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Welcome to another episode of the Self-Publishing Roundtable. The weekly self publishing news and interview show, for indie authors, by indie authors.
This is our second show this week. We spoke to Hugh Howey yesterday about authorearnings.com which was fun.
Today we have an equally awesome guest in Darren Wearmouth.
If you don’t know of Darren, I’ll give you a brief run down of why you should be paying attention.
He launched his first indie title First Activation late last year. He had no platform. No name value, or sales history. Yet he sold nearly a thousand books in his first week. Since that time, he has sold over 50,000 copies, signed a book deal with 47North, and now has an agent.
The interesting part of his story is that this wasn’t an overnight luck story, it was by design. Darren spent nearly a year learning the industry and building a launch strategy. It worked for him and several others, who have used it as a blueprint since.
Darren talked to us about what has changed since his launch, what he has planned for the future, and so much more.
I think the date is wrong…for America that is 😛
BatmanErica Yes my bad. I looked up at my calendar when I was typing the post. It’s already 14th here. Updated.
Welcome to the show. If it’s your first time here please join in the chat with is in real time. We will attempt to address any questions you have for our guest while we are live. Enjoy the show and thanks for watching.
Carl Sinclair no worries. Want me to delete my comment so no one will know? 😀
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair No Erica. I’m proud of my mistakes, they help us learn.
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair Besides. Now it looks like you’re a bully which puts sympathy on me and makes me more awesome. See how I did that? ; )
Looking forward to this episode. Greetings from Canada!
xgranville ohai! I can watch and comment…I think. Not able to after party though *sad panda*
xgranville that sounds kinda dirty…
BatmanErica xgranville At least Sad Pandas get cake!
Carl Sinclair any comment I come up with in response to that contains boobs. So I’ll leave it at that o.O
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair We have no problems with boobs. We are supporters of such.
xgranville yeah about that…I was too full of sweets after my hot chocolate and ginger/lemon kiss to have that chocolate cake (which looked delicious btw), so just had a few chips until I got to lunch not long after. Lunch was perfect though 🙂
Carl Sinclair good to know, seeing as I have a pair of my own 😉
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair Photos or it never happened. (My views do not constitute or are in anyway endorsed by the Self-Publishing Roundtable)
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair If SPRT started boycotting boobs, I don’t know what I’d do. Those are the people’s boobs!
xgranville BatmanErica Carl Sinclair yeah not gonna take pics while seated near the children’s section of the Wellington library. You’ll just have to take my word for it 😛
xgranville ooh I just scored a cushy seat right next to a power plug (for laptop) and with somewhere to put my feet up AND I found 10 cents!
Howdy.
Take off hoser. Did I get that right?
BatmanErica xgranville And the plot thickens!
writerwade EH?
writerwade Take off, eh! I’ve personally never heard someone say that, but I love Bob and Doug as much as the next guy.
xgranville writerwade Definitely in the great white north these days.
Hey all. Been watching the show for a while, thought I’d jump in and join the chat from the UK.
PatrickStemp xgranvillewriterwade Big place. Lots of trees and snow.
ColinFBarnes Welcome!
xgranville the real test will be if this internet connection can handle the jandal!
xgranville writerwade I’m not your buddy pal
BatmanErica xgranville Pray to science.
xgranville PatrickStempwriterwadeNorthern Maine is getting hit with a blizzard right now, as far as I know we still have lots of trees, but I can’t see them with all the snow.
Carl Sinclair xgranvillewriterwade Not your pal, friend.
ColinFBarnes hi! My first SPRT podcast was yesterday. We can be newbies together 🙂
BatmanErica xgranville Carl Sinclair Why aren’t you at the Basin watching NZ get crushed by India today?
How’s the weather? I miss Wellington.
ColinFBarnes Welcome Colin.
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes w00t. Though I’d join the fray as Darren is my cowriter. Got to support a mate / throw him difficult questions 😉
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes First time for me last night as well! Looking forward to another round.
Carl Sinclair ColinFBarnes Thanks, Carl.
PatrickStemp BatmanEricaColinFBarnes It’s a good week to tune in. Last night the comments made the site lag for a few people, so let’s try to do even more damage tonight.
PatrickStemp BatmanErica ColinFBarnes I’m glad to see people coming back. I guess we didn’t destroy your souls with our effort on the last show? : )
xgranville Carl SinclairwriterwadeNo love here tonight, what’s that aboot?
