Is this the way to be found?

Is this the way to be found?

I'm a big Peter Hollens fan. If you don't know who he is, he is a Youtube Acapella singer. He makes all of the sounds and music himself, and mixes them together. Kind of like what Bobby McFerrin does. (If you're old enough to remember him--"Don't Worry, Be Happy")

I've followed Peter Hollens for a few years after my daughter showed me one of his videos. He's incredibly talented and sings with all kinds of other Youtube stars, and occasionally his wife. 

I was watching one of his videos and he mentioned his Patreon account and requested people check it out. On that site, people can make standing donations per new video he puts out. There are rewards for donating larger amounts, like getting karaoki tracks of his songs, etc. I was convinced enough that I donate a few dollars per video, not to excede $10 per month.

He gets about $5000 per video he puts out now and this had made it possible to spend all of his time making videos, instead of as a hobby or on a limited basis. I feel 'special' that I'm one of the people who makes it possible to improve the quality of his videos.

As I surfed around his site I began to wonder if it would be possible for a writer to benefit from Patreon.

So, I'm giving it a shot. I set up my page, campaign, or whatever it is, for the podcast story I am working on right now. This is my site: http://www.patreon.com/Norvaljoe

I won't tell you everything about it--I want you to go look at it. I'll tell you this much, the podcast will still be free through iTunes or direct from my site, but there will be extras for those who donate. Things like "Story Only" versions of the podcast, Chapter Books, and the whole novel when it has been fully edited and a new cover designed.

As you know, I'm trying to make my way in this field. If this works, you'll hear about it right here.

pec

The Pariah Podcast

The Pariah Podcast

Last year, 2013, for Nanowrimo, (National Novel Writing Month) I wanted to expand on a short story I wrote over the summer. It was in a fantasy world and featured a boy who believes he is destined to get a Tiger-Hawk on his King's Service selection day. Every third child in the kingdom is given into the King's Service. There are roughly 13,000 who enter every year. Each is tested to see if they have an empathic ability to connect with a fighting creature. About one half of one percent are able to do this, so there are roughly 500 who go into the creature handler corps ever year.

Keo, my hero is the ninth child of his family, which is extremely rare. Both his older sister and older brother were chosen for the creature handlers and both raised a Tiger-Hawk.

2013 was the first year that I used a detailed outline to write the story. However, it was so detailed that it turned into three books. I wrote the first of the three that year with 100K words written in 28 days.

So, what I've decided to do is break that into twenty episodes of about 5k words each and podcast the story, two episodes every month until it is done. If it goes well, I will work on continuing the remaining two stories as soon as the first ends. I need four episodes done to launch. I've edited the first two and hope to have this rolling by the first of February.

I'm looking at doing something with Patreon.com to generate a little monetary motivation for me to stay focused on this project. If you're not familiar with Patreon.com, there are a lot of wonderful artists, musicians, etc, there whom you can support and help them produce more content. (Specifically Peter Hollens. I support him.)

pec

Update:

Whenever I have started one of these blogs I have done so to update all my unknown and non-existent fans about what I am currently working on and where I am on the various projects.

So, here's how it stands.

1) Fly Paper Boy: Coming of Age. I just completed my third full edit. It now stands at over 99.5K words and I believe it is complete. I have a ten minute pitch session with an agent at the LDStory Maker's conference later this month. But, unless he actually begs me for it, my plan is to self publish it as an ebook and audiobook concurrently at Scribl.com. They have a new approach to selling and pricing self published books. I figure if I can get a few YA books on the site before anyone else does, I will have a toe hold in their market that would be advantaous.

2) Shooting Stars: A Magical Teenage Love Story from a Boy's Perspective. I just got rejected by Tor YA. I had decided a week after I sent of this submission that I wanted to switch my attention to self publishing. So I started recording this one last week, figuring I would be getting my rejection soon. I've noticed is my 100 Word Weekly Challenge stories that I had an echo going on. So, I set up my recording booth  and I've recorded the first two chapters three times now. I think I've finally got the feel I want the narration to have. Now I just need to keep charging through the remaining 300 pages. This will be my first submission to the Scribl.com system. As I am recording this story, which I thought was complete, I'm finding a number of things I need to edit. Therefore, I'm making this my fourth and final edit. I'm marking down the corrections I make while recording and will go through the ebook manuscript again before formatting it for download.

3) What I'm working on next. I'm aiming to release Shooting Stars by June 1 and Fly Paper Boy by Aug 30. I'd like to have one more released by Dec 31. The three I have in the background are Galactic Battle Base: Knife Cuts, Galactic Battle Base: Family Ties and this last years Nanowrimo, The Pariah. I think the story most ready to fine tune is Pariah, but last month I got a wild hare and started re-writing Knife Cuts. I think it is the one which is the most emotionally charged, and the most meaningful to me.