Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-222_-_Pre-Orders_Rapid_Release_and_Other_Listener_Questions.mp3

SFFMP 222: Do Pre-Orders Work, What Happens Between Rapid Releases, and Finding a Good Editor

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 05:02:28 +0000

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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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-221_-_Whether_Awards_Are_Worth_Trying_for_Marketing_Fantasy_Romance_and_Being_Active_in_SFWA_and_RWA_with_Jeffe_Kennedy.mp3

SFFMP 221: Whether Awards Are Worth Trying for, Marketing Fantasy Romance, and Being Active in SFWA and RWA

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 06:26:49 +0000

This week, we chatted with RITA award-winning fantasy romance author Jeffe Kennedy. She started her career writing non-fiction, shifted to romance and fantasy romance with traditional publishing, and now does some self-publishing as well. We asked her about whether awards are worth trying for, her thoughts on the professional organizations SFWA and RWA, and what she’s tried and liked for marketing over the years.

Here are some of the specific topics we touched on:

Getting started in fantasy romance before it became a thing (we debated if it’s yet come into its own).
Whether fantasy romance (secondary world/epic fantasy rather than Earth-centric paranormal romance) is a growing market now.
Tropes romance readers will expect, even if a story is SF/F.
How much “romance” has to be in a story for it to be considered sci-fi or fantasy romance?
Jeffe’s thoughts on whether authors should get involved in RWA or SFWA, the professional organizations for the romance and SF/F genres.
Awards you can enter versus awards you have to be nominated for.
Jeffe’s experience entering the RITA awards each year and having a winner in 2017.
Whether awards are worth pursuing and if they can increase readership.
Jeffe’s thoughts on blogging and social media, and her preferred platforms.
Getting reviews from book bloggers.
Joining with other authors in your genre to put out anthologies of novellas.
Jeffe’s First Cup of Coffee podcast.
Putting out content each week for readers, whether blog posts or podcasts or social media updates.

You can visit Jeffe on her website and check out the award-winning The Pages of the Mind or the first book in her current series, Sorcerous Moons: Lonen’s War.

You can also check out her First Cup of Coffee podcast.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-220_-Succeeding_at_Hybrid_Publishing_and_When_Its_Worth_it_to_Travel_with_Gail_Carriger.mp3

SFFMP 220: Succeeding at Traditional Publishing as Well as Self-Publishing and When It’s Worth it to Travel for Conventions

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:45:11 +0000

This week, traditionally and self-published fantasy author Gail Carriger joined us for the second time. She first visited two years ago to chat about all the marketing she does and also about how she was transitioning from traditional publishing to a hybrid career. Since then, she’s continued to self-publish, including a new pen name in a slightly steamier fantasy genre. We asked her all about that and also about conventions and whether they’re worth going to for a self-published author.

Here are the specific topics we covered during the show:

What Gail has been up to in the last two years.
Updates on the hybrid author lifestyle and why she self-publishes some of her works but prefers to stay with a traditional publisher for other books.
The launch of her new naughtier pen name (gay werewolves finding romance in San Francisco!) and how her regular readers responded.
The challenges of juggling multiple series and pen names.
Whether it’s better to go into a small niche and try to dominate it or jump into a big crowded market where there may be more potential upside.
Launching a series wide (Gail doesn’t do anything exclusive with Amazon).
Why Gail is a big fan of pre-orders.
Experimenting with Kobo’s in-house promotions (available through the Writing Life dashboard).
How much great data you can get by surveying your readers (Gail asked where people first found her).
Finding more success with library ebook sales as a self-published author.
Gail’s thoughts on permafree books and why she doesn’t have any freebies.
Gail’s 20 Minute Delay travel podcast with tips and tricks for authors (and others!) hopping on planes. (Search for it on your favorite podcast platform.)
When self-published authors (or authors looking to go trad) should consider hitting up some conventions.
Gail Carriger’s Master List of Convention Packing & Attending Tips (Important for Writers)
Why you should always have a goal when you go to a conference.

You can check out Gail’s website for more information, and you can follow her on the various social media sites such as Facebook.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-219_-_Launching_a_New_Pen_Name_and_Getting_an_Audiobook_Deal_with_Audible_with_Chris_Philbrook.mp3

SFFMP 219: Launching a New Pen Name and Getting an Audiobook Deal with Audible

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 04:39:04 +0000

For this week’s show, sci-fi/fantasy/horror author Chris Philbrook joined us to talk about the success he’s had with ebooks and audiobooks (he’s had several deals with Audible for production), as well as a new YA-writing pen name that he’s starting up.

Here are some of the specifics that we discussed:

Publishing fiction to your website and building a readership before starting to publish.
Some of the challenges with publishing series in several different sub-genres.
How Chris was originally picked up by Audible and how audiobooks have become a substantial part of his income.
His experiences with an audiobook publisher and also DIY-ing it through ACX.
What marketing he’s done to help his audiobooks sell.
Chris’s experience with paying for Kirkus reviews and if it’s worth it.
His experience with Amazon exclusivity and Kindle Unlimited versus taking some of his books wide.
Why he decided to start a pen name for his YA fiction even though he’s already written in numerous genres under his regular name.
Some of the challenges of starting again from scratch and creating a second internet presence.
Experimenting with Instagram to attract younger readers.
The advantage of a simultaneous release for the ebook, paperback, and audiobook.
When it makes sense for a newer author to invest in audiobook production.

You can find Chris on his website or check out his books on Amazon. You can also follow what he’s doing with his pen name by looking up W. J. Orion. The first book, The Phone, comes out in March.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-218_-_Taking_Advantage_of_an_Underserved_Niche_from_Blue_Collar_to_No_Collar_and_NINC_with_Wayne_Stinnett.mp3

SFFMP 218: Taking Advantage of an Underserved Niche, from Blue Collar to No Collar, and Is NINC Right for You?

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 03:49:23 +0000

This week, we chatted with sea-adventure author and current president of Novelists, Inc. (NINC), Wayne Stinnett. He’s been a full-time independent author for years, has written a non-fiction title (From Blue Collar to No Collar), and has been a frequent poster at Kboards where he shares a lot of wisdom with the writing community. We asked him about his niche on Amazon, how he keeps his books selling when he does about three releases a year, and what NINC can do for authors.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

Getting started in a less competitive category (on Amazon).
How to keeps book selling when that category gets more crowded.
When it makes sense to keep writing in one long series (Wayne is about to publish his 14th novel in his Caribbean Adventure series) versus starting a new one.
Wayne’s plans to shift from a solo writer to running a publishing company and taking on other authors.
The changes that Wayne has seen in the 5+ years since he published his first novel on Amazon.
Why he’s stuck with KDP Select (Amazon exclusivity) during that time (and why he’s thinking of going wide soon).
Whether Amazon advertising is as effective for him as it used to be.
Running ads on local TV and radio stations since he lives in the area where his stories are set.
How important budgeting is when you’re publishing two or three books a year — having great months around releases but then watching things wane until the next release.
How he keeps newsletter subscribers interested in between releases.
How he often launches into the Top 100 on Amazon with a new novel.
What Novelists, Inc. (NINC) is and why authors might want to join the organization.
The annual NINC conference and why it’s more advanced than the majority of publishing conferences.

Make sure to visit Wayne on his website, check out his books on Amazon, and see what Pyrate Radio is all about.

You can find out more about Novelists, Inc. and their annual conference on their website: https://ninc.com/

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-217_-_Twitter_and_Facebook_Tips_for_Engaging_with_Fans.mp3

SFFMP 217: Tools and Software for Authors + Getting More Fan Engagement on Twitter and Facebook

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 04:24:22 +0000

This week, the guys talked about the various tools and services they use as professional authors. Everything is listed below with links to the sites. The guys also gave some tips for increasing engagement on Facebook and Twitter and really using those social media platforms to help turn casual readers into fans–and maybe even attract new fans!

Tools/services for authors

Writing

Formatting

Vellum (mac only)
Calibre
MS Word

Mailing list provider

Easy ebook delivery

Bookfunnel

Sales tracking

Stock Photos for ads or social media posts

News

Kboards Writers’ Cafe
Various Facebook groups for authors

Analyzing the market or looking up keywords for ads

K-Lytics (Lindsay likes their semi-annual science fiction and fantasy reports, which you can buy without a subscription)
KDP Rocket

Creating ads/photo manipulation/temporary covers

Gimp (image editor)
digiKam (photo organization)
Canva

Storage/backup

Are there any tools that we didn’t mention that you would recommend (no self-promo, please)?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3

SFFMP 216: Reaching $100K+ in Income from Writing Science Fiction with Gerald M. Kilby

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 03:07:31 +0000

This week, we chatted writing, publishing, and marketing hard science fiction with Gerald M. Kilby. He’s not the fastest writer, putting out around two novels a year these days, but he manages to keep his books selling well between releases, and he earned more than $100K last year. We asked him all about that, Amazon and Facebook advertising, and what he’s doing for newsletters, social media, and the like.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How the ever-shrinking science fiction section in the physical bookstores helped Gerald decide to start writing his own stories.
Bypassing traditional publishing, since agents weren’t looking for hard sci-fi, and going straight to self-publishing.
Whether or not hard sci-fi readers are more nitpicky in insisting that the science be right.
Some of the mistakes he made with his first novel, a techno-thriller.
How the science fiction genre appeared to have much more potential to him.
How the popularity of The Martian seemed to help with Mars-related fiction when Gerald was starting out.
What he’s done to keep the ball rolling.
Realizing he couldn’t rely on Amazon’s algorithms to keep his books selling, especially when he had many months between releases.
Getting involved in Facebook and Amazon ads and which he likes better for what.
Having luck with letting Amazon choose automatic keywords in their ad system, instead of going in and picking them all by hand.
The challenges of maintaining a positive return-on-investment with Facebook and Amazon ads when you don’t have a huge series and can’t afford to spend as much to get a sale of a Book 1.
Changes to the Amazon advertising system of late and what authors need to watch out for with the higher suggested bids.
How he uses his mailing list and what a book launch looks for him these days.

Make sure to visit Gerald on his website and check out his science fiction on Amazon.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-215_-_Succeeding_Against_the_Odds_and_Becoming_a_Full-Time_Author_with_Jeffery_H._Haskell.mp3

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 05:01:22 +0000

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.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-214_-_2019_Predictions.mp3

SFFMP 214: 2019 Marketing and Publishing Predictions

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 04:49:12 +0000

In this short episode, Jo and Lindsay jump on the bandwagon and share some of their marketing and publishing (but mostly marketing!) predictions for 2019.

Will Amazon ads expand and offer more opportunities? Or will authors get fed up with the high cost of clicks and flock to something else? Is the mailing list swap dead? Will group promotions become more sophisticated?

Join us as we discuss these and other topics!

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-213_-_Marketing_Plans_for_2019_Meta_Data_and_SEO_Explained_and_Which_Advertising_Platforms_are_Best_for_Authors.mp3

SFFMP 213: Marketing Plans for 2019, Meta Data and SEO Explained, and Which Advertising Platforms are Best for Authors?

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 04:35:03 +0000

We recorded early this week, since Christmas is on a Tuesday, so we hope you enjoy the show while you’re traveling or after you’ve had fun with the holidays. The three of us answered listener questions that covered the range from what the heck is meta data and SEO to what kind of marketing we plan to try in 2019 and which advertising platforms we’ve found best for their books.

Here’s a list of the questions as well as some Bookbub-related links that Lindsay promised:

How do you market cross-over fiction such as a mix between urban fantasy and near-future-SF?
Is urban fantasy with a lighter humorous note a trend now?
What is meta data and SEO, and does it matter for authors?
How much value is there to in-house promos on the various retailers, such as prime reading on Amazon, the promo tab on Kobo, and Apple and B&N features?
What new will Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay be trying in 2019 in regard to marketing?
Are book blog tours worth your time as an author?
What should you do to build buzz and sell books if you don’t have money to spend on advertising?
Who are the guys’ favorite authors and how did they influence them?
How do you go about improving as a novelist and keeping new books from being too much like what you’ve written before?
Have you tried to publish your audiobooks on Spotify?
Do you need an ISBN for an Amazon paperback and a different one for an IngramSpark paperback?
What’s the biggest thing you learned/realized in 2018, and how will that change your approach to publishing in 2019?
How would you go about calculating ROI for advertising a series that doesn’t have a set reading order? Whenever people talk about this calculation, it always hinges on figuring out your readthrough, but if the series has multiple entry points and you can skip books, what then?
What do you find is the most effective platform for authors for ads?
What marketing avenues would you recommend for authors who aren’t big fans of marketing?
How have your audiobook sales done for your different series? Does releasing a new audiobook for a backlist book help boost sales?
What’s going on if you’re struggling to get impressions and clicks are expensive for Bookbub ads? (Links: All About Bookbub CPM Ads and Becoming a #1 Bestseller on Amazon with Adam Croft, Bookbub Insights Blog for Authors, The Best Bookbub Ads of 2018)
Can you change your author name on Amazon after you’ve published a book?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-212_-_Killing_it_in_Urban_Fantasy_with_Ramy_Vance.mp3

SFFMP 212: How to Find Success in Urban Fantasy with Ramy Vance

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 04:24:20 +0000

Lindsay got to meet lots of cool authors at the 20Books conference in Las Vegas this fall, and today’s guest was one of those people. Urban fantasy author Ramy Vance was involved in the traditional publishing world for years, but when it came time to publish his fiction, he decided to go indie. He’s written a number of novels and started a new series this past summer, Mortality Bites, where he’s had some of his best success yet. We asked him about it and what he did right and wrong to start selling a significant number of books in the urban fantasy genre.

Here are a few of the specifics that we talked about:

How Ramy was first involved in the traditional publishing world and what it taught him about the business.
The logistics of getting into libraries and how subsidiary rights trading works.
Tools you can use to do your own public relations if you’re hoping for attention from the traditional world (he mentioned SimilarWeb as a resource for analyzing those business’s websites but also said it’s expensive and that our time, as indie authors, may be better invested in writing the next book).
Whether it’s worth jumping into urban fantasy as a newer author or if it’s tough to gain traction since it’s so competitive.
Making use of some of the popular tropes to attract regular genre readers but then doing fun and creative stuff on the side.
Ramy’s experience with going exclusive with Amazon for this series and how advertising and tactics can be different whether one is only selling books or whether selling is secondary to getting borrows and page reads in Kindle Unlimited.
How he experimented with adding a sample chapter at the end of his books and found that sales/borrows of the subsequent books were better when he took that out.
How different advertising platforms sent different types of traffic (i.e. he got more sales from Facebook and more Kindle Unlimited borrows from AMS ads).
His mailing list versus his Facebook group and what he’s prioritizing right now.
Experimenting with Instagram.
How writing six books before releasing the first one helped him to rapid release and get a leg up.
How he approached more than a dozen big-name authors in the genre and found many willing to support him at launch time.
Plans for audiobooks through Podium Publishing.
Whether to invest in advertising to direct people to your back-list books or to focus on selling the new stuff.

If you’re an urban fantasy fan, make sure to check out the first book in Ramy’s Mortality Bites series on Amazon. You can also see what he’s up to on his website and check out his reader Facebook group: Ramy Vance’s House of the GoneGod Dead.

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https://www.yesware.com/blog/email-spam/

SFFMP 211: How to Use Your Newsletter to Build Engagement and Fan Loyalty

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 04:48:37 +0000

Not only was this week’s episode jam-packed with newsletter tips for authors but it turned out to be our longest show ever! You may want to turn it into a two-parter or at least get a beverage so you stay hydrated while you listen.

Our guest was Tammi Labrecque, author of Newsletter Ninja, along with numerous books under various secret pen names. She’s published in romance, fantasy, urban fantasy, mystery, LitRPG, and horror, so she’s got a wide range of experience as an author, but she’s also super excited to talk newsletters.

We covered a ton of great information and answered Twitter questions. Here are some of the highlights (and continue to the end for a huge list of resources that Tammi sent along to share):

Whether having two (or more) pen names is twice the work.
How Tammi got so interested in newsletters.
Why newsletters are so important for authors and why you shouldn’t listen to those people who say they’re dead.
Setting up an autoresponder sequence to send a series of welcome emails to new subscribers.
How long of a sequence of emails authors should send out and what kinds of things to cover.
Adding a tip for readers about how to “white list” your email address to the top of each email.
Which mailing list providers Tammi recommends.
How to keep subscribers engaged and how to keep your emails from going into spam or promotions folders.
How often you should be sending out newsletters.
Whether you should send out plain text emails, use images, or mix it up.
Why your “email reputation” is important to the various email providers and how to boost it.
Three things authors should pay attention to when sending out newsletters: open rates, click rates, and responses.
What realistic numbers/percentages are for those.
The most effective method for getting subscribers to forward your emails to friends.
Whether to share short stories in emails, share snippets, or just provide a link to the story on your website.
What sets one newsletter apart from another and makes people look forward to receiving it?
Should you have separate newsletters and/or landing pages if you write in different genres?
How often should you cull your list?
How can you reactivate a list you haven’t used in a long time without getting a bunch of unsubscribes?
What are some examples of engaging questions you can ask to encourage readers to respond?

If you’ve found Tammi’s information useful, make sure to check out her book Newsletter Ninja for more tips and advice. You can also visit her online at https://newsletterninja.net/ and (for editing and formatting) http://larksandkatydids.com/.

Resources Tammi suggests:

Articles on avoiding SPAM filters:

https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/avoid-email-spam-filter/

https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-avoid-a-spam-filter-5-rules.html

https://econsultancy.com/blog/64878-45-words-to-avoid-in-your-email-marketing-subject-lines (plus all the links in “Further reading” at the end of the article)

Just straight-up lists of SPAM words:

https://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/spam-words.aspx

https://www.mannixmarketing.com/blog/spam-trigger-words/

https://www.simplycast.com/blog/100-top-email-spam-trigger-words-and-phrases-to-avoid/

https://prospect.io/blog/455-email-spam-trigger-words-avoid-2018/

http://blog.automational.com/2016/03/08/spam-trigger-words-to-avoid/

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30684/the-ultimate-list-of-email-spam-trigger-words.aspx

Subject line articles:

https://sumo.com/stories/best-email-subject-lines

https://www.digitalmarketer.com/101-best-email-subject-lines-2014/

https://optinmonster.com/101-email-subject-lines-your-subscribers-cant-resist/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-email-subject-lines-list

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/03/31/email-subject-lines

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-211_-_How_to_Use_Your_Newsletter_to_Build_Engagement_and_Fan_Loyalty_with_Tammi_Labrecque.mp3

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-210_-_Selling_More_at_Kobo_Relying_Less_on_Amazon_and_Whats_Coming_for_Authors_in_2019_with_Mark_Lefebvre.mp3

SFFMP 210: Selling More at Kobo, Relying Less on Amazon, and What’s Coming for Authors in 2019

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 05:29:29 +0000

We talked to return guest Mark Leslie Lefebvre this week. You may remember him as the director of author relations at Kobo, but he’s moved over to the distributor Draft2Digital. We talked about some of the new features coming online there. Mark has recently published a couple of non-fiction books, Killing It on Kobo and The 7 P’s of Publishing Success, so we asked him some Kobo-specific questions as well as his thoughts on succeeding at the non-Amazon retailers and where the self-publishing industry is going in 2019.

If you want to check out the other episodes Mark was on, try Kobo’s New Subscription Service and the State of the Industry (125) and International Sales Trends/Tips and Selling More Ebooks at Kobo with Mark Lefebvre (78).

Here are some of the specifics that we went over this week:

Author consulting and what some of the common problems are for newer authors.
How the industry is doing as of December 2018 and whether the ebook market is truly saturated.
Whether authors need to be smarter these days to succeed.
Why the digital ebook world can present some challenges for branding and keeping fans once people find one of your books or series and enjoy it.
How social media, if you’re comfortable learning one or more of the platforms, can help you connect more fully to readers and become an author they remember.
Some of the basic things you can do to sell more books at Kobo.
Using the Books2Read site to create links that will redirect readers to their preferred retailer.
Remembering that Kobo is bigger in other countries than in the US and paying attention to global pricing.
Kobo’s distribution deal with Walmart in the US.
Whether you can “make it” wide (in the non-Amazon stores) without getting Bookbub sponsorships or spending a lot on advertising.
Tips for making readers aware of subsequent books in a series.
Tips for succeeding in the non-Amazon bookstores.
Thoughts on Google Play and whether any authors are doing well there.
Some new features coming up at Draft2Digital including print formatting and D2D Universes (something of a replacement for the now defunct Kindle Worlds).

