EP 209 - Growing Sales, Subscribers, and Twitch Marketing with Kerrie Flanagan & Chuck Harrelson

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson about collaborating on multiple genres under two shared pseudonyms, growing global sales, increasing author newsletter subscribers, and experimenting with marketing through Twitch.

Prior to the interview, Mark welcomes new patron Malcolm Coon, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their conversation, Mark, Kerrie, and Chuck talk about:

• The origin of how Kerrie and Chuck started writing together under multiple pseudonyms
• The books that they are working on under the names C.G. Harris (The Judas Files - Urban Fantasy; The Rax - Science Fiction) and C.K. Wiles (Romance)
• Their experimentation with going exclusive on their eBooks with KDP Select and how it failed and they returned to publishing wide
• Dedication to getting more subscribers and moving from 55 to over 3000 people on their list
• How focusing on Facebook ads was helpful in the newsletter subscription
• Apple success that came from Apple putting The Nine (book one in The Judas Files) on their "Free First in Series" page
• Using ScribeCount to measure their wide sales and the difference that a few months made
• How they work together in terms of the writing process as well as the logistics of publishing and handling the finances
• The way they are budgeting out their ad spend
• The experimentation they did with sponsoring a Twitch stream to talk about their The Judas Files books
• Learning about the unsustainable nature of rapid releases
• And more...

Mark then reflects on the experimentation and iteration that Kerrie and Chuck continue to do, trying new things, changing their approach, exploring new marketing opportunities, and not giving up.

Links of Interest:

• C.G. Harris Website
  • Judas Files
  • The Rax
• C.K. Wiles Website
• Twitch Stream Content from Fellowship of Awesome:
  • Full Stream (Starts about 11 minutes in)
  • Talking about The Nine
  • Reading excerpt in Canadian accent
  • Reading excerpt in sexy romance voice
• Episode 31 - Kerrie Flanagan on Writing and Selling Magazine Articles
• Episode 45 - Co-authoring with the Writers Behind C.K. Wiles
• Episode 117 - Multi-Layered Collaboration with Kerrie Flanagan, Chuck Harrelson, and Macleod Andrews
• The Relaxed Author
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City

C.G. Harris is an award winning science-fiction and fantasy author from Colorado who draws inspiration from favorites, Jim Butcher, Richard Kadrey and Brandon Sanderson. For nearly a decade, Harris has escaped the humdrum of the real world by creating fictional characters and made-up realities. When not writing, Harris spends time collecting the illusive arcade token, from the golden age when Dig Dug and Frogger were king. Harris knows the value of such a collection will only be seen in the confused faces of those family members left behind long after C.G. Harris is gone.

​ C.G. Harris is the combined persona of writers Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson.

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