Welcome, Nick! It looks like it’s been a little over a year since you published yourfirst novel as an ebook. What was your first year as an indie e-publisher like?

First thank you so much for having me on your blog; it is very sweet of you. I wish I could say that my first year in publishing was an amazing slam dunk but it wasn’t. Like most indie authors I had to learn things the hard way (by screwing up).

My first book Legon Awakening was first a podcast on Podiobooks.com back in 2007.  So my first task was to take my raw scripts for the podcast and clean them up for a book. It was a long process to say the least but a good one at the same time. Over the last few years I have had to learn a lot about publishing, I’ve had editor drama, new cover art, learning how to layout in the interior of the a book- you name it. It was a lot of fun and gave me tools that I will use for the rest of my publishing life.

At some point, you decided to give away your first fantasy novel for free. What prompted the price drop?

It was a combination of things that prompted that price drop. First off I have to say that when it comes to this business we have to put on several hats. First is your writer’s hat. It’s the hat that you use to write a book and when you have this hat on the thought of giving your baby away for free can be appalling. And that’s where you need your publisher hat.  This hat is a business man or woman and frankly it doesn’t care about the writing hat’s feelings. Its job is to increase your bottom line.

It was in this thought of mind when Brian Rathbone talked about a strategy that he was using on his Dawning of Power trilogy. He had the first book free and it was moving and moving well. I liked the idea. Using a loss leader is nothing new in marketing and I remember that even in books it had been used. I remember reading a series by Charlie Huston about vampires in New York. I don’t read a lot of books like that but the first book was free and I was enamored with my new Kindle app so I got it. After reading the first book I went out and spent $40 on the rest of the series. Brian was doing the same thing and he too was seeing success. Shortly after that I started hearing about Brain Pratt and how well he was doing with free.

When everything finally clicked home with me I was excited, but I knew that the key to using free was to have other books that weren’t free. In short I needed to get off my butt and write Legon Ascension and start building a backlist.

As you know, Amazon doesn’t let indies set the price below $0.99 from the KDP dashboard. How did you go about getting your work listed for free?

That’s correct, the Kindle and the Nook store won’t let you set your book at free. BUT Smashwords does. So here’s what you have to do. Set your book at free on Smashwords and let it flow out to Nook and Sony and at some point in time Kobo. Get a reader to go onto Amazon and right below your books sales rank is a link to report a lower price. It will ask for links to the free books on BN and Sony etc. From there Amazon will get its knickers in a dither and do one of two things- either A send you a nasty gram telling you that your book has been price matched or B they just price match the book.

I know authors that got the nasty grams. I didn’t get one; I wanted one but alas. Now we have tried this on other books. It was working wonderfully for awhile but not so much anymore. I don’t know why but some titles are staying at $0.99. I don’t know if this has to do with the length of books or if Amazon doesn’t see value in listing them for free… I don’t know. But I hope it works for you guys.

Once your book was listed for free, it really jumped to the top of the charts. I remember you tweeting about it. What other promotion did you do?

Ok, here is the rub: I didn’t do any promotion… I was going to but I didn’t need to. I did tweet about the book going free and posted some status updates on Facebook, but that was it. My initial plan was to get the book listed for free and then on Friday the 17^th I was going to spend around $200 on Google adds and do Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and blog pushes.

You see, Amazon will sell your book for you in two different ways. First is with their “people who bought this also bought this” section at the bottom of every book page.  This is great for long term sales. The second is with bestseller charts. I knew that if I could move 200 units I could start showing up on those charts and from there my cover art would do the rest.

I want to give a quick tip here for people who want to rush the free chart. My book had all of three reviews at the time and my description while adequate wasn’t anything that was amazing. My book moved because of one thing and one thing alone- my cover art. People don’t see your books description if they don’t click on the cover, so you have to have amazing art work. Now the first thing authors ask me when they see my book is who is your artist and is he taking on new clients. Yes he is, his name is Mike Brooker. When Brian and I were talking about Awakening going free he said that with the cover I had it would move 20,000 units by the end of June and I thought he was just being nice.

Now I also want to say that I went free at the right time. I don’t mean the right book at the right time but literally the time. Amazon was wrapping up its sunshine sales that devastated so many indie authors sales. For me it was driving a crazy amount of traffic to Amazon and its bestseller pages where my book was listed along side of the sunshine books.