Liam Kingman xgranvilleCarl Sinclairwriterwade Just admit it, Liam. You’re Stephen King.
xgranville PatrickStemp BatmanErica ColinFBarnes I think all our off topic comments contributed to the lag 😛
BatmanErica xgranville PatrickStemp ColinFBarnes No topic is off topic for SPRT.
xgranville Liam KingmanCarl SinclairwriterwadeI tried, that penname was taken.
Carl Sinclair BatmanEricaxgranvillePatrickStempColinFBarnes Especially when it involves Tacos.
Liam Kingman xgranville Carl Sinclair writerwade you mean he’s great at beginnings but has weak endings?
Here again. Tipping the balance towards the Kiwis …
BatmanErica Liam KingmanxgranvilleCarl SinclairwriterwadeThat hurts, I’ve been ghost writing his endings on every book since the Stand,
BatmanErica Liam KingmanxgranvilleCarl Sinclairwriterwade Think about it, have you ever seen Liam and Stephen King in a room together? Hmm? Hmm?
Shay Barratt Now Canada will flourish as the true SPRT minority.
xgranville BatmanEricaLiam KingmanCarl SinclairwriterwadeWell there was that one time… but it was photoshopped.
And…I’m lagged already o.O
Okay if you refresh this page the video link should be on the page now.
BatmanErica Yep. When I refreshed the page it took a while for the comments to return.
Liam Kingman xgranville BatmanErica Carl Sinclair writerwade I’ve never seen either of them o.O
ColinFBarnes thanks for joining us.
BatmanErica Liam KingmanxgranvilleCarl Sinclairwriterwade He was telling the truth that he’s a ghost writer. Stephen King AKA Liam Kingman is a ghost author from beyond the grave!
Carl Sinclair BatmanErica xgranville not followed cricket since the days of Gavin Larson and Nathan Astle.
Weather is a high of 21C, bit of a breeze. Burntime I’d estimate to be just over 10 minutes. I live up on the coast though where it’s even better weather.
jlward ColinFBarnes My pleasure. I’ve been up editing all night so thought I’d stick around and watch the show.
Shay Barratt Three kiwis, one cup.
Carl Sinclair Shay Barratt the only one that counts Carl
Shay Barratt Carl Sinclair You got it baby. Champions of the world.
And live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1……
Carl Sinclair Shay Barratt The Final Countdown just popped into my head.
xgranville yip. Have opened the video in youtube, just waiting…
xgranville Carl Sinclair BatmanErica PatrickStemp ColinFBarnes I prefer burritos, unless it’s soft tacos, then those rock!
SPRT is David W. Wright’s heroin. He just can’t quit it.
xgranville Yay, he’s perfectly framed today!
xgranville Carl Sinclair Shay Barratt That song makes me miss Arrested Development. Check out Van Canto’s acapella version on youtube.
Go kiwis!
BatmanErica xgranville Maybe he’ll do another dance tonight (if anyone saw he’s great moves from the link in his newsletter….)
ColinFBarnes BatmanEricaxgranville It was probably the best part of my Thursday.
Yeah, when James Cameron moved down here it was one of his requirements
PJ uses fibre. Stop making me laugh while in the library >.<
Shay Barratt You can take him haha.
xgranville Shay Barratt LOL
xgranville ColinFBarnes I couldn’t watch it all >.<
BatmanErica xgranvilleColinFBarnes Neither could I. But then I rewatched it.
BURN!
xgranville BatmanErica ColinFBarnes I was stunned. I’ve not been able to focus on anything else since. I think I heard Cthulhu.
ColinFBarnes xgranville are you spying on me? I’m wearing my ‘obey cthulu’ t shirt today o.O
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes xgranville Cthulhu is omnipotent…
ColinFBarnes xgranvilleBatmanErica Yeah, I think I felt a Shadow Over Innsmouth.
Gonna have to turn up the volume to compete with the kids talking in the library…
xgranville ColinFBarnes http://www.teefury.com/gallery/2314/Obey_Cthulhu/
BatmanErica Call up the Vashta Nerada. Silence in the library!
BatmanErica Kids talking in the library? That is just not cricket.
xgranville well school got out an hour ago and I’m pretty much in the children’s section of the library cause that’s where the cushy chairs are.
Can someone who can hear him properly please list the sites he advertised with?
BatmanErica It’s not just you, the audio is a little sketchy on his end
BatmanErica ENT banner ad, Kindle National Daily, Bookblast, eBook Booster, Pixelscroll, Flurries of Words, Book Gorilla. $300 spread over 5 days to give a sustained boost as opposed to a single spike.
ColinFBarnes thanks mate 🙂
ColinFBarnes was the book in Select?
