J.C. Hutchins: New Fiction And Author Updates |

The Ebook Will Evolve. So Should Authors.

April 12, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 5 Comments

Note: This post originally appeared on the website E2BU. E2BU, aka the Enhanced Ebook University, educates authors and publishers on the creative and business potential of enhanced ebooks — electronic books that transcend traditional reading experiences by incorporating video, online links and other multimedia elements into the narrative.

Enhanced ebooks are an emerging storytelling form. I’ve yet to see an enhanced ebook that captures my vision for the platform’s incredible narrative potential. I hope this post, which was originally written for authors and publishers, gets readers and creators thinking about the platform’s potential.

Here’s some enhanced e-book wisdom for my author colleagues: It all starts with you.

I’m approaching this from a fiction writer’s perspective, though non-fiction writers can benefit from this advice. Prepare your work’s enhanced ebook experience from the very beginning, as you conceive your book. As you plot and write, always remember that you’re now armed with countless opportunities to push your narrative beyond words. Take advantage of that, and the many emotionally-resonant strengths other media have over text.

Presently, enhanced content is often an afterthought, tacked on at the end of a production process as a blingy differentiator. We are now in an age of storytelling where that model is practically insulting to a reader. These days, there are few good reasons for creators to ignore the potential of integrating resonant multimedia elements into their stories.

From my perspective as an online- and transmedia-savvy creator, “enhanced” content should make a meaningful narrative contribution to the main story. Consider the narrative impact of experiencing fictional family photo albums, sci-fi computer dossiers, fake newspaper clippings, video blogs from your characters, etc. Every genre can benefit from this story-centric approach, and can move readers in new ways.

How To Become A Better (And Future-Friendly) Storyteller

April 11, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 5 Comments

Note: This post originally appeared on the website WriterUnboxed. This is the first of several WU guest posts I’ll reprint here on my site.

I submit this for your consideration: Expand and improve your media vocabulary. It might positively impact your career now, and certainly will in the future.

I define “media vocabulary” as the various media one uses to tell resonant stories. Since most readers of this blog are authors, I reckon we’re fluent in the vocabulary of text-based storytelling. But how many of us have more than a pedestrian consumer’s knowledge of other media such as video, audio, photography, or graphic design? How many of us use those media in our stories?

Based on anecdotal and professional experience, I believe in my marrow that now is the time for talespinners to get savvy with several storytelling media. Within years, I expect we’ll see an explosive rise of enhanced ebooks, app-based fiction and transmedia narratives that will leverage technologies and trends that have already become mainstream.

Fret not, hand-wringing wordherding purists: These multimedia, aka “transmedia” — or as I sometimes call them, “mergemedia” — stories will never replace a printed book or text-only ebook. But publishers will soon get into the enhanced narrative business in a big way, and will keenly quest for stories that organically incorporate disparate media into cohesive, resonant narratives.

And who better than you to deliver that very thing? You’ll be a hot tamale, on the front lines of a business trend that’ll reinvent the way audiences experience stories.

On Being An “Aspiring Writer”

April 10, 2011 in Announcements, Other with 17 Comments

I spotted the words “aspiring writer” on a website today. My mood went south, as it always does when I encounter this flawed phrase.

When I see aspiring writer, I don’t think it’s shorthand for meanings such as:

“Aspiring professional writer” — meaning, the person is writing, but aims to someday be paid for her creative investment and output.
Or “aspring full-time pro writer” — meaning, the person is writing, but aims to someday make a living wage from her wordherding.
Or “aspiring to complete a writing project” — meaning, the person is writing, and aims to someday type The End or Fade To Black on her short story, novel or screenplay.

In my more literal view, the phrase means, “I am not writing, but am talking and dreaming about writing.” Which might as well be, “I am masturbating.” I am qualified to characterize this in such harsh terms because in my own life, I talked about writing fiction long before I actually wrote a word of it. These years of windbaggery added precisely zero words to my novel manuscripts or screenplays. I wasn’t aspiring. I was wanking.

You’re either writing, or you aren’t. Unspoken qualifiers such as “being a writer means making money from one’s words” or “being a writer means your entire income hails from writing” feel like strange constrictions to me, mental obstacles that young writers place before themselves to … to … I don’t know what, precisely. Perhaps it’s to:

Perpetuate some form of artistic self-loathing? (Oh, how writers love to hate their work.)
Ensure years of handwringing and self-doubt? (Writers are unhealthily preoccupied with the notion that they’ll someday be discovered as no-talent hacks. They don’t yet realize that the only writers who don’t have that fear are, in fact, the no-talent hacks.)
Permit and maintain a level of mediocrity in the quality of their work? (Qualifiers such as “aspiring” permit such stagnation.)
Assign a tangible, rational goal to an intangible, downright spooky act? (Thereby justifying one’s creative investment.)