And the question everybody’s going to be wondering: how much did it affect sales of the second book in your series (currently listed at $4.99)? Are you earning more now that you’re giving one book away for free?

The sales on book two have skyrocketed.

I will go ahead and share some numbers. Prior to this free run I was selling Legon Awakening at $0.99 and moving about a copy a day. The second book Legon Ascension was moving about a book every other day. Late in the evening on June 15^th Amazon listed Legon Awakening for free. As of the end of the month, it is just shy of 23,000 copies downloaded. Legon Ascension is $4.99. I knew at this price point it wasn’t going to be an impulse buy. People were going to have to read and like Awakening before they would buy Ascension.

I thought I would see sales go up in about two months. It turns out that people read fast and starting on the 16^th sales for Legon Ascension started to climb. I went from 3 sales a week to around 25 to 30 a day. Legon Ascension ended June well over the 400 mark and paid for the entire publishing cost of the book in that two and half week period.

Do you want to tell us what’s next for you? A third book in the series? Something else?

I know I’ve been long winded so I’ll keep this brief. Right now I am finishing up the last book in the Legon series. It’s called Legon Restoration and should be dropping sometime in September. After that I have another series which will start coming out later this year.

Sounds great. Thanks, Nick!

Lindsay, thank you again so much for having me on your blog it’s been a blast and if anyone has any questions for me please feel free to ask or visit me atwww.nicholastaylor.co or you can email me direct at nick at Legonbook.com. Thank you.

Here is the interview…

Lindsey: As you know, I’ve interviewed Nathan Lowell here before, and he built up a large fan base by podcasting his novels long before he did ebooks or print books (which are now selling very well!). What do you think about podiobooks as a means of building a fan base? Can it work well today, or is the market too crowded?

Collin: I think the podcasted or serialized novel, like anything can be an arrow in your quiver. If it’s used right, it can be highly effective. As for market crowding, atPodiobooks.com, there are around 500 titles and they are the biggest distribution network I know of for serialized novels. If you consider that distribution centers like Barnes & Noble has over a million ebook titles and Audible has over 75,000 traditional audiobook titles, a place like Podiobooks becomes a drop in the bucket. Podiobooks is however, gaining momentum. They are adding books faster than ever before, but I think there is room for anyone who is willing to do it properly. But that is the key- the willingness to do it properly.

Lindsey: Do you see any genres or types of podiobooks being more popular than others? Or does it just take a good story of any genre?

Collin: I think there is less non-fiction on Podiobooks.com and that non-fiction is less popular than fiction. But that just might be a creature of the unique cutting-edge authors of Podiobooks.com rather than the audience. The fact that there are less non-fiction titles is not a function of the site either. Evo Terra, the master for all things Podiobooks, has made it clear that almost anything is welcome on Podiobooks (he’s turned down like 3 titles in the last 6 years). So I think you see the books of people who are willing to take the jump and people who take the jump earlier, let’s face it, have a head start.

I think good writing is important. However, and this is a BIG however, “good” is a relative statement. I read the first book in the Twilight series and didn’t care for it. But many, many people did. Good is relative. What I like and what you like is going to vary. So don’t waste your time trying to please everyone. It’s not possible.  When it comes to a good story, I think you need to make your story the best it can be within its respective elements. And I don’t mean listening to every single person with an opinion, but getting the story properly taken care of like proper copy and story editing, cover art, etc.

Podcasting is the same way. I think much more than a “good story,” you need proper production, voicing acting, and mastering. You need to make sure you are doing it right because the people of the podcasting community will tell you if you aren’t. It doesn’t matter if the product is free. If it’s crap, it’s crap and they will let you know that. You don’t want your podcast to be crap. Some good production value can go a long way to getting people immersed in your world and that is always a good thing.

Lindsey: How should an author looking to turn his or her novel into a podiobook get started?

Collin: You need to decide how you want it done first. Do you want to do it yourself or have someone else do it for you? There are pros and cons for each. I would recommend at least TRYING to do it yourself. It can help with branding but more importantly it will save you some money and everyone knows how poor most authors are. We at DarkFire Productions are doing Lindsay’s book, Emperor’s Edge, but only after she understood what went into the creation of the podiobook. I am all for authors DYI-ing it so I want you to at least look into doing it yourself. I think if you can pull it off, you’ll thank me later.

If you want to do it yourself, the Podiobooks.com community page is great resource. Some of the old timers there are very helpful. You can also always look at Podiobooks.com for the specs that you need. Also there are many podcasting books out there, Evo Terra’s Podcasting For Dummies included, that can be helpful.

