Mark Leslie Lefebvre's Blog, page 10

Episode 346 – Four More Publishing Pitfalls for Authors

A solo episode where Mark shares an excerpt from four elements from his book PUBLISHING PITFALLS FOR AUTHORS.

PASTPATRIARCHYPAUSEPAYING

The main content (those four points) are read by Mark’s AI voice via Eleven Labs.

Links of Interest:

EP 246 – Four of The Pitfalls of PublishingAn Author’s Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesSmashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)Mark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsHow to Access Patreon RSS FeedsSuperstars Writing SeminarsHow to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 345 – The Art of Libromancy with Josh Cook

Mark interviews Josh Cook, Josh Cook, an author, bookseller and the co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004 about his writing, his book The Art of Libromancy and his life as a reader and writer.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patron Jennifer Brinn, thanks Buy Mark a Coffee patron Nikki Guerlain, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the books The Art of Libromancy and An Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores.

Ask for these books via your local indie-owned bookstore or via your local community library.

In the interview, Mark and Josh talk about:

Josh’s earliest days really getting into reading and how he had wanted to be a writer since about the age of 16After post-secondary education, landing in Boston and deciding that working in a bookstore would be a good place for a writer to workDiscovering the “coming soon” and “help wanted” sign on a neighborhood bookstore: Porter Square BooksContinuing to build a freelance writing career, crafting articles, reviews, fiction, and poetryGetting his first manuscript into the hands of a publisher that he knew well from his role in bookselling, which was the novel AN EXAGGERATED MURDERThe path, via roles such as Online Presence Manager (website and social media) and Marketing Director that led to eventually becoming a co-owner of Porter Square BooksThe challenge of the most qualified people to take over owning and running a bookstore, the booksellers, often don’t have the necessary money, funding, and resources to do soThe model that has become a bit more common recently that enables employees the option of becoming a vested co-owner or interest sharing participant in a bookstoreThe genesis of the book THE ART OF LIBROMANCYThe major reckoning that many people had in 2016 when Donald Trump got elected at trying to understand their place in a world that would allow something like that to happenThe concept of how the book industry (publishing, bookselling) would continue to empower and legitimize the voices of misogyny, white supremacy, other bigoted ideasHow it all clicked after Josh had participated in a virtual event with Biblioasis author Jorge Carrion for the book AGAINST AMAZON AND OTHER ESSAYSPitching the book to Biblioasis and how the existing relationship and in-depth knowledge Josh had of their publishing house (and their editor’s knowledge of Josh himself) led to an instant acceptance of his book proposalThe importance of relationships and recommendations from people that you already know, like, and trust – and how that plays a significant role in book projectsElements of human curation that can happen in person within a community, particularly as something that Amazon can’t doThe idea of a bookstore as a “third place” that is neither home nor work where someone can go and be a human being with other human beingsA few of the challenges, both expected and unexpected, that happened when Porter Square Books had to adapt into an online and curb-side order facility during the pandemicHow the learned skills of booksellers being able to absorb information and insights about books from publishers, colleagues, and customers, even if they haven’t read them, is such an important aspect of a bookseller’s roleARCs (Advance Review Copies) as one of the primary ways Josh has of knowing what is on the wayChristopher Morley’s THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP and the Melville House edition that Josh first discovered which is a love letter to the art of booksellingHow books are great ways to be safely uncomfortableThe paradox of tolerance, as expressed by Karl Popper in THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: If you tolerate the intolerable, your space will eventually become intolerantA bookseller’s role within that paradox of allowing tolerance for voices that seek fresh voices, but prevent those voices whose mandate is to shut-down or not allow diverse voices the ability to be expressedJosh’s perspective of how publishers, authors, bookstores and others within the industry involved in this process are all teammates working together to get books to readersStrategies authors can use to establish genuine relationships with their local community bookstoresAnd more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on walking away from fascinating conversations with a list of books to read, some of the parallels between Josh’s journey into bookselling and his own, and how the employee-to-owner situation also parallels the change-of-ownerships of Words Worth Books, a local indie bookstore in Waterloo that Mark adores.

