February 1, 2006 Volume 3: Issue 14
"Self Published Authors" Bi-Monthly Newsletter
Helping self-published authors promote and market their books
and share information and resources.
February 1, 2006 Volume 3: Issue 14
Dan Shaurette
editor@selfpublishedauthors.com
http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com
By Subscription Only! You are receiving this newsletter
because you requested a subscription. Unsubscribe instructions
are at the end of this newsletter.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Editor's Notebook
2. Newsletter Submission Guidelines
3. Feature Article by Judy Cullins
4. Resource Links
5. Publicity Article by Francine Silverman
6. Free Products, Services, Downloads
7. Interview with Evo Terra by Dan Shaurette
8. Classes & Workshops
9. Guest Article by Celise Downs
10. Announcements/Requests
11. Commentary by Gerri D Smith
12. Classified Ads
13. Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information
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1: EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to the February 2006 newsletter for
SelfPublishedAuthors.com. For those of you who are new to the
subscription, I hope you will enjoy this issue. Thank you for
visiting the website and subscribing to the list.
To the regulars out there, I know I say this every issue, but
I am glad you stick with us and keep submitting great articles
and recommendations for us. This month we have four wonderful
articles, plus a great interview, as well as more resource
links.
If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or if you'd like
to contribute, be interviewed, add an event or have a request,
please reply to this email, or drop a line to me at:
editor@selfpublishedauthors.com
Thanks for reading and enjoy the issue!
Dan Shaurette
editor@selfpublishedauthors.com
http://www.Shaurette.net
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2: NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
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The newsletter for SelfPublishedAuthors.com is here to provide a
resource for all authors. Obviously, we want to help you
succeed in your writing, self-publishing efforts, and self-
promotion. I have received a few requests from fellow authors
asking what they can do to promote their books in the
newsletter.
I am always happy to help promote an author and their works in
the newsletter. That's what we're here for. That being said,
the best I can do is one of the following.
If you are interested in writing an article about your
experiences as a self-published author, I would be more than
happy to consider it for publication. If I publish the article,
I will give you space for a signature box that you could use to
promote yourself and your book.
If you would like to send me an ARC copy of your book, eBook
format preferred, I would be happy to review it and interview
you. The interview would most likely be what gets published in
the newsletter, but reviews of recommended books may also be
published. Please note, I have already been presented with some
works to read, so please query me first before sending your
books. I'd rather return a book than form a slush pile.
If you have a book signing coming up, we do try to list those
when they are timely. Remember our newsletter is published in
February, April, June, August, October, and December. If you
host a class or workshop, or have a website that promotes a
writer's resource, please let us know about it. All links about
such events are provided free of charge. Your name, location,
dates, and contact info. will be presented.
If instead you are just interested in placing an advertisement
in the newsletter for your book or website, you can read about
the rates on the website at
http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com/advertise.html -- they are
very fair (only $6 per newsletter issue for a five line ad.)
Advertising requests sent to me, however, will be forwarded on
to Christina Wheeler (contact@selfpublishedauthors.com), the
website and newsletter owner.
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3: FEATURE ARTICLE by Judy Cullins
IS FINISHING YOUR BOOK YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTION?
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Think of the resolution "I'm going to lose weight this year"
-- a statement that doesn't show intention because it's vague.
Talk is cheap. So are you still talking about your book, yet
don't really want to finish because it's too much work, too much
money, and has too many steps?
For some of you the reality is you won't finish. And the longer
you "work" on your book, the more time gets between you and
publishing time to make a difference in other people's lives.
For 5% of you who will do what it takes, this reminder is for
you.
Don't wait any longer to write your book. Now is the best time
to get it out. When you ponder and linger, you lose interest and
motivation. That's why I like the idea of the "Fast-Forward
Writing Technique," that produces consistently well organized
chapters that hook your reader and motivate in each paragraph so
your readers finish and recommend your book to others. .
Remember the benefits of writing a book. It gets your unique
word out to help others to a better life. It brings solutions to
your readers' challenges. It can "brand" your business-much
stronger than a business card. It makes you known as the expert
in your field. If writing fiction, it entertains and educates.
Finally, like me it can make half of your monthly income that
goes on indefinitely.
Remember you can add marketing pizzazz to each and every chapter
in its title, its introduction and its conclusion. Apply the
"Essential Nine Hot-Selling Points" before you finish and your
book will sell so much better when published.
To manifest your book dream this year, make sure you make it
real.
1. Visualize your book finished and a great success. See the
checks and credit card orders coming in each day.
2. Save money in a special bank account so you'll have enough to
get some coaching through teleclasses and writing groups and a
small amount for copies printed. (You don't need 1000 printed at
first)
3. Know it will cost some money. If you book is so important,
don't be too cheap as to what you invest in it to get it
finished.
