SFFMP 54: Marketing Books on a Long Release Cycle with Moses Siregar III

Author Interview, Podcast

We chatted with Moses Siregar III tonight, a busy epic fantasy author with two novels out. Like many folks in our audience, he has a lot on his plate, and it takes a while for him to write, edit, and publish new books. We talked about whether it’s better to self-publish or seek a traditional deal with this kind of schedule and what kind of marketing you can do when you don’t have the momentum of frequent releases behind you.

Moses also talked about his experience with podcasting (he was a host on Adventures in SciFi Publishing for some time) and how he met other authors and made some helpful contacts through seminars and conventions. When trouble with wrist problems bothered him, he became a fan of walking around the neighborhood and dictating his story. He used a service called iDictate which, for a reasonable fee, transcribes what you dictate into your phone.

We discussed some of the challenges, both of marketing and keeping the momentum going, when you write long epic fantasy novels. Since he doesn’t release his novels that quickly, Moses decided to make preview novellas for both of his books, as a way of getting something out there during the in-between years.

Check out the rest of the interview for more!

When you’re done, you can visit Moses’s SciFiFantasyBooks YouTube Channel or stop by his blog and visit him on Facebook. Grab The Black God’s War on Amazon or Smashwords, or try out his latest, The Ninth Wind.

 

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SFFMP 53: Jill Nojack Dishes on Kindle Scout (why to consider it and how to win)

Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we chatted with Jill NoJack, fantasy author and Kindle Scout winner. The first book in her Bad Tom paranormal romantic comedy series, The Familiar, was selected for a publishing deal with Amazon. We asked her all about the Kindle Scout program, who might want to consider trying out, and what’s in it for the authors who are selected by Amazon.

Jill talked about what it takes to be chosen (excellent copy-editing and a great cover for starters) and how Amazon promotes those books that are published through the program. Winners receive $1500 and a 50% royalty split, and the ebooks get marketed through Amazon, are sometimes eligible for Daily Deals, and sometimes get submitted to Bookbub on Amazon’s dollar. For a self-published author who has been struggling to gain traction, it can get a new series or stand-alone book off to a solid start. Jill did a thorough write-up of her experience on Steve Vernon’s blog.

For more on the program or to submit your book (make sure it’s publication-ready), visit Amazon’s Kindle Scout page.

Don’t forget to check out Jill’s winning book! You can also visit her on Facebook or get updates on her website.

 

 

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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 51: Can Serials Still Be Profitable / When to Quit the Day Job

Group Discussion, Podcast

Tonight we discussed Lindsay’s foray into serialized fiction, how it went, what she learned, and whether it’s better to go wide right now or stick that serial into KDP Select so it earns money for page reads in Kindle Unlimited. Some of the specific questions: are serials trickier than novels, should new authors avoid them, and what do you do for cover art when you’re publishing in installments?

We also talked about when it makes sense to quit the day job and become a full-time writer. Jeff is thinking of making the jump soon, so we asked Jo questions about his experiences, how much he saved up, setting aside money for quarterly taxes and health insurance, and how long you should wait, even after you’re earning a good income from your writing.

 

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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 47: Our Book Launch Processes and Author Websites (what to do and what not to do)

Group Discussion, Podcast

This evening, the three of us shared what we do to launch new books, and then Lindsay went through the list she’s making for when she gets a new website designed (by no later than 2017, really!). Here are some of the highlights of the conversation:

  • Newsletters and social media announcements, staggering for launches
  • Recruiting reviewers before the book is released
  • Possibly getting more sales by using pre-orders
  • Updating back matter in earlier books with links to new books
  • Sharing preview materials with readers
  • Facebook boosted posts (the only advertising we do for launches)
  • Updating Goodreads and Shelfari when you release books, especially if you’re a new author — nobody’s going to do it for you!
  • Making sure you have an Author Central profile at Amazon and then claiming new books.
  • Domain names: your author name vs. your world/universe/book series name
  • Using WordPress as the backbone to your website
  • Getting author websites up and running inexpensively
  • Putting newsletter sign-up forms “above the fold” so people don’t have to scroll
  • Having a “new readers start here” kind of section for people who visit your site for the first time
  • Static home pages versus having your blog on there with the latest updates
  • Some of Lindsay’s WordPress plug-ins: Shareaholic (makes your blog posts easily shareable on social media sites), ContactForm, Google Analytics (tracking stats to the nth level), PrettyLink (free version — shortens and tracks links), Subscribe to Comments (lets those who comment get notified when people respond), WP-Polls (poll your readers in a blog post), WP-Postviews (at a glance, see how many times your posts have been read)
  • Avoiding too much clutter, making it hard for people to find the links to check out your books, using ads on author websites, forgetting to have links to all stores, not having a list of your books, and getting into posting schemes with other authors

 

 

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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 45: What Does It Take To Write a Series People Want to Buy?

Group Discussion, Podcast

Update: Sorry for the incomplete episode. The entire show is now on there!

Tonight our stalwart hosts discussed the changes to Kindle Unlimited, uploading pre-orders directly to stores, and what we’ve learned about writing in series. This was the meat of our show and we each shared three things that we’ve done (either intentionally or inadvertently) that have helped our series gain traction and attract diehard fans. We also talked about when it makes sense to abandon a series that just isn’t performing, open-ended episodic series versus ones that have a clear overarching storyline, and how to develop characters that keep people coming back for more.

 

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