SFFMP 93: Straddling Genres and Succeeding with Multiple Different Series with Rachel Aaron
Popular fantasy author Rachel Aaron joined us today to talk about succeeding with books that straddle genres, launching later books in a series, and turning your writing into a business, among other topics.
Here are a few more subjects that we touched on:
- The challenges of writing across genres and marketing books that don’t fit tidily into a category
- Rachel’s experiments with advertising and what has worked best
- Using a pre-order to increase sales of an entire series and how to build launch buzz over several weeks
- Some of the perks of being in Kindle Unlimited (Rachel explains why she believes KU readers are less likely to leave bad reviews)
- How audiobooks have become a significant source of income for Rachel
- The challenges of maintaining a high degree of productivity after this becomes a full-fledged business
Visit Rachel on her site, check out the fan art she mentioned, or take a peek at her first Heartstrikers book on Amazon.
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Yet another awesome episode! Rachel was a great guest. So far, I’m a “write-what-I-love” person, too, and the advice on marketing for cross-genre books was very helpful, since I’ve written a super-hero/urban fantasy/ with thriller elements and pacing. I have one question about setting pre-orders. Do you guys think they are worth trying in KU for a new author? New urban fantasy author Jasmine Walt has done well with them–she had the help of an author Facebook group to boost it to be sure, but I’m intrigued. I’ve also been warned off doing pre-orders for the reasons mentioned in this episode 🙂
For me, I wouldn’t do one for more than a few days ahead on a new Book 1, since you’re hoping to debut higher and stick in the charts, and also because it’s pretty tough to get pre-order sales when you don’t have a following yet. If you put a secret one up a few days early, you can send the link to any sponsorship sites that you’re able to book. (I’ve also put a Goodreads page up for a book ahead of time for that same reason, something to show sponsorship sites.)