4. Honor High Level Activities each day. Spend real writing time
on your chapters, your introduction and your back cover. Aim for
1-2 hours each day or divide to suit your schedule.
5. Stop writing without feedback from peers or a qualified
bookcoach. You don't realize that even if you are a
professional, you don't know all that makes a chapter sizzle.
Old writing habits such as using "is, was" or other passives mar
your style, and make it long and unwieldy so your reader will
yawn and turn away. You need to keep your reader engaged on each
page.
6. Don't give up. Your project may take some time. I recommend
writing a short book first so you can finish fast.
7. Consider self-publishing because the traditional path takes
far too long and even if you are chosen, you'll find the time
and energy you put there will not pay off nearly as much as when
you learn a few promotion tips to do implement yourself. The sad
truth is that the publishers won't give you much in promotion
time.
8. Write your print and eBook at the same time. Service your
online audience as well as the audience at your talks. They love
and buy books. They want information on all kinds of topics.
They have money to spend. Promoting to this audience is far
easier, cheaper and productive than other methods.
Finally, put your book project in the top three priorities of
your life. Business, Family, Friends, Book! If you don't include
it in these, it just won't happen.
TOO TOUGH
Some people may say, "This is the year I meet and marry my soul
mate." That's a lot to wish for. What makes more sense is to
come up with some simple steps to put yourself in a position to
make this happen. How can you put yourself in the path of the
person you hope to meet? Think big, but also set up some small
action items you can take to guide your daily decisions about
how you spend your time and the things you will DO to make your
dream a reality.
TOO ONE-DIMENSIONAL
Many people would prefer their homes and offices to be more
organized and vow to do so each year. "This spring I really will
clean up the clutter," they will say. Yet, in spite of a bit of
spring cleaning, the clutter continues to pile up throughout the
year. For many, seeing is believing. Maybe the motivation you
need is a photograph of your ideal office or a clutter-free
home. Put it up where you can see it. Go to an open house or two
and marvel at how neat and clean a home can be. Create a "Dream
Board" with images of what you want your ideal environment to
look (and feel) like and put them up where you will see them.
Now we know why most people fail to stick to their New Year's
resolutions. The solution to making lasting changes in your life
is to engage all of your senses and use both sides of your brain
in the planning process. When you know exactly what you want,
what it looks like, feels like, sounds like and you can picture
and describe it in amazing detail, you are much closer to
getting it. Also, by breaking down the dream into small
micromovements you can do on a daily basis, you can make it
happen one day at a time. Using this approach to your
resolutions guarantees a great year in 2006.
If you are serious about your success you will find THE WHOLE-
BRAIN GOAL PLANNER by Lee Silber extremely helpful in planning
your year. Included is everything you need to set yourself up
for your best year yet. To get a goal planner send $49.95 to
Lee Silber, 822 Redondo Court, San Diego, CA 92109. We will also
include The Ultimate Day Planner Pad for free (a $10.00 value).
___
Copyright © 2005 Judy Cullins. Reprinted with permission.
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works
with small business people who want to make a difference in
people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a
consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks
including Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online.
She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines,
"The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month,"
blog Q & A at www.bookcoaching.com and over 200 free articles.
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743
Print "Write Your eBook or Other Short Book Fast!" at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597720208
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4: RESOURCE LINKS
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SELF-PUB.NET - Self-Publishing Guides, Tools and Resources
We offer guides, FAQ, searchable publisher & printer directory,
reviews of the listed companies and a discussion forum.
Book templates and a design wizard to help you create your book.
Already self published? Add your book to our listings.
http://www.self-pub.net
Have you used these resources? Tell us about them, or recommend
another! Send an email to editor@selfpublishedauthors.com and
let us know.
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5: PUBLICITY ARTICLE by Francine Silverman
CONTESTS HELP SELL BOOKS
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Romance authors are the connoisseurs of contests. Authors of
other genres could learn from their innovative ideas.
Unpublished authors may want to consider holding contests when
their book is published as part of their marketing plans. It's
an excellent way to demonstrate to the publisher how actively
involved they will be in marketing their books.
Most romance authors have websites from which they run their
contests. TL Schaefer, author of contemporary romantic
mysteries, runs a monthly contest and awards a $10 Amazon gift
certificate. The winner's name is posted on her website and
announced in her newsletter.
http://tlschaefer.com
In conjunction with the release of her 23rd novel, SOUTHERN
COMFORT (BET/Arabesque), Sandra Kitt had contestants answer ten
very specific questions about the novel so they had to read it
in order to learn the answers. Sandra tied in the prizes with
characters in her book, i.e., the heroine Rachel is a jewelry
designer with outlets in Europe so the grand prize was a
sterling silver pendant handcrafted in Italy.
http://www.sandrakitt.com
When Shirley Martin runs contests she posts them on several
romance sites. "Prizes are very nice ones," she says, "such as
the latest prize - a Waterford snowflake ornament."
http://www.shirleymartin.net.
