Interview with Rick Karlsruher – Founder of Noveltunity!

We were thinking about starting a new sequence of interviews with some successful fellows (associated with different fields like writing, blogging, etc.). During last one month I News India tried contacting a few successful people and thus we are bringing this new series of interviews.

Over the past month the blogosphere and other media sites have learned about a unique publishing concept called Noveltunity®. It’s based in the US but has been creating a lot of buzz around the world. Noveltunity®’s Founder Rick Karlsruher has agreed to spend a few minutes discussing his project with us.

Rick, could you tell our readers exactly what Noveltunity® is?

Absolutely Alok thanks for inviting me. Noveltunity® is going to be the world’s first ebook/audio book club that exclusively features new or undiscovered writers.

It’s very difficult for new writers to get a chance to share their voices with the world.

Also in the typical book club model, readers are told what they will read and don’t have much choice. The publishers dictate what you will read. Your input is of little importance to them.

We believe the club to the members. Without you, we wouldn’t exist.  We want to hear what you have to say. Our members/readers will get to see videos, read chapters and then vote on the selections for upcoming months. There will be 10-12 options.

If all goes well, our members will help create the next set of international writing stars.

That sounds exciting how does Noveltunity® work?

The first thing I’d like to do is provide a link to our website. This way your readers can stay up to date with what we are doing http://www.noveltunity.com/4.html

Each month you will receive three ebooks. One of which will be made into an audio book.

Our authors will be required to attend at least two online video meetings each week to meet with the members to discuss the books. Members will also be able to ask questions to the authors via message boards.

We think this is critical for members and writers alike. We want everyone to feel like they are part of a community. Many times writers are nervous or unaware of how to respond to direct questions. This will help prepare them for meeting with the press or doing other interviews.

There will some scheduled meetings for each book, but members can schedule meetings to fit their time constraints. It’s their club and their lives. We happily assist them as they get started.

Our meeting rooms can accommodate 2-2000 people at any one time and will be open 24 day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

You will be able to discuss the books and other issues with people from Mumbai, Montreal, Los Angeles and everywhere else around the world. You’ll be able to find a group that you can meet with regardless of your time zone.

Over the past month we have given a few messages about Noveltunity® on Twitter (@Noveltunity), on LinkedIn and FaceBook (Noveltunity Book Club). Thus far we have gathered interest from over twenty countries on every continent except Antarctica.

What led you to developing this concept?

Alok, off and on throughout my life I have been a writer. After years and years of prodding, I wrote a book a few years ago. I put in on Smashwords and it got great reviews.

With that and reasonably strong sales, I thought I had a good package. I sent it to agents and publishers and got the response over and over again, “What’s your platform?”

This was upsetting and led me to do over eighteen months of research to create something to help around the world get a better chance at their dreams.

Necessity is often the mother of invention. Where does Noveltunity® stand today?

We have spent the last month try to get our story out to the world and have been very encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response.

Right we are planning an 1 August rollout of a crowd funding campaign on www.rockethub.com

What can our readers do to help?

Please follow us on Twitter @Noveltunity and on our website http://www.noveltunity.com/4.html

If any of your readers have blogs or do social media we’d really appreciate if they would so stories, posts or tweets about us.

As we get closer to our launch date, I’d appreciate the opportunity to remind your readers about it.

Plus we want to hear from writers and readers from India and all countries. Tell me how we can make Noveltunity® work for them.

Feel free to contact me directly rick@noveltunity.com No questions or requests are too small or difficult. I’d love to hear from all of you.

Rick, thanks for taking so much time and I am excited to see how quickly Noveltunity® succeeds.

Alok, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’d like to thank all your readers for their time.

Let’s see if we can bring readers and writers of the world together to reach their potential.

I’ll be talking to all of you soon. Thank you so much.