amazon ads – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 216: Reaching $100K+ in Income from Writing Science Fiction with Gerald M. Kilby

January 15, 2019 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

This week, we chatted writing, publishing, and marketing hard science fiction with Gerald M. Kilby. He’s not the fastest writer, putting out around two novels a year these days, but he manages to keep his books selling well between releases, and he earned more than $100K last year. We asked him all about that, Amazon and Facebook advertising, and what he’s doing for newsletters, social media, and the like.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How the ever-shrinking science fiction section in the physical bookstores helped Gerald decide to start writing his own stories.
Bypassing traditional publishing, since agents weren’t looking for hard sci-fi, and going straight to self-publishing.
Whether or not hard sci-fi readers are more nitpicky in insisting that the science be right.
Some of the mistakes he made with his first novel, a techno-thriller.
How the science fiction genre appeared to have much more potential to him.
How the popularity of The Martian seemed to help with Mars-related fiction when Gerald was starting out.
What he’s done to keep the ball rolling.
Realizing he couldn’t rely on Amazon’s algorithms to keep his books selling, especially when he had many months between releases.
Getting involved in Facebook and Amazon ads and which he likes better for what.
Having luck with letting Amazon choose automatic keywords in their ad system, instead of going in and picking them all by hand.
The challenges of maintaining a positive return-on-investment with Facebook and Amazon ads when you don’t have a huge series and can’t afford to spend as much to get a sale of a Book 1.
Changes to the Amazon advertising system of late and what authors need to watch out for with the higher suggested bids.
How he uses his mailing list and what a book launch looks for him these days.

Make sure to visit Gerald on his website and check out his science fiction on Amazon.

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amazon ads, facebook ads, gerald M Kilby, hard science fiction, marketing, science fiction

SFFMP 212: How to Find Success in Urban Fantasy with Ramy Vance

December 18, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Lindsay got to meet lots of cool authors at the 20Books conference in Las Vegas this fall, and today’s guest was one of those people. Urban fantasy author Ramy Vance was involved in the traditional publishing world for years, but when it came time to publish his fiction, he decided to go indie. He’s written a number of novels and started a new series this past summer, Mortality Bites, where he’s had some of his best success yet. We asked him about it and what he did right and wrong to start selling a significant number of books in the urban fantasy genre.

Here are a few of the specifics that we talked about:

How Ramy was first involved in the traditional publishing world and what it taught him about the business.
The logistics of getting into libraries and how subsidiary rights trading works.
Tools you can use to do your own public relations if you’re hoping for attention from the traditional world (he mentioned SimilarWeb as a resource for analyzing those business’s websites but also said it’s expensive and that our time, as indie authors, may be better invested in writing the next book).
Whether it’s worth jumping into urban fantasy as a newer author or if it’s tough to gain traction since it’s so competitive.
Making use of some of the popular tropes to attract regular genre readers but then doing fun and creative stuff on the side.
Ramy’s experience with going exclusive with Amazon for this series and how advertising and tactics can be different whether one is only selling books or whether selling is secondary to getting borrows and page reads in Kindle Unlimited.
How he experimented with adding a sample chapter at the end of his books and found that sales/borrows of the subsequent books were better when he took that out.
How different advertising platforms sent different types of traffic (i.e. he got more sales from Facebook and more Kindle Unlimited borrows from AMS ads).
His mailing list versus his Facebook group and what he’s prioritizing right now.
Experimenting with Instagram.
How writing six books before releasing the first one helped him to rapid release and get a leg up.
How he approached more than a dozen big-name authors in the genre and found many willing to support him at launch time.
Plans for audiobooks through Podium Publishing.
Whether to invest in advertising to direct people to your back-list books or to focus on selling the new stuff.

If you’re an urban fantasy fan, make sure to check out the first book in Ramy’s Mortality Bites series on Amazon. You can also see what he’s up to on his website and check out his reader Facebook group: Ramy Vance’s House of the GoneGod Dead.

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amazon ads, facebook ads, Facebook groups, Facebook marketing, instagram, kindle unlimited, libraries, public relations, self publishing, subsidiary rights, traditional publishing, urban fantasy

SFFMP 209: Beyond the Basics with Facebooks Ads, Pinterest Ads, and Amazon Ads with Michael Cooper

