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Published on November 19, 2024 03:00

November 18, 2024

Unlocking the Power of Epigraphs: Enhance Your Fantasy Novel’s World Building

Let’s talk the magic of epigraphs.

An epigraph is “a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.” (Ecosia search engine/Oxford Languages via Oxford University Press)

Epigraphs are a great way to add layers of world building to your novels and can also enhance humor or suspense.

I was talking to one of my client’s recently about her epigraphs for her fantasy novel.

And she asked me if her epigraphs could be things her main character doesn’t know.

“Yes!” I said. And proceeded to give her some examples I’ve created, drawn from my young adult adventure fantasy series, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer.

Here’s a longer list of my epigraph types and examples.

As you read this list, think about the kinds of epigraphs you can include in your story.

Epigraph types and examplessayings/ditties/proverbs (Of unknown provenance; The River Sayings; Oro Market Ditty, origins unknown)excerpts of songs and odes and chants (From the chorus of the Song of the Dragon Slayer; From Ode One of the Valley version of “Song of the Dragon Slayer; The Weavers of Yore chant; Bleuvian Army chant)magical tomes/excerpt from books/manuals (from the Fire Sorcerers Compendium; The Fire Annals, Book IV; Manual of Magics, origin shielded)codes of conduct/protocols/laws/treatise (Varangian Warriors Code; Scroll of Oro Island Tea Protocol; Kingdom of Bleuve edict)secret messages (Informal spy dispatch to Officers General. Unsealed & orally delivered. Source unreliable.)reports (Formal Report to Officers General, Sealed & Delivered)poems (From the Lost King cycle; Baraka Poem)folklore, myths, and legends/performances (Phoenix Lore; Training Lore, Bleuvian Army; Elasosian Legend; From the tale, The Lion and the Mouse; The Lion and the Mouse Meet for War, Bleuvian Folk Tale; Fragment from the marionette show “The Lion and the Mouse Meet For War” on Champion’s Day in the Kingdom of Bleuve; How the Stars Came to Be, Bleuvian Tale)children’s rhymes/tales/warnings/parables (Child’s rhyme from the Skye Mountains; Warning to little children from the Skye Mountain villages)ancient scroll fragments (From fragments of the Emerald Incantata Scroll)hearsay (Two traders overheard at a RiversPort Inn; From the whisperings of a madman; Volcano Witches Spying on Paulette)portents or dream snippets (Baraka’s Shaman’s Dream)forgotten or lost bits of culture (Song of the Dragon Slayer, forgotten refrain)almanacs (The Kingdom of Bleuve’s Travelers Almanac, 125th edition)rumors (Bleuvian rumors passed from king to king)philosophical treatise (Philosophical treatise on the Nature of the Kingdoms, Rainbow Scroll, origins unknown)jokes (Kingdom of Bleuve Bardic joke; Joke as told by Jaxter the Bard King)curses (Eyvindir’s curse on Henrietta)Comment and share with me your own favorite epigraph. So curious to see it!

A few examples from my YA fantasy action adventure series, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer.

Want more world building tips?

Want to listen (or watch) to tons more tips?

Check out out podcast, How To Write The Future, on YouTube, and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

The post Unlocking the Power of Epigraphs: Enhance Your Fantasy Novel’s World Building appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 18, 2024 11:32

Writing practice. “I can do this.” (Step 2)

How To Write the Future podcast, episode 127 – Writing practice. “I can do this.” (Step 2)

“To write a novel, you really need to be able to already be able to sit down and write. Even if it’s just a little bit at a time.”

*This episode is part of a mini-series based on the “Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap” where Beth Barany discusses the method she developed to help writers go from idea to published science fiction and fantasy novel.*

In “**Writing practice. ‘I can do this.’” (Step 2)** How To Write the Future podcast host, Beth Barany continues her exploration of the roadmap where she asks two questions to help you assess where you are with your writing practice and shares why it’s important to focus on all aspects of writing.

**Work the roadmap!** Sign up and receive a copy of Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap workbook: https://bethbarany.com/trust-your-creative-heart-roadmap-workbook/

RESOURCES

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

The *How To Write The Future* podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for Writing practice. “I can do this.” (Step 2)

BETH BARANY: Hey, everyone. Welcome to How To Write the Future. I’m Beth Barany, your host, creativity, coach writer, novelist, podcast, host filmmaker, all the things, and writing teacher. I’m with you here sharing my Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap.

And today we’re doing step two. So, if you missed the overview where I go through all eight steps very quickly. Or you missed step one, go ahead and check out those episodes.

[31] Step Two: Your Writing Practice

BETH BARANY: So today, I am queuing up my stuff here. Today, I am going to talk about what I’m calling step Two. Step One was an assessment, and a clarification and clarifying your goals.

Step Two is focusing on your writing practice, getting your writing practice going.

Now, maybe you already have a writing practice because you’ve been keeping a journal for a long time, or maybe you write non-fiction, or you write for work, and you know how to get yourself to the writing.

What I’ve noticed, over the years of working over two decades with writers is that to write a novel, you really need to be able to already be able to sit down and write. Even if it’s just a little bit at a time. That’s really all that you need to get going into learn how to get better at writing on a regular basis.

Because a big part of being able to write long form, being able to write fiction, being able to have a career where you write a lot of books is the ability to know how to get yourself to the writing. I liken it to coming up to the trough and then drinking. It’s a two-step process. And what I mean by that is setting up the conditions In terms of your environment, in terms of blocking off time in your schedule, and then also it’s how do you get yourself past some resistance past the blank page, past the doubts and the fears and the worries. There is a thing I like to say, which is writing begets writing.

Once we get started, it’s easy to keep going, but getting started is often the hardest part. So, building that writing habit and knowing how to start by putting words on a page that will take you halfway there. So, there’s several things that can help you do that.

One is an attitude of, “I can do this. “And I’m going to tell you right now, “You can do this. “If you can sit down and write a few sentences, then you can sit down and learn how to write scenes and learn how to write books. So, the trick is start writing. Because writing begets writing.

And I will clue you in, onto my very favorite tool to do this, which is timed writing. Timed writing is a great way that I get started, that my husband, who is also a writer, gets started.

And between the two of us, we’ve each written several dozen novels. I think I’m on novel number 16 at this recording. And I think my husband is on like novel number 20. Yah, we still use timed writing to get ourselves started. And sometimes, we use a variation of that. Like I’ve heard my husband say things like, I’m just going to write five words. That’s awesome.

And sometimes when I’m really tired and feeling very drained, but I want forward momentum, I will say, I’m just going to look at my story. So that means I have to open it up and look at it. or open up my story notes. I’m just going to look at my story notes. That gets me going every single time.

Even if it’s for five or 10 minutes. Afterwards, I feel so much better that I focused on my writing.

[03:55] The Two Questions

BETH BARANY: Now there’s two questions I like to ask to help you assess where you are with your writing practice. And that is: What is already working for you? What is working? That could be that you already know how to sit down and get started.

That could be that you have so many ideas, you don’t know what to do with them. And so, you have a lot to say. That could be you love working in certain mediums. You love writing in your notebook or you love typing into Microsoft Word or Scrivener or another writing program. Or you love the research phase and writing things down and organizing your notes. So, what in your writing practice right now is working for you? I’d love to know. And it would be good for you to know most importantly. And then the second question, and if you’ve listened to step one, this will be familiar. It’s: What would you like more of? So, when you think of your writing practice, and I’m just gonna use myself as an example right now, when I think of my writing practice, what is it that I would like more of. And actually, I’m at the phase where I’m doing a lot of dictation. So, I want to practice more dictation, not dictation of fiction, per se, but dictation of my creative process notes, more on the journaling side. That’s what I’m thinking about when I think of my writing practice right now. I actually, Can sit down, and I can get to work. But it took a lot of practice. It wasn’t easy at first.

[05:21] One more component about the Writing Practice

BETH BARANY: Now there’s one more component about the writing practice is, I remember when I first started, I didn’t know what to write.

I knew I wanted to write fiction, but I didn’t know what to say, even though the desire was there. So, part of having a writing practice is having something to say. So, part of the practice is the saying what you can say and putting it down on the page.

So, the other very important tool that I use is free writing.

So often when I’m doing timed writing, I’m actually doing free writing because that is very much being in the present with my thoughts and my ideas. And my doubts and my worries and my fears and just writing them down.

And then from there, I can ask myself questions about the story, which we’re going to touch on starting in Step Three. We’re going to start to talk about story development. So, stay tuned for that.

