Rachel Amphlett's guest appearances

Rachel Amphlett

Kobo Writing Life Podcast

Self Publishing Journeys

Unbroken

MyKitaab: How To Publish and Market Your Books

Writer On The Road

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Partners in Crime

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Adam Croft

Joanna Penn

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Michael Anderle

Angela Marsons

Tim Lewis

Gary Collins

David Gaughran

Craig Martelle

James Blatch

Wendy H. Jones

Tina Dietz

Ricardo Fayet

Joseph Alexander

Ian Sutherland

OwlTail

This week Adam has the plague, Bob's vanished on a cruise (another one), and we're joined by the charismatic Rachel Amphlett. We're also talking about the tricky balancing act of truth versus fiction as well as tracing the historic roots of crime fiction.  Tracing the roots of crime fiction article: https://www.hppr.org/post/tuned-poe-spirit-tracing-roots-crime-fiction?fbclid=IwAR3U18yulS0k2kNFxRQQPsu4petY8lX0vxalRd69thFhxQ0d1d5-QmJ3uDI    Book recommendations this week: We Can See You by Simon Kernick https://www.kobo.com/ebook/we-can-see-you  The First Lady by James Patterson https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-first-lady-13  The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-hunting-party-get-ready-for-the-most-gripping-hotly-anticipated-crime-thriller-of-2019-1 VOX by Christina Dalcher https://www.kobo.com/ebook/vox-the-bestselling-gripping-dystopian-debut-that-everyone-s-talking-about   Don't forget to join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast/  CONTACT US Email: hello@partnersincrime.online Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimefictionpodcast/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast Website: http://partnersincrime.online

This week Adam has the plague, Bob's vanished on a cruise (another one), and we're joined by the charismatic Rachel Amphlett. We're also talking about the tricky balancing act of truth versus fiction as well as tracing the historic roots of crime fiction.  Tracing the roots of crime fiction article: <a href="https://www.hppr.org/post/tuned-poe-spirit-tracing-roots-crime-fiction?fbclid=IwAR3U18yulS0k2kNFxRQQPsu4petY8lX0vxalRd69thFhxQ0d1d5-QmJ3uDI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.hppr.org/post/tuned-poe-spirit-tracing-roots-crime-fiction?fbclid=IwAR3U18yulS0k2kNFxRQQPsu4petY8lX0vxalRd69thFhxQ0d1d5-QmJ3uDI</a> Book recommendations this week: We Can See You by Simon Kernick <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ebook/we-can-see-you" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.kobo.com/ebook/we-can-see-you</a> The First Lady by James Patterson <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-first-lady-13" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-first-lady-13</a> The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-hunting-party-get-ready-for-the-most-gripping-hotly-anticipated-crime-thriller-of-2019-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-hunting-party-get-ready-for-the-most-gripping-hotly-anticipated-crime-thriller-of-2019-1</a> VOX by Christina Dalcher <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ebook/vox-the-bestselling-gripping-dystopian-debut-that-everyone-s-talking-about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.kobo.com/ebook/vox-the-bestselling-gripping-dystopian-debut-that-everyone-s-talking-about</a> Don't forget to join our Facebook group here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast/</a> CONTACT US Email: <a href="mailto:hello@partnersincrime.online">hello@partnersincrime.online </a>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimefictionpodcast/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimefictionpodcast/</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimefictionpodcast/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast </a>Website: <a href="http://partnersincrime.online/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://partnersincrime.online</a>

