The Murverse Mothership

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:40 — 40.0MB)

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• Mur and Matt come to you live from Jeff Goldblum’s Genius Bar, because it is time once again for a Ditch Diggers feedback/Q&A episode!
• Matt is pissed off and Mur is emotionally and physically drained, so they are both ready to do the best episode ever!
• Matt rants for several minutes about Apple and Mac products. (spoiler: they both anger him)
• Mur is tired because they keep stealing her blood. No, seriously. Well, it’s not technically theft, but still. But anyway, Mur is literally too metal for life.
• Mur is behind on listener-submitted I Should Be Writing questions, but that’s not what we’re dealing with right now.
• What lesson did the Ditch Diggers learn from their first published novels that made a big difference?
• In a future episode, Gail Carriger will return to DD to talk about public speaking for writers!
• A drachma is 100 leptas and the plural of “drachma” is “drachmae.”
• Phillip asks Matt about novella series, and low-key calls Matt out for constantly bemoaning the disappointing commercial performance of his novella series.
• ML Moos asks about internet trolls and “agent blacklists” (mostly to hear Matt light up a particular troll who neither Matt nor Mur have ever heard of).
• A listener responds to a previous question about publishing rights and languages in the Finnish market.
• Short story, novellete, novella, and novel lengths are discussed and defined as well as such things can be in this or any genre.
• How typical is it for authors who sell movie rights to retain control over character and story decisions about their work? (spoiler: very rarely if ever)
• How private is your identity when you use a pseudonym? (Matt’s meta erotica fiction pen name is going to be John Smith)
• Scams played on new authors trying to get published (this could obviously be an entire episode of its own, but Matt and Mur give general guidelines to protect yourself).
• Previews of episodes to come, praise for Russian Doll, and the customary end-of-episode shilling (which includes out-of-date Hugo nomination pleas)!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:20 — 84.7MB)

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• Mur and Matt come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s sauna to handle “Old Business” from 2016 (it’s our long-awaited, oft hyped listener feedback episode!)
• A brief tangent on eucalyptus saunas.
• The Ditch Diggers both have new books out! And have turned in others!
• Marta from Poland asks about short story English language rights and reprints.
• Stefana from Johannesburg asks in what other jobs genre fiction writers might have an advantage.
• DevoSpice suggests recording special time capsule episodes.
• On contractual agreements between writing partners and writer wills.
• Thomas asks about finding an agent when you’re with a publisher who has right of first refusal on your next book.
• Michael asks about finding a publisher for a novel set in the same world as your published short stories.
• Doing a show about older mid-list authors struggling to find new ways to get their fiction out there.
• A Swedish author asks if you should submit a novel to agents/publishers when you know something like physical illness will prevent you from working on rewrites immediately.
• Cassandra asks at what age should you start submitting fiction for publication?
• Nicole asks if you should or should not resubmit stories you’ve completely rewritten to markets that rejected the first version.
• What helped the Ditch Diggers most when they were learning to write, a book or a lesson?
• Should studios make two versions of movies like Star Trek, an intellectually driven version and an action driven version?
• Sean asks about building an audience of readers who make you uncomfortable.
• Authors who don’t want readers to point out typos in their published works to them vs. authors who encourage readers to do so.
• Todd responds to our Godparents episode on the difficulty of building an audience through crowdfunding.
• How do you find cons that are fan-focused and allow you to speak to authors vs. cons that are pro focused.
• Not wanting to promote an anthology you’re contractually obligated to promote (Matt goes off on abusive small press contracts).
• Beth asks how you keep writing when your government is killing your soul and your healthcare?
• Having caught up on Old Business, Matt and Mur plug their books and ask you to support their Patreon and for your vote for the Hugo Awards.
• William Noble’s Conflict, Action, and Suspense: http://a.co/hTxkBbN
•  Stephen King’s On Writing: http://a.co/7Su5QHm

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