Jim: We have hit episode 100, which means it’s time to take questions you’ve sent us and give you our thoughts. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in and helped spread the word. Most podcasts don’t make it to 25 episodes, so we’re grateful.
Q: I’m working on my first novel. How much money do I need once I publish to promote my book?
Answer:
Thomas: It depends on how you plan to promote. Most authors spend $500 or less. If I did just one thing, I’d throw a launch party and invite as many people as possible. A lot of effective promotion takes time rather than money, so start there.
Jim: Traditional advertising follows the principle of putting a dollar in to get two dollars out, but most authors don’t have an advertising budget at all. Invest time in things you can do for free before spending money.
Thomas: A few things I do recommend spending money on: first, a good podcasting microphone, around $80 to $100. With that, you can pitch yourself as a guest on podcasts in your genre. When you pitch, show you’ve actually listened to the show; it’s immediately obvious when someone hasn’t. Second, Goodreads giveaways and ads can be very cost-effective. Third, a BookBub featured deal at $100 to $300 is almost always worth it. I’ve never heard of someone paying for BookBub and not making back their money.
Jim: BookBub isn’t easy to get; there are real criteria to meet. But keep applying if you don’t get in the first time, because as of now it’s probably your best bet for reaching readers of discounted and free books.
Q: What kinds of expenses can writers deduct as business expenses?
Answer:
Thomas: I’m not a CPA, so take this as a starting point rather than advice. We do have an episode with an actual CPA on this, and a one-hour course on Author Media that walks through tax advice specifically for authors. In general, if the IRS considers you a business rather than a hobby, expenses on advertising, podcasting equipment, and books on the craft are legitimate business expenses. But talk to your own CPA.
Jim: It’s not just books and magazines. It’s conferences, flights to conferences, and mileage to critique group meetings. I write off 53.5 cents per mile when I drive to a speaking event. There are more deductible expenses than most people realize. We’ve owned our own businesses for a long time and we’re still discovering them.
Q: Some literary agents ask for a market analysis with the query letter, but sales figures aren’t public. Wouldn’t the agent know the market better than the author? Isn’t that their job?
Answer:
Jim: What agents and editors are really looking for is initiative. If you’ve done your own research, that says something. You can look at which comparable books have sold well over time. You can even call indie bookstores and ask what’s resonated with their customers recently. If you put that in a proposal, an agent will notice that you went beyond a few clicks of the mouse. The goal is to say: this book is similar to X, and here’s the research to back that up.
Thomas: You can also use junglescout.com. They have an estimator that converts Amazon sales rank into estimated sales figures, which gives you at least one data point even if you can’t see the full market picture.
Q: I’ve been listening to at least three episodes a day and I’m on episode 65. How did you two meet?
Answer:
Thomas: It’s a little weird. I was walking through Austin-Bergstrom Airport and saw a guy holding a poster with his own face on it. I recognized the picture from social media and said, “Are you James Rubart?” He said yes, then looked at me and said, “Are you Thomas Umstadt?” We’d known each other by reputation but had never met. He was flying into Austin for an event; I was flying out to California for a completely different one.
Jim: We chatted for a few minutes and I walked away thinking, I like this guy. We had a lot of mutual friends and started a friendship from there. Over time I’d been talking about writing a book called Novel Marketing, and Thomas kept pushing me: it’s more than a book, it could be a podcast. The book still isn’t written, but here we are at episode 100.
Thomas: We also joined the same mastermind group, which has been enormously valuable. If you’re not in a small group of committed authors, I really recommend finding one.
Q: I write clean fairy tale retellings. I’m about to repackage my first three books as a boxed set. I’ve heard that boxed set readers are slightly different demographically. How do I find them?
Answer:
Thomas: Boxed set readers are price-conscious, but look at it from the other angle: they read enormous amounts, often 50 to 100 or more books per year, and people who read that voraciously are exactly the ones who recommend books to others. You don’t want to rule them out.
Goodreads is one of the best places to find them, because heavy readers are always hunting for new recommendations. I’d also look into email lists and newsletters that specifically promote boxed sets; BookBub has options in that space. More broadly, find out where your current readers already hang out online and go there. There’s no single place all readers gather, so you have to find the community for your specific genre.