Today we talked about step two in my Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap, helping you go from idea to finished science fiction and fantasy novel that you are so proud of, that you are publishing, that you are marketing, that you are so excited that readers can find your book.

[06:33] STAY TUNED FOR STEP THREE

BETH BARANY: All right. Stay tuned for step three, where I will talk more about story and story development.

[06:39] Workbook

BETH BARANY: And just so you know, there is a little workbook that comes with the series.

So be sure to check that out in the link, or go ahead and put into the comments, if you’re listening to this on YouTube and say, “Send me the workbook.” There is a workbook that comes along with this roadmap.

So that’s it for this week. Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITS EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Writing practice. “I can do this.” (Step 2) appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 18, 2024 10:54

November 15, 2024

If You’re an Indie Author, How do you Establish Legitimacy? by Laurel Osterkamp

Let’s welcome back Laurel Osterkamp as she shares with us “If You’re an Indie Author, How do you Establish Legitimacy?” Enjoy!

***

This summer I went to an author event at a local bookstore. While I was happy to be there, I’ll admit I was also jealous and frustrated.

Because I knew there was little chance I’d be invited to have an event at this store.

I tried. Their website has an online form you can fill out. You need to have a good cover (check), be distributed by Ingram (check), a book that’s a romance (check), and preferably local (check). That’s just to be included on their shelves. In the message section, I explained that my novel, The Side Project, will be released in November, and I’d love to do an event.

Yeah, they never got back to me.

Another bookstore did; this one is in Bemidji, where my novel is set. And while I’m thrilled to do an event there, I was miffed when the owner assumed that I’m self-published, even after sending her my sell-sheet.

Many of my books are self-published, but The Side Project is published by The Wild Rose Press, who puts out thousands of books and has a great reputation.

But I’ve realized that unless people recognize your publisher’s name as Harper Collins, Penguin, or one of the other big 5, then they’ll still figure you’re self-published. And, I still find myself trying to prove that my books are just as worthy as the ones that have a big-name publisher behind them.

Elevate Yourself as an Indie Author

Here’s the truth: There is no magic-legitimacy pill you can take, but you can take steps to elevate yourself as an indie author. It’s no coincidence that the more effective the step, the more work is required.

Paid Reviews

I fell into the trap, thinking, If I get a Kirkus starred review, then the booksellers and readers will take notice! And I paid an embarrassingly hefty sum only for the reviewer to miscategorize my novel’s genre, just give examples from the first 50 or so pages, and ultimately pan my novel, not giving me a single line worth using as a blurb.

This was for my self-published book, The Next Breath, and I’m planning a future, detailed post about my experience.

Anyway, paid reviews can be handy, but I’ve come to believe that the priciest ones are exploiting indie authors and their desire to be seen.

Paid review services I recommend are Book Commentary, Indies Today, and LoveReading.

Book Commentary: https://thebookcommentary.com/Indies Today: https://indiestoday.com/authors/LoveReading: https://www.lovereading.co.uk/your-book-reviewedContests

I’ve had great luck with contests, but I still advise being careful.

It’s easy to sink a lot of money into contests and not get anything in return.

It’s also easy to grow addicted to the supposed validation these contests give.

And, while listing your awards is a nice addition to your website or Amazon page, it’s unclear if they do much to drive sales.

Paid Promotions

Put your book on sale for 99 cents, or even make it free, and get it promoted on places like BookBub.

You’ll get lots of sales or downloads, accrue a bunch of Amazon reviews, and the algorithms will transform. The force will be with you and your book. Right?

Perhaps.

Except, I’ve been unable to get a BookBub deal in the last few years, except for a “New Releases For Less” promotion, which aren’t as effective.

There are tons of other promotion sites, and when I made The Next Breath free last summer I used a few of them, getting around ten-thousand downloads.

However, that didn’t translate to very many reviews, and it was no magic algorithm fix.

Still, paid promos can be a nice way to give your books an adrenaline shot.

Perhaps you’ve had more success, but whenever I do a paid promo I’m prepared to take a loss financially.

Facebook Ads

I’ve tried BookBub, Amazon, and Facebook ads.

With the first two, I’ve lost a lot of money and gained a lot of frustration.

With Facebook ads, I’ve had modest success. I recommend watching an online tutorial or reading the most recent instructions you can find, because with AI and other technology, the platform is ever-changing.

Website and Newsletter

Most experts would put this step as the #1 most important thing you can do. For me, it’s #2.

Perhaps one day, if I can figure out how to get more people to open my newsletter or visit my website, it will be #1.

Meanwhile, I subscribe to a few newsletters of very successful authors who either began as self-published or who still are.

What’s their secret to success?

Turns out it’s not a secret: they write fun, engaging newsletters that make readers feel valued, and their websites (plus their books) are super-appealing.

Networking and Social Media

When I was looking for people to be on The Side Project’s ARC team, I contacted a lot of authors. Some had books with thousands of Amazon reviews and stellar sales rankings. Others not so much. And I was astounded by the generosity and openness I received.

Most of the authors replied, many agreed to read and review my book, and others offered newsletter or Facebook group takeovers. I began following all of them on Instagram, where I already followed lots of Bookstagrammers, who are readers that like posting about books.

With Bookstagram, self-published vs. traditionally published doesn’t seem to matter. If you can give and take, like and share, and not ONLY post about your current or next release, you’ll find a supportive and engaged community.

Labor of Love and Believe in Yourself

Being any sort of an author is a huge labor of love, and every route has pitfalls. I hope this doesn’t sound trite – but the best way to establish legitimacy is by believing in yourself!

***

About the Author

Laurel Osterkamp is from Minneapolis, where she teaches and writes like it’s going out of style. Her short fiction has been featured in Abandon Journal, Idle Ink, Tangled Locks Literary Journal, Bright Flash Literary Journal, and The Metawoker, among other places. Her new novel, The Side Project, will be released on November 13th by The Wild Rose Press.

Follow her on social media:

Instagram: Laurel Osterkamp (@laurel_osterkamp) • Instagram photos and videosFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlaurelosterkamp

Follow to get notified of new book releases by following Laurel on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/laurel-osterkamp

The post If You’re an Indie Author, How do you Establish Legitimacy? by Laurel Osterkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 15, 2024 03:00

November 11, 2024

You are Here: Take an Assessment and Clarify your goals (Step 1)

How To Write the Future podcast, episode 126 – You are Here: Take an Assessment and Clarify Your Goals (Step 1)

“I help you go from idea to finished science fiction or fantasy novel that you are proud of.”

How To Write the Future host, Beth Barany kicks off her first episode based on her *Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap* method called, “**You are Here: Take an Assessment and Clarify your goals (Step 1)”** where she explains why it’s important to clarify your goals, and asks you two key questions to help get you started.

Work the roadmap! Sign up and receive a copy of Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap workbook: https://bethbarany.com/trust-your-creative-heart-roadmap-workbook/

RESOURCES

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 126 – You are Here: Take an Assessment and Clarify Your Goals (Step 1)

BETH BARANY: Hey, everyone. I am Beth Barany of how to write the future podcast. I am here to share with you my Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap, helping writers go from idea to finished science fiction or fantasy novel. Now of course you can apply this material to any creative process.

Because I am a science fiction and fantasy writer. I am talking to science fiction and fantasy writers. And that is who I help.

I help you go from idea to finished science fiction or fantasy novel that you are proud of, and that you’re ready to share with the world; that you’re ready to publish. And you’re ready to send it out into the world and move on to the next one.

So, I created an eight-step process – a roadmap that takes you all the way through that process. And if you want to hear the overview, go ahead and check out the overview that I created on this process.

[01:00] Step One: You Are Here

BETH BARANY: Today we’re going to go through step one. And then you can go and listen to all the other steps that will be released soon. All right.

So, step one.

Before you actually take a step on a journey. You want to know where you’re going. You want to clarify your goals. And you want to take stock of your strengths and what you would like more of.

[01:23] Clarify Your Goals

BETH BARANY: So, I encourage you to think about what is it that you really want. What does that look like? Do you want to have a finished book in your hand? Do you want to be able to hand it to your friends and family? Do you want to sell it all across the internet? On Amazon, on the other vendors? Do you want to sell it direct to readers online? Or in person or both?

And then do you want to go on and write more books?

So, I am talking to beginners, but also if you are an experienced writer and you’ve been writing some books, I also encourage you to take stock of your goals, as well.

[02:02] Workbook

BETH BARANY: And just so you know, there is a little workbook that comes with the series.

[02:19] Assessment Questions

BETH BARANY: So, where are you? Where are you now? And where do you want to go?