Make sure to visit Mark on his website (you can contact him there if you have any Draft2Digital-specific questions) and check out Killing It on Kobo for tips on selling more books there. You can also subscribe to Mark’s publishing-related podcast, Stark Reflections. And finally, if you’re a horror/ghost fan, Mark published some new stuff this year! Macabre Montreal: Ghostly Tales, Ghastly Events, and Gruesome True Stories (with Shayna Krishnasamy) and Nocturnal Screams.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-209_-_Beyond_the_Basics_with_Facebooks_Ads_Pinteret_Ads_and_Maximizing_Earnings_with_Michael_Cooper.mp3

SFFMP 209: Beyond the Basics with Facebooks Ads, Pinterest Ads, and Amazon Ads with Michael Cooper

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 05:14:54 +0000

On this week’s show, return guest Michael Cooper (author of HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck under his name and more than fifty novels in his science-fiction Aeon 14 universe as MD Cooper) gave us a lot of great information on what’s working and what’s not right now when it comes to ads for books. He first joined us on Episode 147 where we extensively covered Facebook ads. This time, Michael branched out and gave us information on Amazon ads, Bookbub ads, YouTube ads, and Pinterest ads, as well as updating us on Facebook stuff.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How Michael started taking on collaboration partners to help him tell all the stories he wants to tell in his universe (and put out books more frequently).
Some of the challenges of collaboration and writing multiple series that jump around in a timeline while sharing the same universe.
Why Michael has a lot of his stuff in KU but made one series available in all of the stores.
The idea that there’s no “algorithm” on Amazon and that our fate as authors shouldn’t live and die based on whether Amazon decides to promote our stuff.
Using BookTrackR to monitor sales, rankings, reviews, etc. across all the major store sites.
When running Amazon ads, targeting authors (as keywords) who aren’t in KU to potentially attract readers who pay more for books.
Dealing with “peak author” and saturation of the ebook market going forward.
Learning to be more creative about marketing as there are more and more books out there for the same number of readers to choose from.
Advertising in print genre magazines.
Gauging sell-through for a series and determining how much you can afford to spend on advertising.
Doing Facebook video ads for cheaper clicks than regular ads.
Video Hive as a place where you can buy stock footage to use in video ads.
Using Etsy to ship paperbacks and other swag (they’ll generate shipping labels to help make it easier).
Making an art book of your covers.
How to get into advertising on Pinterest and if the ads are useful for science fiction and fantasy authors.
Choosing the right tagline for your ads and book description pages.
How Michael uses his KDP Select free days and countdown deals.

Remember to pick up Michael’s HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck book if you haven’t already, and if you’re curious about the courses he mentioned at the end of the show, you can join his Facebook group: Michael Cooper’s Ads & Marketing FTW.

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http://nicholaserik.com/start/

SFFMP 208: Improving Visibility, Launching New Pen Names, and the “Trifecta of Indie Success”

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 05:17:55 +0000

This week, we’re joined by fantasy and science fiction author Nicholas Erik, who also writes and experiments under the pen name D.N. Erikson. He’s an analytical guy who’s always observing what’s working and what’s not, both for his own work and for others. Before we jump into the details of the show, here are links to his site where he’s got some great foundational material up:

And here’s the guest post on advertising that he did on David Gaughran’s blog:

How to Advertise and Sell More Books

Now, here are some of the details we discussed in the show:

Reasons for launching a pen name and whether it should be secret or not.
Trying a new series and new genre when you’re not getting the results you hoped for from your first effort.
Nick’s “trifecta of indie success” — marketing, craft, and productivity.
Tips for increasing productivity and getting more novels written.
Linking writing with a certain time of day (i.e. when you get home from work or when you first get up in the morning), so it’s easier to turn it into a daily habit. Here’s a guest post Nick wrote with more details on the habit linking: https://thewritepractice.com/daily-routines
Timed writing sprints to help get the words down.
Why so many people’s marketing efforts end up failing, because the craft wasn’t there and readers didn’t continue past Book 1.
Whether you should wait to start marketing until you’ve finished your first novel or start “building a platform” while you’re still working on it.
Some of the basics of setting up a mailing list and where to find cross-promotional opportunities to start gaining subscribers.
Using Prolific Works (formerly InstaFreebie) to find promo opportunities and give away free stories for sign-ups.
Another give-away site he’s found useful is Ryan Zee’s Book Sweeps (this was down at the time of recording, but we’re including the link in the hope that it’s up again soon).
If there’s a number to aim for when it comes to acquiring email subscribers.
Whether you should have multiple lists if you write in different genres and/or under different pen names.
Nick likes Convert Kit for managing his lists.
Whether there’s truth to Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 true fans” essay — is that all you need to become a full time author, and what’s a true fan, anyway?
If promo sites are still worth it in this age of Facebook/Amazon/Bookbub PPC ads.
Nick’s big list of promo sites and his rankings for how effective they are (updated a couple of months ago): http://nicholaserik.com/promo-sites/
Some of the fundamentals of advertising and at what point it has the potential to become profitable (it’s tough these days to even break even on a stand-alone book), assuming you do enough things right.
Debating the ideal length of a series.
The advertising advantage people in Kindle Unlimited have, from KU reads even on free books to making things appealing through Countdown Deals. (Nick mentions that there’s a lot more information on using the Kindle Countdown Deals effectively in David Guaghran’s free book, Amazon Decoded, which is a bonus when you sign up for his newsletter (sign up over at his site: https://davidgaughran.com/).
Some of Nick’s tips when it comes to Facebook ads.

It was a jam-packed show, so hopefully you got something out of it. Make sure to check out Nick’s site, and you can also take a peek at some of his books under his name and others under his pen name on Amazon.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-208_-_Improving_Visibility_Launching_Pen_Names_and_the_Trifecta_of_Indie_Success_with_Nicholas_Erik.mp3

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-207_-_Podcasting_Your_Novels_to_Gain_an_Audience_with_James_R._Tramontana.mp3

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 03:25:57 +0000

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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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-206_-_How_to_Rock_it_in_KDP_Select-Kindle_Unlimited.mp3

SFFMP 206: How to Rock it in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 05:31:55 +0000

Jo and Lindsay recorded early this week, since Lindsay is off to the 20Booksto50K conference (inspired by Michael Anderle, as Lindsay said in the show, but put together by Craig Martelle, which Lindsay should have said!). While Jeff was busy packing up his house to make his move to Phoenix permanent, Jo and Lindsay offered some tips on how to do well if you choose to go exclusive with Amazon to enroll in Kindle Unlimited. They also answered some great listener questions related to the topic.

Here’s what we discussed, swiped straight from Lindsay’s notes (they aren’t too tidy; you should definitely listen to the show!):

Is KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited right for you?

Personal considerations (supporting Amazon and possibly hurting other retailers, bowing to their demands for exclusivity, having all your eggs in one basket) + can you do better exclusive and in KU than wide = your unique answer!

Lindsay’s strategy and why?

Staying wide with the back catalogue and launching new series into KU, then eventually moving them out when sales/borrows slow down. How this has resulted in a nice boost in income for her without having to have all of her eggs in one basket.

Launch strategies –

Rapid release and advantages – momentum, less reader attrition, possibly more visibility, something in the hot new releases every month, possible to get the All-star bonuses by focusing your efforts into a couple of months.
Slow and steady – maybe releasing two-four books a year on a regular schedule – we’ve had people who have kept things rolling with promos and sales and just consistently releasing new books. KU can still be useful if you’re able to keep your books selling… these folks often invest more time and money into advertising to keep from falling off the face of the planet

Pricing considerations –

99 cents vs. full price – More non-KU people may pick up a 99-center, which helps with rankings, but at that price you’re making less on a novel if people buy instead of borrow.
$4-$5 – People get away with this and are more likely to get a book to stick in KU because of the borrows buoying things up. BUT if your book isn’t to market or really going to appeal to a lot of people, this can make you sink more quickly than a 99-cent Book 1.
Launching with your 5 free days – I haven’t tried this but I’ve heard from several people now who had some good momentum by trying this right out of the gate.
Remember, if you’re doing a series, it’s about what you can earn over the course of the series, not just from one book.

Focusing on one genre and releasing frequently or at least consistently –

This is an area where I fail a bit, and I would struggle more if I wasn’t fairly prolific. It’s also why I’ve started focusing on one series to completion – drop three quickly and then one more a month or as close as possible. This gives you some of the “sticking to one genre” advantage even if you fully plan to write in another genre next year.

Writing to a hungry market –

Look in the Top 100s you’re interested (Chris Fox style) and see what’s selling. What sells steadily year in and year out? What’s come on strong in the past year? Think less about trends and more why is something working – because trad publishing isn’t fulfilling a demand? There’s a possible market.
When examining potential niches, also consider looking at the Amazon AUS/CA store, etc. to get a feel for what’s selling without AMS ads, since that can really obfuscate things – you have no idea how much the publisher of that perennial bestseller is paying to stay in their Top 100.

Can niche stuff work?

Depends on the niche – is there a hungry market that isn’t being served by trad pub or is it just kind of out there? Something that’s only going to appeal to a small audience like a steampunk fantasy lesbian romance? KU isn’t going to be great for something that a large portion of people just won’t pick up because they’re not into X thing. This is the kind of case where I like going wide with a series because you can do a permafree book 1 and reach a global market (sometimes things that are hangups in one country are less of a big deal in others!), so you just have much more potential to find the people who DO want X.

However, if there’s a hungry market, it can do super well in KU even if it’s niche. You need it to be niche in a way that it’s not off-putting to the majority of readers. That’s when KU is useful. “Well, I’m not sure LitRPG is my thing, or even what it is exactly, but huh, it’s about gamers, and I gamed as a kid… enh, let’s try it.” That’s where KU is ideal because the readers can check out the books for free with their subscription, so they might pick up things they wouldn’t have bought because they’re a little outside their wheelhouse.

Making more money from page reads

Everyone wants this, but Amazon is watching for people gaming the system, so be careful not to do anything wonky with formatting or bonus material. Be safe with that stuff so you won’t be penalized, because you don’t want your attempt to earn a couple hundred extra month to suddenly result in you earning nothing.

Probably okay to add the first chapter of the next book (less than 10% bonus material) and a Q&A or afterword, something the reader will genuinely want to read. But remember the litmus test: ask yourself if you would be adding this bonus material if this book weren’t in KU.

Legitimate ways (craft stuff):

Write a page turner!
Write a sprawling epic (it still has to turn pages).
Teaser/cliffhanger endings to get them to move on to the next book.

Listener Questions:

Dale: I’m currently wide, but I’m considering KU for my next series. So, my question: What are some approaches/tactics etc for succeeding in KU when you are *not* rapid releasing?

Greg: (1) Is there a “sweet spot” for how many books to have in a series before profits/page reads start falling off? (2) Better to offer a “standalone” freebie or a more “sequel-lite” novella for funnel, list-building, etc.?

MJ: Would you lean more towards FB or AMS ads if you wanted to focus on drivin up page reads and brand building?

Tara: Pricing strategies, especially for romance, especially for books that can be read as a stand-alone. I don’t like pricing at 99c, but it seems to be the popular way to rank well.

Tara: Oh, any insight into sweet spots for word count, though I do understand that it varies by genre.

Jammie: Thoughts on current “glitches” reflecting zero or low page reads and instances of book disappearance. Seems some (usually successful) authors launch to silence or messed up promos. How do you handle Amazon’s glitches and recover from a bad launch as a result? Wait it out?

Jammie: Watching fb groups and feeling skittish as a newcomer. Investing in marketing and promos with Amazon sort of feels like playing the stock market.

Vale: If you’re exclusive to KU on a pen name but want to release a reader magnet standalone novel set in the same world as the main series, would you make it 99 cents and exclusive for the page reads or go the wide route for just that book to get Amazon to price match it to permafree?

Jon: Since KU subscribers can’t preorder, what’s a good way to get KU subscribers interested pre-launch?

Beth: How do you determine that a series has run its course for page reads and should be removed from KU to go wide?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-205_-_Writing_for_Star_Wars_Podcasting_and_Patreon_with_Mur_Lafferty.mp3

SFFMP 205: Writing for Star Wars, Podcasting, Patreon, and if Awards Help with Marketing

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 04:49:37 +0000

Our guest for this week’s show is long-time podcaster and slightly less long-time science fiction and fantasy author Mur Lafferty. She is the author of the Nebula and Hugo-nominated Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides, and I Should Be Writing: A Writer’s Workshop. Her most recent publication is Solo, the Star Wars movie adaptation, which we asked her all about during the interview. She also hosts the popular I Should Be Writing and Ditch Diggers podcasts (the latter is about the publishing industry, not actual ditch digging, FYI!).

Here are some of the specifics that we discussed:

How Mur got started in podcasting in the early days and created audio versions of some of her fiction.
Whether she’s an outliner or a pantser.
How the Forest app (here’s the link) helps her avoid distractions.
Talking money, agents, experiences with publishers, and the stuff that doesn’t always get mentioned on her Ditch Diggers podcast.
Getting involved on Patreon as a podcaster and a writer.
Finding the right rewards for Patreon subscribers of different levels.
A reminder that it’s tough to make any headway on Patreon or Kickstarter without an existing fanbase.
How Mur got involved in the Star Wars universe and landed the Solo gig.
The process of writing a novelization of a movie for Star Wars.
Whether the pay for movie-tie-in stuff is comparable to a regular traditional publishing deal.
How publishers and agents look to see if you have an established platform and following before taking you on as an author.
A reminder that the publishing industry is quite small and that the professionals all know each other, so it’s important to be courteous on social media and at conventions.
Which social media platforms Mur likes for marketing.
Some of the numerous awards she has received and been nominated for and whether they’re helping to sell books.
How authors can use podcasting for marketing.

Don’t forget to visit Mur on her website and follow her on Twitter.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-204_-_Selling_10000_Copies_of_Your_First_Novel_with_Joseph_Malik.mp3

SFFMP 204: Selling 10,000 Copies of Your First Novel with Joseph Malik

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 05:03:33 +0000

Today, we were joined by fantasy author, Joseph Malik, who published his first novel, Dragon’s Trail, in 2016 and has managed to sell 10,000 copies over the last two years, despite being a new author and new to marketing. We talked to him about some of the things he tried that didn’t work, plus what he tried that did.

*Note: a couple of swear words slipped out in this episode, so be careful if you’re listening in the car with young and impressionable kids (or dogs).

Here are some of the specifics that we talked about in the show:

Trying out a lot of hobbies such as sword fighting and martial arts to better learn how to make your fantasy novels seem realistic.
Tips for authors who wouldn’t mind trying to learn some of the combat stuff even if they’re busy with life and not athletically inclined.
Balancing including details and strong world building with keeping the story moving along and readers entertained.
Diana Wynne Jones’ Tough Guide to Fantasyland (and why your characters probably shouldn’t be eating stew after a long trek).
Publishing on a more traditional release schedule (Joseph published his first two novels about two years apart) and keeping the books selling when it’s a while between releases.
How his experience as a panelist at NorWesCon helped a lot with book sales for him.
Why Joseph publishes hard cover copies of his books and where he sells them.
How he’s sold most of his books at full price and intends to stick with that going forward.
Some of the marketing things he tried early on that didn’t move the dial much and what did work.

If you want to learn more or check out Joseph’s books, please visit his website: http://josephmalik.com/

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-203_-_Marketing_a_Stand_Alone_Novel.mp3

SFFMP 203: Staying Motivated, Advertising, and How to Market a Stand-Alone Novel

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 04:47:11 +0000

This week, the guys answered a couple of questions about staying motivated and finishing projects, even when your oh-so-appealing sink full of dishes is distracting you. They talked a bit about their adventures with Amazon advertising and what’s actually working for them now in 2018. They also discussed marketing a stand-alone novel, since Lindsay recently released Fractured Stars, a new space adventure story unrelated to her other series. She shared her numbers and what she did for the launch.

Here are a few of the specifics from their discussion:

Difficulties with piracy and copyright issues.
Using CoverVault.com to create your own 3D boxed set covers.
Getting personalized video shoutouts from celebrities through Cameo.com.
Jo’s jump into Patreon and what he’s offering for subscribers.
Getting the reviews from old editions of books on Amazon when republishing all-new versions.
Tips for keeping yourself from getting distracted when you work from home.
Write or Die software and writing sprints.
What to do when the story seems boring or bad or just isn’t coming together.
The challenges of making Amazon advertising work.
Scaling AMS ads once you do get them to work.
Why the guys are still big fans of running promos on free Book 1s in long series.
How to price a stand-alone novel and whether to try KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited or start out wide.
Deciding on cover art when your book wasn’t written to any particular market so there aren’t a lot of examples.
Writing a free tie-in short story or novella and publishing it at the same time as your stand-alone novel.
When and how the guys use boosted posts on Facebook.
Using newsletter bonuses to encourage sign-ups at the end of your novel (even a stand-alone novel) so you’re not starting from scratch with the next book.
Why the mailing list trumps all when it comes to advertising and marketing and is the most valuable asset you can build.

If you want to support Jo on Patreon, you can find his page here.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-202_-_Lessons_Learned_from_Putting_Together_Anthologies_and_Donating_to_Charity_with_Pauline_B._Jones_and_Veronica_Scott.mp3

SFFMP 202: Lessons Learned from Putting Together Anthologies and Donating to Charity

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:29:19 +0000

This week’s show should be of interest to those authors who have considered putting aside the author hat temporarily to don the publisher/editor hat for a project or two.

Our guests were science fiction romance authors Veronica Scott and Pauline B. Jones, who also happen to be the editors and publishers of the Pets in Space series of scifi romance stories (with a pet theme, naturally). They just released their third one (Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3) and talked to us about recruiting authors for anthologies, publishing and marketing them, and what’s involved in donating a portion of the proceeds to charity.

Here are some more of the specifics that we covered:

How they got involved in this series of anthologies.
How they go out and recruit authors (some newer voices and some well-known authors with large followings).
Why they only accept original fiction rather than reprints.
What’s involved with giving part of the proceeds to charity (and why you need to check with a charity before using them in your marketing material).
Why it’s a good idea to sign a contract with a charity.
How they determine the order of stories in their anthologies.
If there are any stigmas from readers who are suspicious of authors/publishers who “use” a charity for marketing.
Their experience with hiring a PR person and why it’s been useful and worth the money.
Balancing earnings with their marketing spend to make sure there’s money for the charity and also that the authors get paid for their stories.
Why they’re releasing the stories wide instead of focusing on Amazon and KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited) for now.
Some of the challenges of marketing science fiction romance outside of the Kindle Unlimited ecosphere where romance of all kinds seems to thrive.

You can visit Veronica on her website, Pauline on hers, and check out the Pets in Space website. Or just pick up a copy here.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-201_-_Bookbub_Ads_Building_on_Success_and_Cultivating_an_Effective_Author_Mindset_with_Adam_Croft.mp3

SFFMP 201: Bookbub Ads Update and Cultivating a Successful Author Mindset

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 03:48:54 +0000

This week, we had return guest, crime-fiction author Adam Croft, on the show. We asked him about changes to Bookbub ads that have come about in the last year (he joined us in 2017 for Episode 151 All About Bookbub CPM Ads and Becoming a #1 Bestseller on Amazon), what he’s been up to, and why he’s written a book on author mindset.

Here’s some of what we covered in the show:

Adam’s latest releases and what he’s working on now.
How Bookbub ads have changed in the last year and why he still likes them, especially for advertising to the Apple iTunes store.
How he’s found some great success using Facebook ads on some of his novels but hasn’t gotten them to work well on others.
Why he’s a fan of thinking long-term and not going exclusive with Amazon.
The challenges of selling non-fiction as well as fiction and building platforms to draw in both types of readers.
How well non-fiction audiobooks can do.
The different things authors should be focusing on to turn writing from a hobby to a business.
Some of the struggles authors have when it comes to mindset.
How to decide who you’re going to listen to in the indie author space when it comes to taking advice.
How flexibility when it comes to pricing, packaging, and marketing a book can help you.
Striving to get multiple income streams coming in, even from a single book.

You can visit Adam on his website and check out The Indie Author Mindset at your favorite store.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-200_-_Marketing_and_Selling_Audiobooks_Plus_Producing_and_Distributing_them_through_Findaway_Voices.mp3

SFFMP 200: Marketing and Selling Audiobooks, Plus Producing and Distributing them through Findaway Voices

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 04:03:48 +0000

This week, Will Dages from Findaway Voices joined us to talk about producing, marketing, and selling audiobooks and some of the new options out there for indie authors. Findaway handles both production of audiobooks (by connecting you with narrators and producers) and distribution to many stores where you wouldn’t be able to upload direct.

Here are some of the specifics that we discussed:

Where Findaway distributes audiobooks.
Some large players such as Kobo, Google Play, and Walmart that are getting into audiobooks.
Selling to libraries.
How you can distribute audiobooks both through them and with ACX/Audible (by choosing the non-exclusive option on Audible).
Taking advantage of their option to set your own price — 99 cents and free are allowed for short stories, series starters, etc.
How launching everything together (ebook, audiobook, and paperback) tends to help you sell a lot more audiobooks.
Setting up a launch even if you published your ebook and print edition long ago.
The drop-and-drip method for putting out a series of older books that you’re turning into audiobooks.
How Findaway helps set you up with potential narrators if you want to produce your audiobooks through them.
Uploading audiobooks that you produced elsewhere.
How often authors get paid and the $100 minimum threshold before payout.
Some of the challenges of promoting your audiobooks and what works to move the dial.
Subscription and credit-based purchase systems.
Creating audiobook bundles of your series to entice people with more hours.
Audiobook Boom as a promo site where you can basically trade audiobooks for reviews.
Findaway’s new Authors Direct platform where authors will be able to sell their audiobooks for a 70% royalty and direct listeners who want to redeem free books with codes.

If you’re interested, you can find out more at the Findaway Voices website or check them out on Twitter.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-199_-_Listener_Questions.mp3

SFFMP 199: Rapid Release, Marketing Serials, and Going Non-Exclusive with Audiobooks

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 04:28:46 +0000

Today, the guys took on a batch of listener questions that ran the gamut from what’s the best schedule for a rapid release of a trilogy to what kind of markets we’ve targeted with Facebook advertising to what to do (and not to do) when choosing a book title.