Q: I’ve published two novellas and they’ve done well, but I’m worried I’m being typecast. My debut novel comes out in December. How do I use the novella momentum to launch a full-length book?
Answer:
Thomas: The world is much larger than the few people who think of you as “the novella author.” Consider radio: a show has some listeners who stay for the full two hours, but most are only tuned in for 15 minutes and have no idea who the host is. You have to keep introducing yourself because most people don’t know you yet. For you, Jamie, there are millions of readers who’ve never heard your name. Don’t let a handful of people’s perceptions put you in a box.
The universe of novel readers is also much larger than the universe of novella readers. Most novella readers read novels too, so they’ll follow you. And the readers who don’t know your novellas at all will discover you fresh with this book.
Jim: You’re actually in a strong position. Novella readers who liked your work will follow you to the full-length. New readers will find the novel without any baggage. There’s no downside here.
Q: How should someone work with a small press that doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing? Mine keeps telling me “that’s not how it works.”
Answer:
Thomas: Small presses vary enormously. Some are just another author who bought a website and calls themselves a press, prints on demand through the same services you could use yourself, and takes a cut without adding any value. If that’s what you have, you may be better off going it alone.
Where a small press genuinely helps is when you don’t want to manage the publishing process yourself, or when the press itself carries real credibility in its market. Enclave Publishing is a good example: they were well known in Christian science fiction and fantasy, and being published by them actually meant something to readers in that space. That kind of press is worth working with.
If your press is blocking your marketing efforts, that’s a serious problem. Before working with any small press, find an author they’ve published and reach out on social media to ask if they’re happy. Authors who are satisfied will say so quickly. Authors who aren’t will usually go quiet. Don’t sign with anyone until you can find that happy customer on your own, without the press pointing you to them.
Jim: Think of your publisher as a business partner, the way you’d think of a spouse. You wouldn’t marry someone you just met. Do the due diligence. Talk to authors they’ve worked with. Order a few of their books and look at the production quality. The upfront research can save you years of frustration.
Q: A podcast host said self-published books are not edited nearly enough to be worth reading, and a guest said no one reads them because publishers don’t market them. But don’t authors end up doing most of their own marketing anyway? If so, why would anyone go traditional?
Answer:
Thomas: On the marketing question: in fiction, the vast majority of book sales are concentrated in the top 10 to 100 authors. If you’re not in that tier, your publisher is gambling that you might become the next big thing. In the meantime, you’re doing your own marketing. What the publisher provides is capital and credibility, not a marketing department dedicated to you.
Jim: The comment about editing sounds like something from ten years ago, when it was largely true. Today, the problem isn’t that self-published books can’t be well edited; it’s that many authors aren’t willing to pay for a good editor. That’s a choice, not a limitation of the format. A professional editor can transform a manuscript in ways the author can’t do alone.
Thomas: I’d push back on the framing slightly. If you count the number of self-published titles, yes, many aren’t well edited. But if you count the self-published books people are actually reading, the ones that get recommended and sell, those are almost all well edited. The poorly edited ones don’t circulate because readers don’t recommend books they didn’t enjoy. Nothing stops you from hiring the same quality of editor a traditional publisher would use. You need at least three: a developmental editor, a copy editor, and a proofreader. When I self-published, I ran a Kickstarter and my readers raised $10,000 to fund professional editors across all three categories.
Jim: As for why anyone goes traditional, it’s because publishers absorb 100% of the production costs and take the financial risk. Traditional publishers lose money on more than half the books they publish. The advance is essentially a small business loan you don’t have to repay if the book fails. For authors who don’t have the capital or the entrepreneurial appetite to self-publish well, that’s a real and legitimate advantage.
Regardless of which path you choose, always avoid vanity presses and hybrid publishers that charge $10,000 to $20,000 and promise to handle everything. Companies like Xulon, Writer’s Digest Books, Archway, and several others are all imprints of the same company, Author Solutions, which has a terrible and predatory reputation across the industry. You will not find happy customers.
KDP (formerly CreateSpace), by contrast, is Amazon’s print-on-demand service and a genuinely honest option: no marketing promises, reasonable prices, and you hire your own professionals for editing and design.
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