[02:23] Two Key Questions

BETH BARANY: And there are two questions that I like to ask when I’m talking to writers at the beginning when I’m getting to know you. I start by looking at: what is working.

I think it is really important to notice what is already working in your life around your goal.

For example, if you’ve never written a full-length novel before, but you keep a journal. And maybe you’ve written some papers for school.

So those are things that are working. You’re able to sit down and get to your writing.

Or if you are an avid reader, that is also what is working, or you watch a lot of TV and film and you love story. Those things are working for you. What else might be working for you?

I call them strengths. And it could also be the fact that you might have a space where you can work or that you have some time that you can put into writing. Those are also working for you plus other skills that come from other parts of your life. Those things are working for you too. So, all of the things that are working for you that can support you as you do this new thing, as you do this new thing of writing a novel.

[03:28] What would you like more of?

BETH BARANY: And then the second question to ask before we start on the journey, before we start on the road and the adventure to get you to that amazing, finished place, finished goal. with a book in your hand with being so proud of it.

Another thing to ask yourself because, and we all go there is: what would you like more of?

I’m not asking what’s wrong or what’s broken, or what needs fixing.

I’m actually looking at it a little differently. It’s another way, instead of saying what’s lacking, we’re going to ask: what would you like more of?

So, this is your desire and you’re like, ah, I want this thing, but I don’t have this thing.

So, something, for example, that I noticed when I was struggling as a beginning writer is I wanted more time to put into my writing. And that’s what I wanted more of. I wanted more time.

Meaning I realized I needed to dedicate more time to the writing itself because, my writing sessions were very sporadic and I wasn’t actually sitting down on a regular basis and I realized, oh, that’s really what I’m craving. I am craving that dedicated almost daily time that I sit down at the cafe as it was, and I work on writing that first draft.

Another thing that you might want more of is more feedback. Wow. That’s really great to know. Are you ready for feedback? Maybe you are. Maybe you’re not. If you don’t have anything written, then you don’t have anything to share with anyone yet, but it’s good to know.

So, notice, what is it that you would like more of?

When I asked one of my clients this, he told me he wanted longer blocks of time.

He was writing daily, but he didn’t want to write for 20 minutes or 30 minutes. He wanted three hours or a day where he would be uninterrupted.

When I asked another client what she wanted more of she realized that she needed more understanding of story structure. And so, it was like, oh, okay, great. So that’s an area where she can go and learn more about.

So, it could be a knowledge thing. It could be skills, it could be time. It could be support. What would you like more of?

[05:40] Wrap-up: You Are Here

BETH BARANY: So today we talked about step one in my Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap. It is an assessment. It is that moment before you go on the journey where you look at the map and it says You Are Here. We’re looking at where you are right now. You are here. And looking at what are your goals? What is the specific goal that you want right now? And, asking two questions: what’s working? And what would you like more of?

[06:08] Let me know if you have questions!

BETH BARANY: That’s it for this episode. And if you have any questions, please write me, post them in the chat. Reach out to me. And if you would like the workbook that comes with this series, then go ahead and use the link in the description.

Also, you can write me; post in the comments. “Send me the guide.” That’s it for this week, everyone Write long and prosper.

***

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

C 2024 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post You are Here: Take an Assessment and Clarify your goals (Step 1) appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 11, 2024 05:57

November 8, 2024

(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things by Catharine Bramkamp

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things.” Enjoy!

***

The last time I moved fast, I shattered my knee cap.

In U.S. culture, fast and furious is always privileged over measured and mediated.

Clearly, being first often equates with success; the first to patent an idea, the first to publish a scientific theory, first to try a new move.

Speed wins the race.

One of the fall outs from the Amazon culture is we can have an item within days, sometimes hours of ordering. It’s natural that over the years we have conflated writing a book with ordering a book.

Books arrive overnight. We should write them just as fast.

Some authors do write their books that fast.

Danielle Steel publishes an impressive three books a year.

Younger genre authors publish more frequently than that.

Writers who enjoy fast turnaround often work in a specific genre.

They work within their own world, which in turn, the reader is familiar with. And once established, it’s relatively easy to churn out five to six (sometimes more) books a year, lighting manuscripts one after the other like a chain smoker: Cindy finds love in the Bookstore. Mandy finds Love in the Flower Shop. Teresa opens a Bookstore/Flower Shop and finds love.

The books are exactly what the readers want, no more, no less. These series books, many of which are eBooks only, are, in some cases, so massively successful they earn their authors enough money to open their own Flower Shop/Cafe/Bookstore. And jolly good for them.

James Patterson dominates best sellers lists not only through world building but committee management.

He thinks up the plot and hires relatively unknown authors to write up the book drafts. Another team researches, graphic artists create the covers, the publishing team crafts the back copy and launches the marketing campaign.

Patterson in turn, puts that unknown author’s name on the cover, right below Patterson, giving credit where credit is due, which can be a great career boost for the author.

All just fine, but do not make the mistake as you survey a used bookstore shelf packed with copy after copy of James Patterson and despair that you can’t publish 31 books a year.

You are not a committee. You could be, but you aren’t. You are you. And you have my permission and support to write your book at your own pace.

A book takes as long as it takes.(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things

Most of my clients aren’t working to create a system, they aren’t writing genre fiction.

They are working on recording a unique expression of themselves, of their story, of a character that reflects all truth they want to say out loud but need a story to do it effectively.

Those novels and memoirs take longer to create. And that is okay.

Sometimes you have an idea for a book but the character takes his or her sweet time before starting to speak.

Sometimes you must wait out an elderly relative before you can write that memoir.

Sometimes you get 50,000 words into a novel and one morning realize that the Muse led you astray, and the whole thing needs to be tossed. Or even ritualistically burned (true story).

If you are writing something unique, now is the time to embrace process.

And process is slow, steady. If you try to write too fast you will lose the very reason to write at all: living in your zone, experiencing the day as a creative, spending hours in joy.

Writing is a process, it’s about the doing. The goal is to spend days and weeks and months immersed in a world of your own making. This is your art, and it won’t end when you publish.

What I have learned over publishing 27 or so books is that no one cares when I finish or even what I finish.

They care even less about when I publish. When I tell someone I’m a writer, they don’t ask about the finished book (likely because they aren’t really readers) but they are fascinated by the process.

They want to discuss how I’m writing:

Do I use a computer or write by hand?Do I write in the morning? If so, how early?How on earth am I able to rise that early?What do I write in my journals?

They are hungry for information on how to express this particular art. They want to know about the how and the why. The finished product? Meh.

You are a writer

While you are writing your book, you are a writer. You are envied because you have an interesting and absorbing project.

Writers travel to interesting locations. Writers research in picturesque libraries. Writers can legitimately spend hours staring into space.

How much better can it get?

The win is your process. Enjoy the process and take as long as you like.

I know a writer who is having so much fun traveling and researching he may never finish his book. And he does not care.

You (Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things

The myth of moving fast is inescapable.

Impossibly Young Author writes book in under three hours, sells a million copies in seven and and a half minutes, buys the Barbie dream house and lives happily ever after.

Except… what she will be asked, forever after, is not – tell me about your published book, but tell me what you are working on now.

Fast is currently a thing, so was smoking.

It may be healthier to just take your time.

Want more?

Pre-order your copy of Out Loud – An Adventure in Writing for Women, launching January 2025.

About Out Loud – A Writing Adventure for Women

When do we write our truth? Now? Or now?

Out Loud is a lighhearted, intelligent guide to help you start your novel or non-fiction book.

If you are an expert in your field and want to share your knowledge or if you’ve always had a dream to create a marvelous character who jumps off the page, this is for you.

And if you’d like tips to court your muse and write for your own joy, we got you.

Come on a writing adventure, indulge yourself.

As Joan Didion commented, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.”

Come do the same!

Sections include:

The AdventureCharting the CourseMessing Around in BoatsNavigating Rough WatersHere be DragonsThe Pirate CodeJourney to the CenterIthaca

Welcome aboard!

***

Want to read more articles like this one Writer’s Fun Zone? Subscribe here.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.

The post (Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things by Catharine Bramkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 08, 2024 03:00

November 4, 2024

Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers

Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 125

“I really recommend that you trust your own style and voice. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are trying to do is wrong or bad, or that you’re wrong or bad for doing it. Trust yourself, trust your heart.”

In the latest How To Write the Future podcast episode, “Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers (Ep. 125)” host Beth Barany, kicks off an 9-part mini-series on her Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap, the method she developed to help writers go from idea to published science fiction and fantasy novel.