And in case you missed it last week, we have a 30% off coupon code for Brian Meek’s Amazon Ads course. For those interested in signing up, you can use the code of SFFMP30: Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Course

Here’s a look at the questions the guys answered:

What’s the best lag time between books in a trilogy rapid release? Is it best to dump all at once? 1/week, 1/2-weeks, or longer in between.

In your ideal rapid release schedule, how many days/weeks/months apart would you release each new novel in a science fiction series?

Any tips for marketing epic fantasy novellas/novella serials?

How do you decide when a series and it’s spin-offs should end?

How does (Lindsay) keep romance from overtaking an adventure story?

For Facebook marketing, do you find one demographic marker more useful than it’s counter-parts? Ie: is it effective to target age, income, etc, or are your best results from targeting by interest? Do you still boost posts?

Are you planning your calendar for 2019? will you be at any conferences this year? I missed you at the Sell More Books Show summit this year, but I can go next year. Do Jo and Jeff attend anything?

Promos: is there a deeper marketing reason to choose to run them only on selected markets, or does a world-wide one mean a world-wide bucket of headaches? (See: yours and Jo’s Bookbub books being at the same time discounted on .com and full price on .it)

Lindsay, I’d love to hear about how the blog-novel went. Did it impact the launch much? How about blog traffic? Was there a bump in your other books via affiliate blog links?

Which writing craft books help/have helped you?

What does your outlining process look like?

What’s your best advice for picking a novel’s title?

How do you decide what genre to list as if it’s a bit of everything?

How do you guys get a universal link for one of your Amazon books (Amazon only), or did you not bother? Specifically a link that will send UK readers to the UK store, US readers to the US store, etc. Or did you provide links for all the separate countries?

I would love to hear an updated list of which promo sites you use.

A lot of Book Funnel/Instafreebie group promos I see all have the same group of books, even if there is a “theme” to the promo. Have you seen anyone having success doing a more targeted and small group promo?

I’d like to hear how Patreon is going. Any tips or anything you’d do differently? (I’ve just set up Patreon with early release books + other rewards like personalized copies via Ingram.)

If you need something to read this week, check out Jo Lallo’s The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy.

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Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Course

SFFMP 198: Mastering Amazon Ads with Brian Meeks

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 04:54:40 +0000

Jo and Lindsay talked with the famous (not infamous!) Brian Meeks today, author of Mastering Amazon Ads, as well as thrillers, satire, and science fiction (under a pen name). He started tinkering with Amazon ads a couple of years ago when they first came on the scene, and they turned into a game-changer for him, allowing him to sell a lot more books and eventually quit the day job.

Now, he spends a lot of time in his Amazon ads Facebook group helping other authors, and he’s also got a course you can sign up for if you want more than is in his book. If you want to check it out, he’s offering our listeners 30% off — throw in the coupon code of SFFMP30.

Here are some specifics we covered in the show:

The basics of Amazon ads and how they work.
The difference between product display ads and sponsored product ads (and why Brian is a big fan of the former even though most people jump on the latter).
How long you should wait to see if an ad is going to catch and run well.
How recent changes to the ad system (August 2018) have got everyone bidding higher right now and authors may want to wait until things settle down again.
Why you should be patient and give everything time before raising the bid or selecting the new option to increase your bid up to 50%.
Whether it makes sense to advertise books that are wide and that can’t make money from page reads in Kindle Unlimited.
Whether it’s possible to pay for ads on a free ebook and come out ahead (i.e. when it’s a series starter).
How good copywriting is important, not just for the ads but for your book description.
Having an effective hook and drawing the reader to click more on Amazon.
How much time it really takes to get Amazon ads to move the dial for you — it’s not a quick fix or a set-it-and-forget-it method.
Once you get some success, scaling it.

Don’t forget to check out Brian’s Mastering Amazon Ads book, and you can also take a peek at his fiction. He’s written some scifi under Arthur Byrne starting with The Magellan Apocalypse.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-198_-_Mastering_Amazon_Ads_with_Brian_Meeks.mp3

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-197_-_From_Cosplayer_to_Full-time_Fantasy_Author_with_N.M._Howell.mp3

SFFMP 197: From Cosplayer to Full-time Fantasy Author with NM Howell

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 04:16:02 +0000

This week, fantasy author NM Howell (AKA Nikko) joined the guys to talk about her journey from semi-pro cosplayer (yes, that’s a thing!) and magazine creator to full-time fantasy author.

Here are some of the details that we covered:

Cosplaying and starting a magazine.
Getting into publishing fantasy under multiple names (NM Howell also writes as Nicole Marie).
Genre hopping with witch cozies, YA fantasy with dragons, and reverse harem fantasy mysteries.
The challenges of starting and maintaining multiple pen names.
Are there too many dragon fantasy novels out there now to jump in?
Starting out with Amazon exclusivity (KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited) and gradually making some series available everywhere.
How some advertising venues (Facebook, Amazon AMS, Bookbub, etc.) work better than others for different genres. Nikko likes Facebook for her fantasy romance and Bookbub for her cozies.
How she’s found success with rapid releasing the first two books in a new series.
Experimenting with permafree Book 1s.
Does marketing later books in a series work?
Whether big multi-author bundles are still worth it as far as getting readers to try more of your stuff.

You can find Nikko on Facebook, Twitter, and her author website, and check out her books on Amazon. Her first witch adventure Murder Any Witch Way is currently free, and her first Cats, Ghosts, and Avocado Toast novel is free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-196_-_Writing_Tips_Short_Fiction_and_What_SFWA_Can_Do_for_You_with_Cat_Rambo.mp3

SFFMP 196: Writing Tips, Selling Short Fiction, and What SFWA Can Do for You with Cat Rambo

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 04:51:06 +0000

This week, fantasy author and SFWA president Cat Rambo joined us on the show, and we grilled her about writing and selling short fiction, her experience at the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop, what SFWA is doing for authors these days, and her latest novel, Hearts of Tabat. Among other things!

Here are some of the specifics we covered:

How Cat got serious about writing when she quit her day job at Microsoft and attended the six-week Clarion West Workshop.
How workshops can help a writer grow.
Whether you have to worry about having your voice altered in the process.
Some of the workshops Cat recommends and what to watch out for if you’re considering a less well known one (especially an expensive one).
Her Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers where she helps new genre voices emerge via on-demand and live classes aimed at writers working in fantasy and science fiction (scholarships available for those short on funds).
Getting started with short fiction.
Tips for writers who tend to go long when they try to write short stories.
Mistakes writers make when submitting to magazines and anthologies.
How crowdfunding such as Kickstarter has made anthologies more doable.
How Cat ended up publishing her first two Tabat novels through Kevin J. Anderson’s Wordfire Press (which he talked about when he was on Episode 194 and Episode 138) and how marketing goes when working with a small press.
Some tips from her recent non-fiction publication Moving from Idea to Finished Draft.
What’s been going on at SFWA since we had MCA Hogarth on the show back on Episode 20 (more than three years ago!) and why both trad and self-published may find a membership useful.
What it takes to qualify for SFWA membership.
Benefits that come with SFWA membership and how the Nebula convention has changed over the years to have helpful panels for all.

If you enjoyed the show, you can follow Cat on her blog and check out her newest novel, Hearts of Tabat. You can also sample her short fiction in Near + Far and Neither Here Nor There.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-195_-_From_Amazon_Breakthrough_Novel_to_Reverse_Harem_Success_with_Alex_Lidell.mp3

SFFMP 195: Kindle Unlimited, All-star Bonuses, YA Fantasy, and Reverse Harem Fantasy

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 05:22:36 +0000

Fantasy author Alex Lidell joined us on the show this week. She started her publishing journey with YA fantasy when her first novel, The Cadet of Tildor, was picked up by Penguin after being a finalist in Amazon’s Breakout Novel contest. After that, she turned to self-publishing with her YA fantasy TIDES series, and she recently jumped into reverse harem fantasy with her Power of Five series, where she’s had a lot of success on Amazon.

Here are some of the specifics we discussed and links to books and resources mentioned in the show:

Alex’s experience with the now-defunct Amazon Breakout Novel contest.
How she got picked up by Penguin for her first book and what the editing process was like.
Why she decided to switch to self-publishing and how you have to be willing to learn to think and act like a small-business owner when you do.
The states of YA fantasy and reverse harem and if there’s room for newcomers hoping to sell well.
Whether there are expected tropes in YA fantasy and what the ones are for reverse harem.
A recommendation for Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoints for authors looking to hone their craft for YA (or any genre/audience).
3D-character rendering as an alternative to illustrations for cover art.
Marketing in the traditional publishing world (and being an “ambassador for your brand”) versus marketing as an indie author.
Why Alex is in Kindle Unlimited and her brief flirtation with wide for a Bookbub ad.
What time of the month she launches her books to have a better shot at earning an All-Star Bonus in KU.
Getting the paperback version of a book up before the ebook so people can post reviews ahead of launch day.
Using ACX for audiobooks and her experiences with paying up front per finished hour versus doing a royalty split with a narrator.
Getting more exposure and reviews for audiobooks through Audiobook Boom.

You can find Alex on her website and on Facebook, and her novels are available on Amazon, including Air and Ash (Book 1 of her TIDES series for YA fantasy lovers) and The Power of Five (Book 1 of her reverse harem series).

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-194_-_Authors_at_Conventions_and_Indie_vs._Traditional_Publishing_in_2018_with_Kevin_J._Anderson.mp3

SFFMP 194: Selling Books and Networking at Conventions and Finding the Balance Between Writing and Marketing with Kevin J. Anderson

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 04:45:44 +0000

This week, Kevin J. Anderson joined us from a remote cabin in Colorado where he’s sequestered to do some work (and talk to us, naturally). The internet connection wasn’t the best for the first few minutes, and we had some lag, but things get steadier about ten minutes in. Kevin talked to us about his experience as a new professor directing the Certificate in Publishing program at Western State Colorado University, about the 22 conventions he went to last year, and about why he’s taking more time just to write this year. We also discussed the marketing he does for his books and the other authors he publishes through Wordfire Press.

Here are some of the specifics of what we covered:

Teaching students about publishing in today’s quickly changing environment.
The challenges of working with the slower schedule of traditional publishing.
The challenges of all you have to learn to be successful as an indie author.
Tips for successfully selling at conventions.
Using conventions to meet other authors in your peer group.
Advice for first-time authors interested in going to conventions.
The challenges of keeping backlist titles selling while working on publishing new titles.
What kind of advertising Kevin is regularly doing and finding effective.
Advice to new indie authors on branding and how to find fans.
Books Kevin recommends for speculative fiction writers: Writing the Blockbuster Novel, David Farland’s Million Dollar Outlines, and his own World Building: From Small Towns to Entire Universes.

You can find Kevin on his website, on Facebook, and on Twitter, among other places. If you want to check out some of Kevin’s work, he just published a collection of his short stories called Selected Stories: Science Fiction. He also has a new novel out with Sarah A. Hoyt: Uncharted.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-193_-_Marketing_and_Publishing_for_Newer_Authors.mp3

SFFMP 193: Marketing and Publishing Advice for Newer Authors

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 04:11:35 +0000

This week, Lindsay, Jo, and Jeff geared the show toward newer authors getting ready to publish their first books or with a few titles out. They answered some questions and tried to offer advice based on what’s working for folks getting started now.

Here are some of the specifics that were touched on:

More options for photoshop fantasy and science fiction covers with models from NeoStock and Period Images.
Google Play coming on strong as a contender.
Profiting from AMS advertising.
Moving from CreateSpace to KDP Print.
What to do to gain traction when you move from KDP Select and out into the other stores.
What to do when your first book is cross-genre and doesn’t fit well into the current categories on Amazon and other stores.
How do you find a good editor?
Should you try to save up three or more books for rapid release when you’re a new author?
The importance of having realistic expectations.
What you can do to start building up a list of buyers before you launch your first novel.
What are some low-cost advertising options.
What can you do for marketing if you’re shy?
If you’ve written three books in a series and haven’t had much success, should you pull the plug?
What are some of the best marketing services for space opera/SF?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-192_-_Instagram_Etsy_Swag_and_Launching_Your_First_Book_as_a_New_Author_with_Jessica_Pierce.mp3

SFFMP 192: Instagram, Swag, Book Boxes, and Launching Your First Book Without Spending any Money

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 04:41:22 +0000

This week, we chatted with YA science fiction author Jessica Pierce who launched her first book, Atlas Fallen, in April of this year. She didn’t spend a lot of money on her launch, relying instead on the fan base and contacts she’d accumulated on Instagram. We talked to her about how to acquire a following and build book buzz on the platform and also about some creative things she’s done with swag and launch boxes.

Here are some more specifics and links from the show:

What it’s like starting out as a new author in the YA market right now.
Overcoming the challenges of selling books to a young adult audience.
Common tropes that might be addressed in YA science fiction (or YA in general)
An introduction to book boxes.
All the kinds of swag you can make as an author for contests or to help with a book launch.
Doing magnetic bookmarks, custom book sleeves, and swag that goes beyond the typical book plates and bookmarks.
Hanging out where your target audience is.
How Instagram is a huge place to reach teenage/young adult readers.
The importance of using the hashtags on Instagram including the popular #bookstagram tag.
What to post on Instagram as an author to build buzz.
Why Jessica hired artists to do character art for her who happened to also have large Instagram followings.
If every author should be on Instagram or if it’s more ideal for those targeting younger readers.
Making sure your cover and your blurb are tailored to your target audience.
Society6 for creating swag.
PackLane.com for creating custom shipping boxes.
UPrinting.com for other print-on-demand swag needs.

You can visit Jessica on her website or (of course!) on Instagram. She just enrolled Atlas Fallen in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, so you can find the ebook on Amazon.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-191_-_Most_Popular_Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy_Sub-Genres_and_Analyzing_Data_Guys_SWFA_Slides.mp3

SFFMP 191: Most Popular Science Fiction and Fantasy Sub-Genres and Analyzing Data Guy’s SWFA Slides

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 04:49:11 +0000

On this week’s show, Jeff, Jo, and Lindsay discussed the information on Data Guy’s slides from his 2018 SFWA presentation in May. The slides are up here if you want to take a look. They also discussed some of the news in the indie world this summer and how the Amazon hammer has been coming down on those partaking in Kindle Unlimited shenanigans. Here are Lindsay’s notes (but you’ll get more out of just looking at the slides!). Also, the tool Jo mentions partway through the episode is KDP Rocket.

Notes from the SFWA 2018 slides:

Adult SF/F sales peaked around 2009 and then, according to Nielson/NPD Bookscan, have been on the decline since.

Result? The SF/F sections in bookstores shrank and author advances did too.

It’s true that after 2009, print sales dropped twice as far as in most other book genres, but digital sales have taken up the slack. While only 25% of overall sales for traditional publishers are ebooks, it’s different with SF/F. Ebooks make up 37% of traditionally published purchases. Add in SF/F audiobook sales, and things seem to be even or even slightly on the rise.

And on the indie/small press side…

SF&F sales by traditional publishers have become the minority. Big Five takes 21% of the pie, Amazon publishing imprints 7%, other small/med/large publishers 9%, and then indie self-pub w/o imprint, with their own imprints, or in indie self-pub collectives make up more 52% (the rest uncategorized stuff).

This is units sold. He looks at dollars earned too.

The average purchase price for a trad published SF/F ebook was $8.04 (May 2017 – April 2018)

For self-pub and Amazon imprints: $3.20 (sweet spot of $4 the highest with $5 right behind it).

Put them together and the average purchase price is $4.43.

How does KU factor in?

$30 million a year in US subscription revenue is from KU which accounts for 25% of non-traditional SF/F ebook dollar sales.

When it comes to money, self-pub SF/F authors are now earning a much larger share of the royalty dollars generated by SF&F books than traditionally published SF&F authors. SF/F sales are disproportionately ebook and audio now – digital. This may explain why incomes of traditionally published and self-published authors appear to be moving in opposite directions.

Most traditionally published SF/F ebooks purchased in the last 12 months were deep backlist titles published prior to 2015. Nontraditional SF/F ebook purchases were mostly frontlist and recent backlist (since 2015).

“What happens when the non-trad “deep backlist” fills in?”

Science Fiction Top subgenres by ebook sales:

Military SF – over 4 million
Adventure SF – just shy of 4 million
Post-Apocalyptic – about 3.5 million
Dystopian – about 3 million
Space Opera – shy of 3 million

Toward the bottom: steampunk, alternative history, LGBT, Humorous

“Traditional publishers outperform in some SF categories but underperform in many of the highest selling ones.”

Fantasy Top subgenres by ebook sales:

Paranormal & urban – over 11 million (PNR/romancy in there but top selling by almost a factor of 2)
Epic fantasy – close to 6.5 million
Sword & sorcery – 4 million
Coming of Age – 3.5 million
Romantic fantasy – 3 million

Toward the bottom: Alternate history, dragons & mythological creatures, humorous, Christian fantasy, Gaslamp

End stuff:

This means SF/F sales (print, ebook, audiobook) are actually significantly up overall from that supposed high point in 2009. A lot. They’ve doubled since 2010 with the majority of sales just going unreported right now and thus understating SF&F true popularity with readers.

Why? Speculation: new SF/F readers, old readers reading more, former used book readers now buying ebooks instead, or former library users brought in because ebooks are more affordably priced?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-190_-_Analyzing_the_Amazon_Store_to_Help_Your_Books_Perform_Better_with_Alex_from_K-Lytics.mp3

SFFMP 190: Analyzing the Amazon Store to Help Your Books Perform Better with Alex from K-Lytics

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 04:17:50 +0000

This week, we were joined by data cruncher Alex Newton who runs the K-Lytics (i.e. Kindle Analytics) service for authors and publishers. He’s been taking a look at trends in Science Fiction and Fantasy this summer, so we invited him on to talk about the findings of his latest report. He also gave us some great information on the Amazon store such as how keywords work (and don’t work) on the site and the differences between Amazon bestseller lists and what comes up in Amazon search results.

Here are some more of the specifics we covered:

Some SF/F sub-categories that are trending upward.
Finding categories where it’s easier to get a bestseller tag (and whether it can be useful to rank highly in a tiny niche few people browse).
Finding the intersection between writing what you love and writing books that can fit into hungry and less competitive sub-genres.
Using keywords to appear in searches related to your genre.
Why there’s no point to throwing keywords into your book’s description or into the book itself.
Whether books that shouldn’t be in genres (i.e. paranormal detective romance stuck in the Arthurian fantasy category) skew the data or matters in the long run.
Why you might not want to change your keywords and categories around willy nilly.
Amazon’s natural tendency to promote churn and whether it can be fighting an uphill battle with continuing to advertise the same books for months and year at a time.
Average price points for books in the Top 100 for various subgenres.

If you’re interested in checking out K-Lytics, their website is here, and they also have some free videos and posts up on their blog.

If you want to see the screenshots that Alex shared, make sure to check out the YouTube video this week:

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-189_-_Succeeding_in_Niches_and_Writing_and_Marketing_Time_Travel_Fiction_with_Nathan_Van_Coops.mp3

SFFMP 189: Succeeding in Niches and Writing and Marketing Time Travel Fiction

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 03:51:46 +0000

For this week’s show, time travel and steampunk author Nathan Van Coops joined us to talk about his two series and what he’s doing to keep them selling. He’s a busy guy, releasing one novel a year, but still manages to bring in a good income from his books.

Here are some of the specifics that we discussed:

Tropes of the time travel genre and whether readers expect you to stick to them.
Some of perks of writing in a smaller niche where it’s easier to rank on Amazon, along with some of the challenges inherent in being in a less popular genre.
Finding and connecting with readers of your genre, especially if you’re writing in a smaller niche, on Goodreads.
Launching a series in a different sub-genre after you’ve built up a fan base.
When it’s time to call it quits if a series isn’t performing well.
Why Nathan is still a fan of having a free Book 1 even though he’s transitioned his books into Kindle Unlimited and Amazon exclusivity.
What a launch looks like for Nathan now that he’s five years into his author career and built a large fan base.
Why he still does Facebook “launch parties” and giveaways for his fans.
Lowering the price of all earlier books in a series for a launch of a later book.
The challenge of running Facebook ads when you’re in a smaller niche and there aren’t any big name authors like you to target.
What Nathan does to keep books selling between his annual releases.
Making use of Kindle Countdown Deals.
Using bundles as another “book” to market when you don’t have many series or other book 1s to alternate around the various sponsorship sites.
Making the decision to invest in audiobook production when you’ve got long books (lots of hours of narration to pay for).
Tips for selling more audiobooks.

You can visit Nathan on his website, join his Facebook group, and check out his books on Amazon. They’re currently free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-188_-_A_Successful_Fantasy_Series_Relaunch_with_Andy_Peloquin.mp3

SFFMP 188: A Successful Fantasy Series Relaunch

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 03:59:58 +0000

On this week’s show, we chat with dark/epic fantasy author and podcaster Andy Peloquin. Andy got the rights back to his first series and did a big and very successful relaunch, revamping it to appeal to assassin-loving epic fantasy fans instead of the dark fantasy fans it previously targeted.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

Andy’s background as a freelance writer.
His first forays into publishing, including signing with a small publisher.
Why he decided to ask for the rights back to his first series and relaunch it himself.
How he redid his blurbs and covers to target a larger audience than previously.
Researching not just in his genre but in his specific niche (assassins, mercenaries, sellswords, etc.) and seeing what kinds of covers were selling.
Creating an effective epic fantasy cover with stock photos instead of paying a fortune for custom illustrations.
Changing the titles to hit on popular epic fantasy tropes.
How he contacted other authors in his niche and asked for them to plug his book when he was ready to release the new Book 1.
How he’s designed effective Facebook ads that don’t cost him much per click.
Whether his Fantasy Fiends podcast has been useful for networking with authors and making book sales to listeners.
How to know if it’s worth doing a relaunch for a flagging series.

