In this inbetweenisode of The Indy Author Podcast, I pose a question to fellow podcaster Jeff Elkins about what he's getting from The Dialogue Doctor podcast, both for himself and in terms of his goals related to helping other authors, that's different after over 70 episodes than he expected when he did his first episode. As is often the case when I speak with Jeff, he took that question in a truly wonderful direction. He talked about the importance to him of building community, and how that differs from podcasters like me whose primary goal is to provide content (and he illustrated the difference with examples of several other podcasters whose names you’ll recognize). He talked about factoring in where your energy comes from in a way that’s much more useful than the usual introvert / extrovert model, and about how we can change the story we tell ourselves to achieve the results we are aiming for. And he offered some great insights about serving one’s community while also enlisting the support of that community in keeping a creative endeavor going. In fact, I was inspired by my conversation with Jeff to update The Indy Author patronage program, as I describe after the conversation with Jeff.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Jeff Elkins is a novelist, ghostwriter, and editor with more than 10 novels on the market. During the day, he leads the writing team for a company that simulates difficult conversations for professionals to practice. He also helps authors improve their dialogue to engage readers more fully through one-on-one consulting and through his podcast The Dialogue Doctor.
Fantasy author and Content Manager for Kindlepreneur Jason Hamilton discusses Kindle Vella, Amazon’s new platform for serialized fiction. We discuss the opportunity Vella provides for authors to earn money, to interact with readers, and to gain input and insights from their readership, with the caveat that material on Vella needs to be as carefully polished as on any other platform. We discuss the importance of experimentation, and of recognizing that the Vella platform, its readership, and its terms and conditions will change as Amazon expands and tweaks it based on customer feedback. And we speculate about where Amazon might take Vella from here.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
Jason Hamilton is a fantasy author and Content Manager for Kindlepreneur. He has a particular love of mythology, history, and geek culture. When he's not writing, his favorite hobbies include hiking, Netflix, chilling with his wife, spouting nonsense words at his baby daughter, and developing his website MythBank.com.
Erin Wright of Wide for the Win talks about some of the criteria that indy authors should consider when selecting your distribution platforms, using PublishDrive as an example. She talks about the dangers of putting all your eggs in one distribution basket, and the fact that an author can’t really claim to be wide if they rely on one distribution platform for their author business. Erin shares some insights into the choice of IngramSpark or the Draft2Digital print beta as a distribution option for your print books. And she also talks about how her experiment with being a creator on the road in her RV worked out for her and her husband, and the importance of the lesson that your creative adventures might take a different direction than you think they're going to when you start out.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
USA Today Bestselling author Erin Wright has worked as a library director, barista, teacher, website designer, and ranch hand helping brand cattle, before settling into the career she’s always dreamed about: Author. As she’s also paying it forward to the author community as the founder and admin of the Wide for the Win Facebook Group.
L.E. DeLano talks about WHAT AUTHORS CAN LEARN FROM THEATER, including how her theater experience helped her as an introvert in both her writing craft and her publishing voyage … the exercise of “losing the dialogue and finding the beats,” including the importance of the quiet moment … the idea of “acting beyond the mask” as a way of exploring what secrets your characters are keeping … and how you can use editors and beta readers to gauge the reactions of your larger audience.
For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html.
Did you find the information in this video useful? Please consider supporting my work at The Indy Author via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple).
L.E. DeLano began her career as a blogger for Woman's Day Magazine and Mom's Magazine. After a foray into fan fiction, she began self-publishing romance in 2012 (under a different pen name), branched out to YA, and landed a traditional publishing deal with the novels TRAVELER and DREAMER. TRAVELER was selected as a Keystone To Reading Secondary Book Award finalist for 2018-19 and was also voted one of The 20 Most Beautiful Books in the World for 2017 by MTV UK. L.E.’s most recent work, the YA fantasy novel BLUE, was named a 2021 NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite in Young Adult Fiction. Though mostly raised in New Mexico, she now lives in Pennsylvania with two adventurous kids and two ridiculous cats.