Sign up and receive a copy of Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap workbook: https://bethbarany.com/trust-your-creative-heart-roadmap-workbook/

RESOURCES

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap overview:

BETH BARANY: Hey everyone, Beth. Barany here for How To Write The Future podcast.

Today I’m going to start an eight part series on Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap. This is my own method that I developed to help you go from idea or seedling of the tiniest idea to finished science fiction or fantasy novel that you can feel proud of.

[00:23] Intro

BETH BARANY: There’s eight parts to the series. Today, I’m actually going to do an overview of each of the eight parts. It’s really eight steps along the road. And then later in the next episodes, I will break each one down.

[00:38] Handout

BETH BARANY: Now there is a PDF handout that goes along with this entire series and you can sign up for that using the link in the description below. And if you don’t see that link, just put into the comments: ” send me the roadmap.”

[00:54] Assess – Where you are

BETH BARANY: All right. So I start every session, every workshop, every consultation, every coaching with the question of asking people to take an assessment of where they are to clarify your goals, what it is that you want, why do you want it? Why is it really important to you? And so that’s a big “you are here” sign, like on the maps at the mall.

We want to know where you are right now before we can take stock of where you want to go and get you there.

So like any map, like if you’re at the mall or looking at a physical paper map, or even looking at a map online, there’s where you are now, where you are now, you are here to where you want to go.

[01:38] Goal – where you want to go

BETH BARANY: So we’re going to jump right now all the way to the end of the road: where you want to go. What is your end goal?

Now I’m assuming it’s to have a finished science fiction or fantasy novel that you are proud of. And that you can share with the world.

It’s published.

Here you go.

You get to hand it physically to somebody or send them a link where they can purchase it online. What does that look like for you? What does that feel like for you? That you have a finished polished masterpiece that you were so proud of and you get to share it with the world. That’s the end of the road of my Trust Your Creative heart Roadmap.

Now, let’s go back to the beginning.

[02:19] How do you get to your writing goal?

BETH BARANY: Now that we know where you are and where you want to go, let’s look at: how do you get there?

If we were driving or walking or taking a bike or a train, we know how we could get that. The transportation would take us there.

What is the transportation for you as a writer? It’s a secret. No.

It is so simple yet so challenging. It’s writing. It’s writing.

In my opinion, it’s a practice. And it is an attitude.

And something that I noticed is that writing begets writing.

The more you do it, the easier it gets.

That’s not to say I don’t have difficult days. I do. Absolutely. But I also know how to get myself butt-in-chair, how to get myself writing.

So the goal of a writing practice is to build the creative habit that works for you. Not for me, not for some teacher over there. Somebody says you should get up at 5:00 AM.

No. It’s about finding your best time and best place and best ingredients that help you be the writer.

So that’s the writing practice. And that’s really the first step in the road, but it’s the second part of our roadmap.

[03:27] Develop Your Story Idea

BETH BARANY: Now the third part of our roadmap is story development.

So you have an idea, but you don’t know what to do with it. So then I recommend that you learn how to develop a story.

And of course I have a resource for you. It is our Plan Your Novel, Like A Pro book. And it comes with a digital workbook. You can simply buy the book and get the digital workbook for free.

I also highly recommend that you journal or write a diary or log. In your point of view character’s voice. So instructive.

[03:58] Trust Yourself

BETH BARANY: And then lastly, still staying on a high level. I really recommend that you trust your own style and voice. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are trying to do is wrong or bad, or that you’re wrong or bad for doing it. Trust yourself, trust your heart. Trust your urges.

[04:14] Write Your Messy First Draft – Take 1

BETH BARANY: All right.

So after that, It’s really time to sit down and write your first draft. Now we are in the middle of our journey.

I love this part. I love writing my first draft and I know now there are a lot of edits that will be coming. But we’re really close to the midpoint here.

So I encourage you to write your messy first draft. It’s going to be messy. It can be out of order. It could be bad grammar, bad punctuation. It can be a mess.

Now, of course you can polish it up as you go, if that’s your inclination, but you don’t have to. I tend to reread the day’s work that I did the day before. And make very simple corrections, but I do not allow myself to change the story because the story is not yet formed.

You really need to trust that it’s going to be something. And you may not know what it is until it’s done. So you really need to learn how to trust your vision, trust your feelings, and really trust the process and refine that process as you go.

Meaning- how you get to the writing phase of your day. And how you get into it, how you talk to yourself when you’re writing, and then how you finish.

I always encourage people to finish the writing, for that day with a sense of accomplishment and notice how much did you do or how many words or how much time, or even how much physical space on the page did you take up.

Whatever you can do to count the fact that today you did some writing. And that is going to add up. Trust me.

[05:46] Take 2 to 95 – The Editing Phase

BETH BARANY: All right, let’s get on to the editing phase. I call this phase: take two to 95. I called the writing phase. Take one. And now we are in Take two to 95.

Who knows how many revisions your book can have? Now you can have one revision or two revisions, but most writers have lots of revisions.

When you write, you write for yourself. When you revise, you revise for your readers.

Writing is rewriting.

Every writer will tell you that across discipline them all the different kinds of writers out there. Here’s where you get to really deepen, discover and uncover and learn the art and craft of making writing, making narrative prose, making the words on the page, do the work of telling a story, do the work of fiction.

[06:35] Give and Receive Feedback

BETH BARANY: Here’s also where you’re going to learn how to give and receive feedback. It’s a very important key and piece to being a successful writer is learning how to give and receive feedback.

The sooner you can get yourself to this phase around feedback, the more you will advance and get to your goal. I’ve seen it time and time again.

[06:54] Heart-Centered Marketing

BETH BARANY: Next you want to trust your heart while you do your marketing. You can start that in the editing process.

You want to clarify your values, clarify your emotional impact for your readers, and build a community of like hearted peers, really important.

[07:11] Launch and Publish

BETH BARANY: Lastly in this roadmap you want to launch and publish your novel. Yay. Congratulations. Not only for yourself, but for your eager audience and learn how to create a sustainable marketing practice that works for you.

So then you can get to your end goal of having a successful, published novel, science fiction or fantasy novel that you are excited about.

[07:37] Stay tuned for the deeper dive

BETH BARANY: All right. That’s it for this week, stay tuned while I break into deeper detail, more detail each step in the Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap.

You got this.

Write long and prosper.

***

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on November 04, 2024 07:10

October 28, 2024

Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 2

Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 2 – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 124

“I want you to own the relationship with your reader. It should be your website they’re buying on, not mine. So they’re buying on your website. They’re experiencing your process.” – Damon Courtney

In “Interview with BookFunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 2” How To Write the Future podcast host, Beth Barany continues her interview with Damon Courtney where he explains the importance of direct sales with BookFunnel, explains its features. Plus they discuss how traditional publishing is following the independent publishing in the realm of success. Damon also shares what’s next for Bookfunnel!

Be sure to listen to part 1 of our conversation here: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/2024/10/21/interview-with-bookfunnel-creator-damon-courtney-part-1/

RESOURCES

Bookfunnel: https://bookfunnel.com

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT DAMON COURTNEY

Damon Courtney is the creator and CEO of BookFunnel, an ebook and audiobook delivery service for authors and publishers. As a lifelong software engineer, Damon is an expert in just about everything technical and can offer unique insight on publishing as it relates to software and technology. He is also the self-published author of his very own Fantasy trilogy and continues to spin stories in his head that he hopes to some day get around to writing.

Website: https://bookfunnel.com

Transcript for Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 2 [H2]

BETH BARANY: Hey everyone, welcome to How to Write the Future podcast. I’m your host Beth Barany. I am a science fiction and fantasy writer and a writing teacher and creativity coach. I have run this podcast because I am passionate about how storytelling can rewrite the future for ourselves, for our readers, and yes, let’s just say it for humanity. I believe that with our creative tools of writing what we vision through our words, we can help make so.

[00:27] Part 2 Intro

BETH BARANY: So today enjoy part two of my conversation with Damon about BookFunnel. And book marketing and be sure to listen to part one. Where he told his story about how he got started in BookFunnel.

For those of you watching or listening on YouTube, something. I was a little off about the recording. So in some of the parts of this interview, as well as in part one, I don’t show up on camera. Just want to let you know.

[00:57] Direct Sales and Direct Sales Delivery with BookFunnel

BETH BARANY: So, there we are, we’re writers. Maybe we have some books out, maybe we have a handful like me. I have three series out. I’m working on a new book in my sci-fi mystery series. And now I’ve got some experience under my belt, and I’m looking at the next trend, which has actually been building for a long time, which is direct sales.

