On Getting Disconnected

JAN: There were a lot of terrific things about spending a month in southern France. The food, the language, the art museums, the friends, the clothing sales.

But surprisingly, the biggest benefit was this: There was no Internet connection in the condo I was staying. To check my email, I had to walk to the school where I'd studied in college and use its library.

At first, I hated it. The streets were hot and it was all uphill. But soon, I realized it was a bonus. I was no longer spending my day responding to electronic information, but was out in city talking to real people. If I wanted to find a boulangerie open on Sunday, I didn't google it. I walked over to the little market where I bought roast chicken and asked the owner to help me.

So, I made an important decision while I was over there. That I don't care what the stakes are: I'd actually rather not be a successful writer if it means I have to spend my limited time on earth twittering. I'm also reassessing Facebook and all those strangers who friend me from California so they can sell me their novel or their winery.

So is this too radical? OR does anyone else think that all this social-media connection is disconnecting? And that possibly, the only way to reconnect is to disconnect?

ROBERTA: Right now I may be too sick with jealousy about your month in France to answer, but I'll try! If you read the interview from the publicist that Hank brought to us last week, you'd hear that Facebook is the most important social networking tool, Twitter maybe not so much.
But that aside, I definitely think there's a cost to the constant online connections. Maybe even more so with the next generation. I sound like an old fart, but it bugs me to see kids text-messaging while they're at the dinner table with other folks. If you're with people, you should be with them, right?

I think the question is definitely worth asking, Jan. Though I'm not convinced that Twittering can make a bestseller. Nor am I ready to renounce that possibility:). The secret is balance...if someone could only tell us how to find it!

RHYS: I can't believe how naked and lost I feel if I can't check the internet all the time. I even have to check my Google updates every day to see what people are blogging about me. It's a sickness, isn't it? And all those people from my past who friend me--they weren't ever my real friends. If we had little in common then, why would we now? I'm actually going to be experiencing total cut-off from electronic communication in September when John and I will be in the Australian Outback, visiting Uluru and Kakadu National Park and other such remote places. Will I suffer withdrawal symptoms? Probably. But it may be a good thing.

JAN: You might be surprised how good it feels.

RO: I was looking forward to being disconnected in Africa. And I was..for the most part. I didn't rush to the internet cafe when I was in or near a hotel. There were more than a few e-conversations going on among people I know that I would have gladly left the country to avoid, if I hadn't been gone already. Then one night in a mud brick building in central Tanzania, I heard some buzzing. A giant mosquito? Nope. My Blackberry (which is all of three weeks old so I didn't recognize the sound.) I was able to pick up emails from underneath a mosquito net in Mvumi Makula. On one hand, I thought, you gotta love technology. Then I was reminded of the time that Bruce's boss found him on Lake McDonald just to tell him someone was leaving the company. Or the time we were in Granada and he got a fax that the company had been sold and he had to return home.I turned off the phone and went outside to look for the Southern cross.

HANK: Guilty guilty guilty. Rhys, I'm with you. I can literally *feel* when I haven't checked my email. I mean, that's--bad! I have to say I'm not a devoted Facebooker--I like it, it's fun, I learn intersting things. I love to read what my pals are doing. But I'm not addicted. And it is SUCH a time-waster. You feel as if you're doing something---you're typing, right? So it feels like working. But most often it's nothing. But not always. Wait--just gotta check one thing over there... Twitter..gosh. I'm just not sure it matters. But what if it does? Ah...back in a moment.

JAN: I think that's why we writers are so vulnerable. We THINK we're working.

HALLIE: Anyone take Psych 101? Pigeons who received INTERMITTENT reinforcement (they didn't get a food pellet every time they hit the button, but every so often) became much more addicted to hitting that button than the ones who were fed every time. That's what the Internet does. You don't get a nice new message every time you check, but often enough that you become addicted to checking. I've gotten to the point where I have to disconnect my cable modem in order to buckle down and write. And even then... Hope I never break down and get a Blackberry or an iPhone.

SECRETS OF THE HARWOOD METHOD

“JACK WAKES UP rocks! It’s a fast, smooth ride on a highway not found on any map!”
Michael Connelly

You should have heard Seth Harwood at Newtonville Books (my local bookstore) when he started reading out loud from JACK WAKES UP. The roomful of people was silent. Listening. Riveted. It was so--cinematic--it was like watching a film.

Turns out, Seth is all about how his books sound. Out loud. And is making a national name for himself not only for his incredibly well-received first novel, JACK WAKES UP, but for his innovative and wildly successful methods of promotion.

Here's the scoop.

HANK: So, Seth. Most people write a book on paper or type it on a computer. Then they SELL it. That's not exactly how you decided the world should work. What's the Harwood method?