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes Yeah
ColinFBarnes I’ve not used Select before but the majority of my readers are Kindle readers, the other are Nookers.
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes Darren and I have spoken a lot about Select’s pros and cons with regards to the book we’re cowriting. We’re looking to go with Select for it because we believe the borrows help keep a book sticky in the rankings in addition to regular sales.
BatmanErica Is it any better?
ColinFBarnes BatmanErica Lots of pros and cons, and it varies per project I find. You might see better results by sticking with Select.
My US:UK ratio is the same, roughly 4:1
Is the sound any better now for you from Darren?
Carl Sinclair I think it’s just his mike, a bit muffled.
mitchhoganauthor Likewise. It’s the same with Canada. I have much more reviews in Canada but the high ranking score on the charts doesn’t help when no one in the damn North are buying Kindles.
jlward ask someone else I’ve just lagged out really really badly >.<
Carl Sinclair He’s been okay on my end (using in-ear buds).
BatmanErica jlward thanks.
Carl Sinclair Yeah, it’s good enough for moi.
xgranville mitchhoganauthor I just picked up a Kindle to bookend my Kobo. Can’t decide which I love most.
PatrickStemp xgranvillemitchhoganauthor I’ll grab up a Kindle eventually. I think the Amazon market is much better for readers and writers, though Kobo has a lot of that traditional book store feel to it.
I’m here. You can start now
RolandDenzel What a relief.
yeah a mailing list is a great thing to set up for future releases
The Hot New Releases list on Amazon is a big boost if you can get your ranking up
Anyone have questions for Darren so far? Ask and we will pass them on.
To answer Dave’s question: I did this same launch process with a book that was a year old (Artificial Evil). It worked pretty well, making me profit on the ads and driving traffic to the follow up book. It definitely helps to do it in the first 30 days to juice the algorithms.
Question for Darren: what were the factors that made him choose 47 North over the other publishers that made offers?
Also, if you update your book, there’s a glitch that means Amazon thinks its a new book and will place it on the HNR list.
xgranville PatrickStemp mitchhoganauthor I love the Kobo hardware. The website is ok. The desktop software is complete garbage.
ColinFBarnes HNR?
ColinFBarnes Thanks, Colin.
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes Hot New Releases (the little box on the right hand side of the best seller lists).
BatmanErica ColinFBarnes hot new releases
PatrickStemp xgranvillemitchhoganauthor Yeah, I agree. I think the hardware is great, but they need to do some fixings.
ColinFBarnes that didn’t work for me 🙁
mitchhoganauthor ColinFBarnes Thanks. I don’t pay attention to those lists as a reader or as a writer, so I’m a bit clueless with some of the jargon that pops up.
mitchhoganauthor ColinFBarnes Do it again! haha Just change your CTA’s
mitchhoganauthor ColinFBarnes Apparently it only works on books that never had a publishing date to begin with.
xgranville PatrickStemp mitchhoganauthor Like how you can only add a book to your wishlist if it shows up on the main page, but not from search results.
PatrickStemp xgranvillemitchhoganauthor Yeah, the algorithms aren’t even given the chance to really get to know the reader.
hi…horribly late here… *waves*
BrennaAubrey Ahoy!
BrennaAubrey Hello 🙂
Hey Brenna
thedavidwwright ColinFBarnes No probs, Dave. It’s the same book, btw, that is in the Taste of Tomorrow box set.
xgranville mitchhoganauthor ColinFBarnes I wish… the day my 1st book dropped off the HNR list sales dropped 30%, that’s how much it’s worth in sales. In my case anyway.
BrennaAubrey Welcome!
BrennaAubrey Geeze, I’m the one who usually has the late arrival spot. I didn’t realize getting here early would mean you had to take my old spot.
xgranville PatrickStemp mitchhoganauthor True. Plus we need the ability, in the brick and mortar bookstore, to tell the cashier something is a gift and to NOT send recommendations based on those purchases. If I buy Jane Austen for my girlfriend I really don’t need that to affect the “you might also like” emails they send me going forward.
Liam Kingman BrennaAubrey Deal with it, early bird.
Carl Sincl, you have won the internet once again
Great show! Wish I could stick around…
xgranville Liam KingmanBrennaAubreyI just felt bad for switching spots with her, she can have my seat.
Carl Sinclair Do I know you?
How long did it take for reviews to start coming in? I’d imagine with those sales quite a few would appear relatively quickly
PatrickStemp xgranville mitchhoganauthor LOL I used to be signed up to my husband’s kindle account he would raise his eyebrows at some of the titles they emailed him saying *he’d* bought 😛
PatrickStemp xgranvillemitchhoganauthor That is true. Even certain genres. You may like an author who writes a certain genre, and you don’t mind reading something outside that genre, but you might not actually want to be recommended more in that genre.
