Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy about their new online course on How to Write a Novel. Prior to the interview, Mark shares and reflects on a brief industry update related to Amazon's recent AI-related change, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. Reedsy contains an online listing of vetted professionals from across the industry, including editors, cover designers, and marketing experts. Get $20 off hiring a pro through Reedsy using Mark's Reedsy affiliate link. In the interview, Mark and Ricardo talk about: Ricardo's persona and image being directly attached to Reedsy When Reedsy started and what the main idea behind it was, and the value proposition to authors How only 3 to 5% of the professionals who apply to be on Reedsy actually make it through The Reedsy online writing tool that you can use to write and export professional looking ePub and print-ready PDF files Some of the future development plans for the Reedsy writing platform, including collaboration with an editor Ricardo's HOW TO MARKET A BOOK, which is free in eBook edition The 2nd book he wrote and released in Jan 2023 called AMAZON ADS FOR AUTHORS which is the 2nd book in the Reedsy Guides series Some of the reasoning behind why one of the books is free in eBook and the other has a retail price associated with it (hint: it's a marketing tip) Important marketing information that Ricardo would want authors to know The new Reedsy course that runs 3 months and helps authors work through the first draft of their novel The various ongoing cohorts for the course, including one that opens in Sept and another that starts Oct 30th, to co-incide with NaNoWriMo, then the next that'll start in January 2024 The term "Reedsian" which is used to denote Reedsy employees Tom Bromley, the instructor they hired to teach the How to Write a Novel course The intial launch price for the course, which is $1000 - and that it'll be going up shortly after the September launch Ricardo's previous attempts to try to write a novel and how this course might be one that he himself can benefit from Some of the things that surprised Ricardo about Reedsy since it's launch nearly 10 years ago How to find Reedsy and Ricardo What Ricardo is looking forward to about the future of our industry And more...   After the interview Mark reflects the overall supportive nature of the publishing industry   Links of Interest: Reedsy Reedsy's How to Market a Book Online Course Subscriptions for Authors Episode 018 - Finding The Right Professional with Ricardo from Reedsy Episode 006 - What's Wrong with Indie Publishing (Mark's "10-year-olds playing soccer" analogy) Mark's Wide for the Win Update Page YouTube Video: OH NO! Is Amazon Anti AI? Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Ricardo Fayet is one of the four founders of Reedsy, a marketplace connecting authors to the world's top publishing talent--from editors to cover designers, book marketers, or literary translators. He's the author of two books on marketing for authors, and a regular presenter at several prestigious writers' conferences: NINC, 20BooksVegas, and The Self Publishing Show Live, among others.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Emilia Rose and Michael Evans of Ream Stories, a subscription platform built by authors for authors. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark, Emilia, and Michael talk about: Emilia's Wattpad experience which resulted in one of her books becoming very popular on that platform Michael's love of distopian fiction and discovery of the magnitude of the indie author realm, and his interest in the creator economy How Emilia and Michael first met What Ream (which launched in May 2023) is and how it works How authors can choose to make their book free or paid on Ream, and release it serialized or all at once The purposeful lack of exclusivity and onerous contract terms that Ream offers The fact that it's free for authors to use and Ream keeps 10% plus a credit card processing fee, resulting in authors keeping about 85% of the revenue Taking all the aspects of the various reading and serialzied platforms and merging them together to create Ream Creative things that authors have done that have surprised them since launching Ream The popularity of "author notes" and asking readers questions along the way on Ream Advice they would offer to other writers And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on a number of things, including how a small gesture can make a big difference, the value of bringing the best of the best of multiple platforms together into a single place, and the importance of treating readers like real people rather than objects to sell to.   