The very first thing you need to look into is software. You shouldn’t be spending any money on this. Audacity, which is a free download and GarageBand, which comes with a Mac, are more than enough for your podcasting needs. Next you need a decent microphone and wind screen.

If you want to do it the other way, and have someone do it for you. Just email me at DarkFire, look at Voices.com, Voices123 or another production company like ours. There are options.

Lindsey: Where can you host your podiobook, and what’s involved with getting it uploaded to iTunes and Podiobooks?

Collin: You can host your Podiobook anywhere you want- your website, your blog, other distribution points, and more. Podiobooks.com don’t take any rights at all when it comes to your product. You do with it what you please. You upload to Podiobooks and they automatically get you into iTunes, which will eventually filter out, to about 20 different places. You don’t have to do a thing.

Lindsey: How can you promote your podiobook once the first chapters are up?

Collin: So many ways…I like to use pass along cards. They are promotion cards that are bigger than a business card but smaller than a post card.  They have your cover art on one side and a “pitch” of the book and where it can be found on the back. I passed those out to everyone and their brother and they worked well. Trading “promos” with other podcast novelists is a great way to spread the word as well. Some will do it and some won’t, but you can always ask and you’d be surprised at how helpful our little community can be.

Many of the podiobook marketing strategies are similar to ebook strategies that people are already implementing like tagging the project properly, reviews from bloggers, email campaigns, etc. The great thing about the podcast novel however, especially while it’s being serialized, is that it’s different. There are only 500 hundred titles on Podiobooks.com compared to thousands upon thousands of traditional audiobooks and millions of ebooks. The audience of the podcasting community is growing every single day. It’s a different experience than the ebook or trade paperback. You can be a part of that community, which is growing faster than ever before.

If your goal as an author, is to get this out in front of as many people as possible, which mind you that should be your goal, this is a great way to do it.  Another great thing about the podiobook is you can hook them with something free and then hopefully keep them for life. Free is a powerful force. As the lowest barrier to entry into a particular community, it takes away the cost benefit analysis that all of us go through when we do something. People simply say “Something is ‘free’ so why not.” It’s your job to keep them there once you get them hooked. This means at least two things–Content and Consistency. I am going to say it again because people are ADD-Content and Consistency. If you do those two things, people will come to you.

Lindsey: You’re part of a company that helps authors put together podiobooks if they don’t have the time or inclination to do it themselves. Do you want to talk about what you guys do?

Collin Earl: Not really. The last thing I want to give your readers is a pitch. I will say this: DarkFire Productions, which includes myself and two other podcasters, helps authors with digital production of their literary works, converting ebooks, creating audiobooks and podcasts etc. If you don’t want to do it yourself, we can help and you can learn from our mistakes or if you simply have questions, we’re always willing to answer them.

That is all the pitch I’m willing to give. If you want to know more, I am all over the bleeding Internet just contact me and we can talk.

Lindsey: Would you like to finish up by telling us about your own work and where we can listen to–or read–it?

Collin: LOL, I thought you’d never ask. Sure let me give you some information. I can be reached www.collinearl.com

To check out my books and to maybe figure out what this podcasting stuff is, you can go to Podiobooks.com or iTunes and look up my titles- The House of Grey and Harmonics: Rise of the Magician. Harmonics is available as an ebook,http://amzn.to/ffVZ4M, and a trade paper back http://amzn.to/i2XGhm

So that is the interview. It created some nice discussion on Lindsey’s blog and there is always room here. If you have questions. You know where to find us.

Collin

Over two powerful days, you will work with amazing book marketing strategists, publicists, Internet gurus, rock star branders, creative geniuses … all done in an intense workshop environment … here are some of the speakers!

Your Rock Star Faculty:
Alex Carroll is one of the world’s leading experts on radio publicity. The numbers speak for themselves.  Over the past 10 years he has been a guest on more than ONE THOUSAND radio shows (1,246 to be exact), captured well over $4,500,000 in free radio airtime, and generated more than $1,500,000 in orders directly from listeners … all without spending a DIME on advertising and rarely leaving his own home.

Marcella Smith is the former Director of the Small Press division of Barnes and Noble. Known as Publishing’s Insider Insider. She will present a thought provoking vision of what’s happening and the future of publishing in a special,

Chuck Blakeman published Making Money is Killing Your Business, selected by the National Federation of Business Owners as the #1 book in 2010. His session will focus on authoring and books and creating an exit plan that still keeps money coming in.

