How Do You Find *Good* Self-Published Authors to Read?

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Lindsay

So, you’ve got a new Kindle, Ipad, or Nook, and you hear that it’s all the rage to support self-published or “indie” authors (it doesn’t hurt that their ebooks are usually cheaper, sometimes a lot cheaper, than those put out by traditional publishers). But without any…ahem, quality control, how can you be sure you’re not wasting your time? After all, didn’t these poor slobs self-publish because they weren’t good enough to get an agent?

Well, maybe. Maybe not.

Lots of writers are choosing to go straight to self-publishing (especially e-publishing) these days, because, if you don’t mind all the DIY stuff and the marketing aspect, the money’s better (70% earnings per book sale instead of 8-25%). Also, some see it as an alternative route to a traditional publishing deal. (As we were discussing last week, quite a number of self-publishers have been picked up by Big 6 publishers after establishing a fan-base and proving they can sell books).

In short, though there are a lot of amateurish self-published works out there, there are also some that are as entertaining as anything you’d see coming out of New York.

But how do you find these promising up-and-comers?

Here are some suggestions:

Sample, sample, sample

One of the perks of e-readers is that you can download samples for ebooks. The first few pages might not tell you if you’ll like how the story develops and is resolved, but they’ll tell you heaps about the quality of the writing (and editing).

If you’re not impressed with what you see, don’t expect the book to get better. Most authors spend a lot of time polishing those opening pages, especially on first novels. Those might very well be the best pages in the book.

Find Bloggers Who Review Indie Books

Book blogging has become tremendously popular, and readers are starting review sites for every genre you can imagine. It used to be hard for indies to get reviewed, but quite a few indie-friendly bloggers have popped up of late (thank you, good bloggers).

If you find a couple of bloggers whose tastes match yours, subscribe to their news feeds and come back often to see what they’re recommending.

I’ll be adding a list of indie-friendly SF/F bloggers soon, but in the meantime you can check this list of over 100 bloggers who review indie books.

Pay Attention to Amazon’s Recommendations and “Customers Who Bought…” Areas

If you’re an Amazon fan, visit the books of some of your favorite authors, and click through the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…” section (other stores are starting to have these features too). There are a dozen-odd pages you can skim through, each with three books, so chances are there’ll be some indies in the mix.

Books that show up in the “Customers Who Bought…” section have typically sold hundreds or thousands of copies, so you know somebody’s reading them.

If an indie book shows up on your recommendations page on Amazon, it’s likely sold even more copies.

It’s true that just because a book sells a lot of copies doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a hit, but it’s pretty hard to get the ball rolling as an indie, so there’s a good chance that a book that does that well is being enjoyed by quite a few folks.

But, when you’re browsing these sections, how can you be sure you’re looking at indie books?

You can often, but not always, tell indie books by the 99-cent or 2.99/3.99 price. Don’t assume a book sucks because it’s inexpensive. A low price usually means the author is a) trying to build a fan-base by offering his or her first book inexpensively or b) happy with his or her earnings at said price — at 2.99 an independent author is making $2 per book, which is as much, if not more than, her traditionally published counterparts, folks that have to cut the pie a lot more ways.

Another clue is if, on the book page, there’s no publisher listed (though some self-published authors do make up publishing houses for themselves to sound more official).

Choose books with numerous reviews (not all glowing!)

There’s nothing wrong with downloading a sample from a book with no reviews, especially if the book was just published (hey, you never know), but reviews tend to be even more crucial with independent authors. With traditionally published books, you have some guarantees as to editing and story cohesion. With self-published works, you can save yourself time and frustration by going with those that have more favorable reviews than not.

But beware of all glowing reviews (especially if they all came in as the book was released and nobody else has reviewed it in months). It’s typical for early reviews to come from people who are loosely connected to the author (even if the only connection was a quick exchange on Twitter, those folks might feel compelled to write something supportive). It’s an inevitable fact of being published that books that are out there for a while and selling a decent number of copies have bad reviews as well as good ones, not to mention the 3-star “meh” reviews.

