Kobo Writing Life Podcast

There has never been more opportunities for writers and storytellers than ever in the history of publishing, and Episode 52 of the Kobo Writing Life Podcast demonstrates yet another amazing opportunity that exists for writers. KWL Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Jean Leggett co-founder of One More Story Games, a company from Barrie, Ontario that has developed a storytelling platform with a team of gamers, geeks, storytellers and programmers that creates a community for collaborative story game opportunities. In the interview, Mark and Jean discuss: Jean’s background as a recovering Haiku addict and recovering stand-up comedian How Jean’s love of storytelling combined with her husband’s similar love and a computer science background and background working in the games industry led to the formation of One More Story Games The underlying concept of bringing more reading into the game space How the experience of these games is similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” branching narrative experiences StoryStylus – the story creation platform that helps creators break down the elements of story (such as people, places, things, relationships, conversation and dialogue, etc) that publishes to an interactive games marketplace The fact that you don’t need to be a programmer to be part of creating an interactive story game and how virtually any writer could participate in this process. (With a reminder that “Beta” means “patient, early adopters”) A writer, photographer and graphic designer in Tillsonburg, Ontario (Dan Wilkins) who is writing an 8 part series for One More Story Games and involving real people, such as the town’s mayor as characters in the story    The manner by which a platform like this seems ideal for mystery stories, but the manner by which science fiction and adventure stories have already been built for it The exciting announcement that One More Story Games will be working with New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sookie_Stackhouse - novels which have been adapted into the True Blue television series) to adapt her novel Shakespeare’s Landlord How the Charlaine Harris project will include a “behind the scenes” look at breaking the book itself into various plot points and how it was developed into the interactive storytelling experience (https://onemorestorygames.com/2016/02/16/lily-bard-online/) The idea of making smarter more casual games available to the growing demographic of women consumers in their mid 30’s who are interested in and playing these types of games The concept of how a game like this demonstrates the progression of writer to narrative designer for a storyteller Recommendations on how authors who are interested in exploring these opportunities might get started     Links of Interest: One More Story Games One More Story Games on Twitter One More Story Games on Facebook Story Stylus FAQ Charlaine Harris Website   YouTube Tutorial Videos from One More Story Games

Known as the “Wizard of Storytelling,” David Farland (who also writes under the name David Wolverton) is the author and editor of more than fifty books, including his Philip K. Dick Award winning novel On My Way to Paradise and the well-known Runelords series. A long-time mentor to writers, David spend many years teaching writing at Bringham Young University and has also mentored such writers as Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint and James Dashner. KWL Director Mark Lefebvre had the chance to sit down and chat with David about these things and much more at the 2016 annual Superstars Writing Seminars conference in Colorado Springs where David is one of the founding faculty members of a group of international bestselling authors who spend several information-packed days teaching newer writers the business of writing and publishing. In their conversation, Mark and David discuss: David’s love of writing, which started when he was nine years old and had his first writing published in a local newspaper The fact that David had planned on becoming a doctor and was taken aside by a very astute teacher when he was seventeen who told him, “Dave, you’re a writer. You don’t it yet, but you’re a writer and you can’t get away from that. It’s going to come out some day.” When he was studying pre-med and spent three days working on a poem that just wouldn’t leave his mind. Winning third place in a college writing contest for a short story and how that inspired him to write more and submit them to other contests, where he won first place in all of them, including first prize in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest How winning that contest led to a three novel contract with Bantam right there at the Writers of the Future ceremony David’s current role in helping to kick-start new writers careers as the lead editor for the Writers of the Future annual contest Tips on what David is looking for when reading submissions to this contest David’s role as a writer coach and how, as an advisor to Scholastic Books in the United States, David had suggested they take a serious look at a then-unknown author of the Harry Potter series The secret to how David can intuit a writer’s chances of success without even having to have read any of their work How his real name of David Wolverton became associated with his science fiction novels (starting with his first award winning novel, and how he landed on the pseudonym of David Farland by standing in a bookstore and looking at the placement of books on the shelves and determining the best “eye-level” last name to employ David’s natural storyteller ability as a Dungeon Master taking care of twenty to thirty people at once for role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, and how that led to his interest and participation in game development David’s work doing screenplays and movie production, and the difference and similarities between writing novels, writing video games and writing screenplays David’s work writing in the Star Wars universe, including The Courtship of Princess Leia as well as the YA and middle grade books for Scholastic The collaborative spirit and mentality required when working on licensed properties, video games, etc The differences between “Hollywood” and “New York Publishing” for a writer David’s advice for writers and on being a professional writer: Deciding what you want to be and then beginning to live and BE that part   As part of his dedication to helping other writers, David writes the David Farland’s #WritingTips, an email bulletin for writers. Many authors rave about how it has helped them. Out of devotion, he provides his #WritingTips for free. You can subscribe to David’s #WritingTips here. LINKS OF INTEREST David’s Website: http://davidfarland.