Matthew Wayne Selznick's Blog, page 7

For A Limited Time! The Return of Limited Edition Chapbooks

They’re back! Handmade, signed and numbered, print, limited edition chapbooks of selected short stories, each with an exclusive essay… and each limited to one hundred copies.

You order it, I print it, fold the pages, staple it together, sign it, number it, put it in an envelope, hand-write your address on it, drive it to the post office… you get the idea. This is DIY publishing, gang… just like we used to do.

Okay, just like I used to do, with the litzines Samizdat and THING, back in the eighties and nineties.

And in the aughts, which is when, some of you might remember, these limited edition chapbooks were first available.

I took them off sale a few years ago, but since I’ve been doing direct sales on my website again (and let’s face it, a few years ago was a billion years ago in Internet time), I thought the time had come to bring them back.

So if you’re a dedicated patron and the kind of reader who loves collectible artifacts, do not wait:

Get signed, numbered, and absolutely-limited-to-100-copies-each chapbook editions of “The World Revolves Around You,” “Reggie vs. Kaiju Storm Chimera Wolf,” and “Cloak” while you still can.

Once I’ve sold 100 copies of each of these limited edition chapbooks, they’ll be absolutely unavailable.

The end; no more.

So if you want one or all of these short stories in chapbook form, click the covers to order right now:

Thanks!

This post, For A Limited Time! The Return of Limited Edition Chapbooks appeared first on the website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. If you liked it, please click through and comment, or subscribe to the mailing list for a free e-book! Thanks!

Announcing Four Stories

I’ve just put the finishing touches on Four Stories, my first-ever short story collection, and I’m pretty excited!

To express my enthusiasm (and to encourage you to experience that enthusiasm through your wallet!) I’m offering over 40% off the retail price of $2.99 when you pre-order Four Stories before June 21, 2014!

Keep reading for details!

About My First Short Story Collection

Four Stories first presents “You Got Me,” in which two people have a tense dance around an unspoken pain at the end of a tough day… and how they deal with it might predict if they spend any days together thereafter.

Next, expectations and understanding prove challenging for a young musician when he travels far from home with his new band to make it through “Gig Number Two.”

In the third story, he says it’s “Not My Fault,” but she’s convinced his distractions will be the end of their relationship. How will he handle the most unexpected distraction of all?

“The Days of Wine and Roses by The Dream Syndicate” is the fevered mental soundtrack for a long walk through town—and across memory and pain—to come to the rescue of a troubled damsel in distress one more time.

For me, as an author, the essays that accompany each piece are what make this short story collection special. In them, I reveal the memories, formative experiences, and amalgamous influences that inform the stories.

The essays make Four Stories my most personal work to date. This short story collection is fiction, but there are pieces of me in there, too. Hopefully, you’ll find there are universal themes as well.

Get A Discount When You Pre-Order Four Stories Right Now!

The short story collection Four Stories will be available to the world on the first day of Summer, June 21, 2014. You can get over 40% off the retail price of the e-book if you pre-order before then!

Click the green pre-order button below and enter the coupon code mwsfour in the “offer code” box that pops up!

Pre-Order the E-Book Bundle Including Both EPUB and MOBI files.
$2.99Pre-Order Now

Thanks, in advance, for pre-ordering Four Stories! I’m excited to share my first short story collection with you!

This post, Announcing Four Stories appeared first on the website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. If you liked it, please click through and comment, or subscribe to the mailing list for a free e-book! Thanks!

Introducing Hazy Days And Cloudy Nights, A Sovereign Era Ongoing Weekly Serial

I’m excited to present (via the Selznick Serials imprint of MWS Media) a new ongoing weekly serial fiction project: Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights.

The debut arc, “How It All Got Started,” is available for free exclusively on Wattpad, the social reading and writing platform for the web and mobile devices.

New installments post every week; the inaugural installment is available right now! You should go and read it, add it to your Wattpad library, vote it up, share it, and leave your comments! And when you become a member of Wattpad (also free), be sure to follow me there so we can be pals, too!

What Is Hazy Days And Cloudy Nights?

Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights is an ongoing weekly serial set in my Sovereign Era storyworld. That’s the same milieu as my novels Brave Men Run and Pilgrimage, my short story “The World Revolves Around You,” and the anthology The Sovereign Era: Year One.

The Sovereign Era is an alternate history wherein the sudden appearance in the last decades of the twentieth century of individuals with remarkable powers and abilities forever changes the course of human destiny.

Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights opens just under a year before the commonly recognized beginning of the Sovereign Era and features a cast of characters adjusting to life on the edge of adulthood.

Fans of Brave Men Run and Pilgrimage will recognize Lina Porter, Claire Glick, Carson Meunetti, Eric Finn, and other supporting and secondary characters from those books in Hazy Days… but in this ongoing weekly serial, the supporting characters take center stage!

Here’s how the serial is described on its page:

Their friendships endured for twenty years and more. Wherever life took them, they carried each other in their hearts, in their memories, and in the shadows of their dreams.

They did their best to live and love and grow through the epic, unprecedented years at the end of the twentieth century.

If you ask Car or Lina, Alex or Crystal, or any of their friends, lovers, rivals and peers, they’ll say their story began in the middle of the eighties, in those hazy days and cloudy nights in San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Dana Cove, Abbeque Valley and all those little beach cities and planned communities in south Orange County, California.

With clarity and perspective earned through time and experience, each would point to their own particular moments when childhood at last began to blend into tentative, stumbling adulthood, and their lives got going at last.

There’s a lot that came before, and plenty after… but this is how it all got started.

This Sounds Familiar..?

Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights originally appeared five years ago in a slightly different form on the website of the same name.

This new run of the ongoing weekly serial is updated to fit perfectly with official Sovereign Era canon. Each installment has been re-edited and, in some cases, re-written.

Whether you remember the original Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights or you’re learning about it for the first time, I hope you’ll head over to Wattpad and allow me the privilege of telling this story!

Enjoy This Ongoing Weekly Serial

If all goes well with “How It All Got Started,” I’ve got at least two more story arcs I’d like to serialize: “Water Huskies,” and “My Sovereign Year.” It all depends on whether or not “How It All Got Started” is well-received.

It’s up to you! Get on over to Wattpad, vote up the ongoing weekly serial, leave your comments and feedback, and spread the word!

I think you’ll enjoy Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights. I’m excited to hear what you think!

This post, Introducing Hazy Days And Cloudy Nights, A Sovereign Era Ongoing Weekly Serial appeared first on the website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. If you liked it, please click through and comment, or subscribe to the mailing list for a free e-book! Thanks!

Get A Free E-Book By Matthew Wayne Selznick

Beginning April 29, 2014, I’m offering two ways to get a free e-book from yours truly.

Get A Free E-Book When You Join The Mailing List Community

I’ll send you one of my works as a free gift when you confirm your subscription to join my free e-mail newsletter community.

You get to choose from a list that includes novels, short stories, an anthology, and two non-fiction works.

Once you’re on the list, I’ll periodically send you exclusive essays, early-bird and pre-order discounts for my new books and other creative endeavors, and other goodies. I love my mailing list community, and I’m always cooking up ways to show it.

Let me show you—and get your choice of a free e-book right off the bat!

Get A Free E-Book With No Strings Attached!

Maybe you’re not ready to be in with the cool-kid subscribers to the mailing list? Maybe you’re not down with trading your e-mail address to get a free e-book novel, short story, anthology, or non-fiction work?

I understand! It’s a little bit of a commitment… a gesture of trust, in a way… to let some author guy into your in-box like that.

Let me woo you, then!

You can get a free e-book sampler featuring excerpts of my works—nearly 20,000 words of fiction and non-fiction—just by clicking a link.

You missed it. It was at the end of the last paragraph. Once again: Here’s that link to get a free e-book sampler.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy the sampler with no obligation. Heck, you can even share the sampler!

In fact, I want you to spread the free e-book sampler around like dandelion seeds in the wind.

You see, I believe the more people experience samples of my work, the more likely they’ll be to buy my work… and join the free newsletter community, too. Both of those outcomes are very valuable to me.

Both outcomes help sustain me as a professional creator, and make it possible for me to make more things for… well, for you!

So get a free e-book sampler! It’s a click away, no strings attached!