I’ve been watching direct sales for a good decade, knowing that eventually, hopefully, the tech would get better. I tried to do direct sales years ago with my fantasy trilogy, and I was just frustrated that I took it down. And, that particular vendor I still find frustrating to work with. So I have been watching this space and I know that, and we had Russell Nohelty on, and his show is up already, talking about the future of publishing. And one of those things is direct sales –is becoming viable for people. And I’ve been watching BookFunnel be in there. And I was just telling my husband the other day, I’m like, look, I can have someone buy over here, but then give them the BookFunnel link and they can go and get it a BookFunnel and BookFunnel can handle any tech issues that they might have.

I was like so relieved. and so tell us more about book sales, tell us how BookFunnel is operating in that space. And any secret or not so secret, plans that you have as you go forward.

DAMON COURTNEY: So we actually launched the direct sales delivery. So direct sales delivery was the first feature request that we got a week after we’d opened our doors.

And so it was guys, we just got here. Like I spent almost a year of my life building BookFunnel to get it to where it was. And then we launched it and people were like, can you do this? We launched in 2015 and it took two years before we finally launched direct sales.

In 2017, we knew that it wasn’t going to be a feature that every author needed. You either had to be like super independent, like you just yeah, I’m going to sell myself. or you had enough of a fan base that you could actually drive that traffic.

But here we are six years later. And in the last couple of years, that has been, a lot of the growth, a lot of the authors that are joining BookFunnel are doing it so that they can deliver direct sales.

[02:55] the way we built our system

DAMON COURTNEY: The way we built our system was quite simply based on my experience as an author, which was, when you sign up for BookFunnel and you have an account with us, we don’t take a cut of your sales. We’re there to deliver the thing that we’re told to deliver ebook, audiobook, bundles of ebooks, however you want to do it. But we’re not actually part of the sale. you sell on a platform like Shopify or Gumroad or Payhip or PayPal, or however you want to sell it.

We integrate with four or five different platforms with more on the way. The idea is that you’re going to do the sale because again, I want you to own the relationship with your reader. It should be your website they’re buying on, not mine. So they’re buying on your website. They’re experiencing your process and then oh cool.

Now you finished the purchase. Great. BookFunnel Would like to step in and help make sure you get the book to your Kindle. Or get your audiobook onto your iphone or whatever you’re going to do but we step in there at the end, which means that we’re not a part of the sale. So the money is all flowing to the author, other than BookFunnel has a subscription fee., But what we heard from most of our authors, as they started to set up direct sales, was they already had a BookFunnel account.

So they were already using us to build their list. They were using us for Kickstarter fulfillment, whatever. They were already using us for tons of other stuff. So it didn’t cost anything extra to go and start building a store and delivering sales, at least not on the BookFunnel side.

And we built it like that on purpose. As an engineer, as an author, I didn’t feel like that I deserve 30 percent of your money just for getting a book onto somebody’s Kindle. I didn’t feel that was a fair price.

We’ll completely set aside how much of a chunk Audible takes when they send out your audiobooks. When we originally built it, we were just talking about eBooks. We didn’t launch audiobooks until about three years ago. And so now. authors really can–, you can sell direct When we talk about selling direct, so most people imagine like setting up their own bookstore, right?

[04:39] Worth it to set up your own online bookstore?

DAMON COURTNEY: DamonJCourtney. com and you go to this big bookstore and it’s Oh, that’s such a hassle. I don’t know how I’m going to set all that up. I don’t have the bandwidth. I don’t have the time for that. And that’s true. And maybe you’re not ready for that step. I would say if you don’t have a fairly decent backlist, if you don’t have at least five or six books out there, it’s probably not going to be worth your time to go through that effort and set that up.

But there are ways that you can start to start dipping your toes into selling direct without going through that route.

[05:06] Kickstarter as a direct sales route

DAMON COURTNEY: Kickstarter. Kickstarter is selling direct. It’s using a different platform, but it’s the same thing. Brandon Sanderson set out and did his four books, and I’m a Sanderson super fan, right? Okay. So I backed that all the way to the top I,not the top. I didn’t get all that. I don’t like tchotchkes and swag, but all of the hardbacks, the beautiful little leather books that he’s got, they’re incredible. He put up a Kickstarter for four books that we didn’t know the titles of, we didn’t know who was in them, we didn’t know what they were about, and nobody cared, right?

[05:33] Superfans

DAMON COURTNEY: Which is the kind of fan that you really want as an author. You want that fan who’s just like, I don’t care what you’re going to publish, I’ll take it, right? Which is, when I use the term superfan, that is a fan who’s going to buy whatever you write and publish for the rest of your life because they love you that much.

So Kickstarter is a way to sell direct. but it’s it’s one tiny little thing. You do one little Kickstarter, you do a little campaign and hopefully you get funded and everything works out. And you’re like, That was pretty good. That worked. But you don’t have to go do the whole store and build the whole setup.

You can, we have a lot of authors that just start by dipping their toes in and just setting up a bundle, right? So again, we’re talking about if you have something of a backlist.If you’ve got one or two or three books out, go write the next book. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on this, but once you have some out, maybe you’ve got an older trilogy that’s been sitting around.

[06:19] Bundle Your Books

DAMON COURTNEY: So rather than just like, Oh, I’m going to go hog wild and build my whole store, which for a lot of authors is the end game, but the short version is, I’m going to take these three books, I’m going to bundle them up. And you’ve either built a newsletter or you maybe want to run some Facebook ads or you’re going to try something new.

And so you say, Oh, I’m going to bundle up these three books. We see authors doing this a lot with their, with their older backlist. You bundle up the three books, email your current mailing list and say, Hey, I’m having a special this weekend where I’m selling the first three books, the first trilogy that I ever published.

And a lot of, I know a lot of you probably never read it. I’m going to sell it for 5, right? And so you’re not putting out a whole store. You’re just sending them one link. You just send them a link in the email. They click on that. They can go through, they can purchase the trilogy. They can not. You can do all of that without having to really get into building out an entire store of stuff.

I think that most authors, most of the authors that are joining us there, that is their, that’s where they want to be, right?

[00:07:15] Direct sales and Go wide

DAMON COURTNEY: They want to have: Damon J Courtney. com. They want to have their domain and you go to my domain and you can buy my books. And maybe you can also find them on Amazon and Kobo and other places. We have authors that sort of do both where you go to their store and their store is the primary place.

So when you click on a book, the first thing they’re going to say is add to cart. I got a big button. It’s like buying from me is what I really want you to do. But if you really prefer, you can also find my books on Amazon and Kobo and Google Play and Apple Books and like putting all the little, the other little icons down there.

And especially with people that are just discovering you for the first time, they may not be comfortable enough to buy directly from your website. They’re going to go and maybe read you on Amazon or something like that, but your super fans, oh, they absolutely will come directly to you.

So BookFunnel answers hundreds of emails a day from readers, right? We hear from readers all the time. And what we’re hearing from the readers that are buying from our authors is they love their authors. Like they love their authors more than, I don’t care who publishes a book.

I follow Bane and Tor because they’re fantasy publishers. I’m on Tor’s mailing list, but I don’t actually care if Tor is the one who published it. I care, when Brandon put his Kickstarter out. I’ll get them directly from Brandon, right? I care about my authors.

And your super fans, they’re going to work the same way. The message we’re getting from them as well. I would rather the money go directly to the author and, I don’t want that Jeff Bezos to get a cut, whatever. I don’t. I don’t really care what the messaging is, but for readers and for authors, direct selling, I think is when we talk about really the future of publishing, I think that’s, I think it’s the most indie thing that you can do, right? There, there really is nothing between you and the reader buying your book. The money is just going right into your account.

BETH BARANY: Yeah, I am so with you, Damon, and I have been doing what you’re doing. I’m actually putting one book up, a week, or every time I send out a newsletter, which is about two to three times a month, and I’m using, I’ll throw it out there, I’m using kofi.com, K O F I. com, just because it also has a donation feature, And I’m just playing around. I know there’s other platforms that I could play around with, but I decided to… I like this one. So I’m just digging in and, but I love your idea of a bundle. I think I’m going to try that, on my fantasy trilogy The first book came out in 2011.

Yep. Yeah. So it’s been a while. I love that you are. All in and supporting the indie author through direct sales, through list building.

[09:36] What’s next for BookFunnel

BETH BARANY: Is there anything coming around the corner, down the pike, that people who are fans of BookFunnel or may consider becoming users of BookFunnel that we can be looking out for?

