Book Marketing Now: Colin Alexander

SFF author COLIN ALEXANDER talks us through marketing and self-publishing his latest novel, A PLANET OF WRATH AND STARS, the ins-and-outs of publishing through Amazon, and key resources.

Welcome new subscribers! Book Marketing Now is a monthly feature of Books, Marketing, & More, spotlighting writers releasing books into the current market + the inside scoop on marketing and publishing. Other past interviews and insights here!

As complicated as the book industry’s relationship is with Amazon, there’s no ignoring it: Amazon’s self-publishing arm is a powerful tool for authors seeking alternatives to traditional publishing. But it isn’t for the faint of heart. Science fiction and fantasy author, Colin Alexander, has successfully found his niche in the Amazon publishing landscape with all ten of his novels, through a combination of grassroots, genre-focused marketing and learning how to play the Amazon-advertising game, garnering his books a growing audience and hundreds of positive reviews.

Colin Alexander shares the journey of his first-alien-contact novel, A Planet of Wrath and Tears (the fourth book in his Leif the Lucky series), and how his approach to marketing has changed over time; the nitty gritty of Amazon’s publishing programs; vital publishing and editorial resources; and how to blend exclusive publication with wider, face-to-face marketing.

Full-disclosure: Colin (aka Alton) is a regular at my Speculative Fiction Variety Hour discussion group and always has excellent book recommendations and advice on gritty hero/ines and fight scenes.

Your Leif the Lucky series is ongoing, and A PLANET OF WRATH AND TEARS is only the latest! How did you initially market the series? How has that changed as the series itself has evolved?

This has been a journey! When I published Starman’s Saga (Leif the Lucky #1) more than four years ago in November 2019, I was only doing passive marketing: the Amazon book page, my own website, Goodreads, a Facebook page, and posting on NetGalley. However, each subsequent year has required changes in order to compete. In mid-2020, I re-did the cover and added advertising on Amazon and Facebook with good effect. I added A+ content to the Amazon book page when that option became available.

The return on the Amazon and Facebook ads seemed to decline in 2022, when I released Murder Under Another Sun (Leif the Lucky #2). So, in early 2023, when I published The Lucky Starman (Leif the Lucky #3), I contracted for a blog tour through Other Worlds Ink. Then I took a course with Liz Poder on Facebook advertising to create ads myself and learned how to use the Amazon Attribution module to enable me to test variants of images and text in the ad. This allows me to track the performance on Amazon of different versions of an ad to (hopefully) maximize the return.

In the last half of 2023, I have started working with promo sites such as Fussy Librarian and Bargain Booksy that have strong science fiction lists. I will be using all of these approaches with A Planet of Wrath and Tears (Leif the Lucky #4) in 2024. The one thing I can be sure of, is that the marketplace will keep changing. What worked last year will not be adequate this year, and I will need to continue to adapt my approach.

As a self-published author, what drew you to publishing through Amazon Kindle? Can you break down for me the advantages and disadvantages of this platform for your books and for authors in general?

I was originally a trad published author in the 1990’s but took a protracted absence from writing because family and career needs had to come first. When I decided to resume writing in 2014, digital self-publishing had become feasible. By that time, my old publisher had been acquired, I had lost contact with the editor I had worked with, and my agent had died. So, I went the self-pub route.

I initially tried Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Amazon outperformed the others by a multi-hundredfold difference in e-books. Amazon can also produce print-on-demand paperbacks. For my books, I have used the 6x9 trade paperback format and have used both cream and white paper. The product is a solid, good-looking book, as good as one in a store. Though note: self-publishing on Amazon will not usually get your book into bookstores or libraries.

Consequently, when it was time to publish Starman’s Saga, I decided to double-down on Amazon and use their Kindle Select option. This makes the book available through Kindle Unlimited (KU), a subscription service on Amazon. Readers pay a subscription fee to Amazon and then can download any KU e-book at no additional cost. The author is paid based on the number of pages read, which Amazon tracks. This is attractive to readers who read a lot. Amazon also offers Countdown Deals for KU books, which allow the author to easily schedule price promotions.

For me, this was an experiment. I did not know in advance if my readership used KU, and the commitment to KU on Amazon is in ninety-day blocks (it renews unless you stop it). The experiment was a definite success for the first book in the series, and I have put the succeeding books into KU.

This does come with some downsides. Putting a book into KU requires that you make that e-book exclusive to Amazon. You cannot publish that e-book on any other site. The other issue is that, although Amazon is the dominant retailer for e-books in the US, that is not true throughout the entire world. There is, in fact, a robust debate over the merits of Amazon exclusive vs “going wide” by publishing on multiple other sites. I certainly don’t have the final answer to this. For me, Amazon has been effective and has the advantage of keeping my publishing activity in one place, which gives me more time to focus on writing. I would say that what is best for a particular author will depend on the specifics of the books and also the author’s comfort with the demands of each approach. One size does not fit all!