Eric Kampmann knows both traditional and independent publishing. He’s an author, CEO of Midpoint Trade and Beaufort Publishing and has created a unique new model for authors and independent publishers.

Craig Duswalt is an award-winning copywriter and the former Creative Director for a Los Angeles-based ad agency until opening up his own ad agency, Green Room Design & Advertising. Combining his business savvy with his love of music (he was personal assistant to the Guns N Roses band), he knows branding and marketing.

Joan Stewart teaches Publicity Hounds how to catch the attention of frazzled news directors, busy reporters and grumpy editors. She shows authors how to use the traditional media and social networking to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation, position themselves as experts and sell more books.

Peggy McColl is a New York Times best-selling author. She has authored 8 books and her books have been translated into 31 languages and are sold in over 80 countries in the world. Peggy is an expert in Internet marketing and online book sales.

Tom Campbell is the Senior VP of Sales for King Printing Company, Inc., working with over 8,000 individual authors and independent publishers on how to print their books cost effectively with profitability as the main goal to their business.

Justin Matott is a self-publisher’s best friend with almost 500,000 copies sold and 234 books published. After 52 rejections, he published himself, selling 4,700 copies out of his trunk in just three weeks—the rest is children’s writing and publishing history.

Follow the link – you can join the live streaming for only a 150 bucks!

http://authoru.org/author-u-annual-extravaganza-may-6-7-2011.html

I personally disagree with this thinking. I am going to explain why many independent authors are using low price points and how we (yes me, I use low price points as well) are able to use those prices and still make money. I will also explain why I do not think we are seeing the end of the publishing world; I assure you the sky is not falling.

Why we can sell at a lower price point

To truly understand why independent authors are selling at such low points and how they can do it is important because it will play into my later arguments explaining why we won’t soon live in a world of all free literature. I am going to use one of my upcoming novels to explain some of my points.

It costs me less to publish a book than a large publisher, let me explain. The first thing you need to understand is that publishing a book isn’t free. I’m not talking about the cost to upload your book onto Kindle or Smashwords. No, I am talking about getting the product ready. Some of these costs are editing, cover art, interior and exterior layout, ISBN’s, websites, marketing, maybe an audio version and oh let us not forget printing the books. It seems like a lot doesn’t it? Well it is. Big publishers accomplish this by having employees, sometimes lots of them. Often they have to print large runs of books which is also not low cost. I could go on and on but suffice it to say a publisher’s capital investment is high. When they sell a book (even the ‘e’ version of that book ), they need to recoup that cost. But along with it they also have to pay agents, authors, and cover the costs from other titles that they are publishing that may not be making money.

This is why we see so many publishing houses asking authors to either put money forward on a book or not marketing for authors. It’s not that they don’t want a book to sell, rather it’s that they may not have all of the resources to invest.

As an independent author I have to carry the load of publishing which is daunting. Unlike the big publisher my costs are significantly less and here is why. I do as much work as I can on my own and I find people to do the work I can’t do myself. I also look at print as an after thought. I am going to use my newest book Legon Ascension to show you what I mean. I have no employees other than myself so theres no cost there. I do my own layout work and handle my own audio as a professional voice talent. This means that my $1,500 audiobook doesn’t cost me a dime. I have to pay for cover art so theres $500 and I have to pay for editing which should come in right around $1,200. There are a few odds and ends to pay for as well such as proofs for print books and my website so we’ll call that another $100. That gives me a budget of around $1,800. But what about a print run you say. Well here’s the deal- I don’t sell a lot of print books. They just aren’t in my marketing appetite; ebooks and audio are. Therefore I don’t order large numbers of print books. I, like many (including Amanda Hocking), use Print on Demand. By doing this I save myself massive amounts of money.

At the end of the day an independent does not have to pay a publisher, agent, and employees before they get royalties. This is one of the reasons why it is so rare for large presses to list ebook’s under $5.99. It’s not that they don’t want to so much as they can’t. I pay for all of my own publishing and I do it on the cheep by avoiding print runs and by putting in sweat equity. That means I can enter the marketplace at a lower price point and still make as much as authors from bigger publishers.