DAMON COURTNEY: Our audiobooks are technically still in beta, because I haven’t quite finished writing the billing software. That’s really the short version of it. And so that has been really exciting for us because we talk about the future of publishing and we can talk about AI and people have their opinions on it and some good and some bad.

[10:04] Damon’s Take on AI

DAMON COURTNEY: I see it as a tool like anything else. I’m a, I’m an engineer speaking as someone whose job may be completely disappeared, and unalive by AI. The more that I see it, the more that I see that, there is still a lot of room for creativity, but one of those places has it been advancing really quickly is AI narration of text, right? Of fiction in particular. We’re a software as a service. So as long as you, as long as you, the check clears, our service is there to help indie authors do whatever it is that they want to do. And all the tools that we’ve built over the years have really been based on that.

Authors were telling us they wanted to do direct sales and we said, okay, I think we can deliver direct sales. Authors were telling us they really want to do audiobooks. And we said, oh, I think we can do that. And all of these things took a long time to build. I throw them out there like they were nothing, but they took years to build.

But,everything that we have built has been because indie authors needed the tools. And as far as I was concerned, I didn’t want to just give indie authors the tools to match what traditional publishing could do. I wanted us to be better. I wanted us to be able to do more. We have traditional publishers that use BookFunnel now because they don’t have the tools that we have.

[11:10] We have some better tools than traditional publishers

DAMON COURTNEY: We actually have better tools than they do in a lot of ways. Now they can get your paperback into an airport and Costco or whatever. But when it comes to digital media, they’re still trying to figure some of this stuff out. We have authors on BookFunnels that are using AI for narrating their audiobooks because they don’t have the money to actually pay. Narration is pretty expensive on, even on a 80,000-word book, you’re looking at several thousand dollars to get an audiobook narrated. Yeah.

[11:35] AI Narration

DAMON COURTNEY: And the AI narration has gotten, it’s, there’s an uncanny valley, right? You can hear it and you’re like, Oh, it’s a little weird. But the thing is that what I’m seeing is a lot of people, they are already listening to eBooks on their phones, on their smart devices with voiceover or with an audio companion, that sort of text to speech, right?

Those things are terrible. Like as far as trying to listen to a book, he grabbed her around the waist, you know like they’re better than they used to be but they’re they were not designed to read fiction. They were designed to just read text off a screen and so they get you know, read and read they don’t get a lot of the context.

So for some of those authors they’re using AI audio narration tools to create essentially a better version of, Hey, listen, if you were going to read my ebook with a screen reader, here’s a better version of that.

And they’re selling them at the same price. Like the AI narrated audiobook is $4.99. It’s the same price as if you bought my ebook. But for a lot of readers-

[12:33] Audio Listeners fall into 3 Camps

DAMON COURTNEY: What we have found over the last three years of delivering audio is that audio listeners are falling into three camps.

There’s the camp that I’m in, which is that I don’t like audio at all, and I read ebooks for everything. There is the audio first camp, which is, if you have an audiobook, they will take that first, always. But they’ll still read eBooks and paperbacks if necessary, but they prefer audio. And then we have the audio only camp, which is if your book is not an audio, you are invisible to them.

And so the more platforms, the more formats that we can have all of our books out and available in the better. We don’t have AI audio narration, to be clear, we’re not doing any of that stuff. but the more authors that are getting into building out their direct sales, this is one of those things where they’re saying, Hey, if you buy direct from me, I have this version of an audiobook.

It’s narrated by AI. I didn’t get a professional narrator, but if you really have to have my book in audio cause that’s just what you prefer. Then you can buy it for the same $4.99 that I sell my ebook for.

[13:36] Audiobook sales example – Joanna Penn

DAMON COURTNEY: And, Joanna Penn does this where she releases her ebook and then she has two versions of her audiobook that she has the AI narrated version, which you can buy for $4.99. And then there’s the version where she has narrated it herself. And that is the $14.99, like a full audiobook. And for the audio lovers, they’re going to take the one that gives them a real performance by listening to somebody. But for people who are like, I don’t have 15 bucks, or I really just wanted to enjoy the book on the drive, on the drive to the office every day, I’ll buy the $5 AI version.

[14:06] DIY Direct Sales with BookFunnel’s help

DAMON COURTNEY: Yeah. Again, we didn’t build that, but the tools that we’ve built are all in place to allow authors to do these kinds of — As new things come out, we already have a lot of this stuff in place to let authors experiment and try these new things. And that’s why I say: We’re beating the pants off of traditional publishing because we’re always out in front and trying new things. And then they come along after.

Like TOR has their newsletter and they have a once a month freebie that they give away, right? Like a reader magnet. And it’s,it’s great. I’ve picked up several new authors and that I fell in love with because I tried that, that free book TOR was offering.

But it’s just funny that they started doing that a few years ago after the indies had been doing it for almost close to a decade now, right? so the tools that we have out there are really good. And I love seeing the way that authors are out there experimenting with what they can do with everything that we have today.

BETH BARANY: That’s so wonderful. I really love what you’re doing and I would just love to encourage everyone to check out BookFunnel. com, see if it fits your needs as an author. And, I want to have you back, Damon, when you have the next new big thing. I think I initiated this conversation because I saw I think that audio was coming.

So I’m really glad to learn more about that. Now I’m encouraged to experiment with that some more. yeah. And I think we’re going to wrap it up here. So thank you. Thank you so much for coming on How To Write The Future.

DAMON COURTNEY: Thank you for having me. I had such a good time.

BETH BARANY: Thanks.

Thank you for listening to part two of my conversation with BookFunnel creator, and founder, Damon Courtney. I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to listen to part one if you haven’t already. Also, if you have questions about how to build your list as an author, come talk to me. I offer coaching and consulting for authors in that area as well. Of course specializing in science fiction and fantasy. All right.

That’s it for this week, everyone.

Write long and prosper.

***

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ABOUT BETH BARANY

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Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

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Email: beth@bethbarany.com

C 2024 BETH BARANY

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The post Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 2 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on October 28, 2024 01:00

October 25, 2024

Reading? No Judgment Here by LA Bourgeois

Let’s welcome back LA Bourgeois as she shares with us “Reading? No Judgment Here.” Enjoy!

***
When it comes to reading, my desires are flagrant.*

Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, history, writing, knitting, cooking, art, creativity, mystery, fantasy, humor, sci-fi, graphic novels, graphic nonfiction (Have you discovered Lynda Barry and Alison Bechdel yet?). All of these book types exist in my paper and virtual libraries. My reading apps currently hold over 1000 electronic books, both regular and audio. And I still haunt public libraries to research, find out-of-print tomes, and delve into new-to-me writers.

Thus, judgment about what and how people choose to read feels like a misuse of time. I mean, really. Have you ever heard (or perhaps said) something like this?

Is that a stack of romances? I re-read Ulysses when I want something light.War and Peace? What a doorstop! Give me a collection of short stories any day!The latest Louise Penny? Oh God, NO! I only read NONfiction.She told me she “read” an audiobook. *eyeroll*

Look, we all have our favorite ways and types of books to read. And all ways and types of reading are valid.

For me, paper books only get read during the day. For some reason, I learn more with a paper book than virtual, perhaps because of the movement of my hands as my pencil scratches marginalia beside sentences. And nothing feels more luxurious than reading fiction in the sunshine with a cup of tea and perhaps a little knitting to break up the words.

At night or while waiting in a line, my phone lights the way. Libraries worth of books get consumed in the last hour before I fall asleep, when waking during the night, or as Martha figures out how to use the automatic cashier at the grocery store.

You go, girl! Take as long as you want. Murderbot’s in a real pickle!

Audiobooks fill long drives, plane rides, and dog walks with mystery and fantasy. Sometimes I do pop a nonfiction book into my ears with the hope that the words will just infuse into my brain like sleeping with a textbook under my pillow.

But more effective than that. Because I actually heard the words.

No matter how I read a book, the author makes their way into my head, as intimate as a lover. Influencing my worldview. Playing with philosophies. Delighting me with high-speed chases, romantic dances, and cozy found families.

Isn’t reading just the BEST?!

So why close yourself off by judging how others read? Give yourself a break and try something new. Or old. Just different.

Take a chance and listen to a book on audio. Rejoice in the artistry of the narrator as well as the words. Sometimes people put together entire “radio play” productions, and they thrill and inspire! If you’d like to try one of those, I recommend starting with The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

A book on a reading app on your phone makes waiting at the pharmacy or post office an almost pleasant experience! FYI—along with the usual suspects, your local library has an app where you can check out electronic books called Libby.

