chris fox – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 156: Finding Success with a Cross-Genre Book Launch with Chris Fox

November 7, 2017 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

One of our favorite guests, Chris Fox, returns this week so we can grill him about the success he had with his space-fantasy launch, Tech Mage.

Here’s some of what we covered:

What made Chris, the Write to Market guy, decide to take on a new cross-genre series that he wasn’t positive would sell well.
How you choose what to emphasize on the cover when your novel crosses multiple genres and could fit in a number of categories.
How Chris quietly put up a pre-order without mentioning it to fans, then used Facebook ads to see which ads and tag lines on the product page resulted in the highest conversion.
Choosing different audiences to target (via Facebook ads) for subsequent launches in a cross-genre series.
Whether anything different needs to be done with a launch for a book that spans multiple genres and isn’t necessarily written to market.
Advice for newer authors who don’t have a list already built that they can rely upon for early sales.
Keeping cover design simple, and whether it matters if you have a specific scene from the book illustrated for it.
For the first time, Chris registered a domain name and put up a lot of bonus content for his new series: https://www.magitechchronicles.com/
Why Chris plans to write ten books in this series rather than sticking to trilogies or smaller series as he’s often done in the past.
Who should consider relaunching a series.
Why Chris likes omnibuses as a way to kickstart a flagging series without redoing covers on all the original books.

You can buy or borrow Tech Mage on Amazon, or check out Chris’s Relaunch Your Novel for some tips on breathing life into a series that you felt underperformed initially.

Chris also has some great videos for writers on his YouTube channel. Of course, he’s on the web too at Chris Fox Writes.

Also, if you haven’t listened to them, check out the other episodes where Chris was a guest:

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book launches, chris fox, cross-genre, relaunching a series

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 89: Launching Books to Stick, Amazon Algorithms, and When Advertising Is Worth it with Chris Fox

July 12, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Today, we talked about launching books, writing to market, taking advantage of Amazon algorithms, and when advertising is (and isn’t) worth it with return guest Chris Fox.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How Amazon works to push new releases (that show potential) with its algorithms, newsletters, and also-boughts system
How important being in KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited is right now to stick on Amazon with a new book
Whether to list a book for pre-order
Whether it makes sense to use Facebook and Amazon ads (available for those in KDP Select) during a book launch or afterward, to keep the momentum going
Relaunching a series that had a lackluster original launch
How much pricing figures into a book launch and whether starting at 99 cents is a good idea to gain momentum
Using a prequel to grow a mailing list

Check out Chris’s first military science fiction novel, Destroyer, on Amazon, or pick up his latest non-fiction title, Launch to Market.

You can also visit his YouTube channel for some inspiring and helpful videos.

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89, amazon, book launches, chris fox, kdp select, kindle unlimited, launch to market, write to market

SFFMP 72: Selling More by Writing to Market + A Novel in 21 Days with Chris Fox

March 17, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Our guest this week is Chris Fox, author of Writing to Market, the Deathless Series, Hero Born, and more. You might remember him from our show in July of 2015. Now he isn’t just encouraging you to write 5k an hour—He has a new nonfiction book out that will help redefine the way you look at writing to make a big splash in the market with potentially less work. Writing to Market shows you how to examine marketing trends and write books that give readers the experiences they want.

Here’s a taste of what we discussed:

The troubles of writing a book that doesn’t quite fit into market—With elements that might be like ‘mixing peanut butter with pickles.’
How it can be easier to establish a presence in the market if you write something a little more mainstream. It should be something that you enjoy writing, but something that offers a more ready market.
That going into publishing with eyes wide open about the market and genres can have a tremendous effect on your career.
The importance of writing to the market and taking care to pay attention to details like word counts for specific genres.
How a writer can succeed even if their original works aren’t very good.
How to ensure your backlist doesn’t go stale.
Ways to figure out if combining specific genres can be a good or bad ideas.
Learning methods to use keywords to help you learn both how successful different genres are and how to find an underserved market.
Tips and tricks for switching genres as an already established author.
Taking on an intense challenge—A 21 Day Novel Challenge. Possible? Tune in—You won’t want to miss it or what he would say to someone wanting to undertake it.

If you enjoyed the show, please visit Chris on his site and check out his Deathless series and books on writing there and on his Amazon page.

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chris fox, epic fantasy, military sf, space opera, urban fantasy, writing faster, writing to market

SFFMP 38: Writing 5,000 Words an Hour and Selling Zombies and Werewolves with Chris Fox

July 7, 2015 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we chatted with Chris Fox about marketing zombies, werewolves, and vampires, and also about how he writes incredibly quickly. He holds down a 60-hour-a-week day job as an app developer and doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to fiction, so he’s learned to be productive, logging 5,000 words in an hour. He’s even written about it in a book designed to help other authors: 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter.

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

Using the start-up mentality for indie publishing
Investing in your product (including scouring DeviantArt for hours to find just the right artists!)
How audiobook sales (from Audible) can help Kindle sales on Amazon
Is it helpful to use popular tropes, such as werewolves, zombies, and vampires? Or do readers have expectations that can be hard to meet if you’re doing something slightly different?
What advertising Chris has done and what’s been effective
Why it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend much time and money on marketing when you only have one or two books out
Utilizing a mailing list to make promoting future books easier
How Chris is writing so darned many words in an hour
Addressing the argument that writing faster means writing poorly
Using voice recognition software effectively as a fiction writer

If you’re looking for more information on marketing, you might want to visit Chris’s site and check out some of the articles he’s written for writers:

If Chris’s fiction sounded interesting to you, give his first book, No Such Thing as Werewolves, a try.