Kyle Pratt's Blog: Musings & Rantings, page 17

Working on the Bucket List

Kyle Pratt with ham radio mentors Lorin and Veda Moline

In a blogpost titled Bucket List, I mentioned that I was studying to get my amateur radio or “ham” license. Well, I’m still studying the book and working with my mentor Lorin Moline and his wife Veda. I know I could have worked both harder and faster and been done already, but with writing deadlines and life in general, I thought it best to take it slowly. Lorin and Veda have been both understanding and encouraging.

Earlier this week I attended my first meeting of the Chehalis Valley Amateur Radio Society. I got a chance to meet several of the members and hear an interesting talk on 3D printing. Amateur radio enthusiasts are using the technology to make many parts for their radios, antennas and ham shacks.

I’m looking forward to taking the test soon, becoming more involved with hams here, and around the world.  

Amazon vs. The World

I know it’s a long way off, but the Southwest Washington Writers Group posted a nice write-up of my upcoming workshop with bestselling author Carolyn McCray on their website today. I liked the title of their blogpost, Amazon vs. The World, so I stole it for this post.

Authors Kyle Pratt and Carolyn McCray

Our workshop at the conference is called, "Indie Publishing: Amazon KDP Select vs. Everyone Else," Carolyn and I will discuss the benefits of going exclusive with the Amazon Kindle Select program or using other distributors, such as Nook, Kobo, and Google Play.

The conference organizers are promoting the workshop this way,

“In this strategy prize fight, Carolyn McCray, with nearly 750,000 books sold, champions Amazon exclusivity. In the far corner Kyle Pratt, with his bestselling Strengthen What Remains series, fights for a wider view and explores Nook, Kobo, iTunes, Google Play and other smaller vendors.”

The conference will be on September 17th in Centralia, Washington state. For more information visit the Southwest Washington Writers Group website.

I know that’s five months from now, but big events need time for planning, scheduling and promotion. I hope to see both my writer and reader friends, at the conference.

Backdoor Book Festival

Backdoor Survival has featured my books before.

This month, Backdoor Survival, one of the top survival and prepping websites, featured my latest novel, Braving the Storms, and they’ve highlighted my books before.

In early 2014, Through Many Fires had begun to sell and I knew that if I found bloggers and reviewers willing to read my book, I could reach an even wider audience. At the time I still taught in Alaska, and wrote in my spare time.

I sent an email to Gaye Levy, founder and editor of Backdoor Survival, and she agreed to read Through Many Fires. Gaye featured the novel in the Backdoor Survival Spring 2014 book festival. With help from her, Through Many Fires reached that wider audience. In 2015, Gaye featured my novel A Time to Endure, in another website book festival

Book Festival and Giveaway

My debt to Gaye continues to grow. Earlier this week in her eleventh online book festival, Backdoor Survival featured Braving the Storms. Along with the review there is an interview with me, and a chance to win one of ten copies of Braving the Storms. The winners can choose their format: print book, eBook, or audiobook.

So, click here to go straight to the Braving the Storms page at Backdoor Survival, read the interview, and enter.

Talking with Simon

The Rocking Self-Publishing Interview recorded earlier is online!

A month ago Simon Whistler, of the Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast, interviewed me. I blogged about it then saying it would be available in a month. That month has gone by quickly. Today Simon released podcast episode number 142, with me as the guest. It is available now on iTunes, and the Rocking Self-Publishing website. The conversation covers a variety of topics from my own path to a writing career, to marketing and critique groups.

Simon, originally from England, currently lives in Prague in the Czech Republic. While still in school he sought an alternative way to make money, instead of doing the usual minimum wage service industry work. That led to narrating books for a small press, then freelance work and, eventually to the Rocking Self-publishing podcast.

This program has become a source of education and inspiration for the indie writing community. Previous guests are a Who’s Who of successful indie writers, Chris Fox, Ethan Jones, Bobby Adair, Mark Dawson, Scott Nicholson and many more. Every week I listen to the new show, and just finished listening to this last one. I’m really happy that I didn’t sound like a nervous twit.

I’m hope listeners will find the show a worthwhile addition to a very helpful podcast. Thanks, Simon.

How to be an APE

An introduction to a career as an Author, Publisher and Entrepreneur

Kyle Pratt speaking to the Lewis County Writers Guild

In one of his recent books, author and venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki, characterized writing in the modern digital age as becoming an APE, an Author, Publisher and Entrepreneur. After reading his book, titled APE, I concluded I already did the things he described. Since I liked the acronym I’ve continued to use it.