Anything else?

With all this being said about a degree of safety in reviews and Amazon recommendations, I would like to point out that your purchase will mean a lot to an independent author who doesn’t have many reviews or a good sales ranking. If a book sounds good, the sample is promising, and the price is agreeable to you, give it a try!

Also, if you liked the book, you will seriously make the author’s day if you send a quick note to let him or her know it. (Smart authors make this easy on readers by including contact information and/or websites and social media links at the end of the ebook.)

That’s it from me, though I welcome folks to add their own tricks for finding good independent authors.

Posted in Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Deadly Games Update and News on Upcoming Projects

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Lindsay

Hi, everyone (and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the U.S.).

Today I’d like to take a moment to thank you guys for your support on Deadly Games, the third Emperor’s Edge book. It’s the first book I’ve “launched” from the road, and I was a little stressed, trying to get everything together that last week, especially since I was staying in a hostel and didn’t have anywhere to go for privacy. We won’t go into the slow internet…

Fortunately, everything seems to have come together satisfactorily. The response, so far, has been great, and I’m glad so many of you enjoyed the book (some of you even read it the day it came out, wow!).

I appreciate the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, and I’ve been touched by how many people have written or messaged me on Twitter to say they’re enjoying the series. And also to ask when the next one is coming out (slave drivers, hah!).

Thank you, too, if you’ve mentioned my books to friends on Twitter or Facebook, or in email, or even face-to-face (I’ve heard people still talk that way sometimes). Authors can do their best to market and be “out there,” but, in the end, you guys have all the power when it comes to taking an author from a nobody to someone who gets to write for a living (and continue putting out books for years, even decades, to come).

For those who are curious about numbers, Deadly Games sold 500-odd copies in the first week and a half, which is enough to cover the costs of cover art design, editing, and formatting (those costs added up to about $1,300 total — yes, there are some costs associated with being an indie author, but, as you can see, you make enough per book that you don’t have to be a bestseller to break even, and everything after that buys the hot dogs and Ramen noodles to keep you going while you write the next adventure. ;)).

And for the next book…

As I mentioned, some folks have already asked about Book 4. I’ve been working on the next Flash Gold story this month, but I finished the rough draft to that last night and put pen to paper (yes, a real pen and a real sheet of paper) to start working on the first scene in EE4 (no title yet). I’ll be busy writing the rough draft over the next three months or so.

As for the next POV character (a popular question), I believe it’s going to be Akstyr. I did have Maldynado in mind, but I left Akstyr in a bit of a bind (he was plotting against you-know-who, after all). Will he let that certain scheme die now that Basilard’s no longer on board? Or will he start plotting something of his own? We shall see. 😉

Next stories out?

Look for Flash Gold 3 in January or February (it’s over 35,000 words, so it’ll take me longer to edit than the previous novellas), and then I have an EE short story that I wrote a few weeks ago, so that’ll probably pop up around the same time. It’ll be free or 99 cents, or maybe both. Free on my site and 99 cents in the stores, perhaps? We’ll see how much I have to spend on cover art. 😉

I won’t set a date yet for EE4, since I’m just getting started, but I am trying to publish those novels about six months apart, so that’s the goal!

Again, thanks for reading, everyone.

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

So, You Want a Book Blogger to Review Your Ebook…

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Lindsay

Today’s guest poster isn’t an author; she’s a book blogger. Misty Rayburn is someone who encouraged me when I was getting started. She was very friendly on Facebook and invited me to participate in some ebook giveaways. She’s since branched out from Facebook and posts reviews over at The Top Shelf.

Misty’s here today to offer some tips on getting book bloggers to review your book. She’s also hosting a giveaway: Loramendi’s Story by Angela Carlie. If you’d like to enter to win a copy, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

* * *

Lindsay graciously invited me to her blog to share some tips that would be helpful for authors regarding book reviewers!  I really must thank her for being here and I hope these tips help you.

First and foremost, be friendly! I like to join author pages or even personal pages of the authors I’m doing reviews for.  When you email a reviewer, make sure to include Facebook page / Fan page or twitter.  It tells me that this is going to be more than a “You throw your book at me and I spit out  a review” situation.