New South Wales author Isolde Martyn works closely with her
garden centre to promote her romances. The proprietor does a
guessing competition and arranges all the advertising. The 20
winners receive a rosebush and signed copy of her novel. She did
this twice for her THE KNIGHT AND THE ROSE (Bantam Australia
1999; Berkley Pub Group 2003) and THE SILVER BRIDE (Pan
Macmillan Australia), aka MOONLIGHT AND SHADOW (Berkley Pub
Group 2003) in North America.
http://isoldemartyn.com
___
Copyright © 2005 Francine Silverman. Reprinted with permission.
Francine Silverman is editor/publisher of Book Promotion
Newsletter, a bi-weekly ezine for authors of all genres,
http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com, and author of Book
Marketing from A-Z (Infinity Publishing 2005), a compendium of
marketing strategies from 300+ authors.
http://www.buybooksontheweb.com (Category: Marketing).
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6: FREE Products, Services, Downloads
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BOOKCATCHER.COM - Free Book Publicity Website
This is another good site for spreading the word about your
book through their forums, blogs, and newswire services.
Everything is free, and though it is in a beta status, it is
already quite active.
http://www.bookcatcher.com
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7: INTERVIEW: Evo Terra by Dan Shaurette
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An Interview with Evo Terra
By Dan Shaurette
The following interview is only part of the full interview I had
with author, radio personality, and podcaster, Evo Terra. Evo is
the co-creator of Podiobooks.com, a new website that is bringing
audio books to the internet for free to listeners and for
authors. He also just wrote a book with fantasy author
Tee Morris, entitled PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES (ISBN 0471748986).
If you'd like to hear the full interview, please check out my
podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/shaurettenet. There we
discussed more of his projects besides the ones that relate to
the publishing world.
DS: Thank you very much for finding the time in your busy
schedule to talk with me tonight.
ET: Yeah, you know my wife and I were just talking about time
earlier. She said she wanted to go and find time to join an
athletic club. I had to explain to her, "Honey, you don't make
time. There's an exact amount of time between the time you get
up and the time you go to bed. There's no more. Unless you can
orbit the earth really quickly and somehow slow it down for you.
It doesn't work that way. You can't do it, you just have to move
other stuff out of the way." So, I'm happy to do it for you.
DS: Thank you very much. So I wanted to quickly run through some
of your credits that at least I know of to get this started.
You're the co-host of three different podcasts. Slice of Sci-Fi,
Dragon Page Cover-to-Cover and Wingin' It. You are also the
co-creator of Podiobooks.com. If that wasn't enough, you teamed
up with Tee Morris, also from Podiobooks, to create a wonderful
book called PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES, which was just released in
November of 2005, right.
ET: That is correct.
DS: How many other projects are you working on and are they all
podcasting-related? Or do you actually have time for other
things?
ET: Oh well, believe it or not, you have to make time for other
things as well. Oh, now I said it. "Make time." There's actually
one podcast you didn't mention; that's my CultCast.
DS: Cool. I'll definitely have to add that one to my list then.
ET: Well, yes it is different than everything else that I do.
That's for sure, so. But, yeah, I do tend to stay rather busy
because outside of all of those things, I've got a full time
job, I have a family, I've got a son who plays hockey 100 miles
away. So, yeah, there's rarely a time when I'm not sitting in
front of a computer doing something. But I'm always thinking
about podcasting and what's the next thing we can do with that.
That's really struck my fancy the most of anything in a long
time.
DS: OK, so when did you start podcasting?
ET: Well, officially, we started podcasting on October 14, 2004.
My partner, Michael R. Mennega, had sent me an email about this
new thing called podcasting on October the 12th. Two days later
I finally looked at his email and said, "Heck, we can do this."
We were already doing our show, as an internet radio show --
The Dragon Page Cover to Cover - which was on internet radio as
well as several terrestrial radio stations around the country
and most of them, if not all, were taking our show on MP3.
We already had it up on a secured area. I had an RSS feed,
because I'm using a blog to maintain this site. So, I had those
two things. All I had to do was figure out how to somehow
magically stick the MP3 file inside of there. I was using
MovableType, and there's a great plug-in called MTenclosures,
and literally it took me two days to do it but realistically it
took about half an hour to get it ready.
So, we were podcasting out of the gate. But, we were cheating
right, because we already had all of the heavy lifting done.
It was just a matter of me making one connection between two
points and we were there.
DS: That's sort of what happened with podcasting in general
though, isn't it? It was sort of a "Hey, we can do this, and we
have that, so if we just do this here, and Boom!"
ET: Oh, exactly.
DS: A whole media just sprang up out of nowhere.
