Tag: superheroes

SFFMP 215: Working Hard, Ignoring Naysayers, and Becoming a Full-Time Author

Author Interview, Podcast

For this week’s show, we talked to return guest Jeffery H. Haskell, who first joined us in December of 2017 for the show “Successfully Launching as a New Author and Is Kindle Worlds Worth It?” (Yes, Kindle Worlds was still a thing back then!)

Jeffery is a superhero fiction author and also has a new non-fiction title out, Writing for Life: Living the Impossible Dream. We talked about superheroes and how the fantasy subgenre is doing, and we also talked about some of the mindset issues that beginning authors face and that may be holding them back from publishing and becoming successful.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

  • Keeping a series selling past six installments.
  • Launching a new series in the same universe.
  • The state of the superhero subgenre as of January 2019.
  • Whether traditional publishers and authors are in the superhero genre or it’s more dominated by indies.
  • The earnings potential in the superhero genre.
  • Overcoming negative feedback and challenges to pursue your writing dream.
  • Making smart decisions, working hard, and not relying on luck to succeed.
  • Whether you have to be born with what it takes to become a writer or if anyone can learn.
  • When it makes sense to bank novels and rapid release and when you should publish right away to test the waters.
  • How long an author should give a series before accepting that maybe it’s time to try something else.
  • Setting realistic expectations for your first books and series.
  • What marketing Jeff has found works well for him in the superhero genre.
  • Increasing productivity to publish more books as one shifts to full-time.

Find Jeff on his website or Facebook or check out his books on Amazon.

For inspiration, take a look at Writing for Life: Living the Impossible Dream.

 

| Open Player in New Window

Click to download the mp3.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on iTunes.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast via RSS.

Like us on Facebook.

, , , , ,

SFFMP 163: Successfully Launching as a New Author and Is Kindle Worlds Worth It?

Author Interview, Podcast

Science fiction and superhero author, Jeffery H. Haskell, joined us this week to talk about his experiences with Kindle Scout, writing in two different Kindle Worlds, and launching his superhero series last summer as a relatively new author.

Here are some of the specifics of what we covered:

  • How Jeff honed his writing skills by ghostwriting on Upwork.
  • How his experience with Kindle Scout went (he published urban fantasy under a pen name).
  • Why he decided to try writing in a couple of different Kindle Worlds, including Lindsay’s Fallen Empire world.
  • Whether Kindle Worlds was useful in gaining readers that would check out his other work.
  • How his passion for comics led him to publish in the superhero genre.
  • How doing a monthly giveaway on Amazon, using their giveway program (scroll to the bottom of most books, and you can find the option to host a giveaway) helped him gather followers on Amazon, some of whom turned into buyers for his books. This turned out to be a very inexpensive form of advertising for him.
  • Why he went with a full-price book launch for his Book 1 and how he kept things rolling over the following months until Book 2 came out.
  • Whether a “publishing coach” is ever a good idea.
  • What we should be doing to maintain a lifelong writing career.
  • Suggestions for new authors starting out now.

You can visit Jeff on his website, where he’s happy to answer questions, and you can check out his first superhero novel, Arsenal, at Amazon.

If you’re in need of cover art, you can also check out Vivid Covers, which is run by Jeff’s wife, Rebekah.

 

| Open Player in New Window

Click to download the mp3.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on iTunes.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast via RSS.

Like us on Facebook.

, , , ,