Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction

On Wednesday April 22, 2020, I'll be presenting in one of Jane Friedman's online classes.

Jane is a consistently reliable authoritative source of solid information about the writing and publishing industry. Her blog and The Hotsheet are two amazing resources I regularly consume. I'm honored that I get to participate in one of her online workshops.

Creating Income & Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction

The course is $20 USD and will be a video chat where I'll be talking through several of the examples that Matty Dalrymple and I wrote about in our February 2020 book, Taking the Short Tack.

I will share many of the examples that we write about in the book as well several other options and examples with the goal of informing and inspiring authors on how they can leverage their short fiction IP in multiple ways.

Such a Rebel

I was honored to be a guest on a recent episode of The Rebel Author Podcast with Sacha Black.

I've had the pleasure of interacting with Sacha over the years, particularly in her active role within the Alliance of Independent Authors, as one of the organizers for their series of virtual Self-Publishing Advice Conferences.

Self Pub Advice Con

Sacha is a writer, a developmental editor, a speaker, and a rebel podcaster. She is the author of a number of fiction and non-fiction titles. I am looking forward to having her on the Stark Reflections Podcast in the near future to talk about her writing and a few of her latest books.

Sacha's Books

But, in the meantime, I was an honored guest to be on her podcast in Episode 21 - How to Get Your Books into Libraries.

Episode 21 - How to Get Your Books into Libraries

You'd be wise to click the link above and subscribe to the podcast, but you can also listen to the episode online either following the link or using the online player below.

The Write Stuff Bundle

I am honoured and thrilled to be part of a new The Write Stuff Spring 2019 Bundle from StoryBundle.

Curated by the awesome Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the bundle contains three themes:

• Finding Time to Write (no matter what your life's circumstances are)
• Growing As An Artist
• Practical Business Advice

The Write Stuff 2019 Bundle

I come in on the "practical business advice" side of things with my book Killing It On Kobo: Leverage Insights to Optimize Publishing and Marketing Strategies, Grow Global Sales and Increase Revenue on Kobo.

But there are so many fantastic books available for a great value. (I've already read a handful of them and will be buying this myself so I can read the rest).

Here's how this StoryBundle works.

You decide what price you want to pay. 

For $5 (or more, if you're feeling generous), you'll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• Business For Breakfast - Vol. 10: Growing As a Professional Artist by Leah Cutter
• How to Write Non-Fiction by Joanna Penn
• Practical Meerkat's 52 Bits of Useful Info for Young (and Old) Writers by Laura Anne Gilman
• The Rational Writer: A to Z by Mindy Klasky

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus SIX more things, including a $50 video lecture!

• Business For Breakfast - Vol. 11: Beginning Marketing for the Professional Publisher by Blaze Ward
• WMG Publishing Presents: Carving Out Time for Your Writing by Dean Wesley Smith
• Writing With Chronic Illness by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Killing it on Kobo by Mark Leslie Lefebvre
• Money-Making Business Models for Writers by Tonya D. Price, MBA
• The Million Dollar Writing Series Boxed Set by Kevin J. Anderson

So that's 10 books plus a $50 online video lecture for only $15?

$15 for all of that? YUP! (Yes, I know, I'm borrowing and re-editing a line from Monty Python's LIFE OF BRIAN out of context) So, if you think we are a little out of our heads making such a generous offer, go ahead and take advantage of our temporary absence of mind.

Even if you only consume half of the content, or perhaps even a quarter of it, you're still getting a huge value.

You can thank us for it later.

You can read MORE about the bundle here.


It's super convenient to get these ebooks onto your reader of choice—just download and sync. Or, if you have a Kindle or Kindle-enabled tablet or smartphone, StoryBundle can send the books directly to your device. No computer required. 

2018 Book Related Sales And Stuff

In the past two episodes of my podcast (Episode 55 and Episode 56), I spent some time looking at where I had earned writing specific income. What formats, what sources.

For example, in looking at just writing income, I broke it down into Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing, Mixed (a combination where it was difficult to determine or split the source), and business writing. IE, writing I got paid for but didn't get a byline.

I also broke down the format into Print, eBooks, Audio, Mixed (again, where it was difficult to split off the actual source in any meaningful way) and speaking (this would be talking as a writer of fiction or non-fiction paranormal, and not my speaking about the book and publishing industry)

I found it interesting that, within my eBook sales, two collaborative publishing platforms represented my #3 and #4 spots. (With Kindle and Kobo holding the #1 and #2 spots).

I have long suggested that the future of publishing is going to involve more collaboration than ever before. This appears to be happening more in my own writing world.

