Rowena Wiseman's Blog, page 16

Writing a back cover blurb ...

I struggle writing wedding and sympathy cards, author bios and filling out forms of any kind. I also loathe writing synopses and blurbs. However, after the front cover, back cover blurbs are the second most important sales tool for a book - so it's important to get it right. My blurbs often go through more changes than a Miss Universe pageant …

Here was my original blurb/pitch for my novel (now titled 'Exit Stage Left'):


Luisa has fallen in love with Jarvis. She’s married and has a son, Jason, so there’s no way she wants to have a tacky affair. She comes up with a plan to find a wife for her husband, Luke, and to screen potential stepmothers for Jason. However, Luke is a rather dedicated husband who doesn’t care much for getting a bit on the side, so it’s going to be hard to nudge him in the right direction …


It was okay ... it got the main points of the story across, but it didn't really capture the flavour of it. I turned to two of my favourite book blurbs for inspiration ... I think these two are really witty and intriguing:


Toni Jordan's Addition (Text Publishing)
Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local café (920); the number of poppy seeds on her slice of orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she’ll take to finish it. Grace counts everything, because numbers hold the world together. And she needs to keep an eye on how they’re doing. 


Seamus Joseph O'Reilly (also a 19, with the sexiest hands Grace has ever seen) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her kitchen cupboards without conductng an inventory, or make a sandwich containing an unknown number of sprouts. Grace’s problem is that Seamus doesn’t count.  Her other problem is…he does. 


Kristen Krauth's just_a_girl (UWA Publishing)
Layla is only 14. She cruises online. She catches trains to meet strangers. Her mother, Margot, never suspects. Even when Layla brings a man into their home. Margot’s caught in her own web: an evangelical church and a charismatic pastor. Meanwhile, downtown, a man opens a suitcase and tenderly places his young lover inside.

just_a_girl tears into the fabric of contemporary culture. A Puberty Blues for the digital age, a Lolita with a webcam, it’s what happens when young girls are forced to grow up too fast. Or never get the chance to grow up at all.


So I went back to the drawing board. Now that I had a new title 'Exit Stage Left' I tried weaving more of the 'theatrical' theme into the blurb for a bit more interest:


Luisa had been following the script up until now. She got married, had a kid, a good job, a small house in the inner suburbs. But then she met Jarvis and fell in love. Now there are too many male leads in her life. She decides to find a wife for her husband so she can quietly exit stage left with Jarvis. She wants to ensure her son doesn’t end up with a wicked stepmother part of the time. However, Luke is a rather dedicated family man who doesn’t care much for getting a bit on the side, so it’s going to be hard to nudge him in the right direction …


I sent this on to my editor Kirstie Innes-Will. She advised that it's good to break blurbs up into shorter paragraphs with dramatic pauses to catch the eye. Then she worked her extra magic to make it:


Luisa’s always followed the script … until now. She married Luke, built up a good career, bought a small house in the inner suburbs and had a kid. But now Luisa’s met Jarvis and fallen in love. Suddenly there are too many male leads in her life.


Luisa decides to find a wife for her husband, so she can quietly exit stage left with Jarvis. She doesn’t want her son to end up with a wicked stepmother, so she’d better pull some strings while she still can.


But Luke is a dedicated family man who doesn’t seem interested in getting a bit on the side. It’s going to need all Luisa’s directing powers to nudge him in the right direction …


Visit: http://mergepublishing.com/exit-stage-left-by-rowena-wiseman/

Facebook author page

I've finally been convinced to activate my Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/authorRowenaWiseman. According to the Yellow Social Media Report, a huge 95% of social media users in Australia are using Facebook, compared to 19% on Twitter and Google+. Instagram is rating at 21% and surprisingly 24% on LinkedIn. Goodreads doesn't get a mention in this report, unfortunately! And Wattpad ... huh? What's that?


The other interesting data is when people social network - with a huge number of people checking social networking sites first thing in the morning, as well as evenings and last thing before bed. I'll be scheduling more early morning posts in the future ...


Here's the full report: http://www.yellowadvertising.com.au/content/dam/sensis/yas/Knowledge/Insights/YellowSocialMediaReport2014/Yellow-Social-Media-Report-2014.pdf


And if you want to follow me on Facebook, please like at: https://www.facebook.com/authorRowenaWiseman

Pubslush - Justine Schofield

Crowdfunding is the new black. Pubslush is a platform developed especially for books and literary projects and can assist authors and publishers through the whole process or raising funds, developing an audience and selling the finished product. Here Justine Schofield, development director, tells us more about Pubslush ...

