Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews author, podcaster, and publisher Edward Willett about his writing, his podcast, Kickstarter campaigns, and some bold new ventures he is pursuing with his publishing company Shadow Paw Press.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount's handy all-in-one interface.

In the interview, Mark and Edward talk about:

• The very first short story Edward wrote at the age of 11, "Caster Glaz, Hyper Ship Test Pilot"
• Working as a newspaper reporter for about eight years while he continued to write - Selling his first short story
• Making reference to Canadian historical figures like John Diefenbaker and The Arrogant Worms, which non-Canadians might not understand. (Thank goodness for Google)
• Publishing a science fiction short story "Strange Harvest" in an agricultural magazine based on his reporting of oddly shaped plants. And how that story was adapted into a nationally broadcast CBC Radio drama and might just beward's most popular short story
• Becoming a full-time freelance writer more than thirty years ago
• The twelve novels that Edward has released with Daw Books
• The radio broadcast work that he did for seventeen years as a freelancer
• Why Edward started the Worldshapers Podcast
• The anthologies Edward released that tie in with the novel as well as the Kickstarters Edward has run for them
• The evolution and growth of Edward's Shadow Paw Press
• How in 2024 Edward is taking on a huge number of new and innovative products, including books by notable Canadian authors like Dave Duncan and Robert J. Sawyer
• Working with an actual sales force and distribution network like LitDistCo
• The ins and outs of grant writing and investments involved in trying to get real distribution
• Helping other authors with their self-publishing needs
• Advice Edward has for authors thinking about being a publisher as well as for writers in general
• And more....

Mark then reflects on the value of a publisher with actual distribution and the difference between that and what any indie author can do in digital publishing.

Links of Interest:

• Edward Willett (Website)
• Shadow Paw Press
• The Worldshapers Podcast
• Endless Sky Books
• Crowdfundr For Shadow Paw Press
• ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)
• EP 348 - Amanda Byrd on Direct Sales and AuthorsGoDirect
• Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (Mark featured guest on March 1, 2024/March 2, 2024)
  • Mark's Past Appearances on Coast to Coast AM
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
  • Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Edward Willett is an award-winning author of more than sixty books science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction for both children and adults. He's also host of the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers: "Conversations with science fiction and fantasy authors about the creative process." (http://www.theworldshapers.com). He successfully Kickstarted and edited a new anthology, Shapers of Worlds, featuring authors who were guests during the first year of the podcast.

Among his novels are twelve published by DAW Books, one of the premier publishers of science fiction and fantasy publishers: Lost in Translation, Marseguro (which won the 2009 Aurora Award for best English-language science fiction or fantasy book by a Canadian author), and its sequel Terra Insegura (a finalist for the 2010 Aurora Award); Magebane (written as Lee Arthur Chane); the Masks of Aygrima fantasy trilogy for DAW Books, written as E.C. Blake; the stand-alone science fiction novel The Cityborn. His Worldshapers series began with Worldshaper ("a rollicking contemporary fantasy," Publishers' Weekly said in a starred review), and continued with Master of the World and The Moonlit World. His latest is The Tangled Stars, a humorous far-future space-opera adventure. Willett is also the author of The Shards of Excalibur modern-day YA fantasy series for Coteau Books, I Tumble Through the Diamond Dust, a collection of science fiction and fantasy poetry published by Your Nickel's Worth Publishing, and Paths to the Stars, a collection of his short fiction; Blue Fire a YA fantasy written as E.C. Blake, and Star Song, a YA science fiction novel that was a finalist for the Aurora Award for Best Canadian YA Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel, all published by Shadowpaw Press

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Amanda Byrd about her writing, direct sales, and the new platform she has launched called AuthorsGoDirect.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patrons Rob Johnson, Jennifer Brinn, and Rasana Atreya and then shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount's handy all-in-one interface.