So, when the Lewis County Writers Guild asked me to speak at their recent meeting I titled the talk, How to be an APE.

Kyle Pratt speaking to the Lewis County Writers Guild

This is how the meeting was described on the guild’s Facebook page;  

You’ve finished the book, now how do you get it into the hands of readers without spending a fortune? It’s a matter of distribution and marketing. There are ways to distribute your book around the world without spending a penny. Marketing will cost, but it doesn’t have to cost much. In this introduction we’ll examine low cost ways to do both.

As you can see from that description much of the time was spent discussing how to market a book without going broke. This is a continuing problem for indie and hybrid APEs.

A Meeting with Robin

I enjoy talking with students interested in a writing career.

Kyle Pratt and Centralia High School senior Robin McGrew

I spoke on the topic writing as a career in the digital age at Centralia High School back in November. On Thursday, I met with Robin McGrew, a senior at the Centralia, at The Station Coffee Bar in Centralia. Robin is thinking about writing as a career. We spoke for nearly an hour during which I told her that writing is a tough career to get started in, but I love it. I advised her, as I do with all novice writers, to connect with an effective critique group and hone her craft.

Robin, I hope you get an “A” on the assignment, and I wish you the best of luck as you start on your career. 

Planning for the Conference

We’re already planning the next Southwest Washington Writers Conference.

Julie Zander, Scott White and Andy Skinner

The rains came down hard and steady today, but still I ventured to downtown Centralia for a meeting at The Station Coffee Bar & Bistro across from the Fox Theatre. It seems to be something of a hangout for local authors. Lately, I’m there at least once a week to meet with other authors. Planning for the 2016 Southwest Washington Writers Conference bought me out on this rain soaked day. Over warm drinks, I met with fellow writer Julie Zander, Andy Skinner from the Lewis County Historical Museum, and Scott White of the Historic Fox Theatre Restorations.

Much of the planning for our local conference is done. Much of the planning is done. New York Times bestseller author Jennifer Lauck will be the keynote speaker and will teach three workshops. Bestselling author and Christy Award winner Leslie Gould will teach a workshop called “Romancing Your Novel.” I will be teaching a workshop with bestselling author Carolyn McCray on indie publishing. Several others will be announced soon.  

Planning today centered on finalizing the schedule, getting the registration page of the website ready and approving the new logo. We hope to have everything up and ready by the end of the month. For more information visit the Southwest Washington Writers website and, if you’re going to be in this area on September 17th come by and visit. It’ll be a fun day!

Concert Night

As an author much of my time is spent in my office writing.

So, when I can, I like to get out and interact with people. One of the ways I do that is by attending the concerts of the Pacific Northwest Chamber Orchestra.

The area I call home is Lewis county, Washington state, a largely rural area of farms and timber. The largest town is Centralia, 16,000 people, where the concerts are held. All the performers are local music lovers.  These talented individuals should be paid for the performances they provide to this community, but they aren’t. They pay to be members of the organization, and their concerts are free. Wow, what a fantastic way to give back to the community.

Last night, for their second performance of the season, the theme was show tunes. For almost two hours the PNCO played arrangements from Les Miserables, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, James Bond, Titanic and Fiddler on the Roof. They closed the night with the theme from the Pink Panther.

I look forward to their next performance in June.

Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast

I just finished being interviewed by Simon Whistler of the Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast.

Simon Whistler

To paraphrase how Simon starts each program, he interviews successful self-published authors so that his listeners can learn and follow. When I discovered the Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast a couple of years ago, I went back to the first show, and listened to every episode. By listening to the interviews I learned many techniques for indie-publishing and writing in general. I think every author would benefit from listening.

Simon and I shared a few emails over the last couple of years, but I never thought that I had the sort of compelling story that he often featured on his podcast. Then, recently on his program he asked for people with an interesting journey to self-publishing to send him an email. I decided to let Simon determine if he was interested in my story, and I sent him an email.

 

 

That led to more emails and today’s hour long interview. The podcast is scheduled for release on March 24th. I’ve asked Simon to answer a few questions. If he has the time to respond, I’ll add his input to a new blogpost announcing the release, and linking to, the interview.

Bucket Item

Soon I’ll be checking one thing off my bucket list.

All my life I’ve been interested in radios. I’ve owned a shortwave radio since my teen years, and listened to broadcasts from around the world. I worked on the college radio station, and then moved on to communications in the navy. I always intended to get my amateur radio “ham” license, but I never did.

Today, I took the first step toward changing that. I’ve started taking classes with a group sponsored by my church. If I pass, I’ll have my technician class license in about two months, and will check that item off my bucket list.

I’ll update you along the way.