Category: Author Interview

SFFMP 21: Marketing and Publishing Comedic Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Co-Writing, and Rocking It with Twitter

Author Interview, Podcast

In today’s episode, we talked to John P. Logdson and Chris Young, a comedic fantasy and science fiction writing duo. We covered a lot of ground. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Any special challenges with writing humor/comedy?
  • Dealing with one-star reviews from people who don’t “get” the humor
  • Collaboration — who does what and how do you manage to put out cohesive novels?
  • Does collaboration offer any advantages over titles written by a single author?
  • Can any writers collaborate well, or does it take a special personality and/or a certain skill set?
  • Writing to target less competitive categories on Amazon
  • Tricks for producing books more quickly
  • Should you mention that the books are humorous or comedic in the blurb or on the cover? So people looking for serious fiction won’t accidentally grab them?
  • Are there any marketing advantages to writing fantasy/science fiction comedy?
  • How to set up your tweets to market successfully on Twitter (effective hashtag use and Hashtagify for seeing what’s popular or trending + BookLinker to send readers from different countries to the right store)
  • Twitter groups and networking with other authors in a smart way
  • Marketing/advertising on Facebook, Goodreads, and using giveaways
  • The types of marketing John and Chris have tried and that hasn’t done well + what has worked
  • What they do to encourage newsletter signups
  • A new site for crowdfunding/getting pre-orders specifically for authors: Publishizer.

Tools they use for collaboration: Scrivener, Trelby (screenwriting program), and Dropbox.

Want to check out their work?

For more character-driven stories, try Starliner or the Land of Ononokin books. For more humor, check out Platoon-F. They’ve got a new project coming soon as well, a book called Queen Aurthur, a different (very different) take on the King Aurthur story. You can get in touch with them or find out more at their site, Crimson Myth.

 

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SFFMP 20: SFWA for Indie Authors and Making Money from Patreon and Kickstarter with MCA Hogarth

Author Interview, Podcast

You may have heard that the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association) is now allowing small press and indie authors in, so long as they’ve made the earnings requirements. We invited MCA Hogarth onto the show to talk about some of the changes and what they mean for indies, as well as why you might want to join.

After that, we talked a little about marketing, but Lindsay was curious about some of the extra ways MCA is making money from her work, so we also jumped into Patreon, Kickstarter, Paypal tip jars, and coloring books!

Here’s a list of what we hit on:

  • The SFWA, which has been around for 50 years, is now accepting small press and indie authors.
  • What does the organization offer and why might authors want to join? (Networking, invitations to anthologies, legal help, and more.)
  • What are the requirements to join?
  • Can you join if your book had a successful Kickstarter campaign?
  • Social media for marketing — Twitter, LiveJournal are MCA’s preferred spots.
  • How she uses her mailing list and how often she sends newsletters
  • How she’s making money with Patreon
  • How she’s making money with Kickstarter — she’s run 8 campaigns and even written a book: From Spark to Finish: Running Your Kickstarter Campaign.

If you would like to learn more about MCA Hogarth, you can follow her on Twitter or Livejournal, and be sure to check out one of her more popular novels, Mindtouch.

You can also check out this article about her in Publishers Weekly: Blazing the Self-Publishing Path.

 

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SFFMP 19: Making Books Permafree, Where to Buy Sponsorships, and Tumblr with C. Gockel

Author Interview, Podcast

We interviewed C. Gockel this week (don’t tell anyone, but we found out that C stands for Carolynn), urban fantasy author of the I Bring the Fire series (the first book is free, so go check it out!). She hasn’t quit her day job yet, but it sounds like she’s getting close to making “professional income.”

Here’s a summary of some of the questions we asked her:

  • How did writing fan fiction lead to a career as a successful indie author?
  • Are there any advantages to starting out with fan fiction? Any lessons a new author can learn?
  • When you start thinking about publishing (and making some money!), is it better to modify a successful fanfic to make it an original story, or are you better off starting something new?
  • How has having a permafree Book 1 affected the sales of later books in your series? Is it still effective, even though your first ebook has been free for quite a while now?
  • What do you do to promote your permafree title and keep the sales of subsequent books rolling in month after month?
  • Have you tried discounting other books in your series, or do you stick with the first?
  • Are any advertisers more worth it than others, or do some charge too much? (Carolynn wisely did not want to dis anyone, but she gave some tips for evaluating whether a sponsorship site is worth it.)
  • You use Tumblr for your blogging platform — does it offer any advantages over more traditional spots?
  • Do you ever get fans offering to help “edit” your books or offering other advice? How do you deal with that?