Explore a genre you don’t usually read. Never cracked a romance or fantasy novel? Grab one of the newer ones and see the sophistication that’s emerged in the genre. Mystery not your thing? Find one that shuffles up against a genre you love and see what unfolds.

Ease into nonfiction with a memoir, collection of humorous essays, or one of Mary Roach’s fabulously funny explorations.

Dive into another world and find meaning there. Delightful books comfort, the salve on a soul at the end of a hard day. Difficult books challenge, change our thinking, pop our minds open to new philosophies. Instructional books invite curiosity and increase our knowledge.

And they do all of these things no matter how you read them.

*“My desires are flagrant,” comes from Ursula K. LeGuin’s essay, “In Your Spare Time.”

***

ABOUT LA BOURGEOIS

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a Kaizen-Muse Certified Creativity Coach and author who helps clients embrace the joy of their creative work and thrive while doing it.

Get more of her creativity ideas and techniques by subscribing to her newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/unlockyourcreativity.

The post Reading? No Judgment Here by LA Bourgeois appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on October 25, 2024 03:00

October 21, 2024

Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 1

Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney, part 1 – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 123

“I set out really just to write myself a set of instructions that I could give to readers who joined my list. And ended up building BookFunnel.” – Damon Courtney

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, “Interview with Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney” host, Beth Barany interviews Bookfunnel creator Damon Courtney where Damon shares the inspiration behind creating the author service and why authors need their own mailing list. Together they discuss the many helpful features the platform has and Beth shares why she has been a long-time customer.

RESOURCES

Bookfunnel: https://bookfunnel.com

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT DAMON COURTNEY

Website: https://bookfunnel.com

Transcript for Interview with Damon Courtney

Hey everyone, welcome to How to Write the Future podcast. I’m your host Beth Barany. I am a science fiction and fantasy writer and a writing teacher and creativity coach. I have run this podcast because I am passionate about how storytelling can rewrite the future for ourselves, for our readers, and yes, let’s just say it for humanity. I believe that with our creative tools of writing what we vision through our words, we can help make so.

BETH BARANY: So today I have a special guest with me, Damon Courtney, who runs BookFunnel. And Damon, I am so excited to have you here today with us. Welcome.

DAMON COURTNEY: Thank you for having me.

I’m excited to be here.

BETH BARANY: Great. So today we’re gonna talk about list building, email marketing, direct sales and who knows what will also pop out because we’re creative people. So Damon, why don’t you introduce yourself to our listeners? And I’ll just say, I am a user, a heavy user of BookFunnel. I love it so much.

I’ve been using it for a few years now. So has my husband. And we also have a pen name that we run together. So that’s three author names that we’re using. I use it so much and I really appreciate all the work you’ve done to create it. And so I can tell folks that you run BookFunnel and please tell us more about yourself.

[00:01:16] Damon Introduces Himself and Tells how he started BookFunnel

DAMON COURTNEY: That’s awesome. That means we’ll have some really good in depth questions cause it won’t be surface stuff. So I, I actually started in the world of self publishing by self publishing my own fantasy trilogy. So I’m an epic fantasy reader. dabble in sci fi, a little bit as we do,but primarily epic fantasy.

And back in 2011, when self publishing was really just getting started, I read a self published book that turned out to be really amazing and learned about this. And then immediately, dived in and learned this whole world of self publishing and decided, I could do that.

I’ve always secretly wanted to. I am the forever dungeon master of my group and have been for like 30 years. And so I tell stories all the time, whether it’s just not actually typing them down. So I published a fantasy trilogy. And, as I did that, I started doing my own list building.

This was back in 2013, and I was reading all of the– some of them are still around– Joanna Penn and Mark Dawson that were still around today and others who aren’t anymore so much, but reading all of their blogs and learning, the process. So I made the mistake of writing the books and not thinking at all about how I might market them or sell them, which means they basically did not sell at all. But once I started looking into that, I liked this idea of list building. I love the idea that, as an indie author, they’re like, wow, I can actually reach out and just talk directly to my readers, right? I don’t have to have somebody, some middleman in between.

But the prevailing wisdom at the time, which is honestly is still pretty prevalent today was that, oh, you should have some sort of a a cookie, which we later come to call a Reader Magnet, which was a short story or a novella or something shorter in length that you can say, Hey, sign up for my list and and I’ll give you this free thing and then, hopefully you’ll like that and you’ll go on and read my books, right?

Marketing, advertising companies have used it forever as a loss leader, a thing that they give away to get you in the door or whatever.

And, I thought, that’s a great idea.So I sat down to write a 2,000-word short story and ended up with a 25,000-word novella because I’m an epic fantasy author and we can’t shut up.

And in the end, I really liked it. And I thought, okay, great. Now I got this thing. I’m going to go build my list. How do I get the thing to people?

And, it turns out. There wasn’t a really good answer for that. I’m a techie guy. So it it was for me being able to send it to my Kindle at the time seemed like a pretty easy process.

But having gone through it, I thought, I don’t know that everybody could actually figure this out. And so I set out really just to write myself a set of instructions that I could give to readers who joined my list. And then, Oh, here’s how you get it to your Kindle and your iPhone and whatever else.

And ended up building BookFunnel. It really came about because I needed it first and I’ve been a software engineer my whole life. And I truly believe like the best software in the world comes from people who were scratching their own itch first. I think the same thing about books.

As self published authors, I know that the books that I started publishing were the books that I wasn’t finding in traditional publishing back in 2011. When Game of Thrones hit in 1994. fantasy publishers decided nobody wanted heroes with good intentions anymore. They wanted murderers and people that were like dark antiheroes, which is great.

I like some of those books quite a lot, but I still, I’m an optimist, I’m a high positivity. My heroes don’t always have to do the right thing, but in the end, I have to know that they’re going to turn around and do what is right. And so a lot of that wasn’t out there and that was the books that I started writing.

I was like, if nobody else is going to write it, I guess I’ll just go write it myself. and that’s where BookFunnel was born from.

BETH BARANY: Wow, that’s so great. So we get a little bit about your background as a software engineer, fantasy writer, which by the way, also I’ve written a young adult adventure fantasy trilogy that will continue.

That’s great. And to scratch your own itch, that’s how you built BookFunnel. That, that totally makes sense. and you had the skills and the ability to do it. That’s fabulous.

[00:04:55] Why authors need to have their own list

BETH BARANY: So for writers who are just starting out, do you want to talk a little bit about the importance of why authors need to have their own list?

And I still get this question today, hard to believe, but I still get it. So let’s talk to a science fiction, fantasy writer, any fiction writer who is putting out their first book, or soon, soon will be putting out their first book, or already has, and they’re like, oh no, now what? And they maybe don’t see the importance of having their own list because, oh my gosh, there’s all this social media.

What would you say to them?

DAMON COURTNEY: So the first thing that I hear a lot is, and I’ll put myself into this camp, which is, I hate being on people’s mailing lists, therefore I don’t want one. and that’s a perfectly valid thing to say, except that you are not your customer, you’re not your reader.

And even having said that, there are authors that I’m a super fan of, right? So I don’t follow tons of authors’ mailing lists. But the authors that I’m a super fan of, I don’t want to miss when they have a new book out. I generally have found that most of the tools that are out there in the world that might notify you when a new book is available are not very good.

Like even when you follow authors on Amazon, Amazon won’t tell you when that author has a new book out unless they feel like it and decide that they might tell you four weeks later, I don’t want to know four weeks later, I want to know now, and the best way to do that is most authors today, especially in the self publishing world, they have their own list.

Now, the reason that having your own list is important. Social media is fantastic. It’s allowed us to reach people in a way that we never have before. And you should absolutely be doing that in whatever way makes you comfortable. I’m not a huge social media guy. So for me, that’s not something that I want.

But the biggest reason that you want to keep your own list is those platforms will and already have changed the rules of the game. They changed them all the time. Used to be if you had a group on Facebook and you sent a, a message to the group, everybody in the group would get the message. And then Facebook decided, no, only 10 percent of the people in the group get the message.

And for 20 dollars, we’ll send it to everybody else in the group. So it becomes like an extortion racket. Whereas if you have, and then, I’ve seen it happen. I see it happen every week. Somebody’s Facebook page gets closed. They got an email and Facebook says, you look like you’re doing something squirrely and they haven’t, they’ve done nothing.

And yet boom, their cage is closed. You can go and argue. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don’t. And now that group that you built, you, you like, say you build a fan group on Facebook and if you like Facebook and your fans are there. You should have one, but you should also have their email address so that if any of these other platforms shut you out, no one can take away the email address and your ability to contact that reader directly. And that is why I think it is so important.