And remember: if you want a free complete e-book, not just a sampler, plus access to exclusive essays and privileged discounts and deals on my work and other stuff, you’re invited to subscribe to the free e-mail newsletter and become part of that community.

I really do hope to see you there.

You should do it!

What Do You Think Of The Offers To Get A Free E-Book?

I’m curious to get the perspectives of both creators and consumers: what do you think of my offers to get a free e-book? Am I giving away the farm? Is it an effective way to build trust by first extending trust… or will folks swoop in, subscribe to the mailing list, get their free e-book, and unsubscribe?

Did the offers prompt you to take action? What did you do: get a free e-book sampler, subscriber to get a complete book… both?

Creators: would you consider doing something similar? Maybe you already do… and if so, how’s it working out for you?

Let’s talk about it… in the comments!

This post, Get A Free E-Book By Matthew Wayne Selznick appeared first on the website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. If you liked it, please click through and comment, or subscribe to the mailing list for a free e-book! Thanks!

Five Optimization Tips For Your Author Website

You’re an indie author. You have a website, of course. Is it the best indie author website it can be?

Five Tips to Optimize Your Indie Author Website.

Here are five best practices to keep in mind as you design and create content for your site.

Minimize Scrolling

Your website visitors probably don’t have a great big monitor, or a nice Kindle Fire, or an iPad Air with lots of screen real estate. It’s safest to assume a lowest common denominator screen resolution of 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high.

Given that, and the fact you have just seconds to get—and keep—a visitor’s attention, be sure your most important information is within 700 pixels of the top of the browser window.

Don’t make the user scroll down your site to find mission-critical stuff like your mailing list sign-up form or, perish the thought, your books. Make sure those elements—or the links to those elements—are immediately visible.

Cut Down On Clicks

Speaking of links: the less your visitor needs to click, the better.

Your most important pages should be no more than a click away from every other page on your site.

In fact, you could be losing sales if it takes more than three clicks to get a visitor from the front page to the shopping cart or, if you don’t sell directly, your sales page.

Organize the navigation bar, or menu, of your site to ensure users have the best path to the pages you absolutely need them to see.

Write For The Web

You might be an indie author, but that’s no guarantee you know how to write for the web. Fortunately, since you do know how to write, this tip will probably be the easiest to act on.

On the web, the Law of Polonius rules: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Keep your paragraphs short and skim-friendly. Organize your content in sections using headers (h2, for example) and hierarchically ordered sub-headings (h3 headers nested after h2 headers, and so on).

Lots of folks don’t like to read on a screen (yes, even these days). Make it easier on them by setting the font size to at least 16px. Learn the basic rules of typography, and if at all possible, go the extra mile and apply those rules to the line height and letter spacing settings on your site.

Write For Everyone

There are at least thirty nine million blind people on the planet. Is your website accessible to four and a half Londons of potential readers?

These days, screen reading software is standard equipment on most computers, smartphones, and tablets. Devices will read your words aloud.

But what happens if images are an important part of your content? And what about your book covers?

For optimal accessibility, make sure every image on your website includes an alt tag.

Use the alt tag to provide a literal description of the image.

For example, a picture of Homer Simpson yelling into a telephone should have the following alt tag:

alt="Image of Homer Simpson yelling into a telephone"

Without an alt tag, the screen reader might default to the image file name… and “homer-phone.jpg” isn’t nearly as descriptive or at all useful to the visually impaired visitor.

By the way, the world-wide deaf and hard of hearing population is more than forty three times the population of London. If videos are an important element on your site—and especially if you record your own—make sure the video has an accompanying transcript.

Play Nice With Search Engines

Near the top of the source code of every page on every website are special descriptors called meta tags. These lines of text provide important information to Google and other search engines about the nature of, and content on, your site’s web pages.

But this isn’t simply about your website communicating with search engines. Meta tags are how your site communicates with the users of search engines: your potential visitors, readers, customers, and fans.

There are too many meta tag options to cover in this post. Let’s have one very important meta tag serve as an example of their impact on the quality of your site.

Every Google search result includes a little blurb about 150 characters long. The first place Google looks to get content for that blurb is a web page’s meta description tag (the OpenGraph og:description tag serves a similar function).

