David Mark Brown's Blog, page 4

How to Write Episodic Fiction: Epifiction

Posted in Episodic Fiction

In this post, I’ll discuss the specific requirements for writing on the Epifiction platform. So, if you aren’t in that category, this doesn’t apply directly to you!

First and foremost, Epifiction is currently for upper elementary and middle grade students. Know your audience and remain appropriate at all times. When in doubt, take it out. If anything is found to be potentially offensive, the content will be removed from the cue before it goes live.

Know Your Audience

Along those lines, if you haven’t written content specifically for 8-14 year olds before, save yourself a lot of grief by checking out some of the most popular content out there: Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, etc. A little advanced research and reading will save you tons of waisted time down the road.

Think Like a Teacher

Almost as important as knowing your audience is knowing how teachers think. Often, teachers will build entire educational units around the reading material. A fictional world has the ability to tie in so many other important aspects of education. When you begin plotting out your idea, make sure you keep other disciplines in mind–things that teachers could easily incorporate into the classroom directly from the serial you are writing. Warning: Don’t go overboard on this. The stories shouldn’t come across as cardboard or cheesy due to the excess of educational content. Strive to make one or two of these other disciplines accessible if a teacher is so inclined to emphasize them.

The most likely examples include:

Current events (if you are writing a contemporary or futuristic serial): bring up issues like emigration, environmental stewardship, individual freedoms, oppression, etc.
Geography: take advantage of settings and travel within your serial by mentioning real places whenever possible.
History: This is especially easy when writing historical fiction, but history concepts can be integrated in contemporary stories as well by having characters learn key lessons from history.
Science/math: If you are writing a science fiction, think of ways to incorporate scientific method, etc. Maybe your hero uses mathematical principles to unlock puzzles and solve mysteries.

Deadlines and Consistency

Due to the unique nature of the publishing process, Epifiction demands strict adherence to the weekly schedule. That means there is no room for writing block or even sickness. If a huge, unforeseen issue arrives, provide as much advanced notice as you can and a fill in author will provide the content necessary to keep the serial running according to schedule.

The students reading your serial will be slobbering over the release of the next episode. We don’t want to make them wait any longer than the scheduled release time!

The first 48 hours after the vote are roughly reserved for the author’s first and second drafts of somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 words, depending on the grade level of your audience. The next 24 hours are roughly given to the editor. The editor must have at least 12 hours. Then the editor must send the edited product to both the author and manager at least 2 hours prior to scheduled live posting. During these final hours, the author has the opportunity to request last minute changes. The manager has the ability to make last minute changes as well. The post goes live, the vote clock begins and the readers have the next three and a half days to read, vote and discuss. Then the cycle starts all over again!

Author Platform Development

Before, during and after the live run of your serial, there are several ways an author can develope their platform, reach and influence via Epifiction. Here are the ones we highly suggest and/or require!

upload current information for you bio, including places you live online (such as Facebook, wattpad, etc.)
interact with the students via the comment sections on each episode
fill out your available times in the google hangout calendar in order to visit with classrooms who sign up.
put your best effort into each episode and the voting options
have follow up ebooks and/or episodes available for sale in the Epifiction store before your live run ends.
sign up as a willing Epifiction guest speaker/writing coach for any participating schools in your region (school visits will always include a trained Epifiction speaker in addition to participating authors).
preorder any promotional materials and/or paperbacks (in addition to your Epifiction serials) you want for school visits and workshops.
Contribute posts of interest for students, teachers and parents on the Epifiction blog before, during, and/or after your live run.

Release Form, Odds and Ends

Finally, there are a few important technical things to take care of. First off, CLICK HERE, to see and sign the release form and terms and conditions. If you can’t agree with these, that’s an issue.

As the platform evolves, questions on how to navigate the site and get all your content where it belongs will inevitably rise. Check HERE for the most up to date FAQ on how to use the platform as an author. If you have questions not covered by the FAQ, please don’t hesitate to email: david@epifiction.com

Find me on Kindle Scout

Posted in Sustainable Storytelling

I’m not sure why it has taken this long, but Amazon has finally launched Kindle Scout–a platform to utilize the masses as free labor to locate the handful of money making needles in the indie manuscript haystack. TRANSLATION: the crowd can now help Amazon narrow down the selection process for the best books to publish via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

It’s a genius scheme because everyone wins.

