Category: Author Interview

SFFMP 52: Collaborating and Organizing Multi-Author Boxed Sets with J Thorn

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight we talked with horror and dark fantasy author J Thorn. He’s sold over 130,000 ebooks since coming on the scene a few years ago, and he’s collaborated with more authors than Lindsay can count without taking off her shoes. We asked him why he’s collaborating with so many folks, some of the challenges and pitfalls (and perks), and then we interrogated him on boxed sets, both bundles he’s done of his own series and multi-author boxed sets that he’s organized.

Here are a few more details on what we discussed:

  • Challenges of epic fantasy versus dark fantasy/horror
  • Networking online as an introvert
  • Forming collaboration teams (finding people whose strengths match your weaknesses and vice versa)
  • Handling finances when you’re collaborating or paying other authors for multi-author boxed sets
  • Some of the challenges of approaching higher selling authors and getting them to be involved in boxed sets or joint projects
  • Whether multi-author boxed sets are still effective, or if the market too saturated
  • Boxing up your own trilogies or series starters and making it look like an even better deal by adding some related short stories or novellas
  • The more options you have for marketing and promotion as your back catalogue grows (the more titles you have, the less emotionally attached you are to one)
  • Podcasting for promotional benefit — can it work? (J runs the Horror Writers Podcast and Dark Arts Theater)

If you want to check out some of J’s work, you can pick up his books at Amazon or check out the Quest boxed set that we’re all a part of.

 

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SFFMP 50: Patreon, Audiobooks, and Diversifying Your Income with Abigail Hilton

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight we chatted with fantasy author Abigail Hilton about making money from Patreon, audiobooks, and web comics as well as full-length novels. She doesn’t write in the most popular subgenre of fantasy, and she creates anthropomorphized characters for her adventures, but she’s diversifying her income and making notable money from her work.

Here’s a bit of what we covered:

  • Supplementing your monthly income with Patreon
  • What Patreon is exactly and how it works
  • Patreon versus Kickstarter
  • Getting people to sign up for your Patreon page and asking for tips versus monthly payments
  • Choosing rewards that don’t require extra work on your part, because they’re things you would do anyway
  • Using Podiobooks to find an audience versus publishing audiobooks straight to Audible
  • The expense of doing full cast recordings for audiobooks and is it worth it?
  • Finding artists to illustrate your world (and to create extras for Patreon rewards)
  • Creating web comics as an add-on for your regular fiction series
  • Hiring reliable artists and whether the expense can be worth it
  • Facebook ads when you’re an author in a small, less popular niche
  • Split testing Facebook ads for covers (figuring out which is your most popular cover option before even publishing the book)

Thanks to Abigail for all of the great information. You can visit her website, where she has free ebooks and audios available, and check out her books on Amazon.

 

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SFFMP 49: Productivity and First Book Success with Zach Bohannon

Author Interview, Podcast

Today we interviewed fresh new horror/dystopian fiction author, Zach Bohannon. Despite a full time job and a family, he’s managed to write and publish five novels (and some short stories) already this year. He also got off to a great start with excellent sales and reviews of the books in his Empty Bodies series. We asked him how he got those early sales, whether being in Kindle Unlimited helped, and why his dog is named after a beer company.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Managing a full time job and a family while writing and publishing multiple novels a year
  • Calls to action (CTAs) in the back matter of the book to ask for reviews and mailing list sign-ups
  • Calls to action in the front matter of a book, yea or nay?
  • Can you have too many CTAs? Should you just stick to one?
  • Challenges of marketing dystopian/post apocalyptic fiction versus horror
  • Having a great first book launch based largely on a good cover and low price in a popular genre (Zach also started in Kindle Unlimited and had lots of good things to say about his experiences in KDP Select thus far)
  • Appearing on podcasts as part of a promotions strategy
  • What Zach does for social media, and does he think it’s important for book sales?
  • Connecting with readers on Instagram (check out Zach’s page) versus Twitter — people pause and you can more easily grab their attention with images on Instagram (he goes and comments on other people’s photos, rather than worrying too much about putting up photos of his own)
  • Using auto-responders for your mailing list to connect with readers.
  • How Zach feels about advertising and sponsored posts on blogs/newsletters.

Visit Zach at The Horror Writers’ Podcast and on his website. You can check out his first book, Empty Bodies, on Amazon.

 

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SFFMP 48: Facebook Advertising That Works with Mark Dawson

Author Interview, Podcast

We chatted with indie thriller author Mark Dawson today, someone who found success before he started tinkering with Facebook advertising, but who then really ratcheted up his sales and earnings by figuring out what’s working over there. He now runs a course to help other authors and has several free instructional videos up at Self Publishing Formula. If you like what you hear in the interview, you may want to check them out.

