Indie Publishing, Debut Author Tips, and Romance, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Biography, and Faith-Based Books
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:40:47 — 220.9MB)
In this episode 304, we bring you a special feature with five authors talking about their debut journeys in a variety of genres. We also explore Indie publishing with USA Today bestselling author Jenifer Ruff and check out a continent-hopping romantic drama. Plus we have extra writing tips and book recommendations throughout!
Today’s Featured Authors:
Tammy Harrow Time Stamp: 22:44
All the Salt in the Sea is a book about relationships that takes the reader from an Italian mountaintop to Paris to Switzerland and to Saint Augustine, Florida.
Jenifer Ruff Time Stamp: 40:12
USA Today bestselling author Jenifer Ruff’s new novel The Groom Went Missing is a mystery/thriller that is part of the Agent Victoria Heslin series.
Neil Carmichael Time Stamp: 1:42:50
Set against the backdrop of the events chronicled in the book of Acts, The Thornfollows the journeys of ordinary believers trying to live out an extraordinary message at the dawn of Christianity.
Amy Peacock Time Stamp: 1:42:50
Old Breed General is a biography of Marine Major General William H. Rupertus, author of the Corps’ Rifleman’s Creed who served in Haiti, China, and in the Pacific during WWII.
Emily Johnson Time Stamp: 1:42:50
Bird of Paradise is a coming of age and love story with lush island settings, co-written by Emily and her mother, Marilyn Anne Hughes.
Tim Eichenbrenner Time Stamp: 1:42:50
To Live in the Light is a novel about a physician who loses everything, including his faith, until he hears the “voice” in a near-death encounter.
Delphine McClelland Time Stamp: 1:42:50
Dark Obsessions is a vampire adventure tale, where Charlotte and New Orleans meet.
Host Updates With Links: Time Stamp: 4:38
Sarah: I’m in revisions with the studio on my latest rom-com feature project, and dabbling in some experimental short fiction as well. I’ve done some summer travel, exploring historical sites in Virginia and South Carolina. And this month my husband and I are celebrating that he’s done with medical training and residency and starting a new job in Salisbury–it’s been a long journey!
Hannah: I’m getting ready for the birth of my first daughter, and fitting in as much work and reading as possible before she arrives!
Landis: I spent a week at the beach last week with my immediate family and our wonderful one-year-old family addition, grandchild Simon, who went on his first boat ride. My children Jordan and Hamlin surprised me with an early 65th birthday celebration that included Hamlin flying in for two days from Denver, a boat rental for a day and an evening low country boil they orchestrated. On the book front, I am honored to be the featured author at this month’s Final Draught sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation. I’d love to have you come drink a beer or two and engage with me on my novel, Deadly Declarations. Proceeds go to support the Library Foundation. Details and tickets for the August 23rd evening event at Town Brewing can be found here: https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/event/final-draught-landis-wade/
Book Recommendations: Time Stamp: 9:45
Hannah recommends:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
That’s Novel Books also recommends The Secret History, as well as We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter.
Sarah recommends:
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Landis recommends:
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Harbor by Katrine Engberg
from Instagram:
Sharon Dukett recommends Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
Joe Congel recommends his novel Deadly Passion: a Tony Razzoltio, PI Story
Mark West, Storied Charlotte Blog, recommends:
Charlotte Lit’s Litmosphere journal
North Carolina Literary Review
Writing Tips: Time Stamp: 1:42:50
We have a special quintuple feature in this episode: five authors (Neil Carmichael, Amy Peacock, Emily Johnson, Tim Eichenbrenner, and Delphine McClelland) share their debut publication journeys.
Each writer addresses these topics:
- The steps they took and writing practices they adopted to write the first draft
- What they did to take their book from first draft to final draft (the editing process)
- How they chose to publish their book and why they chose that publishing path
- What they wish they had known before they got started about the process of writing and publishing their first book
While these authors wrote very different books, and published through diverse methods, including traditional, independent, and hybrid publishing, they all spoke of the passion that guided their work, the importance of receiving feedback, and the rewards of seeing your story reach readers.
Don’t miss Charlotte Lit co-founder and executive director Paul Reali’s 2-minute tip about how math can help you in your writing. Time Stamp: 35:45
Marketing Tips: Time Stamp: 40:12
USA Today bestselling author Jenifer Ruff shares some secrets about how she navigates the world of indie publishing, with tips for how to make money while doing it.
Topics covered:
-Why choose Indie publishing
-Picking a social media platform
-Using Kindle Unlimited for ebooks and going wide for print and audiobooks
-How to publish more than one book a year and building a backlist
-How to utilize beta readers and advance readers to make your book better
-Tools for self-editing
-The timing and pricing of pre-orders
-Planning a book launch
-Audiobook production
-Book advertising with Amazon (ads/Kindle deals/Prime reading), Facebook ads, and BookBub- her big 3
Highlights and takeaways:
-Indie publishing offers the author creative control, allowing the author to publish more books on their schedule, not the publisher’s schedule. But with control comes responsibility for managing the whole process.
