Tag: rapid release

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 184: Marketing Wastes of Time, Covers for Newsletter Magnets, and Selling Quirky Stories

Group Discussion, Podcast

This week, Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay answered listener questions–a lot of them! We went for an hour and a half so brace yourselves!

Here’s the list of questions we addressed:

Benjamin: I’d love to hear opinions on where the stuffing stuff (see anything from @DavidGaughran lately) meets back-of-book sequel previews, ML magnet previews, and promises of free stories in return for ML signups. Seems murky to me, not sure if I should be worried.

Roland: What do authors worry about that are really a big ol’ waste of time when it comes to sales and marketing? Getting into stores? What else?

Jim: I often hear that the first book takes the longest. My first epic fantasy has taken me years. I’m doing revisions now, and I’ve been working on the book since 2015, making it firmly a loss leader. What did you learn that made you faster?

Kirsten: Pros and cons of a pen name? Especially if you plan to write sci fi and non-fiction (as a psychologist).

Finn:

I have a query/topic for discussion. As self-pub authors, should we be moving our websites over to https?

I saw this headline and started getting a bit concerned: Effective July 2018, Google’s Chrome browser will mark non-HTTPS sites as ‘not secure’

K Vale Nagle:

How crucial is a cover for the newsletter reader magnet? Fantasy covers cost a good chunk, I can’t really afford to get another novel quality cover for a freebie, but I worry that I need to.

I’m considering combining the first three novel covers in a graphic design stylistically pleasing way and having it be a three short story reader magnet. I’m probably over thinking this.

Holly:

Any advice for being successful while writing something a bit quirky and not quite to market would be interesting.

How to find your readers and keep them, rather than targeting more broadly would also be great.

Dale: For each of you, how much do you commit to a particular series before beginning it? In other words, do you plan for so many books in advance, or do you wait and see how the first few do first before writing more?

Devyn: Also, I think one of you said (pretty sure it was you) that it’s best not to name your series after the first book in the series. Can you shed more light on why it’s not a good idea? I feel like I’m missing something.

Devyn: Is it better to launch 2 books in a series on the same day or wait a week/10 days in between publication? I’m going to launch a new series in June & not sure which is best approach.

S Usher: Do you think email newsletters are hitting their saturation point?

Jon: What kind of content have you seen in author newsletters that was unique/interesting/worth implementing in your own newsletters?

Lon: Do you think that even a trilogy, as a starting point for a series launch, isn’t enough?

Stephan:

Are you purchasing your own ISBNs for ebooks? While obviously not required for Amazon, it’s needed for Overdrive and other platforms. If you get free ISBNs (from Smashwords, etc), did it happen that you got 2 ISBNs for the same ebook?

Amazon has suspended lots of accounts recently for fraudulent activity, like they seem to do every year. Were any of you affected by the substantial loss in page reads, reported on kboards and fb?

Joanne: Not sure if it was Jeff or Jo who pulled out of KU, but could we get an update on how it’s going?

Stephan: Have any of you thought about publishing “self publishing help books” like Joanna Penn or Mark Dawson?

Sky Gate Tale: Currently writing sci-fi, and my chapters are coming out longer than usual. At around 4K to 6k each. Longer or shorter chapters which is better?

Ayan: What’s in the bottles behind Jeff? Could be beer but on phone portrait mode they look like sauces or potions.

Felicity: I would love to hear each of your writing inspiration stories. When did you know that writing was the career for you?

Benjamin: My question is: what word will each of you now be trademarking?

William: What’s your perfect Sunday?

Cookie Brain: Tell the story of how you three got together and started the podcast, please.

 

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SFFMP 175: The Rapid Release Strategy, Getting Reviews as a New Author, and Where to Spend your Advertising Money

Group Discussion, Podcast

This week, Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay answered listener questions on a variety of topics such as how to spend $1,000 on advertising to get the most out of your launch, how to get reviews as a new author, whether we use review or street teams, and how often to release books if you’re banking them to do a rapid release. We also answer the question Jeff always asks our guests… if you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Here are a few of the more specific topics we covered:

  • Writing and publishing in multiple sub-genres at once, yay or nay?
  • Advertising strategies for a book launch.
  • Street teams and whether we use them.
  • Amazon closing its submissions to Kindle Scout.
  • Selling boxed sets at more than $9.99 and still getting a 70% royalty at Kobo.
  • Doing hard cover omnibuses and large print editions of your books.
  • Going wide with audiobooks or staying exclusive with Audible.
  • Jo’s experience with Kindle Worlds since they started including KW stories in Kindle Unlimited.
  • Whether it’s worth maintaining an author presence on Facebook even if you’re not planning to spend money on ads.
  • When you’re doing a rapid release strategy for a series, how often you should get those first few books out there.
  • Where to invest $1,000 on advertising for the launch of a new series.
  • How long to let Amazon AMS ads run.
  • Our previous podcast on Amazon AMS ads with Tom Corson-Knowles.
  • Will people do newsletter swaps with you if your list is small?
  • Finding fantasy and science fiction authors to swap with via the SF/F Cross Promo Bulletin Board Facebook group.
  • Whether single-author boxed sets are still useful to put together.

If you have better answers to any of the questions than our venerable but not infallible hosts had, feel free to chime in below!

 

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