Month: June 2017

EPISODE 16: How to write an award winning book series with Marc Remus

Today’s interview is with indie author Marc Remus.

Marc Remus is an award-winning German Neo Pop-Art painter, illustrator and author. His paintings are exhibited world-wide. His first book series Magora (a middle grade series) features six books, three of which have been published and three more which are coming. So far the books released in the series are The Gallery of Wonders, The Golden Maple Tree, and the Bridge in the Fog. 

Marc is one of those rare authors that has patience; he wrote the entire Magora series over a period of 20 years, perfecting it and is releasing one book every six months or so. He is also working on a new YA book about a tribe in Scotland that steals languages.

In this interview Marc covers:

  • The merits of writing and completing an entire book series before releasing them.
  • Learning how to write children’s books well at the Institute for Writers.
  • Working with developmental editors to make your series strong and cohesive.
  • The importance of a well written book, professional cover and layout.
  • Gaining visibility and more sales through winning book awards. Marc mentions the Moonbeam, IPPY, Readers Favorite and Purple Dragonfly awards. Marc has won gold and silver on various book awards for his first and second Magora books.
  • Translation of books and language considerations.
  • How to get amazing, creative story ideas.
  • The advantages of doing a joint book launch.

It’s been wonderful hearing the individual journey of different authors and knowing there are many pathways to success. Enjoy Marc’s interview.

You can find Marc and purchase his books at www.marcremus.com, find the Magora series at www.magora.net (worth checking out for the special effects and how your cursor turns into a paint brush!)

You can follow Marc on AMAZON, get social with him on TWITTER and FACEBOOK.

LISTEN HERE:

WATCH HERE:

EPISODE 15: Building a solid, long term career as a children’s book author with Karen Inglis

Today’s interview is with indie author Karen Inglis.

Karen has sold over 10,000 books during her author career. Her stand alone book titles are proof that you don’t have to write a series in order to make it as an indie author. Her books include The Secret Lake, Ferdinand Fox’s Big Sleep, Henry Hanes and the Great Escape, Walter Brown and the Magician’s Hat and Eeek The Runaway Alien. All fabulous sounding titles and clearly well researched and written books.

                        

In this interview Karen covers:

  • Her top tips for children’s book authors just starting out.
  • The importance of beta readers and/or critique services to make sure your book is appropriate and well written for your target age group. She mentions the Writers Advice Centre for Children’s Books. Reedsy also has great professional editors familiar with the children book market in particular.
  • Visiting your local libraries and finding beta readers to hear your story and offer their feedback.
  • Make contact with local libraries, school and bookstores to get your books out there. It’s always helpful to offer your services free when starting out with schools to build familiarity and good will.
  • Have a good website that also brands you well, so that when schools, libraries and bookstores look you up they see from the get go that you are a professional author, and it’s easy to identify your book titles and know where to order them from.
  • The importance of using both Createspace and Ingram Spark for book production and distribution. You can also supply books directly to your local book stores.
  • How to design your order form effectively for schools to use when doing school visits. And more great school visits advice.
  • Apps for children’s books and enhanced ebooks.
  • How to gain email subscribers and fans when you DON’T have a series and DON’T have a permafree book.
  • The benefits of networking with other authors and organisations.
  • The vital role your self belief, perserverance and ability to fail have, in ensuring a long indie career as a children’s book author. It can feel challenging to approach schools and libraries and it won’t always go well, but you need to be able to keep at it.

A wonderful interview full of sage advice. Enjoy the show.

You can find Karen and purchase her books at www.kareninglisauthor.com , follow her on AMAZON, and get social with her on FACEBOOK.

You can find Karen’s incredibly information rich ‘info blog’ at www.selfpublishingadventures.com. Karen gives an overview of the process she went through to get her books to market on a modest budget and offers high level and very detailed publishing information and links to various resources.

LISTEN HERE:

WATCH HERE:

EPISODE 14: Workshop & Goal Setting – Lessons learned from episodes 7-13

Welcome to Episode 14 of the Indie Kidlit Podcast. On this episode Elena and Marti discuss their recent interviews (7 to 13), and what they’ve learned from the advice and experience provided. 

Since the last Goal Setting session, both Marti and Elena have been hard at work publishing new books. Here is their latest work:

Marti’s most recent book releases include Jaden Toussaint the Greatest – Attack of the Swamp Thing (episode 4) and Mission Star-Power (episode 5).  Plus new books The Snow Dragon, and The Little Human.

 

Elena recently completed her series Meditation Adventures for Kids with three more books and a compilation book: Lolli and the Bunyip, Lolli and the Magical Kitchen, Lolli and the Superfood Quest, and Meditation Adventures for Kids – The Entire Collection. Plus Elena produced an Instafreebie exclusive book to try out the strategy of “exclusivity” to gain more subscribers (Lolli and the Great Science Experiment).

                    

 

WARNING: This is a really long episode. 

Here is a quick overview of the topics discussed and the timing within the program so you can skip the boring parts and get the most out of the following discussion(plus it was a REALLY long show):

4:34 – Making your goals achievable
7:36 – How to focus on your ideal reader and become a more effective writer
10:08 – Marti’s updates
16:00 – The importance of not rushing the publishing/writing process
19:05 – Elena’s updates
26:31 – How Marti went with her school visits (plus see below for what Marti’s school visit form looked like to give you ideas for your own)
40:22 – Lessons learned from interviewing Justin Sloan: selling foreign publishing rights and coauthoring
46:58 – How Kevin Tumlinson’s interview on selling on multiple platforms and using draft2digital impacted Marti and Elena’s publishing decisions
53:38 – Instafreebie updates
1:09:47 – The importance of creating an “experience”
1:12:49 – Lessons learned from Bobbie Hinman: creating a great product that is easier to sell.

Another super jam packed discussion between Marti and Elena sure to give you new marketing ideas. Apologies for the abrupt show end as there was a technical glitch (or perhaps God intervened and shut the show down as the girls could have talked for another hour or so!)

Enjoy the show.

LISTEN HERE:

WATCH HERE:

 

MARTI’S SCHOOL VISIT FORM: