Kobo Writing Life Podcast

Christine Munroe interviews Brooklyn-based author Nathaniel Kressen, who took a truly unique approach to self-publishing his debut novel Concrete Fever and won over local independent booksellers along the way. Tune in to hear about: Why Kressen decided to hand-craft hard copies of his novel, and the misadventures he encountered as he mastered the bookbinding process What he learned by meeting Jenn Northington from WORD Bookstore, which helped him to become a favorite amongst local indie bookstores The essential components of a one-sheet to give bookstores along with hard copies of your book: your contact information, ISBN, retail price, suggested discount (60%), number of copies in the box, number of copies in store that have not yet been sold, payment information, whether you are a local and available for events, image of the cover. Not helpful: a press packet trying to convince stores how great the novel is Advice for getting your self-published book into bookstores: create a great product, and be respectful and professional of booksellers' time and needs The scalability problem of binding your own book (and hand-painting each cover, in the case of Concrete Fever) when you also have a 9-to–5 job. Kressen eventually decided to outsource the printing to The Sheridan Press Why eBooks haven't yet played a major role in Kressen's self-publishing journey — he has been focusing on making the book a "physical art object," then hand-selling it to independent bookstores His writing group, the Greenpoint Writers Group How you can support your local bookstore by buying eBooks, through Kobo, and how Kressen is building upon his relationship with bookstores through this partnership Kressen was featured on a recent KWL-sponsored ABA bookstore event – a panel discussion for self-published authors at Housing Works Bookstore Café – to which he added wonderful input from the indie author perspective. Additional links: http://www.nathanielkressen.com http://secondskinbooks.com http://electricliterature.com/blog/2013/10/28/why-self-publishing-was-the-best-thing-i-could-have-done-for-my-novel/ http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/concrete-fever-1

Mark Lefebvre, KWL Director, interviews Melissa Yuan-Innes, author of the hot-selling Hope Sze Medical Mystery series about... Melissa's role as an emergency physician and the role this plays in helping develop her fiction and the character of Hope Sze Melissa's latest book, TERMINALLY ILL which is coming out February 1, 2014 (and is available for pre-order) How the beloved yet frustrating city of Montreal is a prominent feature in her fiction How Melissa manages to find time to write on top of her demanding day job (10 to 14 hour shifts) and her family life. Melissa's "secret weapon" otherwise known as her husband The many pseudonyms Melissa uses for the different style of fiction that she writes (sci-fi/fantasy and non-fiction medical humour fiction) under Melissa Yuan-Innes, medical thrillers and mysteries written under Melissa Yi, medical romance written under Melissa Yin, children's books under Melissa Yuan and the reasons behind that (and how it has changed since Melissa first started) The unpredictability and wonderful escape factor as something that drew Melissa to science fiction Melissa won second place in the Writers of the Future when she was in medical school The importance and value of professional workshops, including the long term friendships that were forged at Writers of the Future, and the reason why Melissa has returned to Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's professional workshops for over a decade Some early mistakes that Melissa made when she first started writing and sending submissions to editors (and great tips she learned from Kristine at the pro workshops) Some of the similarities and differences in the electronic age of writing and submitting and writing and publishing Melissa's amazing experience winning Kobo Writing Life's Win your Cover contest (featuring the talented and dedicated cover designer Scarlett Rugers Melissa's traditionally published short story "Burning Beauty" which appears in the anthology Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound, and how writing short fiction can be a refreshing change from writing novel length works, and still be a way of getting a lot of your material in front of a diverse and broad reading audience The CBC commissioned story written under Melissa Yi - No Air Melissa's yoga mystery story being published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and how Dean Wesley Smith calls being published in a market like that being one of the best advertising tools for a writer Melissa's dark humour December 2013 release: The Italian School for Assassins and the role that humour and dark humour plays in her life and in her writing. Melissa's advice to writers regarding persistence and humour Mark Lefebvre then talks about the difference between trying to find time to write and making time to write, outlining a few strategies that authors who work day jobs sometimes employ when carving out time in their busy schedules to make time for writing.