You can visit Andy on his site or check out his books on Amazon, including the newly relaunched Hero of Darkness series.

You can also check out Andy’s podcast, Fantasy Fiends, on YouTube, iTunes, etc.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-187_-_YouTube_for_Authors_Pricing_High_and_Running_a_Successful_Patreon_with_Jenna_Moreci.mp3

SFFMP 187: YouTube for Authors, Pricing High, and Running a Successful Patreon Campaign

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 04:44:11 +0000

This week, we chatted with fantasy author Jenna Moreci who was able to quit her day job after she published her first book in 2015. But that’s not all she did. A year earlier, she started a YouTube Channel for writers where she’s been consistently uploading weekly videos. She used her YouTube following to help launch that first book (Eve: The Awakening), start a Patreon campaign, and create CafePress merchandise that she sells to her followers/readers.

Here are some of the specifics that we talked about:

Why Jenna started a YouTube channel geared toward writers.
How having a following on YouTube helped her launch her first novel, Eve: The Awakening.
How she was able to quit the day job and replace her income after her first novel.
How long it takes to build up a following on YouTube and why you have to consistently post quality videos.
How much time Jenna spends on her YouTube videos each week.
Things authors should keep in mind if they’re thinking of starting their own YouTube channel.
The book marketing assistance business she mentioned (STORIAD).
Why Jenna started a Patreon campaign and how she’s earning over $1,000 a month with it.
Whether it’s worth it to start a Patreon campaign before you have a following.
Jenna’s attitude when she started out: “Assume the money’s not going to come for a long time.” And how that helped her keep her expectations realistic.
Why she started doing merchandise related to her books and YouTube channel and why she uses CafePress.
Why she’s pricing fairly high for an indie author (her most recent novel is priced at $6.49).

You can visit Jenna on her website, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram (among other places!) and check out her books, Eve: The Awakening on Amazon and The Savior’s Champion available in most stores.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-186_-_Launching_a_New_Series_in_a_New_Genre_and_Going_from_Wide_Distribution_to_Amazon_Exclusivity_with_Becca_Andre.mp3

SFFMP 186: Using a Multi-Author Boxed Set to Launch a New Series + Challenges of Historical Fantasy

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 04:25:34 +0000

This week, one of our first guests ever on the show rejoined us after more than three years to talk about switching from contemporary fantasy to historical fantasy/steampunk. Becca Andre, author of the Final Formula series and her new Iron Souls series, publishes regularly while working full time and being a mom. We talked time management, the unique challenges of selling historical fantasy, and what it was like to use a big multi-author boxed set to launch a Book 1 in a new series.

Here are a few of the specifics we discussed:

Switching from urban/dark fantasy in a contemporary setting to a historical steampunk fantasy setting.
The challenges of researching and publishing historical fantasy.
Marketing a unique historical setting and story idea versus something that follows more popular tropes.
Using a multi-author boxed set to launch a brand new Book 1 in a new series.
Launching a Book 1 on its own after it already went out to your core fans in a boxed set.
Why Becca decided to try KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited for this series after having been wide in all the stores for years.
Fitting in time to write and market when you’ve got a day job and a family.
Choosing a cover design when you’re writing something unique and there aren’t many examples.
Amazon categories that can be used for historical fantasy and using a keyword to get into the new “gaslamp” fantasy category.

You can visit Becca on her site, and check out her new Iron Souls series on Amazon. Her Final Formula books are available in all stores.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-185_-_Marketing_Tips_and_Starting_a_Book_Sponsorship_Site_with_Jeffrey_Bruner.mp3

SFFMP 185: Book Marketing Tips and Starting an eBook Sponsorship Site

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 03:04:16 +0000

We’re usually joined by successful authors on the show, but today we invited on Jeffrey Bruner from the (successful) sponsorship site, The Fussy Librarian. He sees a lot of books in a lot of genres come through his gates, so we asked him a bit about trends and what’s selling right now, and also what it takes to start a sponsorship site (for those of you out there who have considered it!).

Here are a few of the specifics that we discussed:

Jeffrey’s own books and what made him decide to start an ebook sponsorship site.
How much of a time and monetary commitment getting such a site going is.
TFB’s free list versus their bargain list and review requirements for each.
Whether authors are still finding it profitable to advertise a free book one when the rest of the series is full price.
Linking from TFB direct to bookstores or to sites like Instafreebie if you’re trying to build a list.
The marketing Jeffrey does to keep new subscribers coming onto the list so authors can come back again and get their books in front of new people.
Some genre trends for science fiction and fantasy — what he’s seeing a lot of submitted and clicked on.
Advertising Amazon exclusive titles versus ebooks that are available in all the stores.

Right now, you can book The Fussy Librarian for $14 for a bargain fantasy book, $17 for a bargain science fiction book, or $30 to promote a freebie. They also have a subscription service if you want to regularly promote Book X on a schedule. Check out the site for more details.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-184_-_Questions_From_The_Listeners.mp3

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 04:03:49 +0000

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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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-183_-_Succeeding_While_Only_Publishing_a_Book_a_Year_with_CW_Lamb.mp3

SFFMP 183: Succeeding on a Book a Year with CW Lamb

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 30 May 2018 04:43:44 +0000

This week, scifi and fantasy author CW Lamb joined us to talk about how he got his start in 2014, how KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited helped him launch his first book to great success, and why he’s sought out an agent and is also looking for a traditional deal.

Here are some of the specifics we discussed:

What it was like to start in 2014 and launch into KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited.
Having early success in the space adventure/military SF category.
Keeping books selling on a relatively modest release schedule.
Leveraging a solid sales history into getting an agent.
How controversial reviews might help sell books.
Why Charles feels pursuing a traditional route might help him reach a wider audience.
The price points he’s experimented with.
What he’s learned since his first launch and what a book launch looks like for him now.
Keeping multiple series going and selling in different genres.
His thoughts on doing pre-orders on Amazon.
Why he would launch into KDP Select again now if he was a new author starting out.

You can visit Charles (CW) on his website and check out his books on Amazon. ALICE starts of his scifi series, and The Lost Ranger is the first in his new fantasy series.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-182_-_Selling_Direct_from_Your_Site_Cultivating_a_Fan_Base_and_GDPR_with_Damon_Courtney.mp3

SFFMP 182: Selling Direct from Your Site and Cultivating a Rabid Fan Base with Bookfunnel’s Damon Courtney

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 23 May 2018 03:40:20 +0000

If you’ve been wanting to sell direct from your site, figure out how to turn your current readers into rabid fans, and learn about this new GDPR thing everyone is talking about in regard to mailing lists, you’ll want to listen to today’s show. We had return guest Damon Courtney from Bookfunnel on, and he talked about concerns of authors and also what his author customers are doing that’s most effective in building a fan base and selling books.

Here are some of the specifics we covered:

New features at Bookfunnel including integration with Patreon and payment processors so authors can sell direct from their sites.
Selling advanced reader copies of books before you enroll them in Kindle Unlimited, so non-Amazon readers can buy them.
Which payment processors are simplest to work with and which make it so you don’t have to worry about handling sales tax and VAT on your own (Payhip was mentioned as a good option, and then the WooCommerce WordPress plug-in for those who don’t mind DIY.)
How some authors are getting readers to buy direct, so they have more control and take a bigger cut of the sales price.
Bookfunnel’s gifting option.
How they make it so you can restrict ebook downloads to certain reward levels on Patreon.
Some mistakes authors make with their mailing lists and give aways.
How often do you need to give away things to keep fans happy?
What kind of bonus content excites readers and makes them want to sign up for and stay on your mailing list.
Putting out regular chapters or serial episodes.
What GDPR is and how to know if your mailing list practices may get you in trouble.

Make sure to check out Bookfunnel and the Bookfunnel blog, and if you missed Damon’s earlier episode you can listen to that here: Using Free Ebooks to Grow Your Mailing List and Increase Readership.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-181_-_Advertising_Everywhere_and_Launching_Well_as_a_New_Author_with_Miranda_Honfluer.mp3

SFFMP 181: Spreading out Your Advertising Dollars for Effectiveness and Launching Well as a New Author

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 16 May 2018 04:31:57 +0000

This week, epic fantasy/fantasy romance author Miranda Honfleur joined us on the show. She launched her first series last November and has kept book 1 selling well and sticking in the Amazon fantasy charts while releasing more books in the series. She has three out now with a fourth to follow later this summer. We asked her how she did so well as a new author and how she’s maintaining sales.

Here are some more specifics on what we covered:

Miranda’s road to publishing.
How she’s balanced writing epic fantasy that’s heavy on romance, something epic fantasy readers aren’t always looking for.
What she took away from the Sell More Books Show conference as a new author.
How she used Instafreebie to building a mailing list months before she launched her first book.
Creating promotions using the King Sumo WordPress app.
Tips for getting the most out of Bookbub PPC ads, Amazon ads, and Facebook ads.
Whether she’s needed to cull her mailing list, something we just talked about on last week’s show!
How she tries to be everywhere with advertising.
How much time she’s putting into Amazon ads and other marketing methods to keep her Book 1 selling week in and week out.
Whether Instagram may be the next place fantasy authors should have a presence.
Marketing to “series-adjacent” genres as part of a larger strategy.

You can find Miranda on her website or on Amazon where her books are currently in Kindle Unlimited. If you’re a fantasy fan, check out her first book, Blade & Rose. If you enjoyed fairy tales, she’s a part of the Of Beasts and Beauties boxed set.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-180_-_Discoverability_Flagship_Series_Product_Funnels_and_Newsletter_Concerns.mp3

SFFMP 180: Discoverability, Flagship Series, Product Funnels, and Newsletter Concerns

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 09 May 2018 04:01:44 +0000

Hey, folks! I (Lindsay) got back from the Sell More Books Show Conference this weekend, where I was one of several speakers. I took notes on some of the presentations that resonated most with me, and I shared them with Jo and Jeff on the show tonight. We proceeded to discuss them a bit. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful to listen!

I’m going to share the books of the speakers we were talking about, so if you want more information on a particular topic, you might want to check them out. After that, I’m going to paste in my notes from the convention, in case you find it more useful than just getting some bullet points here. They aren’t organized, and I’m sure they are full of typos. Read at your own risk!

Books from the speakers:

Chris Fox: Plot Gardening
Bryan Cohen: How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good (this wasn’t what his talk was about but the book would tie in well with Brian Meeks’s information on Amazon ads)
Brian Meeks: Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Guide
Monica Leonelle: Get Your Book Selling: Jumpstart Your Sales With a Simple Plan That Just Works

Also, as mentioned during the episode, the Andrea Perason show where she schooled on us setting up email auto-responders for your new newsletter subscribers: http://www.marketingsff.com/advanced-newsletter-tactics/

Notes! (Scroll to the bottom for the YouTube video and download link for the show.)

Chris Fox on creating a flagship series

Many well-known authors have done this, over 1 million words total
Become known for the series if it’s popular enough and might not have to work again

Create by having:

Opening loops – lots of questions to be answered over the course of the series
Narrative drive – lots of stuff going on and carrying the series: simple plots don’t draw in the reader for the long haul
Character drive – lots of characters with goals and motivations they’re working toward. Make sure to flesh out all the side characters and not just the main character. Some books may even focus more on these other characters

Marketing your flagship series:

You’ll keep advertising your book 1 as you release more books so you have to be smart or you’re saturate your target audience and your ads will become less effective.

He likes a “crop rotation” method: With his Tech Mage series, he has three target audiences: military SF fans, epic fantasy fans, and litRPG fans. He started out targeting one demographic with ads and even the cover of the book, then the next when he released Book 2, and he’ll do the other audience later.

Mailing Lists Bryan Cohen

Creating your lists, writing a giveaway, and creating an autoresponder sequence (Andrea Pearson episode, there’s a lot about this) before you go hunting for any signups.

Remember to be personable in your emails, tell little stories about yourself, and don’t always make the hard sell.

But do remember to plug the old stuff and maybe you want to point to a list of all your books or include them.

GDPR – Damon from Bookfunnel chimed in and said most of us are probably okay if we haven’t been doing anything shady, if they have to double opt in, and the unsubscribe is clear in the footer. If readers are signing up on our site for bonus material or just to follow you and you’re making it clear that they’re going to get monthly updates or new release updates – whatever you do.

Be careful if you got subscribers from Instafreebie or joint promos or anywhere you were just handed a batch of email addresses and put them into your database, or if you’ve just been adding people who email you to a homemade list. This isn’t cool even with CAN-SPAM stuff, so fix that.

Thoughts on culling lists?

You may have to do it if you’ve been growing your list fast with a lot of promos to get subscribers, and you’re getting pushed into more and more expensive tiers. Do check before kicking people off.

As Damon said, not all the data is accurate. If people’s email clients don’t automatically load images, your mailing list provider won’t get a ping back that says the pixel they insert was loaded, so they won’t see the message as “read.” You can help with accuracy by including images in your emails that people want to see, so they’ll click load images.

Amazon Ads Brian Meeks

You should have lots of ads that you try for the same book. Tinker with copy and keywords (authors) you target.

After about 5 days, things will start to fall off (may drop as much as 80%) with how many impressions you’re getting. Sometimes a good ad will work longer, but he’s putting in new ads every week to keep the clicks coming on his books. He’ll kill the old ones instead of letting them run.

Good copy on the ad and targeting the right audience will get you more clicks on your ads which brings down the cost of each click and will get you more impressions. Amazon wants to show the effective ads to its shoppers.

Good cover and blurb will help you more than anything. When you send clicks to your book page, you need them to convert into sales or borrows, otherwise you’re spending way more than you need to be on these ads. The better the conversion, the more you’ll make in the long run.

Short blurbs with lots of white space and hooks questions above the “read more” link. He says not to worry about cramming a bunch into that space. Just make them want to click and read more. No walls of text.
You don’t have to say what’s going on in the story. You just have to hook them, make them buy. This is not a synopsis. If you wrote query letters to agents, it’s like that middle paragraph.

Never look at ACoS since it’s slow to report, not always accurate, and doesn’t include page reads.

Important to figure out what your read through is for your series and how much you make when someone reads the series. Then you know how much you can afford to spend on ads to get a new reader.

He tried a test with a SF author with an 8-book series who wanted to advertise a free Book 1 that was 99 cents, so he was only making 35 cents for sale. They had to wait a couple of months to get the full picture, since it might take people that long to read through the series if they were going to. They judged that it took until Book 4 to turn a profit, for the money spent on ads to be worth it.

More competition now, so you have to big higher, so it is getting tougher especially in romance (he mentioned SF as getting there too). It may start to only make sense to run ads on a first in a long series.

He still sees people getting 13-15 cent clicks on niche things for specific keywords, but that’s getting rare.

*Note Amazon will tend to give a boost to ads for books that haven’t been advertised before, so if you’re finding your Book 1 just isn’t working anymore, you might try advertising a later book in a series.

Monica Leonell on Business/Product Funnels

You need a product funnel… free or low cost product that can get people in the door. Then, after they know they like your work, they are willing to buy higher priced items.

People don’t jump from not knowing anything about you to buying a 9.99 ebook.

Novelists Delimma:

In most industries (artists, musicians, non-fiction authors), there are higher priced items ($100 to thousands), but not so much in the fiction world. There are lots of multi six figures authors now, but not many multi seven figure authors, as there are in other businesses, and she thinks it’s because we haven’t yet figured out how to make these higher priced kinds of things for our super fans.

Why not doing it:

Codependent on retailers – if Amazon changed anything, most of us would be hugely effected
Lack of a real model – for most, having movies/series made by Hollywood is the only way to break into the superstardom necessary
Fear the answer to this question: why would my readers spend $100, $200, $500 on us?

Maybe survey your newsletter subscribers and see what cool things they want?

She had a quote by Taylor Swift about how you can be accidentally successful for three or four years, but a career takes work.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-179_-_Marketing_Wide_vs_Marking_in_Kindle_Unlimited__Turning_Strangers_into_Super_Fans_with_David_Gaughran.mp3

SFFMP 179: Marketing Wide vs Marketing in Kindle Unlimited + Turning Strangers into Super Fans

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 02 May 2018 03:38:15 +0000

We had a great chat with David Gaughran this week. He’s a historical fiction author who dabbles in science fiction now and then, and when he’s not writing fiction, he’s keeping an eye on the publishing scene and analyzing what’s working for authors who are going wide and selling well on Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. and also what’s working for those who are sticking with Amazon exclusivity and Kindle Unlimited.

We chatted about all that and also about the tactics he outlines in his new book, Strangers To Superfans and some of the mistakes authors are making.

Here are a few specifics of what we discussed:

Using “Audience Insights” on Facebook to figure out who your Ideal Reader is.
Why David recommends Stephen King’s On Writing.
Realizing that you can choose to sell your books all over the world or to be exclusive with Amazon but that whether you’re in Kindle Unlimited or not, you’re affected by it.
Why David prefers a lower spend over time rather than blowing a bunch of money on Facebook advertising in a couple of days.
He’s open to doing boosted posts to get more followers but says you shouldn’t advertise for likes.
Making sure to mention your Facebook page at the end of your books, so you can get your readers to like and follow (and you’re later able to get more complete demographic information on your fans).
Understanding that “most digital advertising platforms actively reward good targeting through delivering cheaper clicks or free exposure for well targeted ads.”
Realizing that if you’re not in KU, you’re competing with people who are earning more (70% on 99 cent books during Countdown Deals) and can afford to spend more on advertising.
How Kindle Unlimited has a separate recommendation engine for subscribers.
Taking advantage of places where fewer people are being advertised to, such as countries and platforms where Amazon KU isn’t a thing.
Advertising something written for mass appeal versus something written for a smaller niche audience.
What David calls the Discoverability Myth and why we shouldn’t get caught up in it.
Being careful not to confuse the Amazon algorithms or mess up your also-boughts when you launch a book, especially if you’re switching genres.
The different types of advertising that work for Kindle Unlimited books versus books on all the platforms, a steady drip versus a big blast.
Some mistakes David sees “wide” authors making (those who are marketing books on Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc.).
Best practices for mailing list building and emailing subscribers.

Visit David’s blog to stay up to date on Amazon, scammers, and nefarious entities taking advantage of authors, as well as other important topics that he feels compelled to write about. If you sign up for his mailing list, you can get his book, Amazon Decoded: A Marketing Guide to the Kindle Store.

Also, pick up a copy of Strangers To Superfans: A Marketing Guide to the Reader Journey.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-178_-_Publishing_Quickly_and_Making_Good_Money_with_Serial_Novellas_and_YA_Fantasy_with_Sarah_KL_Wilson.mp3

SFFMP 178: Making Good Money with Serial Novellas and YA Fantasy with Sarah K.L. Wilson

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 04:42:01 +0000

On this week’s show, YA fantasy author Sarah K.L. Wilson joined us to talk about the successful Dragon School serial she’s publishing on Amazon (and in Kindle Unlimited). She’s put out nine installments since the beginning of the year, publishing a new one every 18 days, and she’s kept them selling with Amazon ads and sheer momentum.

Here’s a little more of what we covered:

Going from writing novels to publishing a (planned) 20-installment fantasy serial.
How complete each story is and whether Sarah employs cliffhangers.
Whether she’s got it all outlined or she’s pantsing it.
The challenges of finding your readership on Amazon (or any online store) when you’re targeting a teen audience.
Handling cover art for serial installments that you’re publishing frequently.
Sarah’s pricing strategy of 99 cents for the first installment and 2.99 for the others and whether there’s been any pushback from readers.
Finding success with Amazon ads by monitoring them daily and tweaking whenever necessary, including adding new ads to the rotation regularly.
Sarah’s less than stellar results with Facebook ads.
How her income breaks down, sales versus KU.
What a typical launch looks like for her now that she’s almost 10 installments into her serial.
The link to Michael Cooper’s read-through calculator, which Sarah is using to calculator her ROI: https://www.facebook.com/groups/781495321956934/1111894655583664/

You can visit Sarah on her website and also check out her books on Amazon. The first installment in her serial is Dragon School: First Flight and is currently 99 cents or free to read with a KU subscription.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-177_-_Making_a_Living_as_an_LGBT_Urban_Fantasy_Author_with_Holly_Evans.mp3

SFFMP 177: Paying the Bills as an LGBT Urban Fantasy Author with Holly Evans

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 03:01:56 +0000

We’re joined this week by LGBT urban fantasy author Holly Evans. She believes LGBT spec-fic is an up and coming sub-genre with a lot of potential, and even though it’s niche, she’s able to pay the bills writing it. Whether you’re interested in it or not, a lot of today’s interview should apply to any author thinking of writing in a smaller niche. Interestingly, Holly found more of an audience when she went wide with her books than when she was exclusive with Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

Getting started in the crowded urban fantasy market.
Tropes for urban fantasy and also for LGBT fiction.
Why LGBT spec-fic may be an up-and-coming market with room for new authors to jump in.
What qualifies something as LGBT (i.e. do the main characters have to fall into that category?)?
If romance is expected and how explicit sex scenes should be if included.
The pros and cons of selecting the LGBT category on Amazon and other stores (easier to rank versus perhaps being overlooked by people who don’t think they’re looking for that).
Avoiding stereotypes.
Why Holly decided to leave KDP Select and publish her books to all the other stores.
How she’s found success in the other stores in only a few months.
Writing shorter series and wrapping individual books up so you can start new ones easily.
Whether there are any downsides to writing short.

