Kobo Writing Life Podcast

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

Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Douglas Smith, an award-winning Canadian author of fantasy, SF, horror and supernatural fiction with over 100 short story sales in 30 countries and two dozen languages. Doug and Mark discuss the following: • Doug's start to writing in 1995 stemming from a "mid-life" crisis • How Doug's new novel The Wolf at the End of the World ties back to the very first short story he wrote in 1995, Spirit Dance • Doug's prestigious career as a short-fiction writer (how he turned the sale of 40 short stories sold into re-selling them to 170 markets globally), the importance of taking advantage of reprint rights • Doug's outstanding foreign language rights sales of short fiction: 25 languages in 30 countries • Ralon.com – online free short fiction market listings • Doug's strategy for hiring a cover artist, an ePub formatting conversion company to create a consistent professional look and feel to generate a catalog of eBook versions of his short story fiction collection. (And how he made his investment back within a year selling short stories in eBook version for 99 cents – where he keeps 35 cents on Amazon and 45 cents on Kobo per unit sold) • The adaptation of one of Doug's short stories "By Her Hand She Draws You Down" into a short film of the same name. • Doug's penchant for writing fiction that references Bruce Springsteen's music • How Doug discovered he had written a vampire story only after reading customer reviews Mark also talks about discovering ingenious use of social media by authors and cites author Chele Cooke's intriguing use of Pinterest for her forthcoming novel Dead & Buryd as an example. Here's a link to Chele's website and her forthcoming book on Kobo. OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES Daniele Serra – Italian Artist Doug's website: www.smithwriter.com Twitter: @smithwritr Doug's article on Selling Foreign Language Rights Doug's Foreign Market List Doug's Amazing Stories Blog Series Short fiction recommendations to check out Doug's writing: If you like Horror check out By Her Hand She Draws You Down If you like Urban Fantasy check out Spirit Dance If you like post-apocalyptic science-fiction check out Memories of the Dead Man If you like revenge/science-fiction/time-travel stories check out State of Disorder If you like martial arts/Japanese fantasy check out The Red Bird If you like modern thriller/fantasy, check out The Wolf at the End of the World

Check out the books we're discussing here! Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Mitch Joel, author of the books Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT DELETE: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on it. The conversation between Mitch and Mark involve the following: Mark's riffing on Mitch's regularly used consistent classic opening for interviews in his Six Pixels of Separation Podcast The importance of creating consistently delivered content (Mitch's 6 times weekly blog content and his weekly podcast) and how that relates to author branding The nature of having an audience available BEFORE you have a book and providing value to the community that you are creating content for How publishing his first book Six Pixels of Separation was a bit of a social experiment Never making an ask unless there is something more to give/offer as part of that ask The reality that selling a book is really hard Mitch's expression: "digital crickets and virtual tumbleweeds" Twitter perspectives – who to follow, who is spamming, who is followed by who; why am I following someone? Figuring out your work/life balance: Mitch's blending theory for work and play and the three tiered-stool of professional, family/friends and community The importance of presenting your ideas and yourself The "mystery" aura of an author such as the time when Mitch met Michael Connelly in the hallway his publisher's NY office What, in Mitch's view, makes Margaret Atwood so amazing in the way that she tries new things and engages with the community in social media The size of certain physical books (like the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson or Under the Dome by Stephen King) and how reading on an eReader has freed Mitch up The importance of "above the neck" exercises – ie, reading OTHER NOTES Taking a note from Mitch's book, Mark talks about the concept of treating indie publishing as a profession and a business as well as highlighting the importance of connecting with your audience as opposed to being "that pushy guy." Mark also discusses the value of pitching your book to the right target audience rather than trying to broadcast to everyone and to people who aren't in your target audience group. Six Pixels of Separation – Mitch's Blog Six Pixels of Separation – The Podcast

