the idea of reading a dude's erotica… but I (Johnny) noticed afterward that not only does K.R. say that he writes with his wife, but also noted with amusement that he's doing a fucking SERIAL called Filthy Dirty Normal -- thus proving that there is apparently nothing out there that sex writers cannot and will not steal from Sean and Dave. We talked about EVERYTHING. No holds barred here. And we had so much fun that we kind of want to have Lexi back for more. NOTE: There is no YouTube video of this episode because Lexi needs to keep her identity secret.

After our holiday break (wherein we produced "shows" but Sean and I basically just whored ourselves out for two episodes in a row), we're back to discuss KDP Select and free promotions to drive sales of your books. Voicemail first We're backed up on voicemail, but this got us partially caught up. Here's what we covered: 1. Gareth gave us holiday feedback 2. Stefanovich (sorry; I don't know how to spell it) gave us her impression of what a "marketing funnel for writers" meant (from episodes 33 and 34) in her own words and more or less nailed it 3. I'll get to the third voicemail in a minute, below. I asked for advice on managing my email list I've got a big list from my (Johnny's) website, but the problem is that a lot of those people joined based on the businessy, entrepreneurial, and even tech stuff I used to talk about but no longer do. I now do my human potential "Legendary" stuff and writing/publishing, and wanted to know how to "convert" that list. Sean's advice, as he's facing the same thing, was to ignore the problem. Seriously. He said just to keep sending what I wanted to send (like free book promos) and the people who wanted to leave the list would leave it. Garrett asked about using KDP Select free promotions to drive sales This was such a great topic -- and was something that I had so many questions about myself, seeing as I just released Fat Vampire 3 a few days ago -- that we made it the show's main topic. The discussion that followed was VERY convoluted and I kept giving Sean virtual smackdowns because he was saying one thing and then contradicting himself. That asshole. We got it all sorted in the end, and it's some seriously detailed and great advice. But I'm not detailing that shit here. You'll have to listen. Enjoy! To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #37 - Using KDP Select to Drive Sales

Hey folks! We weren't going to give you an episode of SPP this week. The idea was to take the week off, but when we recorded Better Off Undead last week, we found that we simply continued talking about the creative process behind Johnny and Sean's new book, Unicorn Western. So, in lieu of an SPP this week, we're going to give you episode 21 of Better Off Undead, since it's all about our writing process anyway. Enjoy! _____________________________________________________ Hey Undead Heads, this week we mailed the show in, spending the entire show talking about Johnny and Sean's new series, Unicorn Western the first book which is free today only (December 27) so go check it out. Find out the origin story of this insane idea for a book in this week's episode. Can a book that started out as a joke, with me at it's butt, actually be good? So if you hate self-promotion, avoid this episode of BOU like a Birdemic outbreak! Mercifully, the show is short, as we were in holiday mode. Unfortunately, thanks to some internet issues on Johnny's end, there's no video this week. Apologies to those who actually want to see us make asses of ourselves. Tune in next week when we'll get back to our off-topic nonsense.

Hey everyone! Before we start, I just wanted to let you know that Sean and Johnny's new book Unicorn Western is free on Amazon between December 26-28 of 2012. If you're reading this during that period of time, go get it free. If you're listening later than that, get it anyway. It's only three bucks and it's awesome. You'll thank us. Lazy-ass show this week We did short version of the podcast this week because we recorded these on the Friday before Christmas and were in no mood for expending effort. Ostensibly, this show is all about how you can take ANY dumb idea and turn it into a good book. So that's what we talked about, as evidenced by Sean and Johnny's latest book, Unicorn Western, which is available now. We explain the entire story behind Unicorn Western in this episode (including much mirth at Dave's expense), but let's just say that there was nothing profound about where we got the idea. It's a stupid idea. AND IT'S FUCKING AWESOME. By the way, do you know what else we felt like putting as little work/effort into as possible? Answer: writing these show notes! So if you'll excuse me, I'll stop writing them now. Enjoy the show, and happy whatever-holiday-you-celebrate. (But don't forget to pick up Unicorn Western… it's FREE ON AMAZON THROUGH FRIDAY 12/28/12!) To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #35 - How to Turn Any Stupid Idea Into a Book & the Story of Unicorn Western

