IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Mister James | Aug 24, 2008 | Comments 20
As I get ready to embark on my first ever podcast novel I realize I don’t have the slightest clue as to what I am doing. I mean, I’ve listened to a bunch of them, read the blogs and emailed some of the greats but when it comes right down to it, I am alone in this and that…isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Sure, I worry. Will I have any listeners? Will it be promoted anywhere other than just in the circle of my own friends? And perhaps the greatest worry that plagues me is will it be any good? Those are all natural fears I think though, when going into something like this. I look at the likes of Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler and Matthew Wayne Selznick and Tee Morris and think to myself, how the hell did they get so many listeners? But my ignorance to all this could be my biggest strength of all.
I just sit down at my computer, record what I’ve written and hope for the best. I send emails, post links and try and do my part but I guess if people think it’s good, they’ll find it. I’ve learned that the ‘podiobook’ community is very tight-knit and breaking in isn’t an easy task. So until I get that ‘big-break’ I will continue to be ignorant in my ways, be a shameless self-promoter (hey it worked for J.C.) and just go on doing my thing.
If I get on your nerves, sorry about that, I’m just trying to be heard. Did I mention I have a podcast novel beginning on September 1, 2008?
Filed Under: Blog
Please tell me you are kidding, James. The last thing we intended was to create some sort of clique that somehow precluded anyone from joining. Oh, lords… if that’s the perception then we have A LOT of work to do.
Please check out the Community section we created for Podiobooks.com. There you can talk to authors and listeners alike, get suggestions and feedback on early trials… anything you want.
And if all else fails — talk to me directly. Email me. Call me. But please don’t think that you are alone in all of this. You certainly are not. And we’re here to help.
Evo Terra
Podiobooks.com
602-325-3045
Submit your podiobook to podiobooks.com that will help to get you more eyes. And shameless self promotion and trading promos with other podiobook authors is the way everyone gets themselves in the door. Remember facebook, twitter, myspace, plurk, and every other social media website you can kind. the more you are out there the more eyeballs and ears you will get. And encourage your listeners to give copies to their friends and their friends and their friends. That is the big secret. The writing and recording are the easy parts.
Awesome. A zombie book. I’ll be sure to use your promo in my show for this evening. I’m looking forward to hearing your story unfold.
May I recommend having listeners contribute zombie sounds? Nothing like a little listener participation.
If what you write is good, you will be praised with the rest.
I’m not sure what experiences you’ve had that suggest the podcast community is hard to break into – once you sign up to podiobooks.com (assuming you go that route) as an author, you may find the author’s mailing list changes your opinion.
- Doug
Hey, was alerted to this post by the “podiobook community”. Tee, Mur, Scott, and J.C. happen to be pretty good friends and I can honestly say all you would probably need to do to “break-in” to the circle is send them an email (you’ll find contact info on their respective sites). These people are some of the nicest you will meet anywhere and they will not only likely embrace you into the fold, many will go out of their way to help. Just drop them a note and you’ll see. To be a part of a community you have to start participating in it. Don’t let rumors from outside the community stop you. Venture in and find out for yourself. Good luck.
Um … close knit and hard to break into?
Have you joined the Community at http://community.podiobooks.com ? I’m not finding your profile there. It’s not a bad place to start …
Good luck with your launch.
I too am planning on releasing a novel in audio format via the web. In doing so, I thought it would be a good idea to speak to the people who have already done so.
So far I have had in-depth professional conversations with (listed in chronological order): Scott Sigler, Matthew Wayne Selznick, Evo Terra, Tee Morris, Philippa Ballentine, Seth Harwood, Jack Mangan, and Paul Maki. To a much lesser degree, I have also had brief email correspondence with J.C. Hutchins and Mur Lafferty, and even a mention by Matt Wallace on a chat board. I have found them all to be very approachable, several saying they would give me blurbs on my book and promote my book on their podcast stream. One even went so far as to offer to be a first reader!