Be sure to include your book’s synopsis in your email.  I don’t know how many times I’ve had to email someone back and say “Can you tell me a bit more about your book?”

Check out the blog of the blogger.  Some blogs are very genre specific and some aren’t.  Don’t limit yourselves to blogs that just fit your genre either.  Branch out a bit!

DON’T be afraid of book bloggers that review erotica! The genre may not be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean their audience isn’t open to other material.   The Top Shelf reviews erotica as well as everything else under the sun.  Why?  Because I like variety!

When you’re enquiring about the status of a review, don’t just outright be like “Have you read my book yet!” Or “When will my review be up?”  That’s a tentative thing.  A blogger can tell you around what month and we can try to stick to it but we don’t get to read all the time for one reason or another.  We wouldn’t just shove off your book for any reason that wasn’t serious!

Offering to do something else with the blogger is a great way to integrate yourself more and touch base with fans.  When you’re doing a request, offer to do an interview or a guest blog.  Maybe even a giveaway.

The last and most important tip I can think of is, promote whenever you’re being posted somewhere else.  You’ve given the reviewer a book and they’ve reviewed it for you.  They’ve accepted you on their blog for an interview or an event of some kind.  The least you can do is drive attention to it.  It’s not only good for you but for them too!

I want to thank Lindsay once again for having me over here.  I really hope these tips help you out.  If you have any questions, please comment!  I’ll answer them!  Be sure to check out my blog at http://www.the-top-shelf.com!

* * *

Thanks, Misty!

And, guys, don’t forget to comment if you’re interested in a copy of Loramendi’s Story.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Best Way to a Traditional Publishing Deal: Query Agents or Self-Publish?

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Lindsay

Every couple of weeks a reader asks me why I chose to self-publish. I don’t mind the question because (I think) it implies that said reader believes my stories are good enough that I could have gotten a traditional publishing deal (if that’s not the implication, please don’t tell me, as I prefer my nice delusions). I’ve written about the reasons I’m glad I self-published before, so I won’t go into that today, but I thought I’d chime in on one of the arguments going around the blogosphere.

Is it still worth querying agents, or is self-publishing a better way to a traditional deal?

If you haven’t been paying attention to the world of self-publishing lately, you may not be aware of the number of indie authors who are being picked up by publishers. Granted, it’s a small number when compared to all the indie authors out there, but it’s something that wasn’t happening at all before the e-publishing revolution of the last couple of years. Now, nobody in the industry is surprised when indie authors get picked up, some with quite lucrative publishing deals.

Many of these successful indie authors are people who once tried the traditional route to publishing (querying agents or submitting manuscripts to the slush piles of publishers). The agents and publishers weren’t interested. Then.

It’s a different story when the same author starts selling thousands of ebooks a month in the Kindle store.

If you’re an up-and-coming writer, and you’re hoping to land a traditional deal, is it still worth it to query or should you start publishing on your own, build a platform, sell books, and wait until you have something to brag about before approaching an agent?

I doubt there’s a right or wrong answer here, but here’s my take:

If you skip querying and all the associated dithering around, you get to jump right into the realities of the business. It’s not an easy business, and there’s a lot of on-the-job-training required. You’ll have to bust your butt if you want to succeed as an indie, especially now that there’s more competition in the e-bookstores.

But if you can make it as an indie (build a platform, sell books, gain a readership), you’ll have the confidence and bargaining power to get a traditional deal that doesn’t suck.

That, from all I’ve read and heard, is not something that happens much with new authors signing on with a publishing house for the first time.