How is Pubslush different from other crowd-funding platforms?
Although Pubslush’s model is very similar to other crowdfunding platforms, we offer a variety of author-centric features that set us apart as a niche platform.

Flexible Funding Model. Our model allows campaigners to choose a minimum and an overall funding goal. The overall goal is displayed publically on the Project Page and represents the ideal amount a campaigner would like to raise. The minimum goal is not displayed on the Project Page and represents how much the campaigner needs to raise in order to produce their project. So long as the minimum goal is surpassed, the campaigner gets to keep the funds they raise. 4% platform fee. Our platform fee is fixed at 4%, even if a campaign doesn’t reach the overall funding goal. Other platforms raise the fee if the goal is not met in the flexible funding model.Buy Now Button. All of our successful campaigns live forever on the Pubslush site. Once an author publishes their book, they can come back and insert the buy links to wherever their book is being sold. This allows for increased discoverability on our platform and helps drive traffic to the sales of the book.Launchpad. The Launchpad allows campaigners to post and share their projects prior to the start of their crowdfunding campaign. This is a great way to drive traffic to the Project Page while collecting invaluable user data. Interested users, a.k.a. fans, will be notified as soon as the campaign officially goes live on Pubslush.  Personalized service. At Pubslush, we pride ourselves on our personalized service and campaign support. Our author relations team works with every author to ensure they are as successful as possible. We also offer Pubslush Prep, which is an optional program authors can utilize if they need a little extra help with campaign logistics and marketing.

How can authors best use Pubslush?
Authors can best use Pubslush to raise funds, collect pre-orders, and tangibly market their book before publication. These are all very important steps in the publishing process and will help propel an author to success when their book is published.


However, even if an author has already published, they can use Pubslush to raise funds and awareness for other book-related projects. These could include producing an audiobook, conducting a book tour or speaking engagements, creating a mobile book application, and much more.


How does Pubslush help raise a sense of community around a book, prior to publication?
Pubslush provides a niche platform with a literary-focused audience. Authors can use our platform to rally support and build a buzz around their book before publication. It can be difficult to talk about a book that hasn’t been published yet, but the sooner an author is able to begin driving traffic to their book and building their audience, the better.


Please tell us a little about how you are working with publishers?
Pubslush Publisher Pages provides publishers with their own customized pages on our platform. Through these pages they can harness the power of crowdfunding for their upcoming or prospective books while building their own reader database. Consumer data is very important, but so scarce in the publishing industry. Our Publisher Pages allows publishers of all sizes to understand and engage with their readers. Since the launch of our Publisher Pages in January 2014 we’ve had over 100 publishers come on board and that number continues to grow.


Visit: http://pubslush.com/


Justine Schofield is the development director of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding platform for the literary world that provides a way to raise funds and tangibly pre-market books and literary-based projects. A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University. Justine has become a prominent voice in the publishing industry and an advocate for educating authors and publishers about crowdfunding. She has contributed to IBPA’s Independent magazine, Self-Publishers Monthly, Book Marketing Magazine, Business Banter and many more online publications. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Howlarium - Jason Howell

Jason Howell recently created a website www.howlarium.com to showcase his writing, as well as other authors such as Krista Asselstine and Mary L. Tabor. Jason's addictive rhythm in his short story Walking and Smoking practically got my toes tapping, while This Tragic Infection is masterful with its razor sharp verse style. Here he tells us more about his new website, crowdfunding and working with other talented writers …

What's the idea behind your new website www.howlarium.com?
The idea behind it was pretty basic, which was that I wanted access to an on-tap publishing venue outside of the free online communities. I'm a short story writer, which means I can either submit my work to journals and weather long, purgatorial waiting periods, or I can post my work to a community like Wattpad and have it read near instantly, but with minimal control over how the thing's going to look.  So I just wanted to conjure up an alternative. Which sounds knuckle-draggingly simple, but that's really all it was.


Most writers, if they have a website, are using it for traditional blogging and/or advertising, but I wanted to do something with a little more free-play involved. As it turns out, so far on Howlarium I've been able to feature not only my own work, but work by friends of mine like poet Krista Asselstine and novelist/memoirist Mary L. Tabor. I like having that kind of freedom.


