Transcript for The Future of Publishing with Russell Nohelty
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of How to Write the Future. I am your host Beth Barany.
Just want to remind you that this is the podcast for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to create positive, optimistic futures because when we vision what is possible and we put that into our books, we help make it so for the world. This podcast is also for anyone who cares about the future.
About the Future of Publishing
In this episode, I talk with Russell Nohelty about the future of publishing, his big mastermind coming in 2024.
Also, listen back to parts one and two of our conversation where we went in-depth into his author ecosystem system. I found it really helpful in terms of understanding my book marketing process and my creative process so go check it out. Take the quiz: author ecosystem.com.
One huge big caveat, Russell's material is really for writers who are in the marketplace. You have one or a few books published. And you want to get better at marketing your work. You're looking at strengthening your skills as a author in the marketplace. So keep that in mind as you listen to him talk. And.
All right. Stay tuned for the rest of our conversation on the future of publishing.
About this upcoming mastermind event
So let's talk about the future of publishing. You're running a big mastermind, next year, I believe. Right?
RUSSELL NOHELTY
Yes, February 26th to 29th in New Orleans.
BETH BARANY
Wow. And I, I'm all about the future. What's going on in the future? People want to know.
RUSSELL NOHELTY
So it's a lot of this.
I mean, it's a lot of personalized marketing. So we have some really amazing.
So the first thing is, most conferences are set up to be: I talk to many.
We wanted to set up a true mastermind, which is all small group. So there's tables of nine to 10 people, and we are very selective of who we let in to the mastermind so that everyone gets a chance to learn from each other.
Every day, they're small group and round tables and long lunches. And mostly it's about working through your - we want all hundred people to be able to talk to all hundred people by the end of the conference.
So we have–
Key Attendees
Pierre Janti is going to come in and teach us how to make a seven-figure web store.
We have an AI panel with Steph Padronis, Kevin McLaughlin, and Elizabeth Ann West. Steph and Elizabeth are from Future Fiction Academy. And then, Kevin recently edited the AI issue of Indie Author Magazine. So, top people for, for that.
We are about to announce somebody who works at a very well-known company to talk to us about transmedia.
We also have retailers. We have Kobo who is coming, Kickstarter is coming. We have a virtual component.
There is some panels and such, but we are trying to make it so that it's people talking to each other.
So while the attendees may not necessarily be that exciting for a conference because you don't really - you would be interested in talking to people but they're not the main - they're not adding a huge amount of value to the conference outside of your enjoyment.
We think it's really important that the attendees are amazing who are coming.
They're going to be the ones who are teaching you and helping you and sitting with you and trying to work through problems.
We have Shell and Alice from IndieAuthor Magazine and IndieAuthorTools. They're going to do some talks about how to take your career to the next level through technology.
And then we have- Melissa Storm is coming.
If you go to the future of publishing.com, you can see all of, the speakers who've, with all the attendees we've announced right now.
It's like a who's who.
Claire Taylor is an Enneagram coach is going to be there.
It's organized by Mel Jolly and Todrick Kandahl, who run Ninc the organizers of Ninc,
Jennifer Probst, Sarah Cannon, Aaron Wright from Write for the Win, Ella Barnard from Author Like a Boss, Kat Caldwell, Jennifer Hilt from the Trope Thesaurus, Nicholas Nelson, who runs Wordsmith Writing Coaches.
Those are the only people that have said - we can officially say who they are, but it's like a dream come true to be able to just be in a room with the people that - I have been in a room with many of them.
I have chatted with them. I've worked with many of them, and it's a life-changing experience to just be in their presence for an hour. So they're going to all come to our event to eat amazing food. Also, it's catered. Breakfast and lunch is catered.
So it's, it's just an - it's overwhelming, but the content - everyone's like, Oh, so it's going to be all about NFTs and AI.
And I'm like, it is about technology, but it's really about where the industry is going in one to three years and how you can take advantage of it.
As you know, as a Grassland, being at the forefront of where technology is going gives you the best chance to catch the wave and get the biggest upside.
And these are people who are coming, whether they're speaking or vending or attending, who are just like the absolute best humans in the world who are taking advantage of - who've probably been down the road and can tell you in 10 seconds why you're right or wrong about something. And just be able to spend four days with these people is, is kind of incredible.
I'm constantly shocked that we're able to have these people, have the trust that we have. And then we also have access to all of our courses.
