Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff's Blog, page 27
September 16, 2011
Read THE DOOMSDAY CLUB for Free at Wattpad
Mobile is the future of media. What the rest of us already knew is finally becoming evident to the stuffy windbags who are desperately trying to find some kind of relevance in today's media landscape.
As I've mentioned on this blog and on my Facebook page, I'm always looking for ways to try and connect with readers who might dig my writing. That's why I've decided to serialize my thriller novel THE DOOMSDAY CLUB for free over at Wattpad.
THE DOOMSDAY CLUB is a fast-paced suspense-filled thriller about four college friends who inadvertently kill someone and then end up having to invent a phony terrorist group in order to try and cover up the crime.
I put Chapter One up and will add Chapter Two once we hit 250 reads.
Click here to read THE DOOMSDAY CLUB over at WATTPAD for FREE
Because Wattpad is a mobile-driven community, it also has free apps for all the most popular mobile platforms.
September 15, 2011
How to Listen to Podcasts on Your Kindle
File this under "Things I Learned Today," but you can listen to podcasts on a Kindle! It's simple. Just plug your Kindle into your computer via USB. When you open your Kindle up on your desktop, look for the AUDIBLE folder. Just drag and drop the podcast .mp3 file right into it and BINGO… the podcast will appear on your Kindle's screen as an audiobook. Plug in your headphones and enjoy.
Big thanks to Brian Noe for pointing this out to me, and for taking the above photo showing the new episode of PCH right there on his Kindle. How cool!
September 14, 2011
PCH: Keep Your Kids Out of Showbiz…
Chris from New Zealand (PCH listener #1) inadvertently hooked us up with our first topic as we host an intervention to keep his daughter out of the music business. Think of it as "Scared Straight", the PCH way.
Plus, a new product for the ladies and an epic MYN rant about child beauty pageants.
That's right, we're baaaack! Our first episode of the new season of PCH is here. Think of it as a great big greased black leather glove full of comedy shoved into your ears. Hell yeah!
Don't be a douche and miss an episode!
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE 
or SUBSCRIBE IN iTUNES 
Wanna know what people in Hollywood really act like? Check out "Where's My F*cking Latte" - An Amazon bestseller by Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff
Find more books for by Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff at: Wordsushi.com
C'mon and LIKE the MYN Books Facebook page - When it hits 1,000 Likes, one lucky follower will win a brand new Kindle or Nook
And you need to be listening to Mike Yusi's fantastic music podcast UC Radio
Speaking of music… on today's show:
"Jesus Christ Wore Leather" from the album: So You've Ruined Your Life by Get Set Go
"No One Rides Free" from the album:Powervibe by Powervibe
And our deepest thanks (and apologies) to Chris from NZ.
September 13, 2011
I'm a .tv Advocate
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The folks over at .tv signed me up to be a .tv Advocate. I'm thrilled to be a brand ambassador for .TV. In the coming months, I'll be creating content for Watch.TV and doing all kinds of fun stuff with the .tv brand.
They even launched our new relationship with .tv with a video of me announcing their $10,000 "Make a .tv Commercial Contest". Please go check it out.
Also, I'm going to start up a .tv branded website where I'm going to post videos. It's a bit rough at the moment but Wordsushi.TV is up and running and I promise to be adding more content to it every day.
September 8, 2011
Serializing a New Novel
I have this big, brand new urban fantasy novel that I've written (for now let's just call it by a codename: "Fallen 8″). It's about a cult of demon hunters. I wanted to really polish it up so I hired (at great expense) an outside editor who has worked with Stephen King, Kevin J. Anderson and Isaac Asimov. I think we've been able to polish this manuscript into something really amazing. It's extremely cinematic, full of non-stop action and has some incredible thematic elements. It could be the best thing I've ever written.
In short, if you've enjoyed any of my previous work, including "Shadow Falls", "Number One with a Bullet", "Diary of a Madman", you're gonna flip over this book.
And so the question becomes: How best to get this book out there to you? All of the fiction I've released in eBook form had been, at one point, podcast for free. This book doesn't have an audience… yet.
So, I'm contemplating a couple of ideas. Basically, they are all variations of a similar theme: divide this one big book into two books and then give you the first book for free.
Giving you the first book for free is a risk I'm willing to assume. I could give you the free book in a couple of different ways. I can break it up into 16 serialized podcast episodes, I can release it on Smashwords as a free eBook download. I can post the serialized chapters here on Wordsushi.
That all seems easy. The question is what to do after week 16, after getting you hooked on this crack-like storyline.
Here are my ideas:
A) Put out the 2nd book, in its entirety, as an ebook for sale. Most likely, it would be packaged together with the first book so you'd get both books for an affordable price ($2.99 to $4.99) and would include bonus material from book 1 not included in the podcast/free versions.