ET: Well, there were a lot of nay-sayers out there, and you can
still find them, about podcasting. You know, the big complaint
they say is that podcasting is nothing new. You're right, this
is nothing new.
People have been putting audio files, either as we were doing
with our show, or as an audio blog, for a really long time.
RSS is nothing new. Dave Winer, if you can believe that Dave did
it, which I actually do, made the Enclosure plug-in work to help
things out. Adam Curry, of all odd people wrote the first script
that somehow sucked it out and moved it around for you
automatically. It's just bringing together pieces. So you're
exactly right.
The forerunners of podcasting, those of us who from July to say
November, we were all using other pieces and are sticking them
together in new and exciting ways. So yeah, it wasn't a lot of
work to do. It was just, "Gee, I wonder who will listen to me
this way now."
DS: Right. I think it also owes a lot to iPods becoming a
household name. But, you don't need an iPod to listen to them.
But it was because of portable media players I think also played
a big part in once people were able to audioblog and get the
enclosures and download it automatically. Putting it onto a
media and taking it and going.. that was it.
ET: You're exactly right. Untethering from the computer was
really the key. Because, while there is still a significant
portion of people who will listen to podcasts on their computer,
that's not the way it was intended.
The intention here was for you to get it whenever it happens to
come down, at 3 o'clock in the morning when you're not using
your computer, and for you to move it to your portable player of
choice so that you can take it with you. You know, it's "to-go"
type of information.
There's no doubt that the success of the iPod really fueled
that. Although it's funny that you mentioned that you don't need
to have an iPod to listen to podcasting and you're exactly
right. Inside the book PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES, I make that
statement over and over again, and even go so far as to say,
"I don't even own an iPod." But I will tell you a story.
I didn't own an iPod for a long time. As soon as I got a copy of
PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES actually in print, in my hand -- not an
advanced copy, but the real ones out of the stores -- I went
down 30 minutes later and bought an iPod. So there. I didn't
want to lie in the book. So if you were one of the first people
to buy the book as soon as it went on the shelf, it was true
then. It's not true anymore. I now own an iPod.
DS: Very cool. All right. OK, so when did you meet Tee Morris
and were you helping him with his novel, and that's what made
podiobooks? Or how did that work out?
ET: Yeah, Tee Morris was one of the first guests we had on the
Dragon Page Cover-to-Cover in early 2002. He sent us a copy of
his book, MOREVI, and I loved it. So we kind of developed a
friendship over the years.
In November of 2004, he contacted me and said his agent for
non-fictional work had contacted him and said there was an
opportunity to write a podcasting book and would he be
interested. So he immediately called me and said, "Hey, you're
the guy that's having me podcast my book MOREVI, maybe you
should help me with that."
"Yeah, I should help you with that Tee, since you don't
understand the technical side of the thing. You're gonna need
some help." So I said, "Sure, we could probably put a 120-page
book together."
He talked to his agent and his agent said, "It's a 360-page
book." I said, "You're kidding! 360 pages for me to say: Record
it, post it up on a web server and link your RSS feed to it.
There's no way we can do that."
So, then he said, "It's a For Dummies book." I said, "Crap.
I can't say no now."
DS: Yeah, you gotta do that.
ET: So, yeah, how do you say no to that kind of deal? That's
a real book. So that's how we got together writing together.
But yes, I was helping him podcast his novel, MOREVI.
I approached him back in October and said, "There's this new
thing we are doing called podcasting. I think you should be
involved somehow. I'm not sure. What do you think?"
Well he was going to release his second book in that series come
July of 2005 and he talked to his publisher and got permission
to go ahead and release every chapter of that book in serialized
form in a podcast up until the release date.
Right after he and I had started chatting, I called up another
guy, Mark Jeffrey, who I'd also spoken with about the idea, and
said, "You're gonna do you book too that way." I didn't even
give him a choice.
Scott Sigler contacted me and said, "Hey I'm gonna do this new
thing called a podcast for my book," and I said, "that's not
new, I'm already doing it, but I'm happy to include you as
well." So we stuck him in the mix.
So, for the longest time it was those three, then we found out
about a guy named Paul Story doing a book called TOM CORVEN.
So they were the first four. Since that time, I'm not sure how
many there are out there right now. I know we've got 20
different podcast books up at podiobooks.com right now. There's
probably an equal number of those out there that are doing it
solo projects for now.
DS: How is podiobooks doing right now? I mean you said you've
got about 20 books up there right now. Are you actively pursuing
more authors? Are more authors coming to you? How's it going so
far?
ET: Well, it's going really well. We put the site up in a beta
form, kind of an official beta, on the first of October of last
year. I think we launched with, I don't know, about five or six
different titles. Since that time, we went out of beta last
weekend, or weekend before last, I forget when it was, with an
all-new site design.
