Tag: fantasy

SFFMP 21: Marketing and Publishing Comedic Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Co-Writing, and Rocking It with Twitter

Author Interview, Podcast

In today’s episode, we talked to John P. Logdson and Chris Young, a comedic fantasy and science fiction writing duo. We covered a lot of ground. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Any special challenges with writing humor/comedy?
  • Dealing with one-star reviews from people who don’t “get” the humor
  • Collaboration — who does what and how do you manage to put out cohesive novels?
  • Does collaboration offer any advantages over titles written by a single author?
  • Can any writers collaborate well, or does it take a special personality and/or a certain skill set?
  • Writing to target less competitive categories on Amazon
  • Tricks for producing books more quickly
  • Should you mention that the books are humorous or comedic in the blurb or on the cover? So people looking for serious fiction won’t accidentally grab them?
  • Are there any marketing advantages to writing fantasy/science fiction comedy?
  • How to set up your tweets to market successfully on Twitter (effective hashtag use and Hashtagify for seeing what’s popular or trending + BookLinker to send readers from different countries to the right store)
  • Twitter groups and networking with other authors in a smart way
  • Marketing/advertising on Facebook, Goodreads, and using giveaways
  • The types of marketing John and Chris have tried and that hasn’t done well + what has worked
  • What they do to encourage newsletter signups
  • A new site for crowdfunding/getting pre-orders specifically for authors: Publishizer.

Tools they use for collaboration: Scrivener, Trelby (screenwriting program), and Dropbox.

Want to check out their work?

For more character-driven stories, try Starliner or the Land of Ononokin books. For more humor, check out Platoon-F. They’ve got a new project coming soon as well, a book called Queen Aurthur, a different (very different) take on the King Aurthur story. You can get in touch with them or find out more at their site, Crimson Myth.

 

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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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Selling Fantasy, the Importance of Book Covers, and Commissioning Plush Toy Characters with Joseph R. Lallo

Author Interview, Podcast

Today, we interviewed Joseph R. Lallo, author of the epic fantasy Book of Deacon series, as well as steampunk, science fiction, and super hero novels. He’s been self-publishing since 2010, and he’s really rocked it with his Book of Deacon series (over 1,000 reviews on the first title at Amazon). He recently quit his day job to write full time.

Among other things, we discussed:

  • How Jo has used permafree to sell his series (and how he’s kept it selling well for over four years)
  • The importance of cover art and some of the difficulties of finding killer covers in science fiction and fantasy (i.e. is it better to go with custom illustrations, photo manipulation, or symbol-based designs)
  • How helpful writing and publishing in a series can be for getting to that point where you earn a steady income
  • What’s working in marketing right now
  • Making plush toys (and other merchandise) out of book characters (or dragons/familiars/pets) from your stories and whether there’s any money to be made merchandising these things.

 

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