The Murverse Mothership

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:28 — 35.8MB)

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• Matt and Mur come to you live from the social distancing movie theater within Ditch Diggers HQ where all the seats are six feet apart and cannons shoot popcorn directly into your mouth for a hands-free experience.
• The Dalai Lama’s hot takes and inappropriate quarantine pop-ins are briefly discussed.
• Mur and Matt talk about how they (and their work habits) are holding up in quarantine, and how it is okay to both not be able to produce creatively right now and feel bad about it.
• How media producers from MasterClass to Netflix are adjusting their business models and marketing during the pandemic—and why does publishing seem absent from all of it?
• What are publishers doing to address books being released now, and what aren’t they doing?
• The old argument about the effectiveness of book marketing, especially the marketing of genre books, or the lack thereof, is discussed.
• Matt goes on a very long and very angry rant about publisher vs. author responsibility when it comes to raising awareness for and marketing books, particularly and specifically in the time of COVID.
• On the heels of Matt’s ravings, Mur says smart, productive things about authors dealing with book releases in quarantine when the weight to market their book falls on their shoulders.
• Mur goes on an entirely relevant tangent about remembering you have to ask for things in life and in your career, and it’s always worth making that ask.
• Dealing with despair, and remembering writers are needed and important and valuable.
• The question of are we going to see more authors self-publishing due to the pandemic and widespread shutdowns and quarantines.
• Twitter Q&A! Topics include whether non-writing activities such as Twitch streaming/podcasting/et all actually help sell books, and the issue of writing pandemic novels in the time of an actual pandemic.
• The obligatory end of episode shilling (preorder Matt’s debut epic fantasy novel SAVAGE LEGION, available worldwide July 21st).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:25 — 38.6MB)

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• Mur and Matt come to you live from the Shelter-in-Place Shelter That’s Right Next To The Quarantine Room In Our Manor (there’s a sign that says this above the door) in the plague times!
• Mur has been amusing herself with Animal Crossing, and Matt explains what he thinks Animal Crossing is solely based on the screen shots he’s seen people post on Twitter.
• Mur was planning to fly to New Zealand for WorldCon this year, and now she is no longer doing that, nor is WorldCon happening in New Zealand as it is going virtual this year!
• Matt encourages everyone having to cancel non-refundable travel to complain to the airlines until they at least give you a credit.
• The Ditch Diggers discuss how the pandemic lockdown has revealed a lot about the arbitrary unwillingness of institutions, businesses, and people in general to make workplaces and events more accessible to those with accessibility issues.
• Virtual/online models for conventions should be integrated into the culture after the lockdown ends.
• What we do lose with conventions not consisting of congregating in person in a specific place with other people.
• How virtual conventions might replicate the physical con-going experience from “barcon” to other random meet-ups.
• The benefits of online cons, such as more easily archiving and making available convention content digitally after the event, and making the con more accessible to a wider range of people and guests.
• The challenges of virtual cons, such as timezone differences and international attendees possibly having to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to attend their panels.
• The possibility of virtual cons opening up the field for ancillary online events that occur around the same time, and Matt and Mur talk about hosting a live Ditch Diggers and possibly an online freelance business seminar.
• Send us more of your Ditch Diggers business of writing/writing as a business questions! We want to hear from you!
• Mur talks about the Patreon, and both how the Ditch Diggers fully understand people having to walk back their pledges and how the Ditch Diggers Discord has been opened up to more folks!
• Matt still has a book coming out, and it just got a starred review in Library Journal! Please preorder SAVAGE LEGION, hopefully from your local bookstore, coming July 21st!
• Matt and Mur end the episode with obscure references to The Office, like pros.

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