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We welcome science fiction author Nicholas Smith to the show this week. Nicholas is the author of two post-apocalyptic science fiction books. The first, Orbs, is not only a bestseller, but it got picked up by Simon & Schuster. The second, The Tisaian Chronicles, consistently charts in a number of science fiction categories. We will be talking about how he became a bestseller, how to break into science fiction, his best marketing strategies, how to survive the upcoming apocalypse.
The Summer of Scfi continues! Make sure you have all of your scifi, writing and trad pub questions ready for Nick when we go live at 9PM EST on Thursday night!
Hey everyone. Who’s ready for a Carl Sinclair-a-thon?
Carl Sinclair Just smell that fresh Sci Fi Summer air…
Hey everyone!
The video should be there for you if you refresh the post.
jlward G’evening, Monsieur Ward
I’m here to heckle.
xgranville Carl Sinclair winter air here 😛
ZoeYorkWrites Horraay.
Greetings from Canada, ye merry few!
Carl Sinclair how much did you cry today?
Hello everyone
Carl Sinclair I still get a stand by message. I’ll make up some questions anyway.
Hi
Just waiting for lunch to come out of the oven, but I am here! 🙂
ArcherCaldwell Carl Sinclair A lot. Darren is still crying.
ZoeYorkWrites Carl Sinclair We’re just setting up with Nick.
Just doing some clerical stuff. You know, like plotting to take over the world.
Carl Sinclair ArcherCaldwell have you been up since 3 AM?
ArcherCaldwell Carl Sinclair I haven’t been asleep yet.
writerwade hi wade
BatmanErica I made pancakes for dinner. Cuz that’s how I roll.
xgranville BatmanErica stonerific
kevinmichael3 Same thing we do every night, Pinky.
I’m just getting some writing done, finally. About 1750 words into a new story. My goal was 10,000 today, but I think that may have been over ambitious lol
kevinmichael3 I always preferred to play a fighter myself. Never could get used to the prohibition against edged weapons for clerics.
oh a theme song!
kevinmichael3 xgranville nom. Making grilled cheese with capsicum, tomato and bacon on top 😀
ArcherCaldwell Worked great, Carl Sinclair
Good to see another good looking chap on the show finally, Nick comes in second behind me.
BatmanErica kevinmichael3 xgranville Gotta get that capsicum in ya.
xgranville kevinmichael3 the green one.
Carl Sinclair the dude is good looking. Who are the others? ;P
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair You’re looking at him princess.
Carl Sinclair no, I only see you…
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair haters gonna hate.
I want my books to just EXPLODE! >.<
I’m taking detailed notes!
Nick mentions Bit.ly – http://bit.ly/
kevinmichael3 xgranville BatmanErica Budget-rific haha. It was a clean day for me, no substances other than food haha. If you’ll call pancakes food.
Did I miss it, where’s Trish?
BatmanErica Family issues.
Sorry I’m late, you’re mom took her time making my breakfast
Carl Sinclair bummer, hope all clears up for her.
Evening 🙂
michelleread What’s cooking good looking?
Carl Sinclair michelleread Salmon! Mmmmmmmm. Having pizza burgers? I’ve been craving them all day.
Carl Sinclair michelleread Wow, Carl, how old ARE you?
michelleread Carl Sinclair that pic did look appealing.
RolandDenzel Carl Sinclair michelleread 33 baby.
RolandDenzel Carl Sinclair michelleread Old enough to flatter a lady 🙂 I take what I can get.
Carl Sinclair RolandDenzel michelleread Ok, cuz my grandpa used to say that, so I just assumed
FictionByAngela me too!
Make sure you leaving questions all.
I see it’s being sold through S&S digital only. Can you tell us more about how that works?
TuckerAuthor We’ll be getting to that.
Does anyone here write sci fi that isn’t post apocalyptic?
Getting lots of early reviews is such a good tip! I know Dani Monsch did that with her Stone Guardian book and it did phenomenally well right out of the gate—>at $5.99!
TuckerAuthor I was late, what is S&S digital? Will he explain that later?
Carl Sinclair TuckerAuthor I figured 😉
BatmanErica Me, sort of.
RoxieRivera Cristen and Darren did too.