In the interview, Mark and Amanda talk about:

• How Amanda started writing non-fiction as a kind of joke back in 2015
• Writing in car journals since she'd spent much of her life around cars
• Amanda's flagship female serial killer novels
• The new series that'll feature taking different historic female public figures and turning them into serial killers - starting with Amelia Earheart
• Describing her fiction as "Dexter meets American Psycho, but female"
• Recognizing a hole in the industry related to author newsletters
• Coming up with BooksGoDirect.com as a direct-sales only newsletter where the author provides the coupon code and the link
• The importance of owning all the data related to your readers/customers
• The ability for indie authors to add all kinds of bonus materials and direct-purchase swag related to their books
• How BooksGoDirect is currently a weekly newsletter that will eventually evolve into a daily send to readers
• The concern related to what happens with your writing when you spent so much time focusing on a tool that's helpful to writers
• Advice Amanda would offer to authors interested in learning more about selling direct
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on authors who see a gap in the market or a hole that needs to be filled and, instead of sitting back, they step up and do something about it. He also reflects on a few other things that he can't remember as he's typing up these show notes. But that happens sometimes. He can't even remember what he had for breakfast earlier today. (Does anyone even read these shownotes anyway?)

Links of Interest:

• Amanda Byrd
• BooksGoDirect.com
• IndieAudioBookDeals.com
• ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)
• EP 347 - Library Advocacy Support with John Chrastka of EveryLibrary
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
  • Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Amanda Byrd is obsessed with fictional serial killers. From Patrick Bateman to Dr. Hannibal Lecter to Dexter Morgan and every butcher in between, Amanda loves figuring out what drives fiction's deadliest monsters. When she's not busy writing, Amanda can be found reading, playing video games, or watching shows and movies like Mindhunter, Hannibal, and Dexter. She lives in Florida with her bloodthirsty, flesh-eating cat.

BooksGoDirect is a new paid promo (think Free/Bargainbooksy or BookBub) for authors and their direct stores to reach readers who want/enjoy buying direct. Retailer links are not allowed and affiliate marketing is nonexistent. I put out all costs up-front and use the fees from authors for advertising/cost recoup (does this part matter so much? I wonder now that I put that in here lol) Readers never pay to sign up. Currently there are 6 available genres and 3 spots per genre that send out once weekly (with a resend to non-openers later in the week.) There's also a page on BooksGoDirect.com where This Week's Books can be found.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews John Chrastka, the executive director of EveryLibrary, the first nationwide political action committee for libraries, and the EveryLibrary Institute, a nonprofit research and training organization focused on the future of library funding.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update, reads comments from recent episodes, and says a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores.

You can get the book online, order it through your local bookstore, or ask for it as your local library.

Universal Book Link

Smashwords Link (Coupon Discount for Feb/March 2024)

In the interview, Mark and John talk about:

• John starting off his career in publishing as a bookseller in a small neighborhood Chicago community bookstore, and how that led to becoming a publishing sales rep
• Migrating over to the Ed-Tech realm as the internet came around
• Moving on over to The American Library Association from there
• What EveryLibrary is: a 501(c)(4) organization that is a political action committee for libraries
• How it's more of a network than a membership that is about 330,000 people strong
• Telling stories about how libraries are solutions to problems for people and librarians as enactors of those solutions
• In about 37 states, public libraries actually have to go to election days to get their funding secured
• The four different ways that voters stratify:
  • Believers - People who love the library and have a relationship with their library (25%)
  • Questioners
  • Suspicious Voters
  • Never Gonna Vote for you Never (22 to 25%)
• The answer for people who question the value of a local library because they "don't do books"
• How the library as a source for reading grew from 19% to 24% during the pandemic and the way that percentage is continue to hold in 2024
• The way that the isolating of society is not just a library issue but a public health issue
• The popularity of book banning in the United States in recent years and the fact that it's easier to censor a book than it is to attack a person or a population
• How this censorship and book banning isn't merely a matter of freedom of speech issue, but a matter of human rights
• The pernicious nature of using the term "obscenity" and "obscene" to criminalize particular pupulations and to help skirt around First Amendment rights
• How libraries are an affordable way to put tax dollars to good use in the way they provide so much to their local communities
• The multiple pathways they have to help people move from "aware" to "active"
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on how books are being banned and censored as an underhanded way to strike at specific demographics and populations, and the value in focusing on the "Suspicious Voters" as a brilliant strategy.