41 degrees of plague, vanishing Bob and Rachel Amphlett 

In this episode, Mark interviews Rachel Amplett, the author of the successful Dan Taylor and Kay Hunter police procedural thrillers as well as stand alone thrillers and mystery novels. The interview includes a lot of information related to this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . .Mark shares a bit of an update about the the new Authors Direct option that Findaway Voices is beta testing. In their chat, Mark and Rachel talk about:  What compelled Rachel to writing in the first place. The confusing and conflicting messages she received from different publishers when shopping her first Dan Taylor novel around. How Rachel started out in indie publishing a stand alone novel, WHITE GOLD, seven years ago after a suggestion from a friend (and how it all started with a Goodreads page and an author account at Smashwords). The emails from readers around the world that prompted Rachel to write a sequel to her first novel; something she hadn't planned in the first place. How the experience of being approached by a publisher in Italy interested in publishing an Italian version of her novel WHITE GOLD (having found her "by accident") prompted her to see what could be done by applying her experince as a project administrator into a business plan with marketing efforts, which she started at 2015. The fact that Kobo was the first retail platform where her sales really started to take off after a 99 cent BookBub deal. Being so successful that she was able to go full time as writer without having actually "broken out" in the US, the one market that seems to be the easiest for authors to break into. Getting into the audiobook market relatively early as part of a strategic business plan. Investing some of the money that was coming in from Rachel's Kay Hunter novels into the creation of the audiobooks and the stacked-up rapid release of the first several books in the series within a couple of months. The producer and narrator Rachel found in the UK for the audiobooks. How the narrator, Alison Campbell, has become the voice of Kay Hunter for Rachel and many of her listening readership. The challenge of staying on the exhausting "hamster wheel" that a writer can find themselves on working on steady releases and how Rachel is avoiding burn-out by strategic scheduling and the inclusion of passion projects. How success can come from sitting down at the end of a project and engaging in an exercise of "lessons learned." The early success Rachel has seen via Findaway Voices sales at Playster. How you can never know where in the world the sales of your books can come from. What happens when you try something a little bit different and focus on the niche markets that are working for you. How Rachel Findaway Voices Authors Direct program was a Godsend. How a large portion of Rachel's print books sell to libraries around the world - a great way for readers to read their favorite authors for free in eBook, print and audio. The things Rachel thinks will be the most important for authors to think about in the next year.  After the interview, Mark shares his thoughts on the success Rachel had outside of Amazon as well as her systematic project management process that helps keep her on track and balanced in her writing life. He then shares a few appearances he had recently on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast as well as in a Reedsy live webinar about selling more on Kobo.   Links of Interest:  Rachel Amplett's Website  Facebook Twitter Instagram   Rachel's Novels  Kay Hunter Series English Spy Mysteries Dan Taylor Series Standalone Thrillers   Rachel's Shop Direct Audiobook link (via Authors Direct) Mark's Shop Direct Audiobook link (via Authors Direct) Findaway Voices Science Fiction &amp; Fantasy Marketing Podcast - EP 210: Selling More at Kobo and Relying Less on Amazon Reedsy Webinar (Video Replay) - Getting Your Book Featured on Kobo The 7 P's of Publishing Success Killing It On Kobo Patreon for Stark Reflections Stark Reflections Survey    Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant. She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the Dan Taylor espionage novels and the Detective Kay Hunter series. After living in Brisbane, Australia for 13 years, Rachel has now returned to the UK. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore's TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag. Her novels are available in eBook, paperback and audiobook formats from worldwide retailers including Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. A keen traveller, Rachel holds both EU and Australian passports and can usually be found plotting her next trip two years in advance! The 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