If you haven’t had any luck in contacting them, just be patient. They are all very cool, but usually very busy people. They will respond to your email/twitter.
As an aside, MAD PROPS on your book.
If you’re having any trouble talking to any of these people
As a Podiobooks producer I’m a little confused. I don’t know who is telling you that the PB community is “very tight-knit and breaking in isn’t an easy task.” I’ve found it to be just the opposite. We’re a bunch of very open and friendly folks. The PB authors are great people who help each other out. All you need to be part of this community is to actually make your podcast. And we can even help you get started with that.
Honestly, I’d like to know who thinks we’re hard to break into.
Good luck with podcasting your book and feel free to join our community on Ning.com. You can also email me if you need any help. I answer questions as I am able.
-Paul Fischer
Dancing Cat Studios
First off just relax. Have fun with it. Yes, there are assholes in podcasting. After all it’s filled with people. Remember to take your time and that you will get better with practice. Even though many of them don’t want to admit it they started off when the bar was lower. Listen to their early podcast and you’ll see how much improvement they have made. The more you work at it the better you’ll get. Also no matter what your work is if you promote it right you will have fans. You may not have as many fans as the big podcaster’s but who cares. Some people have gotten book deals from podcasting but nobody’s doing this for a living or even making a profit.
BTW send me your promo and I will run it.
Also I found out about your pod cast off of Evo’s twitter. So you doing okay already!
Huh?
James, as a Podiobooks.com author, I felt compelled to respond to your brief rant here. I’ve been on the site for just over a year with my books, “Vatican Assassin”, “Vatican Ambassador” and the brand-new “Vatican Abdicator” which just started up three weeks ago (did I mention I have a new podcast novel just starting… I kid, I kid). I have found the crew at Podiobooks.com to be welcoming and inviting, and just plain very cool. I was just at Pi-Con in Springfield Massachusetts over this past weekend, talking up the site among other things, because I believe in it and their whole approach to offering these “Podiobooks” (a term coined by site founder Evo Terra).
Podiobooks.com offers works by both established authors and big names as well as new writers trying to establish themselves… like me! But I have not found the other writers, even the very successful ones, to be anything but encouraging and supportive. I’m not sure what you mean by “the podiobook community is very tight-knit and breaking in isn’t an easy task.” If by tight knit you mean we look out for each other, well, sure. But breaking in is no harder than showing up and saying “Hello!”
I had been posting the chapters of my books on my own podcast for about a year before I found Podiobooks.com. I was experiencing that “aloneness” you describe and pretty much experimenting to see what worked and didn’t work on my own. Now that I’m with Podiobooks.com, I can go to the Podiobooks community (a Ning site set up by Evo) and learn tricks and such from established folks like Sigler and Lafferty whom you mention. You can, too, just follow the link from the main site and join in! Plus, as a Podiobooks.com author/reader, I’ve joined their Yahoo list… and there we all help each other out as much as we can! Ask a question, get a bunch of answers, from those same well-established folks as well as the rest of us. I have never felt ostracized or isolated. As a matter of fact, Podiobooks.com has helped me keep at it. The fact my chapters have been downloaded over 52,000 times in the last year because I’m on their site is pretty darn cool, too. And listeners really do donate if they like your work. It’s not mad cash, but it is an undeniable boost to learn you’re doing something people are willing to pay for… even though they don’t have to.
One misperception I feel compelled to correct: People don’ just find your work. Ultimately, you’re going to have to be your own PR man. That’s reality. You seem to get that, but then kind of contradict yourself. The folks you mentioned are monsters at self promotion. But because of Podiobooks.com, you’ll get a leg up. Some of the magic will wash over onto your work as well. I was particularly tickled to find folks mentioning my work over on Sigler’s site… neat. And he didn’t even erase their posts! I’m still watching and learning and asking questions… and getting answers.
My best advice? Don’t come into this experience on the defensive. Come in open and friendly and you’ll have that openness and friendliness returned to you tenfold. Welcome!
