SFFMP 207: Podcasting Fiction to Gain an Audience for Your Books
This week, humorous science fiction author James R. Tramontana joined the guys on the show. He’s podcasting his Ace Tucker Space Trucker novels, and we asked him all about how he’s gaining fans that way, people who go on to buy the books.
Here are some of the specifics from the show:
- What’s involved with podcasting your novel or podcasting original audio fiction (and why you might want to).
- Getting set-up (equipment and software) for recording and editing.
- Adding music, sound effects, etc. and creating more of a production than a simple narration of a book.
- The challenges of selling niche stuff like humorous science fiction.
- How James uses social media, conventions, and other methods to get the word out about his podcast.
- The challenges of being found when you upload fiction podcasts, since the searches aren’t always great when you’re not using typical keywords.
- Going for a comic-book vibe with humorous fiction.
- Monetizing your fiction when you’re doing something more than just the written word.
- Why James likes “sitcom length” podcast episodes of less than 30 minutes.
If you’re interested in checking out James’ work, you can visit his website, say hi to him on Twitter or Facebook, and find his books on Amazon. If you want to subscribe to his podcast, the links and episodes are on www.acetuckerspacetrucker.com.
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Unless I missed it, I heard no mention of how he was monetizing the podcast dramatizations or protecting his audiobook sales against canniblization because of them.
I;m considering a similar plan, but how to split the baby without giving away the crib remains the biggest obstacle in my attempting it.
I answered on Facebook, too, but he’s got a Patreon going on, and since he has a different version up for sale, some of the people who download the free version might upgrade to the paid. If it were me, I wouldn’t do the whole series though. I’d give the first one or two away for free, then encourage people to buy the audiobooks. 😀