SFA 026 – Launching a Pen Name, Co-Writing, and Organizing Author and Reader Events for Profit with Jasmine Walt

Our guest this week is New York Times bestselling fantasy author Jasmine Walt. She’s written under her own name, launched pen names, collaborated with other authors, and also runs writing retreats, author dinners, and festivals for readers and authors. Right now, she’s working on the Fantasy Book Fest that will take place in Ahaheim, CA, this April.

We asked her all about her books, what she does for marketing when it comes to launching new series and pen names, and what’s involved with running events.

Jasmine was also a guest a couple of years ago on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Show where we discussed Launching Well as a New Author, Writing Quickly, and Keeping the Momentum Going. If you find this interview helpful, definitely go back and check out the old one.

Here are some of the questions that we asked her for today’s show:

You’ve had a number of series take off under your name, under collaborations, and also under pen names. Now that you’ve been publishing for a few years, what kinds of changes have you seen as far as marketing goes, and how have you adapted to keep selling?
Are there tactics you’ve been using since the beginning that are still a part of your strategy?
What are your thoughts on pre-orders? Yay or nay?
How much do you rely on outside sources for services? Do you have an assistant? (Jasmine mentioned Felicia Beasley as someone who does Amazon ads.)
You’ve always had amazing covers — could you talk about finding good designers, especially in genres where illustrations are common?
What prompted you to give pen names a try, and did they all work well, or do you have any regrets?
When you launch a new pen name, is it secret or do you lean upon pre-existing connections/the same author network to get it started?
Do you do another website, newsletter, and social media presence for each pen name?
How do you find co-authors and decide if it’s going to be a good match?
How do you suggest co-authors handle disagreements, and how would a new author know when it’s time to go separate ways?
What tools do you use to simplify or help any part of the co-authoring process?
What made you get into hosting events? Which ones have been for profit and which ones for fun or networking opportunities?
What was the first event you put together, and how did it go?
Has there been a kind of event you’ve tried but decided not to do again? Or are there any that you would never try?
Putting on an entire convention or festival seems like it would be a lot of work. What all is involved in those, and how do you decide what to charge?
How much does location factor into hosting something like an author retreat?

For those interested in Jasmine’s writing retreats, you can join the Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1051381198356971/

If you’re interested in attending the Fantasy Book Fest (which has a mix of events for readers and for authors, with talks on Amazon ads, writing to market, and more), here’s the site for that: http://fantasybookfest.com/ (Lindsay will also be there if you want to say hi!)

And of course, please check out Jasmine’s site and her books on Amazon.