by Stephen Campbell | Jan 27, 2015 | Podcasts
Think for a minute about the book you’re reading right now. How did you find it? If it’s an author you’ve read before, how did you originally discover her work?
The current word for how our work is found by readers is discoverability. As authors, we want to make our books as discoverable as possible, so they stand out from the millions of other books that are currently for sale.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning and USA today bestselling author who writes across multiple genres. She’s also a prolific blogger, a teacher, a business woman, and the author of DISCOVERABILITY.
In this episode, we talk about the different components of discoverability, and what we, as authors can do to put ourselves in the best possible position to have our books discovered by readers.
It’s both a thrill and an honor for me to have Kris as a guest on The Author Biz. Much of my interest in the fascinating business of publishing has come from reading the Business Musings articles she regularly posts on her website, KrisWrites.com. Her site is must read material for both traditionally published, and self-published authors around the world.
In this 60-minute interview, Kris and I discuss several aspects of discoverability, including:
- The genesis of her book, DISCOVERABILITY.
- The importance of what Kris calls Passive Marketing.
- The challenges of understanding your genre.
- Covers are important in three ways.
- The importance of branding for both you and your books.
- The use of pseudonyms as a form of branding.
- The different types of readers
- The importance of long-term planning to your business as an author.
- The importance of having a well thought out pricing strategy.
- Kris describes the components of a good author website.
- Fiction authors and blogging - should they or shouldn’t they?
- How to encourage word of mouth
- Kris and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, offer a series of lectures and workshops designed for authors of all skill levels.
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 28
by Stephen Campbell | Jan 19, 2015 | Podcasts
Writing titles for blog posts and podcasts can be tricky. I could have called this How to Sell 1,000,000 books in your first 3 1/2 years. Or, how to write over 35 books in 42 months, and both would have been great “link bait” type titles, but neither would capture the value provided in this episode by Russell Blake.
Russell Blake
You see, Russell has discovered one of the great secrets to success as an author. Writing. A lot of writing. He calls that content creation, which is the part of his business where he’s most focused.
His most recent book, JET - Survival, is a great example the type of fast-paced thrillers he writes that appeal to sophisticated readers around the world. JET - Survival, is the 8th book in his bestselling Jet series.
He has several other series running as well and is currently co-authoring his second book with publishing legend, Clive Cussler. The first book they wrote together, THE EYE OF HEAVEN, debuted near the top of the New York Times Bestseller list when it was released in September.
As you’ll hear in the interview, the primary driver of Russell’s success is that he spends 85% of his time creating content (writing books). He spends the remaining 15% on things like quality control, marketing, sales, and writing for his blog, which is read by writers of all types.
In this 52-minute episode Russell and I discuss:
- His initial business plan
- His first, sub $20 Royalty payment and how long it took to exceed $1,000 in monthly royalties
- The genesis of his highly entertaining and bestselling Jet series.
- The value of experimentation
- Russell looks at his Author Business as two separate operations.
- His pricing philosophy.
- His social media strategy/philosophy.
- The value of word-of-mouth sales to his brand.
- The team that helps him to be so productive.
- The benefits of working with a publishing legend like Clive Cussler.
- The importance of knowing your value proposition
- The value of focus to success in any field.
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 27
by Stephen Campbell | Jan 12, 2015 | Podcasts
Have you ever posted a book on Amazon and wondered whether or not you’ve chosen the best keywords, and categories for your book? Do you have a small worry tickling at the back of your mind that you haven’t done everything you can do to optimize your book for the Amazon platform? If so, this episode should be of great interest to you.
My guest, Emilee Annine Moeller, is an actress, an environmental attorney, and a self-confessed Kindle Geek. She’s also the author of two Amazon non-fiction Bestsellers, EAT, PRAY, HCG and HCG DIET RECIPIES.
In addition to writing and publishing her own books, Emilee is the co-founder of KindleCoachPro.com where she coaches other authors how to self-publish and promote their books on Amazon. She has an amazing success rate helping her author clients hit the Amazon bestseller lists.
I had a blast and learned a lot in this 50-minute chat with Emilee. You can listen to it here:
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 26
by Stephen Campbell | Jan 5, 2015 | Podcasts
The dream: You write, edit and polish your manuscript to the point where it shines like a diamond, then send it to a big time agent who begs to represent you. She submits it to the big five publishers, all of whom want your book. There’s a bidding war and the winner pays you an advance that’s large enough for you to quit your day job and begin writing full time.
The fact: If you’re not already the star of a reality television program, this probably isn’t happening.
But what if there was another way to become a full-time writer? What if you could use your storytelling skills to earn money doing freelance work while spending the rest of your time working on your novels.
Chris Orcutt has been supporting himself as a professional writer for nearly 20 years, by doing just that, but not in the ways you might expect. He’s become a specialist in writing speeches and as you’ll hear in the interview, even screenplays for corporations.
He uses the skills he’s developed over the years as a writer, to help support his work as a novelist. And it’s working. In the past twelve months, Chris has published two books, including the latest in his Dakota Stevens Mystery Series, A TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION. In March of last year, he published the award-winning 100 MILES FROM MANHATTAN.
I really enjoyed this 48-minute interview with Chris. You can listen to it here:
Click here to Listen to The Author Biz Episode No. 24
by Stephen Campbell | Dec 22, 2014 | Podcasts
Is there really only one way to build a business as an author? Must we spend time building a platform before we can write and publish a book? Do we have to be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and every other social media site? These are the rules, right? At least that’s what the experts tell us.
But what if there are no rules?
Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur Jane Friedman just released a book with the title PUBLISHING 101. One of my favorite lines of the book comes in the introduction where she says, “I teach the rules, even though there aren’t any.”
Jane also co-founded Scratch Magazine, The Digital Magazine for Writers, with Manjula Martin. As you’ll hear in the interview, this is something I read from start to finish with each new issue, normally in one evening. If you’re a regular listener of The Author Biz podcast, I think you’d enjoy Scratch.
In this episode Jane and I discuss things like author platforms, the value of consistent blogging in her career and her surprising views on blogging for authors, finding the right publication path for an authors books and some of the many challenges and opportunities facing authors today.
Click here to Listen to The Author Biz Episode No. 24
by Stephen Campbell | Dec 10, 2014 | Podcasts
It’s December – a month filled with family, friends, food, shopping AND if you’re an author/businessperson a great time for planning.
In this episode author, Elizabeth Spann Craig takes us through her method of setting up a production plan. It’s a complicated process that breaks down into easy to understand components during this podcast.
In March of last year, Elizabeth wrote my single favorite blog post of 2014, Creating a Production Plan. It’s something that I’ve kept and referred to often.Elizabeth is a hybrid author, with two cozy mystery series published traditionally, and one series that she publishes on her own. As you’ll hear in the interview, she built her production schedule process out of the need to keep herself, and her support team focused and on target.
She’s a prolific content creator, and her award-winning blog is focused exclusively on providing useful information to writers.
In this interview, Elizabeth and I focus primarily on building an easy to use production plan, but we veer off into blogging and social media, specifically twitter, where Elizabeth has a unique presence.
Click Here to Listen to The Author Biz Episode No. 23
Or, you can get it at iTunes.