You can visit Holly on her site and check out her books in all the major stores. Her newest series, Forged in Blood, is out now.

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http://bostonfantasyfest.com/

SFFMP 176: Launching Well as a New Author, Writing Quickly, and Keeping the Momentum Going

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 03:58:34 +0000

This week’s interview features NYT best-selling indie fantasy author Jasmine Walt. She talks about how she burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with her popular Baine Chronicles series and breaks down why she think it hit big even though she was a new author at the time. We also ask her about her various collaborations and how she’s kept the momentum going with the numerous new series she’s started.

Here are some of the specifics:

Expectations for urban fantasy, fantasy with romance, and reverse harem fantasy.
Writing stories that combine a lot of elements and aren’t exactly to market.
When taking on a collaboration partner can make sense and mistakes to avoid in co-writing.
Jasmine’s process that helps her publish a novel almost every month.
How much outlining she does before she starts writing.
How her first launch went and what she did to get pre-orders and sales as a brand new author.
What a launch looks like for her these days as a more established author with a fan base.
The challenges of having success with a second, third, etc. series after the first one was a hit.
When it’s time to move some series out of Kindle Unlimited and try to build a readership in other stores.
The factors that go into deciding how long a series should continue.
What Jasmine does for the back matter of her books.
Whether hitting bestseller lists (New York Times, USA Today, etc.) are useful for marketing or just nice accolades to have.

You can visit Jasmine on her website and check out the first of her Baine Chronicles novel, Burned. It’s available in all stores. Her Dragon’s Gift series (reverse harem fantasy) and recent release Cursed by Night are available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

Also, if you listen in time and you’re interested in going to the conference Jasmine is putting on in May 2018, here’s the link for that:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-176_-_Launching_Well_as_a_New_Author_Hitting_Quickly_and_Whats_Hot_in_Fantasy_Jasmine_Walt.mp3

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-175_-_Rapid_Release_Launch_Strategy_with_Limited_Funds.mp3

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:32:49 +0000

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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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-174_-_Structuring_and_Outlining_Your_Novel_for_More_Efficient_Writing_with_Scott_King.mp3

SFFMP 174: Outlining Your Novel for More Efficient Writing and Starting New in Epic Fantasy

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 03:16:20 +0000

Today, we were joined by return guest Scott King, the author of Outline Your Novel: The How To Guide for Structuring and Outlining Your Novel and The Five Day Novel, as well as numerous fantasy and young adult adventures. He recently jumped into epic fantasy with the first book in his Elderrealm series, Wrath of Dragons. We grilled him on outlining and also how he found starting out in epic fantasy this year after publishing in other genres previously.

Here are some of the specifics that we talked about:

How an outline can help an author become more efficient.
Whether pantsers can get anything out of outlining.
Outlining a single novel versus doing a series.
Starting with a pitch and then developing an outline.
Mistakes authors make with outlining.
What to do if the story diverges from the outline as you write it.
How tough it is to break into epic fantasy today as an author new to the genre.
Whether Kindle Unlimited/KDP Select is a good idea for epic fantasy.
The pros and cons of mailing list swaps.
The challenges of genre jumping.

You can find Scott on his website or Twitter, and grab his first epic fantasy novel Wrath of Dragons or his outlining book, Outline Your Novel.

Also, check out his Creators Cast podcast.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-173_-_From_Indie_to_Hybrid_and_an_80k_Kickstarter_with_Michael_J._Sullivan_and_Robin_Sullivan.mp3

SFFMP 173: From Indie to Hybrid, Six Figure Audiobook Advances, and an $80,000 Kickstarter for a Novel

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 03:51:31 +0000

On today’s show, we had the honor of chatting with Michael J. Sullivan and his wife and business partner Robin Sullivan. These folks were self-publishing right at the beginning of the movement (before the kindle even became a thing), and have seen and tried a lot over the years. After finding indie author success, they accepted a deal with Orbit, and Michael is now a hybrid author, taking the best from both worlds.

Here are some of the specifics that we discussed:

- Finding success as a self-published author in the early days of the Kindle.
- Whether it was a hard decision to switch to a traditional publisher and if giving up some money up front was worth it in terms of reaching a larger audience and growing the fan base.
- What indie authors signing traditional contracts should watch out for, especially if they want to keep self-publishing on the side.
- Understanding non-compete, indemnification, and limbo clauses.
- Why it’s hard (but not impossible) to get a Big 5 publishing deal that doesn’t give up ebook, print, and audiobook rights right now.
- Why they’ve done three Kickstarters and how they’ve had such tremendous success with them.
- How Kickstarter can be a form of advertising and potentially bringing in new readers who weren’t already in the fan base.
- Whether there are any drawbacks to having a super successful Kickstarter.
- What Michael and Robin do for marketing and how that’s changed over the years.
- Why Michael is a big fan of Goodreads.
- Doing AMAs on Reddit.
- Why they say you shouldn’t feel you’re going to relinquish all your marketing to your publisher if you take a trad deal.
- How audiobooks have become a big source of income for them and what kinds of advances are potentially achievable out there right now.
- Why they believe audiobooks are becoming what ebooks were in 2010 and that there’s lots of room for growth.

You can visit Michael on his website, and if you’re interested in his books, you can buy the latest, The Disappearance of Winter’s Daughter, (as well as the rest) directly from his site.

He’s also releasing books in his Legends of the First Empire series, with Age of War coming this summer.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-172_-_Making_It_as_a_Newer_Author_Marketing_YA_Fantasy_and_are_Vampires_Still_In_with_Caroline_Peckham.mp3

SFFMP 172: Making It as a Newer Author, Marketing YA Fantasy, and are Vampires Still “In”?

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 04:00:26 +0000

Like many new authors, Caroline Peckham‘s first series, a YA fantasy adventure, The Rise of Isaac, didn’t sell as well as she’d hoped. For her second series, she did a lot of market research and switched to a more popular type of YA fantasy, vampires in a contemporary paranormal setting. She also adopted some more effective marketing tactics and had a successful launch last fall. She’s since released a second “V Games” novel and is editing a third, and the series continues to do well, months after the initial launch.

Here are a few of the details that we discussed on the show:

Some of the challenges of marketing young adult fiction as a self-published author.
What made Caroline decide to switch from one type of YA fantasy to another.
Concerns about finding readers when one’s target audience doesn’t have credit cards and doesn’t shop on Amazon.
Why Caroline has had more success targeting adult audiences who happen to enjoy young adult fiction.
Whether vampires are too crowded a niche to get into or there are still opportunities.
How Caroline first found reviewers by seeking out readers in her genre who had reviewed books similar to hers.
Finding reviewers on Goodreads and then moving them over to an easily manageable Facebook group.
Why Caroline makes her ARC reviewer Facebook group public rather than private and lets people who find her through the platform in to get free review copies.
Using the Werble App to create animations that can be used on Facebook to help with promotions.
Pricing a Book 1 at 99 cents or 99p in KU to keep it higher in the rankings and bring in readers for the rest of the full-priced series.
Which social media platforms Caroline uses and why she didn’t do much with Wattpad, despite it being a popular destination for younger readers.
Caroline’s experiments with Facebook advertising and how she found out that the clicks she got weren’t converting that well.
Whether vampire stories seem to do better in the US or the UK.

You can visit Caroline on her website or Facebook, and check out her books on Amazon.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-171_-_Lindsays_Launch_and_Listener_Questions.mp3

SFFMP 171: Lindsay’s Launch Numbers (Earned vs Spent), Targeting International Sales, and Increasing Mailing List Open Rates

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 04:50:28 +0000

Our three hosts were by themselves today and answered some listener questions that had been stacking up. They ran the gamut and included selling more audiobooks, selling more paperbacks, selling more in international markets, increasing newsletter open rates, and what you should do to start gathering a mailing list of interested readers before you launch your first novel. Lindsay also shared her numbers from her recent fantasy launch.

Here are a few more of the specifics that we covered:

What it takes to get a KDP All Star bonus these days.
Whether Lindsay found Bookbub CPM, Facebook PPC, or Amazon CPC ads more useful for her epic fantasy/sword and sorcery launch, and how much she spent overall on advertising, cover art, and editing.
Jeff’s foray into audiobooks — can you have a narrator that speaks too slowly?
Jo’s experiments with reworking some of his old newsletter bonus material and publishing a short story a month (are ebooks published at 99 cents worth it?).
Tips for increasing open rates with mailing lists and what’s considered a good rate.
What kinds of subject lines work best with newsletters.
How ACX users can promote their audiobooks (we forgot to mention getting codes from ACX for giveaways, but you can email for those and use them selectively with new releases).
Tips for getting more sales in the UK, Australia, Canada, and other English-speaking (and reading) markets.
Tips for selling more paperbacks.
Whether Wattpad is worth it for a marketing platform.
Whether a pen name needs its own Facebook author page.
If an author in the UK needs to make a special edition for American English readers.
If it’s okay to publish shorter novels so you can get stuff out more frequently.
What’s the best way to start your writing/publishing career if your number one interest is gaining a steady readership?
Your hosts share which of their characters are most like them and what the hardest things for them to edit out were.

Want to see what the hosts are up to?

You can check out Jo’s new 99-cent prequel novella, Beta Testers or preorder the Book of Deacon short story collection he mentioned in the show.

Jeff’s latest release is one of his mystery novels, Case of the Pilfered Pooches (Corgi Case Files Book 4).

Lindsay’s short sci-fi story “Bearadise Lodge” is up for free on her blog.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-170_-_Focusing_on_a_Genre_Keeping_Older_Series_Selling_and_SFWA_with_Jonathan_Brazee.mp3

SFFMP 170: Keeping an Older Series Selling, Nebula Awards, and What SFWA Can Do for You

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 05:01:39 +0000

On this week’s show, military science fiction author and retired Marine colonel Jonathan Brazee joined us. We talked about the wisdom of sticking to one genre and writing a series and spinoff series all in the same universe, and how that can help with marketing. It doesn’t hurt to be prolific, either! We also talked about SFWA, where Jonathan is the Chairman of the Education Committee and doing a lot to help indie authors inside of the organization.

Here are some more specific details of what we covered:

Jonathan’s road from his first published short story in 1978 to being a full-time indie author of more than thirty novels of (mostly) military science fiction.
Why he recently decided to accept a traditional publishing contract.
The wisdom of focusing on one genre, for the most part, and building a universe where multiple series intersect with each other and can each work to lead readers into the universe as a whole.
Some tropes in the military SF genre that authors would be wise to pay attention to.
Whether it’s harder now to break into military SF than it was a few years ago.
How Jonathan got involved with SFWA and why authors may want to consider joining if they qualify.
The networking benefits of going to conventions and getting involved as a panelist.
Being nominated for the Nebula awards.
What forms of advertising Jonathan is using now that are working for him.
What he’s doing these days when he launches new books.
The importance of setting realistic expectations and realizing it’s probably going to take more than two novels if you want to make a career of writing.
The types of covers Jonathan likes for his military SF and why he’s thinking of redoing some of his early ones.
How he keeps his older series selling years after he’s completed publishing them.
Advertising older books in a series when it’s time to release a new installment.
Keeping in touch with one’s fans and realizing how much your work can mean to some people.

As we mentioned in the show, Jonathan is one of the nebula award finalists in the novelette category with his story, “Weaponized Math.” If you’re interested in reading it, you can find it in the 99-cent Expanding Universe: Volume 3. You can also find the rest of his titles on Amazon.

If you’re a member of SFWA and want to vote for the nebulas this year (or if you just want to read the stories), you can find the list of the 2017 nebula award finalists here.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-169_-_Writing_Across_Genres_Getting_New_Books_to_Stick_and_Epic_Military_Fantasy_with_David_Estes.mp3

SFFMP 169: Writing Across Genres, Getting New Books to Stick, and Epic/Military Fantasy with David Estes

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 05:40:07 +0000

This week, David Estes–author of dystopian fiction, children’s fiction, and epic fantasy (with more genres on the way)–joined us to talk about jumping into epic/military fantasy last year, how he managed to launch well into a new genre, and how he’s kept his books in the category top 100s on Amazon for the last year. We also discussed how he got his books picked up by Podium Publishing for audiobook versions and some of the challenges of marketing audio.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

The various subgenres of fantasy and science fiction that David has written in and whether it’s been harder or easier to find success when he’s been “genre hopping.”
The relatively recent addition of “military fantasy” as a category on Amazon.
Common tropes or what readers expect from military fantasy as a subgenre.
Having audiobooks produced through a publisher verses producing your own through ACX.
Some of the challenges of marketing audiobooks and the importance of finding a good narrator.
How much better longer books often do when it comes to audiobooks (due to the Audible credit system).
Why David rapid released his first three epic fantasy novels and if he’ll do it again for his next series.
Keeping the momentum and publishing regularly even when you’re working a day job and writing long novels.
The advertising and group promos that helped David with his launch into a new genre.
How much he’s spending on advertising and what’s working best for him (hint: Bookbub’s pay-per-click ads) to keep his first book in the Top 100 for epic fantasy month in and month out.
Whether people are willing to tolerate a higher price point on longer novels.
Adding bonus content such as short stories to the end of novels (especially those in Kindle Unlimited) rather than selling them as 99-cent stand-alones.

Visit David’s website to see what he’s up to or check out his books on Amazon. You can also visit his Goodreads fan group, which he talked about during the interview, or follow his progress with his new Patreon page.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-168_-_The_Three-year_No-bestseller_Plan_For_Making_a_Living_From_Fiction_with_Patty_Jansen.mp3

No Show This Week

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 06:08:23 +0000

Sorry, all! We ran into tech issues this week, and unfortunately our interview with Damon from Bookfunnel wasn’t recorded. We are hoping we can reschedule with him. In the meantime, please check out the Bookfunnel blog for lots of tips on giving away/selling exclusive content to your readers.

SFFMP 168: Mailing List Tips and The Three-year, No-bestseller Plan for Making a Sustainable Living from Your Fiction

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 05:46:45 +0000

Return guest Patty Jansen, who continues to make a great income from her fiction without being a mega seller, joined us today (live from Lindsay’s office) to talk about different types of mailing lists we can run as authors, organizing group promotions, and using a global approach to marketing that will gain you fans on all the platforms and all over the world. (She may be one of the few of us with a big fan-base in South Africa!)

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

How Patty invests more into her series that are proven sellers with an 80% read-through rate.
What kinds of advertising she’s doing to keep a steady stream of new readers trying her books and signing up for her newsletters.
The Kboards post that led to her writing three books for authors, talking about the tactics she’s used to grow to a full-time income even without being a huge seller on Amazon or “sticking” there with new releases.
How she has found luck targeting markets that most people don’t advertise to because the countries don’t have Amazon stores (she specifically mentioned South Africa and sending people to her newsletter signup page where they could get free books).
Gauging trends and what’s working when you have more of a “long tail” approach.
How Patty is going to approach selling ARCs on her site of a series she will later release into KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited to give that a try.
Whether she is worried about pirate sites or not.
The different types of mailing lists Patty has (one is her author one and one is more of a promo mini-Bookbub style list) and how she goes about acquiring subscribers and making both profitable.
Which mailing list host you might want to consider — if you’re going to grow a list as large as you can, perhaps with group promos and Instafreebie, you’ll definitely want to get set up with a provider that’s cheaper at higher numbers of subscribers (she recommended MailerLite).
Some common mistakes that authors make in regard to mailing lists.
How she gauges success with her mailing lists (open rates, link clicks, etc.).
Whether authors need the mailing list hosts with higher tiered plans that offer more bells and whistles.
How often authors should email their subscribers.
Different types of auto-responder series that Patty has tried.
Using the WooCommerce WordPress plug-in for managing sales and email.
Whether it’s a good idea to ask questions and invite fans to email back.

You can visit Patty’s website for information about her books, the promo page there to be notified when she does her big 99-cent multi-author promos, and join the SF/F Cross Promo Bulletin Facebook group to link up with other authors wanting to do newsletter swaps.

If you’re interested in her non-fiction, the first book in her series is Self-publishing Unboxed (The Three-year, No-bestseller Plan For Making a Sustainable Living From Your Fiction Book 1).

If you want to try out her fiction, check out the first book in her scifi Ambassador series or fantasy fans can check out the first book in her Icefire Trilogy for free.

Also, check out the earlier shows that Patty was on:

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-167_-_Tips_for_Selling_at_Kobo_Best_Practices_for_Authors_and_Upcoming_Audiobook_Options_with_Christine_Munroe.mp3

SFFMP 167: Encouraging News from the Author Earnings Report and What’s Working at Kobo

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 04:41:48 +0000

The new Kobo Writing Life director, Christine Monroe, joined us to talk about the strength of indie publishing, new features relevant to authors at Kobo (including the upcoming ability to upload audiobooks via the KWL dashboard), and some positive news from the recently released Author Earnings Report.

Here are some of the specifics we covered:

How Christine came to be the new head honcho at Kobo Writing Life.
How time of year doesn’t matter that much when it comes to ebook sales (per the Author Earnings Report), so the “summer slump” is largely a myth. Christine said the week after Christmas and the month of July are big selling times for Kobo.
That, despite rumors to the contrary, indie publishing is doing better than it ever has. The AER posted the Top 50 earning authors for US sales and noted that many are newer names, so possibly authors that had early success and didn’t adapt have seen fall off, but others are carrying the torch.
75% of science fiction and fantasy book sales come via ebooks and audiobooks.
Kobo getting into the growing category of audiobooks and opportunities for indie authors who have the rights to distribute their audiobooks.
When does it make sense to invest in creating audio versions of your books?
Some best practices of successful authors on Kobo.
Taking advantage of the fact that there’s no cap on the 70% royalty and putting together giant full-series boxed sets.
Going direct with Kobo versus going through a distributor.
The kinds of advertising that are proving effective for selling books on Kobo.
Tips for authors who write stand-alone novels or only have one or two books out.
Pricing suggestions for novels on Kobo.
Languages that do well with them when it comes to foreign language translations.
Whether rapid releases and/or consistently putting out titles are effective strategies for building an audience on Kobo.

If you’re not already uploading direct to Kobo, you can do so through the Kobo Writing Life dashboard. Make sure to subscribe to the KWL blog and podcast to get tips from successful authors. They recently had one of the Bookbub representatives on their podcast, so you’ll definitely want to check out that episode.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-166_-_Best_Price_Points_Does_Book_Length_Matter_and_Tips_for_Selling_More_Books_with_Mark_Coker.mp3

SFFMP 166: Best Price Points, Does Book Length Matter, and Tips for Selling More Books Wide with Mark Coker

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 03:57:17 +0000

One of our earliest guests on the podcast, almost 150 episodes ago, was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords. We had him back on this week to talk about some of his predictions for the coming year and marketing tips derived from the 2017 annual survey of the Smashwords sales and distribution data.

Note: we had some technical issues so weren’t able to stream live, but we hope to be back at our usual time of Tuesday 6pm PT/9pm ET next week.

Here are some further details of what we discussed with Mark:

Changes in Smashwords over the last three years.
How much more successful authors are on iTunes, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc. when they make use of pre-orders.
Mark’s new podcast Smart Author (check out the episodes on analyzing best practices of bestselling authors and how to sell more books with pre-orders for starters).
Being careful about being too dependent on one retailer and helping to ensure other retailers stay relevant.
Data showing that, despite people forever talking about short attention spans, longer books sell better.
Some sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy that are doing well — but Mark advises that you should write what you love rather than following trends.
Which price points are most effective, and data showing that $4.99 has become more viable (if you’re charging $2.99 or $3.99, you might not lose sales by going to $4.99).
Pricing for boxed sets, whether by individual authors or as multi-author collaborations.
How many of the bestselling Smashwords authors are using free series starters.
What to do with a $500 launch budget.
Tips for selling in the Smashwords store itself.

If you want to hear more from Mark, check out the first episode he did with us: SFFMP 25: Marketing, Pre-Orders, and Distribution with Smashwords Founder Mark Coker.

Here’s his blog post from last year that includes his slides covering the 2017 Smashwords survey data.

You can visit Mark on Twitter or on the Smashwords blog. You can find more information on his Smart Author podcast here.

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

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 05:04:27 +0000

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 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.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-165_-_Relaunching_a_Series_and_the_Value_of_Podcasting_with_Bryan_Cohen.mp3

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-164_-_2018_Marketing_Predictions_Our_Author_Resolutions_and_When_to_Advertise.mp3

SFFMP 164: 2018 Marketing Predictions, Our Author Resolutions, and When to Advertise What

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 04:45:18 +0000

Happy New Year! The guys chatted amongst themselves on today’s show, talking about some of their predictions of where book marketing is going in 2018 (what’s making a return and what’s falling by the wayside?) and some of their own author resolutions. They also covered a number of listener questions on topics such as whether to advertise later books in a series, Facebook videos, and whether readers cross over to other genres and pen names.