Looking for the free resource spreadsheets we mentioned in the show? Here are Carolynn’s links:

Sponsors Who Advertise FREE Ebooks
Sponsors Who Advertise 99 Cent Ebooks

 

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SFFMP 16: Marketing and Promotion for Traditionally Published Authors with Beth Cato

Author Interview, Podcast

Today we had Beth Cato on the show. Her steampunk novel, The Clockwork Dagger, is published with Harper Voyager, and she’s had numerous short stories published in semi-pro and pro magazines, including Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She’s also sold numerous non-fiction tales to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. We chatted with her about what her publisher brought to the table, in terms of marketing and selling books, and also what she’s done on her own to help promote her stories and her world.

Here are a few of the topics we touched on:

  • How and why Beth got started with short stories and how writing and selling them helped her improve her craft, gain confidence as a writer, and eventually find an agent and a publisher.
  • Selling stories to popular fiction podcasts as well as magazines and anthologies.
  • How her publisher helped get her books off on the right foot (she has awesome covers, so take a look).
  • What promotional expectations publishers have from an author when it’s time to release a new book.
  • Book signings, yay or nay? (Here’s the link I promised to Parnell Hall’s musical rendition of his book signing experiences)
  • Whether publishers ever lower prices for sales/promotions and if authors have any say in that.
  • The pros and cons of having a new book included in Amazon’s Vine Program (where it receives pre-release reviews).
  • The Holy Taco Church and networking Beth has done with other authors.
  • Beth’s stance on social media and how much marketing she does there.
  • Tips for new authors.

Click to download the mp3.

 

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For more about Beth’s books, you can visit her website. You can also download some of her shorter works for free. Red Dust and Dancing Horses is a story delivered in podcast format, and Stitched Wings is a free steampunk story up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

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SFFMP 15: YouTube Marketing, Facebook Events, and Increasing Mailing List Sign-Ups with Bryan Cohen

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight we interviewed Bryan Cohen, the author of the YA science fiction/fantasy series Ted Saves the World and the co-host of the Sell More Books show. Bryan is a relatively new fiction author, but he’s been publishing non-fiction for a while longer, and he’s sold 35,000 books across all of his titles. He’s definitely got the entrepreneurial spirit, and we got some great tips by talking to him.

Here’s a look at some of what we covered in the interview:

  • How to run a successful Facebook Event that actually sells books
  • Starting a YouTube channel to entice more people to check out your work (Bryan’s new video project is the Bryan Cohen Showen)
  • Networking with other authors
  • Tips for getting more people to sign up for your mailing list (Bryan referenced Joanna Penn’s recent post: How To Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers. My Own Case Study)
  • Are any of the other social media platforms (Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc.) worth the time investment?
  • Having a photo shoot done to ensure you get some great (and original) cover art for your series

Click to download the mp3.

 

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Editing for Self Publishers with Tammy Salyer

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight, we talked all about editing. We had author and editor Tammy Salyer on, and she answered our dozen-odd questions about copy-editing, proofreading, and substantive editing (the latter being something that proved difficult for some of us to pronounce… not saying any names here!). Since Tammy writes military science fiction and is working on an epic fantasy trilogy, she was a great person to have on our particular show, to give us information about genre stuff as well as regular editing issues. Here’s a taste of what we covered:

  • What are the differences between proofreading, copy-editing, and substantive editing, and how does an author know what he or she needs?
  • How can good editing make the marketing side of things easier?
  • Are there any common mistakes that new authors (or old ones!) make?
  • What should you do if you can’t afford to hire an editor? Are there are any tips or is there editing software that can help?
  • What are red flags that you should look for when hiring an editor?
  • What are samples pages and how can they help you find a good editor?
  • How slavishly should authors cling to grammatical rules?

Click to download the mp3.

 

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For more information or to check out Tammy’s editing services, visit her at Inspired Ink Editing.