BatmanErica Some people would say we’re post-apocalyptic right now 😉
RolandDenzel BatmanErica Nice
michelleread TuckerAuthor Simon & Schuster
TuckerAuthor michelleread Pffft. Doh
How much of your audience do you think are readers who read all your works, versus those just looking for a popular sci fi book?
RolandDenzel Carl Sinclair michelleread Hi Xavier!
BatmanErica My flagship series is apocalyptic fantasy. How’s that for a switch? 😉
CateMorgan BatmanErica I’m doing one of those too!
xgranville How many books does he have?
michelleread xgranville 3.
BatmanErica Me! Apart from the obvious Dinosaur Noir, most of my current projects are all sci-fi influenced and for the better part non-post apocalyptic.
Yay Goodreads! I love them…
michelleread RolandDenzel Carl Sinclair Hola, Michelle!
michelleread http://www.amazon.com/Nicholas-Sansbury-Smith/e/B00BVNB3TC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1403227358&sr=8-1
BatmanErica michelleread Boom. You’re still my favorite. Checking it out now,
michelleread BatmanErica Ummmm she is? I just called you good looking!
Carl Sinclair I provide michelleread with lots of helpful links 😛
Carl Sinclair michelleread BatmanErica You had the audacity to ask her what was cooking….tsk tsk…
xgranville Carl Sinclair michelleread BatmanErica bahaha!
xgranville did Carl Sinclair imply that michelleread might have a bun in the oven?
BatmanErica xgranville Carl Sinclair michelleread NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Never again!
Carl Sinclair michelleread BatmanErica Like=Erica. Love=Carl Better?!
michelleread Carl Sinclair WHAT?!?
michelleread Carl Sinclair BatmanErica What a scale haha. Universal, really.
BatmanErica michelleread Carl Sinclair Carl is the host, I can’t afford to piss him off. He might ban me from the afterparty!
xgranville michelleread Carl Sinclair BatmanErica I’m a writer, I just make stuff up and see what sticks 🙂
Good question, John.
michelleread I try.
That’s okay, I’m trying to think of clever questions and my kids are wrestling very loudly next to me.
ZoeYorkWrites Yes, he’s a interviewee like you were, providing loads of information right up front.
ZoeYorkWrites Hey! Zoe York came back!
You guys should go read her article here: http://zoeyork.com/0-to-5-and-5-to-500-starting-a-self-publishing-career-part-1-0-to-5/
Did anyone else just see the Flash go fly past Nick?
Carl Sinclair No!
jlward ZoeYorkWrites Yes, definitely read it. After the show : )
Carl Sinclair jlward ZoeYorkWrites I already read the two posts 😀
jlward ZoeYorkWrites It is an awesome article! And she’s an awesome Facebooker too, just FYI….hilarious. She totally made my week.
Just say no to drugs, Carl.
writerwade Serious, something wooshed past him. Looked like the flash.
Carl Sinclair writerwade “I think I heard a woosh.”
Carl Sinclair writerwade was his wife/gf? Was definitely a woman in a purple top.
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair writerwade No. Flash.
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair writerwade or a ghost/alien. Who knows.
Dayum! Evening all. Got buried in a book and lost track of time. 🙁
PatrickStemp Reading… interesting, is that for any specific reason.. like a podcast about reading books perhaps?
writerwade did you just reference the Canadian time travel tv show, Continuum or was that just a general ‘must be using drugs’ response?
OH! I have a question. Nicholas, did you hold the book to release until you had a solid marketing plan in place? (Was it done for a period of time before you released it) And what’s the tipping point there for you … a month? 3? As a now traditionally published author who’s previously self-published, and therefor worked on very different schedules, do you have any general thoughts on release schedules and building buzz?
I want to LIKE that tip on giving the book away builds reader bases. LIKE IT SO MUCH! I totally agree.
BatmanErica writerwade Haha Canadian TV show, you almost had me there.
ZoeYorkWrites FUNNELS!. 😉
Hi there guys.
xgranville writerwade they make better sci fi shows than america’s Siffy channel 😛
And yes, I’m watching on a significant delay…sorry. Children. Bah.
crissymoss Crissy!