If Google doesn’t find a description, it settles for the first 150 characters of content on the page.

Let that sink in for a second: You can control people’s first impression of your website… before the user visits!

Or… you can let Google decide how to represent your site. Are you comfortable with that?

Even though meta and og tags are “under the hood,” you don’t have to get your hands too dirty to take advantage of this tip. If you use WordPress, the excellent WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast helps you set everything up in the comfort of your WordPress dashboard.

Hosted content management services like Blogger have similar tools. Use them!

Take Responsibility

These five tips on website design, accessibility, content, and search engine optimization by no means represent everything you can, or should, do. They represent some of the most common ways many indie author websites fall short. Handle these, and your site will stand out in the crowd.

“But Matt,” you might say, “I barely have time to write! I don’t have time to learn about all this website stuff.”

Hard truth time:

Your website is not just a digital business card or brochure.

It’s your proxy, standing in your place to meet every person even slightly interested in you and your work.

It’s as important to your success as your ability to tell a story.

Maybe more.

Website optimization and management is just like all those other technical aspects of your indie author career: you can either learn how to do it yourself, or you can hire someone else to take care of it for you.

Even if you hire a website developer like myself to assess and optimize your website, it’s still important that you have a fundamental understanding of the subject, just as it’s important to understand the rules of grammar to make the most of a copy editor’s services.

How Will You Optimize Your Indie Author Website?

Now that you’ve read these five tips to optimize your indie author website, what do you plan to do to fix up your own site? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

The post Five Optimization Tips For Your Author Website appeared first on the official website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Visit his site for more articles and content on how to help you stay human as you built a successful and healthy writing life.

New Look, New Focus, New Website

It’s been about fifteen months since I last unveiled an updated version of mattselznick.com, but it didn’t take that long to realize the site I created fell short. For the last five months, working in fits and starts between client work and creative work, I’ve been tinkering on a new website that better represents my work as it is and as I want it to be.

And now, at last, the new website is, as they say in some circles, a minimally viable product. It’s time to share it with you and get on with things.

A New Focus

At the beginning of 2014, I wrote:

I’m abandoning all personal projects that don’t have anything directly to do with making things with words, music, pictures and people. I’ll also be ruthlessly blocking myself from starting projects that won’t add to either my community or my bottom line.

That’s a pretty clear statement of intent. I should post it on my wall next to my computer. In fact, I just did.

What does it mean for this new website?

It means my website—which I really do consider both my home on the web and also a sort of extension / amplifier of my self—ought to “serve the mission,” as we used to say in the book retail business.

The mission is on the three by five card I just stuck on the wall to my immediate right. It’s simple, but demanding.

Everything I do should be in some way connected to making something… while at the same time, everything I do must either build community or put money in my pocket.

Ideally, both.

So the new website is much more strongly focused on building my mailing list (community) and on selling my creative works (the bottom line / making things). Soon, the community, making things, and selling things will meet in a patronage system.

A New Look

This site is both leaner and, dare I say it, sexier, than the version that came before.

The Home Page

Rather than a home page that serves many masters (latest blog post, links to buy books and short stories and stuff, right-hand sidebar stuffed with everything under the sun), the new home page does three things:

Tells you who I am and what I do in just six words
Asks you to join the community (you’ll get a free e-book sampler!)
Presents a perpetual parade of products to purchase (yay, alliteration!)

Every link on the home page not having to do with the mailing list takes you to my shop. When it comes to serving the mission to build community and add to the bottom line, this home page doesn’t mess around.

Interior Pages

The interior pages are intended to be clean, bright, and easy on the eyes. The header, single sidebar, content area, and footer all float over the persistent and always-changing full-screen backplate featuring art from my various works.

The top navigation menu serves the mission: links to join the community and buy things come first, followed by information about patronage opportunities (more on that very, very soon, gang). Links to an about page, the blog, and contact information come only after the mission-critical stuff is presented.

There are no sub-menus on this new website. I’m going to do my best to keep sub-menus to a minimum. I might try to get away with not using them at all.

The sidebar serves the mission by presenting the shopping cart and a call to action for the mailing list first, followed by a search box. There’s more to come in that space, especially once the patronage system is launched, but for now… that’s it. Sure, it makes for a short sidebar, but I don’t want to fill that space just because it’s empty.

