OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
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It's great to have crime novelist Seth Harwood on the show talking about the new publishing paradigm for his latest novel, Young Junius available for special edition pre-order on May 5th.
Seth Harwood is the author of several crime novels including ‘Jake Wakes Up' published last year and his latest book, ‘Young Junius' . Seth is also a podcaster, writing teach and co-creator of the Author Bootcamp program.
In this podcast you will learn:
- The publishing world does not quickly recognize new novelists, so Seth used podcasting to build an audience for his crime novels.
- Pre-release of ‘Young Junius' is inspired by Scott Sigler's self-publishing run of ‘The Rookie' and now ‘The Starter' which his publisher didn't want to publish as it didn't fit the genre. Seth has partnered with a small press, Tyrus Books to organize a special edition that is only pre-sold on the internet with tons of special extras, photos, cover art, embossed and more. People pre-order on Amazon so why not skip them as the middleman and do this directly.
- The possibility of mainstream authors doing this is out there i.e. avoid the middleman and publish straight to the market. We will likely see more authors using this model for publishing.
- ‘Young Junius' is a crime novel, fans of ‘The Wire', ‘Dexter', ‘Law & Order' and authors Richard Price, David Simon, Michael Connelly will enjoy it. It's available for pre-order on May 5th – Cinco de Junius!
- How podcasting can still benefit new authors by getting your work out there to new fans. You need to have a presence where people can find out about you, and podcasting is ideal as you can podcast your actual work and people can listen when they are doing other things.
- Don't worry about your voice! Fans like to hear the author's voice reading the book.
- How to balance your time between writing, marketing, revisions, online promotion. It varies depending on the phase you are in for your book. But it is definitely tricky!
- It's important to write well but also sell a lot of books. Write what you love to read and create, not something that is ‘literary' if that is not the genre you love.
- You can order ‘Young Junius' special edition at SethHarwood.com on May 5th. You can connect with Seth on twitter @sethharwood
“What you really want to get is fans out there who are actual readers and potential book buyers, not people people who are other writers who are discruntled about publishing”
It’s great to finally here someone else say this. If there’s one thing people take away from this podcast is that single statement. I agree and authors need to expose their content, targeting the correct audience/demographic. Guerilla marketing, you must think outside the box, particularly fiction authors. The vast majority of young readers are not on twitter. You need to be proactive, full of beans and reach them through promo mediums that ‘your audience is exposed to on a regular basis’. Up and coming authors without huge budgets, this is where you need to get creative with your marketing.
Thanks Joanna for the podcast, keep up the top work!
Onwards and upwards everyone!
Thanks, Joanna!