Lindsay - November 21, 2019This week, we interviewed Mark Leslie Lefebvre, horror author, publishing consultant, former Director of Author Relations at Kobo and current Director of Business Development at the distributor Draft2Digital.
Mark is also an audio fan and runs the Stark Reflections podcast for authors. He’s had a lot of experience in the book-selling field and seen a lot of data flowing through Kobo and D2D, so we asked him about some of the best practices for succeeding with retailers other than Amazon. We also asked him what not to do when “going wide” after being exclusive with Amazon KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited.
Here are some of the specific questions we asked him:
- For authors who are wide, or are thinking of leaving KU/KDP Select to go wide, what are some of the best practices for getting noticed and succeeding on those other retailer sites?
- By now we’ve made it pretty clear on this show that to be a successful indie author, you’ve got to have a good mind for business. Do you feel there is anything about the book industry that you feel makes it distinct from other businesses? Do all the same rules apply?
- Is there anything authors shouldn’t do when going wide?
- Is there anything an author can do to get invited to promotions on Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.?
- Are you seeing that series with a free Book 1 still work better on the other stores than series with all full-priced books?
- What sorts of pricing strategies have you noticed work well on non-Amazon retailers?
- There are a couple schools of thought in terms of backlist pricing. Some people like to leave a series full price for as long as possible. Others plan around a promotional or permanent price drop on older books to get more people into the funnel. What would you recommend in that regard?
- You probably can’t tell where and how people are advertising to sell books, but do you have any thoughts on how (besides Bookbub) authors can effectively target the other stores and international markets.
- Is there anything surprising you’ve noticed lately where other retailers are concerned?
- We know Draft2Digital is working with Findaway Voices now. Can you talk about that and any tips in general for getting your audiobooks to sell in the other markets?
If you want to learn more about Draft2Digital, check out their website and blog.
If you want to learn more from Mark, you can check out his non-fiction books for authors:
- Killing It On Kobo: Leverage Insights to Optimize Publishing and Marketing Strategies, Grow Your Global Sales and Increase Revenue on Kobo
- The 7 P’s of Publishing Success
- An Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores (coming soon)
