After submitting his debut self-pub novel to the annual SPFBO (self published fantasy blog-off) competition and reaching the semi-finals, Alex Darwin landed himself with a "trad deal" and agent. In the months leading up to his trad re-launch, Alex applied his self-pub experience to his upcoming book launch, trying a number of different angles. Reflecting back, he shares what kind of tactics worked best to give his book the best possible chance.

Topics covered:

• Being a hybrid author
• How SPFBO works and can benefit indie authors
• Paying for publicity (via Black Crow) in the UK specifically
• Collaborative efforts with Orbit on marketing/publicity in the USA
• Book Tours (an assessment and reflection)
• Finding an angle for pubs to use
• Thinking about longterm goals
• LitRPGs and why they remain indie
• Theories about the goal of OrbitWorks (digital only imprints)
• Chatter about jujitsu and other nonsense

After solid sales for his first duology, David Wragg's next book series got caught in the infamous post-covid "midlist death spiral". After this current trilogy finishes, his future in trad is uncertain at best.But with his usual good-natured humor,

Wragg cheerfully dissects the past six years of his career, including advances, royalties (or negative royalties in this case), the reality of post-debut book deals, and the differences in production quality between tiers of books. Finally, he and Scott discuss the pressing question of how and why authors keep writing, despite it all. (Though this episode description may seem bleak, we promise it has a few laughs along the way.)

What's the deal with author book events? Are they useful, do they shift books, and why do they all follow the same format? This week, we speak with Sam Missingham, who spent many years working with the Bookseller, and later with Harper as an author events creator. We talk about what works and what doesn't, whether hiring publicists as a trad author is worth the time, the influence of class and connections in publishing, and the real reason so many publisher-run book events fall a little flat. If authors want a successful career, Sam stresses that this requires a long-term perspective and a focus on writing multiple books, as well as a creative and individual approach to self-marketing.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:00 Background and Experience in the Publishing Industry
• 04:11 The Role of Events in Book Marketing
• 07:05 The Challenges of Filling Book Events
• 09:00 The Value of Events for Debut Authors
• 10:26 The Influence of Class and Connections in Publishing
• 15:00 The Myth of the Slush Pile
• 18:39 The Need for Engaging and Fun Book Events
• 20:24 The Value of Indie Author Events
• 25:26 The Role of Marketing and Publicity for Authors
• 27:22 Working with Traditionally Published Authors
• 31:33 The Challenges of Hiring PR and Marketing Services
• 41:57 The Empowered Author and Building a Strong Author Platform