Here are a few more of the specifics we talked about:

Jeff moving to Phoenix and leaving the day job to write full time.
Lindsay’s recent fantasy book launch and a few things that didn’t go as well as hoped.
Why Lindsay started a Patreon campaign for fans that want to get her books early.
When should you switch to advertising the newest in a popular series rather than the first book?
Some of the guys’ easiest and hardest sells when it comes to their own books, and what they leaned from the experiences.
Making sure not to continue to throw a lot of money at books that just aren’t able to sell on their own.
Why Jo and Lindsay are both planning to put out more free fiction (short stories) for their fans.
Whether it’s better to write and release more short novels or if longer novels give you an advantage.
Predictions that more authors will work to lessen their reliance on Amazon in the coming year.
Diversifying your author income.
Will we see a return of some popular book marketing tactics from a few years ago?
More and more authors writing in the same genre forming groups to help each other with promotions.
A possible return to an emphasis on finding your true fans and building a relationship with them rather than just worrying about scoring big with the Amazon algorithms.
The pros and cons of cross-over when you’re writing in multiple genres.
Whether video on Facebook ads will continue to grow and if there’s any use for authors.

If you want to check out your hosts’ work, you can try Jeffrey Poole’s first Corgi mystery novel for free right now, or get his first Tales of Lentari fantasy novel for 99 cents.

You can try Jo’s first steampunk novel, Free Wrench, for free. You can also check out his new fantasy short story Entwell Origins: Ayna.

Lindsay’s Dragon Storm is out on Amazon, and her Dragon Blood boxed set is free everywhere for another week or two.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-163_-_Successfully_Launching_as_a_New_Author_and_the_value_of_Kindle_Worlds_with_Jeffery_H._Haskell.mp3

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

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 04:37:26 +0000

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.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-162_-_When_99-cent_Novels_Make_Sense_Kindle_Unlimited_and_Bucking_Cover_Trends_with_Amanda_Milo.mp3

SFFMP 162: Finding Success in a Niche, When 99-cent Novels Make Sense, and Bucking Cover Trends with Amanda Milo

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 04:43:04 +0000

Our guest this week launched her first novel in April of 2017 to great success. Amanda Milo’s science fiction romance, Stolen by an Alien, stuck in the Top 250 overall in the Amazon store for months and remained near the top of the scifi romance Top 100 too. She’s since published two more novels in the series for the rabid fanbase that she’s already established.

We brought her on to ask about how she launched to such success, why she’s continued to launch her books at 99 cents, and how she used some atypical (for the genre) cover art to find her target audience.

Here’s some of what we covered in more detail:

How Amanda launched her novel without professional editing or a cover that she loved but made it work anyway.
Combining 99 cents, Kindle Unlimited, and a story written for a niche audience to find success.
What level of sex readers are looking for in the science fiction romance category.
Some popular story types in the genre.
What readers expect from the alien abduction trope.
The challenges of writing strong female characters and balancing them with some of the romance tropes of rescues or abductions.
Using the cover, especially in romance genres, to signal to the reader what to expect as far as heat level, in particular.
Why Amanda has stuck with 99 cents so long for her books.
Whether novellas and shorter stories can work in scifi romance.
Using a Facebook page and Facebook groups to connect with readers.
Pre-orders or no pre-orders?

You can visit Amanda Milo on Facebook or check out her Amazon page to try out her novels. Her Facebook group, Amanda Milo’s Minions, is also accepting new minions.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-161_-_Handling_Foreign_Rights_Yourself_When_to_Incorporate_and_New_Audiobook_Options.mp3

SFFMP 161: Handling Foreign Rights Yourself, When to Incorporate, and New Audiobook Options

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 04:50:53 +0000

On today’s show, Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay answered some listener questions and shared their notes from the workshop that Jo and Lindsay attended in October, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch’s Business Masterclass. It was a week long workshop that covered dealing with Hollywood offers, handling foreign rights offers without an agent, increasing writing productivity, estate planning and tax stuff for authors (including when it makes sense to incorporate and which type of corporation in the US), and updates from Kobo on their plans to add audiobooks to their catalogue, among many other topics.

Here are some of the specifics of what the gang covered today:

Jo and Lindsay jumping into Patreon (right as Patreon changed their pricing structure and left folks in an uproar, of course!)
New podcasts that Lindsay is checking out: Kevin J Anderson’s Creative Futurism and Mark Coker’s Smart Author podcast out of Smashwords.
Whether NetGalley is useful for indie authors or primarily aimed at small presses.
If it’s okay to sell print and audiobooks in other stores if your ebooks are in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited at Amazon.
Whether a pen name needs a separate social medial platform, website, and Goodreads account.
Whether an author with a new series ready to go should consider self-publishing or traditional publishing right now.
Saving money on taxes as a writer by incorporating.
The importance of getting an accountant that specializes in finances for creative people, such as authors, artists, musicians.
Keeping in mind that all the books you write are pieces of intellectual property and as such have some value.
Tips for hiring a virtual assistant (or nine).
Pricing for libraries if you’re trying to get your ebooks picked up by them.
Kobo to add audiobooks to its store.
Going non-exclusive with ACX or producing an audiobook through Findaway Voices in order to take advantage of some of the other up-and-coming markets besides iTunes/Amazon/Audible. Also being able to choose your price in these other marketplaces.
Why you may want to set up your books at IngramSpark as well as CreateSpace.
Why you don’t need an agent to negotiate on foreign rights deals.
Waiting for publishers in other countries to approach you versus methods of gaining their attention.
What to expect from foreign rights sales in terms of money and reception of your books in other countries.

That’s it for this week. Keep writing!

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-160_-_Selling_Paperback_Books_Working_Conventions_and_When_Print_Runs_Make_Sense_with_Russell_Nohelty.mp3

SFFMP 160: Making a Living Selling Physical Books at Conventions with Russell Nohelty

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 05:02:20 +0000

On this week’s show, we chatted with Russell Nohelty, who wrote for film, TV, animation, and comic books, before getting into novels a few years ago. He’s different from many of our guests in that he’s not doing much of his selling online. He makes a good living by traveling and selling his novels at conventions, thirty to forty cons a year.

We asked him all about which cons are worth going to, getting started as a newer author, getting onto panels, the costs of tables, and how to actually sell books while you’re there.

Here are some of the specifics covered in the interview:

Some of the reasons Russell likes selling at conventions, such as fewer authors that you’re competing with for attention (hundreds vs. the millions at Amazon), an opportunity to establish authority, and a chance to meet your target audience and also network with other authors.
How much you can expect to pay for a table and whether it’s better to be in Artists’ Alley or get a more expensive vendor booth in the Exhibition Hall.
When it’s okay to split the cost of a table with other authors.
Creating exclusive versions of your books for conventions (Russell uses the option at Ingram Spark to have books with different covers) and being able to charge more for them than at the bookstores.
Whether you need to be traditionally published or if anyone can buy a table.
Whether larger venues are likely to be more profitable or if it’s easier to be noticed and sell books at a smaller convention.
Collecting email addresses digitally at your table by using a tablet that signs visitors up to a list immediately.
Using giveaways of some of the popular products at the convention in order to get more list signups.
If there’s any chance at selling books if you’re introverted and not a natural salesman or saleswoman.
How many print copies of your books you should bring at a convention.
How Russell has occasionally found bookstores near the convention that will let him do signings and ship and store the books he’ll sell at the convention to them (as opposed to paying the high storage fees for the hotel or convention).
Selling USB drives with your whole library of ebooks on it for a great price to the reader that is still profitable to you.
Resources Russell mentioned for finding conventions: Convention Scene, ConCon, and Conosaurus.

Find out more about Russell and sign up to get a number of his books for free on his website.

If you’re interested in getting better at selling your work, you may want to check out Russell’s 20 minute video at Sell More Cool Things.

He’s also written the book Sell Your Soul: How to Build Your Creative Career.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-159_-_Twitter_Marketing_Best_Practices_for_Authors_with_Jesper_Schmidt.mp3

SFFMP 159: Twitter Marketing Best Practices for Authors with Jesper Schmidt

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 22:20:36 +0000

This week’s guest, Jesper Schmidt, is a fantasy author and also the author of non-fiction titles Fantasy Map Making and Twitter for Authors: Save Time, Get Followers, and Grow Your Email List. We haven’t had a dedicated Twitter show before, so we spent most of the hour going over tips and best practices on this sometimes challenging to understand social media platform.

Here are some of the specifics on what we covered:

How someone can be hired to draw a map for your world (fantasy or otherwise) for less than you might think.
Some of the challenges when you’re working full time and writing a novel a year.
How authors can better use Twitter to find their target readers.
Picking one day a week to schedule tweets to go out throughout the week.
Having tweets appear at all times of the day to target potential readers in other time zones.
Some of the tools that Jesper uses for scheduling, automation, tracking links, and finding followers who are likely to be interested in his books: HootSuite for a better Twitter app, SocialOomph for scheduling, Canva for creating images with text, Bitly for shortening and tracking links, and Crowdfire to find targeted people to follow.
Creating interesting content that would appeal to your target audience and then sprinkling in promotional tweets (Jesper keeps it to 1 in 10 tweets).
How Jesper uses Hootsuite to find content and relevant tweets to reply to.
Using free books or stories (with an email sign-up requirement if you’re list building) to appeal to Twitter users (you’re less likely to simply sell a book flat out).
Making use of the pinned tweet with an image/book cover and link to your freebie.
Signing up for the advertising program in order to gain access to a Twitter Card, which you can write text and a link in and give away to people who follow you.
How much time should an author be spending on Twitter each week?
Just using the free options for everything Twitter-related — Jesper hasn’t heard of an authors finding it profitable to actually pay for Twitter advertising.

You can visit Jesper in several places online, such as his author website, his series of YouTube videos for fantasy authors, and of course on Twitter. He also works on the AmWritingFantasy site with another author, and you can find numerous resources for writers.

You can pick up Twitter for Authors or Fantasy Map Making from Amazon and other stores.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-158_-_Making_the_Best_Use_of_Promo_Sites_with_Will_from_Book_Barbarian.mp3

SFFMP 158: Making the Best Use of Promo Sites with Will from Book Barbarian

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 05:18:00 +0000

This week, we were joined by Will Turnage, the founder of the discount book promotion site, Book Barbarian (in addition, he runs Red Roses Romance and Book Adrenaline for mysteries and thrillers). He’s also the author of three science fiction and fantasy novels, and is a fan of the genre. We asked him about some best practices for authors using promotional sites.

Here are a few of the specifics that we covered:

What it’s like writing and running a business from Cartegena, Colombia.
How Will turned from author to founder of a book promotion site, one of the first devoted to scifi and fantasy.
The challenges of building up a subscriber base and keeping new people coming in (yes, these guys have some of the same challenges that we have as authors!).
Some trends that Will has seen — what sub-genres of SF&F tend to be most popular and what types of covers work well.
How many reviews you should have before submitting your book to a site like Book Barbarian.
Whether it’s necessary to have a high normal price and deeply discount to appeal to readers.
Best practices when it comes to free books.
Ad stacking across multiple book promo sites to sell/give away more books and in the hope that your book might stick on the store sites for longer.
How often one should submit books to promo sites and when one might experience diminishing returns.

You can submit your science fiction and fantasy titles on Book Barbarian or sign up as a subscriber. You can also check out Will’s novels, Rise of the Jinn, Extermination Day, and NanoSwarm on Amazon under William Turnage.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-157_-_Big_Promotions_That_Work_Building_Your_List_and_Useful_Services_and_Plug-ins_with_Andrea_Pearson.mp3

SFFMP 157: Advanced Newsletter Tactics, Set-It-and-Forget It Automation, and Cultivating a Relationship with Your Readers with Andrea Pearson

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 04:45:36 +0000

We had a very informative show tonight when non-fiction and fantasy author Andrea Pearson joined us to chat about one of her passions: newsletters! (Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay don’t share this passion, so it was great to get answers from a pro.) Andrea has written more than thirty novels across three pen names and also has a series of books for authors called Self-Publish Strong.

Here are some of the details of what we covered:

Doing a big promotional push at launch or waiting until your book has a good number of reviews?
Where to get reviews when you’re a newer author (These all cost money, but Andrea mentioned Booksprout, Jim Kukral’s Review Grabber Tool, and Book Rank’s review service.)
Whether to do a big promo push all at once or spread things out over weeks.
How to get noticed on other sites if you leave KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited and go wide.
If it makes sense putting together big boxed sets or exclusive content for any particular sites.
Launch strategies for a spinoff series or novel set in a world some of your readers are already familiar with.
Why Andrea published her YA fantasy series from scratch with new ASINs when she relaunched the series.
Being aware of “black hole” ages for characters if you’re writing middle grade or YA fiction (and also that the heroes should be older than the readers they’re aimed at).
What newsletter service Andrea recommends for authors (MailChimp) and why.
The seven-email autoresponder series she has set up (when a new subscriber signs up, he/she gets the first welcome email, and then more letters in a series spread out over the next several weeks).
Whether she does a different sequence or has different lists depending on where subscribers come from (i.e. free group promo or back-of-the-book signup)?
The importance of emailing subscribers regularly to keep sales flowing — Andrea lists her books in the post script of all her emails.
Zapier.com, a service she uses to help automate and deliver her bonuses for subscribers.
What aspects of newsletter delivery shouldn’t be automated?
Using exclusive content to get people to sign up (this works better for Andrea than giving away Book 2, something readers could simply buy, for free).
Andrea recommended the Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership podcast.
What to do to hopefully keep newsletters from getting stuck over in people’s Gmail promotions tab.
Giving away bonuses from other authors as part of an incentive to get readers to buy new releases.

Find Andrea online at her website, or check out her Facebook group for authors: Bookbub Promotions and More. Andrea also has a series of books under the Self-Publish Strong title. The most recent one is How to Grow a Rock-Solid Newsletter List: Newsletter Marketing for Authors.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-156_-_A_Successful_Cross-Genre_Launch_with_Chris_Fox.mp3

SFFMP 156: Finding Success with a Cross-Genre Book Launch with Chris Fox

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 04:16:49 +0000

One of our favorite guests, Chris Fox, returns this week so we can grill him about the success he had with his space-fantasy launch, Tech Mage.

Here’s some of what we covered:

What made Chris, the Write to Market guy, decide to take on a new cross-genre series that he wasn’t positive would sell well.
How you choose what to emphasize on the cover when your novel crosses multiple genres and could fit in a number of categories.
How Chris quietly put up a pre-order without mentioning it to fans, then used Facebook ads to see which ads and tag lines on the product page resulted in the highest conversion.
Choosing different audiences to target (via Facebook ads) for subsequent launches in a cross-genre series.
Whether anything different needs to be done with a launch for a book that spans multiple genres and isn’t necessarily written to market.
Advice for newer authors who don’t have a list already built that they can rely upon for early sales.
Keeping cover design simple, and whether it matters if you have a specific scene from the book illustrated for it.
For the first time, Chris registered a domain name and put up a lot of bonus content for his new series: https://www.magitechchronicles.com/
Why Chris plans to write ten books in this series rather than sticking to trilogies or smaller series as he’s often done in the past.
Who should consider relaunching a series.
Why Chris likes omnibuses as a way to kickstart a flagging series without redoing covers on all the original books.

You can buy or borrow Tech Mage on Amazon, or check out Chris’s Relaunch Your Novel for some tips on breathing life into a series that you felt underperformed initially.

Chris also has some great videos for writers on his YouTube channel. Of course, he’s on the web too at Chris Fox Writes.

Also, if you haven’t listened to them, check out the other episodes where Chris was a guest:

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-155_-_What_It_Takes_to_Shift_from_Hobby_Writer_to_Full-Time_Author_with_Ben_Hale.mp3

SFFMP 155: What It Takes to Shift from Hobby Writer to Full-Time Author with Ben Hale

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:48:50 +0000

This week, we chatted with non-fiction and YA fantasy author Ben Hale. A former business owner, he did a lot of research before jumping into self-publishing his first fantasy novels in 2012. After six months, he was able to go full-time. His recent non-fiction release, co-written with Honorée Corder, talks about the business side of writing and publishing, with tips for taking your career to the next level.

Here are a few of the specifics we talked about:

Researching the market and what’s working for successful authors before jumping in to publishing.
Why being fluent in a language may not be enough when it comes to translating your own books.
The changes to the market that Ben has seen since he first started publishing in 2012.
Creating multiple series that interlink and are set in the same world so that readers will naturally want to go from one to the other.
Some of the challenges of marketing to young adult readers and why some YA books appeal to adults more than others do.
The importance of releasing regularly — Ben tries to put out a new novel every 3 to 4 months.
Developing a business mindset as an author.
What to look at if you have a number of books out, but they aren’t selling as well as you expected.
How far ahead goals or visions should extend.
Starting out with the business mindset so that you’re ready for success farther down the road.

Learn more about Ben Hale and grab his starter library at his website, Lumineia. You can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter, and check out the helpful book that he and Honorée Corder wrote, Write Like a Boss.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-154_-_Getting_into_Libraries_Urban_Fantasy_Launches_and_the_Donald_Maas_Workshop_with_Dale_Ivan_Smith.mp3

SFFMP 154: Getting into Libraries, Urban Fantasy Launches, and Writing Tips from the Donald Maass Workshop

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 03:52:27 +0000

Today, we were joined by librarian and urban fantasy author Dale Ivan Smith who launched his first series, The Empowered, earlier this year. He talked about the challenges of writing across genres, getting into a crowded subgenre such as urban fantasy, and why he started in Kindle Unlimited and later went wide. We also asked him how one can get self-published books into libraries and what he learned from attending the Donald Maass workshop on the emotional craft of fiction.

Here are a few of the specifics we touched on:

Pricing your ebooks to be attractive to librarians.
Talking to local librarians and what it’s good to show them (i.e. reviews, awards) when you’re pitching your book.
Asking your readers to put in requests at their local libraries for your books.
Whether libraries cycle books out of their system based on popularity.
Whether workshops are worth the cost and travel expense.
Creating protagonists that the readers connect with right away.
The challenges of creating an antihero protagonist.
Launching an urban fantasy series as an author starting today.
Writing the story of your heart (as many authors start out doing) versus one that’s to market and perhaps more likely to sell.
Whether to launch into KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited or to take an urban fantasy series wide.
Promotion sites that accept a new author and that Dale found worth it.
Tips for other newer authors.

Please visit Dale on his website or Twitter, and you can currently get his first novel, Empowered: Agent, for free everywhere.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-153_-_What_to_Do_When_Your_Book_Isnt_Selling__Selling_Direct_from_Your_Site.mp3

SFFMP 153: What to Do When Your Book Isn’t Selling + Selling Direct from Your Site

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 03:34:14 +0000

Today, Jo and Lindsay talked about their experiences selling ebooks and paperbacks directly from their sites, along with some of the pros and cons of doing so and tax considerations. They also ran through a checklist of things to look at if your book isn’t getting the sales you were hoping for.

Here are some of the highlights of the show:

Jo talked about why he took one of his recent titles out of Kindle Unlimited after a quarter.
Lindsay talked about buckling down and knocking out ten thousand words a day to meet some goals.
Selling signed paperbacks direct from your site and also doing special editions or early releases of ebooks from your site when you have a fanbase eagerly waiting for new material in a series they love.
Some of the pros of selling direct (keeping a higher percentage on each sale, getting the email addresses of known buyers, and not relying completely on any one store).
Some of the cons of selling direct (few people make it work for fiction ebooks, it’s not as easy of a process for the readers, dealing with customer service, and the extra work of installing and maintaining an e-store).
Tax considerations (keeping receipts and when Paypal will send you a 1099 if you use them for your direct sales).
Checking your cover and blurb if your book sales are anemic. Links to Libbie Hawker’s ebook on blurbs (Gotta Read It) and her two-part video instructions on the same topic (Write an Awesome Blurb or Query Pt. 1 and Write an Awesome Blurb or Query Pt. 2).
Avoiding slow pacing, editing errors, and infodumps in the sample pages (and ideally everywhere!).
Creating stories and characters that people fall in love with.
Not having too high of expectations!

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-152_-_Category_Stuffing_Pricing_and_Does_Killing_Characters_Get_Easier.mp3

SFFMP 152: Pricing, Category Stuffing, Launching with Three Books, and Marketing Cross-Genre Novels

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 03:37:25 +0000

This week, we answered some listener questions that had been piling up. We touched on a variety of topics, such as…

Should you try to put your books in as many categories as possible, and what can we do about books that shouldn’t be there knocking us out of our Top 100s on Amazon?
Amazon’s page of keywords for getting into unlisted categories: Selecting Browse Categories.
How many downloads a day can you expect from permafree titles?
Is it worth trying to sell English novels in countries where English isn’t the primary language?
How can trad publishers get away with charging 9.99 or more for ebooks, and can indies do this if their books are well edited and professionally done?
How do you market cross-genre books that fall into more than one category?
How do you guys feel about killing characters, and does it ever get easier?
How does your plotting process work?
Has anyone tried Kobo Plus yet and gotten results?
Where you can advertise as a newer author with less than twenty reviews on your book? Here are the links to the spreadsheets Lindsay mentioned (that C. Gockel maintains). We’re not sure if they’re up to date though, so let us know if you know of a good and recent resource. Where to Advertise Free Ebooks | Where to Advertise 99 Cent Ebooks.
How did Lindsay relaunch her pen name successfully after a long gap between releases?
If you want to write three books before launching any of them, can you use novellas as part of the plan?