Could be any, all, or none of these things. The only truth that I know is this: In my world, there are no aspiring writers. There are writers, and everyone else.

If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Own that fact. Be proud of it. Your pen is moving (or your fingers are typing), and that’s a thousand times cooler and more committed than the douchebags who endlessly drone on about the books, poems, plays and movies they’ll never write. You’re not aspiring, because you’re already doing the hard part.

Other aspects of the creative life — such as making money from your words — do indeed represent aspirational goals. Call yourself an “aspiring professional writer” if that is indeed your aim. But if you’re writing, don’t dare label yourself as an “aspiring writer.” To do so undervalues what you’re doing to you and others, and creates a disconnect between the challenging act you’re already performing — the very thing that makes writers writers — and other aspects of the life.

I assure you: perform enough of the former (the act of writing) and you’ll achieve the latter (the goal of getting paid or published, for instance). Your success may be wildly different than you ever imagined, as may your path to achieving it. But it will happen if you continue to put words on the page, and remain committed to improving your craft.

You don’t need permission to write … and you mustn’t make money to call yourself a writer.

Writers write. That’s it.

Those who don’t, merely aspire.

–J.C.

Perhaps the most cruel photo on the ‘net…

April 10, 2011 in All Posts, Other, Whimsy with 1 Comment

…and also perhaps the funniest. I’m still laughing. I think it’s the cat.

–J.C.

Welcome to America.

April 10, 2011 in All Posts, Whimsy with 4 Comments

Spilling store-bought coffee on your Ralph Lauren button-down while sitting in your air conditioned late model car and eying a pretty lady walking down an absolutely safe street. It’s a nightmare world in which we live.

Annnnnnd Here’s The Pitch…

April 8, 2011 in All Posts with 4 Comments

I’m no stranger to the marketing pitch — I’ve lost count of the pitches I’ve written and sent over the years promoting my fiction … and I’ve lost count of the pitches I’ve received as a journalist (10+ years ago) and more recently as a new media creator and interviewer.

A few months ago, I griped online about an email pitch I’d received. The pitch was for a pretty cool (and Free) online service. The rub: The CEO sending the email made no effort to personalize the pitch letter, or even include my name. These are both elementary no-no’s in publicity — online marketing especially.

The rules for pitching are simple, and every marketeer should know them:

Know the name of the person you’re pitching, and include it in your salutation.
i.e., do not say “Dear Blogger.” (Many pitches I receive start like this.)
Customize your lede paragraph in at least one way, to illustrate you know the pitchee’s work. (Or create the illusion that you do.)
I also suggest customizing at least one other paragraph in the pitch (preferably in the last third of the pitch) with a reference to the pitchee’s work, but this isn’t mission-critical.

That’s it. And yet, this appears to be nuclear physics for 90 percent of the marketers conducting online outreach. My recent online gripes captured this spirit of disgust, and my firend Michael Andersen chimed in by sending me the email below. I nearly cried laughing. This is your “what not to wear” when it comes to pitches, although it’s written 1000 times better than most of the pitch-crap I receive.

Enjoy.

–J.C.

Michael’s Pitch Letter

Dear MR HUTCHINS,

Can I call you JC? JC, this is Michael Andersen from ARGNet (www.argn.com), a fabulously successful website that plumbs the depths of internet badassery. We’re looking for a few good men (and women) with a penchant for prose and a knackering for narrative, and your work at JCHUTCHINS.NET has attracted our attention. You, my friend, have a way with words, so I’m going to make you an exclusive offer, for your eyes only.

Do you want to be filthy rich?

Let’s be crystal clear: I’m not talking appetizers with your dinner at Red Lobster rich…I’m talking monogrammed bathrobe, private yacht, reality television show obscenely wealthy. The kind of money that only comes to people who invent Wacky Wall Walkers and Pop Rocks. Well, JC, I have a foolproof plan to get you Scrooge McDucking it in your own personal money bin. Your website, JCHUTCHINS.NET, consistently brings in thousands of visitors a month. Why, in September 2010 alone, your site brought in 5,418 unique visitors: visitors just itching to show their support for you. But how, you might ask?

Affiliate Marketing. We have stuff that needs to be sold. You have people interested in buying stuff. For all the stuff you help us sell, you’ll get a generous cut. But wait, there’s more — if you recruit readers to sell for you, you’ll get a cut of their profits too! We’ll even help you sell your own stuff, launching profits into the stratosphere! Use your gift of gab for good, and you’ll never have to work again.