Links of Interest:

• EveryLibrary
• fightforthefirst.org
• Canadian Federation of Library Associations
• Canadian Library Association
• Ontario Library Association
• Canadian Urban Libraries Council
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• Author, Author (Indie Bookseller - Laura Hayden)
  • EP 167 - Author, Author, Give Me The News: Bookseller Insights with Laura Hayden
• Fantasy Island (TV Show)
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
  • Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

John Chrastka is the executive director of EveryLibrary, the first nationwide political action committee for libraries, and the EveryLibrary Institute, a nonprofit research and training organization focused on the future of library funding. Since 2012, EveryLibrary has helped 133 library communities with ballot measures for funding, operations and buildings, winning over 80% and securing over $2.8 billion in funding on Election Days. Through its digital platforms, EveryLibrary provides advocacy support to state library associations for legislative issues and direct actions in support of school library program budgets. The EveryLibrary Institute supports the library funding ecosystem through its research, training, publishing, and programmatic agendas.

Mr. Chrastka is the co-author of Winning Elections and Influencing Politicians for Library Funding and Before the Ballot: Building Political Support for Library Funding with Patrick "PC" Sweeney (ALA / Neal Schuman). He has contributed chapters to Planning our future libraries: Blueprints for 2025 (2014), and Re-envisioning the MLS: Perspectives on the Future of Library and Information Science Education (2018). In 2015, he delivered the McKusker Memorial Lecture, "The Accidental Candidate: Updating Voter Nostalgia about Librarians and Libraries on the Campaign Trail" for Dominican University and has written for numerous trade publications and journals, including Library Journal and Library Quarterly. In 2018 he delivered the keynote "Advocacy and Activism" for CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, in Brighton, England, and in 2020 he was invited by EKZ Group in Hamburg, Germany to present a colloquy on advocacy for their members and the profession. He is a frequent keynoter and speaker at state and national library conferences in the United States and abroad, is a sought-after trainer for state libraries, and is a regular guest lecturer for MLS / MLIS programs where he speaks on the topic of "political literacy".

Prior to his work on EveryLibrary, Mr. Chrastka was a partner in AssociaDirect, a Chicago-based consultancy focused on supporting associations in membership recruitment, conference, and governance activities. He was Director for Membership Development at the American Library Association (ALA), was a principal in the education technology start-up ClassMap, and was the founder of the virtual publishers' sales rep group ReviewCopy, which focused on textbook adoption in the higher education market. In 2014 he was named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal for his work with EveryLibrary. He was recognized by the Chicago Tribune in 2022 as a Chicagoan of the Year and by Publishers Weekly in 2023 as a Notable for his work opposing book bans and censorship.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

A solo episode where Mark shares an excerpt from four elements from his book PUBLISHING PITFALLS FOR AUTHORS.

• PAST
• PATRIARCHY
• PAUSE
• PAYING

The main content (those four points) are read by Mark's AI voice via Eleven Labs.

Links of Interest:

• EP 246 - Four of The Pitfalls of Publishing
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
  • Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Josh Cook, Josh Cook, an author, bookseller and the co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004 about his writing, his book The Art of Libromancy and his life as a reader and writer.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patron Jennifer Brinn, thanks Buy Mark a Coffee patron Nikki Guerlain, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the books The Art of Libromancy and An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores.

Ask for these books via your local indie-owned bookstore or via your local community library.

