Novel Publish Project #3

Query and Response

Hello again, Friends.

It’s been far too long, I know. Ha some technical difficulties and I’ve been busy doing life stuff. Life tends to get in the way more often than I would like. The problem with m laptop and the life stuff also put a damper on my writing. I did manage to do some writing on a short story using my phone but not much. Typing on that small screen really, really, really sucks. But now I’m back into it so I will have some words written soon. I decided to take advantage of the reading community at Wattpad.com. I’m going to post up a chapter each week with he hopes that I get some feedback along the way. Once I’m done I will use that feedback to see where I can shore up the story. I guess you could call wattpad my alpha reader experiment. Well see how that pans out. Before I post the chapters up I’m going to go over them and do some editing and re-familiarize myself with the story and characters.

Enough about my writing, time to talk about some marketing. As you know I listen to a bunch of podcasts most of which are about writing. One ting I’ve heard over and over again is that the best way to market your first book is to write your next. I can’t remember ever hearing why that is. I figured it has to do with increasing the amount of work you have available for readers so that when they do find you and if they like your ork they have another to read after the first. This could keep you from becoming a forgotten memory if too much time passes between your books dropping. I sent out some emails to the podcasts I listen to asking if they could give me, or us, some more inut on this subject and I received some wonderful responses which I’ve included in this post for your enjoyment.

From Simon Whistler of Rocking Self Publishing Podcast

Hi Linton, 
You’re welcome, I;m glad that you are enjoying the show. 
To answer your question, I think there are a few factors in play (although I don’t subscribe to the fact that writing the next book is the best method 100% of the time – it should be part of a sensible marketing mix). 
– My understanding of the Amazon algorithm is it favors authors who publish regularly in several ways. 

– Readers who liked your first book will have something to move onto. That gains you traction. One reader making two purchases is better than one reader making one (and not just in terms of revenue, but exposure). 

– The more places you have for readers to land on Amazon (or whatever platform) the better. 

– Readers who see your book will be more comfortable purchasing if you have more than one book out there (if they love it they want more to read). 

– Permafree – free books shift paid books later in a series. With more than one book, you can have a permafree lead in to a series. In addition, with more books you can experiment knowing that if something fails, its only one book – your eggs are in more than one basket. 

I’m sure I’m missing some really obvious ones, but those were just some off the top of my head :). 

Best,

Simon

From Sean Platt of The Self Publishing Podcast.

Hey there Linton, 

You might be over thinking this. 

Imagine someone finds your book, and they absolutely love it. There’s a chance that you could be their new favorite author. 

BUT, you’ve no other books, and they’ve nothing else to read. Not only did that reader hit a dead end with your book and you as an author, they have very little to tell their friends, and likely won’t be sharing anything about you. 

By contrast, if you have a ton of books in your catalog you’re easy to explore, enjoy, and share. 

S

From Johnny B. Truant of The Self Publishing Podcast.

Oh, wow, big question with an answer way too big to answer in writing. The full answer is throughout this episode:

https://selfpublishingpodcast.com/self-publishing-podcast-116-what-wed-do-if-we-were-just-starting-out/
But the shorter version is that when you have a second book, you can start to build a product funnel rather than having unrelated books and nowhere for a reader to go once they find and begin to love you. It’ll also change your perceptions about that first book, basically making your decisions about it more logical and less emotional. 

Best of luck!

JT

There is some really great input here and a lot to think about. I listened to the episode Johnny links us too. It is a great episode and I highly recommend it. It’s one that I keep on my pod-catcher app to reference later. This post is starting to become longer than I would like it to be if I were a reader so I will leave you here. I look forward to talking to you again in a week or so. Please feel free to leave a comment below with why you think writing your next book is a good way to market the first.

Till next time,

Linton