Why we are not going to run out of consumers

When I hear comments to the effect of “there isn’t enough people to buy all of the books” in my mind it borders on fear mongering. For starters there is more people reading than ever before and more people will continue to learn how to read and enjoy books. Consumers are not a natural resource that will dry up if we use them to much. Also people don’t just read one book and call it quits. Statistics show that people who read ebooks consume more books than people who don’t (I wonder if price has anything to do with that?). so rest assured, consumers who like to read will continue to buy multiple titles every year and will likely do so until they are no longer able to read.

Along those lines ebooks, even those by large houses, are almost always cheeper than their printed counterparts. That means that consumers can more easily afford to read ebooks. Let me show you what I mean. The first book in the Legon series, Awakening, will list at $0.00 here in the next month or so. The next book in the series Legon Ascension will list at $2.99. These are both ebooks. The paperbacks both list at $14.99, or for the two of them together the cost would be $29.98. That means that if someone buys my low cost ebooks they will save themselves 90% off the printed list price. Meaning that they now have more money to spend on other books.

If anything, in my opinion low cost books are going to increase readership rather than run the market out of viable consumers.

Why there will always be lots of paid for ebooks

There is an argument that in the digital world everything is a rush to free. People site the lack of cost for storage and commerce online. I have to agree with these people. Once a book is formatted for ebook there is no real cost of storage and transportation, nor is there the cost of reproduction; the book is a file on a server. If that were all there was to ebooks I would agree they may all go free. But that’s not all there is to producing them. We still have the cost of publishing. You need an editor, a real one. If your book is unedited it will not move regardless of the price it’s at. My editor works by the hour, and will never work for free. Also you need good cover art- books are judged by their cover. Good art isn’t cheep, nor will it ever be. Bad art you can maybe find for free, but it will likely do your book more harm than good. Neither the editor or the artist is free. This isn’t because they are some sinister figures that want all of your money, rather it’s they have a strong need to eat and put a roof over their head just like I do.

Many $0.99 and free ebooks are an attempt by an author to get exposure by reducing the risk that a potential reader will not buy a book based on cost. It’s one of the most powerful tools in the ebook market. These authors usually have multiple titles. The first book in a series will be free or $0.99 and then the rest of the books can range in price. You even see this with authors who will make a whole series free or $0.99 but have other more expensive series or books. And when I say more expensive I mean $2.99 or $4.99 per book rather than $0.99. They use one book or a series as a loss leader- they work under the assumption that if you like the first book in a series you will pay for the others. Also if you like one series, you will likely read other titles by the author. This is a very effective tool as most readers prefer to read collections.

You also see many authors with a single title doing something similar in hopes of getting a fan base, or the author just wants to see how their writing is received. The problem that many of these authors find is that most consumers are looking for collections not one hit wonders. Also, often time many of these authors did not take the time to get a professional editor or cover art thus their books are poorly reviewed.

As for the those of us paying for editing, cover art, and say website hosting we cannot afford to make all of our titles free. We can keep them around $2.99 with some loss leaders but that is about our line in the sand. For a large publisher with more costs, their line in the sand appears to be around $5.99 but in most cases it seems to be $7.99. We independents can compete on price with big houses but will not price ourselves out of house and home. We spend hundreds of hours writing and working on our craft and invest hundreds or thousands in it. That time has to come from somewhere and so does the money. Personally if I was unable to make money in publishing, not even to the point of covering my costs, I would most likely be unable to publish.

In short, the sky is not falling. Free ebooks are not going to bring down our industry, and where there is an author that is willing to work and write there is a way for success.