Here’s some of what we covered:

  • Setting up advertising campaigns versus running boosted posts (Mark doesn’t bother with boosted posts)
  • Sending people directly to Amazon to buy books or, even better, sending them to a mailing list sign-up page and giving them free books (i.e. your starter library or series starter) in exchange for an email address (never advertise just for likes to your Facebook page)
  • Setting a bid price for ads versus letting Facebook choose in order to optimize clicks
  • Choosing a target audience (i.e. as a thriller author, Mark targets fans of Lee Child) based on interests that are likely to make them fans of your work
  • Does it matter if you’re in KDP Select and your books aren’t available everywhere? Will fewer of your clicks convert?
  • Do certain genres perform better than others with Facebook advertising?
  • How much can a new author just jumping in expect to spend?
  • Using Chrome and the Facebook Power Editor for greater control over your ads
  • Taking your existing mailing list, importing it into Facebook, and creating an all new custom audience to target based on the interests of your current subscribers
  • Advertising consistently, day-to-day, versus just advertising when you’re doing a book launch or a sale
  • Tips for making it work even if you’re in a small niche without any big-name authors to target

 

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SFFMP 46: Getting More from Your eBook Advertising with FreeBooksy’s Ferol Vernon

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight, after Lindsay tripped her way through the introduction (talking *and* pressing buttons… too much pressure), she and Jeff interviewed Ferol Vernon from Written Word Media. He and his wife are the founders of such sites as BargainBooksy, FreeBooksy, and New in Books. We wanted to know what he could tell us from the point of view of someone running one of the sites where we authors like to advertise.

Here’s some of what we talked about:

  • What are the Freebooksy and Bargainbooksy sites, and why should readers and authors be interested?
  • Ferol’s thoughts on what makes one book perform better (more clicks and sales) than another for any given genre.
  • The importance of good cover art and whether there are any genres where cover art doesn’t matter quite as much.
  • Authors getting more bang for their advertising bucks by stacking promotions.
  • The blog post Taylor (a Written Word Media employee) did on “How to Price Your eBook to Gain Readers and Maximize Author Earnings“
  • Are free books still effective?
  • Is it possible to promote a mid-series book or are series starters always going to be more effective?
  • Do certain genres have a higher percentage of click-through?
  • Should you write different blurbs for these sponsorships than you do for your book on Amazon?
  • Can putting a book’s accolades (i.e. USA Today Bestseller or winner of such-and-such award) help get more clicks and sales?

For more information, or to submit your book for an advertising slot, check out BargainBooksy, FreeBooksy, and New in Books (the last one is a new site of theirs that features new releases, so no minimum review requirements and no need to put the book on sale).

 

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SFFMP 44: How Many Books Does It Take to Make a Living as an Author with Amelia Smith

Author Interview, Podcast

On this week’s show, we chatted with fantasy author Amelia Smith about a bunch of data that she crunched based on the Author Earnings Survey over at Hugh Howey’s Author Earnings Report website. The survey and the raw data have been online for a while, but nobody seemed to have tackled putting it together into useful information until Amelia came along. We asked her a bunch of questions about what she found in regard to author income, books on sale, and whether indie or trad publishing is more likely to get a person to a living wage (which she defined as the U.S. average of $32,000 a year).

Here’s some of what we covered:

  • What is the Author Earnings site and where does this survey come in?
  • Who responded (indie, trad published, hybrid, small press, etc.) and how many authors were interviewed?
  • How many books do people have out on average before they reach that living wage?
  • As Amelia says in her analysis, “The majority of authors will never make a living at this, but chances increase both with number of books written and with years in the game. They get as good as 50/50.”
  • Were authors of certain genres more likely to make a living than others (not surprisingly, lots of romance authors of all kinds are doing well, and very few short story, poetry, memoir, etc. folks are making significant money)?
  • What was the common theme with the failure stories (authors with a lot of books out but a low income)?
  • Did it matter what year people started publishing in, or could they put out a lot of books in their first year and get to that living wage quickly?
  • Were slower writers penalized because of the 30/90-cliff and the way the Amazon algorithms work?
  • Were small presses helpful or were most indie authors better off on their own?
  • Amelia’s own experience with Netgalley (she mentioned the Patchwork Press Co-Op as a way to buy into Netgalley, a big company that assists with getting book reviews, for less than an individual membership)

Check out Amelia’s first epic fantasy book for free through the end of September, and visit her website for updates on other projects.

Read the results of the survey and see her graphs over at An Analysis of the Author Earnings Survey Data.

