SFFMP 83: Using the Slow Burn Launch Strategy to Stick on Amazon and the Pitfalls of Genre Hopping
The guys chatted about their recent experiences with book launches and also how their genre hopping adventures are going. In addition, they discussed the slow-burn launch strategy that a lot of indie authors have been using to great success.
Here are a few more details of what they covered:
- How does their launch strategy differ now than from when they were first starting out?
- Using three books to launch into a new genre or a new pen name, or at least committing to writing and publishing three before giving up.
- The challenges of genre hopping (even within the umbrella of science fiction and fantasy) and whether or not it’s going to be a career killer.
- How they’ve gone about finding beta readers to use before sending a manuscript off to an editor for a final pass.
- Critique groups Lindsay has used for science fiction/fantasy: The SFF Online Writing Workshop and Critters.org.
- How KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited are playing into most successful book launches now.
- When pre-orders make sense and if one should consider selling at a lower price during the pre-order.
- How just launching your book and sending out an announcement to your newsletter subscribers probably won’t be enough to make your book “stick” on Amazon.
- Segmenting and staggering your newsletter so it goes out to different groups of subscribers over multiple days to fight against the “Bookbub Effect.”
- Booking “new release” ad slots on sponsorship sites and how many of them are offering that now.
- Kboards thread referenced in the show: Slow burn launch for stickiness by Aimee Easterling [includes links to many of the siates that will book new releases]
- Another one: A mini-guide to launch promo services by Nicholas Erik
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Hi guys! I listen every week, but this is the first time I’ve remembered to come here and leave a comment. I do really enjoy these episodes where it’s just the three of you and you discuss what you’re doing. It’s very helpful! Funnily enough, I had written a blog post for today on genre hopping! I wrote it on the weekend and scheduled it for today, but then I listened to your podcast yesterday on my walk and had to leave a footnote about what I learned. I genre hop the same as Jeff. Lol. Except I’m scifi and cozy mysteries. It has been hard so far, but nothing about my career has been easy, so it’s par for the course! Here’s why I made my switch…
http://www.spajonas.com/2016/06/02/why-did-you-switch-to-a-different-genre-with-the-daydreamer-detective/
Thanks for listening, S.J.! Yeah, I’m sure it’s tough to get much crossover when going from scifi to cozy mysteries. It’s almost like having to do it all twice with two separate names!
Love what you guys are doing. Big fan over here. I was just looking at the shownotes and your link to the Science Fiction and Fantasy online workshop actually leads to an amazon book page. thought i’d let you know
Thanks, Jakob! Got it fixed now!
I write nonfiction history and also novels I refer to as western mysteries, historicals with a twist. Along with that, I write chapter books for 8-10-year-olds. Not a stretch as they are still mysteries. I do zero book launch promotions and very little with sales promotion after they are out, and it is starting to show. I do sell enough to make vacation money but it would be nice to sell a few more each month. I enjoy the writing but now have reached a point where it would be nice to amp up my sales. Fun and interesting podcast, with lots of things to think about.
I’ve been meaning to say since this episode came out – I love the show overall, but I especially love when you guys share what you are doing! More of these, please! =D
Glad you find those shows helpful, R.K.! We’ll keep doing them now and then. 🙂