In this episode, Mark interviews Rachel Amplett, the author of the successful Dan Taylor and Kay Hunter police procedural thrillers as well as stand alone thrillers and mystery novels. The interview includes a lot of information related to this episode's sponsor, <a href="http://www.findawayvoices.com/stark" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Findaway Voices</a> . . .<a href="http://www.findawayvoices.com/stark" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"></a>Mark shares a bit of an update about the the new Authors Direct option that Findaway Voices is beta testing. In their chat, Mark and Rachel talk about: <ul> <li>What compelled Rachel to writing in the first place.</li> <li>The confusing and conflicting messages she received from different publishers when shopping her first Dan Taylor novel around.</li> <li>How Rachel started out in indie publishing a stand alone novel, WHITE GOLD, seven years ago after a suggestion from a friend (and how it all started with a Goodreads page and an author account at Smashwords).</li> <li>The emails from readers around the world that prompted Rachel to write a sequel to her first novel; something she hadn't planned in the first place.</li> <li>How the experience of being approached by a publisher in Italy interested in publishing an Italian version of her novel WHITE GOLD (having found her "by accident") prompted her to see what could be done by applying her experince as a project administrator into a business plan with marketing efforts, which she started at 2015.</li> <li>The fact that Kobo was the first retail platform where her sales really started to take off after a 99 cent BookBub deal.</li> <li>Being so successful that she was able to go full time as writer without having actually "broken out" in the US, the one market that seems to be the easiest for authors to break into.</li> <li>Getting into the audiobook market relatively early as part of a strategic business plan.</li> <li>Investing some of the money that was coming in from Rachel's Kay Hunter novels into the creation of the audiobooks and the stacked-up rapid release of the first several books in the series within a couple of months.</li> <li>The producer and narrator Rachel found in the UK for the audiobooks.</li> <li>How the narrator, Alison Campbell, has become the voice of Kay Hunter for Rachel and many of her listening readership.</li> <li>The challenge of staying on the exhausting "hamster wheel" that a writer can find themselves on working on steady releases and how Rachel is avoiding burn-out by strategic scheduling and the inclusion of passion projects.</li> <li>How success can come from sitting down at the end of a project and engaging in an exercise of "lessons learned."</li> <li>The early success Rachel has seen via Findaway Voices sales at Playster.</li> <li>How you can never know where in the world the sales of your books can come from.</li> <li>What happens when you try something a little bit different and focus on the niche markets that are working for you.</li> <li>How Rachel Findaway Voices Authors Direct program was a Godsend.</li> <li>How a large portion of Rachel's print books sell to libraries around the world - a great way for readers to read their favorite authors for free in eBook, print and audio.</li> <li>The things Rachel thinks will be the most important for authors to think about in the next year.</li> </ul> After the interview, Mark shares his thoughts on the success Rachel had outside of Amazon as well as her systematic project management process that helps keep her on track and balanced in her writing life. He then shares a few appearances he had recently on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast as well as in a Reedsy live webinar about selling more on Kobo. Links of Interest: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rachel Amplett's</a> <a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Website</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/rachelamphlett.author/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/RachelAmphlett" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/rachelamphlett/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li> </ul> </li> <li>Rachel's Novels <ul> <li><a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com/books/kay-hunter-series/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Kay Hunter Series</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com/books/english-spy-mysteries/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">English Spy Mysteries</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com/books/dan-taylor/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dan Taylor Series</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com/books/single-title-thrillers/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Standalone Thrillers</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://shop.authors-direct.com/collections/rachel-amphlett" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rachel's Shop Direct Audiobook link</a> (via Authors Direct)</li> <li><a href="%20https:/shop.authors-direct.com/collections/stark-publishing" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Mark's Shop Direct Audiobook link</a> (via Authors Direct)</li> <li><a href="http://www.findawayvoices.com/stark" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Findaway Voices</a></li> <li>Science Fiction &amp; Fantasy Marketing Podcast - <a href="http://www.marketingsff.com/selling-more-at-kobo-relying-less-on-amazon-and-whats-coming-for-authors-in-2019/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EP 210: Selling More at Kobo and Relying Less on Amazon</a></li> <li>Reedsy Webinar (Video Replay) - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wearereedsy/videos/2248176035460543/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Getting Your Book Featured on Kobo</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/publishingsuccess/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The 7 P's of Publishing Success</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/killingitonkobo" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Killing It On Kobo</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.patreon.com/starkreflections" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Patreon for Stark Reflections</a></li> <li><a href="http://markleslie.ca/starksurvey/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stark Reflections Survey</a></li> </ul> Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant. She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the Dan Taylor espionage novels and the Detective Kay Hunter series. After living in Brisbane, Australia for 13 years, Rachel has now returned to the UK. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore's TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag. Her novels are available in eBook, paperback and audiobook formats from worldwide retailers including Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. A keen traveller, Rachel holds both EU and Australian passports and can usually be found plotting her next trip two years in advance! The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of <a href="https://incompetech.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.incompetech.com</a> and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Attribution 3.0</a>

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing EP 051 - A Lot of Niching To Be Done with Rachel Amphlett

This week's guest is Rachel Amphlett, author of the bestselling DS Kay Hunter series. She speaks to us about living in Australia and writing books set in her hometown in the UK.   CONTACT US Email: hello@partnersincrime.online Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast Twitter: http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast Website: http://partnersincrime.online/ CONTACT OUR GUEST http://twitter.com/RachelAmphlett

This week's guest is Rachel Amphlett, author of the bestselling DS Kay Hunter series. She speaks to us about living in Australia and writing books set in her hometown in the UK. CONTACT US Email: hello@partnersincrime.online Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/partnersincrimepodcast</a> Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/crimeficpodcast</a> Website: http://partnersincrime.online/ CONTACT OUR GUEST <a href="http://twitter.com/RachelAmphlett" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/RachelAmphlett</a>

Rachel talks about the full-time writing life, writing conferences and how to locate the perfect murder!

