Author Boot Camp

Scott Hits Yahoo News!

SethHarwood — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:50:31 +0000

Scott's new book Nocturnal is doing big things: selling lots of copies, tipping scales, and shipping all over the world. It came out this month from Crown Books and, like always, Scott is rolling out a major bucket of promotion around the release. This week he wound up in a cool piece from Yahoo News written by Eric Pfeiffer.

The piece is called, How Scott Sigler used free media to become a best-selling author pretty much everything we say and discuss here.

Here's a great quote from Scott, "If they try you out for free, they become lifelong customers. There are so many affordable ways to go find people. For readers, they are respected as intelligent consumers," Sigler said.

Enjoy the rest of the article here. For more on Nocturnal, visit Scott's main website or watch the awesome book trailer below:

The Tech-Empowered Writer: AWP Panel Resources

SethHarwood — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:02:46 +0000

At AWP this year, I'm presenting as part of a panel on "The Tech-Empowered Writer: Embrace New Media, Experiment, and Earn" along with awesome writers Christina Katz, Robert Lee Brewer and Jane Friedman. Check them out, really! These three are ones to watch! The panel is on Thursday of the conference (3/1) from 1:30 to 2:45 in Boulevard Room A,B,C, at the Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor. More info is here: AWP Conference Schedule.

I'll say the names of these three again: Christina Katz, Robert Lee Brewer and Jane Friedman. Outstanding, all! And go here for where I mention Christina's awesome book, The Writer's Workout!

But what I'm really here for is to add more content to the panel presentation so folks can find more links to others I think are doing a great job. I'll be talking about how I raised significant capital for my last two novels This Is Life and Young Junius by doing a highly successful (if I do say so myself) Kickstarter Campaign and a Special Edition Pre-Order event that I ran through PayPal. Both of these really put me in good shape to work with a publisher and to do a lot of the freelancer-comissioning myself! Totally awesome! Of course, none of this would've been possible without the support of my awesome group of fans, the Palms Mommas and Palms Daddies, who I connected with through producing my novels as free, serialized audiobooks (podcasts) that I distributed here and at iTunes. For more on how I did that, see this link and the upcoming online Author Boot Camp class I'll be teaching in April and May. Hurry, just a few spots remain!

So, what other writers are doing awesome stuff?

First, I'll start off with Jeff Shelby, who blogs here about how he set up his eBook Thread of Hope on Amazon's Kindle store and planned a release all on his own. And then guess what? Thread of Hope hit #1 on Amazon!! Yes, it did! Slid right past Stieg Larsson and everything! Jeff tells all in this easy to read and understand blog post about how he listed the book, made it free on Amazon to jumpstart sales, then contacted biggie blogs like Pixel of Ink and eReader News Today to let them know when it'd be free. Next up... well, read it all here. How Thread of Hope Hit #1 on Amazon

Second, let me tell you about Neal Pollack, whose piece in the New York Times Book Review here tells about how and why he decided to leave traditional publishing to put out his book Jewball himself. Neal used Kickstarter to build a source of funding and Createspace to publish the book in Print On Demand format. Know what? Both of these are totally easy to do. Read more about Neal in my post at AuthorBootCamp here.

Mur Lafferty, a fellow podcasting author, really rocked the Kickstarter world and broke the mold when she did this wildly successful campaign. Just look at the funding: 969% funded! Wow!

Want more? Check out podcasts by students of my recent Author Boot Camps and how they're connecting with an audience using just their voice, their words, and a little technology! That, plus more info and lessons from J.A. Konrath, Barry Eisler and Paolo Coehlo are all below. If you're interested in learning how to podcast and release your own eBooks, consider joining me for the online installment of Author Boot Camp in April and May. Filling fast!

The Writer's Workout!

SethHarwood — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:01:12 +0000

Today, Leap Day, is the time to mention a great book I've been learning a lot from of late: Christina Katz's The Writer's Workout.

Whether you're working to complete your masterpiece, putting your nth book up on Amazon's Kindle store, or just trying to get into the chair every day to meet your word count, I think this book can help you. It's been helping me to focus on what I need and want to do.

Each day it offers a brief lesson on an aspect of the writing life--everything from how to get noticed, sell a piece, find an agent, write that proposal, build a website or write those pages you need to get down to finish your project. There are 366 lessons here (one for each day on a Leap Year such as this) and Spring winds up being the perfect time to start. I'd recommend buying this one in print so you can thumb through it and annotate it up.