Readers Get Freebies

Readers get to skim through the first 20 pages or so of pre-release fiction for free. They are allowed to nominate up to 3 books at a time. If one of their nominations is published by Amazon, the reader gets a free advanced copy of the whole ebook.

Writers Get Some Scratch

If a manuscript is accepted for publishing (still through KDP, not any of Amazon’s publishing labels) the writer gets a $1,500 advance and some vague promises that Amazon will perhaps, maybe provide addition consideration for internal marketing. I interpret this to mean, “Your book will have already caught our eye. If it proves to make us money, we’ll give you more exposure so we can make even more money.” Of course, Amazon takes an additional 20% of royalties for their efforts. But this is for ebooks only, and rights can revert back to the author if sales go stagnant.

By sixteen, everyone must choose.

Amazon Gets Free Help in Curating the Indie Haystack

If Kindle Scout works properly, Amazon will benefit from reader assistance in sorting through the multitudinous KDP submissions that come from Indies continuously.

Sign Up and Nominate my Book THE GREEN ONES

The more nominations I get, the more likely it is that Amazon kickstarts my book and sends me $1500.

So, if you guys can take a few minutes to sign up as a kindle scout and then go “nominate” The Green Ones, I would be grateful! This is seriously one of the best books I’ve written, and I’ve been stashing it for over a year for just the right means to launch it. Kindle Scout fits the bill.

Here is the link: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1O4DVB865UZW4

On an earth rampant with telekinesis, Calli Bluehair’s only hope of escaping a violent death in the self indulgent underground of New Teotihuacan’s Worker City is the government run Masa academy. Choosing to ignore the rumors that the Academy is an option worse than death, Calli determines to claw her and her little brother’s way onto the registry, no matter the personal cost.

I Like Family Movies Now

Posted in Sustainable Storytelling

Welcome to old age, right? Or is this the beginning of the Mork years? (Remember the alien that aged backwards? Oh, right, of course you don’t, because it happened over three decades ago.)

Truth is, I knew over a decade ago that I no longer fit in the target audience for contemporary film makers. When American Pie hit the top of the charts, I knew the era of Animal House was long gone. So I’ve had some time to get used to it.

This past Friday, the wife and I off-loaded our kids on some unsuspecting panhandlers that look nice enough in order to execute the classic-dinner-and-a-movie-date-night. The dinner decision was easy enough–Chinese place we haven’t tried yet, General Tso’s Chicken, extra spice.

But what movie to see? Heck, neither of us had a clue as to what movies where showing. Who has time for movie trailers anymore? A cursory search revealed a shiz-load of crap. Stuff like this:

Is this a postmodern Chucky?

I should pay for this?

blah, blah, blah…

I didn’t wanna read the book…

Really?

This used to be called Twister.

There was a first one?

I’m sure the cartoon was better.

Then I landed on a movie poster for The Guardians of the Galaxy. More importantly, I found a review that said, “Think of Firefly aimed at fifteen-year-olds.” That totally sold me. Only later did I see that the movie was a Disney flick pitched as a “family film.”

Great. I’m seeing a family picture on my hot date night. Nothing could be lamer, right?

Wrong. Guardians of the Galaxy was brilliantly funny, light-hearted and uproarious. My wife and I held hands and laughed harder than we have in a long while. Badass quips like “I’m distracting you, you big turd blossom” rank right up next to famous lines like “Yippee ki yay, mother f*$%er!”

My wife even claimed it’s the best movie she’s seen in years. How is this possible? I can’t even remember a kiss in the entire movie. Oh well. I’ve arrived at the phase of life my father warned me of. He hasn’t seen a movie that wasn’t animated in like 30 years. I’m not quite to that point. But if the “Family Movie” phase includes more flicks like Guardians, I’m happy about getting older. Bring on the ass kicking raccoons.

Download Tree of Life (FREE)

Posted in Sustainable Storytelling

The first publicly inspired Epifiction short story is finished! Thirteen different people contributed the setting, characters and direction of the story via Kickstarter. I have to admit, the process was intimidating at times, but the end product turned out really compelling.

What will you do when the Dark comes for you?

Trapped beneath the streets of Boise, Idaho, an odd cast of players encounter an ancient evil determined to devour the souls of humanity. Pitted against themselves and ancient forces they don’t understand, each individual’s humanity will be tested. Man, woman or monster? Hero or heel?

