What a grand time we had in studio! If you remember from a previous Shared Desk, we enjoyed good panel with Stacia Kelly & Nick Kelly, another husband and wife team in the Science Fiction and Fantasy market. We finally got them over at Imagine That! Studios, enjoyed the last of the gas in the grill, and got them on mic. In this first in-studio appearance (and something tells me, far from the last) we talk about the recent Endless Possibilities Book Tour, lessons learned, and where we are going from here.
00:00 — Introduction
- We’ve got alcohol introduced into the system which means the drops-in’s are leaning towards the ruder side of things. Even with guests in-studio.
- Welcome for the first time in-studio our special guests, Nick and Stacia Kelly.
- Bitching about the winter that shows no signing of ending…
- Good things about Trinity Episcopal: We meet awesome people!
- What do you do when you’re about to have a book released?
- Tee — Goes on a CLEANING BINGE!
- Pip — Drinks. (But Tee has other opinions as to what she does…)
- Stacia — When she is nervous, she dances! Then cleans up after herself….
- Nick — Channels his inner-Jaeger pilot. (He tends to cave to peer pressure from the show host, too.)
- Go out and get Dawn’s Early Light! NOW!!!
- A lot is riding on this new book.
- There’s been a lot of hype around the book.
- Our blog traffic is up by 300% (Now 400%….)
- No one touches the bell!
- A lot has been happening across all our blogs…
08:47 — Reflections and Lessons Learned from a Blog Tour
- Blog Tours
- What did we learn?
- How do they happen?
- How do you organize one?
- Stacia — “This was my idea.”
- WbtR wanted to try something new with book promotions!
- First time with the blog tour — Sixteen participants! (Yikes!)
- Nick admits there was a learning curve, but there were some challenges ahead.
- Tee had a problem: The traffic during the blog tour dropped. Oooops…
- Is there a strategy at composing blogposts?
- What are tips for participants new to blog touring?
- A “How to Blog 101” blogpost or “class” for those involved
- Understanding a commitment level
- Advantages: a new pool of content for my blog
- Rules for repurposing blogpost and creating content
- Nick — Ask yourself “What makes you want to read a blogpost?”
- Tee — Ask your blog host “What would you like?” and pitch ideas.
- Pip — On evergreen content
- Stacia — Change more than 20% of a blogpost before you think it is a repurposed blogpost
- Nick — On a blogpost’s exclusivity
- Timing on topics does matter.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — does it really work?
- What Tee has to deal with on a daily basis…
- So someone is intimated by Tee? For what exactly?!
- Oh MySpace’s Tom, where are you now?
- Tee builds up a joke about DC (Comics) but Nick thinks it’s about (Washington) DC…
- Another resource for blogposts — Writers…who behave like idiots
- A tangent on SFWA…
- Another tangent — albeit a much longer one — on Kickstarter…
- If you are going to blog about something out there or controversial, own it.
- Other bits of advice for writers new to a blog tour
- Know the works of the authors
- Look for a sweet spot for blogpost length
35:30 — Seriously? Seriously.
- So much stuff to choose from for this week’s section…
- Pip reads the web, and Nick is happy.
- A threat that that is creeping up on established authors of the Empire: The Loss of their Cushy Offices in London!
- Are these writers serious?!
- Nick and Stacia take the blame for what happening to toad’s professional author.
- Stacia shares an opinion on those who rely solely on traditional house publishing.
- Your obligatory Doctor Who reference…
- What you, as an author, need to do to survive in today’s modern publishing world.
- Do authors really need a downtown metropolitan office?!
- Nick Kelly steps up and knocks it out of the park!
46:04 — The Wrap-Up
- Now THAT’S a segue!!!
- Pip and Tee have an jam packed week this week between…
- Dawn’s Early Light, coming out yesterday
- Appearance on The Writing Show in Richmond, VA on Thursday
- Hosting a Social Media Master Class for Writers in Richmond, VA on Friday
- Later on this Spring…
- RavenCon, April 25-27
- A quick cameo from Sonic Boom who wants S’mores and feels the need to plug America’s Funniest Home Videos
- DemiCon 25, May 1-5
- What Nick and Stacia have on their plates…
- Finishing and releasing Gian in time for Earth Day
- “Catwalk: Jericho” coming
- Catwalk: Lineage coming this Halloween
- Remember: Always honor Rule #34!
- Nick Kelly gushes for a moment about James Langton…while explaining the moment he figured out why Pip and Tee call this podcast The Shared Desk…
50:57 — The Outtake
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Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.