ZoeYorkWrites Children are a delay worth having 🙂 My sexy hubs is putting ours to bed for me. One more clue as to why I love Thursday nights so much!
Regarding the Kindle Countdown, I just found out it’s only for US and UK sales. How do you promote to other countries?
I did that, it didn’t work. My book must be crap.
Carl Sinclair PatrickStemp For sure 🙂 And we’re on the iTunes now thanks to Archer. http://www.tbrpodcast.com/
michelleread ZoeYorkWrites I just had to wait for my children to grow up. Teenagers… they are a double edged sword. Self sufficient, sometimes too much so.
Hi Crissy
michelleread Well that’s a shoddy attitude! I’d say you need a flashier cover if anything. That, and some sequels
I think there’s still a place for free. I had a really good free run at the first of the year with the first in my scifi series. I did do a BookBub ad however.
SPRT guys: will the summer of sci fi have authors that write something other than apocalyptic fiction?
BatmanErica Yes.
xgranville michelleread Sequel will be ready ASAP, then will promote the first as a free to garner sales for the second, and as for the cover, I can’t put naked Carl on it because it’s not a romance :-/ Not sure about that cover situation…
BatmanErica Might be harder pressed. Post apocalyptic is what sells most it seems. Stupid zombies…
xgranville michelleread And that’s great advice, that’s why I’m here! I thank you 🙂
BatmanErica Regardless, all of what they’re doing will work in scifi. Most of these books are in multiple sub genres, they are not just Post Apoc. Critical Dawn for example is about genetic engineering, space opera etc.
xgranville noticed three new post apocalyptic tv shows coming out. One is a naval one (by Michael Bay), one with zombies and another with angels. Add to that the return of Defiance…
michelleread xgranville No Naked Carl? Aww shucks haha. Its about a mom with super powers, right?
xgranville BatmanErica NO! Post Apoc is NOT about zombies. It never has been and that is not what the genre is. It’s just become a strange perception. The ones that are really selling have nothing to do with zombies.
TuckerAuthor Book Bub I hear makes things a WHOLE lot better regardless.
xgranville BatmanErica Day of the Triffids, things like that is historically what the genre is.
Carl Sinclair xgranville BatmanErica Robopocalypse doesn’t have zombies. Betcha can’t guess what it does have 🙂
crissymoss TuckerAuthor Absolutely, it’s huge.
xgranville michelleread Yes, you remembered! My new favorite.
Carl Sinclair BatmanErica I know it doesn’t HAVE to be zombies, Carl haha. It’s just that nowadays, the majority of post-apocalyptic books I’m seeing are all plague/virus/zombie related.
crissymoss TuckerAuthor Sales were awesome, but I also got almost 80 reviews that month or so.
TuckerAuthor crissymoss Book bub has some stringent requirements though. And it’s a little expensive
PatrickStemp Carl Sinclair xgranville BatmanErica Phillip K Dick is another example. The whole zombie thing is an invention of the 70’s and has bugger all to do with post apoc. It’s more horror / scifi.
Hey everyone!
Stacy Claflin What’s up Stay Stay. That’s my new nickname for you, as of this moment.
How expensive or how difficult is it to get on those promotional sites?
michelleread xgranville I’d post an ad on deviantart.com in the forum for Wanted Artists. I had posted an ad for Dinosaur Noir a while back. Even though I ended up doing the cover myself, I still had a few hundred people contact me!
Carl Sinclair PatrickStemp xgranville I am looking forward to iZombie which isn’t post apoc, just has zombies in it and is based on the comic book series 🙂
CateMorgan Cheap as chips bro. Most between 5 and 50 bucks.
Carl Sinclair Stacy Claflin That works!
Carl Sinclair CateMorgan Yes, really they aren’t much.
CateMorgan We’ll see if darren wants to do a blog post detailing them for the community.
crissymoss TuckerAuthor michelleread http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works
Carl Sinclair CateMorgan Nice. Thanks, guys!
BatmanErica crissymoss TuckerAuthor michelleread I was just going to share that! It’s really a great infographic.
Carl Sinclair PatrickStemp xgranville BatmanErica Dr Futurity is one of my fave PKD books. Love it.
xgranville michelleread That’s the site I’ve been thinking about. I’ve been looking at their work for quite some time. Good idea
PatrickStemp Carl Sinclair xgranville BatmanErica UBIK and A Scanner Darkly are my favs.