Camille Mofidi, European Manager for Kobo Writing Life interviewed three authors that Kobo sponsored for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair Author Walk of Fame: Emily Bold, Kristie Cook and Hugh Howey. This is the third in the series of three interviews and features international bestselling author Hugh Howey. In the interview, Camille and Hugh discuss: Hugh's start into writing, the multi-faceted journey his life took, including being a ship's captain How Hugh was working as a bookseller when he started on the path of writing a book, publishing it, and then moving on to the next project writing the next book Hugh's perspective on the importance of joining a writing group; in particular the group he joined (the High Country Writers) The critical role that revisions of that first draft play for a writer, whether you are self-publishing or want to send it to an agent or publisher The role being a bookseller played in helping to inform Hugh about the realities of the publishing industry Hugh's belief that we should celebrate the fact that there are so many people out there able and willing to express themselves through literature like they do all other art forms How Europe, often seen to be lagging behind the North American trends is, in Hugh's opinion, actually progressing quite a bit more quickly than the U.S. in terms of accepting self-publishing The meetups that Hugh participates in when he is traveling, as a way to connect directly with readers How Hugh uses social media to make himself available and to interact with his readers and friends How Kobo Writing Life has been a major avenue to international readers for Hugh's eBooks How Hugh sees the KWL interface as the cleanest and most user-friendly platform, presenting data in an interesting format, and how he tells the other platforms they should be copying what Kobo is doing Hugh's 7 week tour through Europe promoting the book, and his embrace of a hybrid approach (Hugh sold the print only rights to WOOL to Simon & Schuster) The incredible innovation that several of Hugh's publishers have demonstrated in promoting WOOL Mark Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life, discusses a point that Hugh makes in the interview regarding patience and the strategy of continuing to work on your next book (rather than focusing all your time and attention worrying about your already published title or titles) -- he also references a recent blog post by Dean Wesley Smith entitled "The New World of Publishing: Some Perspectives of 2013" in which Smith notes the importance of building a career over decades rather than giving up after a few books and very little sales (or, as the case used to be with publishing, quitting after 50 rejections) Other Links: Hugh's website Hugh's books at Kobo The WOOL trilogy (WOOL, SHIFT & DUST)

Camille Mofidi, European Manager for Kobo Writing Life interviewed three authors that Kobo sponsored for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair Author Walk of Fame: Emily Bold, Kristie Cook and Hugh Howey. This is the second of the series of three interviews and features bestselling New Adult paranormal romance author Kristie Cook. Camille and Kristie discuss: Kristie's bestselling series Soul Saver An exploration of Kristie's path to writing which began at the age of 8 years when she embraced a school writing assignment Kristie's experience in business and marketing writing and how that background helped provide her with a solid understanding of good marketing strategies for her books The importance of taking a business perspective and a professional midset Kristie's POV regarding flying across the ocean from the US to Germany and the UK for attend both Frankfurt Book Fair and London Book Fair in 2013 How meeting with Kobo representatives in person at the London Book Fair was the highlight of Kristi's visit to LBF back in April 2013 The importance of making contacts and the long term view of a writing a publishing career Kristie's thoughts on being a KWL Star on the Frankfurt Author Walk of Fame The inspiration for Kristie's novel The Space Between (which is in her The Book of Phoenix series) How self publishing authors help and support each other out and don't see one another as competitors, but rather as colleagues KWL Director Mark Lefebvre discusses one of the recently introduced Kobo Writing Life Dashboard tools, the Price Scheduling tool (for scheduling temporary/promotional or permanent price changes), why the KWL team developed this for KWL authors and publishers, and how price scheduling and being able to make your book free at other times without exclusivity requests are a hallmark of the Kobo and Kobo Writing Life spirit. Other Links/Resources: Kristie Cook's website and blog Kristie's books on Kobo The Soul Savers Box Set (a great value bundle of 3 novels plus a novella) Kristie's KWL Blog Guest post on why authors should consider attending conferences and conventions