Everything works well, and with 20 different titles on top of
it. Really excited. We're adding, as of last count, almost 100
new members a day. That's really cool, and they're subscribing
to three to four books each on average.
That's the cool thing about podiobooks, you know. It's hard to
read, unless you're a crazy person like me, more than one book
at a time. But it's easy to listen to more that one podiobook at
a time.
You know, the way we designed that system is each feed is unique
to each individual. So, even if you are on chapter 17, and you
are the author, and somebody comes in next week, they don't have
to catch up 1 to 16. They get chapter one. And it comes down to
them every week, if that's the way they set it.
So on a Monday, they could subscribe to MOREVI, and on a Tuesday
they could come back and subscribe to EARTHCORE. On Wednesday
they could come back and subscribe to AMBER PAGE. That's three
books, three days, stretched out. And you can easily listen to
them one chapter at a time that way.
So, you'd asked the question, are we going out and getting more
authors? Yes. At last count 60 different people are in various
stages of developing their book right now. Some of them are in
the real early stages. Some of them are in the process of
recording chapters. So there are 60 different authors last I
checked, that are in the process of recording a podiobook.
Some of them -- most of them have actually came to us and said,
"I want to put out a book, you guys seem to be the place." A few
of them, we went out and cultivated and said, "You're already
doing this, you should come over here since I'm not charging you
anything and we've already got the audience base."
DS: Right, and there you go. There's bound to be a lot of
authors like me that think, "This is really cool, I would like
to do this, too." What advice do you have for authors like me
who have a book, what do we do now, if we wanted to make a
podiobook out of it?
ET: Well, you're ahead of the curve. A lot of the people who
talk to us want a book -- and a podiobook. So, my first advice
to you is, you need a book first. It worked for Paul Story,
actually writing his book as he goes.
But, I've been involved in the publishing industry long enough
to realize that first drafts -- 99 times out of 100 -- suck.
You're not ready to podcast your first draft. Write your book.
Edit your book. Editors by the way, don't have the same last
name as you. It needs to be someone different than your mother.
Once your book is solid, assuming you are starting with a book
that is as tight as you can make it, then what are your next
things to do. First thing you want to do is go listen to some
other folks that are doing it because there a lot of right ways.
A lot of different right ways to do a podiobook. And find your
particular style.
You know, some people use music all the way throughout.
Some people have a very heavy, engaging first couple of minutes
before they get into their book and they do it almost
"Battlestar Galactica" style. With "Previously on..." and then
"Next Week". Which is how Scott Sigler did it.
DS: Yes, I was just going to say EARTHCORE does that.
ET: Yes, Scott did that. I mean he said, "this is watt 24 does,
this is what Battlestar does, this is what people are used to by
god, I'm gonna do it that way." Scott's a media-whore, so he's
gonna do what it takes to get it there. But everybody's
different.
Some people like Jack Mangan who did SPHERICAL TOMI. You know
Jack's deadpan. I mean the boy seems to have no emotions coming
out of his mouth. That's an OK delivery style. The nice thing
about podiobooks are that it is different than an audio book.
When I listen to an audio book I want professional sounding
voice actors giving it to me. That's because of what we've been
trained to expect.
DS: Well, and you are also paying $40 for an audio book.
ET: No doubt, but with a podiobook, I want to hear it from the
author. In the author's voice. I don't want someone else to do
it for him, or her. I would actually prefer to listen to it in
that voice, because I get a much better connection to that story
by listening to the guy who wrote it. As opposed to some actor
that was paid $500 a minute to try and read it.
So, back to the advice I'd give somebody: invest in a good
quality microphone. That's probably the single best piece of
advice I can give you.
Your editing software is immaterial. You're not going to do that
much with it. Audacity and GarageBand are two free products,
well sort of free for GarageBand if you've got a Mac, are
perfectly fine. Use Audacity, it's going to do everything you
want it to do.
Spend some time navigating through one of the podsafe music
directories to find the music that fits your book. Contact that
artist and say, "I want to use this, are you OK with it?"
You already have the rights to do it, but it's still nice to do
that. That's all you've got to do.
Get a good microphone, get some good background music with it,
and put your heart and your soul into it. Take your time. Don't
rush. Podiobooks aren't going anywhere. We'll be around until
you get it right.
DS: Besides working on PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES, what else have
you written?
ET: Well, my first official written opportunity also came from
Mr. Tee Morris. Trying to think exactly when this was. it was
either 2003 or 2004, he was putting together an anthology if you
will, I guess not an anthology, but it was called THE FANTASY
WRITERS' COMPANION.
A year or so before he had contributed to a book called
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING FANTASY. So this was the sequel
to that, which kinda struck me as odd. If it was complete, why
would you need a sequel? So we kinda joked about the name.
For the longest time we were going to call it BRIDE OF THE
COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING FANTASY, RETURN OF..., etc.