Enjoy! You can thank me later. Buy on Amazon here.

Finally: Author Boot Camp Online Class!! Enrolling now!

SethHarwood — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:23:02 +0000

This has been a long-running request from many of you and I'm happy to say it's finally here: I'm finally teaching a fully online 4-week Author Boot Camp class!! It's this April and May through the Stanford Online Writer's Studio.

The class covers methods and practices for podcasting, but also a lot more: we're going to get into eBook production and distribution, social media (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) as well as blogging and community-building strategies.

This course is limited to 21 students and filling fast, so sign up now!

Course title: Getting Your Story Out There: Social Media, eBooks, and More

Dates: April 16th to May 11. 4 Weeks, all online, all at your schedule and convenience No Matter Where You Are!

Cost: $300 - a steal for the amount of community, guidance and strategy you'll be getting! Download the Syllabus here to learn more.

Visit the Continuing Studies website to read more about the class, see the full description, and enroll.

Two Great Student Podcasts

SethHarwood — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:02:39 +0000

I've recently had the chance to reconnect with two past students and found out they're both doing great, interesting podcasts that I want to tell you about.

Gwen MinorThe first is Gwen Minor, who podcasts stories and discussions of the Ancient World! She's at http://gwenminor.com/, where she's steadily building a strong fan base and putting out content so regularly that she's already up to episode 50! My hat is off to her!

Gwen's scholarly book is here and you can find lots of great stories at her site.

Heather StallingsThe second wonderful author and podcaster I want to tell you about is Heather Stallings. Her novel is called False Alarm and it's available here via Amazon. She's been podcasting for 9 episodes now at http://heatherstallings.com/ and will get you right into her story with ease and to your delight! False Alarm takes place in the world of elite athletes and bigtime sports management.

ESPN's own Rod Gilmore said of False Alarm, "it is absolutely dead on."

So check out both of these ladies' websites:

http://gwenminor.com and http://heatherstallings.com/ You'll be glad you did!

Are you a past student who has a podcast to tell me about? Drop an email and let you know! I'd be happy to put your work in an upcoming post. Up next: Jay Langejans!

The Rise of eBooks and Self-Publishing (Last Homework for Fall Class)

SethHarwood — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:50:56 +0000

This is the last homework assignment before our next session at Stanford on 10/22 and 10/29. More info on that here. Spaces are still available.

Authors JA Konrath and Barry Eisler are trendsetters in the self-publishing and eBook marketplace. Last spring, Eisler made big news by turning down a $500k contract for two books with St. Martin's Press to go the self-pub route. He later signed with Amazon, but that's another story. Here, he and Konrath talk over the changing face of the market, why Eisler did what he did, and the long-term prospects for making money in eBook sales. Some might say this is a great time to be an author. I hope you'll come to agree!

On a side note, I'm so convinced by what these guys have to say that I've jumped into the affordable eBook marketplace myself with both feet. I've just released THIS IS LIFE for Kindle and Nook, and plan to follow it with three more eBooks over the next 4 months! Stay tuned!

I've trimmed their Google Docs discussion to a more ABC-appropriate size. You can find the original material here.

The Rise of eBooks and Self-publishing

Joe: To the casual observer, you appear to be heavily invested in the legacy publishing system. They’ve been good to you, they helped you get onto the NYT bestseller list, made you wealthy with several large deals, and seem to have treated you fairly.

Barry: Well, I don’t know about wealthy, but I’ve been making a living writing novels for almost a decade now, which is a pretty great way to live.

Joe: You had six-figure and seven-figure deals. Logic dictates anyone offered a deal like that should leap at it.

Barry: You wouldn’t.

Joe: But I never had the treatment you had from legacy publishers. I would walk away from a big deal now, most certainly, because I have two years of data proving I can do better on my own.

However, what if a NYT bestseller were offered, say, half a million dollars for two books?

Or, more specifically, let’s say you were offered that.

You’d take it. Right?

Barry: Well, I guess not… ;)

[For more, read on, after the break! or Download the full PDF]

Give away your books for Free? Paulo Coelho says "Yes!"

