The Murverse Mothership

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:19 — 35.2MB)

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[Note- this is the correct file. I had an episode numbering problem. Check episode 95 if this is a repeat for you.]

Mur and Matt come to you live from Ditch Diggers Island Pear Farm on Animal Crossing.

• The fruit-based economy of Animal Crossing is discussed, with a focus on the disdain for pears and Matt’s belief that AC pear hatred is coded fatphobia.
• Props are given to Escape Pod, the first and longest-running fiction podcast celebrating its 15th anniversary, and Matt predictably rants about how podcast fiction is “invented” every year, erasing the originators of it.
• Mur has discovered South Korean baseball, and is very excited about it.
• Cooking and curries, or how “curry” isn’t actually a thing.
• An anonymous publishing source emails Matt and Mur to address a previous episode about the lack of book publisher’s leaning into ebook and other digital marketing in the time of COVID.
• How, despite general book sales staying steady or even rising right now, the sales of kids books are falling alarmingly.
• Yoga mat/block scarcity is real, as is puzzle scarcity.
• Matt and Mur discuss the issue of whether or not authors should ask a prospective agent’s clients about that agent before querying them, and the fallout/varied opinions that flooded Twitter after an agent threatened to blacklist authors for doing so.
• Q&A! Alternative options for selling books, freelance writers to follow on Twitter for smart freelance writing talk, and more.
• Mentioned in this episode:
  • Print Run Podcast
  • Wonder Stories
  • Bookshop

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:05 — 42.3MB)

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[EDIT- Link finally included in the post! Sorry about that!]

• Matt and Mur come to you live with a do-over of an episode that was recorded once before already however due to COVID-19 and/or sabotage by alien robot spies it was deleted (that’s their story, anyway).
• Garfield Minus Garfield and murder playgrounds as a metaphor for modern society is briefly discussed.

• Mur and Matt update the audience and each other on their life-and-working-in-quarantine status.
• Mur descends into a tangent on feeling pressure to innovate and create new, lockdown-focused content in quarantine and the inability to do so.
• The Ditch Diggers are recreating what they did last week that you didn’t hear, which is answering your lockdown-related freelancing questions!
• Economic relief options and programs for freelancers are discussed and (at least tenuously) explained, including PPP and applying for unemployment.
• Whether the recent layoffs, cutbacks, and furloughs announced by Macmillan and other book publishers are the result of concern or panic.
• The question is asked, is now the time to write that pandemic novel you’ve got burning inside you? Which feeds back into the age-old topic/question of “writing to the market.” (Also: beans, cool and otherwise)
• Mur’s books are as important as sex porn (which is a callback to earlier in the episode, because the Ditch Diggers like callbacks).
• Matt and Mur encourage those with the disposable income to do so to support debut authors in this time of news and circumstances crushing book debuts. Some ideas:
  • Docile by KM Szpara
  • The Seep by Chana Porter
  • The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams
  • The Return by Rachel Harrison
  • The Unsuitable by Molly Pohlig
  • The Down Days by Ilze Hugo
  • Savage Legion by Matt Wallace
    (Do you know of more? Let us know!)
• The traditional end of episode shilling occurs, including where to find Matt and Mur online in the time of COVID and Matt’s debut epic fantasy novel dropping in July (*cough*Savage Legion*cough*).

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).