In the end they decided to call it THE FANTASY WRITERS'
COMPANION. Tee had sent me an email and said that he would like
for me to contribute a chapter to the book. Which was kinda
funny because for those people out there who listen to my shows
that I do, I don't like fantasy. I'm a reader of hard science
fiction and bizarre stuff. Fantasy has never really lifted my
flag, to say it's not my thing, so, as he asked me to write this
I wasn't sure what to do.
We were going through my background and he said, "Maybe you
could do something with herbalism." Which also struck me as kind
of odd, but as I realized it, most fantasy books are written in
500-year old, some sort of medieval setting, at least where
there's not modern-day technology. Herbal medicine is plant-
based medicine. You go pick something, you do something with it,
and you get medicine out of it.
But so many books and movies, like LORD OF THE RINGS, for
example, get it wrong. That's not the way things actually
happen. Or they have it to where, oh, this person has broken his
leg, quick, we have to go rush and find a healer 17 villages
away. You know, 500 years ago, people could take care of just
about anything on their own.
So, I decided to write that. So I wrote a book on how to make
herbal medicine work in your fantasy world, and it was a lot of
fun. I got to help you make up names for your plants and I used
real-world stuff. You know, how plants got their names, through
folklore, through legend, and what they did. A lot of the plants
out there have healing names with them. So that was the first
thing I sat down to write professionally. You know things I got
paid for, and I found it to be a blast.
I struggled with it for about a week, and then I crumpled the
page up and threw it away, and six days later I was done with my
entire chapter. So I thought, wow, this actually works out for
me. So then I set out to write the great American novel.
And that's never gonna go anywhere. I have no gift for plot.
Not my thing. And I genuinely didn't enjoy it. So I thought,
OK, that was weird.
Then I got the chance to write PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES, and I
loved every second of it. So I realized, I'm a non-fiction
author. That's what I'm supposed to do. Now I'll do some more
with that. What? I don't know. I've got a couple things in the
works. I've got some feelers out there that I've been talking
to some people about. So we'll see, because I enjoyed that.
DS: Yeah, so I guess that really brings me to one last thing.
That is, how many people do you think are really making money
out of podcasting? Is that something that you think is going to
change in the future or do you think, hey we should do this to
do what we love and if we make a buck or two, that's cool.
ET: Well, you know, I'd love to have the Dave Slusher attitude,
which is the latter one. You know, do what you love and if you
can make a buck or two, that is cool. And in fact that is still
the approach I take every single day. But I do see some
opportunities coming. For people to afford to podcast full-time.
You know, I would have said "quit your day job", but that's been
patented now or trademarked, and I don't know if I can say that
without giving Adam and Ron some money. So, it is possible.
But, where I think you're going to find the biggest thing
happening is not necessarily with people who just wanna sit in
front of a microphone and talk all day long. You know we have
a medium for that, it's called radio. Podcasting needs to be
something different.
DS: Right.
ET: So, your message has to be different. But you also have to
think about what is revenue-generating opportunities that takes
to podcasting. There are a lot of folks that I think will have,
in 2006, that will find significant sums of income from
production work. Actually helping people make podcasts, helping
organizations and companies get into podcasting. There's a huge
opportunity for that. I think there's a great chance also for
people to get involved in the educational system. That is a
great untapped market.
DS: Oh, absolutely. I would love to see, and I think I had heard
either you talking about it, or maybe you'd written about it,
about seeing podiobooks become something that you could see text
books making it's way to.
ET: No doubt. Any sort of information, that is sequential in
nature, and needs to be started from one, and unique to that
particular person. Needs to be put out in podcast form. Probably
the way we are doing it with podiobooks. With our "EachCaster"
feed, that goes out for you. But those are the true
opportunities.
Can you make money, by sitting together, you and your spouse,
in a farmhouse in Wisconsin podcasting? Yeah. You can. How many
people can do that, becomes the big question.
Those people that will find a way to derive real income from
podcasting will make sure it is in the spirit of podcasting,
which is the first thing you said, you know, do what you love.
That's gotta be a big part of it. But, do something innovative.
Find a new direction for this. As we said before, there's
nothing new inside of podcasting. But we can take this avenue
of distributed audio and video content (I even call video
podcasters, "Podcasts") a new direction. That's where the
money's gonna come.
So, one show a week where you sit down for thirty minutes and do
it, of course you're not gonna make any money off of it. That's
ludicrous to think that's gonna happen to anybody. But maybe you
help 15 different podcasters produce some stuff. Maybe you work
with an organization to help them figure out this new
distribution method. There will be opportunities that present
themselves, I guarantee it.
DS: All right. Well, thank you very much for sitting with me and
making the time to chat.
ET: You're welcome.
DS: I'm looking forward to listening to more of The Dragon Page,
and Slice of Sci-Fi. Say Hi to everybody over there at the Draco
Vista Studios.