Links of Interest:

Josh Cook on Social Media:
BlueSky SocialInstagramThe Art of Libromancy (Biblioasis)An Exaggerated MurderPorter Square Books (Cambridge and Boston)Words Worth Books (Waterloo, ON)Me and White Supremacy by Layla SaadAn Author’s Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesSmashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)Mark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsHow to Access Patreon RSS FeedsSuperstars Writing SeminarsHow to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Josh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 344 – Eric T. Knight on Fair Pay with StoryFair

Mark interviews author Eric T. Knight about his writing and about the origin of StoryFair. net a platform that seeks to pay authors the highest royalty of any other third party platform for their audiobook sales.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patron Rob Johnson, and shares a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount’s handy all-in-one interface.

In the interview, Mark and Eric talk about:

Eric’s youth being way off the grid and in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, which made reading an important aspectHow reading became a gateway for access and connection to the rest of the worldUnderstanding that if he were to keep working at it, that he really could make it in writing some dayThe long and arduous road of submissions of writing to publishers, finding an agent, and pursuing traditional publishingThe fantasy series that Erik had worked on starting back in the 80sDeciding to put one of his fantasy novels up on Kindle just for fun and how that led to a colleague’s wife discovering the book and loving itEric’s mindset not changing until the year he decided to submit to a total of 50 agentsThe power of being able to write the series exactly the way he wanted toA bit about The Chaos Legacy universe and the various different linked series that take place within those booksThe experience of getting his books into audio and beginning to understand some of the barriers that existed within that realm for authorsBeta launching StoryFair in the summer of 2023 and then making the site live in November 2023How the payment to authors process at StoryFair worksPlans for an affiliate program for authors to send readers to this platformThe challenge of having to scale up their infrastructure so early in the process due to huge interest from some major playersHow the StoryFair app is currently only available in the United States (at least for now until some of the legal stuff can be sorted out)How to set up an account, load your book, and when the monthly payments to authors come inThe way that a good narrator can bring characters and stories to life in ways that you might not be able to imagineAnd more…

After the interview Mark reflects on that pioneering indie author spirit that leads to providing the market with elements that were previously missing but needed, as well as the value that a library brings to a community.

Links of Interest:

StoryFair.netEricTKnight.comEric’s books at AmazonScribeCount (Mark’s Affiliate Link)The Author Wheel Podcast – Season 5 Episode 3 – Overcoming Self-Doubt and Mastering Book Marketing with Mark Leslie LefebvreFeisty Familiars AnthologyDraft2Digital Self-Publishing Insiders with Jeaniene Frost (Jan 25, 2024)Matty Dalrymple (Episode Links)EP 116 – Taking the Short TackEP 216 – Podcasting for AuthorsEP 236 – Reflective Round Table Feb 2022EP 245 – Reflective Round Table March 2022EP 258 – Reflective Hangout Highights – June 2022EP 300 – Celebrating 300 Episodes with Guest ReflectionsEpisode that mentions license plate and skeleton thief:EP 330 – Book Indexing Made Simple with Stephen UllstrumHow to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsHow to Access Patreon RSS FeedsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Eric T. Knight grew up on a working cattle ranch in the desert thirty miles from Wickenburg, Arizona, which at that time was exactly the middle of nowhere. Work, cactus and heat were plentiful, forms of recreation were not. The TV got two channels when it wanted to, and only in the evening after someone hand cranked the balky diesel generator to life. All of which meant that his primary form of escape was reading.

At 18 he escaped to Tucson where he attended the University of Arizona. A number of fruitless attempts at productive majors followed, none of which stuck. Discovering he liked writing, the author tried journalism two separate times, but had to drop it when he realized that he had no intention of conducting interviews with actual people but preferred simply making them up.

StoryFair is a platform with a mission: Put an end to author exploitation in the audiobook industry

There’s a problem in the audiobook business. A MAJOR problem. Did you know that when you purchase an audiobook on Audible, Amazon keeps as much as 75% of the cover price of the book? The average price of a major publisher/new release audiobook is in the $24 range. That means Amazon keeps at least $18.00… after fees, it’s actually a little bit more.

That leaves very little for the publisher, authors, and narrators to divvy up, and ultimately, it means that readers are by and large paying exorbitant audiobook prices to do one thing above all else… pad Amazon’s pockets.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 343 – Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction or Something Equally Non-Threatening with Elizabeth Andre

Mark interviews Elizabeth Andre (AKA Karen and Victoria) about her/their journey through writing, collaboration, and the new book SELF-PUBLISHING LESBIAN FICTION.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes and shares a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount’s handy all-in-one interface.

