SFFMP 55: Launch Strategies, Pitfalls of Being Prolific, and How to Know When a Book Is Ready
Tonight we were joined by a fan of the show and fellow podcaster, Edward Giordano. For a change, he interviewed us, asking questions he had as a new author. We hope our answers will be useful to some of you, as well!
Here’s some of what we went over:
- How to get books and ebooks into libraries (Here’s the interview with the librarian that Lindsay mentioned.)
- Keeping characters/settings/themes fresh when you’re prolific and you’re publishing a lot of books
- How to launch your first book or books as a new author
- Whether KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited is the way to go as a new author
- Whether Facebook or in-person launch parties are worth doing
- If it’s your first book, how do you know if it’s ready to be published?
- Making short stories or novelettes profitable
- How to know if a story idea is worth pursuing
- Are paperbacks and audiobooks worth the time and cost of producing them?
- Are in-person events worth it for selling books?
Edward hasn’t published his first book yet, but you can visit his SciFan Podcast, where he and his host chat about science fiction and fantasy books and television shows.
Edward also mentioned a helpful book that you might like to check out: Nail Your Story: Add Tension, Build Emotion, and Keep Your Readers Addicted (Growth Hacking For Storytellers #2)
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A note from a listener on Ingram Spark and libraries:
Hi,
I’m listening to the most recent podcast and wanted to comment on the topic of retailers & librarians ordering from Lightning Source/Ingram Spark over Createspace. I have some small press trad publishers on my editing team and they tell me the reason is that LS/IS will accept remainder returns and Createspace will not. I have another friend who used to own a bookstore and she confirmed it for me.
I went so far as to not use expanded distribution on my CS books so that I could keep the minimal price low and give myself more wiggle room on discounting the books. Just thought I’d throw my two cents in.
Thanks for the podcast and you guys keep on keepin’ on.
C.Steven Manley
http://www.amazon.com/C.Steven-Manley/e/B00U6722LC
Interesting. I wonder how low the “minimal price” is when compared to Createspace’s author copies. I already thought they were pretty reasonable but am always looking to save $$.