How are you going to use crowd funding to help support authors on the site?
That's something I'm still working out. When I began the site it was important to me that it have a strong crowdfunding component. In a little over six weeks the site's received a few generous donations, but all in all what I'm discovering is that crowdfunding is still most effective when it's in a Kickstarter kind of a frame - where there's one well defined project for supporters to rally around. Maybe with sites like Patreon and Flattr (new(ish) startups that present viable methods for ongoing donation-based support) that may start to change. Time'll tell.


As it stands now, most folks just aren't inclined to voluntarily fork over a dollar because they liked something they read on your website. You're still better off having a concrete product to sell. Or you need to be creating content within a community that has crowdfunding built into the platform.


What's your advice for other writers considering creating a website to showcase their work?
Tough one about advice. Because the only advice I can give might not be something everyone should listen to. But I'd say get out there and screw up. Try stuff. The way web-hosting is now you can do almost anything; and you'd be amazed how much you can learn by just following your gut and trying crazy things. Of course, most of the time you fail, and that's what makes it so informative. And those rare times you don't can be pretty sweet.


Visit: www.howlarium.com

Cell phone novels - Takatsu

I recently came across Takatsu on Wattpad and became an instant fan. He's pioneered the cell phone novel in the West, winning awards and over 50,000 views for his novel Secondhand Memories. He's also a musician and English Literature student based in Toronto. He's currently working on Espresso Love, an ambitious dystopian magical-realism prose novel and is influenced by writers such as Haruki Murakami, Ernest Hemingway, Banana Yoshimoto, George Orwell and Franz Kafka. Secondhand Memories is soon to be released in print by Sakura Publishing in late 2014. Here I ask him more about cell phone novels ...




Tell us a little about the origin of cell phone novels? 
Cell phone novels originate from Japan over ten years ago, where a young man by the name of Yoshi started writing a novel on his cell phone consisting of short chapters that fit in a multimedia email message, sent to friends and then forwarded and spread through word of mouth and other makeshift promotional strategies.


Since then, publishers have picked up on this trend and created websites and apps where Japanese users can read and post these stories online under pen names and secret identities, inspiring a culture of serial spontaneity and improvisation, a new generation of aspiring and amateur writers - a majority composed of high school students expressing personal and controversial topics that are considered taboo to mention openly in Japanese culture, such as relationships, rape, bullying, abortion, friendships and betrayals, using sparse colloquial conversational language (which in Japanese isn't considered to be literature material, however it's starkly different from 'text message lingo' with short forms and abbreviations. It is simply the down to earth, casual, 'vulgar', realistic spoken language of pop culture.)


These books have then accumulated millions of reads and readership, published into print form and made into films, TV drama, anime and manga and so on. The top five bestselling books each year in Japan are often cell phone novels.


You have described the cell phone novel style as the 'power of minimalism' - tell us a little about what characterises a cell phone novel? 
Cell phone novels are designed to be read on cell phone screens and screensizes, regardless whether a writer chooses to write on a computer or a mobile device. The concept triggers the combination of poetry and narration, forming short bite-sized chapters utilizing white space, line breaks, fragments, poetic devices and concentrated sensory, emotional or dialogue content, that capitalizes on actual real life rapid fire happenings and lack of ability to process information in perfect clarity. Each chapter is less than 200 words and averages around 50-100.


The style creates boundaries which actually opens doors to imagination and creativity within a box; it encourages young writers to think deeply on choosing the perfect diction, to think outside the box and deliver the maximum potency in between the lines and in omission of detail. It also encourages a haiku-style sentimental art form and a return to art, careful visual structure, that actually presents writers as much more sophisticated and literary beyond their age.


In fact, I would say it encourages the return to literature and poetry in general, despite content being intimately connected with pop and youth culture. It hearkens back to ancient Greek poetry and narrative poetry or plays through the ages, up to the verse novels of today. We bring this onto a technological and social platform, and make it widespread and easily accessible by youth worldwide. It is like having the best of all worlds in writing and reading experience!


