trilogies – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

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

June 5, 2018 SFFpodcast 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.