Beginning Science Fiction Promotions

The biggest lesson I learned from publishing and promoting Two Gun Hart is that there is a reason the independent bestsellers are not typically non-fiction, they are fiction.  In fact, they're typically sci fi or fantasy, and they generally are in series.  So I've had to look hard into what works.

I can't say I've entirely figured it out, but I'm learning as I set it all up.  My original plan had involved a lot of concentration on pre-sales, trying to get so many people to buy before the release so the release date would look huge, and hopefully I would get into the New York Times Bestseller list.  I learned from Two Gun and from other top sellers that this isn't a goal that's good to concentrate on for independents.  People don't know us yet, so they need to learn to trust us.

That's why series work the best.  Readers want to see what we can do before they spend money.  That means seeing something for free.  And if you have only one book, you're limited on what you can show.  You can give away a chapter, maybe two, but after you've given those away, you don't have a lot more to give to get attention on another day, and audiences typically need to see you multiple times before they'll buy your work.  I think I heard the number is something like nine times before they'll consider buying your work.

So the best thing to do is to have a series where you have multiple books.  Most of the top sellers have given away the first book and the second costs some money, often still very cheap.  This entices readers in slowly but surely.  I have been coming out with short stories and giving them away to anyone who would read them to hopefully get them involved.  I always direct them back tot he website where new products are constantly being posted.

As for my plans for promotion, they go in three stages:  Pre-pre-release, Pre-release, and Post-release.

Pre-pre-release is 6-3 months before release.  This is when I send out everything that's been done before.  I'm trying to get my first book out to as many reviewers as possible, and make people aware of the series, the short stories, and the products that existed before.  I'm sort of catching up during this period.

Pre-release is beginning Christmas day, and will go until release in March, a period of almost exactly 3 months.  This is going to be when I build hype for the book coming out, and will mostly focus on how the story is directing towards the second book.  The short stories will start leading toward something specific, that something being what's in the second book.  Also, this step begins on Christmas because I will be giving away the first novel and the pick your path book that day to get people who just got a new Kindle into the series.  The pick your path book in particular leads to the second book as it's the introduction of the villains who are in it.

And finally, release.  This will be the biggest time for this.  I've found that with self-published authors, readers typically want to see what you've got, not what could be.  While it's good to generate hype leading up to the product, I've noticed that those who have done well have done so once the book's out.  The release will be happening at Wondercon, which will be the big event where we have a booth, are hosting a game, and will be doing everything we can to bring attention to the book.  Just before and after that, we'll be throwing up every advertisement we can, and appearing on every social media group possible, giving away the first book, short stories, and every manner of giveaway item we can just to bring attention to that second book, which will be available on Kindle for a low price to attract readers.  The number of downloads will be more important than the profit as these numbers get the attention of more numbers, and it's the interest in the series I'm most interested in at this time.

If it becomes popular enough, I can continue the series, and the fan base will grow for book 3.

The New Schedule of Relic Worlds

After reviewing what’s been working and not working for me in publishing, and where I am in terms of Relic Worlds, I’ve reworked the schedule for the second book, short stories, and pick your path books.

The second book will now be released at Wondercon at the end of March.  The short stories will continue to be released up to that point, and the fourth pick your path book will come out on Christmas day.  In fact, the fourth pick your path book and the first novel will both be available for free on Christmas as an incentive to get people to reading them.  I might make all the pick your path books free on that day as well.  The idea is that people will be getting new Kindles on Christmas, and they’ll likely turn them on to see what’s available for free, so I’m hoping they’ll pick these up.

I plan on having a lot of events between January and March to build interest in Relic Worlds, and to generally have fun with it.  Overall, Relic Worlds is intended to be fun, so I want people to enjoy some events and games that relate to the adventure and science fiction of the story to get into the series.  Some of these will include geocaches, programming, online treasure hunts, etc.

For now, it’s time to release more short stories and continue building up the website for the immersive experience that is Relic Worlds.

Relic Worlds Novel Free Today on Kindle through KDP Select

My latest novel, Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and theSearch for the Promised World, is now available for the Kindle on Amazon.  I had been releasing the series on Drivethru Fiction, and had even done this book as a serial there, releasing each chapter as I finished it.  As such, I was going to have the novel come out on Drivethru and all the other e-readers upon release.

However, I looked over the results of my last two books, Pro Bono and The Great Heist.  I released the former through the free on Kindle program, and even though I gave thousands of copies away for free, I sold thousands more after the promotion.  That book still sells better than any of my others.  Meanwhile, I put The Great Heist through Amazon’s other promotion program, Kindle Countdown Deal, where it is sold for a lower price for a limited time.  I had almost no luck with that, selling only a few copies during the promotion period, and it’s never taken off, despite the fact that the subject matter is even more appealing to the general public than Pro Bono.

Of course, none of the other major e-reader platforms have a good promotion program other than Drivethru, which, unfortunately, is not a site highly trafficked enough to get a huge amount of sales.  So as a result, I’m going exclusively with Amazon to give away those copies for free so hopefully those people will spread the word.

I am doing this promotion in two stages:

First promotion:  I’m making it free for two days over a weekend to give it away to all the fans of Relic Worlds and people who have been following me on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  It’s a bonus to them, and hopefully those people will begin spreading the word in time for the second promotion.

Second promotion:  About a month later, I’m making it free for three days.  I will be promoting this one far more widely.  Those areas include:  Book Bub, Pixel of Ink, Facebook sci fi sites, Google + sci fi sites, Kindle Daily, etc.  This is the one I’ll really be pushing, and trying to get people to purchase.

The intent is to generate interest while there’s still time left in the exclusive Kindle deal.  The reason this is helpful is because it maximizes the book’s exposure in one area, making it more likely to get on their top books list.  If people have multiple readers, they purchase it on Amazon, and that pushes me up the Amazon list higher.  If it was on multiple readers, the book would go more evenly up multiple lists, thus making it so the book never reaches bestseller status on any one site.

Since the other e-reader sites do not have promotions that support independent artists like Amazon does, I chose Amazon Kindle.  Simple as that.  They all bemoan Amazon for having unfair business practices, but they do that while not improving their own services for independent authors like myself; so I don’t feel too sorry for them.

Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World Released

Yesterday at Wondercon I released Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World.  It is the first primary book in the Relic Worlds series.  What I mean by "primary book" is that there are other Relic Worlds books out there, but this is intended to be the first in the series.  The Deep Beyond, which was released several years ago, is the prequel, and is intended to be read after someone knows the characters and understands it.  That novella gives insight into the characters before the main incidents in the primary story.

The Relic Worlds series follows the adventures of Lancaster James, an anthropologist scouring the ruins of long lost civilizations on distant planets in search of powerful artifacts they left behind.  He is trying to find out what happened to these alien races, why they disappeared, and to see if the same thing can happen to humanity.

In The Search for the Promised World, Lancaster is following the trail of the subter-Siguerans, a race who left a trail of clues behind as they made their way to a planet they believed was promised to them by their god.  He will have to compete with space pirates, street thugs, and corporate barons to get to his destination and learn the truth.

The book is currently available on the website, www.relicworlds.com, and on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised/dp/1499197020/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1398023946&sr=8-11&keywords=Relic+Worlds