Author Boot Camp

That's right: now is the time to sign up for the Fourth Round of the Author Boot Camp Class taught by myself and Scott Sigler. We're happy to be hosted yet again by Stanford University.

This Spring's class will be on two Saturdays, April 24th and May 1st. 10AM - 4PM in Palo Alto

Register here to get into this class before it fills up.

In today’s publishing world, debut authors have to write well, but they also have to help sell their own work. Many agents and editors are looking for writers who bring an existing audience to the table. In this workshop, students will learn practical tools and techniques to build large networks of followers, fans, and eager readers. The methods discussed will include social networking, new media, and serializing novels as free audiobooks. The instructors will outline the process they used to make cheap, highly effective advertising that landed book contracts with major publishing houses. Why let a small number of insiders — agents, editors, and publicists — decide the success of an author, when the tools for building an audience are readily available?

Can't wait to see you there!

Call In Line 206-350-4998Click here to Listen!

I'm back in the Hot Tub today waxing nostalgic about the fact that the decade is ending and that Y2K was ten years ago. I talk about the A Long Way from Disney Kindle rush that went on this week, some of the milestones it reached and my holidays. I also unveil a new Kindle Promo: The Contest!

The Contest works like this:There are two giveaways--on Wednesday 1/9 and Weds 1/16.

Each week there will be two winners, who'll have the choice of three prizes:

1) signed Breakneck Books copy of JWU—the first printing! A collector’s item.

2) Original marked manuscript pages of JP2 or a short story by me.

Or 3) A consult on a short story or chapter of a novel you’re writing/working on.

To play: blog about the Disney Kindle release and chart rush to help spread the word. If you don’t have a blog, the equivalent of a blog post is deemed adding the info as a facebook or twitter status update for two days out of a given week. Be sure to put this link to Amazon into your post.

Doable? I think so! Fun? Yes!!

Click here to listen!

Yeah, I've got a LOT to cover this week in a quick chunk of info for your ears. I'm here to talk about three things:

1) my Jack Palms Crime Macbook: "The Podcast Pro™" is now on sale over at eBay. It's true. This beast of a machine and crucial part of Harwoodian history is now going to the highest bidder. What else can I say? It's actually just a really good computer that'll be good to you for a long time. Big HD and Ram. Badass. I will sign, tailor files left on it for you, even set it up to help you see how to podcast using my examples.

2) My winter class at Stanford's Online Writing Studio is now open for registration. Click here for description and more info. Duration: 10 weeks. Starts: Jan. 11. Cost: $750

3) The Big News: I'm setting up for a new Amazon Rush! We're going to call this one the Disney Kindle Commando Sunday! Call it December 27th when we go after the Amazon Kindle store to rush my two collections of A Long Way from Disney right up those Kindle charts! Yes, we're going after that. Inspired by JA Konrath, Chris Brogan, Boyd Morrison, April Hamilton and a host of others, I'm going after the Kindle universe this month. Each collection will be listed at $.99 and our goal is get as many folks as we can to buy them both on Dec. 27th. You with me?

Or, as Dan Colman called it over at his Open Culture blog, "Web 2.0 to Book Deal in 3 Minutes." Love that title.  [** Can I also mention that we're under two weeks now!!**]

This is my new video explaining how I make my podcasts and have used them to create an audience, raise my author profile, and get my book published (twice!) You can see it directly on YouTube here. As well as leave comments, find the embed code for your own blog, rate it, and whatever else you can imagine. Help me spread the word! Thanks, yer boy.

Alright guys, sorry I'm not here today with a new episode of YOUNG JUNIUS. Yes, I'm slow on that. Yes, I'm sucking. BUT yes, the next episode will blast your socks off! Pushed back to Sunday, I'm afriad. BUT, today I'm here with a quick wrap video of Author Boot Camp where you can see me talking about all of you and how much you guys rock, Scott Sigler's crome dome, a couple of the kool-kid students, and *yes* a few seconds of something that looks like me doing The Robot.

Ready to blast off?