The Story Studio Podcast - Writing, Storytelling, and Marketing Advice for Writers & Business

State of the Industry: Patterns and Lessons

[https://www.storystudiopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/S1E15-1024x576.jpg]It’s a wrap! Season 1: State of the Industry is done. After interviewing some truly stellar guests with their fingers on the pulse of what’s going on in all different areas of self-publishing, the guys, Niamh, and Bonnie sit back to discuss what patterns they’ve seen and what lessons they’ve learned. The gang discusses being mindful both of what they are doing and what they are choosing no longer to do, about strengths and weaknesses, as well as the overall feeling of bullishness on the future of indie-publishing in general. They also talk about how it may be the end of the amateur hour of self-publishing when anyone can throw something resembling a book together, put it up, and expect to get sales, but for those willing to put in the time and serious work, the future looks bright. And they explore the ways in which traditional publishing companies have started to act more like indies with competitive pricing and slightly more rapid publishing, and the ways indies are acting more like trads in taking both their branding and businesses more seriously. They also get into more specifics about things like analytics, ads, audiobooks, and more! Tune in for everyone’s biggest take-aways.

State of the Industry with Craig Martell

[https://www.storystudiopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/S1E14-1024x576.jpg]“There’s never been a better time to be an indie author,” Craig Martell says on this episode of the Story Studio Podcast. Craig Martell runs the 20 Books to 50K facebook group and events with Michael Anderle who we also interviewed in this State of the Industry series. In this interview, Craig shares the behind the scenes of both his own wildly successful author journey and how he came to host live author events with Michael. Listen in to learn all about Craig’s take on current industry trends and how he uses his catalog and ad dollars wisely to assure ongoing full-time income, based on years of experience. Click HERE [https://www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/] to learn more about the 20 Books to 50k Facebook Group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/]. And you can find LMBPN publishing [https://lmbpn.com/] where both Michael Anderle and Craig Martell HERE [https://lmbpn.com/].

State of the Industry with Erin Wright on Apple

[https://www.storystudiopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/S1E13-1024x576.jpg]Erin Wright is a contemporary western romance author who also runs the fantastic online/Facebook Group called Wide For The Win [https://www.facebook.com/groups/wideforthewin]. Erin was initially invited onto the podcast in place of having someone on from Apple since it is very difficult (maybe impossible) to get someone from Apple on a podcast to talk about the state of the industry, but her interview gave us all so much more. Erin has been very successful with her books in the Apple store, but she also has an excellent track record of making her catalog sell well wide, across multiple bookselling sites and platforms, (as in providing a full-time income), and she has been helping others to do the same. Listen in to find out how Erin does it and how she helps others do it too. If you are an author who wants to publish your books wide (rather than exclusively through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program) then check out the Wide for The Win Facebook group here [https://www.facebook.com/groups/wideforthewin]. You can also learn more about Erin Wright here [https://erinwright.net/].

State of the Industry with Mark Lefebvre from Draft2Digital

[https://www.storystudiopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/S1E12-1024x576.jpg]When the guys first met Mark Leslie Lefevbre, they got to know him as Mark Kobo, because he was working for Kobo back then. Now Mark works for Draft2Digital [https://draft2digital.com/], through which he continues to promote wide publishing options, including Kobo, but, through the easy-to-use Draft2Digital dashboard interface, also Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and more. Draft2Digital also makes it easy for indie authors to get their books into library systems, which has recently seen some pretty incredible growth in market share while much of the country (and the world) has been rotating through various levels of lockdown and quarantine. Listen in to learn more about Mark’s journey and about what Draft2Digital can do for the modern indie author, now and into the future. You can also learn more about Mark through his Stark Reflections [https://starkreflections.ca/] podcast.

State of The Industry with Andre Chaperon and Shawn Twing

[https://www.storystudiopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/S1E11-1024x576.jpg]Andre Chaperon and Shawn Twing are writing and business partners. Together they run a website called Tiny Little Businesses (which you can find at https://tinylittlebusinesses.com [https://tinylittlebusinesses.com]). Sean first found Andre through his Autoresponder Madness course. Andre also spoke at the very first S&S event (after at first refusing to). Shawn has been in digital marketing for more than two decades and, at one point, was a customer of Andre’s Sphere of Influence product. It’s so refreshing to hear online marketers say that a smaller, more engaged list that is genuinely interested in hearing from you is better than having a huge list of people who only rarely care whether they hear from you or not. Their focus in writing emails is on quality communication and storytelling through email. How can you best connect with your audience through writing emails? Anyone with an email list should definitely listen in to learn more about what Andre and Shawn have to say.