Tree of Life evolved into a bit of a pulpy/campy horror tale with a solid redemption moral at the end. Who would have known? That’s the great thing about relying on crowd-sourced inspiration. Together, the crowd and the writer create something none of them would have expected, but all of them shaped.

And that is what Epifiction is endeavoring to figure out. We’re searching out the most organic evolutionary path for the choose your own adventure stories of old. With the onset of the internet, social media and the ebook, written storytelling has evolved in large part without forethought and guidance. Facebook and Twitter feeds, mobile applications and Instagram have hijacked the way we tell our own stories and the way we participate in other people’s stories.

Epifiction believes that written storytelling is still a powerful medium. But that, as always, it must adapt. To do so in our modern context, that means becoming instantaneous, interactive, social and above all, contextualized. That is why Epifiction goes to such great lengths to put you in the story.

If you missed out on the creation of Tree of Life, don’t worry. We will be continually creating new stories with new innovations in effort to put you in the story. Stay tuned! And go check out Tree of Life and let me know what you think of our first foray.

Put yourself in the story!

Posted in Uncategorized

Write yourself or a friend into this live story. Play a wild card on the story, and I’ll write the results and post them directly!  Kill a character, grow an instant-beard… The sky is the limit. Click here!

Young Readers in Dire Need of Colbert Bump

Posted in The American Dream

To the ripe approval of the masses, Stephen Colbert continues to reshape the world in his radical image. Hatchette author, Edan Lepucki, rose on the luminous wings of the famous “Colbert bump” last month all the way to #3 on the New York Times best seller list. (Granted, no one cares about the New York Times anymore, but this is still wicked awesome.)

Now Colbert has graced Stephan Eirik Clark with the latest bump. Kudos, Mr. Colbert, for taking on egregious miscarriages of corporate injustitude. Noble acts such as this, carried out by bold patriots such as yourself, are what makes this great nation greater. (And no amount of greatness is too great for this grater nation.)

Thus, I implore you, Mr. Colbert, to rise above the calamitous quagmire of our current governance to assist young patriots across this land by granting your sacred bump to Epifiction LLC. A purely benevolent startup, Epifiction strives to release American children from the oppressive hand of government assistance that drives so many children into the open arms of illiteracy and liberal mediocrity. Simply put, Epifiction is the narcotic of reading.

The state of Idaho, and many others, have for too long been drowning in costly federal interference. The result has been overcrowded classrooms, underpaid teachers and overweight children who struggle to read the only books available to them: Eight Shades of Grey, Young Readers Addition and All Good Vampires go to Bed at Twilight.

Of course liberal opposition has attempted to paint Epifiction as a bastion of NRA nut jobs seeking to indoctrinate young people simply because one of our stories was originally titled, “Guns, Guns and More Guns: Why Uncle Sam will have to Pry my Assault Rifle from my Cold, Dead Hands.” We’ve since corrected the clerical error, changing the title to Wiggle Puppy.

As you can see, there is no more worthy recipient of your patriotic bump. We, like you, are bleeding our precious life’s blood for reading and freedom.

Thanking you in advance,

 

David Mark Brown

Founder and CEO of Epifiction LLC

Read Deeply or Suck Mightily

Posted in eBook revolution

All exaggeration intended, but scientific and unscientific studies alike are coming up with the same conclusion: People who read deeply are pretty much better people in every way.

A recent post over at TIME emphatically states that deep reading creates more real life empathy (the opposite of jerkathy). Over at Elite Daily they have this to say in regards to studies done by leading sciencticians:

[People who read deeply] can entertain other ideas, without rejecting them and still retain their own. While this is supposed to be an innate trait in all humans, it requires varying levels of social experiences to bring into fruition and probably the reason your last partner was such a narcissist.

In case you are still hemming over the definition of deep reading, let me clear things up for you. (Let me reassure you, yes, you suck.) Reading deeply excludes the sort of internet skimming most of us have grown accustomed to. Reading while watching TV and/or driving. You know, that sort of thing.

Apologies to you authors out there, but reading deeply also excludes reading with red pen in hand. So books you’ve started and dumped after coming up with a dozen places where the writer screwed it all up don’t count.

Comic books don’t count. Reading goodnight stories to your children doesn’t count. Reading long street signs doesn’t count. Even those rambling texts from annoying people who text from their tablets and fill up a whole screen with something that really should have been an email…those don’t count. Reading Twilight doesn’t count (oh no, he didn’t!).

Most of us are slipping away from deep reading

Truth is, most of us are slipping away from deep reading, and we already feel guilty about it. Those of us who still read deeply know they are better than everyone else, and thus have become self-righteous prigs and lost their potential for empathy with the rest of us schmucks. All of this taken together means we’re screwed. The next step will be lighting books on fire in public squares.

The only way we can divert this all-but-certain reality is to start reading more books with less distraction. To be on the safe side, I’m going to stick with ebooks. They don’t burn as spectacularly.

If that sounds like too much work

If that sounds like too much work, then click here to help me write a live, interactive story in which readers are empowered to create characters, direct the plot and more. When in Rome…

Edge of Tomorrow Fails to Stick the Landing

Posted in Sustainable Storytelling

I, for one, am glad to see Tom Cruise settling into the science fiction genre. With Oblivion and now Edge of Tomorrow, he has moved up my list. Unfortunately, it appears that movie goers either don’t trust Cruise anymore, or they simply aren’t interested in quality science fiction thrillers not titled Matrix.

While Edge of Tomorrow hasn’t done well at the box office, it seems to be generating positive reviews. And I liked the movie. I didn’t like it quite as much as Oblivion. The key reason is the ending. No worries, no spoilers here. But the ending just didn’t work for me–not for this movie. For a simpler one, sure.

But it wasn’t so disappointing as to ruin the entire movie.

Cruise and his supporting actress, Emily Blunt, were both excellently cast and made the most of their parts. The Groundhog style time loop plot device worked for me. What makes the technique really work is the fact Cruise starts off as completely incapable of fighting. He describes himself in the movie as an ROTC student in college who lost his job and took a new one as a military recruiter. He’s a smooth talker who finds himself on the tip of the spear for reasons the film viewer is to assume revolve around politics and a scramble to cover asses.

While the reasoning isn’t totally clear, it sets up the main device of the movie–Cruise’s character replaying the same day over and over. Since he starts off as unskilled, it gives him all the more space to improve and mature and grow as a hero. His first several loops, he dies as an incompetent boob. Midway through the movie he is dying heroically, repeatedly. The contrast is what sells the device.

And I’ll give the director and writer credit. Killing the main character over two dozen times in a movie can’t be an easy thing to pull of well. Each death has to ratchet up the urgency of the plot, or the deaths are going to get tedious. If the loop is progressing the whole device unravels. This is executed masterfully. And at times, even comically.

Even the method of getting out of the loop works fairly well. The explanation is a bit sketchy, but at least the film offers one with some scientific backing. Up to the very end, the only complaint I have is not seeing enough battle scenes against the alien enemy–the Mimics. But it is likely more would have been annoying to certain viewers. The nasty things are so brutally effective and quick that the battle scenes necessarily end decisively end in a matter of seconds.

Settling with these brief fight scenes is certainly a better option than going Iron Man III and trying to convince audiences that the human/mech warriors are able to stand up to infinite abuse.

Overall, director Doug Liman had his best showing since The Bourne Identity. And I’m grateful for both The Edge of Tomorrow and Oblivion for upping the main stream film bar for intelligent science fiction. (Oh, and I love the tag line.)

Discount Books Daily, Discount Book Recommendation

Posted in DMB FileseBook revolution

If you find books via the internet, you’ve probably already begun to use email recommendation services such as BookBub and Pixel of Ink to help you find deeply discounted ebooks (and sometimes paperbacks).

There are several of these services out there. From a writer’s point of view, I look for the ones with the largest subscriber base, to get the biggest bang for my buck. BookBub owns the title of largest with somewhere around 2 million subscribers. But, some users have become rather ho hum over the offerings provided.

See, if these services begin recommending books the subscribers buy and then find to be poorly written or wrongly recommended, the service looses its value and authority.

New ones are pouring into the market all the time. They each have their own schtick.

Book Gorilla

Fussy Librarian

eBookArrow

Kindle Books and Tips (been around for a while)

Pixel of Ink (also been around for a while)

The Midlist (powered by Libboo)

Here Comes a Bright Star

Now there is a new kid on the block, and it has some refreshing angles. While Discount Books Daily is still pretty small, (as far as the size of its subscriber list which numbers somewhere in the single digit thousands at the point of this email) the subscriber list size won’t impact the overall experience for the reader/subscriber much at all. And by the looks of it, the subscriber list size is growing pretty quickly.

