podcasting – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 207: Podcasting Fiction to Gain an Audience for Your Books

November 15, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

This week, humorous science fiction author James R. Tramontana joined the guys on the show. He’s podcasting his Ace Tucker Space Trucker novels, and we asked him all about how he’s gaining fans that way, people who go on to buy the books.

Here are some of the specifics from the show:

What’s involved with podcasting your novel or podcasting original audio fiction (and why you might want to).
Getting set-up (equipment and software) for recording and editing.
Adding music, sound effects, etc. and creating more of a production than a simple narration of a book.
The challenges of selling niche stuff like humorous science fiction.
How James uses social media, conventions, and other methods to get the word out about his podcast.
The challenges of being found when you upload fiction podcasts, since the searches aren’t always great when you’re not using typical keywords.
Going for a comic-book vibe with humorous fiction.
Monetizing your fiction when you’re doing something more than just the written word.
Why James likes “sitcom length” podcast episodes of less than 30 minutes.

If you’re interested in checking out James’ work, you can visit his website, say hi to him on Twitter or Facebook, and find his books on Amazon. If you want to subscribe to his podcast, the links and episodes are on www.acetuckerspacetrucker.com.

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humorous SF, James R Tramontana, podcast novels, podcasting, podiobooks, science fiction

SFFMP 165: Relaunching a Series, Bookbub Ads, and Does Podcasting Help Authors?

January 9, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

A return guest joined us on the show this week, Bryan Cohen, non-fiction author, podcaster, and author of fairy tales and superhero fiction. We talked about the fairy-tale-writing pen name he launched in 2016 and the big relaunch (including edits, new covers, and new ASINs on Amazon) he did of his first fiction series in 2017, where he turned it from a sort-of-urban fantasy series to something clearly in the superhero genre. We also discussed tips for getting the cost per click down on Bookbub ads and whether podcasting can be useful for authors.

In the end, Bryan told us about the Sell More Books Show Summit, a conference he’s helping host the first weekend of May in Chicago this year, and what prompted him to start a new conference for authors. If you’re interested in going, tickets are still on sale (with the Early Bird price good through January 12th this week).

Here are some more specific details of what we talked about:

How Bryan’s foray into fairy tales and a new pen name went.
What he learned from launching into a new genre.
How organizing and putting together a fairy tale anthology with some other well-known authors helped earn a good amount through Kindle Unlimited and also drive readers back to his novel.
Some things he wishes he had done differently when launching the pen name.
How he juggles writing fiction, hosting a podcast, and working in the author services industry with having a family.
Whether it makes sense to be a podcaster as well as an author — ie. will it sell any books?
What kind of podcast would make sense if an author was interested in starting one?
Current events in the publishing world that authors may be overreacting to.
What made Bryan decide to not only relaunch his series with new covers, blurbs, titles, and in a new genre, but also why he went back and did some major editing on the early books.
Budgetary and time concerns to think about with a relaunch.
Whether to keep your existing Amazon ASIN and book reviews or to start from scratch.
Whether it’s necessary to clear a relaunch with fans or if Bryan dealt with any blowback from readers upset by the edits.
Bookbub ads and ways to tinker to get the CTR up (and the cost per click down).
Whether Bookbub ads are more effective in some genres than others.

If you enjoyed listening to Bryan chat, you can also check him out on two of our earlier episodes:

SFFMP 15: YouTube Marketing, Facebook Events, and Increasing Mailing List Sign-Ups

SFFMP 84: Creating Better Book Descriptions (Blurbs) to Improve Your Sales with Bryan Cohen

Also, make sure to visit his site, check out his books if you like superheroes or fairy tales, and the Summit if you’re interested in going.

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book relaunch, bookbub ads, bryan cohen, fairy tales, podcasting, podcasting for authors, relaunching a series, superhero fantasy

SFFMP 118: Writing Longer Books, Pricing Higher, Web Serials, and Generating Multiple Streams of Income to Go Full Time

February 7, 2017 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Drew Hayes, superhero/litRPG/urban fantasy author, joined us for this week’s show. He got his start with web serials before Wattpad was ever a thing, and he grew a fanbase so that when he launched his first ebook a few years ago, it did great right out of the blocks. Since then, he’s started several series, including urban fantasy with a small press, and gone full time as an author.

Here are some of the details of what we talked about tonight:

How Drew started publishing his work on the web and wrote the first year of his Super Powereds story before ever creating an ebook.
Are web serials still popular, and would it be worth starting one as a new author coming in now?
Can a podcast be useful for growing a fan base?
Writing longer books (of 200,000 words or more) and pricing a little higher — will the market accept that?
Succeeding as a full-time author on about three releases a year.
Why Drew decided to sign with a small press after he’d had success as a self-published author.
How long books can be great for the audio format, since some listeners buy the longest books they can get for their monthly credit at Audible.
How Drew uses Patreon to bring in extra income and also keep in touch with his fans.
Why he’s stuck with going wide and hasn’t joined Amazon KDP Select for more than a brief trial.
His thoughts on advertising (he hasn’t done much of it!) and what’s working for others he knows who do more.
His interesting launch strategy to get a lot of reviews on release day…