Scott James radio hour: Episode 1

Posted on 04/26/2013 by scottjames

A journey through badass poetry and music that speaks to my soul. Great listening for a happy hour at home, background chatter while you cook, or really anytime you want to let your brain kick back, learn something, and toast to the ephemeral ineffable ether we all share.

Between 1997-99, I hosted a “radio hour” most Tuesday nights on the TEP front porch at Bradley University. Essentially I commandeered the huge speakers and read poetry, played music, and drank a little Milwaukee’s Best Light with my friends. A few days ago my good friend Steve Amodio sent me a message saying: “‘We’would like to request that you do a scott james radio hour podcast.” With a bottle tilted to good friends, I’m bringing it back these 15 years later. I forgot how much fun it was and how good it feels.

The beer is better now, but the spirit of the show is the same. Do what makes your soul smile, folks.

Cheers.

“Scott was always able to think outside the box and make people think about the world around them… he always got people to think about their purpose. Every Tuesday night he used to put on what was called the “Scott James Radio Hour.” It was nothing more than Scott playing music and reciting poetry for his friends. There was no broadcast but Scott was getting his message to the people. A message that united people and formed great friendships. In this project he is still bringing people together and spreading his message…” – Josh Dritz, Friend of mine, proud father to his son, and general badass

Today’s Broadcast includes:

If It Wasn’t For You, by Handsome Boy Modeling School

In Watermelon Sugar, by Richard Brautigan

None Shall Pass, by Aesop Rock

White Noise, by Don DeLillo

 It’s Not Out There, by Eric Ian Farmer

“Apple Blossoms at Petal-Fall with Li Po,” from Wrestling Li Po For The Remote, by Kevin Stein

Tones of Home, by Blind Melon

YOU’VE GOT MAIL!, by Scott Andrew James

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Target Audience Questions Beyond “Who?”

Posted on 04/09/2013 by scottjames

What are you reading these days?

Every time I see my extended family I do my duty as the resident book geek and ask everyone that question. But this last time I also asked them another:

How are you reading what you read? And where, when, and why?

I got a lot of interesting answers:

  • My brother reads textbooks for school while he travels to finish up his MBA.
  • My mother reads hardcover how-to books and blogs at home because she just retired and is learning about new passions.
  • My cousin reads business blogs at work but only magazines at home because he’s sick of the computer after a long day.
  • Another cousin reads mostly to learn and almost exclusively on her iPhone and iPad now, usually on breaks at work or in bed.
  • My aunt reads print books almost exclusively.

Beyond Target Audience Demographics

Most conversations I have with clients about target audience are about who is reading what and where to connect with them. What reader demographic in interested in a certain kind of book or content? It’s an important question, but it’s only the beginning of a deeper understanding of Target Audience.

The questions of where, when, why, and how readers are reading dig deeper into audience behavior and are more and more important for authors and content creators to consider as platform options expand and digital tools catalyze lifestyle changes. Digging deeper can also lead to some interesting creative opportunities.

Target Audience Behaviors

Netflix recently produced their own series called House of Cards. They released an entire “season” of episodes at the same time specifically so that viewers could binge watch the whole season in several extended viewing sessions. They did it because their data showed that people were watching shows several episodes at a time. They’ve marketed it to that crowd, and knowing how people would watch changed the flow of the show. The producers could assume people would be watching many episodes in a row rather than needing to remind them of plot points from the previous episode.

Youtube has ushered in a similar change for the music industry. Many artists look to Youtube as a key platform for releasing a single and building an audience. Millions of people discover and listen to music through Youtube. Because of that discovery behavior, people put a huge emphasis on creating a Youtube video that pops.

For authors and web content creators, asking questions about target audience behavior can lead to more targeted marketing and increasingly creative and targeted content creation.

How & Why

This is huge opportunity for content differentiation. What device will a reader be using to read? Is the content for a website, a mobile app, an E-reader, or a printed book?

Further, why is the reader reading? Is it for research? For entertainment? To learn a new skill?

Kindle Singles is having great success publishing short books that offer “compelling ideas at their natural length.”

Inkling is creating textbooks for the iPhone and iPad that specifically capture the benefits of those devices for learning by moving beyond the concept of the page and providing interactive content.

