Crowd-subsidized Publishing

It's been a terribly long time since I have posted anything on this blog, and indeed, it's been a long time since I've written much of anything.  Why?  I've been busy working on a project called Fictivity Press.  In short, it's an experiment in what we are calling "crowd-subsidized publishing," a method of self-publishing similar to a vanity press (also known as subsidy press).  The main difference is that—instead of the writer paying to have his or her book prepared for publishing—Fictivity Press raises much of the funds through so-called crowd-funding sites such as IndieGoGo.

The first book selected for Fictivity Press's BookLaunch program is Pete Oxley's The Infernal Aether, which I've already invested a lot of time in.  I'll be doing the line editing and proofreading for the book some time after the IndieGoGo campaign has ended.  We're off to a very convincing start on this inaugural project but we can use all the help we can get.  You can pre-order an electronic version of the book for a contribution as small as $5.00.  Please visit the campaign home page and contribute what you can, even if it's just helping spread the word.

Is "crowd-subsidized publishing" for real?  So far, it looks pretty good!

Can You Hear Me Now?

 

A year and a half after publishing The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, I'm now venturing into the brave new (for me, anyway) world of audio publishing in two different media forms.

I'm in the early stages of an Audible.com audiobook production read by the incomparable Lee Strayer of Atomic 27 Media.  The plan is to release the Magnetron Chronicles stories as they were originally conceived: in serialized form.  More details as they become available...

In other news, New Zealand-based Booktrack has created a new hybrid media form that enhances ebooks with synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound (sample).  Booktrack has invited me to try out their upcoming beta studio, so I hope to have some titles available in their store soon.  That's assuming they have an appropriate sound effect for a zombified severed head piloting a steam-powered spacecraft.

Short and Sweet: An Introduction to Branding

This is the third installment in the continuing story of "Editing Mister D," a joint project to coach British nonfiction writer Pete Oxley through completion and publication of his first novel-length fiction work.

If you’re writing just for the fun of it, branding may very well be irrelevant.  However, if you think you may one day want to become a professional writer, it’s never too early to think about developing your brand.  What is "branding?"  Like General Mills, Cadillac, Swatch, or any number of instantly recognizable names, a brand is a kind of stamp, a shorthand way of telling your customers—er, readers—what to expect.  "Branding" is the process of creating your own unique brand, and the practice of stamping that brand on everything you do.