I recently had a pretty nasty website crash, and I'm only just tech-literate enough to know how to install drupal and wordpress under my own domain name. The end result was that I learned much more about databases than I ever wanted to (which, really, is actually not all that much). As a result of all the technical drama though, I seriously considered migrating my books to one of the developing weblit platforms.

I wrote a guest post over at Cheap Ass Fiction about weblit as gifting culture,primarily exploring the drive to share as well as some other reasons people want to give their stories away (marketing, monetizing, etc). Thought people might be interested, and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts!

So Guts and Sass has been on its feet for a couple of months now, and now that I've got the website doing mostly everything I want it to I'd like to ask for some outside perspective on design.

I have one main concern, that related but pertinent non-story content distracts from the story content (such as in the sidebars and between the header image and the posts). I want to draw focus to the story, but there's little features or announcements I want to be easily available to readers. And they tend to clutter.

Cross-posted at MeiLinMiranda.com

Update: You can now subscribe to my site on Kindle. I'll keep webserial folks posted on results here and at MeiLinMiranda.com.

A funny thing has happened: I've stopped reading webserials.

I KNOW, RIGHT??

You see, I got a Kindle, and I realize now that I hate reading on the web. Hate. It. But I like serialized fiction. And I'm hearing from readers of my own work that they're in the same position now that they have ereaders; they've stopped reading on the web. I'm thinking that ereaders have the serious potential of taking away our online audiences.

So now I have a dilemma as both a reader and a writer. What to do? I could do what a lot of traditionally published writers, agents, editors and publishers do and rage against those horrible ereaders. Or I could be smart and go with it. I choose smart.

As a writer I'm going to start publishing my feed on Kindle. Or try to; there are hoops I have to jump through.

As a reader, I'm going to start asking writers to do the same--once I test the waters. There's no charge--no downside--and a potential revenue upside. It pushes content to the Kindle, and any advertising eyeballs lost may be balanced by subscriptions.

I'm also going to see if there are other blog-to-ereader apps out there that will work on, say, Nooks. iPhones and Droid devices have Kindle readers already so I'm not worried about them.

So what do you think? Do you have an ereader? Would you prefer to have this site on your ereader than your web browser? Note I'm not asking you whether you'd pay for it, just whether you'd prefer it; I'm thinking that this might be a way of reaching out to readers I don't have yet.

And if you're a fellow serialist, have you tried this? What's been your experience?

WeSeWriMo, aka Web Series (or Web Serial) Writing Month, is a writing marathon/project much like NaNoWriMo, but with far more flexible and personalized goals. The project is hosted by the EpiGuide web fiction community, where our mandate is to encourage and promote the bountiful variety of webserial formats and genres.

Since 2007, writers of any kind of serialized fiction or webseries are invited to spend August 1 - 31 churning out material with a set goal of ... well, whatever measurement you like! You might decide on 50,000 words or 10 installments or 50 scenes or 100 pages or any writing goal you wish. The idea is to make it ambitious enough to be a challenge, but realistic enough so that you're not dooming yourself to failure before you even start.

This idea has been rumminating in my head for some time. I don't think I've mentioned it on here before (I did a quick look see for a post and couldn't see one, but if I'm wrong I apologise).

Anyway the idea:

Firstly you need to read this article.

Now, obviously, that's about an alternative book tour for a physical book, but I think parts of it could be used by us.

Here's how:

1. Work out how far afield you can afford to go and how long you can dedicate to the tour.

I'm Erin (also known as Doc, Jude, and a dozen other appellations) and I write the two month old serial Awakenings, located at http://awakenings.embklitzke.com. I've been wandering around the internet, looking for advice and ways to promote my fiction, so I figured I'd sign up here and try to glean whatever I can from the community here, since I assume that most of the folks here will have more wisdom than I will!

So, hi!

Greetings, all.

For three years, I've been writing short fiction and haiku and posting it weekly at http://catsignal.com, so there's quite a backlist to enjoy. I also post quotations about writing, and I write short essays about writing and related matters.

The fiction doesn't really fit into a particular genre; it's whatever story I felt like writing that week. So if one doesn't appeal to you, try another as it'll be quite different.

I hope you'll come over to Catsignal and browse and have fun.

Bryon

Greetings all,

I'm looking at starting the audiobook version of Guts and Sass, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience/opinions about podcast distributors. The only one I'm vaguely familiar with is Podomatic. I also plan to put the audio files up for direct download on my site, but it would be great to have it in more places. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi everyone. Time for a little shameless self-promotion. I've been nominated for the 2011 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere -- an online award, but one that could get me a fair number of new readers if I win. I'm up against some pretty fantastic poets, including Adam Dustus, Rob Mclennan, and Shan Ellis.

Right now, I'm holding strong in 4th place, but I need about 27 votes to catch up to the next ranking. I'd like to be able to finish somewhere in the top three, even if I don't win.