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/authordavidfarland Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidfarland David's Great Resources for writers, including a signup to his “Daily Kick in the Pants” emails: www.mystorydoctor.com YouTube Video mentioned in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWEP3aBVpAw

For our 50th episode, we're featuring over a dozen all-star indie authors offering an amazing wealth of information about publishing and writing. Tune in to hear from HM Ward, Diane Capri, Melody Anne, and more! You'll learn: How this multi-author signing event came together What Diane Capri has learned while serving on the board of the International Thriller Writers Ruth Cardello's tips for becoming a successful author How Melody Anne got started as an author, and why she loves this job. "If somebody ticks me off I get to kill them in my series! So my life is awesome." Raine Miller's tips for translating your novels Why Michelle A. Valentine works with a literary agent How HM Ward manages to write over books per month. “I always have multiple books in the pipeline at a time. So I’ll come up with an idea and I’ll start a book, and then when I’m not really feeling it anymore I put it down and then I pick up something else.” Why CC MacKenzie joined the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Steena Holmes describing what ALLi has taught her about marketing to a UK audience Chris Keniston's "pantser" writing method What Fabio Bueno has learned while writing from both male and female perspectives in his SINGULARITY series How Lee Strauss found her German translator Rebecca Donovan's thoughts on working with a traditional publisher, Grand Central. She's also heavily involved in the production process turning her BREATHING series into a movie The KWL team is always on the road attending writer's conferences and publishing events, so Christine lists off just a few that we have coming up in the next few months. We hope we'll have the chance to meet you in person soon!

Is your work managing the business side of your publishing taking away from your time writing your next book? Are you feeling overwhelmed? It might be time to hire an Author Assistant. In this episode of the KWL Podcast, US Manager Christine Munroe interviews Kate Tilton, founder of Kate Tilton Author Services, LLC. Christine and Kate talk about: What do author assistants do, exactly? Kate says, “I give authors more time to write and spend with their family, by doing tasks that they may be able to do themselves, but they don’t have time for.” Kate started as an author assistant in December 2010 – it was her first job, while she was still a high school student. A typical day for Kate might include these tasks: organize email inboxes, send review copies, run to the post office to mail out prizes, scheduling their blog posts and social media, beta reading, matching audiobooks to the written text. It’s a diverse job; every day is different. Why should an author hire an author assistant? Every one could use help in some capacity. If you feel overwhelmed and work is piling up. Willing to delegate. Have the finances to afford the help. What projects can be outsourced? Anything, really, that is taking up time that you wish you could be using to write. You can also consider hiring a personal assistant instead, who will help with non-publishing daily chores (picking up dry cleaning, grocery shopping) to make your life more manageable. The job is really flexible – you make your own schedule and choose your author clients. It’s great to work with multiple clients, because authors are not in competition with one another. Kate can bring them together for joint efforts like prize giveaways, and each is helping the other find new readers. How much should authors expect to pay for an assistant? Rates vary greatly, depending on the assistant’s experience. For example, you can get a college-level intern and pay very little, but you’ll need to take the time to teach them how to do what you need. With an experienced assistant, you’ll pay around $40/hour, but it may be more efficient because they’ll draw on their expertise to get the job done quickly. It’s a decision to make based on your budget, time, and needs. For someone hoping to become an author assistant, check out Kate’s resources on her website: http://katetilton.com/author-assistants/ For an author looking for an assistant, start with word of mouth – ask your author friends who they work with. There are many resources online, for example http://www.authorsatlas.com/ Kate recently contributed two sections to The Self-Publisher's Ultimate Resource Guide, edited by Joel Friedlander and Betty Sargent, which is available for pre-order on Kobo. Her biggest advice for tackling social media and marketing: figure out who the #1 die-hard fan of your book is going to be, and market to that kind of person. This thought process will help you really appeal to your ideal market. Kate also teaches by doing; she works on her own social media and branding to exemplify what she thinks authors should do. Her brand: Books. Cats. Tea. Nerdy stuff. Food. One great resource for learning more about marketing is CopyBlogger. You need to build a group of people who “know, like, and trust you,” because those are the people who are going to help you grow (and buy your books). #K8Chat is Kate’s weekly Twitter chat, with the goal of connecting authors and readers. Every Thursday 9-10PM EST.