If you’re interested in Tammy’s books, you can check them out on Amazon or visit her author page for more details.

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Patty Jansen Talks Selling on Kobo, Google Play, and Networking with Other Authors

Author Interview, Podcast

For the second time in the history of the podcast, we had a guest on tonight (we’ll be having guests on a lot more often, so if there’s someone you would like to see — who might actually deign to talk to us — let us know). Australian science fiction and fantasy author Patty Jansen came on to talk to us about self-publishing, marketing fads, and how she has ended up selling well on the non-Amazon platforms, especially Kobo.

Here are a few of the topics we covered:

  • Patty’s publication history (including a Writers of the Future win) and why she opted for self publishing
  • The benefits of belonging to an online workshop
  • If there are any specific challenges to selling science fiction and fantasy, as opposed to other genres
  • What’s helping her to sell on Kobo and some of the other platforms where many authors struggle to gain traction
  • Some tips for selling books on Google Play
  • Is it worth following the trends and trying to write what’s popular?
  • Organizing multi-author promotions and why you would want to
  • Is it still a good time to be an indie author, even if things may be getting tougher, and it’s not as easy to break in?

 

Click to download the mp3.

 

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You can visit Patty on Twitter or on her website. She sometimes blogs about self publishing on her site (check out her recent post,”Kindle Unlimited: a few observations“). The first book in her Icefire Trilogy is currently free on Amazon.

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Creating Bundles, Advertising, and Targeting Higher Paying Readers with Jason Chen from StoryBundle.com

Author Interview, Podcast

We had our first official guest on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast tonight! Jason Chen, the founder of StoryBundle.com, joined us to talk about how he started the site, how he’s gone about creating book bundles full of awesome titles by traditionally published and indie authors, and how he sells upwards of 3000 bundles in a 3-week period over and over again. And these are not 99-cent bundles, my friends. People often pay over $10 for the collections on his site, meaning a nice cut for the authors and also for the charities that Jason works with.

We pumped him for information on:

  • Creating bundles, including approaching big-name authors
  • Marketing bundles and ebooks in general
  • Finding ways to promote on tech sites, as opposed to the usual book venues
  • Choosing cover art for bundles
  • His experience with advertising on Google, Facebook, and other sites
  • Whether StoryBundle still accepts submissions (the answer is yes, but many of their collections are curated by authors who know other authors)
  • Lots more — check out the show!

 

 

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Find Jason at StoryBundle.com, Twitter, or Facebook.

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Self-Publishing on a Shoestring, Potential Pitfalls, and Growing a Fan Base with Jeffrey Poole

Author Interview, Podcast

Today we interviewed epic fantasy author Jeffrey M. Poole on his experiences with self-publishing, some of the mistakes he wish he hadn’t made when he got started, and growing a rabid fan base that’s always hungry for the next book.

A few of the specific topics were…

  • Getting started self-publishing when you don’t have much money to invest
  • Which kinds of “helpful” companies to avoid
  • Finding an editor and cover art designer
  • Using permafree to get people to try a new series (and whether permafree is as effective as it used to be)
  • Blogging and social media for promotion, yea or nay
  • Dealing with bad reviews

 

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Check out Jeff’s first novel for free on Amazon, Smashwords, and in other stores.

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Selling Fantasy, the Importance of Book Covers, and Commissioning Plush Toy Characters with Joseph R. Lallo

Author Interview, Podcast

Today, we interviewed Joseph R. Lallo, author of the epic fantasy Book of Deacon series, as well as steampunk, science fiction, and super hero novels. He’s been self-publishing since 2010, and he’s really rocked it with his Book of Deacon series (over 1,000 reviews on the first title at Amazon). He recently quit his day job to write full time.

Among other things, we discussed:

  • How Jo has used permafree to sell his series (and how he’s kept it selling well for over four years)
  • The importance of cover art and some of the difficulties of finding killer covers in science fiction and fantasy (i.e. is it better to go with custom illustrations, photo manipulation, or symbol-based designs)
  • How helpful writing and publishing in a series can be for getting to that point where you earn a steady income
  • What’s working in marketing right now
  • Making plush toys (and other merchandise) out of book characters (or dragons/familiars/pets) from your stories and whether there’s any money to be made merchandising these things.

 

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