March 13, 2019

SFFMP 223: Marketing Audiobooks, Pen Names, Differences in Distributors, and What to Do When You Just Have One Book

The guys are taking a break from the podcast (if you have comments or suggestions for what you’d like to see if we bring it back in a couple of months, please leave them!), but we answered another pile of listener questions today amid a few doggie interruptions, ahem.

Here are the specific questions we addressed:

How do you approach marketing an audiobook? Advertising specifically to audiobook listeners? Or reliance on general traffic to your product page combined with having the audiobook simultaneously with ebook release?

Would any of you consider doing another “start from scratch” pen name experiment?

Let’s say an indie author has exactly one (1) book out. Let’s also say they didn’t do the rapid release thing at *all*, nor much in the way of ads. Is the best practice still “finish the series and build a backlist”? Or should they try some ads?

1. Is $2.99 too much to ask for a 60k urban fantasy as a new writer? 2. Do you guys have any tips on what you would do if you were starting out as a new author?

What is the difference between Draft to Digital and Publish Drive? (Joanna Penn’s episode with the founder of Publish Drive.)

Do any of you use photos of yourself in the “about the author” section of your books like trade pub does?

ISBNs – Should we get our own or just use the free ones provided by Amazon, etc? What’s the difference? Pros and cons of each?

Affiliate links – What do they do? Where do we get them? Proper usage?

Writing workshops – How can writers find them? Is there a way to see if they are good/worth the money? Are there online options?

Top 100 – What does it mean to be in the top 100? What can be learned by looking at the top 100 in genres we might be writing in?

What kind of checklist of things do each of you do when preparing to release a book? IE Reviewing editorial notes, getting a copyright…

You mentioned in the most recent episode that you thought Also Boughts on Amazon might be on the way out. Does that mean pen names aren’t important anymore? If they are, is it worth republishing books under pen names if they aren’t the same genres?

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By Lindsay Buroker

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