CateMorgan Pricing depends on a few things like genre and length. https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair PatrickStemp xgranville Oh, the only iZombie I know of is Hugh Howey’s.
crissymoss TuckerAuthor Sales from it though more than paid for the listing I ran. It is difficult to get in though for sure. Took me 3 or 4 tries.
CateMorgan At least that’s book bub. There are a bunch over on Author marketing that are free to list on if you make your book free for a little while.
BatmanErica crissymoss TuckerAuthor michelleread That’s great….I wonder, do they read the whole book to check it for errors? What does error free mean.
crissymoss CateMorgan Thanks, Crissy–I’ll check it out!
anymore questions?
PatrickStemp Carl Sinclair xgranville http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501584/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 <– the tv show
kevinmichael3 What is the average air speed of an unladen pigeon?
PatrickStemp Carl Sinclair xgranville the comic book series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IZOMBIE
I’m a super happy nerd right now listening to him…..no questions.
Carl Sinclair PatrickStemp xgranville BatmanErica
Haha I love this rant.
Who has more questions for the master of ORBS? Hit me up below here!
crissymoss kevinmichael3 47.
Do they have print rights for it as well? Are there sales benchmarks that have to be met before they do a print version?
Carl Sinclair Is he a full time author or did he do this while working a day job? I think that’s an important reminder for people like me who want to quit everything and just write.
Carl Sinclair How many more orbs before we go to war? We have Orc Lords on four horses going forth for the orbs.
Carl Sinclair crissymoss kevinmichael3 What if it were an African swallow?
michelleread crissymoss TuckerAuthor probably look at the blurb first, then use the ‘look inside’ function at the very least.
Carl Sinclair Say that out loud later on. It’s a good romp.
You have to weigh your pro’s and con’s with signing with a publisher just like anything else. And you really need to know what you’re signing. Print only would be awesome, but it’s not reasonable unless you’re Hugh Howey or JK Rowling.
Question: Did you try to get an agent before you published the first book? Or Orbs? Or did the agent seek you out after you had already self published?
Yes please. Love to hear about the agent
crissymoss As I said, it’s just not worth it for them. i don’t think S&S got a good deal out of it with Hugh at the end of the day either. It’s unlikely many if any will get something like that again.
How does an agent get paid? Upfront fee or percentage of royalties/sales?
Carl Sinclair crissymoss Getting your rights back, and keeping your rights to new works is far more important anyway.
crissymoss Carl Sinclair Being able to publish other things moreso. I think if you make the decision to hand something over and can still write new stuff regardless? Then it’s fine. If you can’t do either, then you have a problem.
crissymoss Carl Sinclair there be some scary contracts people happily sign where they give rights to publishers forever and the publisher also gets first look at everything forever o.O
Movie rights….that’s a magical, sexy couple of words.
michelleread Drool.
BatmanErica crissymoss Carl Sinclair There are some gnarly effing options and reversions clauses out there. In the romance world, at least, it’s getting worse and worse on the trad side with grabby contracts and the saddest advances ever (like RT bar talk was $1K/book in some instances!)
RoxieRivera BatmanErica crissymoss Carl Sinclair Plenty aren’t even doing advances now.
xgranville kevinmichael3 where’s Jay? #TeamJoose
BatmanErica xgranville kevinmichael3 He skipped out two weeks ago too. Boo.
michelleread xgranville kevinmichael3 he said he’d probably be here in twitters
BatmanErica michelleread xgranville kevinmichael3 Yeah I don’t know what that means…
michelleread BatmanErica xgranville kevinmichael3 Twitter..?
michelleread BatmanErica xgranville kevinmichael3 He lives in Twitters, Texas.
Carl Sinclair michelleread BatmanErica xgranville kevinmichael3 I second that ?
xgranville michelleread BatmanErica kevinmichael3 Hahaha
xgranville michelleread kevinmichael3 he lives in the tweety-verse
xgranville michelleread BatmanErica kevinmichael3 Maybe he already drank so much Joose he doesn’t know where he is. Or what day it is and where he is supposed to be.