Finally, the footer offers up a secondary menu—I hope you’ll check out the Credits page if you’re interested in some of the plugins and services the site depends upon—and a few select social networking links for folks who might be looking to connect in that way.

Does it seem strange that social networking links are relegated to the very bottom of each page? Aren’t social networks part of the community-building effort?

Here’s the thing: I want to encourage people to be part of my community via my mailing list and, soon, my patronage system. Facebook, Twitter, and the rest are all well and good to a certain, ever-changing, sometimes diminishing degree, but nothing—nothing—beats a mailing list subscriber when it comes to loyalty, dedication, evangelism, and sales conversion.

I hope where I’ve placed those social media icons sends a signal when compared to the number of prompts to join the mailing list community. It’s intentional.

The Blog

In the main menu, I refer to the blog as “News & Views” because I intend to limit blog posts to those two things: news about my creative endeavors and career as an author and creator, and views on related topics. I’ll post when there’s something to post about. The blog is, as I’ve written above, no longer the focal point of this site.

By the way, if you’re interested in more personal essays, those will appear semi-regularly as exclusive content for my mailing list community members. I envision that content to include in-depth explorations of creative influences, the creative process, observations on the creative life from an emotional perspective, and similar topics.

You should subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

The Shopping Cart

While I’m a big fan of Gumroad, the digital distribution and payment processing platform I used for much of the last year, I’ve shifted over to an on-site shopping cart.

Not only does this offer me a lot more flexibility in how I present the things I sell, it’s built to tie in directly with membership and affiliate systems from the same software house.

And yes, that’s a little hint at things to come.

The shopping cart depends on PayPal to handle processing… and no, you don’t have to have a PayPal account to use it. All major credit cards (and debit cards) are accepted.

Please Test The New Website!

I’ve designed the new website to look great and work great in all modern browsers. Rather than attempt to make it universally compatible with every version of every browser at every possible screen resolution, I’ve focused on the configurations my analytics tells me are the most common for my visitors.

I know as well as anyone that stuff that works in development sometimes falls short in the real world. So, if you notice anything odd, missing, or just plain broken, I hope you’ll take a moment to let me know. A comment on this post is fine, but if you have the time, an e-mail is better… and either way, please let me know as much information as possible regarding your browsing environment (operating system and version, browser and version, screen resolution, and so on…)

Welcome!

Thanks for checking out the new website. If you’re reading this via RSS, please click through and take a look at this post in its natural habitat!

And in case I haven’t mentioned it enough: please join the free community mailing list! I’ll send you a free e-book sampler with over 20,000 words excerpted from my novels, short stories, and non-fiction works. And while I hope it goes without saying, I will not sell, rent, lease, or otherwise share your information with anyone else.

Finally: for the authors, poets, musicians, and other creative types reading this: does your website serve your mission? If not… how can you fix that? I’d love to talk about it in the comments!

This post, New Look, New Focus, New Website appeared first on the website of author and creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. If you liked it, please click through and comment, or subscribe to the mailing list for a free e-book! Thanks!

Authors: This Secret To Selling Books On Social Networks Will Completely Change The Way You Sell Books On Social Networks

My goodness, that’s a keyword-laden title, isn’t it? It’s sure to bring indie authors like you clicking over, keen to find a quick way to replace Amazon KDP Select, book-matching advertising networks, acronym-heavy hashtag clubs, or whatever it is that used to work to sell books on social networks last month.

Good thing you got here first!

Well, now that you are here, dear author, it’s time for some tough truth regarding just how to sell books on social networks.

If you’re on social networks to sell books, you are, as the kids say, Doing It Wrong.

I know, I know… you feel a little betrayed right now.

It hurts.

I know it hurts.

After all, the headline led you to believe you were going to learn how to sell books on social networks, and right off the bat, here I am, following up the bait with the switch and telling you that’s just… silly.

But seriously… is this your first day on the Web? You didn’t see that coming? Have you never read Upworthy? Buzzfeed..?

Oh, come on. Be honest. You know you have.

