Trader’s Diary

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Just a test.

Ridan has been watching your response to the announcement of getting the books in print and they’re floating the idea of putting out a special, hard cover, limited edition run. The price will be pretty high (I don’t know how high yet, but I’d guess around $30-$35) but we’re thinking something like running 100 of them and putting them up as signed, numbered, limited editions.

How many of you would want to buy one of those?

Three years ago this month — on January 12, 2007 — I sat down at my keyboard and started to write a novel. At the time, I had no idea if I could. I’d started often enough before in my life and never finished. I didn’t really know if I would finish that one, but I had a goal — Podiobooks.com.

In January, 2007, this podcasting thing was only a couple of years old. Most people had never heard of it, and the idea of a serialized audiobook — the podcast novel — was even more unknown. I found Podiobooks in 2006 and started listening to Earthcore, 7th Son: Descent, and Brave Men Run. I think I went through the whole catalog in a few weeks, and when I finished Nina Kimberly the Merciless, I knew I had to try it. These people were having just way too much fun and I wanted to have fun, too. When I sat down to write the book that you all know as Quarter Share, the goal was to finish the story, record it, and publish it on Podiobooks.

Ten days later, I had my first draft. By the end of January I started recording. Yes, I recorded it in a very poor format on a $20 headset mic in the front seat of my car. Evo helped me get it into the correct form and in February 18th, 2007, the first six episodes of Quarter Share went into the stream.

Since that time, you’ve been with me through 5 ‘Share books, a Shaman’s Tale, and, now, a full on fantasy novel with Ravenwood. You’ve pestered me for the next release, you’ve badgered me about paper copies, you’ve written to publishers on my behalf to get them to print my books. You’ve donated, and rated, and reviewed, and followed me on twitter. There’s a discussion group in a knitter’s community for me. (Hi, Ravelry!) You’ve humbled me with your support and with your enthusiastic embrace of my work.

Normally, I keep a pretty low profile, but this month marks more than one milestone, and I’d like to share them with you.

3 years.
7 Books.
800,000 words.
1,000,000 downloads.

and one book contract.

Earlier this month I signed with Ridan Publishing to produce Quarter Share in a trade paper edition that will be available soon – at least by the time BaltiCon rolls around at the end of May.

Thank you, all, for your inspiration, your reviews, your comments, and your heartfelt support of the stories over the last three years.

Happy birthday, Ishmael! And many happy returns.

It’s fitting that on the Winter Solstice we open the door to Lammas Wood.

While I’ve spent most of this month working on the second and third drafts of Ravenwood, it became increasingly clear to me that this world needed its own place to live. After at least a half an hour of thinking and wrangling ideas around, I decided to open a sister site for the stories of the Lammas Wood so that these very different tales can have room to grow unbounded by the coldness of the Deep Dark and the metal shells of solar clippers.

I’m looking forward to discovering this world with you, but rest assured that the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper is far from over.

Watch for Owner’s Share in the Spring and keep an eye open for news of a cellulose and ink variety in the next few days.

Safe voyage.

Coming soon January 4, 2010 to Podiobooks.com.

Tanyth Fairport makes one last pilgrimage in her quest to learn all she can about the herbs and medicinal plants of Aerony before settling down to write her magnum opus. When her trip is interrupted to help a small village, she learns that much of what she knows of the world may not be quite as it seems.

The mad month of November is winding down and the next book is on the horizon. This is NOT another science fiction novel set in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, but a Fantasy set in a whole new world. Stay tuned for adventure.

[UPDATE 11/28/09: At 113k words, the first draft is done. I'm probably gonna rest my brain pan and look for music for the podcast tomorrow, then start the second draft. Stay tuned.]

[UPDATE: 11/29/09: New cover art]

[UPDATE: 12/15/09: Second draft done. Release date set]

Several people have asked me where my main feed is — and I just got another request this morning.

I don’t have one.

My thinking is that each title needs to stand on its own. As a result I rebuild every title’s followers from 0. That means that if you don’t keep track of me either here or on Podiobooks, you might miss it. It also means I don’t have the advantage of a captive audience that I get to build on for each book. People have to actually DO something in order to keep up with me.

I’m beginning to think I should.

If I think in terms of building a brand .. creating that product kind of thing where I maximize my exposure and potential market .. I absolutely need to be capitalizing on my previous work by making sure that anybody who subscribed before gets a taste of the new work and subsequently has to opt out — take some action to NOT get the new stuff. That will maximize my downloads and assure that I get numbers that make me look as good as possible.

That’s always struck me as being a trifle self-serving, and not necessarily something I want to do. My objective has always been to provide the best quality entertainment value for my work within the scope of my ability.

