Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 348 - Amanda Byrd on Direct Sales and AuthorsGoDirect

Feb 22, 2024

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Mark interviews Amanda Byrd about her writing, direct sales, and the new platform she has launched called AuthorsGoDirect.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, welcomes new patrons Rob Johnson, Jennifer Brinn, and Rasana Atreya and then shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount's handy all-in-one interface.

In the interview, Mark and Amanda talk about:

How Amanda started writing non-fiction as a kind of joke back in 2015
Writing in car journals since she'd spent much of her life around cars
Amanda's flagship female serial killer novels
The new series that'll feature taking different historic female public figures and turning them into serial killers - starting with Amelia Earheart
Describing her fiction as "Dexter meets American Psycho, but female"
Recognizing a hole in the industry related to author newsletters
Coming up with BooksGoDirect.com as a direct-sales only newsletter where the author provides the coupon code and the link
The importance of owning all the data related to your readers/customers
The ability for indie authors to add all kinds of bonus materials and direct-purchase swag related to their books
How BooksGoDirect is currently a weekly newsletter that will eventually evolve into a daily send to readers
The concern related to what happens with your writing when you spent so much time focusing on a tool that's helpful to writers
Advice Amanda would offer to authors interested in learning more about selling direct
And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on authors who see a gap in the market or a hole that needs to be filled and, instead of sitting back, they step up and do something about it. He also reflects on a few other things that he can't remember as he's typing up these show notes. But that happens sometimes. He can't even remember what he had for breakfast earlier today. (Does anyone even read these shownotes anyway?)

Links of Interest:

Amanda Byrd is obsessed with fictional serial killers. From Patrick Bateman to Dr. Hannibal Lecter to Dexter Morgan and every butcher in between, Amanda loves figuring out what drives fiction’s deadliest monsters. When she’s not busy writing, Amanda can be found reading, playing video games, or watching shows and movies like Mindhunter, Hannibal, and Dexter. She lives in Florida with her bloodthirsty, flesh-eating cat.

BooksGoDirect is a new paid promo (think Free/Bargainbooksy or BookBub) for authors and their direct stores to reach readers who want/enjoy buying direct. Retailer links are not allowed and affiliate marketing is nonexistent. I put out all costs up-front and use the fees from authors for advertising/cost recoup (does this part matter so much? I wonder now that I put that in here lol) Readers never pay to sign up. Currently there are 6 available genres and 3 spots per genre that send out once weekly (with a resend to non-openers later in the week.) There's also a page on BooksGoDirect.com where This Week's Books can be found.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0