This week, we continued our discussion of using funnels to sell your fiction. This was nicely summed up by Sean right up front when he said that using funnels forces you to think like a publisher… and remember that it's usually publishers, not writers, who actually make money doing this stuff. But first, voice mails! Leaving reviews in light of Amazon's sock puppets crackdown Stefanovich (sorry if I spelled that wrong; it's not as easy as "Frank") called in to say that with Amazon cracking down on bogus reviews, the spillover has caused Amazon to react and pull ANY review they feel might be overly biased or written by an author about a peer's or competitor's work. She said she's terrified to criticize other books in reviews because it might get her reviews pulled. Our advice was to not worry about it. The worst that can happen is that the reviews will be removed, but that doesn't hurt the review-maker. And they do let a lot of stuff slide through. Turning TV series scripts into Amazon serials This was a really cool idea… to take scripts and put them on Amazon in order to drum up attention that could then be used as cache when Garrett pitches the series to producers. Garrett says that he doesn't want to make money on the serials and just wants maximum exposure and asks our advice. We all thought it was a great idea, but urged him to think of money anyway. The total dollar value sold will impress producers more than "X number of free downloads." Plot vs. character is a false dichotomy Scott called in for clarification about concept vs. plot vs. setting, which we discussed in an earlier episode. He said that he felt that you need both -- character and plot -- and felt that we were arguing for one or the other. We must have poorly expressed ourselves because we don't feel that way at all. It takes both. More Garrett We then took a call from one of our favorite callers, Garrett from the UK. There wasn't precisely a question in here, but we always enjoy his updates. There was then some debate when I implied that Garrett was becoming part of our own "Wack Pack," but Dave took issue with this because he's in lust with Garrett. Marketing funnels for writers We continued our discussion of marketing funnels, and somehow this became sexual. We must all be pent up. The podcast is so sexy. But in general, Sean spelled out his massive marketing funnel for a children's project he's masterminding (and that I, Johnny, am also working on). We also talked about using a list to drive your popularity in conjunction with KDP free promos. This is a big deal, and we'll probably talk specifically about lists soon. But in general, this is the key point: Repeat after me: Build a list, then tell those people about free promotions so that they can get it for free… which will cause your work to rise in the rankings and hence get paid attention from new people. In other words, use the attention you already have to get more attention. And funnels, etc. But I'll let you listen to get the whole scoop.

Sean and I started out by mentioning how pleased we are with our stupid new project, Unicorn Western. In case you don't know the story of Unicorn Western's origin, it's in the first half of this episode of our horror podcast, but the short version is this: Sean wanted to write a western, Dave said there was too much research involved (EX: "Do you know the color of smoke that came out of the guns?"), and so I said that if you put a unicorn somewhere in the story, you wouldn't need to worry about the research because the unicorn would indicate that it takes place in an alternate reality. Sean then joked about writing a "straight up western, but instead of riding horses, everyone rides unicorns." So Sean and I decided that we wanted to write a quarter of a million words in mockery of Dave's "What color is the smoke? Huh? Huh?" curmudgeonry and began writing what will initially be a nine-book series. And the smoke from our guy's guns is bright fucking pink. This is proof that ideas aren't magical. This is the stupidest idea ever, but it's turning out so awesome. In fact, here's the awesome cover of book 1 Stay tuned, because Unicorn Western will be free on Amazon the day after Christmas. If you'd like to be notified about that, be sure to join our mailing list at the top of the homepage or the top of the right-side sidebar. We took voicemail We got to ONLY ONE of our voicemails today, leaving a pile we haven't gotten to yet. The first was from Bonnie, who asked about working with multiple worlds in multiple projects at the same time… or do we. Our answers were pretty unsatisfying because we said, "Just work in multiple worlds." I'm currently working in three worlds across three projects. It's just sort of a muscle you need to work on to develop. Bonnie's second question was about pantsing vs. plotting. I actually don't think we answered this one. Oops. But we covered it in a recent episode. We're so incredibly behind on voicemail that Bonnie may even have submitted her question before we recorded that episode. We acted organized After a half hour, we realized we weren't yet to our topic, so we argued for five minutes about whether we should make today's show a potpourri and catch up on voicemail and do marketing next week or spilt the marketing stuff into two shows. We decided on the latter and will continue with our marketing funnels discussion next week. We talked about marketing funnels Finally. As usual, I won't go into a ton of detail here and will let you listen in, but this discussion focuses on a big premise: It is no longer enough to put out one or two great books and wait for the world to find you. Today's self-published writer has to create his or her own success by doing smart marketing, which means gathering a ton of leads and sending them through a sequence that results in people buying the next book, then the next, and so on. There's a lot to this discussion, but a few of the key components are: • Write a lot of good books, then keep writing more • Think in terms of "what's next," and always be looking to deliver the next logical step/product for your readers • BUILD AN EMAIL LIST so that you can make your funnel actually work and communicate with the people in it • Make the first product in your marketing funnel as "frictionless" as possible for possible readers to consume. For us, that means making smart use of KDP Select free promotions, which will get our stuff into the hands of a lot of people… and then, when they finish that stuff, a call-to-action at the end will lead them to our other stuff. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #33 - Marketing Funnels for Writers