What advice would you give to writers interested in pursuing indie publishing or publishing for Kindle?    

First and foremost: understand what you are getting into! Indie publishing means that you are taking on all the work that a publishing house does. You are the publishing house. This means finding an editor, a cover designer, and an interior designer/file formatter. There are available tools that will allow you to handle the interior design and file formatting yourself (Vellum for Mac and Atticus for PC), but there is a learning curve. It is also possible to do your own cover design, if you have the talent for that. When it comes to an editor, however, you need an independent professional. Whatever work you hire someone else to do, you will need to pay upfront and, like a publishing house, will need to re-coup that from sales. Then there is the marketing of your book. Over the past few years, the number of titles published has risen exponentially. As an indie, the marketing also falls to you.

Even if you elect to go wide, I would suggest including Amazon, as it is such a huge book retailer. While the process is straightforward, think through your book description, categories, and keywords in advance. The description is key to interesting a reader in purchasing your book. It is an important piece of your marketing on any site. The categories and keywords are important in the algorithms that help readers find your books, which is very important on Amazon. Whether to put your book into KU is a more involved decision that will depend on how much of your readership uses KU and how attractive the time and energy involved in going wide is for you.

You are an active member of several writing societies and consistently attend conferences for genre writers, often as a panelist. How have these opportunities affected your career and marketing platform? 

The writing societies and conferences are tremendous learning opportunities. It is always “time to go to school” and there will always be someone with more, or simply different, experience than you have that you can learn from. I have always found folks interested in talking shop. Being on a panel is an opportunity to share your reading and your thoughts with others. I am always grateful for those chances because I love books and I love talking about them. Is it marketing? I suppose, in a sense, in that you can be seen in-person and in real-time and that allows others an opportunity to connect with you. Hopefully, if readers find your presentations interesting and useful, maybe they will look up your books.

Aside from conferences, what are some other resources you’ve found helpful in your publishing journey?

I will mention here resources I have used myself to find people in the fields of editing, cover design, file formatting, and marketing. This is not intended to be a review of what is available, and your experience may differ from mine.

• The Editorial Freelancers Association has a large roster of editors who can be contacted for editing.

• Reedsy has listings of contractors in all the areas I have noted.

• If you join the Alliance of Independent Authors, you can access their watchdog service. They rate many contractors and maintain a broad list of reference documents you can consult, plus have a community for questions.

• The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) blog covers many useful topics for the indie author. In particular, check out Indie Pub 101.

• I would urge all authors to read the Writer Beware blog on the SFWA site. Education is your first and best line of defense against the scams that, unfortunately, are out there.

Finally, please share a tea recommendation (or other beverage of your choice), especially one that has helped you get through the publishing process!

This is where Allison shoots me because I don’t drink tea {Editorial note: I’d never!} My preference is coffee, a double espresso to get started and then a mug of Starbucks Sumatra in my left hand while the right hand writes with the pen. Yes, all of my terrible, horrible, no-good first drafts are written longhand!

*

Follow Colin Alexander:
Website | Facebook | Goodreads

To order A Planet of Wrath and Tears:
E-Book | Paperback

*

Colin Alexander is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. Actually, Colin Alexander is the pseudonym for Alton Kremer, maybe his alter ego, or who he would have been if he hadn’t been a physician and biochemist and had a career as a medical researcher. His most recent book, A Planet of Wrath and Tears, is his tenth and the fourth of the Leif the Lucky novels. Colin is an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Away from writing fiction, his idea of relaxation is martial arts (taekwondo and minna jiu jitsu). He lives in Maine with his wife.

---

Support Colin Alexander and other speculative fiction authors by following, reposting, sharing, reviewing, requesting, and/or reading their books (and buying when you can)!

Happy reading & writing!
~Allison

Writer & Marketing Coach
Keep Writing, Keep Connecting! Facebook | Newsletter | Website | BlueSky | Mastadon

*

Allison Pottern Hoch has happily made books her life’s work. She spent four years marketing and publicizing academic titles at The MIT Press before she went to work for Wellesley Books as a children’s bookseller and event coordinator. She is now living her dream: putting her B.A. in Creative Writing to good use as a novelist and as a writing/marketing coach for authors. She is also a graduate of the 2023 Viable Paradise workshop. She enjoys science fiction, chocolate, and a hot cup of tea.