ET: I will definitely do that, Dan. We look forward to seeing
your book on Podiobooks.com before too long.
DS: Yes, well thank you very much. Take care.
ET: You're very welcome.
___
To find out more about Evo Terra and his projects, visit
podiobooks.com, dragonpage.com, and sliceofscifi.com. You can
find the book PODCASTING FOR DUMMIES (ISBN 0471748986) in your
favorite bookstores now.
------------------------------------------------------------
8: CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
------------------------------------------------------------
I SHOULD BE WRITING WORKSHOP - Online Writers' Group
Author and podcaster Mur Lafferty is hosting a writing group
workshop on the message forums provided to her by the Sci-Fi
Podcast Network. It is a private forum and there are rules for
joining and sharing your works. Check it out because they can
help when you should be writing.
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/pen/vpost?id=654654
------------------------------------------------------------
9: GUEST ARTICLE by Celise Downs
KNOCK-OUT WRITER'S BLOCK: Listening To Your Inner Voice
------------------------------------------------------------
When I was young, I used to talk to myself. Long, drawn out,
one-sided conversations. I didn't have an imaginary friend,
I just talked to myself. My mother says that's why I became a
writer: because of my overactive imagination. I admit she may be
right. Those conversations currently get me through my worst
cases of writer's block.
I have to laugh when I read articles on breaking through a
writing slump. They always have tips like: go to the mall and
make up a story about the people you see there..or..write down a
dream you had the other night..or..think about the happiest
moment in your childhood and write about it. You can even sign
up and have a writing "prompt" emailed to you everyday. And I
can't help but think, Does this work for anyone? I mean, really?
I've come to discover that I'm not like the average author.
The normal methods of combating writer's block do not apply to
me. In writing mode, I can only concentrate on one novel at a
time. I get distracted easily, so writing something on the fly
only leads me down one path: The-Hey-I-Just-Came-Up-With-
Another-Great-Idea-For-A-New-Book-So-I'm-Gonna-Drop-The-One-I'm-
Currently-Angsting-Over-And-Start-A-New-Novel path. Believe me,
it's happened before. I was young (seventh grade to be exact),
just starting out, and I didn't know any better.
Now, I just put the novel away... and wait. The wait has been
known to last six months to a year. Sometimes longer.
For others, the time frame may be shorter, but eventually they
will come. The inner voices, I mean. I no longer hold verbal
one-sided conversations with myself. My characters have one-
sided conversations with me..in my head. When they start talking
to me about dialogue and plot, that tells me it's time to pull
out the novel and jump in again.
So, go on. You try it: Open up your mind and listen to your
inner voice. If we ever meet at a conference or a book signing
and you tell me that you've been hearing voices, I won't think
you're crazy. I promise.
___
Copyright © 2004 Celise Downs. Reprinted with permission.
Celise is a Young Adult fiction author and owner of Gemini Mojo
Press. She currently has two books out and is working on a teen
series. Check out her "Young Adult Fiction with a Twist" at
http://www.GeminiMojoPress.com
------------------------------------------------------------
10: ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
------------------------------------------------------------
FANSTORY.COM FEBRUARY CONTESTS
http://www.fanstory.com/contests.jsp
Valentine Day Poetry
http://www.fanstory.com/contests.jsp#vdaypoetry
For our Valentine Poetry Contest we are looking for poems about
this special day of the year. Creative approaches are welcomed.
This contest is open to poems of all types.
The deadline is Valentines Day (Feb. 14, 2006).
One entry per person. New entries only.
The winner takes away a one hundred dollar pre-paid Visa gift
card. Second place will win ten member dollars. Third place five
member dollars.
Valentines Day Story
http://www.fanstory.com/contests.jsp#vdaystory
For our Valentines Day Story Contest we are looking for stories
about this day of the year. Creative approaches are welcomed.
This contest is open to stories of all types (non-fiction,
fiction, essays etc.)
The deadline is Valentines Day (Feb. 14, 2006).
One entry per person. New entries only. Minimum length 700
words. Maximum Length 7,000 words. Recommended length 2,000 -
3,500 words.
The winner takes away a one hundred dollar pre-paid Visa gift
card. Second place will win ten member dollars. Third place five
member dollars.
SOULENGRAVINGS.COM - Horror Fiction and Poetry Ezine
A Tangled Script of Intangible Soul Engravings
This Ezine is constantly evolving and is seeking submissions of
horror or dark fantasy fiction and poetry (preferably 3,000
words or less). Multiple poetry submissions are accepted.
They pay $20 USD for fiction and $10 USD for poetry via PayPal.