How did you become the first cell phone novelist in the West? 
Back in 2008, I watched certain Japanese television dramas like Koizora, Akai Ito and various, like many fans of Japanese entertainment and realized they were originally cell phone novels. So I did some research on cell phone novels and realized the potential of the literary form, and came across Textnovel.com which is the first site in North America to recognize and support cell phone novels. At the time, it was only a budding concept and there were no actual cell phone novel stories on the site. There were many pieces of prose fiction posted but nothing like the original Japanese form. However, there was a member at the time who translated a few Japanese cell phone novels into English. When I read them in English, I realized the magic of them and remember tearing up over the conclusion of one in particular. I timidly endeavoured to copy the original Japanese style and write my own (which is coincidentally also my first time posting any writing online) and it became the very first English language cell phone novel in the West or possibly in the world in general. There are a few countries who had promoted the concept but there weren't writers who followed the unique literary tradition or format.


After Secondhand Memories, many writers of all ages from all over the world began to take up the mantle and get involved on Textnovel, following this movement. Over the past five years, it has matured a lot and we've been exploring the possibilities and the limits of the style, becoming more philosophical, artistic and poetic at times, or returning to the very root of the tradition with simplistic language and focusing on emotions, or even incorporating visual elements like changing fonts and sizes of fonts - all the while working with the short poetic chapter formats. Textnovel has become a niche site and currently hosts the exclusive English speaking cell phone novel community and the largest collection of English cell phone novels in the world.


It is really inspiring to see how something from another culture can inspire a member to translate work halfway across the world, and to his own surprise, in turn inspired my work, and then to my own surprise, it had gathered much popularity and in turn inspired countless thousands of young people whom to this day I work with often on a very personal scale, continuing the goodness of inspiration and connecting from art to heart, one heart to another, one life to another. It is the most rewarding experience to hear the surprise from the translator of the cell phone novels, for example, and to hear from readers who look up to me or had their lives changed by our words. The beauty and the power of profoundly speaking cell phone novel literature in particular is amazing and reaches far and wide.




How do you see the cell phone novel developing further in the West? 
As our community continues to grow and expand, we are also hoping and in the works of gathering local members in cities to take it from the virtual world to the concrete metaphoric streets, by introducing clubs to schools, presenting at conventions, and hopefully working with local media and industry related organizations.


Secondhand Memories is also in the publishing process and will be out in print at the end of 2014 or early 2015, awaited by readers for a few years now as a keepsake, becoming the first traditional cell phone novel to be published. Following Secondhand Memories will be a line up of more to come for sure.


We also hope to build a strong core group of cell phone novelist leaders on Textnovel and set up a proper independent official cell phone novel writer's association resource website, blog and directory, and from there spread the movement to the corners of the web, for example to Wattpad by working with Wattpad staff in the near future. There are also a lot more things planned and we hope that the movement will continue to gain momentum for sure!


Links:
http://takatsu.tk
http://wattpad.com/takatsu
http://facebook.com/takatsumusic
http://twitter.com/taka_chan
or taka@textnovel.com

Small press pop quiz - Pen Name Publishing

What makes Pen Name Publishing different to other publishers?Pen Name Publishing is looking for bold stories by bold authors. We don't necessarily play it safe and we are going to present a variety of stories from diverse authors and diverse voices. We were founded on the premise of being a publishing company that truly works for the author, providing personal support, a full service development team, one on one relationships, and most importantly, the pay that authors deserve. We worked really hard, analyzed stacks of contracts from publishers of varying sizes, and picked out what we felt were the best pieces of each contract. We are firm believers that publishing is a partnership and the success of our publishing house and the success of our authors largely depends on how strongly we are able to work together.
What kind of manuscripts are you looking for?We are looking for stories that will capture your spirit, soul, and bring something different to the table. Our first book from Christy Pastore, Fifteen Weekends, made us completely change our mind about publishing Contemporary Romance. The title is so witty, and features three strong women intertwined together. We were completely captivated, mesmerized, and caught in suspense while reading this manuscript. We are looking for fiction and nonfiction and will also entertain short story collections.

If someone was to read two books on your list, what should they be?We currently have published two titles, Grim Hearts and Fifteen Weekends. If you had to read two, right now those would be your choices. However, trust me when I say we have some absolutely breathtaking books coming out this year and signed on for release in 2015. Updates will appear on our website as new titles come in.

What are you excited about for the next 12 months?Continuing to grow. We are going to be partnering with Pubslush and their new publisher community which is an absolutely fantastic opportunity to reach readers and present upcoming projects. We also have a super top secret project for 2015 that we will be releasing the details for via Pubslush in the fall. We recommend keeping up with us on twitter @pennamepublish to stay up to date on all of the details. It's worth waiting for the announcement!