Jeff and Lindsay are working on new projects, but Jo has some links if you want to check out what he’s up to right now. Here’s his serial-in-progress: The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy. Also, he’s recently done a series of “How I Write” blog posts, which cover his plotting process, among other things.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-151_-_All_About_Bookbub_PPC_Ads_and_Becoming_a_1_Bestseller_on_Amazon_with_Adam_Croft.mp3

SFFMP 151: All About Bookbub CPM Ads and Becoming a #1 Bestseller on Amazon with Adam Croft

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 20:53:47 +0000

Today’s guest, Adam Croft, had a lot of great information to share about how he hit it big with a stand alone novel after writing two thriller series. Facebook ads played a part in his success with his first breakout novel, and we asked him about that, but lately, he’s been experimenting with Bookbub’s CPM ads (banners that you can pay for that run in their emails independent of their sponsorship program). We asked him about how authors can make the most of that program, even if they haven’t been able to get sponsorships with the big gorilla of advertising.

Here are some of the details we touched on:

Not following all the write-in-series advice all the time — Adam’s biggest hit was a stand alone thriller.
Writing hooky Facebook ads that draw people in and can sell a full-priced book.
Reaching #1 in the entire Amazon.com and Amazon UK stores with a new release.
If it’s possible to leverage former bestseller status to sell more books.
The difference between Bookbub’s paid sponsorships that we all covet and rarely get and their CPM advertising program that anyone can sign up for.
Targeting categories versus targeting specific authors.
Why targeting big names with Bookbub’s ads isn’t necessarily the way to go.
Whether the Bookbub ads are better for new releases or older titles or both.
Using affiliate links to help gauge how successful your ads are.
How the Bookbub CPM ads can work even if you’re marketing cross-genre novels or books in niches that don’t usually get picked up for their regular sponsorships.
Using ads to restore interest in older titles but doing tighter targeting for these, whereas you might go broader for a new release to get as many eyeballs on it as possible.
How Bookbub lets you link to individual stores in specific countries.
Making sure, before you get that big hit, to have your mailing list set up so that it’s easy to sign up for and people get something.

You can visit Adam on his website, his Facebook page, or Twitter, and make sure to check out his books. His series starters, Too Close for Comfort, and Exit Stage Left are free on Amazon and in other stores.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-150_-_Paranormal_Romance_and_Publishing_and_Promoting_from_Outside_the_US_with_Nalini_Singh.mp3

SFFMP 150: Paranormal Romance and Publishing/Marketing Outside of the U.S. with Nalini Signh

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 03:32:28 +0000

This week, paranormal romance author Nalini Singh joined us to talk about her genre, her experiences getting a traditional U.S. publisher when she was living in New Zealand, and how things have evolved over the 14 years that she’s been publishing. She’s best known for her Psy Changling and Guild Hunter series, and she’s also dipped her toes in the self-publishing waters with her contemporary romance series, Rock Kiss.

Here are some specifics of what we covered:

Differences to the publishing process when based in New Zealand or another country as opposed to the US or UK.
How paranormal romance is doing trend-wise now and whether publishers are looking for it.
The difference between urban fantasy and paranormal romance.
The importance of being consistent and not getting details wrong in a long series (Nalini keeps a story bible).
Some of the pros and cons of continuing a long-running series.
How helpful book review blogs can be if you can get your novels picked up.
Sending out ARC copies well in advance of the publication date.
Which social media sites Nalini likes and what she does on the different ones.
How she’s building her mailing list and working to keep fans happy.
How often you have to publish these days to stay relevant and grow a fan base.

Check out Nalini’s newest release Archangel’s Viper (out September 26th) and visit her on her website, Facebook, or Twitter.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-149_-_The_State_of_Epic_Fantasy_and_Marketing_when_Traditionally_Published_with_Brian_McClellan.mp3

SFFMP 149: Success with Epic Fantasy and Marketing when Traditionally Published with Brian McClellan

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 04:23:54 +0000

This week, we chatted with epic fantasy author Brian McClellan about the success he’s had by following the traditional route. He’s also dabbled in self-publishing some novellas in his Powder Mage universe. We talked about what publishers are looking for when it comes to epic fantasy, how he got his agent, how his first book went to auction, and what he’s doing for marketing.

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

How he got an agent a few years ago and whether it’s truly necessary to hit up the conventions and network.
What Brian does for marketing versus what his publisher does.
What he’s doing on social media, his blog, and when it comes to building a newsletter.
Whether epic fantasy books need to be hugely long or if there’s a place for more quickly paced novels.
Giving readers (and agents/editors) stories that have the familiar and what people know they like but that also have originality and new elements.
Brian’s advice for newer authors.
Subjects he avoids on social media, and the kinds of arguments that are OK to start.

You can visit Brian on his website and check out his list of books there was well. His first novel is Promise of Blood, his most recent is Sins of Empire, and he just released a novella that you can check out for $2.99: The Mad Lancers.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-148_-_10_Ways_to_Keep_Your_Backlist_Selling_and_Maintain_a_Steady_Income.mp3

SFFMP 148: 12 Ways to Keep Your Backlist Selling and Maintain a Steady Income

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 04:05:09 +0000

The guys discussed the various tactics they’ve tried and promotions they’ve participated in that have helped keep their older titles selling, especially in finished series that haven’t seen new releases in a while.

Here’s the short list, though they also answered listener questions and expounded on these quite a bit. As usual, it wasn’t a short show!

1. Run a sale on Book 1 (free/99 cents) while booking promos
2. Put together a boxed set of the first 3-4 books and run promos on it.
3. Publish new stories (short stories or novellas, if not novels) that tie into your old, completed series.
4. Publish short stories for your old series in multi-author anthologies that will lead people into your books.
5. Join or put together a multi-author boxed set, using one of your old Book 1s. It’s a chance to basically promo something new for all the authors involved.
6. If you have a number of series, consider putting together a “sampler” boxed set with your own Book 1s (maybe publishing something new to entice regular readers who already have the other stuff to buy).
7. Relaunch with new blurbs, categories, and new covers, especially if your original ones were done on the cheap and/or don’t seem a perfect fit.
8. Facebook/AMS ads for a steady trickle of sales.
9. Sales/freebies combined with joint authors promos or newsletter swaps.
10. Keep your community active and engaged in social media with polls/discussions/artwork. Word of mouth is easier to get when you’ve got people talking.
11. Create print copy giveaways on Goodreads, or on your own blog. Engage the readers. Make them do something different, or fun, to “enroll” in contest.
12. Network with other authors. Offer to write a “guest” blog post. Offer newsletter swaps.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-147_-_Mastering_Facebook_Advertising_Author_Pages_and_Groups_with_Michael_Cooper.mp3

SFFMP 147: Mastering Facebook Advertising for Authors with Michael Cooper

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 05:04:54 +0000

We had a great show tonight with Michael Cooper, the author of HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck and also a science fiction author writing under M.D. Cooper. He’s been experimenting constantly with Facebook ads and had some amazing advice, a lot of it different from what we’ve heard before (Lindsay, who hates Facebook ads, is tempted to give them another try!), and the proof is in the pudding. He went from very modest sales to having months where he made $25,000+ from his science fiction novels (and no, he didn’t spend $30,000 on Facebook to make that much — Lindsay asked).

The show was so jam packed with information that we’re not going to attempt to touch on everything in the show notes here, but here’s a little of what Michael talked about:

Why you should never use your book cover (or any text at all) in the image of a Facebook ad.
Michael’s spreadsheet to help you figure out the read-through rate in your series, how much you’re earning per customer you get into your funnel, and how much you can afford to spend to acquire a reader.
The PDF file Michael mentioned: Facebook Ads for Fun and Profit v2.
Why you should start ads at $5 a day max and only increase the spend if they prove they’re doing well.
Creating a fan page to launch your advertising campaigns from instead of a business page.
Using Books2Read as a place to direct readers if you’re creating ads to appeal to readers on all platforms and not just sending them straight to Amazon.
Why Michael isn’t a fan of using Facebook ads to build a mailing list — he sends people straight to buy his books.
Doing long-form sales copy rather than simply creating a short snippet.
Why you should create different ads for different countries instead of just targeting all English-speaking countries.
Why Michael prefers to run ads on 99-cent or full-priced ebooks rather than permafree titles.
Creating character-based ad copy to appeal to female readers versus more plot-based copy for male readers.

You can find Michael on Facebook, on his science fiction author website Aeon 14, or he’s also active in the 20Booksto50K Facebook group.

Definitely pick up his book, HELP! My Facebook Ads Suck. And take notes while listening to the show. Thanks for listening!

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-146_-_Relaunching_an_Old_Series_to_Success_and_Hitting_Lists_with_a_Multi-Author_Set_with_Ella_Summers.mp3

SFFMP 146: Relaunching an Old Series to Success and Hitting Lists with a Multi-Author Boxed Set with Ella Summers

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 23:06:33 +0000

We recorded early today to accommodate our guest living in Switzerland, urban fantasy author Ella Summers. She has three paranormal and fantasy series that sell very well on Amazon: Legion of Angels, Dragon Born, and the recently relaunched Sorcery and Science. She was also a part of the big Dominion Rising multi-author boxed set that recently released and sold over 30,000 copies (we first interviewed the organizer, Gwynn White, about this boxed set back in April when it was on pre-order). We talked about tropes and expectations in urban fantasy, and also about rebranding and relaunching an old series that didn’t sell well originally.

Here are are few of the details we touched on:

Why Ella likes 60-70,000 words for her novels.
What readers of urban fantasy expect and when it’s okay to add non-standard elements (Ella mixes in science fiction and steampunk elements in her various series).
The strategy she recently used to relaunch her first series, which wasn’t a big seller and didn’t mesh with her existing brand.
Not being afraid to edit books in a series and do more than simply changing covers and blurbs when relaunching it.
Some popular tropes in urban fantasy.
How urban fantasy does in Kindle Unlimited today and if the niche is getting too crowded.
The tactics the authors in the Dominion Rising boxed set used to get tens of thousands of sales.
Branding covers not just within a series but across an author’s entire body of work.

You can find Ella on her website and check out her books on Amazon, including the first book in her best-selling Legion of Angels series.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-145_-_Using_eBook_Giveaways_to_Grow_Your_Audience_and_Sell_More_Books_with_Instafreebie.mp3

SFFMP 145: Using eBook Giveaways to Grow Your Audience and Sell More Books

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 04:05:25 +0000

On today’s show, we were joined by Ashley and Maura from Instafreebie. If you haven’t heard about the service yet, it’s a spot where you can upload free ebooks (previews, short stories, and novellas are fine), and it makes it easy for potential readers to download them and load them on their e-readers. You also have the option of requiring readers to share their email addresses in order to download the ebooks, so it can be a way to start growing a mailing list. A lot of our previous guests have used the service, and many authors attest to its usefulness, especially in conjunction with multi-author promotions.

Here’s some of what we talked about on the show:

How Instafreebie works and how it differs from Bookfunnel, another service that can facilitate giving away ebooks.
Giving away books (such as series starters) versus giving away short stories or previews of novels.
Making sure to put your call to action (i.e. buy Book 2 in the series here!) in the back of the ebooks you give away.
Using Instafreebie (and collecting email addresses) versus making books free on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, etc.
Whether cliffhangers, at the ends of free novels or previews, work or if the readers are left irritated.
Using a drip campaign (or auto-responder) to reach out to readers after they’ve shared their email addresses.
Instafreebie’s recommendation engine and other ways to increase discoverability outside of what you do for promo.
Organizing a group giveaway and asking them for a plug (submit requests to production@instafreebie.com)
How newer authors can leverage Instafreebie to build a fan base when they don’t have a big social media presence or mailing list for driving traffic.
How books are chosen to be shared on the Instafreebie blog for extra promotion.

If you’re interested in signing up for their service, find it at Instafreebie.com.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-144_-_Breaking_Six_Figures_as_an_Author_-_What_does_it_take.mp3

SFFMP 144: Breaking Six Figures as an Author – What Does It Take?

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 03:35:59 +0000

It’s a long show today, but we covered a lot of ground, so hopefully you’ll find it interesting. We discussed last year’s Author Earnings report that showed how many authors were making over $100,000 a year at Amazon.com, and we also talked about the findings of a survey by Written Word Media that came out a couple of months ago, giving the lowdown on habits of six-figures authors (i.e. how many books out, how long it took to get there, how much they’re paying for editors and cover art, etc.)

Here are some specifics from the crib sheet (click the links to the reports to read them in far more detail):

May 2016 Author Earnings Report (http://authorearnings.com/report/may-2016-report/):

Based on print, audio, and ebook of the Amazon US store only:

1,340 authors are earning $100,000/year or more from Amazon sales. But half of them are indies and Amazon-imprint authors. The majority of the remainder? They come from traditional publishing’s longest-tenured “old guard.”
Fewer than 115 Big Five-published authorsand 45 small- or medium-publisher authors who debuted in the past five years are currently earning $100K/year from Amazon sales. Among indie authors of the same tenure, more than 425 of them are now at a six-figure run rate.
More than 50% of all traditionally published book sales of any format in the US now happen on Amazon.com.
85% of all non-traditionally published book sales of any format in the US also happen on Amazon.com.

Written Word Media’s June 2017 Survey: What Makes a $100K Author (https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/2017/06/07/100k-author/):

88% of 100kers have been writing more than 3 years.
None of their survey responders making 100K were trad published.
There were hybrid authors, who either got a contract due to their indie success or decided to make the higher royalties as an indie for some of their stuff.
You don’t have to be exclusive with Amazon, there was a mix.
Rates for editors varied, as well as cover art, but none of the 100Kers were paying more than $1000 a cover.
The 100Kers try paid marketing and handle it themselves (nobody’s hiring a PR person here or handing off their FB ads)
20% of 100Kers still had day jobs, but they averaged 30 hours a week of writing as a group.
The 100Kers had an average of 30.3 books in their catalog (the most an author had was 63 and the minimum was 7)

Busting/discussing some myths:

You have to network tons and/or get a lucky break.
You have to write in romance or another huge, hot genre. (Big fish/small pond)
You have to be in KU/exclusive with Amazon.
You have to do everything right from Day 1.
You have to sell non-fiction or courses on the side.

Listener questions we answered in the show:

Ashley: I’d like to know the general time split (ex. 40/60) for marketing/creating time. I find myself liking marketing but not making time for it.

Ashley: Also how much of income comes from paid ads vs organic/networking?

Jesse: When should we spend money on advertising? After 1 book? A full series?

Kristy: Do you need to have audio and foreign translations to hit 6 figures?

Madeleine: What was the tipping point for number of books? What advice isn’t relevant any more e.g. landscape has changed?

Hannah: From a new author perspective: is it worth putting in a lot of money up front? Or starting with the essentials editing/cover design first.

Dale: I’m probably channeling Jeff: “What’s the single most effective thing you can do in to help become a six figure author?”

Dale: “What’s the least effective thing that will help you become a six-figure author.”

Ryan: Is it worth trying a new pen name when switching from fantasy to space adventure when you currently have a small fanbase?

If you want to support the hosts, or just check out their fiction, Jeff has a new Book 1 out in his Lentari fantasy world, May the Fang Be with You.

Jo has a fun summer project out, Structophis, and the first book in his popular steampunk series is free everywhere (fourth book coming in September).

Lindsay has taken her Fallen Empire series wide, and you can pick up the first one, Star Nomad, for free in all the major stores right now.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-143_-_Writing_Quickly_Sci-Fi_Anthologies_and_20BooksTo50K_with_Craig_Martelle.mp3

SFFMP 143: Writing Quickly, Sci-Fi Anthologies, and Networking with Other Authors with Craig Martelle

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 04:01:51 +0000

Today, science fiction author Craig Martelle joined us to talk about how he’s gotten rolling so quickly, publishing 20 novels in two years, spearheading three anthologies, and becoming super involved in the popular 20Booksto50K Facebook group, where he’s helping to put together a couple of huge conferences for indie authors.

Here are some of the specifics on what we covered:

Jumping right in with a schedule to write and publish books quickly.
Target word counts and planning out series ahead of time.
Differences in post-apocalyptic and space opera genres.
Reasons for putting together anthologies and how to make them profitable.
Networking with other authors online and in person.
Whether marketing and business should play a role in how you choose the next books you’re going to write.
Creating a bundle of starter books once you’ve got multiple series out.
What Craig posts on his Facebook page to keep readers interested and sell more books.
Asking for reviews at the end of books (and linking back to the book’s page in the store to make it easier for readers).

If you’re interested in signing up for either of the conferences that Craig talked about, here are the links:

20Booksto50K Las Vegas (November 2017): http://20booksvegas.com/
20Booksto50K London (February 2018): http://20bookslondon.com/

Be sure to check out his website and his work on Amazon, such as the first book in his Terry Henry Walton Chronicles.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-142_-_Doing_More_with_Your_Mailing_List_and_Finding_an_Editor.mp3

SFFMP 142: Mailing List Best Practices and Finding an Editor for Your Genre

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 03:48:21 +0000

On this week’s show, the guys chatted amongst themselves, covering such topics as how their summer book launches are going, finding an editor when you write cross-genre fiction, and basic and more advanced mailing list tactics.

Here are a few of the specifics they discussed:

• Where do the guys host their mailing lists?
• Is a mailing list necessary if you’re already on social media?
• What kinds of things do you say to your subscribers?
• How often should you email your subscribers?
• Should you email twice about the same release to ensure people saw it?
• Using free books or bonus stories to encourage people to subscribe.
• What kind of open rates should you expect as a genre fiction author?
• Should you scrub your mailing list to get rid of the dead weight (people who aren’t opening messages)?
• Should you segregate your mailing list? (i.e. sort by demographics, most opens/clicks.)
• Staggering the way you promote a book launch to create more of a steady trickle of sales during release week than a spike.
• Setting up an autoresponder series.
• Including links to backlist at the bottoms of your first auto-responder email.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-141_-_Succeeding_in_Urban_Fantasy_Collaborating_and_Quitting_the_Day_Job_with-_CN_Crawford.mp3

SFFMP 141: Succeeding in Urban Fantasy, Collaborating, and Quitting the Day Job with CN Crawford

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 02:30:56 +0000

This week, we chatted with urban fantasy authors Christine and Nick Crawford who write under the name CN Crawford. Christine has recently been able to quit the day job and go full time with the writing. After starting out publishing one book in 2014 and one in 2015, they got rolling in 2016, and now have several series going and selling well. We talked about urban fantasy and what it’s taking to succeed right now.

Here are some of the specific details from our conversation:

Collaborating as a husband and wife team.
Dealing with differences of opinion when your writing partner is your spouse.
Whether it takes anything special to break into the popular urban fantasy niche.
Thoughts on upcoming trends for urban fantasy.
Whether the genre expects male or female protagonists.
Giving away a free extra that ties into your main series in order to entice newsletter signups.
Using Bookfunnel to facilitate ebook giveaways.
Predominantly using Amazon and Facebook ads and not doing much with the typical promo sites.

Find them on their website or join their CN Crawford Facebook group. If you’re on Amazon, you can check out the first books in the Dark Fae FBI series or Demons of Fire and Night.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-140_-_Publishing_in_an_Underserved_Genre_and_Helping_to_Build_a_Community_with_Veronica_Scott.mp3

SFFMP 140: Publishing in an Underserved Genre and Helping to Build a Community with Veronica Scott

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 04:32:35 +0000

On today’s show, we talked about publishing in an underserved niche that’s too small to attract the attention of the Big 5 but that could potentially be lucrative to authors. Our guest was paranormal and science fiction romance author, Veronica Scott, and we also discussed some of the many things she’s doing to foster growth and awareness of the SFR genre among readers who might be interested. Even though we talked about scifi romance specifically, the interview might be of interest to other authors writing in smaller niches or doing cross-genre fiction. We discussed some of the challenges of marketing these types of books.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

The challenges of marketing books that don’t fall into the main categories on Bookbub and other promo sites.
The opportunities that indies have by writing in sub-genres or niches that are too small to interest traditional publishing.
Surfing through also-boughts on Amazon and also using the YASIV tool for finding related books and authors to target as keywords for ads.
How scifi romance has gotten more competitive over the last few years and whether it’s still possible for new authors to break in and reach the Top 100.
Some of the key reader expectations in SFR and differences between romances and scifi with “romantic elements.”
Common mistakes authors make with covers.
The blurb-writing service that Veronica uses: Cathryn Cade.
The cover designer that she uses: Fiona Jayde.
Why fostering a community can be useful, especially in a smaller niche, and how Veronica has gone about doing it.
Veronica Scott’s USA Today Happy Ever After blog column.
Her stance on newsletter swaps and newsletters in general.
Whether permafree series starters are viable in this genre.

You can find Veronica on her website, on Amazon, and on Twitter, and also check out her book inspired by the Titanic, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, or her latest release, Danger in the Stars.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-139_-_Marketing_Basics_Launching_Your_First_Book_and_Selling_More_Internationally_with_Joanna_Penn.mp3

SFFMP 139: Marketing Basics, Launching Your First Book, Translations, and Selling More Internationally with Joanna Penn

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 21:09:00 +0000

We had tons of great information on the show today, thanks to our experienced guest, Joanna Penn. You probably already know Joanna from The Creative Penn podcast and blog, but if you don’t, she’s a self-published thriller author, as well as the author of several non-fiction books on self-publishing and marketing. Right now, she’s releasing a new edition of How to Market a Book, so we asked her for her advice on long-term vs. short-term strategies, selling internationally as well as at home, and whether it’s worth worrying about translations and foreign rights as an indie.