In their conversation, Karen, Victoria, and Mark talk about:

The background of how Karen and Victoria got started as writers, and then about how they met and why they started writing togetherKaren’s earliest memories coming up with playtime stories with her younger brother that took on a “soap opera” and “serialized” formatThe concept of how to earn money that came down to one of two things: Sell drugs, or write pornResearching the writing of gay male porn by getting magazines and reading through themComing up with numerous euphemisms for the male sex organ appendageHow Victoria comes from a long list of writers, including her father and how she wanted to be anything BUT a writerThe two of them each discovering the joy and the magical allure that is journalismBeing one of the many writers who was “Sherry Lovelace” for the UK edition of Penthouse MagazineMeeting at a Gay Journalist Convention and clicking, but not really having that much in commonDiscovering that, despite the “common wisdom” from traditional publishing, money could be made from writing lesbian fiction. That shift, of course, came from the rise of self-publishingWho the readers of gay male fiction and lesbian fiction areThe origin of the pen name Elizabeth AndreSome of the logistics of how the two write togetherWho the book Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction is for, with an analogy of an off-the-rack suit and a tailored suitThe tally of the $35 and $45 dollars owed from various publishers and platformsThe term and use of “Sapphic Fiction” and how it is more inclusive of lesbian, bi-sexual, trans, and non-binarySome of the barriers that arise when writing lesbian fictionHow self-publishing can overcome so many of the barriers within traditional publishingAnd more…Karen, Victoria, and Mark at 20BooksVegas in Nov 2023. (In background, Todd Fahnestock from EP 340)

After the interview, Mark reflects on a couple of topics brought up, specifically “serialized playtime stories” and the “tailored” work of writers.

Links of Interest:

Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction: Write Your Own WaySmashwordsAmazonElizabeth Andre on social media:https://www.tiktok.com/@elizabethandrelesfichttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethandreauthor/https://www.facebook.com/elizabethandreauthorhttps://twitter.com/Elizalesbianhttps://substack.com/@elizabethandreScribeCount (Mark’s Affiliate Link)How to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offEP 290 – Thanks for the Inspiration, Jim TurcottMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsHow to Access Patreon RSS FeedsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Elizabeth Andre has been self-publishing lesbian fiction since 2014. She writes cozy paranormal mystery, lesbian romance, science fiction, and young adult stories. Before turning her hand to fiction, she was a newspaper reporter for many years, and she has the paper cuts to prove it. She has won many writing awards including a Goldie from the Golden Crown Literary Society for fiction and a Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club for journalism. Elizabeth Andre is actually two people, a married interracial same-sex couple (Karen and Victoria) living in the Midwest.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 342 – Publishing Trend Reflections for 2024

In this special bonus solo episode, Mark shares some reflections about recent publishing trends.

Prior to the main content, Mark welcomes new patron Donn King, and shares a word about this episode’s sponsor, the patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

Links of Interest:

Written Word Media Publishing Trends Posts2024202320222020How to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offEP 340 – Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd FahnestockEP 011 – The Power of Free With Musician and Composer Kevin MacLeodMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 341 – Howling It Forward with Wulf Moon

Mark interviews bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor, Wulf Moon, who won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at the age of fifteen, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story. 

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from previous episodes, shares a personal update, and then says a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the Stark Publishing book How to Write a Howling Good Story by Wulf Moon.

The book is 25% off at the Smashwords store until the end of Jan 2024.

Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast can get the book for 75% off until the end of Feb 2024.

In their conversation Mark and Moon talk about:

How Wulf Moon might not have been the name that he was born with and how the name “Moon” which he has been called most of his life came from his Ojibwa grandmotherMoonbeam Road, a local road his father named after him when he was growing upNot having a father who was supportive of his writing, and even having to run away from home when he was youngerFinding an important positive voice as a youngster in a teacherThe additional lengths this one teacher went to support and encourage Moon in his writingWinning the Scholastic Art and Writing Award at the age of 15, among so many other awards that this teacher helped him findGetting beat up so often in high school that the only thing he could do was look down as he walked in the hallways – but how he found his power in writingThe importance of finding a way to be who you are and to not allow others to repress you from thatStarting up Wulf Moon’s Super Secrets Writing Workshop right after winning Writers of the Future – and offering all this support to other writers for freeThe repeated authors who have gone through Moon’s teachings and then ended up winning Writers of the FutureThe Wulf Pack Writers group that Moon managesFollowing the concept of “how can I help you with what I know”How writers don’t understand proper Manuscript FormatThe high ranking sales that HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY has hit since its release in November 2023Moon’s concept of Heart’s Desire as the most important principle in a storyCaring that happens in the heart of the reader, which can create the Reader/Hero bondGetting to a point in his life that was so low that he took risks and was burning bridges behind him and not writing for 10 yearsRealizing that he couldn’t be happy and couldn’t be fulfilled not being a writerMoon’s experience meeting Dean Wesley Smith at the Nebula Awards in Eugene OregonThe importance of having both the fundamentals of writing and the belief in yourselfThe mantra “belief determines reality” that Moon instructs his students to write downThe dedication in Moon’s HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORYMeeting other people “like me” at writer conferences, etc and the incredible value that can bringAdvice Moon would offer to newer writersAnd more…

After the interview, Mark reflects on the importance of not denying who you are and not denying the things that bring you pleasure. He also reflects on the concept of finding your people, your Tribe, and the positive impact we can have on one another if we just take the time to listen, to reach out, to others.

Links of Interest:

Wulf Moon’s WebsiteHow to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offEP 340 – Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd FahnestockMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Wulf Moon is a bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor. At fifteen, Moon won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group. He’s won both Best Author and Best Writers Workshop four years running in the Critters Readers’ Choice Awards, and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story. www.thesupersecrets.com

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 340 – Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd Fahnestock

Mark interviews award-winning, #1 bestselling fantasy author Todd Fahnestock about his journey through both traditional publishing and indie-publishing, focusing on the moments for learning, growth, and applying passion and persistence.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

Check out the WIDE FOR THE WIN community and resources.

In their conversation, Mark and Todd talk about:

Todd’s first venture into writing back when he was 17 and in senior high school through a year-long IS (Independent Study) programThoughts about how it has only been the past six years or so where Todd has really taken his writing seriously, and how things might have been different if he’d done that back in 2003 when signing his first traditional publishing contractHow Todd had two big traditional publishing deals that turned into fantastic proven failures but how he attributes those flops into future successesThe Heartstone Trilogy that was first published with big fanfare in 2003 from Harper CollinsParting amicably from being represented by Donald Maas Selling The Wishing World to Tom Dohorty of Tor Books being one of the highlights of Todd’s careerTodd’s pitch to the publisher that included being able to travel to 50 schools in order to promote this middle grade trilogyManaging to hit a Colorado best-seller list by visiting 52 different schools in the state of Colorado in the promotion of this bookThe concept that “success is the diploma, but failure is the classroom”How subjective many of the measurements and opportunities in publishing can beWhat isn’t random is that readers that love what you do love what you doThe various layers that writers need to break-through in terms of getting a book publishedThe idea of thinking that just making a great product is our job as a writer, but recognizing that it isn’t just a product – it’s an entire experienceThe opportunity that authors have to make their product synonymous with their “personality” and “presentation”Going full-time as a writer in 2017 and hearing about the 20Booksto50K wave of rapid-release author success, but not being able to get on that waveThe sad reality of earning $1400 in that first year, when his plans were to earn $25,000 in that first 12 monthsHow Todd’s incredibly supportive wife said something to him when he was haunted by the demons of this failed plan that helped turn things around for himThe experience of changing his attitude when it came to being stuck at a table with other Christmas craft vendors and making the best of itHow it is a ton of work, but the joy of knowing that it’s something that is in his handsMore than 90% of Todd’s sales being from in person bookselling rather than online sales  due to leveraging his persona as a storytellerTodd’s experience in 2021 of getting a double booth at Salt Lake City Comic ConHitting $5000 in sales at 3 different cons in 2023The approach of always talking about BOOK ONE by default when doing his sales pitch at the tableA bit of a background on The Eldros LegacyThe pitch Todd uses for The Eldros LegacyThe “ten more pumps” water pump analogy from Jim ButcherAdvice Todd would offer to other writersAnd more . . .

After the interview, Mark reflects on a few specific points that came up in the conversation.

