Joanna Penn runs a website called The Creative Penn, which is all about writing, publishing options, promotions and so on. I’ve mentioned her on this site before and you can find a blue print for her Author 2.0 Platform on the Links page.

She’s just released a new podcast talking all about marketing and promoting your book. Whether you’re a self-published newbie starting out or an established author, you will need to promote your book. The authors that can rely on their name for sales are few and far between. Just look at how busy Neil Gaiman is promoting himself and his work. He’s as successful as he is not only because he’s an awesome writer, but because he gets himself out there.

Jo’s latest podcast is an hour long and a really good short course on things to think about when it comes to promoting yourself and your books. In the podcast she answers all these questions pretty well:

* Where do I start in making myself known as an author?
* Is having a logo important for my brand?
* Is it necessary to have your own blog as an author? How do you create one and what should be the topic?
* How can we promote fiction books online? What are the best giveaways to help promote books?
* I have accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, but how do you break through mid-level success?
* How do you promote with no money?
* How can an unpublished writer generate a following that would impress a publisher?
* How do you know if there is a market for your book?
* How do you market yourself without seeming arrogant?
* How do you put together a marketing and promotion plan for your book?
* What is the best way to draw traffic to my site?
* Is it a good idea to create a teaser ebook about my non fiction book?
* How do you manage your time so Twitter does not become a time suck?
* What programs do you recommend for submitting articles to multiple places?
* Is cold calling necessary or is email marketing enough?
* What are the best and cheapest ways to create a book trailer?
* How do I do a press release and what is the most effective way to use them?

You can find the podcast here. She even gives me a little shout-out at around the 38 minute mark. How kind.

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Very often, life is like the bald parrot. I’m often like the dog.

By that, I mean direct from me. I’ll even sign them if you ask nicely.

Ain’t technology a wonderful thing?

I’ve finally got around to sorting out PayPal buttons for this site. That means that you can now go to the Books page or click on any book cover and you’ll see a Buy Now button for Australians. Then you can use your PayPal account or Credit Card and buy RealmShift and MageSign direct. They’re $19.95 each and postage is free. Easy.

Australia only, I’m afraid. Internationally it’s still cheaper to buy from Amazon or a similar online retailer or email me and I’ll arrange a copy direct from the printer nearest you.

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You know, it’s true that if you just crap on about rubbish for long enough, people will eventually start recognising you for it. You’ll become a trusted source of crap. Well, that’s me. The very kind Tony Noland over at Landless has awarded me a Prolific Blogger Award, after getting one himself. See, that’s the other thing that works – surround yourself with like-minded people and whatever it is you’re doing doesn’t seem at all weird. Just look at train spotters or swingers.

The rules of the thing are that you then have to nominate some verbose bastards of your own and pass the award on to them. Seven of them, apparently. By Shiva’s Blue Shaft, do I really have to think of seven prolific bloggers?

Well, here goes. I’m going to pass this award on to people that blog a lot about interesting stuff that I read on a regular basis. I’ll try to get a variety of subject matter in and post them in alphabetical order by blog name:

A Nadder – “a jewish atheist blogs the bible and rants about other stuff.” Michael Fridman discusses all kinds of religious, moral and philosophical ideas. Be warned though, there’s often some pretty confronting images on this blog.

HorrorScope – The Australian Dark Fiction weblog.

Jason Fischer – Of all the writers that blog I chose Jason, partly through completely random selection and partly because he blogs some fucking funny stuff sometimes, like the Knife-Wielding Eagle Of Motivation.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist – Fantasy news, reviews, nonsense and giveaways.

Sleep Talkin’ Man – The random mumblings of an Englishman that talks a lot in his sleep. Seriously, this is my new favourite blog.

The Creative Penn – Writing, Publishing Options, Sales and Promotion. Joanna Penn is more than prolific and very informative.

The Furnace – Geek culture from Lord Shaper.

So there you go – I hope you find something interesting and new among those.

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I am: Philip José Farmer This prolific author brings surprising depths to he-man adventure tales, and broke science fiction’s prudery barrier.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Hat tip: Laura Eno.

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There’s been a bit of a shit fight (to say the least) lately between Amazon and MacMillan. It basically centres around an argument about ebook pricing and who controls what. Rather than me just repeat all that’s been said already, go and read:

NY Times article on why Amazon pulled MacMillan titles.

