Q&A: Author Seth Harwood

Seth Harwood is part of a new wave of savvy fiction writers who are propelling themselves into careers through their own online efforts. In Seth’s case, he developed and promoted a podcast that eventually led to a book deal for his crime novel Jack Wakes Up. In this interview, Seth gives Editor Unleashed readers the inside track on how an author can take the reins of his writing career and drive his own success.

So how did you land your book deal?
I’ve been writing fiction for almost 15 years now. For most of that time, I did all the “right” things for an aspiring author, all the stuff they tell you to do—got an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, got about a dozen stories published in various literary journals, and so on. But after hundreds of rejections and no agent willing to come within a mile of my collection, I began to lose hope. At the same time, my attempts at writing a literary novel weren’t going so well. Basically, I didn’t know what I wanted to write about.

Finally, I decided to try writing a crime novel, which became Jack Wakes Up. And I had a ball with it. I’ve always loved action, thriller, and kung-fu movies and shows like “The Sopranos,” “Dexter,” and “The Wire,” but until then I was never willing to let these loves figure into my writing.

Around this time, I started learning about fiction podcasts and was blown away by the numbers of listeners some unpublished authors were getting for their work. A friend introduced me to Scott Sigler, the daddy of them all, who helped me work through the technical issues. So in July of ‘06, I started podcasting Jack Wakes Up. I figured it would be a fun experiment, and that it would help me move on from that novel and start writing something else. But pretty soon, listeners actually started writing in to say they liked what I was doing and that they wanted more, and my numbers started growing fast. Suddenly I felt like I was getting a little bit of exposure—and, more important, for the first time in my writing career I was actually getting consistent positive feedback from an audience, which was an amazing feeling.

Eventually I hooked up with a small press to put out Jack Wakes Up as a print on demand release. On the first day out, it hit #45 in books on Amazon and #1 in crime/mystery, all on the strength of my podcast listeners going out and buying it. After that, I heard from an agent right away and we were sending the manuscript to New York editors later that week!

Now, Jack Wakes Up is out from Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, and I’m using the same techniques I used to build my audience to sell copies of the book. I’ve been covered by The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, and my book was reviewed by the New York Times’ leading crime fiction reviewer.

Can you tell me more about why you think writers should give away their novels?
I think it’s really important that we share the work we’re most proud of. If I spend 75% of my time writing my novel but then my public face to the world (via the internet) is my blog on how I write or what I think of the publishing world, then I’m leading with secondary content. I’m not showing off the best of my work. A lot of writers might come along and read my blog, but the people I’m most interested in attracting—readers!—could care less. They want stories, action, more of the books they like to read. If I can show them my work and let them see what I’m capable of producing, then that’s going to workout best for me.

There’s nothing to be afraid of about putting content online. Like Cory Doctorow says, “Our enemy isn’t piracy. It’s obscurity.” It’s true: The more people who know my work, whether from reading a pdf online, listening to me read it via podcast, or find it on my site as text, the better off I’m going to be as a writer. I want people to know me as Seth Harwood: Crime writer, author of Jack Wakes Up.

And what’s the best method for spreading your work? Podcasts? Blogging? Ebooks?
I see podcasts as basically a blog with embedded mp3 content. Having an RSS feed (what most people really think of when they say “blog” as a noun) is essential so people can get your content with the least work from them. Part of why I love podcasting is because you can come to my website once, and subscribe to my feed then never come back, and you’ll always have my content delivered straight to your computer for as long as you want. I think it’s asking a lot of people to constantly visit your site. If you can bring the goods to them, that works even better.

So for that reason, I’m a big proponent of podcasts, video, and PDF enclosures in feeds. I think an RSS feed is essential. Some people have had success working with spreading their work as text. I’ve done it, but for me reading the novels works best. You’re offering people something they can really use: great stories to listen to in the car, working out, on the job, whatever or wherever. It’s something they can really enjoy!

How are you promoting the book now? What’s working best for you right now?
I’m doing everything I can: Going grass roots and real world and going out to do readings at independent booksellers in my area (the SF Bay), and on both coasts, putting out video content from the readings I’ve been doing, producing promos for other podcasters to play on their shows, and trying my best to keep up my own content—to keep it coming for my listeners. I’ve started blogging a bit more on various sites and doing interviews like these. I’m getting into new territories on the web, using Facebook and Twitter to spread my message, where I’ll be and what I’m up to, and basically anything else that I come across.

I’m in this great position now where I’ve got a lot of super new media stuff working for me, but I’m also getting to meet these wonderful booksellers who’re very grounded in the literary community and still have tons of customers coming to them to buy books! It’s been so interesting to share our perspectives on what’s happening with publishing, finding new ways we can help each other out.

Are you writing another book? What’s next up for you?
Absolutely! Actually, I’ve already written two more books in the Jack Palms Crime series and released them via my website and iTunes as free audiobooks! I’ve had such a great time sharing these with my fans that I can’t really stop. This year I put out a Jack Wakes Up prequel about the early life of a secondary character, Junius Ponds. So for those looking to try the podcasts, there’s lots of Jack Palms stories already to check out. With some luck it’ll only be a matter of time until they all come out in print! This summer. I’m planning to work on a short story called “Jack Palms in Triad Death Match.”

You can learn more about Seth Harwood and his book on his website.

-Maria Schneider

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