Matthew Wayne Selznick

After wrestling with Revver, Ustream, YouTube, and several different video conversion applications, I remembered that the excellent WordPress plugin PodPress supports Flash video. So the complete video record of July 13, 2008 — Sovereign Summer Sunday — is now available right here. Enjoy!

There are still plans to release of the short stories I read that day as a podcast fiction anthology on Podiobooks.com… eventually. There are some tentative plans in the works that have delayed that release for the moment. I can’t say much more about it now, except that I believe (if everything works out as it might) you won’t be disappointed and thanks for your patience!

So… a week after Sovereign Summer Sunday, what does it all mean? What kind of impact does reaching the edge of the top fifty on Amazon.com really have?

Well, for one thing, we have to remember that the book reached that height — thanks to your amazing support — on one Sunday in July. Twenty four hours later, it dropped out of the top 100, and as I write this, it’s floating around the 18,000 mark. I hasten to add, that’s nothing to sneeze at — it’s currently higher than all other traditionally published novels from podcast novelists, all but four Permuted Press titles, and literally millions above anything else published by Swarm Press (though I’m looking forward to that changing when “Playing For Keeps” is released on August 25th.)

I’m still not sure how many actual copies were sold on July 13 — valuable information for any other podcast novelist who might attempt a run in the future. The real question is: did the publishing industry notice? Did agents notice? Movers and shakers in other media? Time will tell… and I’ll share with all of you just as soon as I know.

I still call Sovereign Summer Sunday a huge success — make no mistake! Although it was less than a week ago, it’s already starting to feel like it was much longer ago than that. That’s Internet time for you, I reckon. Plus, the attention of the podosphere is already moving on to the next big events in podcast novels: Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris August 8 “Double Trouble” event, and Mur Lafferty’s own Amazon.com rush for “Playing for Keeps” on August 25, 2008.

Which means it’s time to start saving our money to support those folks… and it leaves me with some time and energy to spend a little more on writing, and a little less on promotion. Of course, I’m still open to interviews, appearances, signings, and all that fun stuff… gotta keep it going!

Let’s get to the point right away:

Thanks to Stormy for grabbing that image — by that point in the day (somewhere between seven and eight PM Pacific Time) I didn’t have the presence of mind, I’m afraid. I noticed it, I tweeted it… but I didn’t screenshot it. So hurrah for the quick thinking of Stormy!

Yes, my friends, you did it. 1,027 of you attended the eight hour streaming video web-a-thon on Sovereign Summer Sunday. An average of a hundred of you were in the chat room per hour. Some of you were there nearly the entire day. Some, like James Melzer, took the day off of work to be there for the whole thing! You chatted, caroused, and tried to break Ustream’s filter to the best of your ability. You Digged, tweeted, blogged, and cajoled people to come and join you.

Together, you pushed the Swarm Press edition of “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” deep into the top 100 at Amazon.com and three places away from the top fifty. I couldn’t be more honored, touched, and pleased at your efforts on my behalf.

A video archive of the event will be available soon — I’m working with Revver to put them up, and some are already available here. Once everything is up and ready, I’ll post them on the blog.

Meanwhile, we have a near-complete chat archive of the webathon, thanks to Kevin Crosby! It’s on Eastern Time, and starts about an hour and a half into the event. It’s an 89 page .pdf, and I’m looking forward to reading it, since for much of the day I was reading stories and not looking at the chat!

As for the podcast anthology of the stories you heard on that day… stay tuned. I may have even more exciting news about that in the near future. In the mean time, I’ll get those videos up as soon as possible.

Thank you, everyone. You really did make history.

Sovereign Summer Sunday, July 13, 2008

Folks, for weeks now, I’ve been talking about “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” being released in a brand new paperback edition from Swarm Press on Sunday, July 13, 2008.

I’ve urged you — if you want to own a copy of the book, please wait to purchase it from Amazon.com on that day, so that together, everyone can push “Brave Men Run” as far up the Amazon bestseller charts as possible.

I’ve talked about how I’ll be live via streaming video all day long in a “web-a-thon” as a way to show solidarity for everyone who buys the book from Amazon.com on that day. I’ll give you updates on the progress of “Brave Men Run” as you help it climb the Amazon charts, and we’ll hang out together in the embedded chat room.

And… I’ve talked about the special content I’ll have for you on that Sovereign Summer Sunday… but I’ve never told you what that content will be.

Until now.