Links of Interest:

Todd Fahnestock WebsiteEldros LegacyEpisode 339 – Romancing The Writing Life With Bobby HutchinsonMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Todd Fahnestock is an award-winning, #1 bestselling author of fantasy for all ages and winner of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age Award. He is a founder of Eldros Legacy—a multi-author, shared-world epic fantasy series—two-time winner of the Colorado Authors League Award for Writing Excellence, and four-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy (2021), Khyven the Unkillable (2022), Lorelle of the Dark (2023), and Tower of the Four: The Dragon’s War (2023). His passions are great stories and his quirky, fun-loving family. Visit Todd at toddfahnestock.com.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 339 – Romancing the Writing Life with Bobby Hutchinson

In this episode Mark interviews bestselling author Bobby Hutchinson about her unique journey through traditional publishing and self-publishing.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, welcomes new Patron Skye MacKinnon and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

Learn more at:  https://www.patreon.com/starkreflections

In their conversation, Mark and Bobby talk about:

What prompted Bobby to start writing in 1980 at the age of 40Leveraging her training for the Vancouver Marathon in order to use that time in her head to decide what to doHer experience winning a Chatelaine short story writing contestResearching which books were selling by purchasing and reading 100 Harlequin novels before sending her first manuscript in which sold right awaySelling 17 more of her books after those first twoSigning with a New York agent who was recommended to her by her agentWriting and selling 40 more novels to Harlequin, and realizing that since she already had the relationship with them prior to signing with her agent, all her agent was doing for her was taking 10% of her cut of those salesRealizing that her agent was more interested in selling myself than selling Bobby’s novelsGiving up writing for a while to start a Bed and Breakfast in Vancouver – which led to a book she ended up writing called How Not to Run a B&BHiring a vanity publisher prior to exploring the possibility of DIY self-publishingGetting the rights back to many of the novels she was written for Harlequin and self-publishing those books directly to AmazonThe importance of writing the stories that she was super-involved in and passionate about writing“Going Wide” with her publishing through Smashwords in the beginning, but then being drawn into the world of Kindle UnlimitedAccidentally getting screwed over by Amazon and having all of her books taken down from the platform because of a lone title that was still published in some obscure countryReading Mark’s book WIDE FOR THE WIN about a year or so ago, at about the time her Amazon sales were starting to go downBobby’s recommendation to not take all your books down from KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited overnightRealizing that at an older age (Bobby is now 83), a person doesn’t need nearly as much money as they used toThe Public Lending Right registration (for Canadian authors) that Bobby has registered forThe question, when re-publishing older books, on whether or not an author should update them to include more modern setting, such as adding cell phones, etc into themBeing excited about Artificial Intelligence as a marvelous tool that authors can useHow it’s really hard to properly predict what is going to happen with a book when it is publishedThe way that Harlequin was a fantastic training ground for BobbyWriting a book about living and traveling in a van (How Not to Vanagon)Discovering her love of camping and the new memoir (Me and Calamity Jane)Advice Bobby would offer to authors who want to get startedThe value of pretending to be a famous writer in whatever genre you’re writingWhy Bobby thinks that writing fast can make you a better writerAnd more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on a few things that came up in the conversation with Bobby.

Links of Interest:

Bobby Hutchinson’s WebsiteEpisode 155 – Rebel Reflections with Guest Host Sacha BlackEpisode 336 – Coming Out of the Writer Closet with Bradley CharbonneauEpisode 338 – An Amazing F*cking Pivot Into Sh*t-Tons of Money with James FellSpecial Patron Coupon for getting Stark Publishing Solutions books for $0.99Stark Publishing Solutions Books – 50% off in the Smashwords End of Year SaleSpecial Patron Only offer of $0.99 each for those booksMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Best-selling writer Bobby Hutchinson writes stories about almost everything, as long as everything involves romance, quirky people, outrageous kids, deafness, time travel, or medicine, most of which she’s familiar with. (Well, maybe not time travel. But who knows?)

She started writing by making up a short story while training for the Vancouver marathon and reading a book called How To Write Short Stories.

She was celebrating being 50.

Chatelaine magazine was having a contest for the best short fiction in Canada, and she won first prize, $5000 for a 5000-word story called “Pheidippides Was Not A Family Man.” She then wrote a romance for Harlequin Superromance, sold it and went on to write about 60 more.