I find this exercise useful for figuring out my plans and strategy adjustments for the next year.



If you are curious to read more details, you can read/listen to them on the aforementioned episodes:

Episode 55 - Forward Momentum While Looking Back
This is a solo episode where I review my sales - or at least start to. Because I continue some of it into Episode 56.



Episode 56 - Balance and Counterbalance with Katie Cross
This is an interview episode with Katie Cross - awesome and inspiring all on its own. In the opening personal update section, I share a few more of those 2018 sales details

Oh Yeah, By The Way, I Wrote A Book, or Two

It's so funny.

I spend the majority of my time helping authors with gaining better visibility, maximizing their title and author SEO on various retail websites, enhancing and working on their author brand, and overall, attempting to sell more of their books. I quite love doing that. I find it extremely satisfying.

Then there's me. And my books.

Yes, I work hard at them. Yes, I love writing. Yes, I love publishing.

But I keep forgetting about mentioning or talking about my own books. For example, I published the eBook version of KILLING IT ON KOBO last week. But I was at a writing conference and was busy with engaging in the daily activities and with the writers there; you know, helping them learn more, helping them strategize for selling more. So I neglected to really do much to even mention that the new book on that exact topic was out.

Sigh.

No, I've never liked pushy "salesy" sorts of social media posts. And though I will, from time to time, mention something about one of my books as it relates to something else, I try my best not to be too in peoples' faces with pushing my books.

Sometimes I lean, too far, in the opposite direction.

Because in the past month and a half I have published two books about writing and publishing. And I realize that I haven't even mentioned them here on this blog.

Sigh.

It's funny, my friend, Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn Podcast, sent me an email late last week asking if there was some sort of landing page for my latest book, KILLING IT ON KOBO because she wanted to recommend it. Joanna has done more to sell my book than I have.

I realized, of course, that I hadn't even added a listing of that book to my website. Nor did I add the other book in that same series (Stark Publishing Solutions), THE 7 P's OF PUBLISHING SUCCESS.

Sigh.

I have fixed that. I have those two books and the forthcoming one that's still a work in progress, listed under the bibliography/books section of my website.

Currently, only the eBook versions of these are out, but I plan on having the audiobook versions released by the end of November if all works out well.

Speaking of Joanna's podcast, her latest episode, Episode 400, is a great interview with Kobo's European Manager of Kobo Writing Life, Camille Mofidi. And I'm not just saying that because I originally hired Camille for that role. I'm saying it because she's awesome. And so is Joanna

Seriously, go check out that podcast interview for great free tips about selling more on Kobo. Listen to that. It's free. Then, if you want a "Reader's Digest" version of tips for Kobo (kind of like a significantly shortened version of the book I mention in this post), sign up for my10 day free email course from Reedsy called Kobo Hacks for Optimizing Sales.

Yeah, go do those two things. Don't buy my book about Kobo. Enjoy the free content/advice and tips.

See, there I go again, being an under-pushy salesperson.

 

On Flying and Firehoses

In the past week, I flew over Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas at 35 MPH on a zip line.

I also took in a firehose of information at the WMG Publishing, Inc. Business Master Class.

The overwhelming stimulation for each is somewhat similar. In the latest episode of the Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast, I share how I plan on dealing with the information, inspiration, and ideas that can fill your head at the end of such a conference, which include:

• A few key things to remember before setting out to try to implement the ideas gathered
• The importance of first stepping back to take a breath and get perspective
• A list of questions to ask yourself when looking at all of the ideas that you have jotted down or taken in
• The importance not just of deciding on something, but deciding to act on that something
• The concept of EAT, FEED, DRAIN
• The FOUR-D way to update a to-do list
• The importance of taking responsibility for your own career

These are just some ideas, and potentially useful strategies you can adapt in your own way whenever you attend a conference or workshop where you have so much information to process and never enough time to try to do it all.

New Directions in Self-Publishing

I'm going to be speaking in a panel discussion on the topic of NEW DIRECTIONS IN SELF-PUBLISHING on Tuesday March 27, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario.

This short video introduces the topics of what Meghan Behse, Nina Munteanu, Stephanie Fysh and I will be covering.

Here's a little bit about the event.

Self-publishing has come a long way since the first print-on-demand services surfaced in the late 1990s. Driven by technological change, shifting reading habits, and proliferating formats, self-publishing is a constantly evolving space where success can be elusive, but where the odds improve with detailed knowledge of the industry, investments in professional editing and design, and a willingness to adapt to changing conditions.