Send your submission to masterengraver@soulengravings.com with
the subject of "submission". Visit the website for more details.
http://www.soulengravings.com
------------------------------------------------------------
11: COMMENTARY by Gerri D Smith
12 THOUGHTS FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR
------------------------------------------------------------
Live each day so that you will neither be afraid of tomorrow
nor ashamed of yesterday.
- Author Unknown
H-ope
A-spiration
P-rosper
P-recious
Y-earn
N-etwork
E-ager
W-isdom
Y-esterday
E-loquent
A-dvertise
R-eward
1. To face the coming years problems use HOPE, faith, and your
trust in God and His wisdom to guide you to the future that's
right for you. You can create your own future by focusing your
thoughts on what you wish to accomplish. Know that you are
responsible for everything that happens in your life both good
and bad.
2. Make it your ASPIRATION to achieve something worthwhile.
Learn a new skill, or seek greater knowledge in areas you don't
now have. Seek and master new ways to do something that's
already been done -and- do it better! Use the power of purpose
by giving whatever it is you desire the highest amount of your
attention. This determines how successful you will become.
3. Make a concentrated effort to improve, grow, and PROSPER.
Increase your financial security. Dare to be happy. Exercise and
stay in good health. Keep a positive attitude. Do whatever it
takes to improve your personal and business image. And know that
your relationship with giving is the spiritual source of your
true prosperity.
4. Treat your life, family, friends, and others you meet as a
PRECIOUS gift to be enjoyed, and of great value. Regard them
with a love that is special and - it will all come back to you.
Send forth good and it multiples. Honor every one you come in
contact with today, tomorrow, and make it an ongoing behavior.
This too, is paid back to you by the Universe.
5. To YEARN is to express compassion. In this coming new year,
experience it and show compassion for those less fortunate then
you are. Offer ways to help others whenever and wherever you
can. Give only good. The more you give of yourself, the more
comes back to you. It may help make this a better world.
6. Learn to NETWORK and link to other like-minded individuals;
whether its in an educational, business, or social setting the
benefits can add to your growth and success. Celebrate and share
your abilities so that you can attract more of the same.
7. Be EAGER to learn new things. Opportunities are all around
you. Having an intense passion or desire to find new
opportunities is the sign of an enthusiastic person. This
desire comes from God. In order for you to find new
opportunities, always move toward your goal with a spiritual
awareness.
8. WISDOM. the ability to make well thought out decisions comes
from maturity and understanding. In any given situation, it is
wise not to judge until all facts are understood. Be open to
understanding anothers point of view. Do you look at the world
with a positive or a negative vision?
9. YESTERDAY is a day that has just passed. Now you are free to
live in the present. Use each new day wisely and full of
gratitude for every hour, every minute, and every second. Set
goals for each day and take specific actions that will help you
accomplish them.
10. ELOQUENT. Are you confident, persuasive and effective in the
way you communicate? When speaking with others how would you
rate yourself? Are you always voicing negative opinions? Or, are
you positive in expressing your thoughts?
11. ADVERTISE. For those in business, always make the positive
features and benefits of your product or service known. Appeal
to the emotions of your prospective client. Give quality service
and products so that your self-esteem is strengthened and your
reputation is valued.
12. In the coming new year, here's hoping that you will be
richly REWARDED for your personal and business undertakings.
Improve your skills where and when needed. Change any negative
habits, and always follow His guidance in all things you attempt
to do.
May this New Year bring you many blessings of good health,
dreams to come true, prayers to be answered, and gratitude for
all.
Remember: Life is a series of new beginnings and in every
ordinary moment there are a thousand miracles to behold.
-Flavia Weedn
___
Copyright © 2006 Gerri D Smith. Reprinted with permission.
Gerri D Smith publishes and hosts an inspirational newsletter
for women business owners, individuals eager to improve, and
entrepreneurs willing to learn more . And its Free! Subscribers
to her newsletter receive many of her well-written articles,
special reports, books, offers, and resources that are filled
with motivational support, business and personal image
improvement, and supportive ideas to help you reach your goals.
To sign up, go now to: http://www.distinctivebusinesswomen.com
------------------------------------------------------------
12: CLASSIFIED ADS
------------------------------------------------------------
LISTINGS:
ADD YOUR BOOK LISTING & AUTHOR BIO:
This is a marketing feature you don't want to miss:
http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com/add.html
SELF PUBLISH ON OUR WIKI
Cooking Articles and Recipes!
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SHAURETTENET: The Home Page of Dan Shaurette
- His Novel, LILITH'S LOVE - http://www.Liliths-Love.com
- The Lurkers' Domain (creative writing forum) - http://lurk.us
- Is This Thing On? - http://feeds.feedburner.com/shaurettenet
All this and more at: http://www.Shaurette.net
YOUR ADVERTISEMENT COULD BE HERE!
Contact Christina Wheeler for more information:
contact@selfpublishedauthors.com
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13: Subscriber Management / Contact Information
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