The Secret to Independent/Self-Publishing? - Series! (Part 2)

Last week I talked about my journey through independent publishing learning what was working and what was not.  I had started with writing non-fiction and one-off novels, and found that the promoting of them was very difficult, particularly because, once I had promoted them, I was done.  There was no series which I could build over time.

What I’ve done with this blog post, in splitting it up, is illustrate part of what works.  If you can generate some interest and say the story will continue, that draws an audience in.  It also helps because it’s spread over two areas.  Some of you will undoubtedly see this post first, and go back to the last one to see where I began while many of you will have seen that first, and come here.  This is called casting a wider net.  If I had another one come out next week, some people would undoubtedly see that and trace it back to see where it all began.  And when people make sure to read all the way through, that counts as three views to my blog per person rather than just one.

In short, having a series builds an audience over time, something independent authors desperately need.  The more reasons you have to post about your series, the more opportunities others have to find it.  And by having multiple books come out, you can have something new to talk about regarding your series as time goes along.  It’s especially helpful when you have short stories that take place throughout as well, as you can post and talk about those for free, and they’re tiny amounts of your story that people can digest without a huge investment of time.

In my case, I’ve chosen to do my series Relic Worlds, about an anthropologist searching for ancient artifacts in the ruins of distant planets to learn what happened to alien civilizations in the galaxy.  Sort of Indiana Jones in space, if you will.  This series has a novel once a year, and a bunch of short stories in between each novel.  There are also games, choose your own adventures, and other interactive materials that come out for it all the time.

By having so many different elements, I’m able to talk about what’s happening in the series on an ongoing basis.  This is a huge departure from my other books where the only update I could give was, “book’s still out on Amazon and waiting for you to buy.”  As an ongoing tale, I can keep everyone up to date on the latest products and stories in the ongoing adventure.  And I can bring everyone along for the ride like they’re involved.

I bring them along by being a part of their discussions on Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.  Being sci fi and adventure, those are the groups I belong to; and I enjoy the discussions.  I can get involved in what they’re saying about other sci fi and adventure stories, and I build trust and engagement with them.  So when I say, hey guys, something else has come out from Relic Worlds, I’m not just appearing out of nowhere and trying to sell them something.  Hell, I’m not even selling to them, I’m giving away most of what I’m talking about for free.

Speaking of which, it’s best to make the first book free as well.  This pulls people into the story as they’re likely to get the first book for free just to see what it is, then they’ll get curious where the characters go from there.  I made sure to end the first book by giving a sense of where everyone was going, but leaving it open-ended enough to make everyone curious.  With my one-off books, when I gave them away for free, that was it.  They had the product and didn’t need to buy anything else.

And then there’s the conventions.  While it was difficult for me to find conventions to sell my other books, with sci fi, there are plenty of conventions dedicated to just that, or to the “popular arts,” which generally includes sci fi and fantasy along with comic books.  Now, at these conventions you’ll generally spend a lot of money getting a booth and decorating it, but then you’ll hardly have any sales.  So why are they worth it?  Because that’s where you build your following.  They may not want to spend money at your booth because they’re spending it all on Batman and Star Wars paraphernalia.  But since they met you, they’ll go home and look at your stuff, and possibly buy it later.  They’re also pretty willing to join your mailing list.

This mailing list, I’ve learned, is perhaps the most important element.  By having it, I can contact them directly to remind them I exist rather than counting on people to look up my page and start following along.  Again, with a one-off book, all I can do is tell them what’s in the book and hope they buy it, or maybe tell them about new books I’m writing, which may or may not be of a genre they’re interested in.  But by having an ongoing sci fi series, they will stay connected, and follow the story that matches their interest.

So, the plan for Relic Worlds going forward is basically in two parts: online and at conventions.

Online I interact with others in their groups and on my pages, twitter, blog, etc.  I tell them what’s new in the world of Relic Worlds while interacting with them about other subjects in sci fi and adventure.  (Even throwing in a lot about real science and archaeology.)  This is all centered on the newsletter that I send out once a month to the people on the email list.

Meanwhile, I go to whatever conventions I can get to and afford, and I build my email list, as well as give out flyers to get people involved in the series.  So far it’s done well to generate some interest.  Few sales have come from it, but I’ve just started, so hopefully this will work.  I’ll post later about how it continues.

Sent books to PBS/NPR

Today I mailed a whole slew of books to various places.  They were mostly to public television and radio locations throughout the country based on lists I had made.

I started by looking up station information in specific states:  Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. New York, South Dakota, Idaho, and Washington.  These were all places where Richard Hart lived.  I also included California as that's where I live, and media outlets are more likely to do a story on you if you're a local.  Once I had my list of stations, I went through the website of each one, searching for the contact person to send a book to.  This would usually be programming, or sometimes a producer.  I would always look to see if there was a specific show that handled books, and sometimes I even called to ask if the station did any specials on books.  When a station looked like they only aired programming from other locations, I didn't bother with them, as I've already sent books to the main NPR and PBS production locations.

Once I had the contact information, I looked to see which seemed better, email or mail.  Email is cheaper and easier, and you get an answer without a financial investment, but it's also easier to ignore or not notice when there are hundreds of emails going to some of these locations every day.  It's also easier to say no to someone when all you see is an email IF you even get it.  It's harder when you see a nice book that came for free which has an interesting topic right there on the cover.  So I categorized many of the names on the list.  The ones that were the most important, such as Chicago's public station, and the local LA affiliate, I just automatically got the name and address so I could mail a book.  Some of the smaller ones, and some which seem to prefer doing things electronically got an email with links to the Bandwagon website.

The books that I mailed mostly went with media kits.  Even though I made the media kits to go to stations that weren't getting books, the most important locations got them in addition to the books for two reasons:  First, because they're PBS/NPR, the most likely places to feature books and therefore worth the extra effort.  Second, because at a lot of these places there will be book critics considering doing book reviews, and news departments which might do stories on Richard Hart or the Capone family.

The most important package to go out today was one to The Daily Show.  I managed to get the name of the woman in charge of booking guests, so I packaged up a media kit, a letter, and a book.  This one being a bit more important, I made sure to get a hard cover version of it made since this was so important, and typically you see John Stewart handling the hard cover rather than the paper back.

All of these places could have learned about it through the press release I sent out, but being PBS/NPR locations that regularly talk about books, I wanted to make sure I got in their faces.  So far the emails haven't had much of a response.  Let's hope the mailings have better luck.

I did a number of other things this week that aren't coming to mind right now.  The trouble with me reporting all this is that I work almost nonstop from morning through late into the night.  Many of the things I do just get done and they're not even done being wiped from my plate when I'm on to the next thing.  I almost need someone with a camera over my shoulder to show what I do, as I have no time to write them down, or to hold a camera and show people.

Although I did start one channel.  After seeing a whole bunch of bloggers and Youtubers refusing to review or even look at self-published works, (even though they are self-published,) I became infuriated, and wanted to do something about it.  I also have been aware that i need to stop making excuses and start losing weight.  (My girlfriend doesn't let me forget.)  So I decided to combine the two and I am doing a monthly Youtube program where I pick one independently published work and I read it while I'm out on walks.  At the beginning of the month, I pick the book and weigh myself, and at the end I review the book and weigh myself again.  Here is the first full episode.