Visit: 

Exit Stage Left ... being published by Merge Publishing

For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to find a person who believes in me enough to take on my book. I haven’t had grand dreams of my name on the top ten bestseller list, or hundreds of fans lining up at a book signing. My dream has been of a lone figure, quietly reading my work, perhaps with a pen poised to their lip and an ink stain on their finger. And in this fantasy of mine, this person thinks, I believe in this story, I want to publish her book.

Writing is a solitary pursuit, there’s no cheerleaders on the sideline or anyone there to say ‘wow, you did a great job today, that sentence is awesome.’ Most days writing feels akin to madness, as meaningful as playing with two Barbie dolls and one Ken doll under the bed cover.


I’ve had to believe in myself along the way, whilst searching for that other person who would believe in me. I’ve felt like the wild peacock that roams the streets around here crying out for a mate. But my call has finally been answered. I’ve found someone that believes in my work, in the name of Don Stevens and Merge Publishing, who has just signed up my quirky rom-com Exit Stage Left . It’s about a woman who falls in love with another man, so she tries to find a wife for her husband. Merge is an innovative young publisher, who pay royalties to everyone who works on the book, including the editor and designer. Their unique model encourages people to be invested in the project, they don’t want to just see a book published, they want to see it succeed.


Equally as exciting, my long-time friend Kirstie Innes-Will has agreed to edit  Exit Stage Left . She’s kindly done manuscript appraisals for me in the past and I really value her judgement and years of editorial training. She’s incredibly well read, can spot a clumsy passage a mile away and she phrases her editorial suggestions so gently, you’d think she was giving you a foot massage. I’m so grateful that she also believes in me enough to take on this project.


And finally, there's Ros Welply who's come on board to design the cover. I just sent him some cover ideas yesterday and it's going to be so exciting seeing my story become a cover concept. I've gone from lone writer to a team of believers ... Exit Stage Left  is due to be out this Fall or Spring ... depending which hemisphere you live in!

Indie writer - Tom Lichtenberg

Tom Lichtenberg is a prolific writer who decided five years ago to make his stories available for free online. He writes short novels that could be classified as absurdist comedy, speculative fiction and more traditional fiction. He is a great supporter of indie writers and writes a blog http://pigeonweather.wordpress.com/. Here I ask him about self-publishing, writing in different genres and styles and what motivates him to write. He has some fascinating ideas about the free sharing of technology and different art forms and his comment about storytelling for money being a relatively new thing is going to stick with me ...
You make your stories available for free and have had over a million downloads, tell us why you chose to do this and what motivates you to write?There are a number of reasons I made this choice. I worked in bookstores for nearly twenty years and developed a pretty good sense of what sells and what doesn’t. I understood that my own books would fall in the latter category pretty much, but I’m also the son of a librarian and recognize that sales are far from the only measure of a book’s value. Storytelling is an old tradition. Storytelling for money is rather new. We live in a strange bubble these days - far from the normal, ancient customs of human culture. In my community there are a lot of excellent musicians who perform for free (or tips) a lot, and they’ve been an inspiration. Also I’ve been working as a computer programmer for a while now, and have come to appreciate the worth of free and open-source software. We use these things all the time - Google and Facebook and Twitter and Linux and Firefox etc - and technology has also brought a lot of art into my life for free with music sites like Soundcloud and artists on Tumblr and so on. The introduction of free ebooks from places like Smashwords and Feedbooks was decisive for me.  Most of all I’ve wanted to give my stories the best opportunity to find the most possible readers. My writing is well out of the mainstream and I think of my 'audience' as being few and far between. In order to get to them I feel I need to reach the most possible readers. I wanted to cast the widest net, in the hopes that at least some of those readers would be the kind who would enjoy them. I think the results have confirmed it. A lot of my books have received ratings all across the board. For example, ‘The Part-Time People’ has as many 5 as 4 as 3 as 2 as 1 star ratings on Amazon. To me this means the book has found all sorts of readers, including both the 'right' and the 'wrong' ones, where 'wrong' simply means that the reader and the book were not meant for each other. Books can give their readers ratings too -  one-star rater is often a one-star reader!

