Dear Writer: Episode 70

Dan Saunders

First up, we talked to Dan Saunders again about how things have gone since we first interviewed him in January, 2021. Dan was originally on our first author spotlight, episode 10.

How did Spice Traders release go: Dan managed to sell a reasonable number of copies after his release. With the release of his new book, Tournament of Tannur, Dan was able to capitalize on his backlist by making Spice Traders available for free as a promotional tool for a short period of time.

Highlights: Good reviews help to drive motivation!

Challenges: Formatting the cover for KDP

New projects on the horizon: Tournament of Tannur is the sequel to The Spice Traders, and has recently been released.

M.H. Woodscourt

Next, we chatted to M.H. Woodscourt about her journey since we first met her, back in episode 18.

How have your book releases gone since releasing Crownless: They went very well, Crownless hit #1 in two different categories on Amazon. She also released the first of the Record of the Sentinel Seer Series, Prince of the Fallen, and the second book in that series, Rule of the Night. Considering the audience for these books are a little more niche, Melissa was surprised to see how well the releases went.

Highlights: As previously mentioned. Hitting #1 on Amazon and releasing more books! Melissa is excited about starting a longer series.

Challenges: The cover of Crownless was not representing the genre. Building the momentum by adding a companion series.

New projects on the horizon: Melissa is working on polishing the drafts of the Record of the Sentinel Seer Series in preparation for publication. She has a goal of having all five in the series published by the end of summer. She also has two other series planned.

Kaitlyn Legaspi

We welcomed back Kaitlyn Legaspi, who first talked with us on episode 34.

How did your book release of Red Blood pan out: It went much better than previous releases due to a much longer and more extensive marketing campaign through social media, and ended up with more reviews and better sales.

Highlights: Reader engagement with the characters, especially characters who she didn’t expect to be favourites!

Challenges: Getting people to stay interested over a longer release schedule for the series. Experiencing negative or apathetic feedback. Time management.

New projects on the horizon: Kaitlyn has the sequel to Red Blood, ‘Two More Lives’ which will be out in March and was very excited to receive the proof copy!

Emé Savage

Finally, we spoke with Emé Savage, who was with us on episode 22 of Dear Writer.

How did the release of Mirror of Etek go? It was launched in late December and Emé identified three things that went well with the launch: 1) She finally worked out how to effectively market preorders on Amazon. 2) The timing worked much better—she set it up three months before rather than have a really long, drawn out lead up that loses steam. 3) She started a newsletter and built up the subscriptions to that, which gave her a built-in audience to market to.

Highlights: It’s always nice holding another book baby in your hands! Another highlight for Emé was finishing drafting Beneath the Copper Sky, her first sci-fi novel. She also wrote a short-story for an anthology, and drafted 50,000 words in her fantasy series during nanowrimo.

Challenges: Launching a book in December was a challenging time and too close to nanowrimo. Emé learned she needed a break between drafting, editing and marketing which all require different skill sets.

New projects on the horizon: Currently Emé is focusing on editing Beneath the Copper Sky, the first instalment of a planned four-book series called Night Shine. She plans to release this book in January 2023.