How podcasting and free content is changing the publishing landscape

There’s a great piece in this morning’s Broward-Palm Beach New Times about J.C. Hutchins, who has been podcasting his 7th Son series over at Podiobooks.com. The most important quote: sleep is for pussies.

J.C. is way ahead of me in terms his podcast — 20,000 listeners, compared to my measly few hundred to date.  but the basic point is there — more and more, authors are getting out there and doing it themselves, in some cases podcasting their work, or simply giving it away for free, as sci-fi author Cory Doctorow is doing.

Great stuff, because its slowly changing the publishing landscape and opening doors, thanks to new technology including the internet, the ability to print a single copy of a book on the same day it is ordered, and lots of other good news for folks like me. Scott Sigler, an awesome writer who podcasted Earthcore, among others, just inked a $500,000 movie/book deal with Crown Books.  Nice.

Which takes me to the last couple weeks with Republic.  Right after the DailyKos review last Sunday, Republic shot up to the number 2 spot on Amazon’s Sci-Fi/Alternate history list, and has been hovering in the top 20,000 to top 40,000 books sold ever since (right now the sales rank is 11,588).  While being in the top 20,000 may not sound like much (and it really isn’t) for a bestselling author, it’s pretty damn good for a author/publisher/broadcaster one man operation.  Especially since that’s top 20,000 out of over 4 million titles.  I’ve got no complaints.

Final comment — I’m well into writing the sequel to Republic.  I haven’t decided yet whether or not to post any of the raw, ugly stuff here yet, or wait until its finished, re-written, polished, etc.  However, one way or the other, I plan to have the new one out by next summer.  The book takes place about seven years after Republic, and has a significantly different feel to it. While Republic is speculative fiction, it’s still close enough to our time (2016) that technology hasn’t changed that much, and the world I’m writing about is still very much our own.  By 2022, however, things have changed a lot.  I’m still trying to get my mind around what kinds of changes those might be: technology, politics, war, economics, health.  It’s fun and exciting and I can’t wait to start sharing it.

Anyway, check out the article about J.C. Hutchins and take a stop over at Podiobooks.com, where, along with his books, my own are available.

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