November 27, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

On this week’s show, return guest Michael Cooper (author of HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck under his name and more than fifty novels in his science-fiction Aeon 14 universe as MD Cooper) gave us a lot of great information on what’s working and what’s not right now when it comes to ads for books. He first joined us on Episode 147 where we extensively covered Facebook ads. This time, Michael branched out and gave us information on Amazon ads, Bookbub ads, YouTube ads, and Pinterest ads, as well as updating us on Facebook stuff.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How Michael started taking on collaboration partners to help him tell all the stories he wants to tell in his universe (and put out books more frequently).
Some of the challenges of collaboration and writing multiple series that jump around in a timeline while sharing the same universe.
Why Michael has a lot of his stuff in KU but made one series available in all of the stores.
The idea that there’s no “algorithm” on Amazon and that our fate as authors shouldn’t live and die based on whether Amazon decides to promote our stuff.
Using BookTrackR to monitor sales, rankings, reviews, etc. across all the major store sites.
When running Amazon ads, targeting authors (as keywords) who aren’t in KU to potentially attract readers who pay more for books.
Dealing with “peak author” and saturation of the ebook market going forward.
Learning to be more creative about marketing as there are more and more books out there for the same number of readers to choose from.
Advertising in print genre magazines.
Gauging sell-through for a series and determining how much you can afford to spend on advertising.
Doing Facebook video ads for cheaper clicks than regular ads.
Video Hive as a place where you can buy stock footage to use in video ads.
Using Etsy to ship paperbacks and other swag (they’ll generate shipping labels to help make it easier).
Making an art book of your covers.
How to get into advertising on Pinterest and if the ads are useful for science fiction and fantasy authors.
Choosing the right tagline for your ads and book description pages.
How Michael uses his KDP Select free days and countdown deals.

Remember to pick up Michael’s HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck book if you haven’t already, and if you’re curious about the courses he mentioned at the end of the show, you can join his Facebook group: Michael Cooper’s Ads & Marketing FTW.

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amazon ads, facebook ads, marketing, pinterest ads, science fiction, series sell-through, video ads, youtube ads

SFFMP 198: Mastering Amazon Ads with Brian Meeks

September 11, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Jo and Lindsay talked with the famous (not infamous!) Brian Meeks today, author of Mastering Amazon Ads, as well as thrillers, satire, and science fiction (under a pen name). He started tinkering with Amazon ads a couple of years ago when they first came on the scene, and they turned into a game-changer for him, allowing him to sell a lot more books and eventually quit the day job.

Now, he spends a lot of time in his Amazon ads Facebook group helping other authors, and he’s also got a course you can sign up for if you want more than is in his book. If you want to check it out, he’s offering our listeners 30% off — throw in the coupon code of SFFMP30.

Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Course

Here are some specifics we covered in the show:

The basics of Amazon ads and how they work.
The difference between product display ads and sponsored product ads (and why Brian is a big fan of the former even though most people jump on the latter).
How long you should wait to see if an ad is going to catch and run well.
How recent changes to the ad system (August 2018) have got everyone bidding higher right now and authors may want to wait until things settle down again.
Why you should be patient and give everything time before raising the bid or selecting the new option to increase your bid up to 50%.
Whether it makes sense to advertise books that are wide and that can’t make money from page reads in Kindle Unlimited.
Whether it’s possible to pay for ads on a free ebook and come out ahead (i.e. when it’s a series starter).
How good copywriting is important, not just for the ads but for your book description.
Having an effective hook and drawing the reader to click more on Amazon.
How much time it really takes to get Amazon ads to move the dial for you — it’s not a quick fix or a set-it-and-forget-it method.
Once you get some success, scaling it.

Don’t forget to check out Brian’s Mastering Amazon Ads book, and you can also take a peek at his fiction. He’s written some scifi under Arthur Byrne starting with The Magellan Apocalypse.

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advertising, amazon ads, ams, book marketing, brian meeks

SFFMP 181: Spreading out Your Advertising Dollars for Effectiveness and Launching Well as a New Author

May 15, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

This week, epic fantasy/fantasy romance author Miranda Honfleur joined us on the show. She launched her first series last November and has kept book 1 selling well and sticking in the Amazon fantasy charts while releasing more books in the series. She has three out now with a fourth to follow later this summer. We asked her how she did so well as a new author and how she’s maintaining sales.

Here are some more specifics on what we covered:

Miranda’s road to publishing.
How she’s balanced writing epic fantasy that’s heavy on romance, something epic fantasy readers aren’t always looking for.
What she took away from the Sell More Books Show conference as a new author.
How she used Instafreebie to building a mailing list months before she launched her first book.
Creating promotions using the King Sumo WordPress app.
Tips for getting the most out of Bookbub PPC ads, Amazon ads, and Facebook ads.
Whether she’s needed to cull her mailing list, something we just talked about on last week’s show!
How she tries to be everywhere with advertising.
How much time she’s putting into Amazon ads and other marketing methods to keep her Book 1 selling week in and week out.
Whether Instagram may be the next place fantasy authors should have a presence.
Marketing to “series-adjacent” genres as part of a larger strategy.

You can find Miranda on her website or on Amazon where her books are currently in Kindle Unlimited. If you’re a fantasy fan, check out her first book, Blade & Rose. If you enjoyed fairy tales, she’s a part of the Of Beasts and Beauties boxed set.