Genre fiction authors are starting to publish more and more trilogies and series novels to cater to their readers’ desire to keep reading about characters they’ve come to know and love.

Where & When

Where do your readers read? Is it at home? At work? On our commute? Further, how different are our reading habits from a typical weekday versus a typical weekend? What about on a holiday?

Publishers and product designers have started to create content and devices specific to where and when people read, and I expect authors to start digging deeper into writing specific to those audience behaviors.

E-readers have started to adapt to different reading habits. The Kindle Paperwhite and the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight both offer special lighting for reading at night without disturbing others.

Five Stop Stories is an electronic publisher specializing in “…short stories [that] can be read in five stops on the London Underground, on our iPhone and iPad app or in our Kindle books.”

Airport stores already sell books specifically to travelers and vacationers.

Sites like StackOverflow and Quora go a long way toward showing where current challenges are for coders and businesses, and offer opportunities for authors and educators to write very specifically and in depth to current challenges.

What Now?

When authors and content creators go to plan what to write and/or how to market it, dig deeper and ask these kinds of questions about your target audience. It could help shape your content to be even better, will make your marketing more effective, and could give you the idea you’re searching for to start writing your next piece.

If you’re an author who is interested in digging deeper into how these behaviors can help you with your marketing, I’m writing a series next week on “Better Book Marketing Through Understanding Audience Behavior” at DIY Author.

Image sources: Groume via flickr and my iPhone

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The Phone that Never Drops Calls

Posted on 03/01/2013 by scottjames

My wife and I were driving down the Big Sur coast of California with her two younger cousins, Kelly and Jay, when I first told them about the special phone that never drops calls.

Jay was about to graduate from high school and gave off the required combination of gruff resistance to anything family mixed with the rugged embrace of anything manly. He didn’t talk much. Kelly, his younger sister, was a cheerful and buoyant thirteen, really into K-Pop music, and could text without looking at the phone. We were going camping for the weekend, the four of us.

Kelly was texting her friends back in civilization. Then, suddenly, she couldn’t.

“Oh my god! My phone isn’t working! Is your phone working? Why isn’t it working?” she cried.

“What, you can’t tell your friends about all the exciting stuff you’re doing in the car?” offered Jay.

“Shut up!” She gave him a little sister punch in the shoulder.

“It might come back, just give it a minute,” cooed Liya, my wife, ever hopeful.

That minute passed, then a few more. We quietly drove farther away from the range of cell towers.

“It’s still not working! What is wrong with this thing!” said Kelly.

“Well, Kelly, actually cell phones don’t work in Big Sur. There’s no signal here,” said Liya, breaking it gently.

“What!?!” screamed Kelly. She held the phone up to the window, vying for a scrap of signal, taking short breaths.

I kept my focus on the curves. Then I couldn’t help it.

“Kelly, the thing about Big Sur is that they don’t have a cell signal on purpose. You know how back in San Francisco, sometimes you go into a restaurant and the signal is hard to get? Or maybe you’re walking down the street talking to your friend and you drop the call?” I said.

“Yeah, I hate that.”

“That’s because you and your phone have to be in the right area to get the signal from the cell tower to work, right? Well, Big Sur people were like: We don’t want to be on the phone all the time. We want a break from all that.”

And then I smiled to myself and had a little fun…

“They knew that people would need to make phone calls, though, so they built a special phone that never drops calls. It’s a whole other kind of phone. It’s stationary.“

“Really? How does that work?”

“Well, they build a big wire that connects directly from the phone to the tower. Then they bury it in the ground or put it up on poles way above the ground so that it won’t get bothered and always brings the signal directly to you. You never drop the call.”

“Wow, cool!”

“Then they pick special spots and built special boxes with special phones inside. These spots are reserved only for making phone calls. You go in this special room when you want to use the phone and not get distracted or have anybody bother you.

So, if you want to talk to one of your friends when we’re in Big Sur, we’ll find one of these special boxes and you can make a special, protected call.”

“Awesome! Do they have these anywhere else?”

“Indeed they do. They even have them in San Francisco. I’ll show you one when we get back there.”

A few minutes later we pulled into the campsite. A few feet beyond where we paid our fee to the ranger was a phone booth, standing ready like a pillar of innovation.

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