Watch now | Episode 1: Join us for our first Six Figure Author Experiment: launching Russell’s fantasy series, the Godsverse Chronicles. The series is written and complete, with covers and audio done and ready to go. Russell had great success launching this series on Kickstarter and now it’s time to publish them wide on book retailers. Lee and Russell discuss pre-order strategy with Monica Leonelle, including:
Love this discussion. To have 12 books written and brainstorming about how to launch them, seems so luxurious. It’s the problem all writers want to have.
I realize that, but this exercise on the next steps and discussing the other platform launches is pure gold, in my opinion. Thank you to the three of you for starting this podcast.
Thanks for sharing these tips! I’m excited to witness this launch process, but even MORE excited to apply all this advice to my own book. I’m curious though, does all of this only apply to a book series? Or can you use the same tactics for ONE book (that you plan to make a series)?
You should not ever until you are established launch a book like this unless you are doing a series. Standalones are complete money sucks unless you have a nonfiction business. You should have at least a trilogy before you do this. The more you have behind you first book the better ad you can send more on marketing. There are many different kinds of series though which we talk about in future episodes
Also, the hope is that you have it forever. Even my books that don’t make money can be leveraged into bundle and over years and years they are quite profitable.
Thank you for that encouragement! I really believe in this book, and have the gumption and grit to market it. But I also want to move forward with making it a series. So, all of the advice from you and Russel is so tremendously helpful and empowering.
I use Kickstarter for all my launches. So yes. I break even at launch on everything I do. We also have more episodes recorded and books on the subject. You should wait and listen to those or read some of the 40+ novels we have written about author growth.
You will likely not do very well on your first novel, unless you write in a very hot genre and can write fast. If you write a book with tropes that can take off on their own, maybe, but you probably wont have much luck with a book 1 launching it aggressively.
Books are a low margin, high volume business and the math does not look good for standalones unless they are all connected in one series.
If you write sexy romance or thrillers with the right tropes maybe you can buck that trend, but its really really hard.
Sorry, but I wont sugar coat it for you, either. Maybe Lee or Monica have other advice, but you need an average of 4 books in a series before you break even on it. The more you have past that the more money you can make.
Seconding, I built my business around series. Series make things SO much easier... When I advertise book 1, I advertise my whole series. When I release book 23, or do a spinoff series in the same world (same genre, same subgenre, similar branding and some crossover characters) I advertise every book in my series again. If you write standalones, I recommend writing them in such a way that they can be linked together in some way. Like Tana French's books--different mystery, different characters, but all Dublin Murder mysteries. Actually, that would just be a series, haha. I guess Stephen King does standalones, but he still has series, and at some point people are buying his books because they're horror, horror adjacent, and in his voice. We can talk more about this on the podcast if this doesn't make sense!
No worries. I have written a lot of standalones in my life and until I did a series it was a money suck. It's a simple math problem.
If you make $5/book and you want to make $100k, then you need 20000 copies to sell.
Mostly you have to discount a book to $.99 or free to sell lots of copies, and if you have nothing behind it to make money you would have to sell an infinite amount to sell to make that money, plus you have to pay for promotion.
I'm making a note to talk about this on an episode... I think in terms of series for EVERYTHING now. Books, Tiktok videos, instagram posts... how am I building out a sequence to train the algorithm to find my perfect reader?
Loved this! I'm so excited to get to see this all roll out. Thank you for sharing.
thanks for listening!
Russell, you are so damn funny my good brotha. Glad to see you put the key in the ignition switch on this. I’m excited to see where all of this goes.
Love this! I'm a visual learner and verbal processor and seeing this in real time is making the steps "click" in my brain. Thank you!
Yay!
Love this discussion. To have 12 books written and brainstorming about how to launch them, seems so luxurious. It’s the problem all writers want to have.
Yay! Just for the record, I did launch these books, but I launched them on Kickstarter, which is a process any writer can implement
I realize that, but this exercise on the next steps and discussing the other platform launches is pure gold, in my opinion. Thank you to the three of you for starting this podcast.
I've very excited this weird thing that's been in my head for years is resonating with you :)
Thanks for sharing these tips! I’m excited to witness this launch process, but even MORE excited to apply all this advice to my own book. I’m curious though, does all of this only apply to a book series? Or can you use the same tactics for ONE book (that you plan to make a series)?
You should not ever until you are established launch a book like this unless you are doing a series. Standalones are complete money sucks unless you have a nonfiction business. You should have at least a trilogy before you do this. The more you have behind you first book the better ad you can send more on marketing. There are many different kinds of series though which we talk about in future episodes
Oh, wow. OK. Is there ANY hope for launching your first novel, without having the remaining series written? Is kickstarter or IndieGoGo an option?
there's always hope. You created a thing and are excited to deliver it to the world. Do it... and if you want to do more, def make it into a series.
Also, the hope is that you have it forever. Even my books that don’t make money can be leveraged into bundle and over years and years they are quite profitable.
That's encouraging, thank you!
Thank you for that encouragement! I really believe in this book, and have the gumption and grit to market it. But I also want to move forward with making it a series. So, all of the advice from you and Russel is so tremendously helpful and empowering.
I use Kickstarter for all my launches. So yes. I break even at launch on everything I do. We also have more episodes recorded and books on the subject. You should wait and listen to those or read some of the 40+ novels we have written about author growth.
You will likely not do very well on your first novel, unless you write in a very hot genre and can write fast. If you write a book with tropes that can take off on their own, maybe, but you probably wont have much luck with a book 1 launching it aggressively.
Books are a low margin, high volume business and the math does not look good for standalones unless they are all connected in one series.
If you write sexy romance or thrillers with the right tropes maybe you can buck that trend, but its really really hard.
Sorry, but I wont sugar coat it for you, either. Maybe Lee or Monica have other advice, but you need an average of 4 books in a series before you break even on it. The more you have past that the more money you can make.
Hm. Ok. Lots to think about here. I’ll definitely check out the resources. Thanks for your input, it’s much appreciated!
Seconding, I built my business around series. Series make things SO much easier... When I advertise book 1, I advertise my whole series. When I release book 23, or do a spinoff series in the same world (same genre, same subgenre, similar branding and some crossover characters) I advertise every book in my series again. If you write standalones, I recommend writing them in such a way that they can be linked together in some way. Like Tana French's books--different mystery, different characters, but all Dublin Murder mysteries. Actually, that would just be a series, haha. I guess Stephen King does standalones, but he still has series, and at some point people are buying his books because they're horror, horror adjacent, and in his voice. We can talk more about this on the podcast if this doesn't make sense!
No worries. I have written a lot of standalones in my life and until I did a series it was a money suck. It's a simple math problem.
If you make $5/book and you want to make $100k, then you need 20000 copies to sell.
Mostly you have to discount a book to $.99 or free to sell lots of copies, and if you have nothing behind it to make money you would have to sell an infinite amount to sell to make that money, plus you have to pay for promotion.
It's not great, but its math.
I'm making a note to talk about this on an episode... I think in terms of series for EVERYTHING now. Books, Tiktok videos, instagram posts... how am I building out a sequence to train the algorithm to find my perfect reader?
Oh my heck! What a cool experiment! I can't wait to watch it all unfold. Best of luck in the retailer launch!!
Yay! Thanks :)
Love this! I'm a visual learner and verbal processor and seeing this in real time is making the steps "click" in my brain. Thank you!