Anyway, wipe your eyes. There really is a secret, of a kind, but frankly, I find it baffling that that it seems to be a secret at all. But it really will change the way you sell book on social networks, assuming you’re one of those writers who tries to sell books on social networks.

At least, I sure hope it will.

The Big Secret

Social networks are not for selling books. Social networks are for being social.

Now, you’re probably a writer, so I’d like to think you’re pretty clever. I’d like to think we can both stop right here, because you get it. You’re shaking your head and laughing to yourself, looking at the screen and muttering, “Hah. Of course. Social networks are for being social!”

On the other hand, I’ve been on social networks for most of a decade. I’ve seen how writers are. Especially indie authors.

So… yeah, stick around for a few more paragraphs, would you?

Have you ever gone to a party or some other social gathering where you’re likely to meet new people, and some bozo hands you a business card right after (or, heaven help you, while) you’re introduced and shake hands?

Have you ever followed someone on Twitter, and the very next communication from that person is an automatically-sent direct message including a link to their book?

Do either of those situations leave you thinking, “Hey, what a neat person I’d like to get to know?”

Do either of those situations leave you thinking, “Hey, thanks! I can’t wait to do business with you!”

Probably not. When’s the last time you bought insurance from some stranger you met at a mixer? When’s the last time you bought a book as a result of first contact with a new social media connection?

Oh… wait… oh, this is a little awkward, isn’t it? Some of you reading this are that person… the one quick with the business card… the one with the automatic direct message set up to fire whenever someone follows you.

Okay, listen. Really listen:

Don’t be that person.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: No one shows up at a party wearing a sandwich board. If you do, you’ll be ignored at best; ridiculed at worst.

Social networks are not for selling.

But I Want To Sell Books On Social Networks

I understand. You’re on the damn social networks all day, after all, chatting it up with fellow writers, opining at the drop of a hat on things you known nothing about, complaining about some has-been, traditionally-published author’s Guardian opinion piece, sharing cat pictures and memes and videos and whatnot… hey, why not also make a buck?

Resist.

Remember: social networks are for being social. So just be… social. Be human.

Watch What Happens When You Stop Trying to Sell Books On Social Networks

When your primary focus is on being social rather than looking for sales all the time, you’ll gradually notice something neat.

Some social network friends pop up more than others… or maybe you simply notice them more because you realize you like them… and they like you!

You share interests, sensibilities, a common background… where have they been all your life?

They may have always been there… but you were too busy showering the web with your hashtag firehose to see them.

Before you know it, those people are your actual friends. People you care about, who care about you. Just like in “real life!”

Some of them, while you weren’t looking, even without you asking, might have actually read your books. Especially if you’ve made friends in social networks that have something to do with the subject matter of your book (that’s a hint, dear reader / writer).

And because they care about you and your success, they want you to succeed. It’s not a matter of selling any more, not with these folks.

They’re the best kind of readers: they’re your tribe. They’re your people. Many of them will become unprompted evangelists for your work.

They’ll retweet you, and you won’t even have to ask!

I know. It’s weird! But it happens!

Change Your Perspective

Don’t expect social networks to make you any money. You can’t monetize a handshake. Please stop trying. You’re getting your snake oil all over your colleagues and peers.

Don’t try to build a platform. Don’t try to build an audience.

Use social networks to build a community. You know: A social. Network.

Your career will benefit from that. And no one will be reluctant to shake your hand for fear of what you’ll slip into their palm.

Whether you’re an author or a reader, or, like (gosh, I hope) most authors, an author who also reads, please leave a comment on what you’ve just read. Authors, it would be neat if you would share stories about your community of readers. Readers, I’d love to hear about a moment of true connection you’ve had with an author, and why (or why not) that inspires you to support their creative endeavors.

Thanks!

Two Independent Creative Projects That Deserve Your Support

The last three Scribtotum posts have been self-promotional. That’s not only okay, it’s pretty much what you should expect from this site, seeing as how this blog is the megaphone of a guy who earns a chunk of his living making things for people to purchase.

But (at least for (most of) this post) enough about me!

Allow me to share with you some new and upcoming creative projects by two authors I think you should be aware of. Granted, both of these authors are pretty darn well known in their own circles, but you might not be aware of them or their work.