Links of Interest: Ream Stories Michael Evans Website Emilia Rose Website Subscriptions for Authors Free Audiobook: Subscriptions for Authors Self Publishing Insiders with Draft2Digital - Mark Interviews Daniel Willcocks on Overcoming Author Hurdles (YouTube) EP 320 - Maximizing Your Creative IP with Reenita Hora Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Ream is the subscription platform by fiction authors for fiction authors. The platform allows writers to build communities around their stories and charge a monthly fee that rewards your readers with early access to your stories, bonus content, access to new stories and your backlist, and even perks like signed books and merchandise. Emilia Rose is a steamy romance author of 30 novels with over 30 million story reads online and six figures in annual subscription revenue. You can learn more about her here: https://www.emiliarosewriting.com/ Michael Evans is an author of 12 sci-fi thrillers + 2 nonfiction books for authors, serial creator economy founder, and a student at Harvard. You can learn more about him here: https://mevansinked.com/   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Reenita Malhotra Hora, an award-winning screenwriter, novelist and audio producer. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor. Learn more about SciFidea and the awesome Dyson Sphere Sci-Fi Writing Contest.   In the interview, Mark and Reenita talk about: How Reenita has been writing her entire life and her love of storytelling in varous forms The manner in which life can be more fun when we are creating and when we don't always take life so seriously Focusing for a long time on how she could help her clients get THEIR stories out there The decision, in mid-pandemic, to begin to take her writing career in her own hands and developing her own IP The release of her book OPERATION MOM, which was released by Harper Collins India initially in 2011 Buying the rights back for the book in the rest of the world (ie, outside India), as well as for the subsidiary rights for film, TV, etc The publisher's belief that the Western world isn't at all interested in reading a book set in Mumbai Reenita's own screenplay adaptation of the novel (written in the last year) which she decided to set in Hoboken, New Jersey How the story and the comedy in the screenplay remains the same but how the specific details and specific jokes have been modified and adjusted for the different market Just how much Reenita has been learning about publishing in the past few years The way that working with a smaller, boutique publisher can be a good experience, but how an author self-publishing it can potentially work a bit better because of the control they have Winning the Santa Barbara International Screenplay Award and being a finalist for the New York International Screenplay Award The unique approach Reenita took with her newer book Shadow Realms and the multiple formats she has created it in The importance of understanding the business of storytelling The two active podcasts Reenita has created, including the True Fiction Project, which explores the journey of story from non-fiction to fiction The different opportunities for various sponsorships in these two different podcasts Diversity being so important, but the fact that it has become such a recent "buzzword" The interesting compromise of the diversity of a community like Hoboken (which has shades of similarity to Mumbai and offers a window into the Indian-American community) How it can be fun to play with stereotypes and tropes and to turn them around Reenita's passion about bringing the experience of South-Asians to an American audience Describing her experiences as being akin to a street-food in Mumbai And more... After the interview Mark reflects on a few things from the conversation, including the narrow way many New York publishers look at setting in a novel, which hasn't changed all that much since the early 1990s, and the dynamic way Reenita has explored storytelling in creative ways, while patiently learning more about the industry. Links of Interest: Reenita's Website Operation Mom Reenita's Podcasts Screenplays The 2023 Aurora Awards (YouTube) 2023 Aurora Awards Opening Schtick (YouTube) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Reenita Malhotra Hora is an award-winning screenwriter, novelist and audio producer. Based partly in San Francisco and partly in Los Angeles, her experiences are akin to 'Bhel Puri,' the street food of Mumbai, her native place — a delectable mix of tastes (and preferences), meshed together with a bug or two for good measure. Passionate about storytelling the Indian narrative, Reenita writes characters and themes that reflect the South Asian experience whether set in South Asia or in the Western world. As a writer she has contributed to Reuters, South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, Times of India, Rolling Stone, National Geographic Kids, Cartoon Network Asia, Disney and more. As an on-air news reporter, writer, and producer, she has contributed to Bloomberg, RTHK Radio 3, Monocle Radio and the BBC. She has two active podcasts - 'Shadow Realm' (narrative fantasy fiction) and the 'True Fiction Project' (unscripted to scripted). Her female-driven comedy, 'Operation Mom' is a Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards winner, a Chanticleer International Book Awards GrandPrize winner and an Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize winner. Her YA fantasy screenplay, ‘Shadow Realm’ is a Script2Comic and Launchpad Prose finalist, a Screencraft quarterfinalist, and a selected nominee for the New Media Film Festival. She is a limited partner in the How Women Invest fund which specifically invests in women owned companies. She is working on her next novel and has recently launched Chapter by episode, a digital publishing platform for immersive chat fiction stories with diverse themes.