Netflix and the Future of Entertainment

It’s been said for a long time now that Netflix is leading the future of entertainment.  Many people saw it years ago when they were taking business from Blockbuster Entertainment and other video stores, and amazingly, they did nothing to counter this.  Despite the fact that Netflix’s model was working better than theirs, the heads of Blockbuster ignored these obvious signs and continued their business as usual rather than adjusting and evolving.  This was due in large part to ego.  I know because I’ve talked with someone who served as president for a time at Blockbuster and left because he saw that no one would even consider changing tactics.  When he pointed this out, they ignored him and kept their ship driving right into the iceberg.

            Now Netflix is continuing their innovative efforts in competition with regular television.  What’s amazing is how little these networks have learned from Blockbuster.  They believe that, because they are the big guys on the block today, they are destined to always be that way.

            To be sure, they are adjusting in some ways, but usually they are the wrong ways.  CBS is beginning a subscription service that will be led by their Star Trek series in which viewers will have to pay to watch.  However, viewers aren’t going to see any reason to pay for this television service that they are getting for free with other shows unless CBS offers something more.  Of course, they’ll have some shows that they know audiences will want on the subscription channel, but that’s not enough.

            What’s caused viewers to turn to Netflix is that their programming has been more interesting and innovative than network TV.  Rather than following tired formulas and using outdated methods, they have created new ways of telling stories both artistically and technically.

            Artistically, they tell stories in unique fashions and they make sure the entire show is aired so the whole story is there.  What I mean by unique fashions is that they do not limit their writers to specific formula patterns.  On television, you have five acts broken up by commercials.  Every show has to follow those acts, and executives will require that producers break down their scripts into these acts to prove it.  Netflix makes no such requirement, and thus the stories are more interesting.

This is further improved by the fact that they don’t make pilots, see how they go, then just a few episodes and see how they go before making entire seasons.  Networks do this all the time, and it makes for very broken up storylines.  Worst yet, they will cancel a show if it’s not doing well.  This may save them money in the short run, but it destroys trust in the viewer, who decides not to watch the next show.

Many people will not waste their time on a network show because that show may be cancelled next week.  There’s no point in wasting the time getting invested.  But with Netflix, you know that if you try a show out, they’ll at least get through a season, so there will be some semblance of a story.

Basically, think of it like this.  If you buy a book, would you rather get one that the author is still writing and might not finish, or would you rather get one that you know has been finished, and may even go on to more books?

Unless the networks wake up, they’re going to go the way of Blockbuster.

Using a Mailing List

As time has gone by I’ve been hearing more and more how important a mailing list is.  I disregarded its importance as I felt that emailing people was more of a nuisance to both me and the people I’d be emailing, and I didn’t see how it would be effective.  I figured that if someone was interested enough to give me their email address, they were already looking at my work, and they didn’t need me to bother them with reminders about it.

            However, I heard about mailing lists being important enough that I finally looked into it, and I began to see the value.  First, it’s really only helpful if you are regularly coming out with material.  So if you have a mailing list for you as a writer, then you need to regularly be coming out with books or other written materials.  If the mailing list is about a series, then you need to be regularly coming out with written materials for that series.

            The problem with the former is that your list will likely be made up of people who became interested in your writing because of one specific book.  So you’re going to need to stay within that genre in order to keep their interest.  If your newsletters become about a subject they’re not interested in, they’ll unsubscribe, even if you’re just taking a short break from that type of writing.

            So it’s best to focus on a particular series and collect names and addresses of people who want to follow along.  For me, that’s been Relic Worlds because not only is it a series, but it’s a series with a lot of ancillary elements.  There are short stories, games, a comic book, etc.  There’s something to talk about every month, and more material to release, so the newsletters have material and aren’t just empty ramblings of me saying, “something more is coming sometime, I promise!”

            I’ve found that there are two methods to build the mailing list that work the best, conventions and giveaways.  At conventions, you’re trying to get people to look at your books, but they’re not sure whether they’re ready to commit to buying or even reading them yet.  So a mailing list is a good way to get a taste without a commitment.  It’s also a way to remind them that you exist, as opposed to a flyer which will likely get thrown away once they’re home, no matter how interested they are in your product.

            Giveaways are the way to do it from home.  You need to get a prize people will want, and it’s a great idea to get something that matches what you’re selling.  In my case, I gave away a Kindle Fire and I included one of the Relic Worlds books.  That way they not only get a prize they want, they also have a means for which to read my books, and a starter.  But the real prize for me was all the email addresses that people had to give in order to enter the raffle.

            Now, I don’t want lists of people who won’t be interested in my series.  That wastes everyone’s time.  Even once I have their email addresses, when I send them a newsletter, they’ll just unsubscribe because they’re not interested.  Or, worse yet, they won’t unsubscribe and I’ll continue to send them information that’s useless to both them and me.  So I promote it on sites where I think my readership will go, and I make sure keywords are always included that have scifi, adventure, books, etc.

