If you’ve ever had doubts about the power of the groundswell or social media, allow me the opportunity to introduce you to J.C. Hutchins. In 2006, the Louisville native (only one of the many reasons I dig the guy) was dutifully submitting his sci-fi trilogy novels called 7th Son to book publishers. No one would give him the time of day. The stories were about human cloning, complete with a conspiracy sparked by the assassination of an American president, but they were probably a bit too “out there” for publishers at the time.

But J.C. Hutchins had access to something many struggling authors weren’t aware of: social media.

Hutchins decided if he couldn’t sell the work, he’d give it away, only not by putting the full thing online, but narrating readings of the work via podcast. With little more than a computer, an Internet connection and the want to do it, Hutchins began building a community around 7th Son – A beta clone army, if you will.

How did he do it? Here are some snippets of his podcast/book marketing plan:

• Hosted a launch party for the podcast in Second Li