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SFFMP 212: How to Find Success in Urban Fantasy with Ramy Vance

December 18, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Lindsay got to meet lots of cool authors at the 20Books conference in Las Vegas this fall, and today’s guest was one of those people. Urban fantasy author Ramy Vance was involved in the traditional publishing world for years, but when it came time to publish his fiction, he decided to go indie. He’s written a number of novels and started a new series this past summer, Mortality Bites, where he’s had some of his best success yet. We asked him about it and what he did right and wrong to start selling a significant number of books in the urban fantasy genre.

Here are a few of the specifics that we talked about:

How Ramy was first involved in the traditional publishing world and what it taught him about the business.
The logistics of getting into libraries and how subsidiary rights trading works.
Tools you can use to do your own public relations if you’re hoping for attention from the traditional world (he mentioned SimilarWeb as a resource for analyzing those business’s websites but also said it’s expensive and that our time, as indie authors, may be better invested in writing the next book).
Whether it’s worth jumping into urban fantasy as a newer author or if it’s tough to gain traction since it’s so competitive.
Making use of some of the popular tropes to attract regular genre readers but then doing fun and creative stuff on the side.
Ramy’s experience with going exclusive with Amazon for this series and how advertising and tactics can be different whether one is only selling books or whether selling is secondary to getting borrows and page reads in Kindle Unlimited.
How he experimented with adding a sample chapter at the end of his books and found that sales/borrows of the subsequent books were better when he took that out.
How different advertising platforms sent different types of traffic (i.e. he got more sales from Facebook and more Kindle Unlimited borrows from AMS ads).
His mailing list versus his Facebook group and what he’s prioritizing right now.
Experimenting with Instagram.
How writing six books before releasing the first one helped him to rapid release and get a leg up.
How he approached more than a dozen big-name authors in the genre and found many willing to support him at launch time.
Plans for audiobooks through Podium Publishing.
Whether to invest in advertising to direct people to your back-list books or to focus on selling the new stuff.

If you’re an urban fantasy fan, make sure to check out the first book in Ramy’s Mortality Bites series on Amazon. You can also see what he’s up to on his website and check out his reader Facebook group: Ramy Vance’s House of the GoneGod Dead.

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amazon ads, facebook ads, Facebook groups, Facebook marketing, instagram, kindle unlimited, libraries, public relations, self publishing, subsidiary rights, traditional publishing, urban fantasy

SFFMP 192: Instagram, Swag, Book Boxes, and Launching Your First Book Without Spending any Money

July 31, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

This week, we chatted with YA science fiction author Jessica Pierce who launched her first book, Atlas Fallen, in April of this year. She didn’t spend a lot of money on her launch, relying instead on the fan base and contacts she’d accumulated on Instagram. We talked to her about how to acquire a following and build book buzz on the platform and also about some creative things she’s done with swag and launch boxes.

Here are some more specifics and links from the show:

What it’s like starting out as a new author in the YA market right now.
Overcoming the challenges of selling books to a young adult audience.
Common tropes that might be addressed in YA science fiction (or YA in general)
An introduction to book boxes.
All the kinds of swag you can make as an author for contests or to help with a book launch.
Doing magnetic bookmarks, custom book sleeves, and swag that goes beyond the typical book plates and bookmarks.
Hanging out where your target audience is.
How Instagram is a huge place to reach teenage/young adult readers.
The importance of using the hashtags on Instagram including the popular #bookstagram tag.
What to post on Instagram as an author to build buzz.
Why Jessica hired artists to do character art for her who happened to also have large Instagram followings.
If every author should be on Instagram or if it’s more ideal for those targeting younger readers.
Making sure your cover and your blurb are tailored to your target audience.
Society6 for creating swag.
PackLane.com for creating custom shipping boxes.
UPrinting.com for other print-on-demand swag needs.

You can visit Jessica on her website or (of course!) on Instagram. She just enrolled Atlas Fallen in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, so you can find the ebook on Amazon.