Camille Mofidi, European Manager for Kobo Writing Life interviewed three authors that Kobo sponsored for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair Author Walk of Fame: Emily Bold, Kristie Cook and Hugh Howey. This is the first of the series of three interviews and features bestselling romance author Emily Bold. Camille and Emily discuss Emily's continued growth and rise not just in Germany but around the globe, something which saw a significant increase when she embraced the opportunities available to independent publishers and authors through eBook publishing. They also discuss working with agents regarding the sale of foreign rights as well as strategies for translating work into English and other languages as a way of broadening Emily's reach in the global market. This episode also includes the audio of a presentation that Kobo's Chief Content Officer Michael Tamblyn gave at Futurebook Conference November 2013 regarding this past October's "Eroticagate"

Christine Munroe, US Manager for Kobo Writing Life, interviews Darcie Chan, author of the NYT and USA Today bestselling novel, The Mill River Recluse. Christine and Darcie discuss: Darcie's dedication to this novel, which she finished writing almost 10 years ago, and her unique experience from experimenting with self-publishing to signing a deal with a traditional publisher The exciting moments when in 2011 MILL RIVER RECLUSE sold 100 copies – and when it hit the NYT Bestseller List a few months later Why it's important for authors to read across different genres – and whether Darcie would ever write outside of what she describes as her "mainstream fiction comfort zone" What Darcie would do differently given the benefit of hindsight: hint, it involves making your book as professional as possible Collaboration with other writers – Darcie describes the group Backspace as "the most invaluable source of information" she found on her journey as an author Darcie's daily writing life, including a description of her above-garage "Writer's Nook" where she does all of her work The real-life inspiration behind Mary, the protagonist of The Mill River Recluse, who left a legacy of generosity in Darcie's hometown, Paoli, Indiana Hints about the long-awaited follow-up to Mill River Recluse, which Ballantine will publish in 2014 Mark Lefebvre, Director of Self Publishing & Author Relations, talks about the "KoboWriMo" team at Kobo participating in NaNoWriMo and offers up a couple of helpful tips. The following links on the Kobo Writing Life Blog are useful and NaNoWriMo related. Kevin J. Anderson's "Tips from a Pro" – How to Boost Writing Productivity Episode 006 of the KWL Podcast includes an interview with Chele Cooke and outlines how she used NaNoWriMo for her new novel. Heidi Loney's "How to Write the Great American Novel. Well, not really…" article OTHER LINKS/REFERENCES: Darcie's website Follow @DarcieChan on Twitter Buy The Mill River Recluse on Kobo.com Stay tuned for Darcie's next book, forthcoming in 2014!

Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Terry Fallis, multi-award winning author of The Best Laid Plans, The High Road and Up and Down. Mark and Terry talk about: • How they met when Mark was a bookseller at McMaster University's bookstore, and Terry, a former McMaster student self-published The Best Laid Plans in 2007. • Mark's comparison of Terry's writing to John Irving • How Terry applied his knowledge of politics and engineering to create the characters of Daniel and Angus (the main characters from The Best Laid Plans and The High Road) • Terry's original nativity when venturing into the realm of self-publishing back in 2006/2007 • How Terry used podcasting to gain a worldwide audience for The Best Laid Plans and was the first Canadian to follow in the footsteps of such podcasting pioneers as Scott Sigler • Mark's original reluctance as a bricks and mortar bookseller to carry The Best Laid Plans or even read this satirical novel of Canadian politics, but how, after a single page, Terry's prose won him over • How, feeling "up" from the McMaster Bookstore launch event led to Fallis deciding to submit The Best Laid Plans to the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour (which Terry won and which led to his book deal with McClelland and Stewart) • How Terry is thrilled to have Beverly Slopen as his agent and Douglas Gibson as his editor & publisher • Winning November 2010's CBC Canada Reads for the Essential Canadian Novel of the Decade • The importance of local community bookstores and the great relationships that Terry has forged with so many amazing Canadian bookstores (Canadian Booksellers Association honoured Terry with the CBC Libris Author of the Year Award in 2013 • CBC's creation of The Best Laid Plans miniseries (and having lunch with the fictional Angus McClintock in Ottawa during filming) - (which will begin airing January 2014) • Terry's use of humour and heartfelt moments in The Best Laid Plans and The High Road • Terry's membership in the "Write What You Know" club – and how he takes advantage of that by writing about things he already knows a lot about (public relations, politics, etc) rather than spending more time doing research • How Terry's latest novel Up & Down seemed to almost predict the incredible manner by which Commander Chris Hadfield captured the hearts and minds of people who again became interested in the space program. • A bit of insight into Terry's forthcoming (spring 2014) novel No Relation – about a writer with the unfortunate name of Ernest Hemmingway (although spelled differently) who is trying to leave the family business to pursue a writing career • How Terry manages to write novels while working full-time • The importance of writing detailed outlines (each outline approximately 65 page long) and how, when you know that much about the story the efficiency of getting the manuscript completed in about 4 months • How, despite the detailed outlining, how at least half of the comedic moments and humour comes to Terry during the actual writing process • Terry's creative/musical family and the dinnertime family tradition which included the goal of trying to tell a story that would make his stone-faced father laugh • The importance of being true to one's own writing and one's own personality • How there are likely some fine manuscripts sitting in publisher slush piles right now and the opportunities authors have to creating bold new opportunities For this episode's side-bar note, Mark reflects back on Terry's journey into publishing and how he and authors like Scott Sigler used podcasting as a way to help find an audience for his novel. Mark mentions the website Podiobooks.com and using programs such as GarageBand (MAC) or Audacity for creating the audio files. OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES - Terry's books at Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/Search?Query=terry+fallis - Terry Fallis website - http://terryfallis.com/ - Terry's page for Up and Down - http://terryfallis.com/up-and-down/ - Terry's podcast page for The Best Laid Plans - http://terryfallis.com/the-best-laid-plans/tblp-podcast/ - Terry's Video "An Unorthodox Journey to the published land" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_zmv0MICU - Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php) - Podiobooks (http://podiobooks.com/)

Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Johnny B. Truant author of the Fat Vampire series, and co-author of The Beam and Unicorn Western. The two discuss: How Johnny is continuing and concluding the Fat Vampire saga, which began as a joke during a discussion on the Self-Publishing Podcast, but became a series featuring a loveable, sympathetic and genuine hero (Reginald) rather than just a simple series of fat jokes. Johnny's evolution as a writer – specifically, how Johnny's first novel, The Bialy Pimps, described as "Clerks" in a bagel shop, took him twelve years to publish it; compared to the incredible weekly word count he is currently producing (ie, 270,000 words for the Fat Vampire series in a single year) Giving oneself permission to simply write fast Johnny's first collaborative novel project (along with Sean Platt) entitled Unicorn Western, and the hilarious origin story of how the series stemmed from a research argument on the Self-Publishing Podcast that led Dave to crack a joke about unicorns appearing in a western. The Beam, an intellectual science-fiction series that Johnny is co-writing with Sean Platt How outlining, or creating "beats" for a story helped Johnny to write fast Johnny's continuing experiments with his writing, including the layout and placement of the tools, such as keyboard, monitor, etc Eminem as Johnny's "go-to" musical artist to listen to while he is writing Johnny's evolving philosophy on pricing strategies and funnels for writers, including making the first book in various series free The call to action including choice of links to the other books and bundles in a book published as part of a series. How the product image for The Beam books one through six is a three dimensional image conveys something one might normally only see when holding or looking at a physical boo How there is no instant fix or easy solution, but that being successful requires thinking long term, being patient and involves a lot of hard work The satisfaction of helping other writers that Johnny receives from producing the Self-Publishing Podcast For this episode's side-bar note, Mark speaks about social media strategies, including how it's not about "broadcasting" a message (such as "please buy my book") but, rather, engaging with and participating and adding to a community (with a reference to Episode 004 with Mitch Joel) OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES Johnny's books on Kobo The Self Publishing Podcast Episode 003 of KWL Podcast (with Johnny's podcast pals Sean Platt and David Wright)

Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Jacqueline Garlick, author of Lumière: A Fantasy Steampunk Romance Adventure (http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/lumiere-1). Mark and Jackie discuss: Jacqueline's background in writing and experience working with SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators - http://www.scbwi.org/ ) under the mentorship of Ellen Hopkins (http://ellenhopkins.com/) How Ellen Hopkins helped promote and nurture a beginning writer, helping them to believe that they could do it The Niagara Retreat and Conference event (http://niagararetreatandconference.com/) that Jacqueline is a driving force behind The self-publishing approach that Jacqueline's agent suggested and supports Taking the long-term approach as a writer, in both the indie and traditional publishing spaces, determining where a project best fits in an industry that is in flux How the X-Ray machine used to be seen as a cure for everything Themes in the novel, such as: Science created for good being done for bad; and the concept of inclusion for a person with an internal affliction (epilepsy) vs a person with an external affliction (visible birth defect)– and what is more terrible to live with What it was like winning and participating in the Donald Maass Breakout Novel Intensive Scholarship (http://maassagency.com/) How self-publishing actually "takes a village" or, in Jackie's case, a team that includes a photographer and an animator The types of questions that are important to ask when hiring an editor, a designer, etc As part of this episode's soliloquy, Mark speaks about the importance of networking for writers, why attending local writing groups, conferences and seminars can be invaluable for a writer. OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES Jacqueline Garlick's website: http://jacquelinegarlick.com/ Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacqueline-Garlick/1395763840647691 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackie_garlick Lumière on Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/lumiere-1

Diego Marano, UK Manager for Kobo Writing Life interviews Chele Cooke, author of Dead & Buryd. Diego is joined by KWL Director Mark Lefebvre. The trio discuss the following: Chele's start of writing when she moved, at the age of 14, to San Francisco, where she began writing fan fiction in the Harry Potter universe How Chele's degree in creative writing opened her up to different types and styles of fiction The effect of being short-listed for the Wicked Young Writers Award (http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/) Some mistakes made early in a writing career and how that helps a writer to learn Chele's previous challenge of piles of unfinished manuscripts and HOW she overcame that during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – November) by investing some time in outlining rather than just sitting down and writing without planning OUTLINING was the key to Chele's success in completing a novel Chele's plans to write the sequel to Dead & Buryd during NaNoWriMo this year (and the fact that Kobo Writing Life is a proud sponsor of NaNaWriMo 2013) How being new in self-publishing is like being the new kid in school The full story of how Chele & Mark met at London Book Fair, with zombies in the park, spontaneous hugs with strangers and Kobo Writing Life swag One of Chele's favourite characters in Dead & Buryd and how she looked forward to writing scenes involving this character Embracing the challenge of killing off main characters and killing off the words in one's first draft How Chele wrote 21,000 words in three days (again, thanks to the aforementioned outline) Chele's book launch on October 5th at Big Green Book Shop (show up for a chance to win a Kobo eReader courtesy of Kobo Writing Life) After the interview Mark talks about the importance of personal relationships and networking for a writer's success. He calls out attending workshops, conferences and other in person events in order to make important connections. You never know when that connection you made might lead to a beautiful thing. Mark also talks about why looking for what you can do to help other writers is a great long term strategy for success. LINKS/RESOURCES Chele Cooke's website Chele Cooke on Twitter Chele's Pinterest page for Dead & Buryd Chele's Facebook Page Dead & Buryd on Kobo