But it occurs to me that it also *prevents* people from staying up to date by forcing them to keep track of me. It almost forces them to subscribe thru podiobooks (altho I realize that iTunes music store by-passes subscription) and therefore maximizes my exposure on podiobooks. That prevention factor seems even more self-serving. After all, if I want to make sure you get the best possible experience, then I should make it as easy as possible for you to get the work. That means you should be able to get it all in one feed if you want. It also means you should be able to get it in multiple formats. (Watch for news on that in the first quarter of 2010.)

So, I’ve used the excellent Yahoo Pipes tool to merge all the feeds together.

Enjoy.

Yay! I went to check my iTunes stats and found this waiting…

In case you’re new to the iTunes Music Store, that’s Captain’s Share as the first title under New and Notable for ARTS! Not Arts > Literature which is cool enough but the parent category of ARTS!!

Thank you SO much to the 46 people who rated and the 21 who left comments. I’m boggled!

This seems a little like the mouse and lion – I’m the mouse here – but JC Hutchins, that paragon of promotion, needs some help to make the release of 7th Son: Descent a smash hit with his publisher, St. Martin’s Press. Some of you may have heard the promo I did for this on the podiobook feeds and JC himself has created a promo as well.

He’s doing a ton of stuff to create buzz and build interest in this release.
- a new podcast version (see JCHutchins.net)
- A prequel audio short story anthology called 7th Son: 7 Days (Listen to the first episode)
- Serialization of the novel in PDF form, and the text at BoingBoing.net
- Producing music from John Smith’s album, Anyman.

No, it’s not a Golden Age of the Solar Clipper novel, but it’s a great story. Talk about character driven! This book has the same character implemented 8 different ways! It’s a classic action-adventure yarn and this book was a significant inspiration to my getting into Podiobooks myself. I remember listening to the first episode and thinking, “Ok, this is really a viable distribution mode. I wonder if *I* really could do something here.” I owe a lot to JC for that inspiration and for constantly spurring me on to get better.

So, what can you do?

- follow JCHutchins on twitter for updates (if you’re not already).
- subscribe to his podcasts
- download his pdfs
- help spread the word to those you know about this next book making the transition from Podcast to Paper
or
- and if you are so inclined, buy the book! I have my on pre-order from Amazon already and I’m really looking forward to hearing the voices in my head read this one to me.

Thanks, shipmates. Whatever you can do will help.

With the completion of Captain’s Share yesterday, I’ve come to the end of another production cycle. My plans for the next few months include catching up with all the things I’ve pushed into the background for the last few weeks.

For those who missed the news about NaNoWriMo – the National Novel Writing Month – I’ll be participating again this year. The rules stipulate that you start a new book on November 1st and you had until the end of the month to complete 50,000 words. Mur Lafferty challenged me to finish in 15 days and I’ve set my own goal to write a complete novel (that’s 100,000 words for me) before the end of the month. Just to add a bit of spice to the effort, I’ve also been challenged to write a fantasy. So, I’ll be trying to do all this in November.

Owner’s Share will need to wait until next year and I’m looking to finish the release sometime after May 2010 so that it will be eligible for the Parsec Awards in 2011. That will be the final book in the Share series. I’m not sure if it’ll be the last book about Ishmael Wang, but it’s the end of the arc for that range of stories. I’ve planned one other story in this universe – Cape Grace – and that may have to wait for a while longer. We’ll see how things work out.

Then there’s NaNoWriMo in 2010…

At the moment, there’s no print or other text distribution deal. I’ll need to revisit Quarter Share and brush it up based on what I’ve learned from the last couple of years. In the meantime, we’ll keep plowing on. I need to do a promo for the entire universe to begin to really grow the audience. Based on conversations I’ve had with some of the promo-pros, I’m convinced that I’m missing a bet and I need to deal with that, too.

On the travel front, I’ll be in Chicago the 29th to the 31st, and in Orlando January 27-30. These are DayJob conference visits but I can usually get away for a few hours for a cuppa.

Finally, thanks for your support. If you can, please rate the books on Podiobooks.com and on iTunes Music Store. Ratings give the book visibility and help other people find it. It takes only a tick or two and makes a big difference.

WooHOO!!

My friend and fellow podcaster asked me to comment about NaNoWriMo for an article he’s done for Wired UK. It’s not a BIG comment, but welcome to all the Wired readers who may be stopping by for the first time.

Welcome to the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper.

And yes, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. Mur Lafferty has challenged me to “win” within the first 15 days — that is, to write 50k words before November 15 on a new project.

No, it’s NOT going to be another book set in the Golden Age. I’m going to take a month and see if I can write a fantasy novel that stands the tropes of fantasy on their pointy little heads. It should be fun, and with any luck at all, you’ll have a new book to listen to for Christmas.