I found this site when I was searching for sequels to 7th Son. I’m sorry to hear that the sequels won’t be published.

Any chance will the sequels come out in ebook form? From looking at Amazon’s site, it seems like people can submit / sell Kindle ebooks without a publisher.

I would definitely purchase the remaining two books in the trilogy if they were made available in ebook format.

Best of luck in your writing and in your career.

-Mark

It’s a shame that the fun is over. But yeah, I can see that if you want to make a living, you need to do the stuff that leads to making a living. Recording and giving away free stuff doesn’t do that directly. What it could do indirectly — creating name awareness and a base of readers and listeners — it’s already done.

Do you “owe” more audiobooks to your audience? Oh, hell no! What you do owe us, if you will, is to become that big worldwide celebrity we know you ought to be. If that is better accomplished by writing lots and lots of very good books, which does seem damn likely, then you should go do that.

What will I miss about you in audiobooks? To paraphrase Melvin Udall from As Good As It Gets:

“I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you’re the greatest (writer) on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do … and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that’s all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you … and never get that they just met the greatest (writer) alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me.”

Too much?

Griz

I think you have talent. I thought the dark effects book was pretty cool. I even manged to keep all of the “extras” in the book without losing them. I think it may have been “before its time”. Which is kind of a hard thing to say. You should read the book “The myths of Innovation” by Scott Berkun. He has a some pretty good insight on why good things fail and how having an inventor’s soul is kind of neat and what you can do with it. I think you should give it a read.

I think we have failed you. You gave great content and we were unable to keep you. Not the other way around.

Can’t wait to see you published all around the world (and watch the films based on your novels)

I don’t usually submit comments on websites, but your post has moved me to do so today. I know you don’t know me, I am just a fairly recent fan of your work. But, for what it’s worth, I totally understand your choice and wish you the very best.

I have really enjoyed listening to and reading your work and can’t wait till I see your future efforts lined up on the shelves of my local bookstore. This is something I am confidant will happen, and I will be buying.

Go for it man. Don’t look back.

–J.C.

c. Is any project worth going into personal debt for? Are their ways to do the same thing without debt? this guy talks in photo podcasts about going very far deeply into debt, all the issues that went with it… http://www.onelightworkshop.com/page7/page7.html and there is nothing new to starving artists… but do you want to stay there?

6. The market, writing music, I’m up against 4 million other songs, you are up against huge numbers of other things that grab people’s attention. I have nothing but fellow feeling for you. I don’t view your choice as anything but wise.

7. Try it the other way, working, and selling, until the royalties come in fast enough to keep you in the green and growing. I don’t see how anyone (except maybe Cory Doctorow could live off exclusive charity, goodwill donations… it ignores a HUGE aspect of human nature, people, despite what they say, email, tell you in person, and your huge fan base, 98% are moochers. At church, 10% of the people do 90% of the work, and I could go on.

You can get mad, or you can accept this is the way it goes, don’t take it personally, please, please, please, don’t take it personally, and accept that giving away for free, doesn’t automatically produce feelings of gratitude in me. And also, that human nature devalues “free.” No one sees you in the hundreds of hours in writing a good book, hundreds more in podcasting, hundreds more in promotion, unless they’ve done it themselves. And those folks, usually don’t have the money to do more than pay a very minimal amount towards your efforts… words they can give, but not cash.

8. I think you had victory. You accepted reality, and how far you will go now, professionally, in your writing, in your understanding of the world? But, I think you also saw the golden crown, “…The new media model viably supports only the most blessed and talented of authors…. ”

All media models only support the best. Always have, always will. My wife looks at me, and laughs, when I think about it, because while there is one welfare mom who goes on to fame, there are millions to whom it’s an idle fantasy. You are 1/2 way there… you are well known in your circle, but not the wider circle.
You didn’t sit on your butt, and you didn’t give up.

9. I think about Jon Bell, bells in the batfry, Jack Ward, sonicsociety.org, The Decoder Ring, etc. you know them and a hundred others, a huge number of talented people, who are known in their circles, and have amazing talent so many would love to hear, but they are limited in the scope of their audience. They do it for the love of the game. But to think that they will make money, even after 200 shows, or 100 shows, they’ve realized any full time commercial success is unlikely, TV, movies, other free sources, all compete. They make their livings in Clark Kent Jobs, radio DJ, teacher, professional promoter — and I love a quote from one of their interviews, the time one can live with nothing, do it all for free is unmarried and in one’s early twenties, after that…

9. I’m photographing people for my creative commons book, offering them free photos, in exchange for inclusion, and a model release. The people at the start of the game under 24 year old, are open to it, but flaky. Older, never done it, also flaky. Then there is a group of older, or more experienced, we usually talk for about 3 minutes — she says, “Are you paying, what is the project?” I explain it, the possible outcome, and that as it is creative commons, I’m not going to spend money on the models, they get the images, and I’ll be spending 4-6 hours per shoot to take and then clean up the images, and that unpaid. New models love it, but by definition — they will NEVER EVER be successful models. They work without being paid. If they are good looking, they can get paid. The pros laugh when they hear they have to pay for photo shoots.

Human nature.

10. I didn’t hear you had an agent? You could likely get one, the Boom Effect for Tee Morris had a lady who does writer’s agent stuff I believe.