Kobo recently held a special event in downtown Toronto for some of its best customers, avid readers and fans of Michael Connelly. Special guests had a chance to meet one another for cocktails and snacks, mingle, get books signed, and listen to an on-stage interview with Michael Connelly, who was interviewed by by Johanna Schneller. Some of the fascinating things you'll find out in this entertaining interview with Michael Connelly include: How Michael's mother gave him his first book to read, how, as a child he was introverted and loved to read and earned the nickname "the book addict" The perspective that a writer's job is often being "the observer" Michael's role as a journalism and crime reporter, including the months he spent interviewing survivors of the Delta 191 Crash (131 people died and 29 people survived) and the quote from one of the survivors that still sticks with Michael today The first two books that Michael wrote, which he considered part of the learning process before crafting his third novel, which was the one he knew was good enough and was sent off to be published (and which ended up winning the Edgar Award for best first novel The advice from Michael's agent and editor to keep his head down and write his next novel, which allowed him to have his second novel already turned in by the time the first novel (The Black Echo) came out How Michael waited until several novels had been published before quitting his day job Michael's thoughts on the 150 newspapers that ran stories on then president Bill Clinton walking out of a bookstore carrying his novel The Concrete Blonde Having an iconic actor like Clint Eastwood involved in the creation of the movie Blood Work, based on one of Michael's novels The "fourth wall" mention in The Crossing of the movie version of The Lincoln Lawyer Reflections on being one of the guest authors (along with Stephen J. Cannell, James Patterson, and Dennis Lehane) who makes semi-regular appearances on the ABC television series Castle as one of Richard Castle's poker buddies The mosaic by which Michael's most popular character, Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is, in many ways, similar to the complex and multi-compositional paintings by the famous painter of the same name Michael's approach towards writing every single day, particularly when he is going through the process of a first draft The casting of Titus Welliver in the lead role as Harry Bosch in the Bosch series, Michael's role in suggesting him, and the manner by which Welliver may not "look" like the outer Harry Bosch Connelly has written about, but how he definitely looks like the "inner" Harry Bosch and how he very effectively displays the angst and internal turmoil that makes Bosch who he is Collaborative writing and Michael's reflections on having done that in the past (both in text writing as well as in working on the Bosch series) Where Michael writes most often and the answer to the question of whether he prefers a typewriter or a computer when writing a novel How Michael knows the beginning and has a really good sense of the end when he sits down to write the first draft of a novel, and the intriguing discovery process that the writing becomes for him The fact that Michael is a major re-writer, who usually writes three drafts of a novel How he knows whether a novel will be a "Haller" or a "Bosch" novel The aural inspirational process that Michael uses to write. How Michael has aged Harry in real time, leading to natural progressions, such as his recent retirement The reason why Harry Bosch continues to remain alone and single, despite many highs and lows of relationships over the years Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre then talks about Michael's mention of one of his sources of inspiration by connecting with lawyers and police officers. He reflects on how a writer who is open to connecting with and listening to professionals not only has the resources to create better writing, but also brings a sense of community to the overall writing and overall proces Link to Michael Connelly's books on Kobo Michael Connelly's Website