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advertising books, amazon ads, book launches, epic fantasy, Facebook, fantasy romance, Miranda Honfleur, new authors

SFFMP 134: When to Hire a Personal Assistant, Facebook Live Events, and King Arthur Fantasy with K.M. Shea

May 30, 2017 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we talked to return guest, fantasy author K.M. Shea. She specializes in retold fairy tales and King Arthur fantasy, and she’s definitely exploited the fact that these are fairly small and underserved sub-genres. If you have any interest in fairy tales, check out her last interview with us: Retold Fairy Tales, Kindle Unlimited, and Finding Less Competitive Categories.

We talked more about her King Arthur series today and also about some of the business/marketing things she’s been working on in the last year. Here are some of the details we covered:

Whether it makes sense to go back and deeply edit one of your early books or series.
Whether the fairy tale niche is still fairly underserved and if it’s easier (compared to popular categories like urban and epic fantasy) to break into the Top 100.
Finding a personal assistant to help with your author business, when it’s time and where to look.
What the going rate is for an author PA or VA (virtual assistant).
How much work do you need to have to outsource before someone might be interested in hiring on?
Do you need to worry about non-disclosure agreements? Sharing passwords?
Kitty’s experiences experimenting with Amazon ads, Facebook ads, and free Bookbub runs for a couple of her fairy tale novels.
Doing Facebook Live Events alone and with other authors, and whether these things actually sell books.
Kitty mentioned Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans site and how she works to cultivate a good relationship with her readers.
Whether joint author promos can be effective for selling your own books.

You can visit KM Shea at her website or on Facebook, and check out her books at Amazon, including her retelling of Beauty and the Beast and Enthroned, her first King Arthur story.

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amazon ads, facebook ads, facebook live events, fairy tales, hiring a PA, joint author promos, king arthur, km shea, PAs, personal assistants

SFFMP 127: Book Launch Tips, Mistakes People Make with Amazon Algorithms, and Writing a Trilogy in 12 Weeks

April 11, 2017 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Today, Chris Fox joined us to talk about book launches, book RE-launches, reasons why the Amazon algorithms may not be plugging your book, and writing a trilogy in twelve weeks. The author of non-fiction titles such as 5,000 Words Per Hour and Writing to Market, he’s joined us twice before on previous episodes:

Writing 5,000 Words an Hour and Selling Zombies and Werewolves

Selling More by Writing to Market + A Novel in 21 Days

Here’s some of what we covered today:

What Chris has been up to since finishing his Void Wraith Trilogy, the military SF he wrote to market last year, and how it ended up doing overall.
Why he’s writing a trilogy in 12 weeks and planning to release the books in rapid succession.
Some of the benefits of writing more than the first novel in a series before publishing any of them.
The importance of taking time off and taking time for passion projects.
Strategies for launching into crowded niches.
Whether Chris will do 99 cents for his launch of Book 1.
Using Facebook and Amazon ads to find a target audience and whether they’re proving effective (and affordable) right now.
Why it’s worthwhile to think about your character names instead of just throwing things out there.
Accountability tricks for sticking to one’s goals.
Launching a novel when you haven’t built up a list yet.
Why you might not want to tell everyone you know about your new novel — the confusing effect that can have on Amazon’s algorithms.
Relaunching a novel or series that didn’t do well out of the blocks.

You can find Chris and his video series on his site or on his YouTube channel. You can order Write to Market and Six-Figure Author on Amazon, and his new book, Relaunch Your Novel, will be out in May. You can also check out his fiction, starting with Destroyer or No Such Thing as Werewolves.

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12 days to a trilogy, amazon, amazon ads, amazon algorithms, amazon marketing, book launches, chris fox, facebook ads

SFFMP 108: Amazon Ads, Mastering Email Marketing, and Effective Social Media

November 22, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Today, Jo and Lindsay chatted with Tom Corson-Knowles, non-fiction author, host of the Publishing Profits podcast, and entrepreneur. He does a lot of work with authors and has seen what’s working well for branding and improving sales, so we had a good discussion, covering everything from Amazon advertising (which has recently opened up to be available to everyone, not just those exclusive with KDP Select) to email marketing to social media.

Here are a few of the highlights of what we discussed:

What exactly Amazon ads are and how they work for authors.
How much you can expect to spend and what a respectable ROI or ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) looks like.
Product Display ads versus Sponsored Product Ads.
Keyword targeting and scaling up if you’re not getting enough impressions/clicks.
Making sure your cover/brand is appealing, since you’ve got to lure browsers away from the book page they’re on to click your ad.
Whether Amazon ads can make sense with a 99-cent book or a permafree one (and series starters versus stand alones).
Best practices when it comes to email marketing.
What your first follow-up message should look like after a new subscriber signs up.
The types of goodies you can give away to entice readers to sign up.
Whether you should start separate email lists if you branch into other genres.
How often you should be emailing your list as an author.
Whether you should worry if you get unsubscribes after sending out a newsletter.
If you should consider a pop-up to get more reader signups from your blog or website. (Tom uses SumoMe for handling pop-ups and signups.)
When it makes sense to ignore the common advice of “You have to be on Facebook” or “You have to be on Twitter.”
Finding ways to market online that jive with your personality and what you’re willing to do.