Mark interviews Gail Carriger about her writing life, her journey through publishing, analytics, the careful curation of her author brand, being a hybrid author and so much more. Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor. Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise. In the interview Mark and Gail talk about:- How honored Mark is to learn that Gail listens to the Stark Reflections Podcast Gail's branding phrase of "Gail Carriger writes books that are hugs" and the various experiments she's done with that over the yearsAlways being a person who wrote, or had a passion for writingReading The Lord of the Rings as a child and deciding to craft her OWN ending for the storyGrowing up in a "commune" environment with a bunch of poetsGail's career as an academic when her first traditionally published book (Soulless) came out and took offThe challenge/dare to herself of wanting to write a genre-blending/cross-genre tale of something that she would enjoy as a readerNegotiations taking a long time because Gail dug in her heels on specific contract clausesHer agent investigating a back-door deal with another publisher who offered her 3X the deal the first was looking at and was willing to adjust the right of first refusal clauseThe vision that the publishers had that Soulless was the beginning of a series (despite Gail believing, when she first wrote it, that it was a stand-alone)Having a two-book contract and then writing a cliffhanger at the end of the 2nd book in order to grease the wheels of a contract for other booksGail's love-affair with spreadsheets and the fact she reads all 56 pages of her royalty reportsOne of the main reasons she became an indie author was her ability to have direct access to data about her sales and her readersGail's cautionary note to authors that with a "right of first refusal" a publisher is allowed to take their time with that offer, which can significantly delay an author's forward-movement plansThe possible "rights grab" that a publisher might do even if it's not something within their regular publishing plansHow growing up Gen-X and being a non-native to computers and the internet has resulted in an abundance of caution about digital, computers, the world wide web, how she is presented on the internet, etc.Gail's recommendation to test the waters in self-publishing with short stories firstNerding out with Mark about the "old days" of self-publishing and podcastingBeing a social scientist by training and loving analytics and spreadsheetsPinging her rabid fan base and testing things all the timeGail's A/B testing on whether it's better to put a newsletter signup link at the front of a book or the end of the book, or bothEnsuring that her author brand is not diluted with author business stuff that she's known for from other authors and industry insidersTalking to her readers constantly to continue to stay in the loop on insightsThe importance, when communicating to your readers to use the same language that they're used toLearning that her readers tend to not have a distinction between libraries and bookstores - that many of them see them under the same umbrella of a place they go to see what books are on displayConfirming the reports that "word of mouth" is, by a landslide, the way that most readers find out about new books and new authors to readThe value of a recommendation from another author in a newsletter or on social mediaThe challenges of book blurbsA podcast that Gail recommends: Reading Glasses - and that authors should subscribe and listen to it in order to understand the language that readers useThe deliberate curation and creation of the Gail Carriger persona, including her love of wearing retro outfitsThe side benefit of being able to be a fan at conventions, etc when "out of uniform" and how she's rarely recognized when not sporting that specific "look"A little bit about Gail's book THE HEROINE'S JOURNEYThe next book for writers that Gail is working on called GOING HYBRID, structured to help established and existing traditionally published authors to learn the indie publishing landscapeAnd more . . . After the interview Mark reflects on several different topics that came up in the conversation, including contract clauses, being incognito, and Gails's suggesting for testing the self-publishing waters. Links of Interest: Gail Carriger WebsiteScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)DropCap Marketplace Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off Cruising WritersBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark Reflections How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesThe Relaxed Author Buy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and ...