To sum things up…

If you decide to forgo the agent hunt, you’ll skip:

  •  Tedious research into finding an agent that represents what you write
  • Wasting time stalking selected agents on Twitter and following their blogs to see what they want
  • Wasting time crafting a synopsis
  • Wasting time writing multiple versions of a query letter
  • Wasting time emailing and waiting for replies
  • Wasting time doing things that make you look good for an agent but do zilch for you financially speaking (i.e. entering contests in hopes of winning some pretty writing award)

Instead you’ll be:

  • Publishing your book and potentially making money on Day 1
  • Learning the business of writing (people who write for a living have long since learned they have to be entrepreneurs, not just artists)
  • Learning how to market yourself (you’ll probably have to do this sooner or later, even if you get a traditional deal)
  • Building a platform (blog, mailing list, social media presence)
  • Acquiring fans
  • Writing the next novel (money’s nice, but what’s really motivating is when people email you and ask when the next book is coming out), a novel that can come out in months instead of years

If you choose self-publishing first over querying, you’ll also find out, much sooner than later, whether your book is “good enough” for the big time. Agents may or may not tell you that. As many traditionally published authors have admitted, agents and publishers aren’t really gatekeepers or holier-than-thou entities that determine what’s worth reading and what isn’t. They’re business people, and they base selections on the potential for a pay off. Subpar manuscripts get picked up because they fit into what’s popular right now. Excellent manuscripts get passed on because they aren’t in a popular niche.

At the end of a year of self-publishing, you will know if your book is “good enough.” Assuming you’ve put enough effort into marketing to sell some copies, you’ll know if there’s an audience for your work or if you need to put more time into honing your craft.

If you’re doing well, you’ll have a far greater resume with which to wow an agent. Think about it: If you were an agent or publisher, would you rather take a chance on an unknown or on someone who’s already laid the foundations for a successful career as a novelist?

Of course, once you’ve done all that work, and you’ve reached a modicum of success (as I’ve blogged about before, the numbers say you can make a living a lot sooner as an indie), you may realize that you’re not all that interested in a traditional deal any more. 😉

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion, Anyone?

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Lindsay

Lots of people (okay, one… *waves*) have asked if there’s a reader discussion forum where people can discuss my books with other fantasy fans. My answer was… I’d guess not. It’s been less than a year since I published my first book, and I’m not exactly a New York Times Bestseller. 😉

But I’ve met some very cool readers through this blog, emails, Twitter, and Facebook, and it would be fun to connect folks somehow. I figure anyone who laughs at my characters’ jokes is a rare person and might want to chat with other odd ducks readers with excellent taste.

I’m not ready to take on a big website overhaul and add a forum here, but I decided to start a fantasy discussion group on Goodreads. Technically it’s my author Q&A group, but you guys can chat about anything you want as far as I’m concerned.

If you’re not already a Goodreads member, I definitely recommend signing up, because it’s a cool site for readers.

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion, Anyone?

“My First Rule of Writing” by John Abramowitz

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Lindsay

Today, for your reading entertainment, we’ve got a guest post from indie fantasy author John Abramowitz. I met him on Twitter (I thought I was a night owl, but he’s really a night owl) and have read his fun short story, The Antlerbury Tales. He’s here today to talk about the importance of loving what you write. Thanks, John!

* * *

“Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘versse, but take a boat in the air you don’t love, and she’ll shake you up just as sure as a turn in the world. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down. Tells you she’s hurtin’ before she keens. Makes her a home.”

That, according to Captain Mal Reynolds, of Firefly fame, is the first rule of flying. But for me, it’s the first rule of writing, too. It never fails — I can have the most detailed world imaginable, and characters with histories that I spent hours creating, but if I don’t love my story and my characters (even the ones I hate), none of that will be worth anything. My writing experience will be very short, and very frustrating.

Recently, someone asked me what advice I had for aspiring authors. My first response to that question was to laugh, since it’s still very much an open question whether I know what I’m doing as an author. But the answer I ultimately gave was: love the story you’re telling. I think sci-fi/fantasy fiction gives you a unique opportunity to do just that.

