Post by Admin Kbatz on Feb 25, 2019 15:30:24 GMT -5
Huge Thank You to HorrorAddicts.net creator Emerian Rich for answering our horror, podcasting, and publishing questions!
Admin Kbatz: Horror Hostess of HorrorAddicts.net Publishing Emerian Rich created HorrorAddicts.net as a place for horror addicts, by horror addicts, glorifying every aspect of the horror lifestyle.
Admin Kbatz: Emerian is the author of Night’s Knights Vampire Series, the Sweet Dreams Novel Series, and has been involved in dozens of podcast and story projects. She was the editor of the horror ‘zine DarkLives for ten years starting in the mid-nineties. a few seconds ago x
Admin Kbatz: To find out more about Emerian, visit her site at: emzbox.com
Admin Kbatz: Emerian is answering questions on Publishing, podcasting, and horror
Admin Kbatz: There may be a lag in the shoutbox. Please refresh to see new conversation at the bottom. If you have a question, post a "?" comment during the chat hour and the moderator will call on you.
Emz: I think I was always interested in the mystery of unknown things in the shadows, but I didn't start writing my first vampire novel until college. I had been writing in general since I was 13 - but never knew I wanted to be a writer. It was just a hobby while I studied to be a jazz singer. LMAO. My big dream...
Admin Kbatz: You also write romance, right Emerian?
Admin Kbatz: How did you get into podcasting?
Emz: Yes, I also write romance. I started with romance when I was about 16. I wrote my first Sweet Dreams novel during my Senior Year Winter Break while my grandfather was dying. I was in the hospital a lot of hours and needed something else to concentrate on.
Emz: Podcasting... I had my first vampire novel all ready to go, got a bite on a deal, then the pub house went out of business. I figured I lost my chance, but then my hubby said... "Hey, I am listening to podcasts. They are like what you do for us, you should try it!" At the time, I was recording short little sound bits of my novel and putting them on CDs for us to listen to.
Admin Kbatz: How did Horror Addicts come to be ten years ago? Podcasts were new then.
Emz: I decided to record Night's Knights for Podiobooks.com and then...the rest is history. How did Horror Addicts? I had finished recording Night's Knights (2008), and my listeners wanted more. I didn't have the sequel done, so I had to think of a show to produce that would keep them listening until the next book. I had a 1st podcast in 2007 called Office Angst... but I didn't want to do office stuff anymore. My hubby said, "Just do a general Horror show. Then you can do anything you want." HorrorAddicts.net was born!
lilyauthor: I've thought about doing a podcast. Which platforms do you find is the best?
Emz: lilyauthor These days my answers will be so different. Because celebrities have taken over podcasts (don't get me started on how podcasts with a whole staff and audio engineers and crap AREN'T really podcasts! They are radio shows! x.x) but... For today..
Emz: You will need a Libsyn account. They start at $5(?) and go up according to space. They are better than all the others (esp GoDaddy--watch out for their hidden fees). The difference for Libsyn is... you upload the mp3... and they do have a cap according to account on space for the month, but when it's up, they DO NOT charge for bandwidth, meaning, tons of peeps can download or listen without charging you fees.
Emz: Then you also need a blog or some way to get the sounds to the listeners. I would say the biggest trial for new podcasters is getting the audience. The market is saturated. For an author, the smarter go would be to start recording your books for Audible...
Emz: It's more profitable and podcasts are a lot of work for very little return.
Admin Kbatz: It think some think they can just up and record themselves but there is a little more to it than that, just like many don't consider all the factors surrounding writing a book.
Admin Kbatz: Horror Addicts next podcast season starts in April, right?
Emz: YES! Go to www.HorrorAddicts.net or search HA on itunes.
Emz: iTunes linK: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/horroraddicts-net/id286123050?mt=2
Emz: We now actually have ALLL the episodes to listen to since I loaded the lost ones 1-13 recently.
Admin Kbatz: Podcasting 101 should have been a workshop, Emz!
lilyauthor: i was hoping it would be s simple as turning on the mic lol
Admin Kbatz: How did the podcast birth the Horror Addicts publishing?
Emz: lilyauthor. hahaha. Not quite. But it is easier than you may think. Editing is a bitch. That is where you will waste most of your time. You should estimate 5 mins for every one minute when you start. Nowadays I spend about 2-3 mins for every one minute.
Emz: Horror Addicts publishing? Really, the show has evolved in accordance to its staff. And that is the truth. I am only one person... so I started the show, got some staff who wanted a Ning group, we started it... then Ning started charging we went to a blog, then we got a staff who wanted the blog to be more, so she did that... then we got a staff who wanted to do books, we did that... I am really open to staff taking charge. It's a team effort. Kbatz wanted a CON, and we are doing it! History in the making!
Emz: My only problem with staff creating things is if they leave... replacing them because the new staff have new visions.
lilyauthor: How do you cover the costs of podcasting?
Emz: lilyauthor hahahaha! I don't. They all come out of my expenses. There are podcasts who fund through Patreon or have sponsors. I don't do that. We have had people approach us in the past to advertise. I am very picky. The ad MUST contribute to the ideas and worth of the show. I won't have ads that are just ads. The small amounts we have got from those rare ads have helped, but we are basically funded through my writing career and never break even. It really is a labor of love.
lilyauthor: Wow, you have my admiration.