In the interview, Mark and Josh talk about:

• Josh's earliest days really getting into reading and how he had wanted to be a writer since about the age of 16
• After post-secondary education, landing in Boston and deciding that working in a bookstore would be a good place for a writer to work
• Discovering the "coming soon" and "help wanted" sign on a neighborhood bookstore: Porter Square Books
• Continuing to build a freelance writing career, crafting articles, reviews, fiction, and poetry
• Getting his first manuscript into the hands of a publisher that he knew well from his role in bookselling, which was the novel AN EXAGGERATED MURDER
• The path, via roles such as Online Presence Manager (website and social media) and Marketing Director that led to eventually becoming a co-owner of Porter Square Books
• The challenge of the most qualified people to take over owning and running a bookstore, the booksellers, often don't have the necessary money, funding, and resources to do so
• The model that has become a bit more common recently that enables employees the option of becoming a vested co-owner or interest sharing participant in a bookstore
• The genesis of the book THE ART OF LIBROMANCY
• The major reckoning that many people had in 2016 when Donald Trump got elected at trying to understand their place in a world that would allow something like that to happen
• The concept of how the book industry (publishing, bookselling) would continue to empower and legitimize the voices of misogyny, white supremacy, other bigoted ideas
• How it all clicked after Josh had participated in a virtual event with Biblioasis author Jorge Carrion for the book AGAINST AMAZON AND OTHER ESSAYS
• Pitching the book to Biblioasis and how the existing relationship and in-depth knowledge Josh had of their publishing house (and their editor's knowledge of Josh himself) led to an instant acceptance of his book proposal
• The importance of relationships and recommendations from people that you already know, like, and trust - and how that plays a significant role in book projects
• Elements of human curation that can happen in person within a community, particularly as something that Amazon can't do
• The idea of a bookstore as a "third place" that is neither home nor work where someone can go and be a human being with other human beings
• A few of the challenges, both expected and unexpected, that happened when Porter Square Books had to adapt into an online and curb-side order facility during the pandemic
• How the learned skills of booksellers being able to absorb information and insights about books from publishers, colleagues, and customers, even if they haven't read them, is such an important aspect of a bookseller's role
• ARCs (Advance Review Copies) as one of the primary ways Josh has of knowing what is on the way
• Christopher Morley's THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP and the Melville House edition that Josh first discovered which is a love letter to the art of bookselling
• How books are great ways to be safely uncomfortable
• The paradox of tolerance, as expressed by Karl Popper in THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: If you tolerate the intolerable, your space will eventually become intolerant
• A bookseller's role within that paradox of allowing tolerance for voices that seek fresh voices, but prevent those voices whose mandate is to shut-down or not allow diverse voices the ability to be expressed
• Josh's perspective of how publishers, authors, bookstores and others within the industry involved in this process are all teammates working together to get books to readers
• Strategies authors can use to establish genuine relationships with their local community bookstores
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on walking away from fascinating conversations with a list of books to read, some of the parallels between Josh's journey into bookselling and his own, and how the employee-to-owner situation also parallels the change-of-ownerships of Words Worth Books, a local indie bookstore in Waterloo that Mark adores.

Links of Interest:

• Josh Cook on Social Media:
  • BlueSky Social
  • Instagram
• The Art of Libromancy (Biblioasis)
• An Exaggerated Murder
• Porter Square Books (Cambridge and Boston)
• Words Worth Books (Waterloo, ON)
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
  • Smashwords Link (eBook 57% Off until end of Feb 2024)
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Josh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews author Eric T. Knight about his writing and about the origin of StoryFair. net a platform that seeks to pay authors the highest royalty of any other third party platform for their audiobook sales.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patron Rob Johnson, and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount's handy all-in-one interface.