Another Podcasting First

Ladies and gentlemen, on Sunday, July 13, 2008, every hour on the hour for eight hours beginning at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific time, I will present a brand new, original short story set in the first year of the Sovereign Era universe. These stories — official Sovereign Era canon — are from some of the most respected authors of podcast fiction:

• J.C. Hutchins (The “7th Son” trilogy)
• Mur Lafferty (”Playing For Keeps”)
• Nathan Lowell (The “Golden Age of the Solar Clipper” novels)
• Matt Wallace (”The Next Fix”)
• J.R. Blackwell (Voices of Tomorrow)
• P.G. Holyfield (”Murder at Avedon Hill”)
• Jared Axelrod (The Voice of Free Planet X)

I’ll be reading each story aloud, on camera, absolutely live, in random order — so be sure to check in every hour so you don’t miss your favorite author!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I know each author worked very hard on their stories, and I’m honored and humbled by how willing and eager they were to play in the Sovereign Era sandbox. My universe is richer for it.

Spread the Word

If you’ve followed the history of this book for a while, you know my number one directive for the fans: tell everyone you know about “Brave Men Run.”. That’s never been more important than in these days leading up to Sunday, July 13, 2008. I need your help to get the word out about this one-of-a-kind event.

• If you have a blog, please write a post about it.
• If you have a podcast — audio or video — please mention it in your next episode, or play the promo.
• If you have a web site of any kind, please put up the “I Will Be There” badge.
• If you participate in any of the social bookmarking sites like Digg or Propeller, please share this story:
• Paper the news all over the virtual walls of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, FriendFeed, and anywhere else you hang your social media hat — and make this your avatar!
• ???? Use your imagination, your connections, your online voice. I have faith in you.

Together, We Can Make New Media History

My goal on Sunday, July 13, 2008 is to reach the top of the Amazon.com charts. Sure, it’s been tried before, and folks got pretty high up there.

Together, I want us to hit number one.

I want us to wake up Eckhart Tolle. I want us to shake the hand of David Sedaris… as we pass him by. I want Brad Thor to shed a tear. I want Stephenie Meyer — whose book hasn’t even been released yet — to take a day off from sitting in that number one seat.

Why?

Not to get a big publishing deal. I’ve already got a deal, with the great indie Swarm Press. I want to raise attention. Attention for Swarm. Attention for “Brave Men Run.”

Most of all, attention for you: you are the ones who decide what sells, what gets heard, what gets seen. Near-exclusive control of media distribution is slipping out of the grasp of traditional publishers. Let’s make them tremble so fierce, they lose it once and for all.

You can do it.

I’ll see you here on Sunday, July 13, 2008, at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific and on through the day. You will love the stories I have to tell… and together, we’ll write a new one.

Thank you.

So guess what happened today?

This did.

More than two years after it was originally released as a free podcast, drm-free e-book, and print-on-demand paperback, “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” was BoingBoinged!

The publicist for Swarm Press submitted the story, and Cory Doctorow picked it up. The press release got a few things wrong (Swarm Press doesn’t have anything to do with “Brave Men Run” being released in its various formats and licenses back in November of 2005, and the audio version, alas, does not have a “derivatives okay” permission) but that is entirely beside the point.

For those of you who don’t know, a link on BoingBoing is a very nice promotional shot in the arm. In the wake of the post, eight people downloaded the e-book, and three of those folks compensated me for it — one person double the suggested rate! (Interestingly, the email address of one of those people indicated they’re on the Global Frequency… good to know if I’m ever in a pinch.)

I received about four times my normal web site traffic, much of it directed from the Swarm Press site, which the BoingBoing post referenced. I wonder how Swarm did, traffic-wise? The podcast edition is, as I write this, sitting pretty as the number one subscription of the day at Podiobooks.com, which translates to almost fifty new subscribers… welcome, one and all!

Sovereign Summer is, indeed, heating up! Spread the word! Share this story everywhere and every way you can… and thanks!

Been really busy, so here’s a shortish episode to send some well wishings out to different people for very different reasons.

Also: a song from me, a song from a band from this year’s South by Southwest, and some musings.

Music

• Matthew Wayne Selznick - Second “Sister”
• Black Hollies - Paisley Pattern Ground from Casting Shadows

Promos

• Phil Rossi - “Notes From the Vault”
• 2008 Parsec Awards

Links

• Swarm Press, publishers of “Brave Men Run - A Novel of the Sovereign Era,” Summer 2008!
• Follow me on Twitter!
• Mahalo.com
• The 2008 SXSW Mega-Torrent — one song from each of the bands that played at the 2008 South By Southwest conference
• You’ll need a torrent client to download the SXSW music
• I really like Twhirl as my Twitter client
• Kelly Sizemore Memorial Fund

Feed Back!

In addition to leaving a comment right here in the show notes and participating in the Forums…

• Voice Mail: 1-206-600-6364
• Musicians send CDs: MWS Media, PO BOX 402081 Hesperia, CA 92340-2081
• Send an E-Mail

Outro theme: “Bound To Be Free” from the album “Culture of Self” by Dan Wallace.

Show Your Support

Please consider donating whatever you think this episode was worth, with my heartfelt thanks.

Recommended worth: $5.00

 

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