To explain what I mean, we’ll need to spend a moment discussing John’s Cardinal Rules of Fantasy Fiction. (Now, pay close attention — there’ll be a quiz at the end of the class.) The rules are:

  1. Wish fulfillment; and
  2. When in doubt, turn a trope on its head.

In my experience, wish fulfillment is the best way to hook an audience on a story. Do not confuse this with the creation of Mary Sue (or Marty Stu) characters, which is among the quickest ways to turn an audience off on a story. What’s the difference? Whether a character is a Mary Sue or not depends on the nature of the character, wish fulfillment depends on the nature of the action the character is performing. Wish fulfillment involves giving the protagonist a task that the reader or viewer has always dreamed of doing, thus allowing the reader to slip into the person’s shoes and share in the thrill. Thus, for instance, surely everyone who has ever dreamed of firing a rocket launcher at an unkillable demon (surely every fantasy fan that ever lived) can long to be in Buffy’s shoes as she does that very thing, even though Buffy proves throughout the series that she’s far from an ideal character. (Season 6, anyone?) The Death Star trench run at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope is similar. No genre provides more opportunities for wish fulfillment than fantasy fiction, simply because it’s the only genre where literally anything is possible.

Which brings us to my forthcoming novel, Atticus for the Undead (available November 21st on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com). The novel started out of a long-held desire to write a John Grisham style legal thriller. After all, I’m a lawyer in my day job — sewing together my lawyer hat and my author hat into one mega-hat made sense. Plus, then I could make a protagonist who actually knew something about practicing law, as opposed to my own approach to the legal practice, which usually involves large amounts of confusion and many bottles of Excedrin. (Okay, so sometimes wish fulfillment is about the character. So sue me. Or something.)

In any event, there was a problem: Grisham has written approximately 7,181,924 novels, and television is also cluttered with legal procedurals. I had no interest in (and no love for) the idea of writing one more to add to the crowded shelves. If I was going to do this, I wanted mine to be special. And then it hit me.

There have been lots of legal stories, and just as many zombie stories — but how many times has a zombie been put on trial?

The idea of zombies with constitutional rights tickled me, and I was pretty sure it would appeal to my readership, too. Both parts of my premise (zombies and trials) were fun — combining them seemed like a winning formula. But I’d written a novel before (that’s Weaver, folks, available now for 99 cents!), and I knew that a strong overarching premise wouldn’t be enough to overcome the hard work, many headaches, and (very, very) little sleep involved in writing a book. I had a good start, but there wasn’t enough love yet to keep that ship in the air.

So I turned to my other Cardinal Rule: when in doubt, turn a trope on its head. Lots of zombie movies have involved a horde of zombies chasing a hapless human through a shopping mall. Ho. Hum. So I wrote a prologue in which a horde of humans chased my zombie protagonist through a mall, instead. After all, I had a brain-eating supernatural creature to humanize, a world to introduce, and an audience to keep awake while I was doing it.

I added extra helpings of fun to the mix throughout the novel. For instance, my first chapter featured a girl suspected of witchcraft — because she was seen rehearsing for a production of Macbeth. And not just any girl, but a teenage girl named Sabrina. I also decided that my law firm’s slogan was “We Get Results — Like Magic!” And so on.

Even with all of that, writing Atticus was still one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I lost more sleep (and pulled out more hair) than I care to talk about. But love kept the project in the air when it should have fallen down.

It kept me writing, and hopefully, soon, it will keep you reading. (And I promise, I don’t use this many parentheses in the book.)

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Can Publishing a Podiobook Help You Sell More Books?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Lindsay

When this blog was only about three months old (and my self-publishing career was even younger), I interviewed science-fiction author Nathan Lowell, a man now making a living off of his ebook income, and a man who got his start releasing his novels as podiobooks. (For those new to the term, podiobooks are audiobooks that come out in installments and are available as free downloads for people’s mp3 players.)

After three years of releasing his novels that way, all entirely for free, Nathan jumped into e-publishing and became an instant bestseller. Why? Thanks to his podiobooks, he’d built up a huge fan base over the years, people who eagerly awaited each new installment in his audio stories. His fans accounted for those initial sales that sent him to the top of the science-fiction bestseller lists on Amazon and elsewhere, and at that point others who had never heard of him before saw his books and gave them a try. He’s been selling dozens (maybe hundreds) of copies a day ever since.