Today, we had as our guest the bestselling author and RABID Self Publishing Podcast fan -- who may or may not have credited all of her success to the three of us on this podcast -- CJ Lyons. CJ gave us a ton of very practical enhancements and details on some familiar themes, explaining that she's not good at business while Sean drooled at how good CJ is at business. Here are a few of the high points: Treat your fans like royalty When CJ got started, she hand-mailed around 300 books to fans. Those fans loved her, spread the word, and became super-loyal. She loves her fans, and you should too. Be awesome to them and they will be awesome with you. Build a mailing list CJ credits her huge mailing list for her ability to reach her fans... to let them know about sales, new releases, and so on. When you command the attention of a lot of people and can drive sales quickly, you'll move up the rankings... and Amazon's exposure will do the rest. To learn how to build a list, go here. Write more good stuff What's the best way to sell more? Why, it's to write more books! CJ says that she will have written or turned in 7 manuscripts this year. Hell, I'll be at five myself, and next year I'll be at Sean-and-Dave levels of production. Understand that there is no magic bullet... but that there is a magic formula Sorry to be a tease, but the magic formula actually just underscores the fact that there is no magic bullet. CJ's formula is 1) write great books, 2) give it time to find an audience, 3) encourage that audience to tell their friends, and 4) repeat. Not easy... but simple. CJ also talked with us about her success in walking the fine line of the "hybrid model" of publishing, as someone who publishes both traditionally and as an independent author, how to make use of an agent, how to use editors, and a ton more. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #32 - How to Sell a Metric Crap-Ton of Books, with CJ Lyons

IMPORTANT: Johnny made a time-sensitive offer during this episode, so act fast if you want to get in on it: Until November 30th of 2012, Johnny is setting up blogs for free to help writers build the platform they need in order to be successful. You can...

We started this show by talking about how I (Johnny) am enjoying -- for the first time -- writing an outline before beginning work on a project. I'm currently doing this for Fat Vampire 3. There was some contention between Sean and Dave about the outlining process, but that's always the case. The way I'm working and the way Sean likes to work (which I learned now that I'm working with Sean on our first Unicorn Western book) involves writing what Sean and Dave call "story beats." It's not exactly a rigid plot architecture, but is rather a loose summary -- the way you'd write a summary after finishing a book, except that you write it first. The summary/outline gives you guidance and lets you think out the story without being overly rigid or left-brained. I also said that it's feeling to me like a "pre-rough-draft draft," which means I'll now get to play with revamping the story as I write rather than having to wait until I rewrite it in the second draft. Plot? Setting? Concept? This led naturally into discussion of the differences between a story's concept or setting versus its plot. All three of us seem to feel that "rigidly plotted" books come off as exciting but stilted, but we've also learned -- and I learned the hard way, through many failed fiction projects -- that some structure is a godsend. Specifically, I used to create worlds based on cool situations… but then found that there was nothing going on in my story. Fat Vampire is a good example. The CONCEPT was "a man is turned into a vampire when he's overweight, and his overweight nature dogs him into vampirehood." But that's just a concept, and I still needed to have my guy do something, or else he'd just sit there and suffer in amusing ways. This would also have me laughing AT my protagonist rather than WITH him. He'd be a joke and nothing more. So I had to come up with a problem he got into and had to get out of, and that became the plot. There was a ton of more discussion here, much of which revolved around Stephen King's idea of "situational writing" vs. the tightly plotted work of authors like Dan Brown. The short version is that we like our fiction best when it's somewhere in the middle -- character-driven and situational enough that it feels natural and real and you care about the characters, but plotted enough that your story actually goes somewhere and stays focused. Ultimately, you want something to happen, and having a bit of a roadmap helps. To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #30 - Concept vs. Plot vs. Setting