For me, writing began as daydreaming, an activity which largely dominated a childhood full of boredom at school and at home. I still write mainly in my mind, while walking or biking or commuting. I’ve written a lot - far too much probably - but it’s just something I do. I don’t consider myself “a writer”. It’s not a profession or a calling or a mission or anything like that. It’s just something I like to do.

I think it's a great idea that you have a reader's guide on your website to help readers choose your stories because you write in a number of different genres and styles. Tell us a little about this and whether you have a preferred group of stories?I was raised on folk tales and mythology, especially stories of ordinary people who find themselves in unusual or at least unfamiliar situations and try to make the best of it. Those are my favorite kind of stories to write and are, in some ways, the story of my own life. I've always felt a sort of fish out of water, and many of my protagonists reflect that, no matter the style or genre.

As for the reader’s guide, I’ve got a lot of books out there online, and if someone likes one they found at random, they might easily not pick another one they would also enjoy, so I try to give a hint. A lot of readers found me through ‘Zombie Nights’ and if they're expecting other zombie or horror stories, I’m afraid they're not going to find them. Likewise, ‘Snapdragon Alley’ and ‘Raisinheart’ are my only 'young adult' stories, and 'Tiddlywink the Mouse' is my only children's book. I'd much rather people not read any story of mine than read one they're not going to enjoy. On the other hand, for those readers who found me through ‘Death Ray Butterfly’ or ‘Ledman Pickup’ then there are several others they might well like.

My own personal favorites change over time. I sometimes think that online ratings should have timeline options: a book you gave 2 stars to when you were 20 might earn 5 stars when you're 40, or vice versa. I've been writing for more than 30 years, so my older books, such as ‘The Part-Time People’ are no longer 'mine' in the sense that I'm now not much like the person I was when I wrote them. These days my favorites are my comedies (such as 'Missy Tonight') and my homemade mythologies, like ‘Secret Sidewalk’.

What's your best advice for writers looking at self-publishing their work?My best advice is to publish everywhere you can, and there are more and more venues all the time. I started with Smashwords, Feedbooks and Amazon, but I've also published through Liibooks of Argentina, XinXii in Europe, Obooko in England, PressBooks and other newer ventures as well. I'm always on the lookout for sites offering to publish free ebooks. 

I've tried a variety of promotional efforts, from Goodreads giveaways to MobileRead forum posts, Twitter repeats and Facebook pages, but I don't think any of those things have made much of a difference for me. I still do them sometimes. I think of the whole self-publishing/promotional process as like placing little paper boats on a stream, then tossing some rocks in behind them to help push them along. You hope they catch the current and make their way down river, instead of getting stuck behind a twig or in some backwater eddy. You do what you can but essentially the books are on their own, and have to live up to their own promise.


Visit: http://pigeonweather.wordpress.com/

10,000 reads on 'Bequest' on Wattpad …

I’ve finally reached the 10,000 reads milestone on Wattpad for my story Bequest! 10,000 reads is based on chapters. Back in high school, Sister Jenny ‘suggested’ to my parents that I discontinue maths in year 11. Apparently, I was easily distracted. So take these calculations with a grain of salt … but of the 6000 people that started reading Bequest, one in ten went on to read the second chapter. Bequest is perhaps different to what people are expecting to read on Wattpad and readers, like me, can work out within a couple of paragraphs whether the story is for them or not. But the good news is that of the people that went on to read the second chapter, one in two went on to read to the very end. That’s a stat I’m pleased with given the unconventional nature of the story.
Interestingly, I had an indie publisher in the UK contact me a few weeks ago saying that they loved Bequest and wanted to publish it as a short ebook (I’d sent it to them way back in December last year). As exciting as that was, I felt like I had to let them know that it’s being featured on Wattpad at the moment and I’ve also listed it on Goodreads, where I’m getting some great reviews. I haven’t heard back from the small press since and I haven’t followed up because I’m really happy with the exposure I’m getting on Wattpad. Perhaps I feel as though there’s greater potential to be discovered by readers on Wattpad than there is in putting out an obscure ebook. Also, Wattpad has been really good to me and all they ask when you agree to have your story featured is that you leave the book on the site for six months. I can always change my mind in six months or a year and see if I want to try the story somewhere else, but right now it’s serving my purpose to attract readers, develop my craft and improve my confidence.