DBD differentiates its service by providing discount recommendations for paperbacks and audiobooks as well as ebooks.

Beyond that, they are doing a lot of interesting things to build SEO down the stretch (which means search engines will catalogue and recommend them much more. The benefit of all this to the user is all the great information provided via the DBD blog. Stuff like interviews, contests and giveaways create a bit more of a reader’s haven then many of the email list services.

Another nice thing about DBD is that they create product pages for every book that has run a promotion on their site. This makes it easy for users to search genres for the backlist of offers without having to skim through all the daily posts. While some of the books end their promotional within a few days or a week, many of them run for longer stints of time. This allows users/readers to check every week or two for books they might like without bogging down the email inbox (if they chose to go that route, or if they simply never check their email).

In the future, these product pages will allow for more interaction between authors and consumers directly (if DBD chooses to embrace that path). This is something they seem to be doing already to an extent with interviews and the like.

My Selfish Motive

Of course, as a self-promoting indie author I would be amiss to not use this opportunity to mention that my book, De Novo Syndrome will be going on special tonight/tomorrow. And it will run on DBD! So, go sign up for the email service now and be prepared.

Discount Books Daily

Epifiction, the Future of Classroom Literature

Posted in Uncategorized

Some of you may not be aware that I’ve launched a new business. Epifiction LLC is officially a thing now. Epifiction.com exists (although it is still a work in progress). Today, I can include Epifiction’s first cover reveal. Shipwrecked will be one of the four interactive serials to launch live this fall/winter. The Adventures of Cosmo and Chancho will be another.

For anyone unfamiliar with Epifiction, here is the quick and dirty:

Epifiction is an interactive, serial fiction subscription service for schools. That means we will generate weekly episodes of fiction based on the interactive feedback of students. In other words, Epifiction is both the digital evolution of choose-your-own adventure and the future of classroom literature.

What Epifiction means to young readers:

I hope these weekly, digital, cliff-hanger style installments that give readers three options for how the story continues will provide thrills for both the avid young reader and the reluctant one. Epifiction is providing opportunities for young people to participate in the story telling process and connect with authors and artists. This is all stuff I would have killed for as a kid. If you would have told the 12 year old version of me that I could read butt-kicking stories on a handheld electrical device, I would have spewed chunks and said, “Awesome.” Now I’m telling kids they can read and actively shape them. O.M.G.

What Epifiction means to teachers:

Complete with teaching materials built around the Common Core State Standards, Epifiction can become a teacher’s new best friend. Build conversation and debate around each episode. Which of the three voting options should win? Why? Challenge students to support their thinking with textual evidence. Force readers who would normally devour stories without digesting them to ponder why characters are behaving the way they are. More advanced thinkers can ponder why the author is developing the story along certain lines. Use the webcasts to push these thoughts further. Talk online with the author, the editor or other classrooms who are reading the same content live. The sky is really the limit.

What Epifiction means to writers:

Welcome to the thunderdome, baby. This is the fiery furnace of story craft. But for those writers crazy enough to dare, this model provides guaranteed readers before the story has even been written. (Already hundreds of students are signed up for the fall. By August I hope that number will be at least a few thousand.) Get instant feedback from your target audience. Heck, they aren’t your target audience. They ARE your audience. Develop a story together. Write for those who love your work the most. After the story is finished, all rights will revert back to the author within a year of the first episode going live. And the story stays in the Epifiction backlist for thousands of future children to read. Talk about legions of fans. In the next year or so, YA Epifiction will go live as well. This will provide a direct outlet to individual subscribers so Epifiction won’t be limited to schools for long.

What Epifiction means to me:

This is the culmination of everything I’ve ever been passionate about (except the Dallas Cowboys, but I’ll work them in yet). As a elementary education major and graduate, I’ve spent time developing curriculum and working with children. As an novelist and writer, creating stories for a built in audience that really wants to read them? No brainer. As a dreamer and visionary, Epifiction provides endless potential for helping children across the US and the world develop a love for the written word. Oh, yeah, the world. I don’t plan on being confined by silly things such as oceans.

Imagine a classroom of inner city children in Delhi, India talking to a classroom of children in Nampa, Idaho about what they think their favorite characters should do next.

That is exactly where I’m headed with Epifiction.