Check out the books we're discussing here! Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews authors Sean Platt and David Wright about their Collective Inkwell properties which include the highly successful serial thrillers Yesterday's Gone, White Space and Available Darkness. Mark chats with Sean and Dave about the following: Collaboration between writers – tools used, the logistics of how they do it and the importance of honesty with each other (ie, not pulling punches when something "sucks") Writing a serialized story and Dave's behind-the-scenes inspiration from the old TV series "Cliffhangers" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhangers_%28TV_series%29) Communication with readers, reader feedback & responding to fan email Budgeting writing time, email time and the Sanelater email filter (Sanebox - http://www.sanebox.com/) Sean's 5 sentence email rule The importance of the duality of Mr. Sunshine and Mr. Cynical A mention of Unicorn Western (co-written by Sean and Johnny B. Truant) – Free First Book and Full Saga (Books 1 to 9) Writing an evil character like Bericio Wolfe (favourite "bad guy" from Yesterday's Gone) First Episode – Free, Full First Season (Episodes 1 to 6), Full Second Season (Episodes 7 to 12), Full Third Season (Episodes 13 to 18) Keeping track of timelines and Dave's favourite tool – Scapple (a brainstorming tool from the makers of Scrivener. Advice to writers just beginning on their path: which includes the importance of patience, trusting your instincts and the rabbit-hole of distractions that can steal an author's time Teaser talk about the sci-fi series The Beam (co-written by Sean and Johnny B. Truant) – Free First Episode or Full Season (6 Episodes) eBook The thrill of hearing from new fans who are Kobo readers. (And Dave's love of Canada and Canadians) Being real, being human and being honest Sean's perspective on the importance of speed, genre hopping and how he's like a monkey How sharing so much via their weekly podcast (Self-Publishing Podcast) keeps them honest The importance of giving yourself permission to suck in your first draft and keeping at writing, ideally every day OTHER NOTES Mark talks about Kobo's "open, social and collaborative" nature and the concept of embracing all retailers and making your work available everywhere – how certain retailer's exclusivity programs are akin to asking ALL your customers to only shop at a single bookstore. Not always a realistic option. Q&A Answer to: Do I need an ISBN to publish on Kobo Writing Life? Answer: No, you don't need an ISBN. You can certainly BYOI (bring your own ISBN) or, if you don't we'll assign a "dummy" ISBN – with a note on some of our retailer partners that don't ingest dummy ISBNs MISC LINKS Self-Publishing Podcast (which Sean & David co-host with Johnny B. Truant) - AKA SPP http://selfpublishingpodcast.com/ [SPP Episode 57 – With KWL's Mark Lefebvre as guest: http://selfpublishingpodcast.com/57/] Listen to the audio version of Yesterday's Gone via the YG podcast http://collectiveinkwell.com/category/podcast/

Check out the books we're discussing here! Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews author Robert Levine, the author of Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back. Mark and Robert discuss the following: The vision of the orderly process of interviewing subjects for a non-fiction book VS the actuality The hard part being stopping (research and interviews) when you feel that you have enough material Understanding copyright law when you're not an attorney The stress of publishing deadlines even with a supportive editor behind you What it's like traveling the globe for research and delivering the finished product The difference between writing for dailies/weeklies/monthlies and writing a book which relies more on the underlying ideas than current events & details The essence of what publishers do in terms of aggregating risk The concept of making it convenient to do the right thing and inconvenient to do the wrong thing The inconclusive nature of the way different generations respond to the concept of copyright, digital and free media The economics of windowing with respect to format releases in publishing The difference in cost between making Iron Man 2 and the book Free Ride Pricing books and eBooks to maximize revenue This episode also includes Q&A regarding the right price to set for your eBook as well as an overview of one author's experiment with increasing the price of her eBook on the various eBook retail platforms. Robert Levine's book Free Ride on Kobo (Please note there are two different links depending on which territory you're in): CA, US, HK, SG, ID, JP, BR www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=9780385533775 GB, AU, NZ, DE, FR, ES, NL, IT, HK, SG, AT, CH, ID, JP, PT, ZA, BR www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=9781448161331 Robert Levine's Website http://freeridethebook.wordpress.com/

Check out the books we're discussing here! Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews author Steve Vernon, a writer and storyteller of both written and spoken words and they discuss the following: · Aspects of writing a serialized story (Steve's Flash Virus Series), elements of humour in a thriller/horror story and the perspective of being able to laugh at life. · Steve's first published story in the mid 1980's in a magazine that featured "Busoms, beards and big bellied bikers." · Embracing both traditional publishing and self-publishing as a hybrid author and how that syncs beautifully with how Steve really "isn't a writer, just a windbag who likes to spin yarns" · The importance of being able to adapt and continue to learn as a writer · A few of Steve's titles: Sinking Deeper, Maritime Murder, Tatterdemon Omnibus · Steve's favourite advice for writers · Some book recommendations from Steve (The Scorpion Races & The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater) Also included in this episode are Mark's "Three P's of Self-Publishing Success" as well as a listener question regarding ensuring your Goodreads reviews appear on Kobo. Steve's Blog "Yours in Storytelling" http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/ Download Episode One of Steve's Flash Virus series (FREE) www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=9780988097223 Steve's Flash Virus Series http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=Flash+Virus&t=none&f=series&p=1&s=none&g=both Steve Vernon's Books on Kobo http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=%22Steve+Vernon%22&t=all&f=author&p=1&s=numpurchases&g=both&l=