SFFMP 149: Success with Epic Fantasy and Marketing when Traditionally Published with Brian McClellan

September 12, 2017 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

This week, we chatted with epic fantasy author Brian McClellan about the success he’s had by following the traditional route. He’s also dabbled in self-publishing some novellas in his Powder Mage universe. We talked about what publishers are looking for when it comes to epic fantasy, how he got his agent, how his first book went to auction, and what he’s doing for marketing.

Here are a few of the more specific topics we covered:

How he got an agent a few years ago and whether it’s truly necessary to hit up the conventions and network.
What Brian does for marketing versus what his publisher does.
What he’s doing on social media, his blog, and when it comes to building a newsletter.
Whether epic fantasy books need to be hugely long or if there’s a place for more quickly paced novels.
Giving readers (and agents/editors) stories that have the familiar and what people know they like but that also have originality and new elements.
Brian’s advice for newer authors.
Subjects he avoids on social media, and the kinds of arguments that are OK to start.

You can visit Brian on his website and check out his list of books there was well. His first novel is Promise of Blood, his most recent is Sins of Empire, and he just released a novella that you can check out for $2.99: The Mad Lancers.