-Develop a good website and pick one social media platform to focus on and use well. Jenifer chose Facebook. She created a personal Facebook page and an author Facebook page and relies upon it for ads and support from other authors in the community.
-To write and publish more books, Jenifer always has a book in process. When she finishes one, she starts another. She is always thinking about plots and plot twists and works them out from beginning to end. She is an outliner, which helps her publish more books each year. She doesn’t use any fancy tools, choosing to outline and write in Microsoft Word. She publishes two books each year and is working toward publishing three books each year.
-She relies on a critique group, beta readers and an advance reader team to provide feedback, and she also uses an editor.
-Having a backlist helps sell books. Each time you write a new book, you find new readers and if they like your book, they may go back and find and buy your other books.
-Jenifer does her own formatting but hires out the cover artist.
-Jenifer formats in Word and uses Draft2Digital to create the digital version.
-Jenifer chooses to be exclusive in Kindle Unlimited on Amazon for her eBooks. She believes this is helpful to an author trying to find readers and it has been profitable for her, through page read income from Kindle Unlimited. 50% of her income comes through Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited readers don’t buy the book but they read books in Kindle Unlimited and help the author find readers and generate income from the page reads.
-Jenifer takes advantage of all the deals offered to Kindle Unlimited authors, such as Kindle Daily Deals, Prime reading and more, because it helps her find new readers.
-Jenifer chooses to be wide with her print books by publishing them on IngramSpark, which makes them available to book stores and online retailers.
-Jenifer distributes her audiobooks through Findaway Voices and Audible, which makes them available to every audiobook distributor. When finding your narrator, she does not recommend a royalty share arrangement; rather, she recommends paying the narrator for their work and maintaining sole control over the content and the income.
-Jenifer chose to use two narrators, male and female, and though it increased the cost, she was pleased with the result. She uses Silverton audio for the production of her audiobooks and has enjoyed working with them.
-BookBub is a leader in getting the ebook out to many readers. The secret to getting a BookBub deal is just that, a secret. But Jenifer believes it starts with a good cover and quality writing, and it helps to have good reviews. If you get a BookBub deal, it is expensive, and they give your ebook away for free or at a reduced price, but you will find many readers and substantially increase the number of your reviews.
-Jenifer always tries new things in her book launch process, but the most important thing is her timeline. She allows plenty of time after finishing the book to do the things that need to be done prior to publishing the book. One is the advance reader process, where she sends the book to her advance readers for feedback. She also has the next two chapters of her next book ready when she publishes, so they can be in the back of the book.
-She prices her book at $5.99, which is well below traditional publishing but slightly higher than many Indie authors.
-She puts her book on preorder only when she is positive it is coming out–that she is going to finish it–but she doesn’t wait until after it is fully edited. She still does many revisions in that space, though she knows the main storyline is not going to change. Yet, she provides enough space to be able to meet the publishing date on Amazon, because Amazon will punish authors who miss those dates. She only puts her ebook up for preorder on Amazon.
-She prices her preorders the same as her regular sale price, because she believes the people who are going to preorder your book are your fans and would pay full price anyway.
-She does not enjoy writing a newsletter. She only turns it on a month before her release.
-Most of her marketing is through Facebook ads. She runs Facebook ads every day and has a big budget for Facebook ads.
-She does some Amazon ads, with a tiny budget, just because she doesn’t want to take the chance of not doing it.
-She also does a few BookBub ads each year.
-To learn more about Facebook and Amazon advertising, she suggests taking courses. She wishes she had taken these courses from day one. She recommends Mark Dawson’s courses. He has an Ads for Authors course that is updated and she receives the updates. It teaches about Facebook, Amazon, BookBub. She also recommends Brian Cohen and Mal Cooper.
-Jenifer also recommends joining Facebook groups with other authors. She likes the group “Wide for the Win.” There is one called “The SPF Formula” and “20 Books to 50K.” She says it helps the author to know they aren’t in it alone.
-Jenifer chooses to spend her energy online rather than focus on bookstores and libraries because there is so much competition there with traditional publishers.
-Some tools Jenifer uses: She uses ProWriter to help with self-editing. She uses BookBrush, which is a tool that helps make images for Facebook and Amazon ads, although she has found that her audiobook cover works best on Facebook ads. She uses BookFunnel when she sends her book out to her advance review team and beta readers and she makes it available in several formats.
Takeaways:
This episode was packed with practical information from authors who have followed very different journeys to publication, yet all found a way to get their stories into the world. We talked about the importance of being adaptable in the fast-changing publishing world–but one unchanging truth is that you should write what it brings you joy to read.
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