Matthew Wayne Selznick

Hey, I want to point your attention to an interview my publicist with Swarm Press, Matt Staggs of Deep Eight LLC, did on the Bibliophile Stalker blog! Matt reveals how he went from fan to pro and talks about the personal relationship he has with genre fiction and the authors who write it. He’s even kind enough to drop my name.

Matt is the guy who managed to get me BoingBoing’ed twice in the month leading up to Sovereign Summer Sunday, so support him — give the post a read, and be sure to leave a comment on the Bibliophile Stalker blog so Charles Tan knows you were there, and why!

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!

I got my box of author’s copies of “Brave Men Run - A Novel of the Sovereign Era” today.

19 days until the rest of you can buy it on Sunday, July 13, 2008.

Hee hee!

That is all.

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!

This is it, my friends — beautiful new cover art for the Swarm Press edition of “Brave Men Run - A Novel of the Sovereign Era.”

The art was created by Jared Axelrod, he of The Voice of Free Planet X, and features photography from J.R. Blackwell.

You can have the book featuring this art in your hot little hands when it’s released on July 13, 2008 — be sure you’re signed up for the Matt Selznick mailing list to learn more!

I’ll have some wallpaper and other goodies based on this cover for you soon… stay tuned!