So. Consider this my personal endorsement of these guys.

J.C. Hutchins: The 33

I’ve been J.C. Hutchins’ patron, consultant, customer, editor, collaborator, and most importantly, pal since January of 2006. His name is written on one of the fingers of the hand I use to count the people I’ve met through the Internet and consider actual, last-century-definition-friends.

Even if I didn’t know him from Adam, whatever in the hell that means, I would tell you he’s a creative powerhouse whose imagination has amplified and enhanced creative franchises, people, and brands like the X-Men films, David Cronenberg, Almost Human, Jordan Weisman, Stephen King, and many others. Like many in-demand creative professionals, he’s written stuff you’ve dug, and you don’t even know it.

Which is why I get excited when “Hutch” has an opportunity to release his own creative projects. His latest is The 33.

The Best TV Show You’ll Ever Read

That’s the best capsule description of The 33 I can offer. Presented as a series of monthly e-books, The 33 is structured like a season of a television show, including stand-alone “episodes” and what promises to be a mind-blowing, powerfully entertaining season-long arc. It’s The A-Team meets The X-Files with a 21st-Century, AMC / FX / HBO sensibility.

Each installment is available as an ebook and an audiobook read by the author. While the first four installments are intended as a four-part “pilot,” this is not a serial in the traditional sense. Each can be enjoyed on their own.

Which is exactly what you should do. The first installment is available now; the second drops very soon. Get in on it.

Get The 33 by J.C. Hutchins

Tim Pratt: Lady of Misrule

I don’t remember the first Tim Pratt story I read, but I do remember with great fondness the first Tim Pratt story I read out loud: the 2007 Hugo Award winning “Impossible Dreams,” for the venerable and excellent podcast magazine Escape Pod.

Since that time, I’ve connected with Tim on the social networks and found that he seems to share my attitude of accessibility and openness when it comes to the relationship between reader and author. Inasmuch as one can discern such things from virtual interaction, Tim seems like a genuinely nice guy.

Of course, Tim Pratt the person could be a black box of inscrutability (yes, that’s redundant, but imagine the unknowable-ness!!!) and Tim Pratt the author would undeniably still be a versatile storyteller with a deft touch for exploring both deep humanity and uncanny wonder.

His prolific career has earned him a boatload of nominations and awards, he’s been enlisted to write in both the Pathfinder and Forgotten Realms storyworlds… but by his own admission, his favorite character is Marla Mason, part-time Goddess of Death.

Tim’s written a bunch of stories and seven novels featuring Marla (under the name T. A. Pratt), and he’s just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the eighth, Lady of Misrule. As a fan and a patron, I’d like to see that campaign succeed. You should, too!

Here’s Tim to tell you about it:

Why Support Lady of Misrule With Your Patronage?

Let’s not be coy, gang: Tim Pratt is not going to have any trouble reaching his funding goal for this project funded this project minutes after I posted this. That’s no reason to sit it out.

Like many author crowdfunding campaigns, the Kickstarter campaign for Lady of Misrule includes a bunch of nifty pledge rewards. The best deal, especially if you’re just discovering Tim’s work, is the $40.00 level. Included:

Your name in the Acknowledgements section of the book
An e-book bundle of Lady of Misrule in various formats
A complete e-book collection of Tim’s stories to date
The seven previous Marla Mason novels in e-book format

Eight novels and over 130 short stories for forty bucks? Seriously? That’s a desert-island collection of fiction for nano-pennies per word. And I’m telling you: these stories are worth many, many times that price.

So get to it. Pledge your support of Tim Pratt’s Kickstarter campaign to write the eighth Marla Mason novel, Lady of Misrule.

Okay, Just A Little Bit About Me

Hopefully, you’ve already clicked away and you’re busy cracking your wallet for the works of J.C. Hutchins and Tim Pratt. But since you might still be reading, I want to make sure you know how you can get a free sampler of my own fiction and non-fiction.

Simply subscribe to my free e-mail newsletter and I’ll get you a link to an e-book collection that includes generous samples of everything I’ve written through 2013:

But Matt, I’ve Been A Subscriber For Years!

YOU ROCK! Unless you’ve signed on in the last month or so, you should still subscribe to this list — it’s going to replace my old one before too long, and it’s the only way to get the sampler.