One thing that has really fascinated me is the handful of readers that have read Bequest that have then gone on to read everything I’ve put on Wattpad (including a short story, some mircrofiction and the YA novel I’m serialising). Wattpad tracks all this if readers are voting on their favourite chapters. One person chewed through everything I’d put on there in half a day, one after the other. It was fascinating to watch … These readers are hungry and if they taste something they like, they’ll go on to find more …

Brad King - on going beyond the book

Brad King is a professor of journalism at Ball State University, where he runs the Digital Media Minor program, an interdisciplinary program that blends technology, storytelling and human-computer interaction elements together. He writes, creates podcasts and works in the weird space between digital, print and the real world. Recently he launched The Geeky Press - an experiment in indie publishing and collaboration. He is currently writing a book So Far Appalachia inspired by his family's history in Appalachia. Instead of quietly researching and writing on his own, he's sharing podcasts, blog posts and photo galleries about the process of writing his book. The story of writing the story becomes a story in itself.


Tell us a little about your book So Far Appalachia … where did the idea come from and how has it developed over time?
It's a little strange to explain So Far Appalachia to somebody outside the United States, and I fear that no matter how I try to explain this it won't fully capture the story. To understand the book, it's important to explain that Appalachia is a very large, very rural, and very poor part of America that runs along the East Coast of our country and covers a 13-state region.


The region's history is far more complex, though. For many, Appalachia is shorthand for stupid, backward, poor and white. For others, Appalachia represents the last remnants of a society built upon slavery and a rejection of the federal government. And still for others, it's the last piece of natural, rugged, and beautiful land and small communities.


In other words, Appalachia is the story of America. On the backdrop, I came to find that my family, the Bakers, had played an interesting and important role in settling Kentucky, which is considered Central Appalachia.


Their story took them from the Royal Court in England in the 1500s to the American colonies in the 1600s to the gun-making capital outside Philadelphia in the 1700s and into Appalachia in the 1800s. Their story, which is very well documented, gave me a window into our country's history that allowed me to think about the American story.


How are you trying to engage readers on your journey of writing this book, even before it is published?
I decided a while back that I wasn't going to publish through a traditional publisher. Ultimately, I was concerned that the marketing might force me to position this book in a way I wasn't comfortable doing or that the editorial judgment would require me to play up more stereotypical Appalachian stories. While I'm certainly not a well-known writer, I have been writing professionally for 20 years. I also worked at Wired magazine and various outlets throughout the years so I'm pretty well versed in emerging technologies.


Those two elements helped me put together my plan, which I refer to as "professionalized amateurism." My first step was launching the book's website, which is now folded into a writer's collective I've put together, The Geeky Press. (www.thegeekypress.com) Next, I started gathering the names of people who might be interested in my book, e.g. Twitter handles, Facebook groups, and contacted them about what I was doing. Then I launched a Kickstarter project to raise the $10,000 I'll need to hire an editor, designer, and copy editor.


Once the book was funded, I upped my engagement while I was writing. I have several Twitter lists dedicated to Appalachia, and twice a week I go through the feeds and talk with people. I've also invited people who are interested in the project to read the drafts, which I'm posting through Pressbooks. (http://sofar.pressbooks.com)


When the book is all designed, edited, and ready to go, I'll hire a small boutique public relations firm to help me get the word out.


Tell us a little more about non-linear and cross-media storytelling and how writers can go beyond the traditional book?
As a college professor, I run a small program called the Digital Media Minor in which I teach students how to conceptualize, create, and launch digital stories. (www.thedudeman.net) Since an audience uses those stories in a different way than a book, we have to get our students thinking about storytelling in more spatial terms so that we can evoke stories in our audience. Professor Henry Jenkins calls this idea, narrative architectures where people are given frameworks and they fill in the blanks. In that sense, I tell authors to avoid thinking about these types of stories because they are different than what you are doing.


However, there are amazing platforms like Creativist (https://www.creatavist.com/), which is run by my former Wired colleague Even Ratliff. Without having much technical knowledge, e.g. drag-and-drop, you can write a story, and then create an ancillary multimedia experience. You can create pop-ups, which are great to remind people about characters. You can embed maps, video and audio. What's great about this platform is that you can do that while making the words the center of the piece. At the end of the day, this is what I work with authors to understand. There are amazing options to build or write the stories you want.


Visit: www.thegeekypress.com or www.thedudeman.net