(I paid Darren to say these nice things).
Darren, Will your launch of the next book differ in any way from your launch of your debut (sorry if this has already been asked just ignore!)
ColinFBarnes But of course.
“Why don’t you eat a bag of dicks, Carl.”
We use Word at the moment, which has had its issues, but I’m hoping to move Darren over to Scrivener eventually.
Me I’m Australian
ColinFBarnes Do it now, don’t wait.
Liam Kingman ColinFBarnes Word is a trap! Listen to Ackbar!
Liam Kingman ColinFBarnes I’m a huge fan of it, been using it since it was originally in V1 beta. It’s always painful having to go back to Word.
xgranville PatrickStemp mitchhoganauthor I think they all struggle with this. Goodreads also does a horrible job of recommending reads based on my shelves.
Facebook click farms: Ugh… not going to boost any more posts with them!
Carl Sinclair due I might be in Perth in May!
Liam Kingman ColinFBarnes Agreed. Scrivener was the best Christmas present I got last year!
Trying to hide the fake likes among legitimate page likes
xgranville PatrickStemp mitchhoganauthor True. I can only read so much urban fantasy monster slayer heroines before I need to switch it up 🙂
mitchhoganauthor YouTube had revealed how many of their ‘Likes’ for many popular music artists were fake, and created by the record companies. Justin Beiber took a real hit. He lost millions of likes because no one actually likes him.
BatmanErica xgranvillePatrickStempmitchhoganauthor Exactly.
Joe Nassise had a good post on Kboards somewhere where he did a Facebook ad that drove a lot of sales to his trad pub book. If I can find the link, I’ll drop it here as he talked about his strategy.
For those of you that don’t know, Colin Barnes has some of the best covers in the history of cool
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair Dude! Author meetup.
ColinFBarnes I have a feeling traditional books, especially paperbacks would do better on Facebook than ebooks. Everyone uses Facebook, even the technologically declined grandparents of potential readers.
ColinFBarnes Thanks Colin.
RemarkableReads He sure does.
You’re all very quiet.
I’ll ask you a question:
What’s your perfect Sunday?
I think I’ll watch this again after I get home. Wow, I’m just missing so much when it cuts out 🙁
RemarkableReads Thanks 🙂 Very kind of you.
BatmanErica Sorry Erica : (
Carl Sinclair Hitting the publish button, in pajamas, eating cereal, while a Doctor Who episode plays in the background.
Carl Sinclair Not sure, but I have to say last Sunday vegged out on my couch eating pizza and watching Doctor Who was pretty close to perfect.
xgranville Carl Sinclair Sigh. Like 6 more months until we get some Capaldi.
xgranville Carl SinclairJinx.
xgranville ColinFBarnes I think it was an ebook…. when i get chance, I’ll see if I can find that thread. It was really interesting to see how he approached it, using a custom tab as a landing page before sending them to the book.
Liam Kingman xgranvilleCarl Sinclair The cereal and pajamas are key. Captures the full Who.
i asked one! see below!
*shakes fist at free wifi in the CBD*
Repeat: Darren, Will your launch of the next book differ in any way from your launch of your debut (sorry if this has already been asked just ignore!)
BrennaAubrey Ah. Yeah we talked about this a bit. He is planning on using his list early and then hitting the promo lists he can in teh first week. Then hitting more in the first 90 days.
BrennaAubrey He’s already answered. He said that he would rely on his mailing list now that he is established.
Darren said his sales in UK are 1/4 of what he makes in the US. What about reviews? What is the difference there?
Carl Sinclair BatmanErica Dude, it’ll give me something to do while my husband is presenting at a geek conference!
jlward BrennaAubrey We spoke about our upcoming release, and we’re going to follow a similar approach, but move the ads a few weeks back while we focus on generating early reviews because a bunch of the ads have since added review quota to qualify. So it’s going to be sending out ARCS ahead of time so reviews are ready to go at launch.
BatmanErica Carl Sinclair Geek Conference? Carl, how torn are you?!?!
jlward BrennaAubrey TY! I’ll rewind and watch haha
ColinFBarnes jlward BrennaAubrey Colin, how many ARCs are you sending out and how are you getting the ARC peeps? From your newsletter?