With no real qualifications, she taught night school classes in Romance and Creativity at Okanagan College and a correspondence course at the University of Saskatchewan.

Bored with writing only for Harlequin, she wrote three long romantic comedies and sold them to Dorchester Publishing. She also sold romantic time travel to Avon.

In 2014, she began self-publishing, at first using a ridiculously expensive vanity service and then learning about Amazon.

If there’s a mistake to be made in writing and publishing, Bobby has made it.

She published wide with Smashwords, and when KU started, she withdrew her wide books and became exclusive, accidentally leaving one solitary book up in maybe Angola. Amazon took all her books down. A begging letter to Jeff Bezos got them reinstated. She should have stopped while she was ahead and gone wide again.

A year ago, she came to her senses after reading Wide For The Win, took everything off of KU and began the tedious process of putting 50+ books up everywhere else.

She lives alone in a funky little cottage in Cranbrook, B.C., a small city in the Canadian Rockies. In the summer, she hauls her very small travel trailer, Calamity Jane, to campgrounds. In the winter, she hibernates.

She faints at the sight of blood, although her best-selling medical romance series, Emergency, does have the occasional scene involving bodily fluids.

These days, she still writes mostly romance, with a few short stories and memoirs tossed in for fun. How Not To Run A B&B, a memoir set in Vancouver, was chosen by the Kootenay Library Association as Best Book of the Year, and is now being made into a film. Slowly.

She lives in the land of possibility. And she’s writing faster than ever because at 83, who knows when she’ll head off to seek the Great Perhaps?

She needs to finish that last book on the last day; as any writer knows, that deadline’s tricky!

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 338 – An Amazing F*cking Pivot into Sh!t-Tons of Money with James Fell

Mark interviews James Fell, the Sweary Historian, and bestselling author of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN.

Prior to the interview Mark warns listeners of the adult language used in this episode, reads comments from recent episodes, and shares a word about this episode’s sponsor.

Mark’s Stark Publishing Solutions books are 50% off in the Smashwords End of Year Sale. (Ends at the end of day Dec 31, 2023). Patrons will be getting a special coupon to get the titles for only $0.99. Offer good until Jan 31, 2024.

In the interview, Mark and James talk about:

How James is an author who “can’t make up his F-ing mind”Advice James was given regarding how hard it was to make it as a writer and that most science-fiction authors also had other jobsStarting off writing health and fitness articles and getting columns at the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune as well as a few magazinesThe idea of SERVICE vs PRODUCT incomeHaving the delusions of grandeur that he might one day have one of those books that would “blow up”The initial Random House deal he got for one book, then, a few years later, a US deal from St Martins PressHow the publishers were interested in James’ own platform for helping to sell the bookThe way James was crestfallen with the sales results of his first two traditionally published booksBeginning to start a public speaking career just as Covid-19 hit the worldJames’ background in University studying historyThe bike-riding epiphany that first popped into his head (a la the way he describes it in his book THE HOLY SH!T MOMENT) and the daily story about Mae West that was extremely popular and led to an even bigger “holy shit moment!”Ensuring that he did not miss a single day in posting a well-researched and funny post for two years straightJames hiring a good copyeditor and also hiring Mark to help with his distribution strategyThe more than a million views of his column of articlesHow most of the sales came from free daily stories on Facebook – and not really any other PRJames’ Substack experience and how he was able to leverage that via paid subscriptionThe book sales taking off way beyond his expectationsHow 90% of the sales of the two versions of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN have been in print rather than eBookReceiving a respectable offer from a good mid-sized publisher about 14 months after the first volume was available for saleHis agent being able to leverage that offer to pitch the book to a number of larger publishersThe proposal that James wrote for this that was in the voice he used in the book (instead of in the standard recommended proposal format)The unexpected bonus of the publisher who bought the rights allowing James to keep the existing books live for almost a full year before their version of the book came outHow James’ career took off when he stopped giving a shit about “what the market wanted”Hearing “the voice is a triumph” from his New York Publisher Editor before she then “ripped the shit out of it”The pull quotes that were mostly selected from the interior book designerThe fact that James sold more than 52,000 print copies of the book in print when it was entirely self-publishedThe special arrangement that James had (and still has) with Calgary Indie Bookstore Owl’s Nest for the procurement of signed copiesA powerful story about solidarity among writersThe 3 Rules of Marketing for AuthorsAnd more . . .[image error]

After the interview Mark reflects on the unique method by which James gave away two of his books entirely for free, but in an inventive “self-promotional” way that was blatantly salesy, but also provided incredible entertainment and value.