Mike Luoma
http://glowinthedarkradio.com
Hey, James! My book (The Prophet of Panamindorah) launched on podiobooks on the 20th, less than a week ago. I’ll be your friend. Hee. I’m not tightly knit to anyone, although playing your promo in my feed might be a little odd, considering our divergent content. I loved WWZ, though.
So, yeah, didn’t know anything about podcasting at the beginning of the year, and now I’m doing it and listening to a bunch of them. So far on Podiobooks, I’ve got 90 listeners, plus about a dozen on iTunes and other feeds (Feedburner says 19, but I think it lies). I know some of the people on the iTunes feed, but everyone from Podiobooks is a stranger to me. I guess I’m saying that you can and you _will_ get listeners who are not your family. People like zombies. You’ll have listeners. I would have been delighted with a couple of dozen, and was frankly astonished at 90.
I’m still trying to figure out how to get to people who aren’t on podiobooks. I live in Portland. Every other person I pass is wearing an iPod, so potential listeners abound. I think we rival Seattle in coffee shops per capita, many with free wi-fi, so I may try putting up some fliers and business card thingies there if they’ll let me. I am open to sharing marketing ideas!
James all of these people saying these nice things are dirty liars. We are closed-knit! And will be more so once that order of razor wire come in. Not sure I should have bought from the North Koreans on eBay, but man, that was a great price! You better get in now before I establish a firm defensive perimeter.
Hehehehe…I knew I could count on you to tell the truth Sigler. I’ll be sure to get inside before the wire arrives. Mind you, since it’s North Korea it’s probably just pipe cleaners wrapped with clipped toe nails and shards of Maxwell House coffee cans so I’d see about getting your money back.
And if you get past the razor-wire. . . you’ll find that Sigler is a damned fine shot from the guard tower. . .
Podiobooks.com is one of a handful of the things that is right with the world. There is a friendly rapport amongst the authors, producers, friends, etc. associated with the site, but I’ve never thought of this as an exclusive bunch.
Feel free to send me a promo, James (or any of you guys). I’ll play it on my podcast. Good luck.
Boy, you guys all got punk’d. Melzer is a promotional genius! Name me another way that a new podcaster could get this many other podcasters to post on his blog.
Genius, I tell you.
And yes, I agree with most of the sentiments here. For me, I’ve never met group of creative people that were as willing to help others as podcasters. I mean, writers, for the most part not petty and self-absorbed? Maybe that comes later. I can only hope.
We ARE mostly fools, though. Just look at Sigler, for chrissakes.
I’ll just say P.G., that it took me a second to hit the ‘Approve’ button on that one.
Damn you Holyfield…DDDDAAAAAMMMMMNNNNNN YYYOOOUUUUU!
James, dood, you tell me what you need, I’ll do everything in my power to do it. Send me a badge for me to put on my site. Send me a promo to put on Sonitotum. I will of course subscribe to the podcast when it comes out on Monday.
All you’ve done for me… I stand ready to serve, brother!
Promo sent, Mr. Selznick
More stuff to follow in the coming weeks.
Thanks for the help.
The key to promotion is to reach out, talk to people. We discussed this at DragonCon this year – even the veterans reach out to each other for help promoting. We don’t assume anything. That’s the problem with self-publishing (which podcasting a novel is a form of) – if you don’t promote then you won’t sell/get listeners.
I’m saying this for effect. You know this information, cause you emailed me. I’m here right now in response to your email that you sent me, to check out the podcast, and this blog post caught my eye. So you’re on the right track. Talk to people. Ask for help. We’ll give it.
Looking forward to listening.
Thanks for your comments and help Mur. I hope you enjoy the show.
It’s nice to know that even the veterans feel the need to keep reaching out to one another. I can only hope that I’ll be around long enough to call myself a veteran and can help someone who is coming up the ranks one day, the way you all are helping me.
Much appreciated.