The PriceThe Price of Success –  Ebooks
This post isn’t going to be what you think. Any author that has been in the publishing business (or attempted publishing) knows a few things. 1: ebooks are hot. 2: ebooks aren’t going anywhere. 3: ebooks are both revenue and marketing tools. 4: The price online inexorably moves towards free.
Ok, I threw in that last one. You might or might not have known that one, and while possibly the most important, its the last thing I am going to talk about.  Allow me to explain. We are going to talk about trends in ebooks and how you can take advantage by maybe getting ahead of the curve. First a little background information.
Darkfire has two types of ebook clients: Stand Alone and Managed clients. The Stand Alone ebook clients are just that. They contact Darkfire, we format their ebook, set up their account, and send them on their way. It works for the people who don’t want to take the time to play around with the formatting process, but want more control on the back end. The other type is our Managed Clients section. We set everything up, manage it, and just cut a check to the client each quarter and charge a small fee on the back end. No hassle, no worry, and tons of support. We are pretty much at your beck and call. So what’s my point? One of the questions we get A LOT, regardless of the client type, is how should I price my ebook? Unfortunately, it is not a simple answer.
This question creates others: what is the pricing model for ebooks currently? How is it changing? What is the price of success?
This is going to be difficult to wrap up in a single blog post so I will probably have to do a follow up. For now, lets talk about the CURRENT industry standard in ebook pricing. I took a look at many different websites including Teleread.com, Macnews.com, nytimes.com, michaelhyatt.com, and many more. What I am going to tell you isn’t rocket science and isn’t something I spend hours and hours researching. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. I think you’ll come to the same conclusion. Anyway, from my own research, I concluded that the current average cost of an ebook, right now, is around 9 dollars. There is some variation from type of book, fiction or non, and distributor (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo etc.), but as a solid general rule, the average ebook costs about 9 bucks.
There are some very simple explanations for this. I think the main one is Amazon. In June of 2010, the biggest ebook provider in the world, Amazon, adjusted their royalty rates. For any ebook that sold between $2.99 and $9.99 the author would take a massive 70% royalty. There has always been a consensus that ebooks should cost less than a traditional hard back or trade paper back. I don’t know anyone that is going to argue different because the logic just makes sense. Ebooks are easy to create, easy to store, never go out of print, and have no production costs beyond the price to create the ebook file (and if you do that yourself, the only thing you lost was opportunity cost in the form of time). With trade paper backs at around 15 bucks, 10 dollars seemed like the natural progression point for ebooks, and because productions cost are so low that they are essentially negligible, then what would any self respecting author or publisher do? Price their book where they get the largest amount of royalties. The highest allowable Amazon price point for the 70% royalty rate is $9.99. Hence the price point.
So now we know the current industry standard for ebook pricing and some of the logic behind that price point. We understand where things are ($9.99). We understand how they got there (Amazon, at least partially). From those two facts we can conclude that as a money making machine, the $9.99 ebook is god’s give to the independent author. In the next blog post we’ll talk about trends.
Allow me to end with this: Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine described in his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, the human tendency towards wasteful consumption when a resource is essentially unlimited. If something is so inexpensive that it’s too cheap to meter, that’s exactly what people do and they waste, waste, waste.  For authors, suppose there was a space where products are essentially unlimited and costs are so small that they are essentially free. What will be the end result for that marketplace/resource?
Think about that. We’ll talk more in part two.
Collin Earl is the CLO and Public Relations Officer of Darkfire Productions.

So the boys, Chris, Nick and I, were at Author U last night in the Denver Tech Center, in Denver, Colorado in a Ballroom at the Hilton (Beautiful hotel by the way) At this meeting last night we get to listen to Dom Testa of Dom and Jane.  This might not be a big deal for many of you outside Colorado or even Denver, but Dom Testa of the Dom and Jane Show have the number one running morning talk show in the state for like a billion years running. They are quite the celebrities. So last night Dom gave a FANASTIC presentation to about 50 authors from the Denver area and I just wanted to relay some of the highlights in case you missed it.

As a visual aid, Dom started talking about gravity and how that awesome force works in the universe. He stated that Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (for all you non-science people out there) states that space, as in outer space/universe, has a fabric and that everything, all planetary objects, the sun, the moon, Earth, the stars, sit on that fabric. And because of their “mass” (Mass/matter which ever you prefer) they create gravity, which is the natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. For those of you who don’t know, the object with the “most” gravity in the universe are things called black holes. These celestial bodies are so dense, and have so much gravity that light literally can’t get away from them (they literally suck everything around them into the center of the black hole).

Confused yet? Don’t worry it gets better. Dom’s whole presentation was about being “like” a black hole. And so the lecture began.

So how do you be like a black hole? By sucking everything towards you or  creating “gravity” in your sphere of influence to make the attention come to you! Its really that simple.

Now simpler said than done. How do you get media outlets like T.V., radio and magazines to come to you? Answer: By creating an author’s platform.

In Dom’s case he wanted to sell his award winning YA novels, the Galahad series. To do that, Dom created “gravity” by forming an “author platform” based on fighting peer pressure in our educational institutions through the creation of the Big Brain Club. The Big Brain Club goes into the schools and helps kids realize that being smart is cool. The Big Brain club has taken off and has resulted in national exposure for an important topic and as a bonus Dom’s books get plastered everywhere. It really creates a win/win.