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews the creative daughter/father team of Brigid Collins and Ron Collins about their collaborative writing. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark, Brigid and Ron talk about: The last time they saw one another (Feb 2020, just prior to the world "shutting down" for the pandemic) Ron's entry into the world of professional speculative fiction writing in the mid 1990s Why Ron feels that non-fiction can be a lot of fun to write Ron's latest book On Creating (And Celebrating!) Characters Brigid growing up and being witness to the dedication her father Ron had for his pursuit of writing Singer, the first book Brigid wrote, which evolved into the four books of The Songbird River Chronicles in response to her father's prompting Brigid's appreciation of having good parents at all the various stages of her youth and adulthood The importance of being able to accept the other person's methods and style of writing as well as their ideas which can be totally different Learning one's own writing styles from engaging with the other person's work The incredible amount of fun that can happen with the right collaborations The logistics of how they co-author together, for both short stories as well as a newco-authored book project Finding the middle-ground between planning and discovery writing Merging the worlds of the fairie realm with the baseball world based on the idea of a baseball diamond being built on top of a fairie ring The fun of merging the tropes of these two types of worlds The way the split of writing has evolved and gotten more complicated as part of writing the next books in the series Leveraging Google doc and folders for the collaborations Using Draft2Digital's payment splitting option for publishing A collaboration that Ron is doing with his brother merging science fiction and the world of music Advice they would offer to writers interested in getting into writing collaborations And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on the "2+2 equally more than 4" awesomeness that can happen in a powerful collaboration. Links of Interest: Brigid's Website The Songbird River Chronicles (and more) Ron's Website On Creating (And Celebrating!) Characters Home Run Enchanted (Faires and Fastballs Book 1) Abridged (half-hour) Keynote on Embracing Technology for AuthorTube Writing Conference Unabridged FULL HOUR Keynote (Patreon link) Wine Country Writer's Festival EP 250 - Typewriters, Nature, and Fatherhood with E S Curry EP 314 - Defeating Writer's Block Using Penspyre EP 317 - Rambling Reflections from the Road - Part 2 EP 318 - Rambling Reflections from the Road - Part 3 Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Brigid Collins is a fantasy and science fiction writer living in Michigan with her wonderful wife and her irritating cats. (Just kidding, the cats are pretty wonderful, too.) Her fantasy series The Songbird River Chronicles and Winter’s Consort, her fun middle grade hijinks series The Sugimori Sisters, and her dark fairy tale novella Thorn and Thimble are available wherever books are sold. Her short stories have appeared in Fiction River, Feyland Tales, and Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar anthologies. Ron Collins is a best-selling Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy author who writes across the spectrum of speculative fiction. With his daughter, Brigid, he edited the anthology Face the Strange. His short fiction has received a Writers of the Future prize. His short story “The White Game” was nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2016 Derringer Award. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has worked to develop avionics systems, electronics, and information technology before chucking it all to write full-time.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode Mark reflects on the value authors can have for libraries, exhaustion of being on the road for several weeks in a row and too many commitments, and the feeling of "coming home." This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Digipalooza Mark Leslie's Books via OverDrive Mark Leslie Lefebvre's Books via OverDrive Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode Mark reflects on a few of the things he has learned from a couple of the craft talks given at his intense residency week in the Masters in Creative Writing program at Western Colorado University. This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Graduate Program in Creative Writing at WCU Steve Coughlin (Professor of English) Maya Jewel Zeller (Nature Writing and Poetry Faculty) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  