Cory Doctorow’s thoughts via Boing Boing.

This post by L E Modesitt Jr which looks at the situation from an author’s point of view, and has some interesting discussion in the comments.

And here, John Scalzi’s call for author support.

The fight will continue. The face of publishing is changing and there’s going to be a lot of wrangling. I’m going to watch, but I can’t be bothered to comment. I’m nobody, so my opinion will be ignored anyway. I’ll wait and see how it all plays out and then make the best of it. This is one of those situations where the big boys are playing. The rest of us can weigh in when the dust settles a bit.

But in the meantime, it’s authors that are hurting. Especially new and midlist authors, whose sales and income are being drastically hit by all this. It’s from this angle that I’m posting now. My good friend and great author, David B Coe, has a new edition out today, via Tor. So he’s a direct victim of all this right now.

The Horsemen’s Gambit, Book II of Blood of the Southlands, is being re-issued in paperback today. If you’re a fan of David’s work and you want to get hold of this but usually shop at Amazon, there are other options. Pick up the book from any of the places listed below and show Amazon that you won’t stand for them fucking with authors.

Buy The Horsemen’s Gambit:

Direct from MacMillan.

Barnes & Noble.

Borders.

Books-A-Million.

I’m a massive fan of Amazon, but I don’t like the way they’re dealing with this at all. It’s always worth remembering that there are many more stores out there than Amazon if you want to get your books online.

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The latest list of recommended reading from Locus Online has been announced. You know I’ve been rattling on for months about Paul Haine’s awesome novella, “Wives”. Well, that’s on there, as is Margo Lanagan’s novella, “Sea Hearts”, from the same anthology. And, in fact, the “X6″ Novellanthology itself is listed. So yeah, you really need to read that book if you haven’t.

Other Aussies listed are Peter M Ball for his novella, “Horn”, and Deb Biancotti for her collection, “A Book Of Endings”, both released by the phenomenon that is Twelfth Planet Press. Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois get a nod as editors of “The Dragon Book” anthology. Garth Nix is mentioned for “The Heart of the City” novellette, Peter M Ball is mentioned again for “On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War-Machines of the Merfolk” in the short story list and two more mentions in short stories for Margo Lanagan with “Ferryman” and “Living Curiosities”. What a brilliant result.

I’m sure I missed some Aussies, so apologies in advance if I did! It’s a great list. See the whole thing here.

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Yep, here I go asking you guys for votes again. You may remember that Editor Unleashed and Smashwords ran a flash fiction contest a little while ago. The initial round of voting was by popular vote through the Editor Unleashed forum and then an editorial decision was made. My story “Parklife” won a place in that anthology thanks to you guys helping with the voting.

Well, the same team is at it again and they’ve set up a “Why I Write” contest. They’ve asked people to write a little essay (under 750 words) on why they write. I thought I’d have a go and wrote this little piece based on the voices I hear in my head. Come on, you lot must have realised by now that there are voices in my head.

Anyway, you can read the piece here. I’d love your vote if you like it. It’s a bit annoying because you have to be a forum member to vote. So if you are a member, you’ll see a star dropdown menu at the top right of the posting. If not, and you want to sign up, go through the usual sign-up process, then you’ll get a confirmation email. Click on the link in the confirmation email and you’re good to go. They’re actually really good forums, so worth a look anyway.

Thanks in advance for anyone that’s kind enough to take the time to vote for me.

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Meh.

I’m tempted to leave this post at that, just a single word. But if I’m honest there is more to this iPad thing than that. Fundamentally, Apple have gone to great lengths and enormous fanfare to release what is essentially a big iPhone without the phone or the camera. Sure, it’s a swish looking thing – Apple products always are. And the interface would be awesome, just like the iPhone, because Apple know how to meld man (or woman) and machine.

But is this iPad really anything spectacular? The thing that annoyed me the most watching a news program last night was the closing comments on the brief coverage of the iPad launch:

“The new iPad will allow people to read books electronically.”

They made this sound like it was a new thing. Like we’d never read an ebook before. Seriously, Apple are masters at convincing people that the emperor is wearing a fine ermine robe. I read ebooks regularly on my iPhone. The Kindle is going gangbusters in the US and has recently rolled out internationally. My books sell better in ebook formats than print formats by several orders of magnitude. And so on and so on.