But, if you’ve read the interview, you already know about his story. You’re wondering if it can work for someone else. Someone who starts today, someone who might have done things in the opposite order (ebook releases first and then podiobooks). So, let me tell you how things are going for me.

How my first podiobook is doing

After that interview, I thought the podiobook thing sounded like a great idea, and decided to try it myself. It took me a while to get all the ducks lined up to make it happen. The first few episodes of The Emperor’s Edge Podiobook went live at the end of August. Now, in November, we’re up to Chapter 16 (out of 21 or so).

So far, there have been 25,000+ combined downloads of episodes (that’s a far cry from Nathan’s millions, but remember he got his start years ago and has an entire series of podiobooks out there). For the first month, mine was the #1 podiobook (as far as new subscribers go) in the Podiobooks.com directory, and it still pops into the Top 10 now and then.

About 1,500 people are following along faithfully, downloading the new episodes each week, and more people are finding Chapter 1 each week and just getting started with the book (about 500 new subscribers so far in November). The episodes have been downloaded in more than 60 countries so far (I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty cool to think of people listening to my story in India, Turkey, Japan, Finland, and other places that I’ve never been).

I’ve done a little to promote my podiobook (occasional posts on Twitter and Facebook), but not much. I imagine most of these folks simply came across it because they were surfing around, looking for some new fantasy to listen to.

When I did do my promotional blurbs, I was originally sending people to the Podiobooks page, so they could subscribe any way they wished, but I’m trying to promote its iTunes page now, since the Apple Store gets a lot more daily visitors than Podiobooks.com itself (I’ve had an iPod since the beginning, and I hadn’t even heard of Podiobooks.com before I interviewed Nathan). From what I’ve read, if I can get more subscribers through iTunes and more reviews there, the book will start showing up closer to the top in the Literature section of the podcast directory. (So, if you enjoy listening to fantasy, and want to help a gal out, please subscribe in iTunes and leave a review if you like what you hear!)

Has my podiobook helped me sell books?

I can’t say that my books have made any great leaps up the bestseller charts, but I have had folks let me know that they found me on Podiobooks.com or iTunes and went on to buy the books, not just The Emperor’s Edge but the following novels in the series as well. That’s good enough for me. I’m in this for the long haul, and I know the podiobooks (I’m planning to do my whole series) will be out there for years, inviting new listeners into my characters’ world.

I imagine that for everyone who sends me a note, there are more people who buy the book and don’t say anything about it. But even if people don’t go on to purchase any of the books, there are still benefits to having these folks as fans of the free stuff.

If someone with a couple hundred followers on Twitter posts, “Oh, yay, new chapter of Emperor’s Edge is out,” there’s a chance that one of their followers will say, “Huh, what’s that?” and check it out. That someone might be a kindle addict and go on to buy the ebooks.

And, as I mentioned, just by being subscribers, people help you out in iTunes, because the number of subscribers and reviews both play a role in visibility there. The easier your podiobook is to find over there, the more people will stumble upon it, and since there is a big crossover between book buyers and audiobook listeners, there’s a good chance that some of those people will want to buy copies to have forever.

Why a podiobook can be effective for book promotion and author branding

There are more things to think about than immediate sales. As you guys know, I’m a fan of giving things away for free. You can’t give everything away for free if you want to make a living as an author (or at least recoup your production costs!), but having free stories out there lets people try you out at no risk.

A podiobook, in particular, has some extra perks:

  • The serialization aspect lets you create a long-term relationship with listeners – If you read a book in a couple of days or even listen to a book-on-tape over the course of a couple of weeks, it’s not the same as having something new from the author every week. If the story is good, you start to look forward to those new installments, and the book sticks in your head because you’re exposed to it again and again over time. Imagine if an author puts out a whole series with the same characters. You could be listening for years, and those characters could become like real people that you like to hang out with.
  • iTunes – I don’t know if you’ve looked lately, but the iTunes store is a pretty popular place, particularly for people who want audio versions of things. Anyone who has sold anything online will tell you that it’s a heck of a lot easier to sell where the people are (eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc.) than trying to build up your own marketplace (i.e. your site). Day and night, people are browsing iTunes, looking for new things to listen to. And once all the chapters have been published, your podiobook can remain online and in the iTunes store indefinitely; people could stumble across it four years from now and find out about you and your books for the first time.
  • Less competition – A lot of work goes into creating an audio version of a book, and there’s a learning curve that many (most?) people aren’t interested in tackling. If you outsource the creation to professionals, you save yourself some of the time and hassle, but the trade-off is that you must pay a significant chunk of money, and that’s a barrier in its own right. These obstacles mean that fewer authors create audiobooks, so there’s less competition out there than there is for ebooks in the Kindle store. Ultimately this means that, if you have a good story and good production quality, it’ll take less marketing effort to get people to find your podiobook.

Cost of producing a podiobook

As those of you who have been following this blog for a while know, I decided to let the folks over at Darkfire Productions handle the creation of my podiobooks because I knew it’d take a lot of time to do it myself, and the quality of the end product wouldn’t likely be as good.

I believe Nathan did it all himself (from what I’ve heard, you can get respectable recording equipment for your computer for a couple hundred dollars). That’s definitely a cheaper way to go, but not everybody is interested in learning the ropes and spending hours recording and editing an entire novel.

If you want to go the route I did and hire someone else, expect to pay $1,000 and up for a novel. If you write 150,000-word epic fantasy novels, it might be more like $2,000-$3,000.

I’m planning to write six books in my Emperor’s Edge series, and I’d like to go on to turn all of them into podiobooks. If costs remain the same, that’ll end up being about $9,000 for me. That’s not an insignificant sum by any measure, but it’ll be stretched out over about three years, and, as I mentioned above, once the audio recordings are done, they can stay out there in iTunes and on Podiobooks.com for years and years. In addition, they will belong to me, so there’s nothing to keep me from creating special CD editions (maybe with some bonus extras) and selling them on my site eventually. I haven’t looked at Audible.com yet to see if it’s possible for an independent author to get one’s audiobooks listed in their marketplace, but that is definitely something I’ll be checking out in the future.

Who should consider creating a podiobook?

Well, are you getting excited at the idea of creating a podiobook? Or are you thinking, “Enh, I’m not sure… It sounds like a lot of work…”

Either way, it’s okay. This isn’t necessarily for everybody, and if you’re already selling lots of books, maybe you don’t need to look into time-consuming (or money-consuming) extras like this.

It’s still early for me, so it’s hard to say for certain, “Yes, I’ll definitely earn back my investment and then some.” I do believe it’ll happen though. I’d be less certain if I was creating one podiobook and didn’t have plans to do any more.

I think the real power here lies in doing a series where people can get more and more connected to your characters (and you!) over time. You’ve also got more work out there for people to stumble across in iTunes or on Podiobooks.com (at Podiobooks.com, they post on the front page whenever new chapters are added, so every time your book is mentioned there, it’s a chance for someone new to see it and decide to check it out).

I also suspect some genres may lend themselves to podiobook fandom more than others. You tend to find a lot of science fiction and fantasy fans geeking out on their computers and knowing where to look for things like podiobooks. If you do westerns or cozy mysteries, your target audience may be less likely to spend time perusing the iTunes store. I’m sure you’d still get some followers, but maybe not as many.

You’ll need to run the numbers for yourself, but, in the end, if this sounds like a fun way to promote your books and your name, I say, go for it.

Posted in Book Marketing, Videos & Podcasts | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

What Is Epic Fantasy? (Guest Post by Ty Johnston)

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Lindsay

ty-johnston-ebook-coverSince I’m off traveling for a couple of weeks (with very limited internet connectivity), I’ve called in some guest posters to entertain you. Or educate you. I’m hoping it’s one of the two.

Today, indie fantasy author Ty Johnston is here to talk about epic fantasy as a part of his book blog tour.