More benefits of joining the mastermind
If you join us in the Mastermind, we also do monthly calls. So on the calls, we've had Steve Piper, Becca Syme, Amelia Rose, and Michael Evans from Ream.
We've had Tyler James from Comics Launch, probably Jennifer Hilt come in next month. We have just some incredible creators. We have Mike Bloom from Pipsqueak Films, who is going to talk about transmedia. It's just an absolutely incredible experience.
Direct Sales
We're trying to give you the tools because, in direct sales specifically, many people try to equate direct sales with one thing like direct sales is memberships.
Direct sales is web stores. Direct sales is Kickstarter. And while retailer sales are in many ways, one thing.
Like if it's Amazon ads, you put that book on Amazon, and you make the blurb how they tell you to make the blurb, and you run ads the way they tell you. There's like not that many, it's not that much variability.
When you expand out from KU into wide, it becomes, wow, there's seven platforms that have seven different optimizations. And then when you're like, okay, I want to add direct sales, it becomes this huge other thing.
So what we're trying to do is with the Future of Publishing is create an ecosystem where you can build from all of the tools, because it sounds scary on one side, wow, there's so much, but most people are unsuccessful. Most authors haven't figured it out.
Even if you have figured it out, you probably want to get more successful and you cap out at what a platform can do.
And the beauty of where we live is like you know, until the 40s, it was a very specific upper class, leisure class, who could be writers. Between the 40s and the invention of the Kindle, that creation was confined to New York, LA, London, Paris, a couple of other cities in the world. If you were not there, you couldn't just... Okay, cool. Bye. You can move here.
And that's what I was told. I mean, I live in LA and I'm glad I moved, but it was like, you can move to LA or you can move to LA or you could be unsuccessful. I don't know. Like those are your two options.
But now we live in a world where like, it's hard, and it's complicated, but like, you don't have to be in KU. I don't have any of my books on retailers. And you can still make a six-figure business. You can still do all of these things. And you can still say, Oh, wow, that didn't work.
Well, I guess I'm not gonna - I, I have tried so many times to make a membership work, Beth.
I don't know if you were part of my, uh–
BETH BARANY
A little bit. Yeah.
RUSSELL NOHELTY
I think you were part of my Circle community that I started, the Wannabe Press one.
I've tried every platform, Patreon. There used to be one on - that Kickstarter-owned called Drip or Drop or something like that. I was part of that. And like, every time, unsuccessful.
And if that happens to you when you were retailers, it's like, well, I guess I gotta make a new book.
The beauty of direct sales and all the way that we live now, it's just like, well, I don't know.
Suddenly you're like, wait, why does this work? I don't does this works and like, it just suddenly fits with how your brain functions, and it changes everything for you.
And that is the beauty of where we live.
The Reason for the Future of Publishing Conference
And the reason why we have this conference is because it's hard to understand the scope. It's impossible to understand the full scope.
We find different things, and we literally spend all day, every day, either talking about it or like working in it. And so for someone else who's not working in it, it is nearly impossible to know how to do - and even if it's on your radar to then do it, to then find the five actionable steps to do it, is nearly impossible.
So we're like, what if we did a high-end event in New Orleans where people hopefully want to come in February and everyone comes?
We all just download our brain into one group file. And then we have all of this other post-convention talks and such to allow us to move ourselves along.
So we meet in 2025, hopefully, you know, we'll all be at the forefront again. And then we can just keep staying at the forefront of where the industry is going.
BETH BARANY
Great. Really great. Well, Russell, I think we could keep going. This is such a great topic. Direct sales, author ecosystem, the future of publishing. I really am so grateful that you could be with us here today. So thank you. Thank you so much for being on.
Yeah, this is awesome.
RUSSELL NOHELTY
Thanks for having me.
Thanks and next time…
BETH BARANY
So that's it for part three of my conversation with Russell, the final part of our three-part conversation. Again, go back and listen to parts one and two about his author ecosystem. And now you'll be all caught up.
Stay tuned for next week when I have a discussion about what inspires my science fiction. And I'm going to talk about space elevators.
And just a quick reminder, if you have any questions about this work that Russell and Monica are doing, be sure to check out author ecosystem.com and take their quiz.
Also be sure to check out their website for this event: the future of publishingmastermind.com. That's the future of publishing mastermind.com to see his upcoming event in February of 2024 in New Orleans.
All right until next time.
Write long and prosper.