But Matt, I Already Own All Your Fiction And Non-Fiction

YOU REALLY ROCK! I hope you’ll still consider subscribing for free, since I’m going to be writing exclusive content for members of the list that won’t appear on my blog or anywhere else on the web.

Plus, every time I release new fiction, non fiction, or other creative products, my mailing list subscribers are always given first crack at pre-orders at a deeper discount than I offer anywhere else.

Ya gotta do it!

Thanks!

Name Your Price For Eight Books In The Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle

I’m pleased to announce my two-book omnibus The Charters Duology (Brave Men Run / Pilgrimage) is part of the Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle from StoryBundle.com. This is a great opportunity for you to get seven e-books (eight novels / short story collections in all!) at a greatly reduced price… that you set!

Here’s How The Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle Works

The hosts of Sci-Fi Saturday Night, a popular podcast, selected the titles as personal favorites out of the many works featured across eight years of the show.

When you pay a minimum of $3.00, you’ll get four e-books, including the Pushcart Award-winning Bad Apple by Kristi Petersen Schoonover, and others!

Pay at least $10.00, and you’ll get seven e-books, including my own The Sovereign Era (two full-length novels in one omnibus) and the Goodreads Choice nominee Michael J. Sullivan’s Hollow World, as well as a career-spanning short story collection from horror author and director Chris Robertson.

You decide what you’ll pay… $3.00… $5.00… $10.00… $25.00, or more… and you decide what percentage of your payment goes to the authors, and what percentage goes to Storybundle.com.

Even better: you can opt to contribute 10% of your payment to one of two excellent literacy advocacy organizations, Girls Write Now or MightyWriters.

Every e-book in the Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle is entirely DRM-free and available in formats for the most common reading devices and apps.

The Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle Is Available For A Limited Time!

The Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle is only available until February 18, 2014. You must choose your own price and claim your bundle before February 18, 2014!

Naturally, I hope you’ll choose a price somewhere generously north of $10.00… but more importantly, whatever price you decide this bundle is worth, I hope you’ll also decide to donate 10% of that to either Girls Write Now or MightyWriters.

Click here to set your own price to get seven e-books in the Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle from StoryBundle.com!

Thanks!

Name Your Price For Eight Books In The SciFi Saturday Night Bundle

I’m pleased to announce my two-book omnibus The Charters Duology (Brave Men Run / Pilgrimage) is part of the SciFi Saturday Night Bundle from StoryBundle.com. This is a great opportunity for you to get seven e-books (eight novels / short story collections in all!) at a greatly reduced price… that you set!

Here’s How The SciFi Saturday Night Bundle Works

The hosts of SciFi Saturday Night, a popular podcast, selected the titles as personal favorites out of the many works featured across eight years of the show.

When you pay a minimum of $3.00, you’ll get four e-books, including the Pushcart Award-winning Bad Apple by Kristi Petersen Schoonover, and others!

Pay at least $10.00, and you’ll get seven e-books, including my own The Sovereign Era (two full-length novels in one omnibus) and the Goodreads Choice nominee Michael J. Sullivan’s Hollow World, as well as a career-spanning short story collection from horror author and director Chris Robertson.

You decide what you’ll pay… $3.00… $5.00… $10.00… $25.00, or more… and you decide what percentage of your payment goes to the authors, and what percentage goes to Storybundle.com.

Even better: you can opt to contribute 10% of your payment to one of two excellent literacy advocacy organizations, Girls Write Now or MightyWriters.

Every e-book in the SciFi Saturday Night Bundle is entirely DRM-free and available in formats for the most common reading devices and apps.

The SciFi Saturday Night Bundle Is Available For A Limited Time!

The SciFi Saturday Night Bundle is only available until February 18, 2014. You must choose your own price and claim your bundle before February 18, 2014!

Naturally, I hope you’ll choose a price somewhere generously north of $10.00… but more importantly, whatever price you decide this bundle is worth, I hope you’ll also decide to donate 10% of that to either Girls Write Now or MightyWriters.

Click here to set your own price to get seven e-books in the SciFi Saturday Night Bundle from StoryBundle.com!

Thanks!