Tag: createspace

SFFMP 55: Launch Strategies, Pitfalls of Being Prolific, and How to Know When a Book Is Ready

Group Discussion, Podcast

Tonight we were joined by a fan of the show and fellow podcaster, Edward Giordano. For a change, he interviewed us, asking questions he had as a new author. We hope our answers will be useful to some of you, as well!

Here’s some of what we went over:

  • How to get books and ebooks into libraries (Here’s the interview with the librarian that Lindsay mentioned.)
  • Keeping characters/settings/themes fresh when you’re prolific and you’re publishing a lot of books
  • How to launch your first book or books as a new author
  • Whether KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited is the way to go as a new author
  • Whether Facebook or in-person launch parties are worth doing
  • If it’s your first book, how do you know if it’s ready to be published?
  • Making short stories or novelettes profitable
  • How to know if a story idea is worth pursuing
  • Are paperbacks and audiobooks worth the time and cost of producing them?
  • Are in-person events worth it for selling books?

Edward hasn’t published his first book yet, but you can visit his SciFan Podcast, where he and his host chat about science fiction and fantasy books and television shows.

Edward also mentioned a helpful book that you might like to check out: Nail Your Story: Add Tension, Build Emotion, and Keep Your Readers Addicted (Growth Hacking For Storytellers #2)

 

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Click to download the mp3.

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Learning from Our Mistakes with Self-Publishing and Marketing

Group Discussion, Podcast

Tonight, Laura Kirwan, Jeffrey Poole, Jo Lallo, and myself (Lindsay Buroker) went around in a virtual circle, talking about some of the mistakes we’ve made over the years, as related to publishing and marketing our books and, in some cases, choosing what to work on.

Here are a few of the topics we hit on:

  • Editors — how not to find them and how to find them (and don’t forget to ask for a sample edit!)
  • Cover art — the struggles of doing it yourself or even getting it right when you’re hiring a professional cover designer
  • Signing up for one-stop publishing packages — (hint: don’t do this)
  • The potential pitfalls of starting too many series at a time
  • Genre hopping and whether it makes sense to take a pen name
  • What not to do when an agent comes calling
  • Some things to think about when choosing titles

Click to download the mp3.

 

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