Mark interviews Johanna Rothman about her latest book FREE YOUR INNER NON-FICTION WRITER. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor This episode is sponsored by Mark's new book Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard. In the interview, Mark and Johanna talk about: Why Johanna is often called The Pragmatic Manager The thirty-years of consulting that Johanna has experience with The fact that she is not a "natural writer" Beginning to write in 1997 because she realized that speaking only wasn't a great way to market her business as a consultant Advice Johanna received from Gerald Weinberg How Johanna began to write short fiction in 2016 Being involved in the early days of "Agile" development Why Johanna recommends writing in 15 minute chunks for non-fiction Who the idea reader is for Johanna's book FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER How to keep a business-related blog interesting How writing non-fiction includes universal story elements: "a person in a situation with a problem" The "write fast to write well" concept The importance of maintaining your voice Why Johanna writes a question of the week on her blog The book Obliquity by John Kay and how detours might help us better in the long run Advice Johanna would offer to writers for getting better at their own non-fiction writing And more... After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of your author voice as well as the divergent ways you sometimes find your way to your destination. Links of Interest: Johanna Rothman's Website Create an Adaptable Life Free Your Inner Non-Fiction Writer Lou J. Berger (IMDB) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your complex problems. She helps leaders and teams learn to see practical alternatives that help them achieve more agility in their work. With that knowledge, they can choose what—and how—to adapt their product development. For almost three decades, Johanna has helped her clients experiment with agile and lean alternatives for every piece of their product development. As a result, her clients create more management agility which translates to better business results. A prolific writer, Johanna is the author of 18 books and hundreds of articles about many aspects of product development. She uses her trademark practicality and humor to focus on what people can do—and not take herself too seriously.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode Mark reflects on being overly stressed about having too much on his plate, and what seemed to have helped him deal with that. This episode is sponsored by patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast. Links of Interest: Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews David Olive, Jr (AKA David Grimdark) author and one of the engineers behind Penspyre a tool to help writers tackle writer's block and productivity. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes, and word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark and David talk about: David's love of reading as a young child and his love of fantasy novels Begining to read eBooks on a dedicated reader, and reading Webnovels Starting to write when interning in University Putting some of his work up on Wattpad The Systems Design Engineering program David recently graduated from at University of Waterloo The final year project that David and his fellow engineering students put together, which resulted in Penspyre The procedural documentation of identifying problems related to the writing process Reaching out to local writers from the Cambridge Writer's Group as part of their research and investigation Learning the Google Spring method How Pensypre offers up AI-generated writing prompts to help a writer with their productivity The research they'd done with writers leading them to believe they didn't want a tool that would give them something they'd take word for word but that they needed something to help "get the ball rolling." The metrics they looked at for their research with how writers engaged with the tool Their study's results showing that writers typically wrote 15% more in a 20 minute writing sprint using the tool than when not using the tool How Pensyre is a tool David wanted to make as much for himself as for other writers The "Continue the Story" option where you can focus on action, dialogue, or inner thoughts of the characters with various styles or moods The "Link the story" feature for briding two different scenes or moments or actions together The "Describe" function that allows you to draw upon one or more of the five senses Penspyre's availability as a Google Docs extension How writers during the test kept the prompts unedited about 15% of the time The element of the software that suggests the level of "originality" score to the prompt Advice David would offer to beginning writers David's thoughts on why writers shouldn't be afraid of this new technology   After the interview Mark shares a few of his own reflections, thanks Patrons for their support and reminds them there'll be a video walk-thru of Penspyre available for them at www.patreon.com/starkreflections.   Links of Interest: David's Author Website Penspyre Website Penspyre Extension on Google Chrome Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   David Olive Jr is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, Canada who has a passion for reading and writing fiction. As an aspiring writer he and some classmates decided to try and tackle writing productivity as their final year design project. The result was Penspyre, a tool that utilizes AI to give the writer contextualized writing prompts and help them be more productive.