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As much as I appreciate the value of a good mistake, and the learning behind it, I overproduced at The Digital Writer last week.

Monday’s hangout snafu was funny – exactly the sort of technology hiccup it’s impossible to avoid, at least entirely, when working online.

This one was all my fault. It takes Johnny two seconds and the same number of clicks to get us going and live on YouTube each week. I was hoping for the same, but was embarrassingly less efficient.

I hadn’t verified my YouTube account, or realized I had to until people were trying to sign onto the hangout, and emailing me wondering what was happening.

Spoiler alert: I have two Gmail accounts.

The Ideal Solution For the Videos

Though we didn’t start at all as expected, we were closer to an ideal solution than we would have been otherwise by the time we finished.

We ended up recording answers in 10 minute chunks – long enough to prove a point or two, while staying easy in, easy out.

As for the hangout itself, I loved answering questions, and could do that all day. I feel helpful, and my voice gives my fingers a break.

Most hangouts will have a moderator; someone to keep me on task, ask me questions, and efficiently deliver a topic.

Each week’s hangout will be posted to YouTube in its entirety, then Tania will break the hangout into smaller pieces, 10-20 minutes, and publish those to YouTube as well.

I would love to transcribe these, since I think it would make the library a far better resource, but I can’t manage that yet.

I’ll do three hangouts per month, allowing you to shape the content as we go. Whatever you want to know most, that’s what I’ll spend the most time with.

Digital Writer will host the videos and the summaries. Written posts, like this one, will be hosted here.

This blog is subscription only, and will remain so. From here on, it will grow only through referral. If you have a friend you think would benefit from what we’re doing, or several, please email, tweet, or like this page.

I Need to Hose the Whole Thing Down

I’ve been needing to rebrand everything across the board FOREVER – gathering all my sites and assets and projects together, then unifying them beneath a single neat umbrella. Now that I’m clear on what I’m doing with the Digital Writer, I need to start immediately.

There’s no one in the world I trust to help me with this more than Danny, but I have to wait my turn since he’s been super busy with outstandingSETUP.

I can’t wait until we can get started on this because if we do it well, it can serve as a model author’s platform. We’re working on an “Author’s Theme” for WordPress as well, though I have no idea when that will be finished. It will be awesome when it is.

Collective Inkwell and Monsters

This week’s CI story was called “Monsters” and was a bit different from our other stories in the Dark Crossings series so far.

Its main character was a child, and the story dealt with bullying. We’ve found that when we write about relevant issues, our narratives resonate with readers, cutting into a layer deeper than simple scares.

Our short story, Hide ’N Seek, from two weeks ago earned nine 5-Star reviews (nothing lower) in its first 10 days, becoming our best-reviewed short so far. That story was about a negligent mother, sexting instead of watching her daughter while playing Hide ’N Seek at the park. Tragedy strikes.

Here is the teaser for Monsters:

10-year old Sheldon Harrison is afraid of monsters.

Every day he has to walk along a long stretch of woods where a Monster is rumored to live.

But that Monster isn’t as scary as the bullies which torment him. And the only way to avoid the bullies? To take a shortcut . . . through the woods.

If you would like a review copy of this title, please reply to one of your Digital Writer emails and I will send it to you.

Scammers Polluting the Author Pool

This week’s Self-Publishing Podcast was one of my favorite episodes yet, though I still enjoyed last week’s with Joanna Penn more.

We talked about buying reviews, and a lot of the scam IM products shilling Kindle success. I loved the topic, and think it’s one of the most important concerns facing modern authors.

Even after talking for an hour I felt like we were only getting started. I’ve thought of a hundred things that could’ve peppered the conversation since ending the podcast.

The nutshell: scammers suck and you should never buy reviews.

John Locke bought reviews. That doesn’t make him an asshole. Lying about it, like he did in a book that inspired me and countless others, does.

The existing environment is built on trust, bought reviews erode the ecosystem. It’s stealing.

Beyond the review buying lies a long list of IM scammers, flooding author inboxes with spammy mountains of But WAIT, there’s more!’s, fresh from the conveyor belt of their brand new spam-o-matic – promising to help you get rich on Kindle with a shit-heap of scattered tactics that might work for a month, even though the authors of the product can barely get them to work now.

That’s a hangman’s rope to a hard-working writers like you and me, who are playing a long game for a lucrative, lifetime career.

I have plenty to say about this, and have even considered writing a rant post, but I’m not sure how deep that rabbit hole goes.

Apparently, No Movies F*@#!* me Up

There’s never anything to learn from Better Off Undead, but it is nice to have a place each week where I promise nothing but a good time. This week’s topic was movies that messed us up (except using four letters to say it).

The example was Jaws ruining the beach for many people. I couldn’t think of an example since I always knew movies were movies, from since forever. Even if I felt creepy after leaving the theater, aftershocks were few, and always quick to die.

The BOU podcast is growing super fast, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s essentially three friends talking, but because it’s friendly conversation about topics that would interest the same reader who would likely love Yesterday’s Gone and my other serialized fiction, it might be the best broadcast I have for leading listeners to my work.

I will keep you posted on how this is working out. It might not work for all authors, but for some, a podcast could be a smarter solution than blogging. It’s in a different informational hemisphere, less saturated than what many bloggers face.

This Experiment Might Help You Most

I want to start talking a lot more about my children’s projects. Even if you’re not planning to write children’s fiction, watching a line of books getting planned, produced, and eventually published might shave months from your journey by nurturing anything from one idea to many.

I want to discuss projects, and with specific names, but I’m worried about saying too much, then having someone take then pen name. So I’m going to put out a book under the upcoming pen name with a single title – the equivalent of buying a domain. I want the children’s pen name up on Amazon so I can claim “first” before I tell you more about what I’m doing.

Zombies Are Slow, Especially When Writing Them

I’ve started writing a zombie story with Dave. This serial took him nearly a year of convincing before I agreed. I think zombies are a bit played, we have something rather zombie like in Yesterday’s Gone, and I don’t want to cover the same ground twice.

But since we’re doing the Better Off Undead podcast, a straight zombie story is a great fit. We came up with a premise that was easy to love, and started writing last week.

We’re doing several things different with this particular story, and I’ll start talking more about those in the next post. For now, I just wanted to admit that this story kicked my ass.

The time spent writing went over double its budget, and I still have more work to do once Dave passes it back to me. I’ll tell you what was wrong and how we fixed it next time. I only wanted to mention it now because it doesn’t matter how much you write, or how good you might be, writing = rewriting, and sometimes that can’t be planned on a calendar.

I Really (REALLY) Hope This Works

I just bought a press release package. It was super expensive and I’m going to be sad if it doesn’t work.

I’m not sad often, but this package is ridonculously priced for what is essentially a shot in the dark, but like a penny and a half less than it needs to be to make me want to try. If you were in a room with nine other people, you and eight others would agree I was being stupid.

But I understand press releases, have had a successful run with using them in a totally unrelated way, and have terrific product that is loved by its audience. All I need is more attention. And with the right press releases and intelligent headlines, I might be able to get it.

Press releases are the best SEO dollar I’ve ever spent, but writing and publishing fiction isn’t an SEO game, which is what makes this strategy a gamble.

This is another topic that I’ll detail as I go. If press releases work for me, they’ll probably work for you.

I’ll be back soon with another post. Please remember, this blog is subscription only, and will remain so.

If you have a friend or network who will benefit from what we’re doing here, please share by emailing, tweeting, or liking this page.

I did it. So can you.
Sean Platt

Enter your best email address in the box below, absorb the free content once a week, then take action on what you learn. You will be a more successful writer.