SFFMP 124: Collaborating and Networking with Other Authors to Reach Larger Audiences

We had a full house tonight with Jo, Jeff, and Lindsay talking to J Thorn, J.F. Penn, and Zach Bohannon, three authors Lindsay is currently collaborating with for a dark fantasy project. Not unexpectedly, our show topic is collaboration, something we’ve talked about before but not for a while. We also discussed networking with other authors and even store merchandizers and how you can get more eyeballs on your work by doing some of these group projects or participating in group promotions.

Here are a few of the details of what we discussed:

  • Some of the benefits of collaboration, both from a writing perspective and from a marketing perspective.
  • Growing your audience through exposure to other authors’ audiences.
  • Leaning more about your craft through working closely with other authors.
  • Approaching people you might be interested in working with.
  • How accounting works when you’re splitting the earnings and expenses among two or more authors.
  • Handling differences that might come up during the project.
  • Marketing the finished project and what to do when some of the authors usually write in different genres and have different kinds of lists.
  • Networking with other authors for marketing opportunities that don’t involve actual writing collaboration.
  • Going to conventions, book expos, etc. to meet other authors and also store merchandizers to get on their radar.

You can check out more on the collaborative project (American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice) right here.

Interested in more interviews? J Thorn was also on the show back with Episode 52: Collaborating and Organizing Multi-Author Boxed Sets. Zach Bohannon talked with us on Episode 49: Productivity and First Book Success.

J.F. Penn (AKA Joanna Penn) also runs the informative Creative Penn podcast for author-prenuers.

 

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4 comments

  • Lindsay, so funny… I love this! Thank you, guys, for sharing this! Much appreciated! I would love to collaborate on a new book. I’ve never done it and all that giggling over there sounds like fun!

    • SFFpodcast

      Thanks for listening, Dean! We have no idea how the final story will come out, but the trip was fun. 🙂

  • Such a great episode! You could tell Joanna was up past her bedtime. 😛 I loved the point about collaborating on writing being like collaborating on music. I never thought about that as I’ve tackled collaborating on building a world with a friend (also a muso, that I’ve played with), but it makes a lot of sense. There’s something incredible about taking an idea you think is pretty good, sharing it and watching their eyes light up as their imagination is sparked and the story/song goes from pretty good to super exciting.