Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast
99 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 120 ratingsInterviewing and Learning from Successful Authors
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Episodes
SFFMP 173: From Indie to Hybrid, Six Figure Audiobook Advances, and an $80,000 Kickstarter for a Novel
March 21, 2018 03:51 - 54.6 MBOn 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,
SFFMP 172: Making It as a Newer Author, Marketing YA Fantasy, and are Vampires Still “In”?
March 07, 2018 04:00 - 42.2 MBLike 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
SFFMP 171: Lindsay’s Launch Numbers (Earned vs Spent), Targeting International Sales, and Increasing Mailing List Open Rates
February 28, 2018 04:50 - 48.1 MBOur 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
SFFMP 170: Keeping an Older Series Selling, Nebula Awards, and What SFWA Can Do for You
February 21, 2018 05:01 - 47.7 MBOn 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
SFFMP 169: Writing Across Genres, Getting New Books to Stick, and Epic/Military Fantasy with David Estes
February 12, 2018 05:40 - 51.1 MBThis 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
No Show This Week
February 07, 2018 06:08Sorry, 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
January 31, 2018 05:46 - 48.9 MBReturn 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
SFFMP 167: Encouraging News from the Author Earnings Report and What’s Working at Kobo
January 24, 2018 04:41 - 44.8 MBThe 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
SFFMP 166: Best Price Points, Does Book Length Matter, and Tips for Selling More Books Wide with Mark Coker
January 17, 2018 03:57 - 43.4 MBOne 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
SFFMP 165: Relaunching a Series, Bookbub Ads, and Does Podcasting Help Authors?
January 10, 2018 05:04 - 56 MBA 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
SFFMP 164: 2018 Marketing Predictions, Our Author Resolutions, and When to Advertise What
January 03, 2018 04:45 - 54.4 MBHappy 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
SFFMP 163: Successfully Launching as a New Author and Is Kindle Worlds Worth It?
December 27, 2017 04:37 - 56.3 MBScience 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
SFFMP 162: Finding Success in a Niche, When 99-cent Novels Make Sense, and Bucking Cover Trends with Amanda Milo
December 20, 2017 04:43 - 44.9 MBOur 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
SFFMP 161: Handling Foreign Rights Yourself, When to Incorporate, and New Audiobook Options
December 13, 2017 04:50 - 51.7 MBOn 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
SFFMP 160: Making a Living Selling Physical Books at Conventions with Russell Nohelty
December 06, 2017 05:02 - 52.4 MBOn 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
SFFMP 159: Twitter Marketing Best Practices for Authors with Jesper Schmidt
November 28, 2017 22:20 - 52.9 MBThis 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
SFFMP 158: Making the Best Use of Promo Sites with Will from Book Barbarian
November 22, 2017 05:18 - 41.6 MBThis 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
SFFMP 157: Advanced Newsletter Tactics, Set-It-and-Forget It Automation, and Cultivating a Relationship with Your Readers with Andrea Pearson
November 15, 2017 04:45 - 57.6 MBWe 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
SFFMP 156: Finding Success with a Cross-Genre Book Launch with Chris Fox
November 08, 2017 04:16 - 34.1 MBOne 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
SFFMP 155: What It Takes to Shift from Hobby Writer to Full-Time Author with Ben Hale
November 01, 2017 00:48 - 41.6 MBThis 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
SFFMP 154: Getting into Libraries, Urban Fantasy Launches, and Writing Tips from the Donald Maass Workshop
October 18, 2017 03:52 - 43.3 MBToday, 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
SFFMP 153: What to Do When Your Book Isn’t Selling + Selling Direct from Your Site
October 11, 2017 03:34 - 55.1 MBToday, 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:
SFFMP 152: Pricing, Category Stuffing, Launching with Three Books, and Marketing Cross-Genre Novels
October 04, 2017 03:37 - 47.6 MBThis 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
SFFMP 151: All About Bookbub CPM Ads and Becoming a #1 Bestseller on Amazon with Adam Croft
September 26, 2017 20:53 - 44.5 MBToday’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
SFFMP 150: Paranormal Romance and Publishing/Marketing Outside of the U.S. with Nalini Signh
September 20, 2017 03:32 - 45.8 MBThis 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
SFFMP 149: Success with Epic Fantasy and Marketing when Traditionally Published with Brian McClellan
September 13, 2017 04:23 - 51.2 MBThis 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
SFFMP 148: 12 Ways to Keep Your Backlist Selling and Maintain a Steady Income
September 06, 2017 04:05 - 58.1 MBThe 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
SFFMP 147: Mastering Facebook Advertising for Authors with Michael Cooper
August 30, 2017 05:04 - 55 MBWe 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
SFFMP 146: Relaunching an Old Series to Success and Hitting Lists with a Multi-Author Boxed Set with Ella Summers
August 22, 2017 23:06 - 45.9 MBWe 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
SFFMP 145: Using eBook Giveaways to Grow Your Audience and Sell More Books
August 16, 2017 04:05 - 30 MBOn 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
SFFMP 144: Breaking Six Figures as an Author – What Does It Take?
