The latest episode of my Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast features an interview with Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer.
It's a great conversation where we talk about how Rob was the first science fiction writer to ever have a website and how he made sure to generously apply the keywords Science, Fiction and Writer throughout the site (aptly named SFWriter.com) in order to appear at the top of most keyword search results for people looking for a science fiction writer. (IE, when someone from the media wants to talk to a sci-fi writer about a recent scientific news item)
This (among other author brand exercises) has helped Rob land more than 400 radio and more than 400 television interviews over the years.
We also get into the optimization of your author's IP (Intellectual Property) by taking advantage not only of the historical division of territorial publishing rights, but also the rights of each unique format for a book (hardcover, paperback, ebook, audio, television and movies rights, etc)
And another highlight is the manner by which Rob has set up his novels so that the "elevator pitch" or the thought-provoking element for each of his novels is easy to relay and quickly prompts the listener to want to answer or respond to that thought or question.
You can read the full podcast show-notes and listen to the interview online here, or you can subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode.
The chat with Rob reminded me of how I had been able to consistently recommend his novel Rollback to people who say they don't like science fiction; whenever I had done this, 100% of the people I had shared this with returned to me and said they loved the book, but it wasn't science fiction, it was a wonderful novel. I merely smiled and said, "Exactly!" (Below is a video of a book recommendation I recorded as part of KEEP TORONTO READING program that the Toronto Public Library ran in 2011.
It's a great conversation where we talk about how Rob was the first science fiction writer to ever have a website and how he made sure to generously apply the keywords Science, Fiction and Writer throughout the site (aptly named SFWriter.com) in order to appear at the top of most keyword search results for people looking for a science fiction writer. (IE, when someone from the media wants to talk to a sci-fi writer about a recent scientific news item)
This (among other author brand exercises) has helped Rob land more than 400 radio and more than 400 television interviews over the years.
We also get into the optimization of your author's IP (Intellectual Property) by taking advantage not only of the historical division of territorial publishing rights, but also the rights of each unique format for a book (hardcover, paperback, ebook, audio, television and movies rights, etc)
And another highlight is the manner by which Rob has set up his novels so that the "elevator pitch" or the thought-provoking element for each of his novels is easy to relay and quickly prompts the listener to want to answer or respond to that thought or question.
You can read the full podcast show-notes and listen to the interview online here, or you can subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode.
The chat with Rob reminded me of how I had been able to consistently recommend his novel Rollback to people who say they don't like science fiction; whenever I had done this, 100% of the people I had shared this with returned to me and said they loved the book, but it wasn't science fiction, it was a wonderful novel. I merely smiled and said, "Exactly!" (Below is a video of a book recommendation I recorded as part of KEEP TORONTO READING program that the Toronto Public Library ran in 2011.
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