SPJ104 Rachel Amphlett, Full Time Thriller Writer

Rachel Amplhett is an author originally from the UK but now living in Australia. Her most recent book, Scared to Death, was published in December 2016. In this interview, we talk about Rachel's bookwriting journey, importance of cash flow for authors, writing productivity, and the highlight of the discussion was how to use Project Management (scheduling, planning, budgeting) for managing your writing career.  Shownotes from this episode are available at www.mykitaab.in/rachel  You can follow MyKitaab Podcast on Twitter @gaathastory, on Instagram @gaathastory_podcast, and you can subscribe to our newsletter by visiting www.mykitaab.in .

Rachel Amplhett is an author originally from the UK but now living in Australia. Her most recent book, Scared to Death, was published in December 2016. In this interview, we talk about Rachel's bookwriting journey, importance of cash flow for authors, writing productivity, and the highlight of the discussion was how to use Project Management (scheduling, planning, budgeting) for managing your writing career. Shownotes from this episode are available at <a href="http://www.mykitaab.in/rachel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.mykitaab.in/rachel</a> You can follow MyKitaab Podcast on Twitter @gaathastory, on Instagram @gaathastory_podcast, and you can subscribe to our newsletter by visiting <a href="http://www.mykitaab.in" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.mykitaab.in</a> .

103: How to Use Project Management for your Writing Career: Rachel Amphlett ep 88