August 09, 2017 03:35 - 57.5 MBIt’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,
SFFMP 143: Writing Quickly, Sci-Fi Anthologies, and Networking with Other Authors with Craig Martelle
August 02, 2017 04:01 - 42.8 MBToday, 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:
SFFMP 142: Mailing List Best Practices and Finding an Editor for Your Genre
July 26, 2017 03:48 - 49.3 MBOn 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
SFFMP 141: Succeeding in Urban Fantasy, Collaborating, and Quitting the Day Job with CN Crawford
July 19, 2017 02:30 - 36.3 MBThis 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
SFFMP 140: Publishing in an Underserved Genre and Helping to Build a Community with Veronica Scott
July 12, 2017 04:32 - 43.1 MBOn 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
SFFMP 139: Marketing Basics, Launching Your First Book, Translations, and Selling More Internationally with Joanna Penn
July 05, 2017 21:09 - 54.3 MBWe 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
SFFMP 138: Trad vs. Indie for New Authors, How Marketing Has Evolved, and Starting Your Own Press with Kevin J. Anderson
June 28, 2017 04:53 - 41 MBLong-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
SFFMP 137: Launching Books That Aren’t “to Market,” Agency Pricing, and Are Ebook Sales Down?
June 21, 2017 04:24 - 46.9 MBToday, 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
SFFMP 136: Successfully Indie Publishing and Marketing While Running a Family
June 14, 2017 03:49 - 51.8 MBYA 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
SFFMP 135: Amazon Bestseller Charts, Using Goodreads to Sell Books, and Listener Questions Answered
June 07, 2017 04:33 - 58.6 MBToday, 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
SFFMP 134: When to Hire a Personal Assistant, Facebook Live Events, and King Arthur Fantasy with K.M. Shea
May 31, 2017 03:24 - 47.9 MBOn 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
SFFMP 133: Serials, Reader Magnets, and When to Jump to Full Time
May 24, 2017 02:46 - 36.3 MBWe 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
SFFMP 132: Are Spinoffs a Good Idea, Costs of Cover Art, & Marketing Unique Stories
May 17, 2017 02:53 - 48.4 MBFor 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
SFFMP 131: When a Literary Agent Makes Sense for New and Established Authors
May 10, 2017 03:17 - 41.5 MBToday, 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
SFFMP 130: Better Marketing, More Productivity, and Turning Your Writing Hobby into a Career with Monica Leonelle
May 03, 2017 02:46 - 45.9 MBToday, 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
SFFMP 129: Using Multi-Author Boxed Sets to Hit Bestseller Lists and Jumpstart Your Career with Gwynn White
April 26, 2017 03:06 - 43.5 MBThis 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
SFFMP 128: Kindle Unlimited, Perma 99-Cents, and ACX vs. Traditional Audiobook Publishers with Anthony J. Melchiorri
April 19, 2017 03:08 - 38.8 MBIt’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
SFFMP 127: Book Launch Tips, Mistakes People Make with Amazon Algorithms, and Writing a Trilogy in 12 Weeks
April 12, 2017 03:11 - 33 MBToday, 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: Writing 5,000 Words an Hour and Selling
SFFMP 126: Breaking Out, Five Figure Months, and Writing in Someone Else’s World
April 05, 2017 04:09 - 31.6 MBFantasy author Justin Sloan joins us this week to talk about why the traditional “just write the next book” advice may not always be the right tactic for every author in every stage of his career. He also discusses how he broke out and went from small successes to big ones when he started reaching out to other authors for