B) Use the sale of the ebook as a mini Kickstarter-like campaign to raise money to produce a free serialized podcast of the second book. Give it a reasonable goal (maybe selling 2,500 copies) If you liked the first book enough, I'd hope you spend $3-$5 to help fund it, even if you're not an ebook reader kind of person.
C) Actually do a Kickstarter campaign and try to raise $4K or so. Give away some nice freebies to those who donate. Maybe even use it to find creation of a physical print copy of both books together (something of course that would be made free to those who donated a certain pre-determined amount to the Kickstarter campaign).
Basically, if I do this, I'd probably do some kind of combination of the above.
Thoughts?
Book Covers I've Designed
No, I'm not angling to find work designing book covers. I just happen to really enjoy doing it and I thought it would be fun to post these. Book covers are an artform unto themselves and to me, the right book cover has to instantly convey something about the book that both tells you something very important about what's inside as well as instill just enough mystery to invite you inside. Kinda like what a good movie trailer should do (though most movie trailers these days seem to just give away the best scenes and jokes). For the most part, I've taken artwork I've obtained and laid out the text in a way that I feel not only fits the book, but also makes it attractive and legible as a thumbnail. Below are some of the book cover designs I've done so far that I think do the job of representing the work within.
The Ultimate Pulp cover is an example of one I've done for a physical book where the design wraps around from the front to the back. See?
September 7, 2011
PCH: Tired? Listless? Then You Need PCH!
September 2, 2011
Come Like the MYN Books Page on FaceBook
I finally, finally, finally got around to making an MYN BOOKS Facebook Page. Come and "Like" the page and join the growing community of fans of MYN Books.
Plus, once I get to 1,000 LIKES, one lucky follower is going to win a brand new Kindle or Nook!
September 1, 2011
Angel of Death Official Facebook Launch
I've been meaning to post this for a couple of days but it kinda got lost in all the recent drama. I'm doing an official launch of Shadow Falls: Angel of Death this weekend over at Facebook!
A number of fine folks have already clicked "Yes, I'm Attending" over at this Facebook Event Page for the launch. Are you attending? I hope so. Angel of Death is a book I'm really proud of and if you like my work, you're gonna dig it.
Shadow Falls: Angel of Death is available for:
Kindle: http://amzn.to/nQblpu
Nook: http://bit.ly/pC0trX
iBooks: http://bit.ly/r674F4
JUST $2.99
And you can pick up a copy of Shadow Falls: Badlands for FREE over at Smashwords (Featured as eBookNewser.com's FREE ebook of the day for 8/31/11)
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/shadow-falls-badlands-is-free-ebook-today_b15131
or get a copy of BADLANDS free at the iBookstore
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/badlands/id424486157?mt=11
Why I Resigned as Writer and Co-Creator of Seal Team X
Simply put, Hype Comics is insisting upon using the anniversary of 9/11 as a marketing platform… Is your jaw on the ground yet?
Below is an excerpt from the email I sent Hype Comics CEO Scott Ownbey on the morning of September 1, 2011.
Scott,
Because you continue to insist on using the anniversary of 9/11 as a marketing platform for "Seal Team X", a comic series on which I am co-creator, it is with deep regret that I am forced to leave the project and must insist that you remove my name from the book, the website and any and all marketing materials associated with "Seal Team X."
Again, I don't think you understood my previous email. I have no problem with the idea that "Bin Laden reveals 9/11 was an inside job" as a fictional concept, I just think that intentionally doing so during the week before 9/11 in order to promote the book is deeply insensitive to not only the memories of the thousands of Americans who died in the attack but to Americans in general. Given that you have served in the U.S. Navy Reserves, I would think you should have a very good idea what I mean by this. I agree this is a marketing plan that could effectively work, but only if executed outside the shadow of 9/11. Wait 6 weeks and do it. Just don't do it right now.
Right now, in the shadow of the 10th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on US soil, people are going to be hyper-focused on 9/11 and extremely sensitive about it. And I am horrified by the quote in (your social media advisor's) email that read: "The same reason that retailers release the hottest toys near Christmas, and anything of marketed value is pumped up on appropriate holidays, this too will not be the only product marketed to mark the event of the terrorist attack."
Wow. Comparing Christmas to 9/11 is like comparing Disneyland to Auschwitz because they're both "tourist attractions."
So now it is with a heavy heart that I am now forced to have to publicly distance myself from Hype Comics and Seal Team X, a project that I once felt so passionate about and proudly announced to my friends and followers online.
Even though I am no longer part of this project, I still beg you to reconsider your marketing plan.