Yours,

–Michael Andersen
Successful American Businessman

DISCLAIMER: This email contains confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you may be in violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and any disclosure will be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by law. This email will self-destruct in twenty seconds. If you or someone you know experiences any adverse side effects as a result of this email’s self-destruction, contact a medical professional immediately. Taylor Swift 4Ever.

Haters (NSFW)

April 7, 2011 in All Posts with 2 Comments

Very not safe for work. But also very, very true.

Follow-Up: Winter Is Coming.

February 28, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 1 Comment

If you were dazzled by my recent Game of Thrones scent-based transmedia experience — and were curious to learn where that unusual rabbit hole might lead us — you’ll be interested to read this email I received today from HBO:

Dear JC,

Thank you so much for sharing the Game of Thrones scent experience with your audience. We wanted to let you know that fans can now take the next step in this unique sensory journey by visiting TheMaestersPath.com.

The Maester’s Path is an interactive journey into the world of Game of Thrones, where players can vie to become “maesters,” the healers, teachers and advisers of this world. Maesters wear chains as a symbol of their learning, each link representing one discipline. Players at TheMaestersPath.com earn “links” in their chains by completing a series of online challenges. In fact, the clues to answering the first of those challenges were hidden within the scent recipes you received.

The experience begins at TheMaestersPath.com — we hope you and your readers may find it interesting.

Thanks,

The HBO Marketing Team

I visited the site — it’s incredible — and savvily conquered the first online challenge. You can too, by checking out the photos at my original post about the GoT box, and then heading over to TheMaestersPath.com. Your keen eyes and curiosity will be rewarded!

I wish HBO the best of luck with its GoT campaign and series!

–J.C.

Pre-Order Melzer’s “Escape” And Hit The Mother Lode!

February 25, 2011 in All Posts with 0 Comments

My friend and fellow author James Melzer debuted some terrific news today, and I wanted to share it with you fine peeps.

Melzer is the author of Escape: A Zombie Chronicles Novel, the first book in a trilogy that combines zombies and government conspiracies. It’ll be in bookstores later this year.

To whet your appetite for that novel, Melzer is rewarding folks who pre-order Escape by sending them an exclusive excerpt of the novel months before it’s released … and he’s sending pre-order customers The Mother Load, a massively awesome horror/suspense short story anthology Melzer commissioned for this promotion.

The Mother Load is an eBook collection of never-before published stories from six great authors, including Mur Lafferty, S.G. Browne, David Moody, Wayne Simmons, Matt Wallace, and Jeremy C. Shipp. It’s available to anyone who pre-orders Escape starting today — Friday, February 25, 2011 — and right up until Escape’s release on December 6, 2011.

Wanna support Melzer? Awesome. Here’s the rules:

The only way folks can get their hands on this eBook collection is by pre-ordering Escape at any of the following online retailers: Amazon (Print Edition), Amazon (Kindle Edition), Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Borders.com, and Indigo Canada.

People must forward their purchase receipts to EscapeNovel@Gmail.com. Within 24 hours, they’ll receive a .zip file containing The Mother Load anthology in .mobi, .epub and PDF formats for their eReaders. An exclusive text excerpt of Escape is included in this file.

Learn more about Escape at Melzer’s website. Here are some great things two great writers are saying about Melzer’s work:

“This is the 1984 of zombie novels” – Scott Sigler, New York Times Bestselling author of Ancestor and Contagious

“Just when you think you know where it’s going, Melzer kicks you in the balls and turns everything on its head. Escape will take you to the edge and leave you wanting more.” – David Moody, author of Hater, Autumn, and Dog Blood

So what are you waiting for? Support my friend and fellow author James Melzer by pre-ordering a copy of Escape today! With that anthology and excerpt of the book that’ll soon arrive in your inbox as reward, you’ll feel like you’ve hit the mother lode!

–J.C.

Winter Is Coming. (A Transmedia Fiction Experience with J.C.)

February 25, 2011 in All Posts, Announcements, Other with 38 Comments

This afternoon, a package from HBO arrived at my doorstep. Curious, I grabbed my vidcam and documented what quickly became not only an awesome “unboxing” video, but an amazing — and remarkably unconventional — narrative journey.

Ride shotgun with me as you get an unfiltered, as-it-happens look at this amazing HBO package as I experience it … and learn a little about the world of HBO’s upcoming fantasy series Game Of Thrones (based on the terrific novel series by George R.R. Martin) along the way.

For viewers who want a closer look at the images seen briefly in the videos, check the gallery below for larger versions.

And do be careful out there. Winter is coming.

–J.C.

Click the image thumbnails below to view detail shots of the HBO package. (Click your browser’s “back” button to return to this page, and the gallery.)