            I use Shortstack as my sweepstakes provider.  They help collect all the email addresses, and provide a means by which to make a good looking sweepstakes page.  I might switch this out as I wasn’t extremely impressed with their service considering the cost.  But it wasn’t bad.  They’re at: http://www.shortstack.com/

            I use Mailchimp to create and send the newsletters.  They’ve been fantastic.  They’re at: http://mailchimp.com/

Book Talks

I’ll be traveling around the Midwest and Texas in October giving talks at Rotary clubs and libraries.  I’d put the tour list here, but it’s long, and would take a lot of time for me to look up all the addresses and/or contact information, and no one goes to these events based on this blog, so I’m not going to take the time to list them now.

            Instead I’m going to talk about why I go to these clubs and give these talks.  I have found Rotary clubs, and groups like it, to be an invaluable tool for independent non-fiction promotion.  The organizers of these clubs need to find a new speaker every single week, and they’re trying to find subjects interesting enough to keep their members coming back.  Having a true story to tell is a blessing for them, as long as it’s an interesting one.  While I struggled for years to get bookstores to let me do signings, clubs that need regular speakers have been more than willing to accept me.  And some have even contacted me and asked me to come to their organization to speak, saving me the time of having to go to them.

            I haven’t been charging for these events as I want to get into as many as possible.  I make money by selling copies of my books at them, and sometimes I make a couple hundred at a single event.  It’s not enough to live on as the work required to set it up and to travel there winds up being inefficient.  However, it spreads the word of the book and of me as an author.  I often make friends and contacts who later join me on social media, and they see what else I’m writing.  Like most things in independent publishing, it pays to have a number of titles so each individual event doesn’t wind up being your only trick.

            I approach these organizations by looking them up, finding out who would be in charge of booking guests, (if I can’t find that, I just find the president or whomever is in charge,) and I email them.  I tell them what the story is and I provide a link to the web page where the information is listed.  I also mention anything that is sellable about the story.  (In the case of Two Gun Hart I tell them that it’s the first time a lot of information about the Capones has ever been revealed.)  And I make sure to mention anything that’s relevant to their area, as sometimes clubs prefer stories with a local connection.  (Oddly enough, most of the ones in Iowa wouldn’t have me as a guest unless I could show a local connection.)

            This doesn’t work so well when it comes to fiction because typically the best you can do is say you have a story you’ve made up.  The problem is, everyone has a story they’ve made up, and they don’t know why yours is extra special.  And besides, people at events like these usually want to hear about something that’s true.  They’re fascinated by true stories and will gladly invite authors with great true stories to their events.

Star Trek Beyond was Actually Great... And May Save the Franchise

All right, I stand corrected. Well, sort of. Star Trek Beyond was great, but I wasn't completely in the wrong for criticizing it during its promotions.

Watching it, my eyes watered. Not because it's sad, but because, at long last, I was watching a Star Trek movie. JJ Abrams admitted he wasn't a Star Trek fan, and those first two movies showed it. But this time it was clear that people who care about the franchise were in charge of it, at least the writing part.

This time it was about the crew coming together to solve the problems. It's what Star Trek was always supposed to be about! They are overwhelmed by what they're facing, so no amount of fighting is going to win the day. They have to intellectually figure something out to save the day, and they have to do it together, each one bringing their own special knowledge and talents.

But I still hold to the fact that the promotion campaign was crap. In fact, it hurt the film. While it opened to a positive weekend, it did worse than the other movies. Why? Because they promoted it as a hip action film rather than a smart, emotional one. It detracted the audiences that would want to see it, people like me. I only grudgingly went because I heard several people who hated the Abrams films said they loved this one.

Somehow, Hollywood still thinks it will get a larger audience by following formulas of pop culture. But if they just trust good material, they'll get larger audiences. I believe this film will have legs, and will bring Star Trek back as long as they follow the team who created this film rather than those who marketed it. I'm waiting with baited breath for the next one, and the series, if they're going to be this smart about them.

RPG Storytime

Separate from my writing, (and often taking my time away from it,) I’ve been running a couple game channels.  The first was a war game channel where I show miniature war games and other things from that community.  I wanted to expand into other games so I built a channel called Bandwagon Games where we have all sorts of board games, computer games, miniatures games, etc.

            But the one I’m most excited about is a show called RPG Storytime where I feature role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, which is the first one.  The stories are created from games that have been played, and summarized using miniatures.  This particularly appeals to me because it embodies my three favorite things to do: gaming, storytelling, and making movies.

            It’s also a good tool for promoting.  As I’ve discussed last week, people connect more to video than they do to words.  Despite the fact that I’m a writer, or perhaps especially because I’m a writer, I have to admit this fact to myself.  Movies connect with multiple senses, such as sight and sound, while books force us to imagine things.  This is, of course, the strength of books, but it’s also what makes it harder for us to connect with the audience.

            RPG Storytime allows me to tell a story visually and to promote to a new audience, the gamers.  This works particularly well for my science fiction writing as those are two audiences that are closely related.  Nonfiction readers aren’t so much into games as much… Well, they’re sometimes into the war games, especially if they’re into military history.  But for the most part, this is a promotional opportunity for my sci fi and future fantasy writing.