Let her do it, and give her 20% of the profit. 30%, you name it, if she can bring in the cash you need.

11. St. Martins told you, what my wife told me, they gamble on the first one, and make money on the later ones.

12. You know about Baen’s moves, and so forth. But at the end of the day, it’s not about the merits of you, your efforts, your writing, anything but what the market did. They give away the first one, to sell the later ones. Ah my friend, don’t give up. Just re-think, step away for a while, re-assess, and find another way.

13. Having steady cash flow from any source always allows us to complete the dreams, than not, I expect your best stuff is still to come!

I love 7th Son. Was there from the start of the original podcast. Bought what I could afford of the print Descent.

One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed your podcasts because they created a personal connection. I has been nice. I’ll miss your ‘visits’. They also reinforced my love of audio.

I’ll be watching for your future work, in whatever form it may take.

I’ve got a response to this, but it’s a bit big to copy and paste here: http://requirecookie.com/content/open-letter-jc-hutchins

-Stormy

For what it’s worth if you do choose to publish the rest of the trilogy yourself I for one will definitely buy ebook copies. And as an e-pubbed writer myself, I very much sympathize with your plight in getting into print. Hang in there and may you find the best ways possible to share your work with the world, moving forward.

Believe me though, I will be buying your words on pulped trees! Glad that you will still be getting them out there to us.

As has been said by others and you yourself, the podcasting sandbox is still very small. At my former place of regular employment, only one other person out of all the people I talked to were even aware that you and the angry bald guy were giving your children to the world for free, just to entertain us. He may even be the only other person I have ever known who listens to podcasts of any sort on a regular basis.

Hutch, you are one of the most stand-up people I have ever met. I wish I had half the personal conviction and dedication that I have seen in you. I wish you all the best, and I am confident that your moment will come.

Your Constant Reader and Listener,

EJKorvette

When you look back on these books and all the work you’ve put into creating and promoting them, you will be able to honestly say, “I did everything I could.” Not many people can do that. You did good.

As everybody’s been saying, keep us updated about any future plans and upcoming publications. We’re still here for you!

Sarah

You were something of an inspiration in my own writing, what little of that I’ve been doing lately; maybe I need to take heed and make time for that, myself.

Thank you, JC. Hope you find a way soon.

I know you talked about a 7th son movie from time to time. I so wanted to see it! You projected fantastic set pieces in my mind – Jack in the water tower, John in Alaska, Father Thomas on the train, and many more. I would love to see them realized by a director and actors. Now, they will have to remain in my mind, and they always will.

I understand your decision and admire you for being true to yourself and your goals. If the road you’re on isn’t taking you where you want to go, then you switch to a different road! It’s obvious.

Wherever you turn up in the future, I’ll be there.

Good luck!

While i love your voice and your storytelling, if it is books where you must go, then, I will follow you there.

Thank you.

OTOH, Matt Wallace – “Everybody’s your friend until the check comes. You don’t keep treating people who stiff you.” You can’t blame the audience for failing you financially when the business model was to give stuff away and then hope someone paid. This is a bitter and misguided attitude that says you don’t care about your own readers/listeners. It’s not the fault of the target audience that they got something for free to begin with. Never give something away if you need to directly profit financially from it.

Fortunately, JC knows this and isn’t blaming the audience. That too, like his writing and his approach in getting his stories out, is worthy of respect.

We know you can produce great content. That is absolutely without question. Perhaps a tweak in business model is in order. Something like kickstarter – where you set a goal for funds pledged, and if you meet your goal, you go and produce and deliver, otherwise nobody gets charged, and we go without the content. Maybe for the whole novel, maybe just chapter by chapter.

Sorry the system failed you. That’s ok. Whatever system is next is going to take traditional publishing down with it. You’ve led that charge.

Thanks.

First, thank you very much for the hours of entertainment you have given me. I tremendously enjoyed listening to the podcast of 7th Son – even if I did cuss your cliffhangers more than once.

Second, I want to ask if you have considered finding a way to monetize your podcast fiction instead of focusing on publishing books? Please do not take this as a criticism (it surely isn’t meant as such) – but I enjoyed your podcasts more than I did when I attempted to read the 7th Son PDFs that you released. In fact, I enjoyed the podcasts so much more that while I purchased Dark Arts to be supportive – it sits on my bookshelf while I waited for the podcast. I have found the same thing when I purchased written works of other podcast authors – it is the podcast that I truly enjoy. You have a true gift for bringing stories to life in an audio format and I would hate to see such a gift wasted.

Whatever path you take in the future, I wish you success. Again, thank you for the all the fun.

Many thanks to you for your support of our Clone Lord as he has gone through the silliness of these last years as JC has pursued the whole getting published thing. Thank you for sacrificing you time with him and letting us have him for a while.

Thank You!

You owe us nothing. In fact, we owe you for all the hours of joy you’ve brought to us. 7th Son remains an amazing piece of fiction. And if you do choose to self publish books II and III, I feel certain that folks will buy.

But I also understand about the need to step back, to “catch your breath” as it were and get your head back in the right place. Breathe, regroup, regain your focus, your energy, your enthusiam, and know that when you are ready with something new, we will be ready as well.

In the meantime, Hutch, I wish you well!

Cheryl