SPA Girls Podcast – EP27 – Self Publishing Trends
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This week we’re without the delightful Wendy Vella (who is off on a romantic holiday in an exotic location for her daughter’s wedding), but we managed to put an exciting episode together anyway. We’re talking about some of the more recent self-publishing trends that we’ve noticed (and some that aren’t so recent, but are still relevant) and how you might be able to use them to your advantage.
Self-publishing trends (our take on them)
Facebook advertising.
There are a number of different courses you can do and people seem to be putting a lot of emphasis on this topic at the moment. As a newbie writer this is probably not something you need to invest a lot of time in at this stage, but it is something to be aware of. It can also be a way of spending a great deal of money if you don’t know what you are doing. Using a pre-paid card is often best, otherwise you can overspend.
People who are doing this well have spent a lot of time learning the process and have worked hard for some time to achieve results. Testing ads, tweaking them and re-running them all takes time, but is necessary to get it right.
Audio books.
With the age of electronic devices, the audio book popularity is definitely on the rise. Commuters, people who exercise and the elderly are some who enjoy them.
Often there is more discoverability in audio books, because there are not as many available as say, ebooks or print.
ACX is Amazon’s audio book line, and is still only in a few countries. You can contact people to do this if you don’t live in the USA, but it is expensive.
Remember – before doing any type of advertising do your due diligence, and make sure you know what you are getting for your money.
Be mindful of what genre advertising is suitable for you book when you read something on line. Also be aware the date it was posted, as things in this industry change rapidly.
Courses
There has been a swing towards courses over the last few years, and a lot of the top authors are offering them. The cost differs as do what they offer, so just make sure you do a course that is helpful to you. Ask other writers for recommendations, find out who has done what course and whether it’s worth your while to do it also. You can waste a lot of money and end up totally confused and overwhelmed otherwise.
Also look at reputable organisations like Romance Writers of America, (for romance specific genres) and see what they recommend.
Marie Force is one author who does great course.
Authors writing themed books within shared worlds.
This is a fun thing to do with a group of authors. Nothing better than leveraging of other writers in this way, and cross promoting. So how it works is you may be asked to write about a particular setting for example, vineyard or a wedding themed book (whatever is chosen) by a set time.
Several writers writing one book is another way to get your voice heard. Each writer gets a chapter or two and it’s an interesting way of doing things, as each writer has a different voice. The scene is set, characters plotted etc and you write your chapter, continuing on from the last one.
Boxed sets are also an option, these were very popular but seem to be less so now.
Multiple authors sharing one pen-name
A whole group of people writing under the one pen-name. The reasoning behind this is to produce more content fast and possible put out a new book under that one name every couple of weeks. The voices would be different, but often there is one editor to ensure consistency. This practice has been around for a while, like ghost writing.
Ghost writing, is writing a book on behalf of someone else. Some of the biggest authors have been known to use ghost writers to meet deadlines.
Foreign translations
It was the trend, but now seems to have lost traction. It costs a considerable sum of money, and is really best left until you have achieved some success.
Dictation
This can help you write more words for longer, and not get RSI or burn out. There are several programs out there and this is definitely taking off.
Final product
Make sure that before you put your book on the endless shelves of Amazon or other ebook stores, that it is edited professionally and has a professional looking cover. The days of being able to chuck a book up and it would sell are long gone. The competition is fierce, so make sure your book is the best it can be.
Remember if you see something that seems to good to be true, it probably is.
Links
Marie Force courses – http://marieforce.com/workshops/
http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm – Dragon Dictate