For the month of November, a brave team of Kobo staff joined forces to give NaNoWriMo a shot. We blogged about our efforts throughout the month, then several of us (Mark, Christine, Bessie, Sophie, and Wendy) sat down to chat about our experience. Listen to this week's episode to hear our roundtable discussion about how Team KoBoWriMo fared in 2015. How many of us “won” by writing 50k words in 30 days? What are we writing about? Everything from epic fantasy, to a horror novel about an abandoned hippie commune, a thriller about a bitter author, race car driving, and an animal migration. Why did we take on this crazy challenge? What worked for us, and what didn’t? Wendy did all of her writing within GoogleDocs, so she could write on any device throughout her day, especially during her commute. Mark gave dictation a try, so he could write as he drove (!) to work. Dealing with avoiding cross-contamination when a book with a similar subject or approach is published while you’re still writing yours. Sophie’s book has parallels with Andre Alexis’s FIFTEEN DOGS. Would we do it again? Our goals as writers, and with these projects specifically. We represent a broad range of perspectives. Wendy is keeping her work very private, especially in its current, raw state. Bessie is motivated by public/social media feedback. Kobo Writing Life is a proud sponsor of NaNoWriMo. We love that it inspires writers of all levels to try to sit down and write, set word count goals, and prioritize making creativity a part of your everyday life. As we reach the end of the year, we want to take the time to thank all of you so much for tuning in to the KWL podcast. It's given us the opportunity to interview amazing authors and service providers, and share their stories with you. We love hearing your feedback. If there is a topic you'd like us to cover or writer you'd like us to interview next year, let us know in the comments or email writinglife@kobo.com

US Manager Christine Munroe interviews Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad’s Head of Writer and Publisher Partnerships. Wattpad is a social media app with over 40 million monthly users around the world and growing. How can you take advantage of this community as a writer and reader? Listen in to learn about: What is Wattpad all about? A social media app for telling stories, all user-generated content. Currently attracts 40 million users per month, growing at a rate of over 1 new user per second. It’s mostly readers – 90% of site users. Writers can use it to build reading communities. The longer a user is onsite as a reader, the more likely they are to become a writer. User demographics: 45% of users are 13-18. 40% are 18-30. Fastest-growing segment is women 25-35. A common misconception is that it’s just teenagers. Wattpad is strong internationally. #2 country is the Philippines, where Wattpad is the #1 website and they have their own TV show 4 nights a week. A lot of the content is unfinished when it’s first uploaded. The encouragement and acknowledgement from the Wattpad community inspires writers to keep going. It offers a very supportive, encouraging environment and culture. Readers are used to a rawness – think of it as a “digital campfire” more than a digital book – so they aren’t critical in the same way as you see on other social media platforms. Why should authors post free content? Learn your audience. Grow your audience. Post a portion, or the first book in a series, then encourage readers to buy the rest elsewhere.   What is a Wattpad success story? It’s different for everyone, as every author is writing for different reasons. The most traditionally successful author is Anna Todd, who has become an internationally bestselling author. Tons of other young writers are gaining confidence every day from having tens of thousands of followers encouraging them to pursue writing opportunities. Brands are sponsoring stories, for example SourPatch Kids and Ouija Boards. How to succeed on Wattpad: follow other writers in your genre. See what they’re doing, how they talk to their fans. Find your network – share on other social media outlets that you’re posting on Wattpad. What does Wattpad do to combat piracy problems? They don’t allow copy/pasting. Duplications are detected, reported, and removed quickly. Everything on Wattpad is date and time stamped, so it’s very easy to prove the origin date. Ashleigh’s favourite kind of fan fiction: high-brow commentary on contemporary events. Finding that line between real life and fan fiction when the line starts to blur is really interesting. At the end of the episode, we showcase a speech that Michael Tamblyn, Rakuten Kobo President, delivered at FutureBook 2015. FutureBook is an annual digital publishing conference that took place last week in London on December 4th. Tamblyn outlines what he sees as a "reader’s bill of rights." We should be able to read: 1. Easily 2. Shamelessly 3. Freely (not meaning no cost, but in terms of time - free time to read in the midst of the distracting world) 4. Publicly 5. Privately   In addition to analyzing, trying to understand, marketing to, segmenting, collecting information about readers, publishing professionals (including authors!) need to step back and think about how readers want to read. “Earn the right to the reader’s attention… and we’ll get to keep doing what we love.”