To me, it’s just the spirit of being indie, right? There truly is no one between you and talking to your readers, except sending out an email, which is always going to be an open system where you can send things to people. And the fewer barriers between you and building those relationships with your readers, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

BETH BARANY: So well said, and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been building my email list as a professional and as an author as soon as I could, right from the beginning. As soon as I knew, I felt confident saying, I have a book coming out, or hey, I help writers. So I, I am definitely in your camp.

[00:08:11] What is BookFunnel?

BETH BARANY: Let’s tell the world, let’s tell people what is BookFunnel specifically.

a new author for a very small amount, I think it was, the Basic is like 20 a year, right? Yeah. Can sign up and have a BookFunnel account. So how does that fit into list building?

DAMON COURTNEY: So the shortest version is,I used to say the BookFunnel, like we deliver eBooks outside of the stores and now we do eBooks and audiobooks and we do all kinds of things.

We just passed, actually today, October 23rd, was the day we opened our doors eight years ago. This is now eight years that we’ve been in business and we’ve built a lot of things since then. This is BookFunnel’s birthday today. So yeah. It’s really cool. It’s really exciting that we’ve been around that long and we’ve continued to grow. So the short version of what BookFunnel is at its core is we deliver eBooks and audiobooks directly to readers outside of the traditional store system, anywhere you can think of where you might want to use that.

So I told the story. When I originally built it, I was building my. mailing list, my newsletter, the two terms are interchangeable, but I’m building my mailing list. And I had a novella that I wanted to give away to people when you joined my list. And, back in the day, people would just email PDFs and EPUBs and MOBIs and just email all that stuff around. And readers were just expected to figure all this out on their own.

So BookFunnel, really, at its core, what I started with was just helping readers get the thing that they got, the PDF or the EPUB, whatever it was, whatever format, and get it to the device that they read on.

So I like to say that BookFunnel is platform agnostic. Let’s say you wanted to just, as a simple thing, you wanted to gift a copy of your book, of your ebook to some friend, or you want to, hey, I’ll send you a copy.

You can do that on Amazon. You can go to Amazon and you can buy a copy as a gift, but it doesn’t really actually buy a copy of that ebook as a gift. It actually just creates a gift card for the amount of that ebook. And then if they decide to use it to buy a bag of Cheetos, then, they’re not actually going to get your book.

And then of course you’re counting on the fact that either they have a Kindle device or they already read in the Kindle app or they’re on Amazon.

Now, Amazon’s the biggest retailer in the world. So that’s not necessarily a bad assumption, but you don’t really know, right?

And so if you send a book through BookFunnel, which we have lots of different features, but the simplest thing, you send a book through BookFunnel, BookFunnel doesn’t care what device they have on the other side.

If they’ve got a Kobo, they’ve got a Barnes and Noble Nook. If they’ve got an old Nook tablet, if they’ve got a BlackBerry, we still see now, I guess we don’t see BlackBerrys anymore. But up to a couple of years ago, we actually did see them. BookFunnel is going to help them get the book onto their device.

We have lots of different ways that work. And then if they have any trouble at all, they can contact our support. And our team is well versed in all of these devices and exactly how to get a book to them. And now that includes audio books as well. So when you’re talking about list building– So you can go about it. Oh, I’m going to have this list and I’m going to put this, the link to the back in the back of my books. And I’m not going to give away anything. I’m not going to give them a short story or any of that sort of stuff. If they want to join, then they have to really want to join and you will build a list that way, right?

Yay.

It will take a very long time and it will be a very big slog because, you’re asking somebody to be a super fan from the very beginning, rather than– Anybody who’s in marketing and I will say my background is in engineering, it is not in marketing, but you run a company and you start to learn a lot about marketing. And there’s a journey that readers have to take and that is, Oh, I find a new author, I read their book and I go, Hey, that was pretty good, right?

I’m actually reading a new author right now. And I read the first book, I was like, Oh, that’s really good. Oh, I’ll pick up the second book in the series. Now, the second book in the series was even better. I will say like the first book I think was the first book he ever wrote. And I’m careful of that.

I’m a little more forgiving when I know that’s your first one. Cause I know my first one was not my best. So as long as I like your characters and I’m seeing some world building again, fantasy. If I’m seeing all the hallmarks of this is, it’s a little rough on the edges, but it’s really good.

By the time I read the second book, I really liked it. Now I’m into the third book and I’m a super fan, right?

So now is the time when I absolutely would join your list just to know when the next book is going to come out, but expecting people are going to get there without leading them a little bit is– You’re going to get some, right? There will be some who just love your stuff. And they’re like, Oh my God, I can’t wait to sign up for your list. It’s going to be a little bit easier if you offer them a cookie. If any of your authors have kids, you know that, you can always get a little bit more action with some cookies.

[00:12:27] Other Book Marketing Tools

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. That’s great. And just to– There is another way. I used to give away books through Smashwords, but it was a little harder. I had to generate the coupon and I had to jump through some hoops and then maybe explain a little bit. And then Smashwords allowed, and I think still allows, you to download different formats if you, the author, have uploaded all the formats, but they don’t provide customer support.

And as soon as I saw that you, that BookFunnel offers customer support, I was so happy. I was like, oh, like a weight was off my shoulders and it was easier to give away books. So your system made it easier. And then there is another vendor out there that will let people know of a new book, and that’s BookBub.

So obviously we can use BookBub, but that’s separate. That’s not our platform, it’s not our list, but it is a wonderful tool, and I recommend all authors add it to their marketing kit. Ah, I just wanted to throw that out there. People are thinking of all the different ways to let the world know that they have a new book coming.

DAMON COURTNEY: Yeah. And Goodreads is still around.It can be something of a dumpster fire, but like it’s still around and it still works. And if you do post when you have a new book out on Goodreads, people that are following you will get a notification that you have a new book out. It’s again, I’m not pooh poohing social media or any of these.

In fact, we should be looking at all of these tools. You should absolutely be on BookBub. You should be on Goodreads. You should be anywhere where readers might be looking because you don’t know where those readers are going to come from. The author that I’m reading right now is actually someone that I have known that I’ve seen met at conferences over the last couple of years.

I knew he wrote fantasy. Never really thought much about it like, oh, that’s cool. That’s great I’m, I love fantasy, right? And then when I was getting on the plane to fly home from the Novelist Inc. The NINC Conference in Florida just last month, I was actually sitting– so, three of us. There were three authors that were flying home to houston me and two other authors that I had known, and I actually got the seat next to one of them and I said Hey, what are you reading?

He’s oh I’m actually reading Andrew’s book and he gave me the title. I was like, oh really is it good? He said Yeah, it’s really solid. So I grabbed the book and I started reading it on the plane. Like you don’t know where your readers are going to come from. So the more places that you can be, that’s great.

But ultimately, no matter where they start their journey, no matter how they discovered you. And that could be, they read your book, they picked up a copy in KU, saw your book in some free promo on FreeBooksy, whatever. But when they start, this is why BookFunnel is called BookFunnel–

But no matter how they got into the top of the funnel, you want to make sure that when they get down to the bottom, they’re getting on to a thing that you have control over. Generally, that’s going to be a mailing list. Who knows? There might be other tools that come around someday that make that better or do it in a different way.

But ultimately you want to be able to communicate directly with your readers without someone else telling you, no, you can’t do that. BookBub can just decide, we don’t want to send those emails out anymore. It’s too much hassle or Goodreads says, yeah, no, we’re just going to knock it. Amazon owns Goodreads. So, Lord only knows what Amazon will decide to do tomorrow. Yeah. and for me, I don’t like that kind of uncertainty. I like knowing that I can communicate directly with the people that I’m trying to reach.

BETH BARANY: That’s wonderful. So I think you made a really great case, and maybe together we made a really good case why even today authors need to have a mailing list, and ideally a newsletter and notify their readers when a new book comes out. That’s fabulous.

[00:15:40] Stay Tuned for part 2

BETH BARANY: Thanks for listening to part one of my conversation with Damon Courtney of BookFunnel.

Uh, thanks for also bearing with me that for some reason, the video didn’t show my face. So if you’re watching this on YouTube, there are some technical issues and, uh, I didn’t show up on camera for part one.

Also this interview took place in 2023. And so now BookFunnel is nine years old. And I am releasing our conversation around the ninth anniversary of BookFunnel. So congratulations to BookFunnel. I am still a super user of BookFunnel. I really love it for growing my email list as an author.

So stay tuned for part two when I will continue my conversation with Damon.

Write long and prosper.

***

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

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