annie bellet – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 101: Getting an Agent After Self-Pub Success and a Print Only Deal with Annie Bellet

October 4, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we chatted with return guest, urban fantasy author, Annie Bellet. She first visited us on show 33. Since then, she’s published her earnings on her blog (she made over $250,000 in 2015) and taken on an agent and a publisher for a print-only deal (she kept her ebook rights).

Here are some of the things we discussed:

Leveraging self-publishing success to get an agent
How to choose an agent if you’re lucky enough to get some nibbles (and when you might want to pass)
Whether traditional publishers are open right now to print only deals
Whether trad publishers are currently likely to be interested in series that were previously self published
What stats/bragging rights you should have prepared to share that might interest an agent
Keeping a series alive and selling even when releases aren’t as frequent as you’d like
Whether permafree or 99-cent Book 1s are still working to help get people into a series
Staying wide in all the stores vs. dabbling in Kindle Unlimited
Running Facebook ads for boxed sets
Whether Annie’s publisher has handled marketing for the new paperbacks and hardbacks or if she’s responsible for that
Conversion and what’s good sell through in a series
The challenges of keeping a pen name active and selling

You can grab Annie’s first 20-Sided Sorceress ebook for free in all the major stores (Amazon link here) and also check out the new print omnibus of the first four adventures.

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agents, annie bellet, getting an agent, Indie Authors, six figures, trad publishing, urban fantasy

SFFMP 33: Selling Tons of Urban Fantasy Books with Annie Bellet

June 2, 2015 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

We interviewed Annie Bellet, author of the very popular 20-Sided Sorceress urban fantasy series this week. She’s also written epic fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, sold short stories to numerous magazines, and participated in various writing workshops. Here’s a little of what we talked about:

How Annie got started self-publishing and found that it’s much easier to rock it with an ongoing series than with short stories or series starters (that never get followed up)
When it’s worth having audiobooks of your novels produced
Tips on writing short stories (and why you might like to write short stories)
Covers — should you model yours after an existing (and popular!) series in your genre?
Launching the first book in a series at 99 cents (even if you don’t have others out yet)
Pre-orders, why Annie isn’t doing them any more
Amazon KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited, yay or nay?
Are awards useful in marketing?
Annie talks the stages of being an indie author and how to move from the beginning struggle to selling more books and gathering a regular audience of readers
Advertising, which sites deliver the best bang for her buck?
Mistakes some people make when they actually do have early success (and mistakes people have when they don’t have early success).
Common themes among indie authors who are failing to break out.
Treating your writing like a business (assuming your goal is to make money)