Emz: PS (on ads) I just want the addicts to be able to enjoy this free show without having to pay us. I know it's an outdated concept - everyone has to make a buck and one day I might not be able to do it anymore, but for now...I love the fact that my addicts are a family, can listen to us free of charge on iTunes or The Belfry App, and they know we care about their dark horror needs without making them pay us.
Emz: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.wizzard.android.belfry You can listen to us and other awesome dark podcasts through this app
Admin Kbatz: Dark Divinations I imagine will have some romantic aspects, dark though. Was there other crossover in previous anthologies I don't remember?
trin: You started writing horror and I know you also write some regency romance. Do find overlap between the genres?
Emz: My personal writing...Horror and Regency R...Contemporary R... there is very little overlap. I had no idea when I decided to launch my romance career that I would be starting over. And then I started a Regency career and it is also starting over. Contemporary and Regency don't mix. and neither of them like Horror and visa versa... they are all very different crowds. If they all got together I'd have quite a big fan base! lmao. I did write Artistic License (a horror-romance) to bridge the gap, but it didn't make those people jump the fence to the other books heheh
Emz: Romance in HorrorAddicts.net anthologies... um, not really. we may have some stories that do have love stories in them, but they are all pretty horrifying. You won't find straight up romance in there.
lilyauthor: What do you see happening for the future of horror, or dark fiction in general?
Emz: I see two things happening in Horror. One I like, the other I don't. The good one is...horror creators are pushing the boundaries on what horror is. They are taking new tech and new situations we have in our world now to make new horrifying tales interesting to modern readers/viewers. They are sometimes dipping in the past, but mostly they are punking the past like in It Follows where you aren't sure what time period it is... but it's cool. The bad thing I see happening and this might just be for me because I am NOT a super-hero lover, is that they are blurring the genre lines. Our horror monsters are becoming super-hero like and I HATE that. There are people writing things about classic monsters and then wondering why everyone calls them horror writers. x.x Well, duh... if you are writing about classic horror monsters, vampires, werewolves, ghosts... no matter what you are having them do, you are writing horror. It really makes me question...
Emz: Like... if you say you're goth, but you don't wear black, hate the music and films, and aren't generally interested in the dark and macabre...um, you aren't goth. So why write about horror monsters in a way that takes the horror out of them?
Emz: Doesn't make sense to me.
trin: I think sci-fi has always had a horror twist. What can go wrong to destroy humanity... I also hate the superhero stuff in horror. I've always found a dark romantic side to horror that I think is less and less apparent in modern horror fiction.
trin: Do you think we are ready for a return to gothic horror.
trin: Crimson Peak almost got there.
Admin Kbatz: Yes! I like straight SF but anymore it is always a post apocalyptic crossover.
Emz: Admin Kbatz Kbatz YES! It never went out for me. Movies like The Woman in Black and Crimson Peak are what i want to see. I just watched Split and Get Out and neither were movies I want to watch again. Good acting, one good message, but kidnapping and torture...
Emz: is not my version of good horror.
Emz: trin Gothic horror for me never left. But yes, I am ready. LEt's do it!
trin: YES!
trin: I have a few problems with Peak. Do you think the modern obsession with Sherlock Holmes stuff is really an expression of the craving for a return to gothic horror?
afstewart: I loved Crimson Peak.
Emz: Hahaha! Hiddleston is not a deal sealer for me, but if you need that, I am fine with that reason. heheheh.
Admin Kbatz: But he looks like Peter Cushing
trin: So much like Cushing.
Emz: trin I am not a Holmes follower. I remember loving the mini kids book The Hounds of Baskerville, but I've always felt it was too mystery for me. I'm not really a mystery fan. 1-2 I like, but in general, I am not schooled enough on Holmes to speak on that.
trin: I've noticed more and more gothic and horror aspects creeping into the Holmes stuff nowadays and far less mystery. I think there may be a large fanbase out there craving that gothic horror comeback.
trin: Dark Divinations may tell all.
Emz: trin I think there is... but how many of them are going to admit to being horror fans? How many of them are just into the slightly darker mystery and not what real horror addicts crave? I wonder this alot. We seem so similar, but alot of them won't cross over because "HORROR IS BAD!"
trin: Good point Emz.
Admin Kbatz: What about the line between thrillers and horror?
Emz: It is amazing to me how many people are sci-fi, fantasy, mystery fans but if you ask them about horror they cringe back in well... horror to being called a horror fan. I mean, how can you love Lord of the Rings with all the orcs and death and destruction and be scared of a little vampire action? It makes no sense.
Emz: The Thriller/Horror line is so much blurrier. Publishers miss-categorized horror into thiller all the time to get the readers. It's almost like... if you are going to kill your neighbor and cops arrive, that is okay. But if you neighbor is a werewolf watch out! no horror allowed!
trin: Thank you all so much for a great session.
Emz: Thank you for coming!
Emz: I also have a lot of panels up in here about writing, newbies, idea creating, and how to get out of the slush pile into publication.
Admin Kbatz: Thank you for being here trin
nkassa: Thank you, Emz!
trin: Looking forward to the Crimson Peak session. What time?
Admin Kbatz: Our Next Live Chat is 8 pm eastern Monday February 25. Horror Author and Frightening Flix columnist Kristin Battestella answers your horror questions!
Emz: Yay! Kbatz, I will be here.
trin: Ha, ha, Thank you Emz.
trin: Thanks Kbatz
Emz: Thanks Kbatz for being Mod
governmentality: Thank you for the great chat!