In the interview, Mark and Eric talk about:

• Eric's youth being way off the grid and in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, which made reading an important aspect
• How reading became a gateway for access and connection to the rest of the world
• Understanding that if he were to keep working at it, that he really could make it in writing some day
• The long and arduous road of submissions of writing to publishers, finding an agent, and pursuing traditional publishing
• The fantasy series that Erik had worked on starting back in the 80s
• Deciding to put one of his fantasy novels up on Kindle just for fun and how that led to a colleague's wife discovering the book and loving it
• Eric's mindset not changing until the year he decided to submit to a total of 50 agents
• The power of being able to write the series exactly the way he wanted to
• A bit about The Chaos Legacy universe and the various different linked series that take place within those books
• The experience of getting his books into audio and beginning to understand some of the barriers that existed within that realm for authors
• Beta launching StoryFair in the summer of 2023 and then making the site live in November 2023
• How the payment to authors process at StoryFair works
• Plans for an affiliate program for authors to send readers to this platform
• The challenge of having to scale up their infrastructure so early in the process due to huge interest from some major players
• How the StoryFair app is currently only available in the United States (at least for now until some of the legal stuff can be sorted out)
• How to set up an account, load your book, and when the monthly payments to authors come in
• The way that a good narrator can bring characters and stories to life in ways that you might not be able to imagine
• And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on that pioneering indie author spirit that leads to providing the market with elements that were previously missing but needed, as well as the value that a library brings to a community.

Links of Interest:

• StoryFair.net
• EricTKnight.com
• Eric's books at Amazon
• ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)
• The Author Wheel Podcast - Season 5 Episode 3 - Overcoming Self-Doubt and Mastering Book Marketing with Mark Leslie Lefebvre
• Feisty Familiars Anthology
• Draft2Digital Self-Publishing Insiders with Jeaniene Frost (Jan 25, 2024)
• Matty Dalrymple (Episode Links)
  • EP 116 - Taking the Short Tack
  • EP 216 - Podcasting for Authors
  • EP 236 - Reflective Round Table Feb 2022
  • EP 245 - Reflective Round Table March 2022
  • EP 258 - Reflective Hangout Highights - June 2022
  • EP 300 - Celebrating 300 Episodes with Guest Reflections
• Episode that mentions license plate and skeleton thief:
  • EP 330 - Book Indexing Made Simple with Stephen Ullstrum
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Eric T. Knight grew up on a working cattle ranch in the desert thirty miles from Wickenburg, Arizona, which at that time was exactly the middle of nowhere. Work, cactus and heat were plentiful, forms of recreation were not. The TV got two channels when it wanted to, and only in the evening after someone hand cranked the balky diesel generator to life. All of which meant that his primary form of escape was reading.

At 18 he escaped to Tucson where he attended the University of Arizona. A number of fruitless attempts at productive majors followed, none of which stuck. Discovering he liked writing, the author tried journalism two separate times, but had to drop it when he realized that he had no intention of conducting interviews with actual people but preferred simply making them up.

StoryFair is a platform with a mission: Put an end to author exploitation in the audiobook industry

There's a problem in the audiobook business. A MAJOR problem. Did you know that when you purchase an audiobook on Audible, Amazon keeps as much as 75% of the cover price of the book? The average price of a major publisher/new release audiobook is in the $24 range. That means Amazon keeps at least $18.00… after fees, it's actually a little bit more.

That leaves very little for the publisher, authors, and narrators to divvy up, and ultimately, it means that readers are by and large paying exorbitant audiobook prices to do one thing above all else… pad Amazon's pockets.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Elizabeth Andre (AKA Karen and Victoria) about her/their journey through writing, collaboration, and the new book SELF-PUBLISHING LESBIAN FICTION.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount's handy all-in-one interface.

In their conversation, Karen, Victoria, and Mark talk about:

• The background of how Karen and Victoria got started as writers, and then about how they met and why they started writing together
• Karen's earliest memories coming up with playtime stories with her younger brother that took on a "soap opera" and "serialized" format
• The concept of how to earn money that came down to one of two things: Sell drugs, or write porn
• Researching the writing of gay male porn by getting magazines and reading through them
• Coming up with numerous ephamisms for the male sex organ appendage
• How Victoria comes from a long list of writers, including her father and how she wanted to be anything BUT a writer
• The two of them each discovering the joy and the magical allure that is journalism
• Being one of the many writers who was "Sherry Lovelace" for the UK edition of Penthouse Magazine
• Meeting at a Gay Journalist Convention and clicking, but not really having that much in common
• Discovering that, despite the "common wisdom" from traditional publishing, money could be made from writing lesbian fiction. That shift, of course, came from the rise of self-publishing
• Who the readers of gay male fiction and lesbian fiction are
• The origin of the pen name Elizabeth Andre
• Some of the logistics of how the two write together
• Who the book Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction is for, with an analogy of an off-the-rack suit and a tailored suit
• The tally of the $35 and $45 dollars owed from various publishers and platforms
• The term and use of "Sapphic Fiction" and how it is more inclusive of lesbian, bi-sexual, trans, and non-binary
• Some of the barriers that arise when writing lesbian fiction
• How self-publishing can overcome so many of the barriers within traditional publishing
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on a couple of topics brought up, specifically "serialized playtime stories" and the "tailored" work of writers.

Links of Interest:

• https://www.tiktok.com/@elizabethandrelesfic
• https://www.instagram.com/elizabethandreauthor/
• https://www.facebook.com/elizabethandreauthor
• https://twitter.com/Elizalesbian
• https://substack.com/@elizabethandre
• ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• EP 290 - Thanks for the Inspiration, Jim Turcott
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Elizabeth Andre has been self-publishing lesbian fiction since 2014. She writes cozy paranormal mystery, lesbian romance, science fiction, and young adult stories. Before turning her hand to fiction, she was a newspaper reporter for many years, and she has the paper cuts to prove it. She has won many writing awards including a Goldie from the Golden Crown Literary Society for fiction and a Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club for journalism. Elizabeth Andre is actually two people, a married interracial same-sex couple (Karen and Victoria) living in the Midwest.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this special bonus solo episode, Mark shares some reflections about recent publishing trends.

Prior to the main content, Mark welcomes new patron Donn King, and shares a word about this episode's sponsor, the patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

Links of Interest:

• Written Word Media Publishing Trends Posts
  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• EP 340 - Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd Fahnestock
• EP 011 - The Power of Free With Musician and Composer Kevin MacLeod
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor, Wulf Moon, who won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at the age of fifteen, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from previous episodes, shares a personal update, and then says a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the Stark Publishing book How to Write a Howling Good Story by Wulf Moon.

The book is 25% off at the Smashwords store until the end of Jan 2024.

Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast can get the book for 75% off until the end of Feb 2024.

In their conversation Mark and Moon talk about:

• How Wulf Moon might not have been the name that he was born with and how the name "Moon" which he has been called most of his life came from his Ojibwe grandmother
• Moonbeam Road, a local road his father named after him when he was growing up
• Not having a father who was supportive of his writing, and even having to run away from home when he was younger
• Finding an important positive voice as a youngster in a teacher
• The additional lengths this one teacher went to support and encourage Moon in his writing
• Winning the Scholastic Art and Writing Award at the age of 15, among so many other awards that this teacher helped him find
• Getting beat up so often in high school that the only thing he could do was look down as he walked in the hallways - but how he found his power in writing
• The importance of finding a way to be who you are and to not allow others to repress you from that
• Starting up Wulf Moon's Super Secrets Writing Workshop right after winning Writers of the Future - and offering all this support to other writers for free
• The repeated authors who have gone through Moon's teachings and then ended up winning Writers of the Future
• The Wulf Pack Writers group that Moon manages
• Following the concept of "how can I help you with what I know"
• How writers don't understand proper Manuscript Format
• The high ranking sales that HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY has hit since its release in November 2023
• Moon's concept of Heart's Desire as the most important principle in a story
• Caring that happens in the heart of the reader, which can create the Reader/Hero bond
• Getting to a point in his life that was so low that he took risks and was burning bridges behind him and not writing for 10 years
• Realizing that he couldn't be happy and couldn't be fulfilled not being a writer
• Moon's experience meeting Dean Wesley Smith at the Nebula Awards in Eugene Oregon
• The importance of having both the fundamenals of writing and the belief in yourself
• The mantra "belief determins reality" that Moon instructs his students to write down
• The dedication in Moon's HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY
• Meeting other people "like me" at writer conferences, etc and the incredible value that can bring
• Advice Moon would offer to newer writers
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on the importance of not denying who you are and not denying the things that bring you pleasure. He also reflects on the concept of finding your people, your Tribe, and the positive impact we can have on one another if we just take the time to listen, to reach out, to others.

