The guys are taking a break from the podcast (if you have comments or suggestions for what you’d like to see if we bring it back in a couple of months, please leave them!), but we answered another pile of listener questions today amid a few doggie interruptions, ahem. Here are the specific questions we addressed: How do you approach
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):
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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
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
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:
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
