Q Evelyn Williamson is going to kick us off with three questions. She says, “I’m working on my first novel and would like to know how much money I need once I publish … to promote my book.

Also, she’ like to know what kinds of things are acceptable expenses to write off. Are books on writing craft a business expense?

And Evelyn’s third question about a book review blog she’s starting. She wants to know if she needs to have a separate bank account from her writing?

Q Our friend Dave Smale says, “Some literary agents ask for a market analysis with the query letter, but sellers don’t release their numbers to the public. It seems like the agents would know much better than the authors, so wouldn’t that be their job?

Joshua Moore says, Jim, Thomas, thank you so much for all the insight you give so freely. I’ve been listening to at least 3 episodes a day and am on episode 65 now… and I can’t help but keep wondering… How did you two meet? What is the story that led to “Hey, we should do a podcast together.”

Q BRITTANY FICHTER who is the author of The Classical Kingdoms Collection and has her website at BrittanyFichterFiction.com says, “I write clean fairy tale retellings for older teens and adults. I’ve just put out my fourth book, and the series is selling reasonably well.

I’m about to repackage my first three books as a boxed set trilogy. I’ve heard readers of boxed sets is a slightly different demographic than readers who purchase one book at a time. How can I find those box set readers?”

Q Our next question comes from Jaime Jo Wright who is publishing her debut novel this December called The House on Foster Hill from Bethany … I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you pre-ordered the book … I’ve heard great things about it … and you can find out more about Jaime at jaimejowright dot com. I have to make a quick comment about Jaime. She and I have been friends for a long time and was actually a consultant for me on my second novel, Book of Days ….

Jaime says, a lot of new authors, like moi :), cut their teeth on novellas. Since I’m part of two novella collections, I’ve already been dubbed the “novella queen” by friends and even readers (which is funny because two novellas is definitely not worthy of a crown). Regardless, there is still a lot of momentum as a new author, with my first novella being a part of collection that hit the ECPA and Publisher’s Weekly Bestsellers list. So, without having my own single-title novel out yet, how should a new author ride the wave of marketing that surrounds a novella collection and set themselves up right for (hopefully) a future single-title release? Just ride it and hope the readers stick with you for the long haul and through every 20K word short story you can produce until then? Or are there specifics we can do NOW?

 Q Our next question comes from Roland Denzel. You can find Roland at Eat Well Move Well dot com and his book is Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well – 52 Ways to Feel Better in a Week

He says, “When’s the Novel Marketing book or course coming?”

 5 Year Course

Q Hey Tom & Jim,

On another author’s podcast that I subscribed to (until yesterday) the host and guest bashed self publishing. The host said self-published books are commonly not edited nearly enough which makes them a waste of time to read even if the idea is good. The guest was even harsher and said no one ever reads self-published books because they’re not marketed by major publishing houses, therefore no one even knows about them. I’m not published at all, but as far as I understand publishing houses are just that – publishers, not marketing firms. They may do some marketing for the author, but don’t authors end up doing most of their own marketing anyway?