Story Sensei

This is the eighth and last in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Kickstarter: This is going to be weird that I put this here, but when I was looking through the worksheet “First Steps to Podcasting” in Writing Off Social—the Course Lite , a lot of the questions could apply when you’re setting up your Kickstarter. You have to craft your Kickstarter to appeal to the readers who will find your campaign, and the amount of time to set up a Kickstarter is probably on par with the amount of time to set up a podcast. The major difference is that with podcasting, you’re in it for a longer period of time, while Kickstarter is usually less than a month, although authors will often do a Kickstarter for every new book. I took Thomas Umstattd’s course, The Ultimate Crowdfunding Course for Authors and found it very helpful. I also read Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle’s book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter . Additionally, there...

This is the seventh in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Serial Fiction Websites I will admit upfront that I have minimal experience on Wattpad and all I’ve done on RoyalRoad is read a few chapters. However, I’ve heard of a lot of indie authors who love posting their books on these types of serial fiction websites to gain a large following. In a sense, it’s a lot like blogging your book, except on someone else’s website. You’re entering into a rich, reader-centric world and offering free content, and people who really love your work will buy your books and sign up for your newsletter. The structure of serial fiction also pretty much guarantees to hook your reader, because each chapter ends on a cliffhanger and they have to read the next chapter or die waiting for you to post it. Readers with favorite stories on RoyalRoad and Wattpad (and other such websites) can get really passionate about those books. The readers also e...

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. I will also mention two other things I blog about, which fall under Behind-the-Scenes but kind of have their own categories. I’ll often write food into my books. For my contemporary novels, they’re usually family recipes. For my Regency novels, they’re recipes that I find in antique cookbooks from the era. I’ll make the dish and post the recipe on my blog along with pictures. I recently polled my newsletter and Patreon and discovered my readers really liked the recipes, which surprised me. I will usually link to the blog post recipe in my newsletter and in a Patreon post. Here’s an example of a recipe. I also like to knit, so I write knitted objects into the books (like shawls, scarves, socks, mittens). Then I knit the object and post the knitting pattern on my blog with photos. I will link to the pattern in my newsletter and my Patreon, but I will also link to the p...

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. SEO for blogs: Unlike with nonfiction authors, blogging about nonfiction topics doesn’t automatically garner more sales for fiction authors. Sometimes readers will do a Google search for something they read in a novel, but from my experience and from talking with lots of other indie authors, fiction readers don’t necessarily care that much about nonfiction blog posts. So for some fiction authors, nonfiction blog posts don’t do anything to help them get more readers. However, blogging in general is a great way to post evergreen long-form content on a space you own, if you host your blog on your domain. My blog platform is Blogspot, but my blog itself is at https://blog.camytang.com . I like the fact it’s on my domain. Evergreen long-form content is posts that continue to market for you for years to come. Some fiction authors will post nonfiction topics (Sarah Sundin post...

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Patreon: I have a Patreon that I modeled after several other fiction authors, especially Lit-RPG and fantasy authors. They post the rough draft chapters on their Patreon, 1-3 chapters each week, as they write/edit them. Patrons subscribe at various tiers and get extra stuff depending on their tier. For me, I have 4 tiers: Tier 1, $5/month which gets them early access to my chapters before the book is published, along with any bonus content. Tier 2, $15/month which gets them audiobook chapters as they’re available. Tier 3, $25/month which gets them a specially-curated book box once every 4 months. Tier 4, $100/month which gets them a custom short story written for them once a year (I don’t have anyone at this tier at the moment). Tiers 3 and 4 get to read the weekly chapters first, and then permission is given to Tier 2 the week after, and finally Tier 1 after that. Thi...

This is the third in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. SEO for websites: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about helping people find your website or blog when they search online, like when someone Googles “Christian Regency romance” and your book pops up. By using the right keywords, writing helpful blog posts, and organizing your site well, you make it easier for search engines (like Google) to know what your site is about and show it to the right readers. It’s like leaving breadcrumbs for new fans to discover you. I will be the first person to say I am terrible at SEO, but I’ve been learning thanks to long conversations with ChatGPT and Grok. I’ve been trying to craft better blog titles and I just learned about putting meta descriptions for each blog post (When did that option appear? I hadn’t even noticed!). By using keywords, I’m hoping to get more traffic to my blog. I’ve also been listening to several free we...

This is the second in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Collaboration: I loved this module in the Writing Off Social—the Course Lite because I fully believe this is one of the best ways for fiction authors to promote their brands and their books. For my marketing, collaboration takes several forms. 1) Group promos I use BookFunnel (other authors use StoryOrigin) to join group author promos set up by other authors. Each promo is usually a specific genre, and there are two types of promos: newsletter promos and sales promos.  All participating authors share the link to the promo’s landing page, which has every author’s book covers that readers can click on. Newsletter promos feature Funnel Books. Sales promos feature books for sale whether on Amazon, on direct websites, or other distributors. Promos usually only last a short amount of time, so I can’t give links to them. Instead, I’ll post screenshot images. H...