SETH: Well, the Harwood method is basically that when things aren't working you have to innovate and try different things. I wasn't getting the responses from agents that I wanted (How about at least a simple "No"? In some cases I couldn't even get that.) so I had to find another way of working the publishing game.

I wanted to put my novel on the internet and didn't know how, or if people would read it, but I'd always listened to books on CD in the car, so when I found authors who were reading books and distributing them as free audio podcasts--and that thousands were listening!--I bought a mic and jumped in!

By working with those authors, I saw how they did it, had a chance to promote to their existing audience, and got folks hooked on my book. I was up over 1,000 downloads of my chapters a week before I was half-way through the first ten episodes of JACK WAKES UP. Eventually I used that audience to storm Amazon.com with a small publisher, hit #1 in crime/mystery, and convinced New York that I could sell books!

What it comes down to is the selling method: I wasn't getting anything from stuffing envelopes with agent submissions, so I had to find something else to do with my work. I knew my novel was done and wanted to keep writing new material, not caught in an endless loop of revision and slush piles.

I should mention I still type my work on a computer.

HANK: Wait—so you read you book out loud? And recorded it? How did that work? I mean, I know how it WORKS, but did you use a studio? Did you have to edit? How long did it take?

SETH: Yep. I read my work out loud and release it for free on the web as serialized audiobooks. It’s been a great way to create a fan base online!

I use what you might call a “studio” in my apartment. It’s actually a glorified closet with blankets tacked up on the walls. And I edit out my flubs and flibs on my MacBook using Garageband. Very easy to do. I actually explain it all in this three minute video:

And Scott Sigler and I have been teaching others to do it through our Author Boot Camp series


HANK: ANd did it work? What was the reaction?

SETH: it worked. Like I said, I sold JACK WAKES UP to #1 in crime/mystery on Amazon, got an agent by doing it, and the book was in editors' hands the next week. When they finally saw it, a few of them loved it. I think JACK WAKES UP is a great book, that always had to be the core of the approach--I put my time in first on the hard, careful writing--so when it got to an editor I could be confident in the result.

From there I landed a contract with Three Rivers Press and the book just came out in a major nationwide release this spring.

HANK: Then what? And now what? (You're giving away 3 chapters free?)

SETH: Now I'm doing a lot of touring--on my own dime. I believe in what I've done on the web, but also in the great bookstores and mystery booksellers out there. So I'm getting out and meeting them, reading the book in stores and meeting a lot of the folks who've been following me online. They're an awesome bunch!

HANK: So you're actually seeing people in person now. How's that?

SETH: It’s great! I love meeting people who’ve listened to my podcasts and now getting to talk with people who’ve read my book. Through Facebook and Twitter, I’ve been able to announce my events and get some good crowds out to the stores. Then I usually grab a bite or a beer with some of the online “Palms Daddies and Mommas!”

But in some ways, I feel like I already know a lot of these people. They’ve been writing me emails and participating in the forums on my site for a while now. Enough that we’ve built a relationship. They’re awesome fans!

HANK: Tell us about Jack. And tell us about the books!

SETH: Jack Palms is an ex-Hollywood action movie star—kind of a one-hit wonder who pissed his career away with a series of bad media relations and a drug addiction. JACK WAKES UP picks up about three years after that: when Jack’s cleaned himself up and needs to find out what he’s going to do next with his life. He needs money and when an old friend from LA calls to bring him in on a drug deal, he says “Yes” out of curiosity and simple desperation. From there, he finds himself walking the line between acting and action and becoming unsure which side he’s really on.

It all takes place in San Francisco with a cast of mobsters, outlaws and drug dealers that rival anything you’ve seen in the best action movies. As Michael Connelly says, “It’s a fast, smooth ride on a highway not found on any map!”

I've put out a total of three Jack Palms novels as audio podcasts now and finished a fourth crime novel this spring. They’re all free. I'm giving away the first three chapters of JACK WAKES UP as a free pdf via my site and still going strong with my CrimeWAV podcast, which is where I produce a weekly short story series by other crime writers to introduce their work to my listeners. We've done 40 episodes so far and have had on some greats!

HANK: Aren't you from Boston? How'd Jack end up in California?

SETH: You bet I'm from Boston! All the way. I grew up in the South End and Cambridge, Newton a little, and was living in Boston again after getting my MFA from Iowa in 2002. I took writing classes at Harvard Extension before that, from 1998 to 2000. I lived in the area until my wife got accepted to grad school here in Berkeley. We moved out in 2005 and kind of love it out here, I have to admit. Though I'll always be a native East-coaster, I'm really enjoying California right now. For a city with great crime/noir roots, San Francisco is pretty damn hard to beat. But I still come back for the Celtics and the Red Sox!

HANK: Yeah, good luck with that Red Sox thing. (But really, this could be the year!) So, questions for Seth? Like: should we all get in on that podcast thing?