This is where you’ll want to copy and paste the blog entry. These are the steps/qualifications for a successful platform. I am not going to go into tons of detail  just because this blog post is already getting up there in length, but in the coming weeks I will do follow up posts on each of the sections and relay as much as I can about what Dom talked about.

1. Creating value in your message – need to see some sort of value in your own life and the life of your target group/audience. Creating a platform on a personal level. (I think this is one of the most important steps)
2. Interesting to many people – can’t have obscure topics like monkeys with throat cancer who left their babies orphaned. Nobody cares about that.
3. After the presentation give your listeners a reason to follow you afterwards…(They need to be seeking you out)
4. Connection to your writing – fiction can have a platform – (even if it’s an obscure connection)
5. Passion – you can’t do this half way. It needs to be something that you are really interested in and have a passion for. This isn’t just a book sale convention under another name.

Remember: the Platform is a hook – always educate and entertain and the sales will follow!

You want to learn more about Dom go to www.domtesta.com and tell him I sent you.

Collin Earl is CLO and Director of Public Relations for Darkfire Productions

Creating An Online Presence

So in my last blog post, Content is King, I talked about what I feel is the most effective way to promote an individual project. I said that the most important thing is to write. Why? Because writing creates products, products are what you sell, sales is how you make money. (Among other things) The more products you have, the higher sales potential you have. The list goes on. I think I am willing to put this out there and say that the fastest way to author success is to write your brains out. However, this is a big however, you’ve still got at least TRY to do the other stuff. I think the people, in the modern marketing environment, which are the most successful, are the ones that do a combination of writing and marketing and do so in a creative and innovative way.

Allow me to explain myself.

In my content is king post I talked about an author I know who is a writing machine, I said:

As a podcast novelist, or a novelist that puts my novel out on the Internet in podcast form for serialized distribution and consumption, my colleague pool is pretty small. It’s a fairly defined group and I’ve the chance to get to know these people in a professional way. They are from different places, living different lives, with different goals for themselves and their careers. Now I am not going to use any names, because ultimately this isn’t about whom they really are, but really about what they are doing. I’ve looked at one of those who I deem successful in our industry pool and found something interesting.

This man I am thinking of has busted out a slur of novels in the last 4 years. The man is a writing machine, putting out one book after another. What else is he doing? Not much. He has a blog that he updates on occasion. He has a Twitter feed and Facebook page that he updates, again, on occasion. I haven’t seen him do anything with Youtube or other video projects and I have seen him do occasional appearance at a Convention, but besides that I don’t see the man advertize really at all.

Now I am going to relay another second example, and I am going to use his name this time because I don’t think he’ll mind and I want you to really take in what I am going to tell you. So the person I am thinking about is named Scott Sigler. For any of you familiar with the podcast world you might know Scott for his amazingly gruesome horror novels. Scott, in a nutshell, started podcasting his stuff about 5 years ago when a deal he had with a publisher went belly up. Since then Scott has gone on to release more than 8 full titles, three of which are with a major publisher, a slur of short stories and bunch of other content. If you look at Scott, I think I can venture to say that he has been “successful” in his career attempts. Now Scott might say something different, as I know he is currently trying to take over the world, but for the sake argument and an 800-word blog post we’ll assume that is right

Scott’s actions, I feel, exemplify what you really need to do in the market place to maximize your reach, and therefore, maximize your effectiveness. Being a popular writer/speaker/story-teller is a game of numbers complimented with a diverse line of products. In the podcast/internet world, there isn’t a place you can go where you don’t see Scott.  From grammar to gamer podcasts, he has probably contacted them, had them play his promo or do a shout out for one of his contests. He is simply all over the place like I said, writing and promoting he has found the balance.

What does this mean for you? Am I going to tell you exactly what Scott did? Nope. I don’t want you to try to do what Scott did. That isn’t the point. The point of this post was to try to find the balance between writing and marketing and to maximize your marketing endeavors by doing so creatively. Scott did his marketing by giving his stuff away for free. That’s not all that creative it’s the oldest marketing scheme in the book. However, when he started podcasting and serializing his novel in 2005, it was different, it was creative, it was fun. That is what I am trying to tell you. So look at the box you’re in and try, really try to think outside it. You’ll be surprised what you find.

Collin Earl CLO of Darkfire Productions.