Episode 45 features an interview with USA Today Bestselling author Julianne MacLean, author of THE COLOR OF HEAVEN series, THE HIGHLANDER series and THE PEMBROKE PALACE series. Julianne is interviewed by Mark Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life and they discuss: Julianne's first visit to Kobo HQ in Toronto, Ontario How Mark fell into Julianne's first contemporary novel, THE COLOR OF HEAVEN during a flight, and could not put the book down The manner by which Julianne adapted what she learned from James Patterson in structuring THE COLOR OF HEAVEN and her desire to create a book that was suspenseful on an emotional level, producing what she likes to think of as: "Women's Fiction for Thriller fans" The fact that THE COLOR OF HEAVEN was released in 2011 and how Book 9 in the series (THE COLOR OF TIME) was coming out in September 2015 How, immediately after the success of THE COLOR OF HEAVEN Julianne couldn't immediately return to writing in that universe in order to fulfill a traditional publishing contract How Julianne is breaking things up in 2015 and writing both historical romance and contemporary fiction The fact that THE COLOR OF HEAVEN was originally written with the intention of being sold to a traditional publisher, that it was meant to be a stand-alone, and how readers often assumed that the novel was based on a true story The very "meta" manner by which the rest of the novels in THE COLOR OF HEAVEN series are about fictional characters reading the book THE COLOR OF HEAVEN How a traditionally published series Julianne had written was cut-off by the publisher before the end of the series (The Pembroke Palace Series), and how, to please fans, she continued the series. That's how the first three books were released by the publisher and books four and five are controlled by Julianne. How, on release day of Book Five for The Pembroke Palace Series, Julianne made Book 4 FREE, which not only boosted sales of the new release: Book Five, but how the publisher also sold a signifiant amount of Books 1 through 3, backlist titles that hadn't been expected to see such a dramatic increase in sales. Julianne's perspective on how her "New York Published" titles can help lend credibility to an author's platform The adoration Julianne has for her agent, who she has been with since 1999 (Paige Wheeler) Interesting facts about Julianne including the fact she was a dance club DJ in the 1980's (and the only female dance club DJ in Halifax at the time), how she has to dance when she hears the song called "Cheerleader" and what she is listening to when she wears headphones while writing Julianne's thoughts about the cadence and rhythm of the sentences while she is writing The fact that Julianne still enjoys writing the first draft of novels in long hand, how, when starting a novel she always has to write the first sentence long hand in pencil and the way she uses different forms/methods of writing to help "unstick her wheels" when in the process of writing How she will sometimes set a book up for pre-order before a book is even started in order to keep her on track What she might do differently if she were starting again but without any regrets Mark then talks a bit about some of the new features on the KWL Dashboard, specifically, Author Services and the two new types of Notifications added.

This episode features Mark Dawson, the bestselling UK author of the John Milton and Soho Noir series. Mark has become a go-to expert on Facebook ads and building your mailing list, so we dig into each of these topics and more. Listen as Mark and KWL Manager Christine Munroe discuss:  In 2001/2002, his first novel was published traditionally in the UK and Russia. Mark secured nice advances, but no marketing from sale date onwards. The whole experience soured him to writing – he stopped for 6 years. Given what happened, would he do a traditional deal again? “All options are on the table.” But he can work out with relative accuracy what the books are worth, and it’s hard to imagine a traditional publisher delivering that amount upfront. He is, however, interested in working with publishers in foreign markets. Mark is currently lining up translation deals with the help of an agent. Translations are expensive and time-consuming, and he's not confident in his knowledge of each foreign market to recoup the loss of time and money. The benefits of BookBub. The day of this recording a BookBub ad landed Mark at #8 in his category in the Kobo store. He does them as often as they’ll take him. His extensive knowledge of Facebook advertising. Spends $600 a day on Facebook ads, earns $750-$800 back per day, every single day. To find out more about his strategies in this workshop website, www.selfpublishingformula.com Advice for facebook advertising: use it for two objectives 1) build your mailing list 2) sell books Study carefully. Use Power Editor and figure out the intricacies of how it works - it's not an easy process. Dawson worked tirelessly at it for 6 weeks, losing money at first as he learned how to calibrate the ads. Starting at $5 a day, invest the profit, growing gradually and reinvesting as