Links of Interest:

• Wulf Moon's Website
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• EP 340 - Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd Fahnestock
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Wulf Moon is a bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor. At fifteen, Moon won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group. He's won both Best Author and Best Writers Workshop four years running in the Critters Readers' Choice Awards, and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story. www.thesupersecrets.com

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews award-winning, #1 bestselling fantasy author Todd Fahnestock about his journey through both traditional publishing and indie-publishing, focusing on the moments for learning, growth, and applying passion and persistence.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

Check out the WIDE FOR THE WIN community and resources.

In their conversation, Mark and Todd talk about:

• Todd's first venture into writing back when he was 17 and in senior high school through a year-long IS (Independent Study) program
• Thoughts about how it has only been the past six years or so where Todd has really taken his writing seriously, and how things might have been different if he'd done that back in 2003 when signing his first traditional publishing contract
• How Todd had two big traditional publishing deals that turned into fantastic proven failures but how he attributes those flops into future successes
• The Heartstone Trilogy that was first published with big fanfare in 2003 from Harper Collins
• Parting amicably from being represented by Donald Maas
• Selling The Wishing World to Tom Dohorty of Tor Books being one of the highlights of Todd's career
• Todd's pitch to the publisher that included being able to travel to 50 schools in order to promote this middle grade trilogy
• Managing to hit a Colorado best-seller list by visiting 52 different schools in the state of Colorado in the promotion of this book
• The concept that "success is the diploma, but failure is the classroom"
• How subjective many of the measurements and opportunities in publishing can be
• What isn't random is that readers that love what you do love what you do
• The various layers that writers need to break-through in terms of getting a book published
• The idea of thinking that just making a great product is our job as a writer, but recognizing that it isn't just a product - it's an entire experience
• The opportunity that authors have to make their product synonymous with their "personality" and "presentation"
• Going full-time as a writer in 2017 and hearing about the 20Booksto50K wave of rapid-release author success, but not being able to get on that wave
• The sad reality of earning $1400 in that first year, when his plans were to earn $25,000 in that first 12 months
• How Todd's incredibly supportive wife said something to him when he was haunted by the demons of this failed plan that helped turn things around for him
• The experience of changing his attitude when it came to being stuck at a table with other Christmas craft vendors and making the best of it
• How it is a ton of work, but the joy of knowing that it's something that is in his hands
• More than 90% of Todd's sales being from in person bookselling rather than online sales due to leveraging his persona as a storyteller
• Todd's experience in 2021 of getting a double booth at Salt Lake City Comic Con
• Hitting $5000 in sales at 3 different cons in 2023
• The approach of always talking about BOOK ONE by default when doing his sales pitch at the table
• A bit of a background on The Eldros Legacy
• The pitch Todd uses for The Eldros Legacy
• The "ten more pumps" water pump analogy from Jim Butcher
• Advice Todd would offer to other writers
• And more . . .

After the interview, Mark reflects on a few specific points that came up in the conversation.

Links of Interest:

• Todd Fahnestock Website
• Eldros Legacy
• Episode 339 - Romancing The Writing Life With Bobby Hutchinson
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Todd Fahnestock is an award-winning, #1 bestselling author of fantasy for all ages and winner of the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age Award. He is a founder of Eldros Legacy—a multi-author, shared-world epic fantasy series—two-time winner of the Colorado Authors League Award for Writing Excellence, and four-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy (2021), Khyven the Unkillable (2022), Lorelle of the Dark (2023), and Tower of the Four: The Dragon's War (2023). His passions are great stories and his quirky, fun-loving family. Visit Todd at toddfahnestock.com.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0