Tag: editors

SFFMP 222: Do Pre-Orders Work, What Happens Between Rapid Releases, and Finding a Good Editor

Group Discussion, Podcast

On today’s show, the guys answered listener questions about pre-orders, rapid releases, how they found their editors, whether it make sense to keep series in Kindle Unlimited while publishing stand-alone novels wide, and lots of other stuff. Here’s a list of the questions they got to in the show (the second half of the batch will be answered next week):

  • For rapid release for a 5 book series, would you recommend the time-gap between releases be 2, 3, or 4 weeks? And for somebody using it to rebuild their readership, would you recommend Amazon Marketing Ads on the first book to help train amazon algorithms?
  • People always ask about rapid release, but never about what happens BETWEEN series release cycles. As they’re stockpiling new titles, I assume there are months where nothing new is up depending on how long it takes for them to write. Algorithm cliff chaos? Discuss.
  • Since everyone is asking about rapid release. How long should you advertise or pre-launch the series before you rapid release the books? Also where does most of your traffic for book buying come from? Is it the mailing list?
  • On one of the shows, someone mentioned that a short preorder lead has less impact on the “spike and decline” than a long one. Can you guys talk about that?
  • I’ve decided to try using some boosted posts from my FB page instead of running ads. I’ve turned off my ads and will instead run the same amount of money per day over a week and see what happens. Have any of you tried using boosted posts only for adverts?
  • I’m planning to write both standalones and series books, is it better to take your standalones wide to help establish yourself in those markets? Or am I better off leaving my standalones in KU?
  • How do you guys handle health care without an employer?
  • How did you find a good editor and what did you do to try them out to decide they were “the one?” (The guys mentioned the Reedsy Marketplace as a possible place to look.)
  • Also wondering about best ways to find an editor for SF (space opera).
  • Thoughts about the new service, Reedsy Discovery?
  • If your book has reviews in non-US amazon stores, is there a way to merge all of them to US store since it’s the exact same book?
  • What are the most surprising/unlikely income streams you’ve developed in your writing career?
  • I’d like to hear your thoughts on the building and usefulness of FaceBook pages and reader groups.

 

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SFFMP 142: Mailing List Best Practices and Finding an Editor for Your Genre

Group Discussion, Podcast

On this week’s show, the guys chatted amongst themselves, covering such topics as how their summer book launches are going, finding an editor when you write cross-genre fiction, and basic and more advanced mailing list tactics.

Here are a few of the specifics they discussed:

• Where do the guys host their mailing lists?
• Is a mailing list necessary if you’re already on social media?
• What kinds of things do you say to your subscribers?
• How often should you email your subscribers?
• Should you email twice about the same release to ensure people saw it?
• Using free books or bonus stories to encourage people to subscribe.
• What kind of open rates should you expect as a genre fiction author?
• Should you scrub your mailing list to get rid of the dead weight (people who aren’t opening messages)?
• Should you segregate your mailing list? (i.e. sort by demographics, most opens/clicks.)
• Staggering the way you promote a book launch to create more of a steady trickle of sales during release week than a spike.
• Setting up an autoresponder series.
• Including links to backlist at the bottoms of your first auto-responder email.

 

 

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Editing for Self Publishers with Tammy Salyer

Author Interview, Podcast

Tonight, we talked all about editing. We had author and editor Tammy Salyer on, and she answered our dozen-odd questions about copy-editing, proofreading, and substantive editing (the latter being something that proved difficult for some of us to pronounce… not saying any names here!). Since Tammy writes military science fiction and is working on an epic fantasy trilogy, she was a great person to have on our particular show, to give us information about genre stuff as well as regular editing issues. Here’s a taste of what we covered:

  • What are the differences between proofreading, copy-editing, and substantive editing, and how does an author know what he or she needs?
  • How can good editing make the marketing side of things easier?
  • Are there any common mistakes that new authors (or old ones!) make?
  • What should you do if you can’t afford to hire an editor? Are there are any tips or is there editing software that can help?
  • What are red flags that you should look for when hiring an editor?
  • What are samples pages and how can they help you find a good editor?
  • How slavishly should authors cling to grammatical rules?

Click to download the mp3.

 

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For more information or to check out Tammy’s editing services, visit her at Inspired Ink Editing.

If you’re interested in Tammy’s books, you can check them out on Amazon or visit her author page for more details.

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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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Self-Publishing on a Shoestring, Potential Pitfalls, and Growing a Fan Base with Jeffrey Poole

Author Interview, Podcast

Today we interviewed epic fantasy author Jeffrey M. Poole on his experiences with self-publishing, some of the mistakes he wish he hadn’t made when he got started, and growing a rabid fan base that’s always hungry for the next book.

A few of the specific topics were…

  • Getting started self-publishing when you don’t have much money to invest
  • Which kinds of “helpful” companies to avoid
  • Finding an editor and cover art designer
  • Using permafree to get people to try a new series (and whether permafree is as effective as it used to be)
  • Blogging and social media for promotion, yea or nay
  • Dealing with bad reviews

 

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Check out Jeff’s first novel for free on Amazon, Smashwords, and in other stores.

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