Every Tuesday 9pm EST, the Indelibles host #INDIEchat – a twitter gathering where we discuss all things indie publishing. Each week is a different topic, and we’ve had lots of interesting guests (chat transcripts are posted the day after). I’m extra excited for tonight’s chat, as our guest is my latest indie author-hero Hugh Howey and our topic is Short Stories (see my recent blog series on shorts: Reading It, Critiquing It, Writing It). Hugh’s recent rise as a self-publishing star was due to the popularity of his 50 page novella Wool (subsequently turned into a series) which he sold the film rights to (and has Ridley Scott attached):
I hope you’ll stop by #INDIEchat tonight to discuss short stories with Hugh Howey!
Day: TONIGHT, Tuesday, July 24th
Time: 9pm – 10pm EST
Where: on Twitter, follow the #indiechat hashtag
If you’ve never joined a twitter chat before, it’s easy: just log on to twitter and follow the #indiechat hashtag. Things can move pretty fast in #indiechat (lots of people joining the conversation), so I usually use tweetchat – it works the same as twitter (just log in and follow #indiechat), but it automatically adds the hashtag at the end of your messages, making sure you stay part of the conversation, and highlights when people respond to your tweets.
So he's self-publishing here, but going traditional for movie rights and foreign deals? Interesting.
Hugh has a great sense (one of the best articulated ones that I've come across) of what it means to be a modern, independent author. He's talked about how he decided to remain indie here in the US, and went with the UK publisher that felt like they most understood what it meant to be "indie" – that fans were part of the evolution of his series, that he wanted to remain connected to them.
I like what he says in the HuffPo article: "Write your best works for them (the readers); make those works affordable; interact with your fans; and take their feedback to heart."
He embraces the hybrid approach completely, remaining steadfastly indie, when that makes sense, and leveraging the channels where traditional publishing still provides benefits.
p.s. He used to work in a bookstore (so you may be kindred spirits)!
Now if I can just remember to sit down in front of a computer at 6pm my time I could join in on a chat for a change. I'm ALWAYS forgetting. Family time, ya know.
Hope to see you there tonight, Sue. K had her wisdom teeth out yesterday, so as long as all is well with her I should be there…lurking. đŸ™‚
Sounds interesting. Hopefully I remember. =)
So, my reader checks your feed once a day (default, not all that much happening, right?).
This arrives as yesterday's news.