Here are a few of the specifics we covered:

Some factors authors should consider in regard to what’s most important to them (i.e. do they have one book and want to maximize income or are they establishing a brand and a career full of books) when making a marketing plan.
Marketing a book versus marketing a series.
Building a platform as a new author.
What to do if you’re starting a pen name (or two) and worry about dividing your focus and getting spread too thin.
Realizing that you don’t need to do everything to be successful. Figure out what suits you, and do that. “Strategy is not just what you do but what you don’t do.”
Is it better to focus on your newest book or to spend as much or more time marketing your back list?
The difference between tactics you use in the short-term versus building up long-term resources that can continue to bring in sales over time.
Different ways to target international audiences, such as scheduling tweets/posts for certain time zones and using Bookbub’s PPC ads with country-specific links.
Whether it’s worth it to pay for translations of your books.
When foreign rights deals can make sense, if you’re offered them.
Whether it’s worth tinkering with keywords and changing up blurbs on Amazon to keep a book “fresh” for the search algorithms.

You can visit Joanna at her non-fiction site, The Creative Penn, or her fiction site, J.F. Penn. And be sure to check out How to Market a Book, which is a great foundational marketing book that also covers some more advanced tactics.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-138_-_Trad_vs._Indie_How_Marketing_Has_Evolved_and_Starting_Your_Own_Press_with_Kevin_J._Anderson.mp3

SFFMP 138: Trad vs. Indie for New Authors, How Marketing Has Evolved, and Starting Your Own Press with Kevin J. Anderson

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 04:53:03 +0000

Long-time science fiction author and NYT best seller Kevin J. Anderson joined us on the podcast today to talk about his recent projects, how the industry has changed since 1988 when he published his first novel, and what made him decide to start his own press.

Here are a few of the specifics we chatted about:

How Kevin is continuing to learn and try new marketing things, even after almost thirty years of publishing novels.
A project he’s excited about where he’s sharing his new epic fantasy novel, Spine of the Dragon, with newsletter subscribers as he works on it. (If you’re interested in seeing his process and reading the story long before it’s published, you can visit his site to sign up.)
How the landscape has changed over the years, and how it can be tough to make a living as a steady, mid-list author in the traditional publishing scene now.
Kevin’s enthusiasm for dictating his novels as he hikes in the mountains of Colorado (Lindsay would try this while hiking if she wasn’t constantly stopping to whistle for her dogs and telling them to stop chasing squirrels).
Why he thinks more authors should try dictation, since he finds it a very natural way to get the story down.
What it’s like writing in established universes and doing media tie-in novels.
Why Kevin decided to start Wordfire Press to publish his out-of-print books that he had the rights to.
How he ended up taking on a lot of other science fiction and fantasy authors who wanted to breathe new life into their out-of-print titles.
What Kevin has learned about starting a press that might be helpful for other authors thinking of doing the same.

Visit Kevin on his site and check out his Spine of the Dragon project.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-137_-_Are_Author_Earnings__Ebook_Sales_Trending_Downward_with_Nate_Hoffelder_Plus_Bonus_Release_Talk.mp3

SFFMP 137: Launching Books That Aren’t “to Market,” Agency Pricing, and Are Ebook Sales Down?

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 04:24:29 +0000

Today, we had Nate Hoffelder from The Digital Reader blog on the show to talk about some of the news he’s been covering in the publishing world. The interview ended up being a little shorter than our usual shows, so Jo and Lindsay also talked about their recent book launches in the first segment, including some of the challenges of marketing when books aren’t written to market and don’t fit in with the tropes of the typical subgenres of science fiction and fantasy.

Here are some of the details of what we covered:

The challenges of launching books that aren’t written to market and may be cross-genre or just a little out there.
What agency pricing is and if it means anything for indie authors.
Whether the ebook market has matured and leveled off in the U.S. or if there’s still room to grow.
Whether we should be worried when publishers report that author earnings and overall ebook sales are down.
Whether Kindle Unlimited earnings (payout for pages read), which has been down for the last couple of months, will continue to trend downward or level off and go back up.
The fact that scams are still happening in the Kindle Unlimited world, and that Amazon hasn’t been able to stop them.
Whether subscription services are a good idea or not for authors.
Whether it’s worth the effort for indie authors to put out paperbacks and audiobooks and put effort into marketing them.

You can find Nate at The Digital Reader and learn more about the author services he offers on his site, where he does website development and critiques. You can also say hi to him on Twitter.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-136_-_Running_a_Family_While_Successfully_Indie_Publishing_and_Marketing_with_Katie_Cross.mp3

SFFMP 136: Successfully Indie Publishing and Marketing While Running a Family

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 03:49:06 +0000

YA fantasy author Katie Cross joins us this week to discuss how she’s published eleven books while working and raising a family, and how she’s sold a lot of those books too!

Here’s a closer look at some of the topics we covered:

Finding time to write when you have a job and a family.
Whether YA ebooks do well and some of the challenges of self-publishing for that audience.
Some of the defining features of young adult fiction.
Keeping books selling when you’re not able to publish super frequently.
Selling well in the YA market.
Using Wattpad as a platform to gain readers and potentially get recognition.
Getting invited to the Wattpad advertising program and how much authors can make.
Getting more interaction and reads on Wattpad by asking questions at the end of installments and posting regularly (Katie was posting M/W/F for one of her books).
Tips for getting a Bookbub ad.
Facebook marketing and Facebook groups.
Determining which marketing is worth your time when your time is limited.
What Katie’s typical launch strategy looks like.

Visit Katie on her website or on Facebook and check out her YA fantasy books. You can also join her “indie author life” Facebook group for advice on self-publishing and marketing.

Note: Katie realized she had her numbers a little off in our chat about her Bookbub ad, so she sent me this correction to post here:

“In the podcast I share my BookBub numbers several times and mention selling 3,500 books on Amazon with my recent ad, but I checked back on those numbers and it was close to 3,000 books WIDE on all distributors including paperback and audiobooks (which are also affected by BookBubs) and includes all sales overall (including spillover into the other books in my series). <— This encompasses just the first week.

So it was not just my BookBub ad book that reached those numbers. I wish! Historically, however, by the end of the month, it’s likely I will reach 4,000—or beyond it—in sales from the BookBub tail. I have in the past seen upwards of those numbers from BookBub ads.

So sorry for that mess up! Transparency is really important to me so I wanted to add that caveat here. “

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-135_-_Amazon_Charts_Recommendations_from_Bookbub_and_Doing_More_at_Goodreads.mp3

SFFMP 135: Amazon Bestseller Charts, Using Goodreads to Sell Books, and Listener Questions Answered

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 04:33:36 +0000

Today, the guys answered listener questions, and Jeff and Lindsay interviewed Jo about what he learned at the big Book Expo America convention last week. There were reps from Bookbub and panels that discussed Goodreads, ebooks in libraries, and the new weekly Amazon best-seller and most-read charts, so there was plenty to discuss.

Here are some of the highlights:

Is it possible to find the next big trends early?
When it comes to success in self-publishing, how much relies on craft and how much on business and marketing?
When it comes to audiobooks and ACX, are you better off paying up front or doing a royalty split with a narrator?
How to market the second book in a series.
How many books did the guys have out before they were able to switch to writing full time?
How the BEA conference was different this year from last year when Jo went.
Uses for the new Amazon Charts showing the most purchased and most read books each week.
Ebook trends in libraries.
Getting ebooks into libraries and the increase in audiobook borrows, including digital ones.
What Bookbub gives preference to when deciding whether to choose or accept a book for a sponsored ad.
Bookbub’s new pre-order alerts and other ways you can market with them beyond the typical ads.
The Bookbub Insights blog where they share their tips for authors.
What’s working at Goodreads these days to help authors sell books?
The Goodreads ebook giveaway program is supposed to be coming out of beta testing soon.
Posting your book on Goodreads before it’s released so you can get early reviews.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-134_-_When_to_Hire_a_Personal_Assistant_Facebook_Live_Events_and_King_Arthur_Fantasy_with_K.M._Shea.mp3

SFFMP 134: When to Hire a Personal Assistant, Facebook Live Events, and King Arthur Fantasy with K.M. Shea

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 31 May 2017 03:24:53 +0000

On today’s show, we talked to return guest, fantasy author K.M. Shea. She specializes in retold fairy tales and King Arthur fantasy, and she’s definitely exploited the fact that these are fairly small and underserved sub-genres. If you have any interest in fairy tales, check out her last interview with us: Retold Fairy Tales, Kindle Unlimited, and Finding Less Competitive Categories.

We talked more about her King Arthur series today and also about some of the business/marketing things she’s been working on in the last year. Here are some of the details we covered:

Whether it makes sense to go back and deeply edit one of your early books or series.
Whether the fairy tale niche is still fairly underserved and if it’s easier (compared to popular categories like urban and epic fantasy) to break into the Top 100.
Finding a personal assistant to help with your author business, when it’s time and where to look.
What the going rate is for an author PA or VA (virtual assistant).
How much work do you need to have to outsource before someone might be interested in hiring on?
Do you need to worry about non-disclosure agreements? Sharing passwords?
Kitty’s experiences experimenting with Amazon ads, Facebook ads, and free Bookbub runs for a couple of her fairy tale novels.
Doing Facebook Live Events alone and with other authors, and whether these things actually sell books.
Kitty mentioned Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans site and how she works to cultivate a good relationship with her readers.
Whether joint author promos can be effective for selling your own books.

You can visit KM Shea at her website or on Facebook, and check out her books at Amazon, including her retelling of Beauty and the Beast and Enthroned, her first King Arthur story.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-133_-_Guest_Interview_from_Lon_Varnadore.mp3

SFFMP 133: Serials, Reader Magnets, and When to Jump to Full Time

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 24 May 2017 02:46:50 +0000

We switched things up this week and had a guest come on and interview us. Lindsay, Jeff, and Jo did their best to answer questions on marketing and publishing from science fiction author (and contest winner) Lon Varnadore.

Here are some of the questions he asked us:

Is permafree still viable? What about the 99-cent model?
Are there any sub-genres where indies aren’t well-represented?
Are authors still publishing serials and how well are they working now?
When does it make sense to make the jump to being a full-time author?
Are you guys using “reader magnets” to get people onto your lists, and how effective is this?
Kindle Unlimited or wide?
Has your marketing advice changed from when you started this podcast in September 2014 to now?
And the most important: if you could switch place with one of your characters, which would it be?

You can visit Lon on his website and also grab his first novel, Mostly Human, for free on Amazon and in other spots.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-132_-_Answering_Listener_Questions_and_Are_Spinoffs_a_Good_Idea.mp3

SFFMP 132: Are Spinoffs a Good Idea, Costs of Cover Art, & Marketing Unique Stories

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 17 May 2017 02:53:42 +0000

For the first time in a couple of months, Jeff, Jo, and Lindsay didn’t have a guest tonight. They answered listener questions and talked about their own experiences with spinoffs and the pros and cons of doing them from a financial and creative standpoint.

Here are a few specifics that they talked about:

Kindle Worlds and whether Jo’s experience writing in Lindsay’s world was worth the time that was invested.
Whether book trailers ever work and are worth doing.
How much to expect to spend for the various types of cover art (i.e. illustrated, photoshop/illustration combination with stock art or with models and photo shoots of your own).
The challenges of using stock photos and finding good images when you’re writing people of color (or just need period-appropriate clothing for fantasy/science fiction).
Whether it’s possible for an epic fantasy story that’s not in a traditional setting or not a traditional story to do well.
Whether you need to create a DBA or anything special when you start publishing under a pen name.
Advice for getting Amazon to make an ebook free when it’s already free in other stores.
Some of the reasons that writing a spinoff might make sense if you had a series that did well (i.e. an almost guaranteed audience, no need to start from scratch with world-building, easier to guess how much the books will earn, based on the sales from the past series).
Some of the reasons you may not want to do a spinoff (i.e. may only appeal to readers of the original series, may lose some of the magic of the original, may be constrained by events that happened in the original).

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-131_-_When_a_Literary_Agent_Makes_Sense_and_How_to_Get_One_with_Mark_Gottlieb.mp3

SFFMP 131: When a Literary Agent Makes Sense for New and Established Authors

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 10 May 2017 03:17:52 +0000

Today, literary agent Mark Gottlieb chatted with Jo and Lindsay. He’s from the Trident Media Group and represents a lot of genres, including science fiction and fantasy. We asked him about getting an agent as a newer author and also as an established indie author with some titles under your belt.

Here are a few specifics of what we discussed:

Whether print-only deals are still a thing or a likely option for indie authors who sell well.
Whether most clients are coming out of the slush pile or if networking at workshops and conventions is important for getting an agent.
What kinds of rights (foreign rights, audio rights, film rights, etc.) are useful for indie authors to know about.
Whether getting a film deal or an “option” is really that lucrative, or if it’s mostly marketing to help an author sell more books.
The role of agents in a hybrid author’s career.
Whether the traditional publishing houses are signing as many authors as they used to, and if they’re fostering young authors’ careers.
If some sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy do better with self-publishing instead of traditional publishing.
What’s been trending the last couple of years with trad publishers and what they’re looking for now in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Whether it’s better to query with a series that’s in the middle and selling well, or if you should pitch something brand new.
If it’s possible to get an agent and a publishing deal when your self-published book or books did not sell well.
How much advertising a trad publisher is going to put behind a typical author.
How much marketing you’re expected to do for yourself when you trad publish.

You can find Mark Gottlieb on the Trident Media Group site, and he mentioned that John Silbersack also seeks out SF&F with their agency.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-130_-_Marketing_Productivity_and_Turning_Your_Writing_Hobby_into_a_Career_with_Monica_Leonelle.mp3

SFFMP 130: Better Marketing, More Productivity, and Turning Your Writing Hobby into a Career with Monica Leonelle

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 03 May 2017 02:46:39 +0000

Today, we interviewed young adult urban fantasy and paranormal romance author Monica Leonelle. In addition to writing fiction, she also blogs at Prose on Fire and writes the non-fiction “Growth Hacking for Storytellers” series. We talked about improving productivity for writers and some of the basics of marketing that get overlooked in the urgency to just make more sales.

Here are a few more details of what we discussed:

Going from writing 1,000 to 3,500 words an hour.
How doing some extensive pre-planning (world-building and creating characters) before getting started can make the writing process smoother.
Using “thematic” world building as a way to help discover motivations for characters and also various factions in your worlds.
Outlining stories and scene beats before sitting down to write for the day.
Breaking up your goals into manageable chunks (i.e. I’m going to write 15 or even 8 minutes today rather than starting out saying you’re going to write for 2 hours).
Setting yourself up to meet your goals by having a good mindset.
How important is a regular schedule for productivity?
Monica’s Spanish translation of one of her books and whether it’s been worthwhile.
When it comes to marketing, giving out samples to get new readers to try you rather than simply trying to go straight to the sale.
Moving a person from being a reader to a fan to a true fan or evangelist.
Doing things to “activate your fans” to get them to take actions to help you get the word out.
Whether you should focus your efforts on your most recent release or if the back list should always get attention.
Whether permafree is still working as a way to get “samples” out there.
Taking your writing efforts from hobby to career.

You can find Monica online on her website or at Prose on Fire. If you’ve found her advice useful, you can check out her books such as 8-Minute Writing Habit: Create a Consistent Writing Habit That Works With Your Busy Lifestyle and Prosperous Creation: Make Art and Make Money at the Same Time.

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-129_-_Using_Multi-Author_Boxed_Sets_to_Hit_Bestseller_Lists_and_Jumpstart_Your_Career_with_Gwynn_White.mp3

SFFMP 129: Using Multi-Author Boxed Sets to Hit Bestseller Lists and Jumpstart Your Career with Gwynn White

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 03:06:40 +0000

This week, we chatted with fantasy/steampunk/fairy tale/memoir author Gwynn White, who has used multiauthor boxed sets to jumpstart her fantasy career and to hit the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists.

Here are some details on what we covered:

The fact that you can actually sell travel memoirs as an indie author! (This is how Gwynn got her start.)
The challenges of selling books that are a mashup of subgenres and weren’t written to market.
Using boxed sets for getting your Book 1s in front of a lot of eyeballs.
Gwynn’s experience being in two big boxed sets that hit the USA Today and NYT lists and what she learned that she’s now applying to two sets she’s organizing.
Getting 20 authors involved and leveraging them for mailing list promotions and other types of marketing.
Utilizing pre-orders to help get the necessary numbers to hit the lists.
Setting your goals ahead of time: are the bestseller letters the most important thing, or do you want to make money (especially through Kindle Unlimited page reads), or are you most interested in sell-through to other books in your series?
Going wide with a boxed set (this is necessary if you want to hit lists) versus launching it into KDP Select/KU.
Using Pronoun to get a much longer pre-order period on Amazon (the usual is only 3 months) and also to be able to put huge files (such as you get with 20 novels in one ebook) through at 99 cents (Amazon tends to increase the price to $1.99 with big boxed sets).
Also using Pronoun because you can get 70% even on 99-cent novels.

You can visit Gwynn on her website or check out her books on Amazon. Her first fantasy novel is Rebel’s Honor.

Also, if you want to support the two boxed sets she has going now, you can grab 20+ authors for 99 cents in Dominion Rising and Marked by Fate.

Note: In a correction related to last week’s episode, where audiobooks came up, I mentioned that you can have individual titles and one boxed set per series when it comes to audiobooks for those going directly to Audible through ACX. Here’s the link to their FAQ with more information on that: How do I create a bundle version of the audiobooks I have already released?

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-128_-_Kindle_Unlimited_Perma_99-Cents_and_ACX_vs._Traditional_Audio_Publishers_with_Anthony_Melchiorri.mp3

SFFMP 128: Kindle Unlimited, Perma 99-Cents, and ACX vs. Traditional Audiobook Publishers with Anthony J. Melchiorri

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 03:08:33 +0000

It’s not every week that we get authors with PhDs in science on the show (though we’ve had a few!), but today Anthony J Melchiorri joined us. By day, he uses his PhD in bioengineering to develop cellular therapies and 3D-printable artificial organs, and by night, he writes medical thrillers, post-apocalyptic fiction, and space opera. So far, he’s best-known for his Tide series.

Here’s some of what we chatted about:

How Anthony’s background led him to start writing medical thrillers with a science fiction twist.
How those books didn’t sell as well as he’d hoped and he ended up writing post-apocalyptic fiction.
PA fiction having a really rabid reader base that wants more books than are out there.
How you might be able to find a good subgenre on Amazon to exploit by looking for ones where books with poor covers are selling well.
Whether his Kindle Worlds project was worth it as far as time and money invested in it went.
If authors with tons of in-depth scientific knowledge can still expect to get “corrected” by well-meaning readers.
Concerns about possibly including too much science in the stories when you have that in-depth knowledge.
Marketing in the various different genres (space opera, post apocalyptic, and medial thrillers) and why some do well in Kindle Unlimited and others don’t.
Trying a perma- or long-term 99 cent price on a Book 1.
The differences in producing your own audiobooks through ACX and going with a publisher — Blackstone Audio is doing Anthony’s Eternal Frontier series.
Challenges in marketing audiobooks and what works.

You can find Anthony on his website, on Facebook, or check out his books on Amazon. If you want to try his fiction, Book 1 in the Tide series or Book 1 in the Eternal Frontier series would be good starts.

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Writing 5,000 Words an Hour and Selling Zombies and Werewolves

SFFMP 127: Book Launch Tips, Mistakes People Make with Amazon Algorithms, and Writing a Trilogy in 12 Weeks

burokerl@comcast.net (Lindsay Buroker) — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 03:11:01 +0000

Today, Chris Fox joined us to talk about book launches, book RE-launches, reasons why the Amazon algorithms may not be plugging your book, and writing a trilogy in twelve weeks. The author of non-fiction titles such as 5,000 Words Per Hour and Writing to Market, he’s joined us twice before on previous episodes:

Selling More by Writing to Market + A Novel in 21 Days

Here’s some of what we covered today:

What Chris has been up to since finishing his Void Wraith Trilogy, the military SF he wrote to market last year, and how it ended up doing overall.
Why he’s writing a trilogy in 12 weeks and planning to release the books in rapid succession.
Some of the benefits of writing more than the first novel in a series before publishing any of them.
The importance of taking time off and taking time for passion projects.
Strategies for launching into crowded niches.
Whether Chris will do 99 cents for his launch of Book 1.
Using Facebook and Amazon ads to find a target audience and whether they’re proving effective (and affordable) right now.
Why it’s worthwhile to think about your character names instead of just throwing things out there.
Accountability tricks for sticking to one’s goals.
Launching a novel when you haven’t built up a list yet.
Why you might not want to tell everyone you know about your new novel — the confusing effect that can have on Amazon’s algorithms.
Relaunching a novel or series that didn’t do well out of the blocks.

You can find Chris and his video series on his site or on his YouTube channel. You can order Write to Market and Six-Figure Author on Amazon, and his new book, Relaunch Your Novel, will be out in May. You can also check out his fiction, starting with Destroyer or No Such Thing as Werewolves.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-127_-_Book_Launches_Common_Amazon_Algorithm_Mistakes_and_Writing_a_12_Week_Trilogy_with_Chris_Fox.mp3

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