Fantasy author Ty Johnston’s blog tour 2011 is running from November 1 through November 30. His novels include City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb and More than Kin, all of which are available for the Kindle, the Nook, and online at Smashwords. His latest novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, will be available for e-books on November 21. To find out more, follow him at his blog.

What Is Epic Fantasy?

As a writer, for the most part I work in epic fantasy literature. I dabble in horror here and there, and I’ve been known to pen some literary material from time to time, but as a writer and reader my heart keeps pulling me back to epic fantasy.

Why this is so depends much upon my own expectations of the epic fantasy genre. And to define those expectations is to define epic fantasy itself.

So, what is epic fantasy?

It is a sub-genre of the much larger fantasy genre, usually with a setting based in another world, one that is similar to our own in some ways but often enough quite different. Fantastical elements are a necessity, such as the existence of magic and sometimes non-human creatures. The stories themselves are often epic in scope and in the span of physical ground covered within the tale; generally events happen across continents, sometimes with characters traveling long distances.

That is my basic definition of epic fantasy. No such definition will be approved by all fans, readers or authors, nor do I mean my own personal definition to be all encompassing. Despite what outsiders often seem to believe, there is a lot of latitude within epic fantasy, allowing for expansion of the genre.

It is not even uncommon for the mere name of this sub-genre to go questioned. I call it epic fantasy. Others prefer the term high fantasy. Still others use the term heroic fantasy. Then there is the relation of epic fantasy to Sword and Sorcery literature, which can mix things even further. It does not help such classifications that the general reading public sees little difference between these titles for fantasy sub genres, and often enough labels all these sub genres under the single title of “fantasy.”

The truth is, there is no definitive source for giving titles to genres of literature and their lesser-known equivalents. Readers and writers and fans come up with their own labels. Sometimes the stick and sometimes they do not. Afterward, fandom and the blogosphere use millions of words to discuss and even argue for or against these names of sub genres.

Most readers don’t care. They just want what they want, and they know it when they see it.

Which is fine with me. I’ve given what is my basic definition of epic fantasy, and anyone is free to argue for or against that definition and even my use of the term “epic fantasy.”

Now back to my love of epic fantasy.

I suppose I am drawn to this genre for the very things I find in my personal definition of it. Epic? Yes, I love epic themes. I enjoy studying the ins and outs of matters that make us most human, of philosophy, personal and beyond. As far as the physicality of the tales, I also enjoy the epic breadth, of traveling to new lands and meeting new, at-first unusual peoples and characters.

But the definition I’ve given so far could cover other forms of fantasy literature. I’d like to add one more detail to my defining of epic fantasy, a detail that in my mind sets it apart from many other forms of fantasy, and literature at large.

What is it? In my mind, the protagonist of epic fantasy is willing to stride forward against great odds in an attempt to not only face down an outside evil, but in an effort to correct a major flaw within ourselves.

Admittedly, overly simplistic, and other forms of literature could argue they also do this. But to me, there is a difference, one I see lacking in other genres.

Yes, the epic fantasy hero has an outside force with which to reckon, usually a great villain. But that villain represents not only his or her or its individual evil, but a greater evil within the world, an evil of a civilization or of a culture. Or an evil of the human race entire. That villain can be as human as the hero, sometimes even more so.

It is that combination of the epic hero and the epic villain which can make fantasy epic, in my opinion. Other genres have heroes and villains, true, but rarely in the other genres do these characters reach the heights of representing the eternal battle between not only good and evil in the outer world, but good and evil within ourselves.

The best epic fantasy does so, from Tolkien to Steven Erikson. Frodo faced great odds against Mordor, but ultimately it was his own inner self with whom he was battling. Even Harry Potter was facing another version of his own potential evil in Voldemort. Such should be obvious in the characters of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader (Star Wars being basically epic fantasy among the stars).

Is my own definition of epic fantasy perfect? By no means. And if you ask me about it in a week, my thoughts might be slightly different. But for now, I’ll stand by it. To me, the inner struggles are most important within epic fantasy, the outside wars against evil being but a window into our personal contests.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 3 Comments