 

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SFFMP 43: Bestseller Joshua Dalzelle Talks Space Opera and Selling Books Without a Website

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight we interviewed hugely popular space opera author, Joshua Dalzelle. The guy doesn’t have a website, an Amazon bio, and he’s only recently started a mailing list, but he sure sells books. Here’s some of what we discussed tonight:

  • How Joshua got this far without a website, and are websites/social media/mailing lists really needed, or are they overrated?
  • The state of space opera right now (is it more popular than ever?)
  • What makes space opera space opera? Versus some other type of science fiction?
  • Light-hearted sci-fi adventures versus darker, techier sci-fi–is there room for both?
  • Cover art that portrays the tone of the book as well as branding the series
  • AskDavid.com for getting reviews
  • Advertising sites that Joshua hasn’t gotten much mileage out of
  • Are multi-author bundles still useful for getting the word out?
  • How having multiple series going can help feed the sales of both
  • Pricing for novels — is $2.99/$3.99 a good bet or are you leaving money on the table?
  • Incentives for readers to get them onto a mailing list–especially if you get started with one late!

You can find Joshua on Facebook and Twitter, and check out his Omega Force books and the Black Fleet trilogy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

 

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SFFMP 41: From Indie to Small Press (why and how) with Claire Frank

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight, after dealing with a few technical difficulties, we interviewed up-and-coming epic fantasy author Claire Frank. She got started in December, 2014, and did well enough to attract a publisher (Realm Walker Publishing), and we asked her about what it’s like for new authors getting started today. When our guest went AWOL briefly, Lindsay started talking about pre-orders and some of her notes from panels at the big RWA Con; we’ll continue discussing pre-orders, iBooks, Facebook advertising, and some of those other interesting topics in next week’s show.

Here are some of the highlights from Claire’s interview:

  • Finding time to write when you’re homeschooling three kids and working a part time job
  • Some of the perks of bouncing ideas off your Lego-loving significant other
  • What made Claire decide to sign on with a small press versus sticking with indie publishing
  • What can a small press offer, and are they more flexible with contracts than the Big 5 publishers?
  • Getting invited to cons and onto panels with a publisher’s help
  • Getting reviews as a first-time author
  • Finding cover art designers and how a good cover can help with everything from reviews to sales
  • Participating in anthologies to increase awareness of all authors under a publisher
  • Who should consider a small press publisher, and how do you get in touch with one if you’re interested?

Make sure to check out Claire’s books and the lego art on her website too!

Update Feb 2016: Claire sent me an email, letting me know she decided to part ways with her publisher and is going it on her own now. Best of luck to her in the future!

 

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SFFMP 39: Creating Successful Series, Permafree Boxed Sets, and Epic vs. Urban Fantasy with Robert J. Crane

Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s episode, we chatted with successful epic and urban fantasy author, Robert J. Crane. He’s sold more than a million books and was able to turn writing into his day job early on. Now, he has four successful series going, including his well-known Girl in the Box books.

Here’s a little of what we covered:

  • Productivity — how Robert has written and published 26 novels in the last four years
  • Writing books as a business and to make money versus treating this as an art and doing it just for the love
  • Cliffhangers and planning out a series
  • How series have been the key to Robert’s success and thoughts on writing/publishing multiple series at once
  • Audience size for epic fantasy versus urban fantasy (stuff set in our world)
  • Is it easier marketing contemporary sci-fi/fantasy versus secondary world stuff?
  • Having a social media presence, since not everyone will sign up for your newsletter (or filters might keep messages from getting through)
  • Doing not only a perma-free Book 1 for marketing but a perma-free boxed set (books 1-3) in a longer series
  • The “Big Name” approach for cover art — is there a point at which the author name should be larger than the title?
  • Getting fantasy maps done at The Cartographers’ Guild.

If you would like to check out Robert’s books, you can jump into his world for free with The Sanctuary Series (Books 1-3) or Alone (The Girl in the Box, Book 1). Find out more about all of his books on his site.

Robert also has some great and solid advice for indie authors on his blog, well worth the read.

 

 

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SFFMP 38: Writing 5,000 Words an Hour and Selling Zombies and Werewolves with Chris Fox

Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we chatted with Chris Fox about marketing zombies, werewolves, and vampires, and also about how he writes incredibly quickly. He holds down a 60-hour-a-week day job as an app developer and doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to fiction, so he’s learned to be productive, logging 5,000 words in an hour. He’s even written about it in a book designed to help other authors: 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter.

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

  • Using the start-up mentality for indie publishing
  • Investing in your product (including scouring DeviantArt for hours to find just the right artists!)
  • How audiobook sales (from Audible) can help Kindle sales on Amazon
  • Is it helpful to use popular tropes, such as werewolves, zombies, and vampires? Or do readers have expectations that can be hard to meet if you’re doing something slightly different?
  • What advertising Chris has done and what’s been effective
  • Why it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend much time and money on marketing when you only have one or two books out
  • Utilizing a mailing list to make promoting future books easier
  • How Chris is writing so darned many words in an hour
  • Addressing the argument that writing faster means writing poorly
  • Using voice recognition software effectively as a fiction writer

If you’re looking for more information on marketing, you might want to visit Chris’s site and check out some of the articles he’s written for writers:

If Chris’s fiction sounded interesting to you, give his first book, No Such Thing as Werewolves, a try.

 

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