So now, due to the massive media arse licking that Steve Jobs always seems to elicit, there will be thousands of people thinking that Apple has made ebooks a reality at last. Good grief, they’ll cry, are we living in the future? (Well, it is 2010, but still no flying fucking cars).

To be optimistic about it, regardless of how annoying it is, the iPad being touted as the new thing in publishing is good for writers. It’s not the new thing in publishing by a long way. We’ve been hammering out the pioneer trail through digital books and all associated stuff for several years now. But, Apple does attract its fanboys and fangirls. The latest Apple device is the must have gadget every time. The marketing behind it is terrifying.

When I heard that Stephen Fry had endorsed the iPad with talk of how great it was to use I felt the Earth shift on its axis. When Fry, the God-Emperor of Twitter, and Jobs, the Witch-King of Technology, combine forces, the future of humanity is theirs to toy with.

Steve Jobs, mind-controlling the masses

But, this can only be a good thing. Publishing is going digital. It’s a simple as that. You might remember this post I made back in August. It’s just a matter of how it will happen. Print books will still exist – Print On Demand technology will be the new vanguard of print – and speciality editions will still be popular with bibliophiles like me. It’s just a case of what becomes the standard for digital publishing.

The Kindle and its e-ink brethren tried to lead the way taking electronic reading from a computer screen to a hand held electronic book. As similar as possible to paper in every way. Then handheld devices like the iPhone shattered the calm of the library.

Sure, a Kindle is a great ebook reader, but an iPhone is a great ebook reader, and a phone and, most importantly, a web portal. The iPad has taken that concept and made it bigger. Too big, in my opinion, but we’ll see if new physical sizes emerge – remember the iPod gave birth to the iPod Nano. I’d like to see an iPad Nano, halfway in size between an iPhone and the current iPad.

Anyway, the point is this. The iPad has full internet activity and a brilliant user interface. You can go straight to your news media source, read the top stories, click on a picture to see the video, listen to the latest single from Current Pop Sensation And The Plagiarists and so on. It’s an interactive media source along with being an ebook reader. That’s where the allure lies. Remember the post I linked above where I talked about convergence. That’s what is needed.

For me the iPhone offers that convergence and the iPad is just an iPhone that won’t fit in my pocket. And it doesn’t have a phone or a camera. And, true to Apple form, there’s no USB connectivity, no expandable memory card ports, no access to the workings of it and a truly shite battery life. But it’s the latest thing from Apple, it’s slick and you feel all Star Trek when you use it. People will buy it. When they do, due to very clever and aggressive action from Apple with regard to getting publishers on side, they’ll suddenly see ebooks as the future. Not because ebooks are the future, not because we’ve been saying that and making them the future for the last few years, but because Steve Jobs said so. All hail the Techno Messiah. It’s a little bit sickening, but what the fuck. More people will be buying ebooks. For writers, embracing the digital publishing revolution, that’s no bad thing. It’s also going to shake up the podcasting and vodcasting world, so watch out for explosions on that front as well.

I won’t be getting an iPad. Not least because it sounds like an electronic monthly item for women, but mainly because it doesn’t really offer anything new yet. It just offers what’s already there in a bigger format. But it won’t be long before the iPad and competitive examples are as ubiquitous as the iPod. Think back to 1995 and going to buy the latest album on CD. Could you imagine having your entire music collection in digital form on something smaller than a pack of gum in your pocket back then? Now it’s the norm. It won’t be long before commuter trains are filled with people holding flat shiny screens, flicking their finger across them now and then to ellicit an electronic swoosh as they turn the “page”. And that’s only the beginning.

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My short story “Trial Not Required” has just been published in M-Brane SF magazine. It’s in issue 13 and starts on page 13, which is kinda cool. The PDF edition of the mag is out now and the print edition should be available in the next couple of days.

The publisher, Chris Fletcher, asked for a little afterword about the story to include in the issue. This is what wrote:

“Trial Not Required” is a story born of a single absurd concept that occurred to me one night – wouldn’t it be strange if there was a big artificial ape that was once cutting edge technology but was now old-fashioned and a bit of a freak. And what if that ape started to question its role and the role of those that made it…?

You can find out all about it here. I hope you like it.

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