Links of Interest:

James Fell’s WebsiteFacebookSubstackEpisode 060 – The Holy Sh!t Moment with James FellEpisode 190 – The Episode Where Sh!t Went Down with James Fell, Sweary HistorianEpisode 316 – Free Your Inner Non-Fiction Writer with Johanna RothmanEpisodes with Editors as GuestsEpisodes with or that mention Robert J. SawyerStark Publishing Solutions Books – 50% off in the Smashwords End of Year SaleSpecial Patron Only offer of $0.99 each for those booksYouTube Video – Anatomy of an “Author Branding” PhotoMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

My name is James Fell and I say “fuck” a lot.

Historically, I didn’t write the word fuck that much, because the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, where I authored columns for several years, tend to frown upon such language. I also didn’t swear in my 1996 history master’s thesis, titled Rebellion and the Quest for Social Revolution in Latin America. In that academic work I did manage to get the message across that the CIA are fucking dicks without actually using the words “fucking dicks.”

Anyway, in the spring of 2020, a year I refer to as a fucktacular shitnado of ass, I said what the fuck and began authoring a column titled “On This Day in History Shit Went Down.” To my immense pleasure and no small amount of surprise it’s proven quite popular, with several million readers each month. These columns were turned into two self-published volumes of the same name: On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down, and they sold so many copies that Bantam Books gave me an assload of money for the rights to republished them. The new and Big-Publishing-Company-improved version of Volume I is on sale now.

You can read free samples of my sweary history stories on my Facebook, and you should also subscribe to my Substack. You can get a free subscription or a paid one. I like it when people subscribe to the paid one.

I’m also on Twitter (blarf), and my TikTok channel is called Sweary Historian.

In a previous life I wrote about fitness and motivation. The cool and science-based kind of fitness writing, not the bullshit and/or fat shaming sort. Find my earlier published books here.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Episode 337 – Collaborative Editing with Erika Steeves

Mark interviews editor Erika Steeves about her experiences in working with publishers and authors as an editor.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY by Wulf Moon

You can get this book in eBook, Trade Paperback, and Hardcover editions here.

Between Dec 15, 2023 and Jan 1, 2024, you can get the eBook for 50% off at Smashwords.

In their interview, Mark and Erika talk about:

Meeting at the Waterloo Book FestivalHow Erika got involved in the world of writing and editing by starting off as an editorial internship at a regional Canadian publisher on Canada’s East CoastDeciding to become a freelance editor in 2012 taking on academic projects and some book projectsPivoting over to do more editing on fiction in 2019/2020Erika’s experience reading the slushpile from a publisher and how that exposed her to great manuscripts that she loved but which weren’t suited for that publisher’s mandatesThe difficult task of having to send rejection letters to authorsBeing a member of two associations that have directories of editorsHow Erika finds new writers to work withThe various types of editing work that Erika takes onContinuity editing and the style sheet that Erika likes so muchHow the editor’s “fresh eyes” can help detect some things that writers might no longer be able to detect in a manuscript that has been re-worked numerous timesThings Erika wished more authors knew about related to editorsHow all edits are suggestions and that the writer can decided which suggestions to take, and which ones to ignoreGetting a sense of how many hours an editing project is going to take based on the sample edit that was doneThings that writers should “look out for” in an editor they’re looking to work withWhy contracts are important for both partiesTypes of writers that Erika is cautious about working withIdeas for how a writer can find the right editor for themThe “House of Zolo” publishing company that Erika and a number of other writers and editors put togetherAdvice Erika would offer to writersAnd more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on Erika’s perspective related to things that empower and encourage writers.

Links of Interest:

Erika Steeves’ WebsiteHouse of Zolo: Independent Publishers of Speculative LiteratureMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Erika Steeves is a copyeditor and proofreader with a decade of experience editing fiction and nonfiction books. She started out as a publishing assistant for a traditional publisher, learning the ropes from the inside. After that, Erika started her freelance career and founded E.S. Editing! She also works as Editor-in-Chief of the HOZ Journal of Speculative Literature. 

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0