Sincerely,
Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff
Sigh… It sucks. A few days after I released "The Killing of Osama Bin Laden" and the book had hit at least one bestseller list, Scott Ownbey sent me an email asking to talk. He had a project he wanted to collaborate on. I listened. I gave my input. Long story short, we struck a deal. I negotiated my own contract, got myself an advance (non-recoupable, I'm not an idiot), a piece of the back end and the title of "co-creator." I began developing the characters and writing the story for Seal Team X.
I turned in the storyline for the first book and they started churning out fantastic artwork and a killer logo. My first hint that this partnership wasn't going to work out came when Scott told me it would be the artwork that would sell this book, not the story. I shrugged it off. I've never done a comic before. I was here to learn and contribute.
A few attempts were made to generate buzz. Scott wanted to create a "viral" video with actors staging a phony news story of a Seal Team war widow wondering why her husband disappeared. The acting was poor. It was too long. I made several suggestions to only feature the cool footage of the artwork and cut out all the acting bits. My suggestions were mostly ignored. They rushed the video out. It never went viral. It was too long and the phony newsman bit was too fake. They even had a URL on screen that went nowhere. I shook my head. I figured it was an easy mistake, but at the same time wondered how much they had spent creating it, especially given that those costs would probably have to be recouped before the book started showing a profit.
Then came Scott's Ebay auction idea. The winning bidder would be immortalized as the Seal Team X member who shoots and kills Bin Laden. It was very sensationalistic. It certainly wasn't my idea but I figured it would be interesting to sit back see the results. Hype Comics put out a press release and a few comic book blogs picked it up. Going through the comments on those posts about the auction you could see common comment by readers was that the idea was "tacky".
Long story short, the auction failed to catch fire. I think the winning bid was about $250 and the winning bidder never paid up. It probably didn't help that in the auction description they had the wrong dates for the auction (something I kept telling them to change but my pleas fell on deaf ears).
So, months go by. Scott's artists got busy because comics is a side gig for them. The idea was to release an app where you could mash-up the story. If you didn't like the story, you could put your own dialogue in and post the results to Facebook. Sounded interesting. But the programming took forever. The original plan Scott had talked about back in May was to release this comic hot on the heels of the event and get it done by June. Now we were in late August and still nothing. By now, the interest in the whole Bin Laden Death story had cooled considerably. I had originally told them to release a black and white pencil only version of the book as quickly as possible for .99 cents and then when the color interactive version was done months later, sell that for $2.99… Again, my idea fell on deaf ears. I was starting to understand that my input wasn't really welcome. As with most of the CEO's I've ever worked directly with, they seem to like every idea… as long as its their own.
So finally, August 31 2011… The app was done and ready to be submitted. But now they told me they were going to send out a press release promoting Seal Team X with the headline: "Bin Laden Reveals 9/11 Was an Inside Job".
And they wanted to send it out right before 9/11.
Now I'm a fan of using conspiracy theory to drive fiction. I think it's a fantastic marketing ploy that could draw people in… but as I said in my letter to Scott, to do so on the week before 9/11… in the shadow of the 10th anniversary? That's deeply, deeply troubling and offensive to me.
Like I told him. Wait 6 weeks. It would work great. But for fuck's sake, not now!
I told Scott my concerns… and as usual… they were ignored. Once I read the quote in the email he forwarded me from his so-called "social media consultant" (whose name I omitted from the above letter out of courtesy) that compared marketing this Bin Laden related storyline during 9/11 to toy companies using Christmas to promote their strongest toys, I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach. I had a feeling this deeply misguided plan of theirs would result in serious backlash for them, for Seal Team X and for me. I knew the only choice I had would be to distance myself from Seal Team X, Scott Ownbey and Hype Comics… I was heartbroken. Here (again) was something I thought was going to be so cool and yet it got totally fucked up because the people making the decisions were making them rather poorly and not heeding any advice.
I don't think I'm over-reacting. I understand some people like to be considered radioactive, but I value my brand too much to be connected to what I see as being a completely terrible, terrible idea that will only tarnish the Seal Team X brand and everyone involved.
So if Hype Comics does go through with this whorish marketing plan, and anyone is offended by this, I am deeply, deeply sorry and I offer my most sincerest apology. Please know that it was not my idea, I advised against it, do not condone it and am also very offended by it. Hopefully, by now any traces of my name ever being attached to Seal Team X have been taken down because I no longer want any part of it.
And though I asked Scott to reconsider, I received a reply that made it clear they were planning on going ahead. Scott wished me luck (a classy move on his part) and hoped that we could work together again in the future. The guy is no doubt a very talented artist but his total lack of judgement here and what a shitty experience it was working with him and this so-called startup Hype Comics makes it certain there will never be a next time.
Onward and upward…