Authors are always looking for the next greatest thing to help sell books; back in the 90s it was the Internet, then shortly after that, email, closely followed up by blogs, Myspace, YouTube, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Podiobooks and more. There is so much to do, so much to get your head around, its hard to know where you should be spending your time. I’ve suffered from similar time management problems. Most authors, myself included, have jobs, families and other obligations outside their writing. Until we make enough money to meet our everyday obligations, writing is the career we are supposed to have and not the one we have currently. What does that mean? It means the obvious that an author has to outline, create, write, market, blog, be social through social media all while navigating our real lives, families and alternative careers. Time is the biggest thing working against us and it can be difficult to know what the most efficient use of that time is.

You’ve probably read thousands blog posts, books, ebooks, or heard hundreds of talk shows on the exact subject. While my thoughts aren’t anything ground breaking, I think its important to remember the true key to success. This is the universal characteristic that all successful authors have in common. I will get to it. I know you want to know, but worry not. This is something you are probably already aware of. I am just reminding you.

You need to write. That is the key, writing, writing, writing. Content, content, content. You’ve got to do it.

As a podcast novelist, or a novelist that puts my novel out on the Internet in podcast form for serialized distribution and consumption, my colleague pool is pretty small. It’s a fairly defined group and I’ve the chance to get to know these people in a professional way. They are from different places, living different lives, with different goals for themselves and their careers. Now I am not going to use any names, because ultimately this isn’t about whom they really are, but really about what they are doing. I’ve looked at one of those who I deem successful in our industry pool and found something interesting.

This man I am thinking of has busted out a slur of novels in the last 4 years. The man is a writing machine, putting out one book after another. What else is he doing? Not much. He has a blog that he updates on occasion. He has a Twitter feed and Facebook page that he updates, again, on occasion. I haven’t seen him do anything with Youtubo or other video projects and I have seen him do occasional appearance at a Convention, but besides that I don’t see the man advertize really at all.

Now would you believe that the man is selling over 1000 books a month? Crazy right. How does he do it? The answer is simple.

He writes!

I want you to take a look, a real look, at every successful author, indie or otherwise. The one thing you will find they have in common is that they continue to write.  They have multiple titles that lead to multiple series that snowballs upon itself in an uncontrollable manner. Picture for a moment that you had 20 different books out there. Now picture that one person finds one of your books, and likes it. With that one person, you’ve got the chance to get 19 more sales! Why? Simple.  People like to buy what they are familiar with. If they are familiar with you from one of your books; the odds are they will buy another one. Not especially because it’s another book, but because its your book. It’s really that simple

So to answer the question, what should I be doing right? Writing should always be on the forefront of your mind because ultimately, the best way to promote your book is to write another one.

Collin Earl, CLO of Darkfire Productions.

Ok that isn’t exactly what she said and she was a whole lot more articulate than I am, but the message is still the same. She was writing a blog post about the book that she had been working on for four years asking her readers what she could do to finish her book.

I’ve got an idea its going to be novel, amazing, one of a kind. Are you ready?

Get off the damn internet and write your book.

Crazy idea I know. Now I am sure this woman is very nice and probably very talented. Her blog posts, for the most part, are interesting and informative. I’m sure that when her book is done; it will be great. I might even read it if she ever finishes it.

Here is the problem and really its all in the set up. You are writing a blog post. You are asking people for advice about how to get words on to paper. Do any of you see the problem?

GET OFF THE INTERNET AND WRITE! Don’t ask people how to write!! Force yourself to sit down and do it. Set a goal for a number of words and sit your but down on your computer, word processer, pad and paper, hammer and chisel whatever and write that book. That is the only way its going to get done.

The real problem is that people spend too much time thinking about writing and not enough time doing it. Do you really want to know what the key to getting a book done? Its writing. That is really all there is too it.

Writing is a marathon. Not a sprint. If you want to get a book done quickly, sit down every single day and write. Make a goal. Pursue that goal. Obtain that goal and make the goal reasonable. I don’t know many people that can sit down and write 4,000 words in a sitting. In some cases its patience, in others its time. (We simply don’t have it) So make a goal that you can get. I started out at 500 words a day and then increased to 1000 words a day. Do I always get it? Nope. But the goal is on the back of my mind constantly because I know its something I can do; therefore its something I should. Its that simple.

I’d like to leave you with some words of inspiration, but really thats not my style. So I will simply say. Get off this page. Open your word processer and go to work. Oh and thank me in your acknowledgments.

Collin Earl, CLO of Darkfire Productions.

Dark Fire Production Team