Thank you Kevin!!
i’m so disappointed in chastain
kevinmichael3 guess we’re only going to have a 2 hour after party today 🙁
I think it’s very mature and sweet that he doubted that 2 would do as well as 1 without an agent doing some teamwork with him.
Carl Sinclair RoxieRivera BatmanErica crissymoss In some instances (like very few, very specific instances) the no advance but high royalty model (40-50% of cover) some of the early digital first publishers (think Samhain and Ellora’s Cave) offered was a good deal. There used to be crazy good $ in those deals but lately…not so much.
The digital first imprints for the Big 6 are really awful though. No advance and 25% net royalties that are actually, like, 17% of cover after all their accounting sorcery? That’s a painful pill to swallow. (She says from personal experience….)
Cristin Harber did it while giving birth
HA! I work full time and wrote/edited/published 14 short stories and a couple novellas last year.
It is doable. It just takes some work.
michelleread Yeah, she wins.
crissymoss Crissy for the win!
crissymoss Might be your awesome multi-tasking skills 🙂
crissymoss That’s cause you’re awesome. Want to come hold my hand and make me work that much?
michelleread crissymoss LOL, still getting myself to work that much this year. Switched to a novel instead of short stories this year…. OMG so much work!
Yes talk about that!
michelleread crissymoss some of my author friends are mothers of young children. They seemed to manage several books a year while raising a child and working full time. Guess it’s all relative.
crissymoss I work full time, homeschool my kids and have published 13 works (novels, novellas, short stories) in 1.5 year. It’s definitely doable.
BatmanErica michelleread crissymoss True. I’m on track to complete two this year. That’s double, and I’m aiming for three a year.
@greatwaveink
who wants afterparty? leave email here.
michelleread crissymoss I hear shorter work more regularly (in serial format) seems to be quite the thing atm. Quicker than a novel and more releases good for the algorithms 🙂
kevinmichael3 I’m going to throw on some make up, can I get an invite and be there soon? Don’t want to scare anyone with my real face.
kevinmichael3 me please 😀
BatmanErica michelleread crissymoss Yep. Single mother of three here. Writing around children, school, and a full time job can get tricky. But as I said, it’s doable. You really have to have a passion for writing to do it.
michelleread you are beautiful without makeup
BatmanErica kevinmichael3 I’ll attempt coming in for a bit. My internet might not like it though.
BatmanErica michelleread crissymoss That’s what I’ve been hearing on SPRT! So that’s what I’m doing.
kevinmichael3 I’d like to if there’s space, please
xgranville BatmanErica kevinmichael3 Tell your internet to suck it. You need to be there.
BatmanErica michelleread crissymoss Yes, true, and I am going to be going back to my serial to finish three more books in that series, but I really REALLY wanted a whole novel to my name.
michelleread xgranville kevinmichael3 suck what exactly? 😛
Stacy Claflin crissymoss WOW!!
BatmanErica michelleread xgranville kevinmichael3 It!
BatmanErica michelleread xgranville kevinmichael3 I never know
kevinmichael3 me! zoeyorkwrites@gmail.com
xgranville michelleread kevinmichael3 the creepy clown from Stephen King’s imagination?
kevinmichael3 sure, invite me
BatmanErica xgranville michelleread kevinmichael3 No, that’s Pennywise.
kevinmichael3 michelleread03@gmail.com I think. Ask John or Carl if that’s right. I get confused with the internets.
kevinmichael3 Wish I could. Have fun guys!
michelleread kevinmichael3 You don’t need make up to look beautiful.
Chastain said he’s currently tied up. I’ll assume he means literally 😛
BatmanErica Only if he’s lucky.
Thanks for watching everyone!
ZoeYorkWrites kevinmichael3 Hey Zoe, I totally missed your request. It was full but I think it ended pretty quick ( I left soon after ) I think Kevin must have missed it too as he sent out the invites.
Nicolas is absolutely ADORABLE. Just saying
AriLessiers We do not oogle guests on the SPRT Ari.
Carl Sinclair AriLessiers But he’s super cute!
AriLessiers Carl Sinclair One must pay at least 3 compliments to Carl for every one directed at a guest. Common knowledge.
Great interview, Nick.