you go. The strategy behind his recent cover redesign. His designer looked at trending designs for his comp titles, and created several options within that spectrum so his books will both fit in and stand out alongside authors like Lee Child. When he writes about a city he hasn’t visited himself, he uses resources like Google street view to make it as accurate as possible – when his books say a building on a certain corner looks a certain way, that’s factually correct. How he uses free today. It is a fundamental part of his sales strategy. First in each series is a free novella. That free novella also includes a call to action to join his mailing list. Speaking of mailing lists...a mailing list is the most important marketing tool an author has today. You can get a free package from a service like Mail Chimp.  For those just starting, or hoping to grow your list: Broadcast a call to action as widely as possible. He advises giving away a free book—even if you only currently have one book ready—so you can build your platform and have a few hundred people on deck to buy your next book. A subscriber is worth more for your career than one sale. Competitions and giveaways are not a very good way to build a quality mailing list. You want your mailing list to be people interested in your books, not in a free eReader. Dawson doesn’t message his mailing list very often. Only messages when he has a new book out, or if there’s a significant deal happening. How his craft has developed. In the early days, he desperately wanted to win literary prizes, and was much more immature as a writer. Now his goal is creating page-turning books that readers can’t put down. The best validation he gets is notes from readers saying they love his books. ] Last advice: you cannot just upload your book and leave it there. You have to put your business hat on. Build your platform, build your readership. If you’re diligent, the book will stand a much better chance of getting discovered by additional new readers. "It’s an amazing way to make a living."   Mark Dawson's books are available on kobo.com. For more information, visit www.markjdawson.com or www.selfpublishingformula.com.

Marie Force, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than 40 contemporary romance novels was recently in Toronto and spent an evening with Kobo, Harlequin and an intimate group of lucky fans to celebrate Marie. Mark Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life, interviewed Marie in front of the group. In the conversation, Mark and Marie discuss: How Gansett Island, a fictional island is based on Marie’s favourite real island, Block Island, is a spot that Marie goes to regularly The next Gansett Island book (Celebration After Dark - coming December 1st) which will feature Big Mack and Linda The READER WEEKEND summer retreat that Marie runs for her fans, (limited to 300 people) which is co-ordinated and plann by Julie, Marie's Executive Assistant How Marie has been with a Harlequin imprint (Carina Press) since 2010 when Fatal Affair was launched and the recent deal for books 10 through 13 which is, so far, the biggest deal of her career A reveal that Sam is not going to get pregnant any time soon in the Fatal series (because of how significantly that might change everything in the series) How new ideas are constantly flowing through Marie’s mind and the amount of time she ends up spending thinking about fictional people in her life The six people that Marie employs full time The fact that Gansett Island is Marie’s favourite series and how Sam from the Fatal series is her favourite character to write. The manner by which Marie embraces both traditional publishing and self-publishing and how she enjoys the collaboration of working with publishers How self-publishing allows her to do things such as bring out three books in three weeks (something that is a rare feat when it comes to traditional publishing) The reality of the punishing writing schedule (writing 8 or 9 books in a year) that Marie keeps in order to meet the demands of the publishing that she does How the first books from the Fatal series sat on the shelf for a full year before Carina Press came along, wanting to do something different about the way that romance was presented to readers   Marie also answers questions from her fans about: If Skip might ever recover from his paralysis Whether or not she will write until Scotty becomes an adult Her most memorable fan interaction Whether or not fans will see more of Shelby and Avery The hardest part of writing romance The best ways to keep informed about Marie’s new works and the new Marie Force app that is available to keep fans informed and connected Whether or not she plots out books ahead of time Where she writes most often and whether or not she writes longhand or via a computer If Doctor Harry Flynn might ever have a love interest Her influences for writing   After the interview, Mark goes over a few tips for those about to embark upon NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), conjuring up a few tips derived from articles on the Kobo Writing Life blog by Kevin J. Anderson and Chris Mandeville.