SethHarwood — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:05:13 +0000

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty ImagesWorldwide bestseller and self-admitted social media addict, Paulo Coelho talks today with Julie Bosman about the success he's had and how giving his work away for free has helped him.

Sure, he was afraid when he got a call from his publisher, but everything worked out fine. His view comes down to something like, if it's going to be pirated anyway, why not control that myself?

Ask yourself the same question: if your ideal world involves people taking your work out of the library to read it for free, why not help them get it free now, especially if you know it makes people more likely to give your work a try?

In any case, here's the interview with and article about Coelho. Enjoy!

John Mierau interviews Seth Harwood

SethHarwood — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:41:24 +0000

Click here to listen or to download the interview for free!

Here's an interview that I just did with fellow podcaster John Mierau about my views on podcasting, publishing today and the new trends in eBook sales. We discuss some of the subjects to be covered in the next Author Boot Camp class, as well as what I'm doing to put the word out about my own new fiction.

John's been podcasting for over two years now and has plenty of great thoughts, insights and free fiction over on his site, here: johnmierau.wordpress.com/ I'll see you there!

So check out this interview, have a listen and if you've got questions, I'd love to hear from you! You can email me here or simply register on the site and leave a comment that I'll respond to soon.

ABC Homework #2: The Case for Self-Publishing

SethHarwood — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:59:47 +0000

from NYTimes.comThe following is a second reading for the upcoming October 2011 session of the Author Boot Camp seminar at Stanford. If you're in the Bay Area, the class is still enrolling here, and I hope you'll join us. If you're already enrolled, here's more food for thought regarding the current state of publishing.

In this essay from the New York Times Book Review, Neal Pollack (also here as a PDF for those adverse to signing up on NYT.com), a writer with a few titles to his name and the cred to get his opinions into the Times, makes the case for why he'll self-publish his next book, Jewball. It's definitely worth a read, both for his take on the changing face of publishing today, the necessary expenditures and freelance skill-jobs he'll need, as well as some hard numbers about the financial side including what he'll need to do to turn a profit. Most notably, there's little talk here about the stigma of self-publishing, something that writers faced writ large in the past. (see next posts regarding Barry Eisler)

What's also interesting, is that his plan involves using Kickstarter to cover up-front costs, something I thought only a few insiders had considered. Back in May when this piece came out, I was planning my own Kickstarter plan and feared that Pollack was letting a cat out of the bag. Not so. In fact, my Kickstarter campaign launched last week, reached its funding level in 25 hours and still has twenty-four days to go, allowing fans to pre-order a special edition of my next title and raising awareness about its eBook next month!

[What this means for you: we haven't reached a cultural saturation point for authors using this model. Good news!]

So my advice starts with reading this piece by Pollack. It's well-written, smart and still cutting edge, even four months after its release. Not only does Pollack explain some of the publishing methods I think can be most effective in today's market, they're the ones I'm currently using myself. Scout's honor!

More readings coming soon. Subscribe for FREE here. Also, don't forget that you get extra content on the site once you register here (also free!) For more on the class, go here.

Announcing Next Session: Oct 22 and 29, 2011 at Stanford!!

SethHarwood — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:15:44 +0000

The next session of Author Boot Camp is now enrolling through Stanford Continuing Studies.

It'll be Saturday Oct. 22 and Saturday Oct. 29 from 12-4 each day. Come out and get new details and thoughts on the eBook revolution, how to attract your audience using Social Media and free, serialized audiobooks, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and more!

More information is here:

The Web 2.0 Bootcamp: Get Fans, Build Your Name, and Sell Your Books

In today’s publishing world, debut authors have to write well, but they also have to help sell their own work. Many agents and editors are looking for writers who bring an existing audience to the table. In this workshop, students will learn practical tools and techniques to build large networks of followers, fans, and eager readers. The methods discussed will include social networking, new media, and serializing novels as free audiobooks. The instructor will outline the process he used to create cheap, highly effective advertising, and a fan base that helped land book contracts with major publishing houses. Why let a small number of insiders—agents, editors, and publicists—decide the success of an author, when the tools for building an audience are readily available?

You can also look over the Course Syllabus here to see more of what we'll be doing. Register now and join us this fall!

Note: I'll also be posting lead-up homework and readings for the course on this site in the weeks leading up to the class. So stay tuned.