SPP 008 – BlogWorld Review and Wrapup and the State of Self-Publishing

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We’d intended to bulldoze right into this episode and start talking about my (Johnny’s) findings at BlogWorld & New Media Expo (which will henceforth be called simply “New Media Expo”; they’re mixing it up, those crazy guys) as they pertain to writers, writing, traditional publishing, and self publishing… but we got distracted. Surprise, surprise.

Most of what we got distracted with during the first minutes is way too dumb and irrelevant to waste your time with here in te show notes. Apparently we didn’t mind wasting your time with it on the show, though, because we did. It involves our reviews, Dave possibly being Marilyn Manson, and Wade Finnegan titling his review “Wade Finnegan.” Also, French girls and Dave hating people. Again: surprise, surprise.

We took a few voicemails. Sean became Sean Penn and we learned the background of Sean and Dave’s mysterious partnership. (Hint: It involves a tranquilizer dart and handcuffs.) We also talked about “do it for you” services, and when you should let someone else format and assemble your book or e-book and when you should simply DIY.

And then we finally got to BlogWorld. After a half hour. Like real professionals.

What BlogWorld had to say about shit we talk about here

Just so you’re oriented, you might want to check out the BlogWorld schedule so you can follow along with what we’re talking about.

(And for the sake of completeness, should you find yourself listening and saying OH MAN I WISH I’D HEARD THOSE SESSIONS AND NOW I WANT TO GO GOTH BECAUSE I’M SO SAD, you can still pick up the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket — and get access to recordings of all of the BlogWorld sessions — if you’re reading/listening reasonably close to when this podcast went online.)

Here’s some of the sessions I attended, that Sean wishes he’d attended, and that Dave said, “Fuck you guys” to us about:

• Should I self publish or get a book deal? with Jim Kukral and Scott Stratten. Scott was on the “pro” side and Jim was the “self publish” side. It was a cage match.
• The 411 on Recording and producing a great interview with Mur Lafferty and Rob Walch. Look up Mur. Mur has podcasted a bunch of books, distributing them for free, and it’s worked great for her. Rob has done a ton of impressive interviews for his show, which all has relevance in “getting to people” and “getting press,” etc. Stuff we self-published authors need to know about.
• Podcasting for creatives with Mur Lafferty, Evo Terra, and Kate Baker. This was mainly stuff like Podiobooks (which Evo runs). Podiobooks.com is a way of distributing your books free in an audio version, via podcasts. Very cool. All three of us are doing a Podiobook right now.
• The Art of writing epic shit with Corbett Barr. This session by my buddy Corbett from ThinkTraffic was amazing and applied to nonfiction mainly but would apply for fiction as well. His message was to persist, put in lots of hard work, and experiment. It was a very “do the work” message. Also, watch this 2-minute video with Ira Glass from This American Life. I’d seen it before, but he included it in the presentation and it was quite apt. And also amazing.
• Building your blog’s audience and becoming an expert with major press with Jaime Tardy. This was what it sounds like, and it’s appropriate for all of us and for any writer because we can be experts and get big press coverage if we just know what to do and where to look.

Great stuff. (And just remember, if you missed it, you can still get the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket.)