            I plan to eventually turn some of the stories I’m making through RPG Storytime into books themselves.  The hope is that those people who connected with the videos will want to buy the books as well.  There will likely be people who wouldn’t have given the book a try, but because they got sucked into the Youtube videos, which were free to watch, they may have that emotional connection to want to get the books and read more.

If you’d like to see RPG Storytime, webisode 1 of the Dungeons & Dragons storyline is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuO4eWuagZ0

People Connect More to Video Than to Words

            It’s a painful thing to admit as a book writer, but there’s a reason why movies and television are more popular storytelling formats than any type of written material.  The reason is simply because visual mediums appeal to multiple senses; primarily sight and sound.  They more easily and effectively manipulate our emotions.  And, perhaps most importantly, they can be enjoyed in groups.  While reading a book or a short story is an intimate moment between reader and writer, visual productions can bring together multiple audience members at the same time and cause them to all feel the same thing at the same moment.

            An example of this is John Green of the Vlog Brothers on Youtube.  He speaks poetically and quite well about how reading is a shared experience between author and reader.  However, even he has to admit that his fame came not through his books, but through his program with his brother.  It was once the audience could see him, hear him, and get a sense of his feelings through his expressions that they connected with him, and wanted to know more about what he was writing.

            Books that have been made into movies always do better than before they were put on film.  Even though the movies ruin the endings and every secret in these books, people become curious about what’s in the book in addition to the film.  Not only is there a lot of free advertising, but once people have heard voices of the characters, even though it’s stolen away their ability to make their own voices, more readers flock to these books because they’ve had a more visceral connection.

            I’ve embraced this fact and started a few Youtube channels of my own.  They have, regrettably, been as unsuccessful as my writing and I struggle to get views.  But I do find it easier to get people to take a chance with one of my videos than it is to get people to take a chance on my writing.  Even trying to get people to read a free short story is a daunting task.

            I’ve become convinced that a healthy mix of these two mediums is the best chance for success.  The difficulty is in juggling my time with these two art forms.

Let Disney Take Over Star Trek

Someone posted something a few months ago about wishing Disney could take over Star Trek.  At first I cringed, but then I realized that’s from how I used to view Disney.  However, ever since they have handled the Marvel storylines so well, and are building up Star Wars in a nice way, I’ve grown a trust for them.  And frankly, Star Trek needs the same handling.

            By that, I do not mean to put Abrams back in charge, or to make it more like Star Wars.  These were two problems with the reboot.  Abrams himself admitted he wasn’t into Trek, and he made it more like Star Wars, which is what it should not be.  It’s a mystery adventure, not an action/war series.  It would work best if done with more of a focus on exploration of the unknown, and problem solving.

            However, my cousin Michael said it best a number of years ago when there were several Trek series on TV.  He said the network should bring Voyager back immediately, and have all the series intermingle with one another.  Basically, he was predicting the universe building that Disney is doing today almost 20 years before they did it.  And he was right.  Star Trek has a lot of potential for several series happening simultaneously and interconnecting.  The overall storyline should move forward based on the actions of multiple crews and ships.  You could even have series and movies about factions other than the Federation.  Wouldn’t a Klingon series be fun?  Or how about being on board a Romulan War Bird during the original series when they were more like submarines?

            There’s a lot one could do, but so far, it’s been very shortsighted.  And with the new Star Trek about to be released, I have little hope for its future.

I had been optimistic at the end of the last movie.  Even though it was a pretty bad movie, I was looking forward to the crew finally beginning on a five year mission of discovery.  Maybe now they would finally make it about exploration, Roddenberry’s original vision.  And with the departure of Abrams to do what he really should have been doing instead, the series might actually get good.

Sadly, I believe we jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.  I really began to believe this when I saw they had replaced Abrams with the director of The Fast and the Furious.  Their tone deafness was particularly prominent when they began bragging about this fact.  They went on to have fast paced action scenes for all of their trailers, and had a whole campaign about hearing Rihanna’s latest track on the newest trailer.  (They didn’t say anything about the plot or the characters or where the series was going.  No; Rihanna is more important to them.)  All along, they have de-emphasized the only positive element of this movie; the fact that Simon Pegg wrote it.  This, and only this, is the reason I’ve considered watching it.  But the producers have done such a complete job of glossing over that fact, and put so much emphasis on the elements that make it look like another Fast & Furious movie that I simply can’t look.

I’m sad to say it, but I’m done with Star Trek.

That is, unless they can do something better with it.  CBS has a new series coming out, and they’re right about a couple things.  First, it really should be a series.  There’s too much potential to be locked away as just individual movies.  And second, an idea they’re mulling is to have each season be a different crew, which taps into the potential of multiple storylines.  However, I happen to know that they really don’t know what they’re going to do, and are going into this venture blindly rather than with a passionate vision like the one Roddenberry had.