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews author, publisher and RPG gamer Peter M. Ball who has been engaged in experimental and digital publishing since the very beginning of its appearance in the book industry. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In the interview, Mark and Peter talk about: Peter being a night owl who is most comfortable starting to write at about 10 PM at night and working through the night How, through necessity with a regular life schedule, Peter will get the writing done first thing in the morning Peter having wanted to be a writer since he was quite young The way that most of the work he has taken on in his life has been somehow affiliated with the writing world Describing the Gold Coast of Australia as Miami with slightly less charm The undergraduate degree focus which mostly avoided genre fiction How you can never escape poetry once you've done it, even years later being introgued as "Peter the Poet" How in the early 2000s Dungeons and Dragons open-sourced their rules, allowing people to provide material within their realm Getting involved in DriveThruFiction back in 2005 The hunger for content that came out in that time period How changes in the RPG industry that happened were later echoed a few years later in the eBook fiction publishing space The issues Peter recognized in 2006 in creating role playing game material where somebody else held the licensce for it Challenges of submitting fiction to markets from a country like Australia Spending six weeks at an Australian branch of the Clarion Writers Workshop and how that dramatically changed the perspective forced on him from his university education Continuing to submit his fiction to the traditional markets but paying attention to what was going on in the self-publishing, digital publishing, and indie publishing space Launching Brain Jar Press in 2017 largely as a vehicle for publishing his backlist Why cutting your teeth in short fiction can be great Having a plan to indie publish his own books for about ten years, make all the mistake on his own books, rather than someone elses, and getting solid learning and experience from it to benefit his press Working with Kathleen Jennings on a poetry collection right at about the time her first book with Tor went huge The idea for a series of short chapbooks with four or five essays per writer in order to bring these remarkable articles the authors had already written back into availability Borrowing the cultural capital of all the people they're publishing so that they can grow and eventually launch new writers How Peter fell in love with print quite accidentally The requirement of having to have an online store for the press The joke that it's cheaper to get things to Narnia than it is to get them to Australia The thought exercise Peter does regarding how many books he has to sell to make it to $100 Understanding the market base that you're likely selling to as a small specialized indie press Peter's impatience for just replicating what midlist are publishing is doing in the face of such wonderful, free, and dynamic digital tools when one can be breaking the model, expanding, and forming new ideas and new products ether Peter has been doing much of his own writing since launching Brain Jar Press 2.0 The flash fiction writing Peter has been able to do during a few 8 minute breaks at work What Peter is most optimistic about with what's happening in the publishing world now And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on Peter working in publishing and writing related realms, the value of connecting with others in the industry, and Peter's thirst for innovation and experimentation within digital publishing.   Links of Interest: Peter M. Ball's Website Brain Jar Press Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles   Peter M. Ball is an author, publisher, and RPG gamer whose love of speculative fiction emerged after exposure to The Hobbit, Star Wars, David Lynch’s Dune, and far too many games of Dungeons and Dragons before the age of 7. He’s spent the bulk of his life working as a creative writing tutor, with brief stints as a performance poet, gaming convention organiser, online content developer, non-profit arts manager, and d20 RPG publisher. Peter’s three biggest passions are fiction, gaming, and honing the way aspiring writers think about the business and craft of writing, which led to a five-year period working for Queensland Writers Centre as manager of the Australian Writers Marketplace and convenor of the GenreCon writing conference. He is now pursuing a PhD in Writing at the University of Queensland, exploring the poetics of series fiction and their response to emerging publishing technologies. He’s the author of the Miriam Aster series and the Keith Murphy Urban Fantasy Thrillers, three short story collections, and more stories, articles, poems, and RPG material than he’d care to count. He’s one-half of Brain Jar Press with his partner, Sarah, publishes his own work under the Eclectic Projects imprint, and resides in Brisbane, Australia, with his wife and two very affectionate cats.     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0