I’m going to look into german literary translators this time next week. My manager used to be a translator so he’s going to sit down with me and sort through it all. My sometimes job is so good to me 🙂
BrennaAubrey jlward It’s not a problem. I think that with Carl being in Australia and Darren being in the UK that it’s straining everyone’s bandwidth. So, the show is probably choppier than usual.
BrennaAubrey ColinFBarnes jlward Darren said anyone who has contacted him about liking the first book have been offered a copy.
Carl Sinclair BrennaAubrey ColinFBarnes jlward Awesome…glad to see I’m on the right track 🙂
BrennaAubrey ColinFBarnes jlward We don’t have numbers yet as we’re editing the MS, but between our newsletters and social media followers, we have an idea that we would get between 50-100. I’d estimate a quarter would likely read and leave a review.
ColinFBarnes BrennaAubrey jlward Colin are you requiring ARC requesters to have reviewed the first book? or just handing out freely?
I think my comments are lagging. Keep it self published until 2 weeks before 47 North publish?! That’s interesting.
xgranville Carl Sinclair I think it’s called WAHCON, but my hubby hasn’t been told if his application to present was accepted or not, yet. I think it’s only their second year and it’s like a smaller less volatile version of DEFCON.
BrennaAubrey ColinFBarnes jlward Well, our book is the first of a series of two that we’re writing, so we’re giving the ARCS freely in faith/hope a good number of them will leave reviews.
ColinFBarnes BrennaAubrey jlward oh ok, so it’s not a series?
ColinFBarnes BrennaAubrey jlward i.e. this next book is not in the same series as book 1?
*sighs* I gotta go home now.
BatmanErica Watch out for Orcs.
xgranville not a problem for us. They’re afraid of red cars 😛
BatmanErica xgranville Their only weakness.
BatmanErica I’ll miss you.
BrennaAubrey ColinFBarnes jlward Sorry, I’m not being clear. Basically we’re writing two independent series, the current book ‘Sequence’ is the one that will likely have the revised launch strategy first, but we’re planning to use the same strategy for the second series too. Depending on the agent interest, will determine which series will get the follow up volume.
CARL!!! I’m shocked.
BrennaAubrey Don’t blame me.
Can I just say this is amazing?
BrennaAubrey My mom loves Hugh Howey. I can’t control what people do.
xgranville You can.
Carl Sinclair xgranville This is amazing.
xgranville You can say it. I’m not sure that anyone will believe you though.
jlward xgranville See it. Believe it. Space Jam.
http://rockingselfpublishing.com/episode-07-the-7-day-launch-strategy-with-darren-wearmouth/
I can say “I was a guest on that show” when SPRT becomes a wild viral Internet sensation!
BrennaAubrey I wish I had been able to be on during your interview. That was a great show.
Pretty awesome interview, guys. Having trouble derailing things with sidebar banter.
jlward BrennaAubrey thanks 🙂
ahhh (blush) ….hey I’m used to turning down sure money!
BrennaAubrey Boom.
What a lovely holiday. Who’s writing THAT book?
xgranville I did, but it was based in Fukashima so now I can’t publish it
xgranville It does sound like something that thedavidwwright would come up with. It certainly sounds like horror to me.
afterparty for me please
After party invites come here:
RemarkableReads What’s your name again? I’m joking.
Carl Sinclair I’m in for the PARTY!
Carl Sinclair I’ll drop in for a bit.
jlward xgranvillethedavidwwright The Clockwork Orange project sounds like fun.
Carl Sinclair If there’s room I’ll join in.
mitchhoganauthor Carl Sinclair You need to send me your gmail/google account emails to carlsinclairauthor@gmail.com
Carl Sinclair mitchhoganauthor boom. You know I’m in.
ColinFBarnes Carl Sinclair send me your email addy colin
Carl Sinclair ColinFBarnes Just sent, Carl.
Thank you Darren and everyone for watching.
ColinFBarnes Carl Sinclair I didn’t get it. carlsinclairauthor@gmail.com
Carl Sinclair sorry Carl, internet dropped out. Will rewatch now
mitchhoganauthor Carl Sinclair invite sent mitch
The Roundtable After Party for Episode 33!
Hey guys. Great podcast. Sorry I couldn’t make it.
Mitch I was able to keep my title self pubbed until a week before Montlake pubbed it too. This seems standard for the Amazon imprints, if the title they acquired was a self pubbed one.
Trish McCallan Good to know, another tick in Apub’s favor. I hadn’t thought to ask Darren about this so I’m glad it came up.
There is now an audio download in the show notes below the YouTube embed. There will be an RSS feed and iTunes version coming shortly. Feel free to grab a copy of the mp3 from the link provided.