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Episode 39 – Lessons in Publishing with Michael R. Underwood
Michael R. Underwood is an author, podcaster, and publishing professional. His series include the Ree Reyes Geekomancy books, the Stabby Award finalist Genrenauts series, and Born to the Blade. He’s been a bookseller, sales representative, and the North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. He is also a co-host on the Hugo Award-Finalist The Skiffy and Fanty Show and Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans.
Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife, their dog, and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with games and making pizzas from scratch.
Serial Box / Born to the Blade
Serial Box brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).
* For Born to the Blade, Mike set up a system of magic which incorporates his enthusiasm for martial arts, in which swords are used to draw sigils to cast spells.
* He approached Max Gladstone who was lead on the first Serial Box series, Bookburners, whose enthusiasm for the experience convinced Mike to pitch the series to the Serial Box team. Once accepted, Mike was able to “put together a team” to include Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan. They began with a writing summit to determine the story’s direction, selected who would be the lead writer on each episode, then continued to collaborate episode-by-episode. Mike wrote episodes 1, 4 and 11 and the team provides input together on all episodes written.
Tor.com & Kickstarter / Genrenauts
When Stories Break, You Send in the Genrenauts!
* Genrenauts is a procedural series of episodic novellas about a team that travels between dimensions to fix stories and prevent their damaged components from rippling out and changing reality everywhere.
* Mike pitched 30 novellas to Tor.com with the intention of releasing a new novella every three months.
* Tor.com bought Mike’s Western and SF story novellas, and worked amicably to ensure that when they chose not to publish the entire series, Mike was able to continue it elsewhere.
* The rest of season one was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter.
* One of the challenges with a novella series is that the shorter format doesn’t lend itself to the Audible credit system, where readers try to get the longest novel for their single monthly Audible credit.
Researching a Publishing Partner
* Any writing career can take multiple paths. Indies, small press, and traditional big publishing each have their own advantages and limitations.
* When looking into a publishing partner, consider how they publish existing works.
* Talk to their existing authors.
* Make sure you understand how the potential path will help your books, and what they will require of you.
* See what events and conventions your publishing partner candidate will go to. Where can you find the books they release? How do they package the books?
* Be aware that traditional publishing’s schedule, as required for distribution to retailers, is working 6-8 months ahead of release, which means that a tight release schedule requires immense faith in a series to do well.
* Mike sees that a rapid release timeline often exacerbates whatever would happen with that series (success v failure) rather than increasing chances of success.
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Michael R. Underwood is an author, podcaster, and publishing professional. His series include the Ree Reyes Geekomancy books, the Stabby Award finalist Genrenauts series, and Born to the Blade. He’s been a bookseller, sales representative, and the North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. He is also a co-host on the Hugo Award-Finalist The Skiffy and Fanty Show and Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans.
Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife, their dog, and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with games and making pizzas from scratch.
Serial Box / Born to the Blade
Serial Box brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).
* For Born to the Blade, Mike set up a system of magic which incorporates his enthusiasm for martial arts, in which swords are used to draw sigils to cast spells.
* He approached Max Gladstone who was lead on the first Serial Box series, Bookburners, whose enthusiasm for the experience convinced Mike to pitch the series to the Serial Box team. Once accepted, Mike was able to “put together a team” to include Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan. They began with a writing summit to determine the story’s direction, selected who would be the lead writer on each episode, then continued to collaborate episode-by-episode. Mike wrote episodes 1, 4 and 11 and the team provides input together on all episodes written.
Tor.com & Kickstarter / Genrenauts
When Stories Break, You Send in the Genrenauts!
* Genrenauts is a procedural series of episodic novellas about a team that travels between dimensions to fix stories and prevent their damaged components from rippling out and changing reality everywhere.
* Mike pitched 30 novellas to Tor.com with the intention of releasing a new novella every three months.
* Tor.com bought Mike’s Western and SF story novellas, and worked amicably to ensure that when they chose not to publish the entire series, Mike was able to continue it elsewhere.
* The rest of season one was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter.
* One of the challenges with a novella series is that the shorter format doesn’t lend itself to the Audible credit system, where readers try to get the longest novel for their single monthly Audible credit.
Researching a Publishing Partner
* Any writing career can take multiple paths. Indies, small press, and traditional big publishing each have their own advantages and limitations.
* When looking into a publishing partner, consider how they publish existing works.
* Talk to their existing authors.
* Make sure you understand how the potential path will help your books, and what they will require of you.
* See what events and conventions your publishing partner candidate will go to. Where can you find the books they release? How do they package the books?
* Be aware that traditional publishing’s schedule, as required for distribution to retailers, is working 6-8 months ahead of release, which means that a tight release schedule requires immense faith in a series to do well.
* Mike sees that a rapid release timeline often exacerbates whatever would happen with that series (success v failure) rather than increasing chances of success.