Gerald M. Kilby's guest appearances

Gerald M. Kilby

Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

Alternate Futures

Kevin J. Anderson

Chris Fox

Ken Lozito

Craig Martelle

Monica Leonelle

Adam Croft

Joanna Penn

Brian McClellan

Mark Coker

Andrea Pearson

Damon Courtney

Michael Cooper

Sarah Woodbury

James Fowler

Ben Hale

OwlTail

In the first Alternate Futures episode of 2022, I chat with Gerald M Kilby on the nature of writing science fiction, the challenging speed of modern technological development for our institutions, and why he aims for creating plausible futures, not perfect predictions. If you'd like to win an audible code for Gerald M Kilby's trilogy The Belt (US and UK only and while supplies last) just send me a request at podcast@alternatefutures.co.uk Story Introduction: Zoom Zapped Further info on this and other episodes, as well as transcriptions, the story cube images and the story introductions, can be found at AlternateFutures.co.uk

In the first Alternate Futures episode of 2022, I chat with Gerald M Kilby on the nature of writing science fiction, the challenging speed of modern technological development for our institutions, and why he aims for creating plausible futures, not perfect predictions. If you'd like to win an audible code for Gerald M Kilby's trilogy The Belt (US and UK only and while supplies last) just send me a request at podcast@alternatefutures.co.uk Story Introduction: Zoom Zapped Further info on this and other episodes, as well as transcriptions, the story cube images and the story introductions, can be found at <a href="http://alternatefutures.co.uk/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">AlternateFutures.co.uk</a>

Episode 13: The nature of writing sci-fi, the challenging speed of technological development, and the goal of 'plausible' not 'perfect' predictions with Gerald M. Kilby

This week, we chatted writing, publishing, and marketing hard science fiction with Gerald M. Kilby. He’s not the fastest writer, putting out around two novels a year these days, but he manages to keep his books selling well between releases, and he earned more than $100K last year. We asked him all about that, Amazon and Facebook advertising, and what he’s doing for newsletters, social media, and the like. Here are some of the specifics that we covered:  How the ever-shrinking science fiction section in the physical bookstores helped Gerald decide to start writing his own stories. Bypassing traditional publishing, since agents weren’t looking for hard sci-fi, and going straight to self-publishing. Whether or not hard sci-fi readers are more nitpicky in insisting that the science be right. Some of the mistakes he made with his first novel, a techno-thriller. How the science fiction genre appeared to have much more potential to him. How the popularity of The Martian seemed to help with Mars-related fiction when Gerald was starting out. What he’s done to keep the ball rolling. Realizing he couldn’t rely on Amazon’s algorithms to keep his books selling, especially when he had many months between releases. Getting involved in Facebook and Amazon ads and which he likes better for what. Having luck with letting Amazon choose automatic keywords in their ad system, instead of going in and picking them all by hand. The challenges of maintaining a positive return-on-investment with Facebook and Amazon ads when you don’t have a huge series and can’t afford to spend as much to get a sale of a Book 1. Changes to the Amazon advertising system of late and what authors need to watch out for with the higher suggested bids. How he uses his mailing list and what a book launch looks for him these days.  Make sure to visit Gerald on his website and check out his science fiction on Amazon.  http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3 | Open Player in New Window Click to download the mp3. Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on iTunes. Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on YouTube. Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast via RSS. Like us on Facebook.

This week, we chatted writing, publishing, and marketing hard science fiction with <a href="http://geraldmkilby.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gerald M. Kilby</a>. He’s not the fastest writer, putting out around two novels a year these days, but he manages to keep his books selling well between releases, and he earned more than $100K last year. We asked him all about that, Amazon and Facebook advertising, and what he’s doing for newsletters, social media, and the like. Here are some of the specifics that we covered: <ul> <li>How the ever-shrinking science fiction section in the physical bookstores helped Gerald decide to start writing his own stories.</li> <li>Bypassing traditional publishing, since agents weren’t looking for hard sci-fi, and going straight to self-publishing.</li> <li>Whether or not hard sci-fi readers are more nitpicky in insisting that the science be right.</li> <li>Some of the mistakes he made with his first novel, a techno-thriller.</li> <li>How the science fiction genre appeared to have much more potential to him.</li> <li>How the popularity of The Martian seemed to help with Mars-related fiction when Gerald was starting out.</li> <li>What he’s done to keep the ball rolling.</li> <li>Realizing he couldn’t rely on Amazon’s algorithms to keep his books selling, especially when he had many months between releases.</li> <li>Getting involved in Facebook and Amazon ads and which he likes better for what.</li> <li>Having luck with letting Amazon choose automatic keywords in their ad system, instead of going in and picking them all by hand.</li> <li>The challenges of maintaining a positive return-on-investment with Facebook and Amazon ads when you don’t have a huge series and can’t afford to spend as much to get a sale of a Book 1.</li> <li>Changes to the Amazon advertising system of late and what authors need to watch out for with the higher suggested bids.</li> <li>How he uses his mailing list and what a book launch looks for him these days.</li> </ul> Make sure to visit <a href="http://geraldmkilby.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gerald on his website</a> and check out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gerald-M.-Kilby/e/B00TYG48D6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">his science fiction on Amazon</a>. <a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3</a> | <a href="https://www.marketingsff.com/castplayer?castfile=http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3&amp;id=1137" rel="0 nofollow" target="_blank">Open Player in New Window</a> <a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingsff/SFFMP-216_-_Reaching_100K_in_Income_from_Writing_Science_Fiction_with_Gerald_M._Kilby.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click to download the mp3.</a> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/science-fiction-fantasy-marketing/id952582906" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on iTunes.</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgP6WIFsg3vWga2XVs619w" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast on YouTube.</a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScienceFictionFantasyMarketingPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast via RSS.</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SFFMarketing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Like us on Facebook.</a>

SFFMP 216: Reaching $100K+ in Income from Writing Science Fiction with Gerald M. Kilby