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