Welcome to the world of International Thrill &amp; Suspense author, Rachel Amphlett, as we chat about all things Indie publishing, from mailing lists to Facebook advertisements and being your own motivator, inspirer and hard-nosed boss. Not only does Rachel work a 9 – 5 job, she writes full time and runs her her own publishing business. The word discipline comes to mind just thinking about it. Bum-on-seat, is Rachel’s secret, and in her case it’s a train seat as she commutes to and from work on a daily basis. Forty minutes there and forty minutes back has seen Rachel notch up more than a few thrillers, including eight Dan Taylor novels and several stand-alone novels. But there are more in the planning. And therein lies another secret, because, if there’s one thing I learnt whilst talking with Rachel, is that nothing is left to chance. Planning out her year is what Rachel does best, and with a schedule like the one she has set herself, it’s the only way to survive. But survive, and thrive, she does. You can find out more about Rachel and her novels at www.rachelamphlett.com Read Full Transcript Rachel Amphlett Melinda: Welcome to another episode of Writer on the Road. I'm getting fairly excited here because we're getting fairly close to episode number twenty, so I thought that it'd be a good time just do a little recap of what we've achieved so far and where we're heading in the future. I'll be doing some blog posts on some of the things that we've learned, I've started that with the top twenty things I've learned so far from podcasting and I'll be looking further at our transcripts and making some notes so the rest of us can have a bit of read and take from it what we can. I've got a conference coming up in early October, I've booked my ticket and I'm pretty excited to get down there and see what everybody else is up to. It's on the Gold Coast and of course the ticket cost me so much I'll probably be staying in a tent. But I do believe that most of the attendees will be living it up in 5 start accommodation, but we'll get there, maybe next year we'll have that. I'm in the process of writing my first newsletter, we've got quite a few subscribers now only waiting patiently for their newsletter but I'm going to change from AWeber to Convert Kid, the main reason for that is I can't AWeber, it's awfully complicated for me. But the real reason is Convert Kid is built especially for authors like us. So once I work out how to get it going, I'll share that experience with you. I'll try and get some of the guys from Convert Kid to help us. It's certainly taken off in the writing world and gets mentioned on a lot of the writing podcasts that I listen to. So that'll be newsletters, that'll be one up to the conference. I'm almost ready to launch my teenage story writing course which is, well it's called Voices in Your Head and it's going under the title of Story Slingers, so we've recorded of the videos for that and they've all been really, really good fun and we're moving ahead with that. I'm working on a novella with a couple of ladies here in Australia from the romance writers group that I'm with and I'll be putting out, I guess a little mini videos on how to write a novella and the pitfalls that I found and the excitement and challenges and how to get to the end in 90 days or less. It's taken me probably 30 days, which is a little bit scary but I was under pressure but I made a promise and I had to keep it.  I'm looking at starting a female entrepreneurs, what do you call it, membership group and I'm looking at the software that I need to do that, I've got quite a bit of interest in that, several ladies have put up their hand and we'd like to join together and to use our stories to grow our businesses. So that'll probably happen sometime between now and the end of the year and I'll probably get that up and running early in the New Year. But all our founding members for that one will come on board for free, after Christmas we'll probably charge a small monthly fee for that. Other than that I'm listening and learning every day, listening to lots and lots of podcasts out there, sometimes I think that there's way too much out there and I get a little bit overwhelmed, and if I'm getting overwhelmed I'm guessing you're getting overwhelmed as well. So maybe it's time as we approach episode 20 of our podcast to sit back and just listen to how others do it. Today's guest is Rachel Amphlett and she is an amazing lady and she's certainly making a success of her career. So sit back, and enjoy! If there was a changing even now as we speak like Facebook have changed their analytics and stuff-- Rachel Amphlett: And they've completely overhauled Power Editor and when we get to that I'll talk a bit more about it. But I'm finding that whereas you've got people like Adam Croft that are going great guns with sales adverts, sales adverts don't really work for me, it's mailing list adverts, that's where I'm seeing strength and I, to be honest, I spent a lot of money at the beginning of this year trying to make it work for me and get the same sort of results that Adam and others were getting and then just sort of gave it up and went no that's not working for me. But what is working is getting, people that are invested in me on my mailing list and my mailing list has just gone from strength to strength and the sort of emails, I sent out a survey to my mailing list, launch team, so I got about 75 people just sequestered to one side that also read all the ARCs and stuff like that and provide feedback and expert advice. I sent out a survey about a week ago to them because I've got some new things up my sleeves going forward and I wanted their input into my production schedule for the next 18 months. The feedback that I got from them was that they're not finding me necessarily through Facebook advertising, there are other, I'm happy to talk about this, when we start recording, there are other elements that I hadn't even thought of that it's only in the past three months that I'm learning more about that they are basically saying yeah, this is the bits that catch our attention. Melinda: I think we will, I'm almost tempted to record that last bit, but we'll start again because this is what happen, you know that day I met you at Mitchelton, I had two minutes, I bought your book and within two minutes we were talking all the nitty-gritty stuff. I thought yeah, okay. Rachel Amphlett: I'm thinking we need to do this over a coffee and not over Skype that way sounds nice. We've got each other's mobile numbers now so we should do this. Melinda: I've written that at the top. Rachel Amphlett: I did the same with another author friend of mine Belinda Pollard, who's Small Blue Dog Publishing. She's local and we've got a few canny things up our sleeve for the coming months, so I won't disclose at the moment because it's still in the early stages but yeah, we met up for coffee and it was just like an hour of just like blah! Melinda: We should make it civilized, we should go out for Friday afternoon. Rachel Amphlett: Well a drink, yeah. Melinda: Yeah. Rachel Amphlett: I was going to say Samford's always good. Went there yesterday, couldn't be bothered to cook lunch, other half looked at me and went pub? Melinda: Well I know you're linked up with Amy Andrews because Amy was telling me that you're in a bit of a group together. So I'm only just starting to make contacts because I've been so very, very busy. But it can become time consuming, you know that social media's a nightmare. I'm just sorry, it's a nightmare. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I've actually a bit counted because I've neglected my blog at the back end of last year because I was so busy and I needed to concentrate on getting those three books out to Doug at the Back Catalogue [00:07:03] (?) and I kind of let the blog rest and I was, I think there's a danger of, it's information overload isn't it and you're trying to do everything that everybody else, that's working for everybody else. This year I've kind of more taken it, well this time this year, this last few months I've just hit the breaks. I've just gone okay I know I need to write more, I know I need to have a presence on Facebook, I know I need to do my blog and my mailing list. So what I've done, I've kind of cheated with the blog. This year I decided that I wasn't going to write any more blog posts, well here and there, I write guest posts for other people's blogs and then link to them through my blog and I interview other client for the authors because I'm much more interested in what they've got to say than anything I've got to say on my blog and I just fire off questions to them and they do all the hard yards. I get the questions, sit there and go well it's great, I'll post it. I guess that's a great time saver. Melinda: Yeah well I just put, I put out feelers for a VA, because I'm not doing, I'm not doing my newsletter, I'm not doing my blog posts and I'm not getting my transcripts with my podcasts and I think they're all the bits that I hate, so I'm just going to get some else to do all that, just for the next few months. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, that's something that I will probably need to look at year, is letting go. I mean I look at like this writing malarkey, a bit of a project manager anyway aren't you, I mean you farm out your editing, your cover design, Brian Cohen I got him to overall the description for White Gold for me because I was getting people onto my landing page through the Facebook ads, but they just weren't, they weren't signing up. So and he has a nice little package, after reading his podcast with Mark Dawson and reading his eBook, I thought well okay let's just, let's pay some money let's get a head start. I'd rather pay Brian the money to do this than me spend the hours trying to work how to do it, which could be a bit hit and miss. He overhauled it and there were a couple of things that were just too Americanized for my liking, my biggest audience is the UK and I changed it all and it has picked up and so it's, I think I'm okay with the rest of them, it was just getting that initial product follow book perfect so those sign ups come through. Melinda: Yeah and I'm noticing, I'm getting lots of people visiting, I'm getting lots of people downloading but I'm not getting as many people signing up because I haven't streamlined that process either. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, well it's definitely worth reading Brian Cohen's, he's got an eBook, let me just see if I got my Kindle app here, and he's got a new one. I think it's called-- Melinda: What I'm going to do while you're-- Rachel Amphlett: Yup, go on. Melinda: No, what I'm going to do while you're bringing that up, I'm actually going to introduce Rachel. We've been talking now for 10 minutes and rather than go back and start again and make Rachel repeat everything I'm probably just going to put up what we've already talked about because what I'm talking to Rachel about everyone out there I'm sure you're going to be interested as well. So Rachel is obviously a fountain of knowledge, that's why I've brought her on to the podcast today, I met her down at Mitchelton at a book signing and within we were talking everything Joanna Penn, everything Mark Dawson and everything to do with indie publishing. So I'm actually thinking that what we've been talking about you might like to listen to as well, Rachel are you okay with that? Rachel Amphlett: Yeah that's fine, yeah you might have to edit out some ums. Melinda: I counted, how many did I count, nineteen ums in my last podcast and I thought oh I'm getting quite attached to my ums but I did make a rule that I'm not going to do it anymore. So Rachel is a thriller author and a very, very good one at that and she does have quite a backlist now which is pretty exciting and I'll get Rachel to tell us about that in a moment. But for now, let's continue that very interesting conversation on funnel books with Brian Cohen. Did you find the little eBook? Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I have, it's called Writing a Sizzling Synopsis or synopsis I should say. But yeah, overhauling the product description for that first funnel book which is also the first book in my Dan Taylor series. I have noticed, it just captures people's imagination a bit better. I think the problem is that five years ago I published that book and I hadn't really revisited the blurb since then and this is the beauty about being an indie you can go back and fix stuff. I was much happier with the blurbs that I'd written for my other books and they weren't funnel books. So once people are in the funnel they're going to go and read them anyway. So paying Brian to, he's got these awesome packages for indie authors. If you don't have time to read the book sit down and tweak your book blurbs, he can do it for you. It was a really good learning curve. Looking at what he'd written for that product funnel and seeing the actual effect of people not leaving the launch page or the landing page for that book and actually signing up, it's been incredible, it's really good. Melinda: Yeah and I think that's the trick, to get people to sign up before they leave the launch page, give them lots of free content now which is becoming very, very popular. The more we give them for nothing the more people are interested and the more they trust us and it actually works the opposite to what some people are thinking, don't give anything away, why should we? But it's actually the opposite, the more you give the more you get. Rachel Amphlett: It's such a mindset change isn't it, from going but I wrote this I don't want to give it away for free. What I'm doing now is giving away White Gold, the first in the series and then a week later I'll send people an extended extract from Under Fire which is something like the first 20 chapters. It's more than you'll get on the preview for Amazon and the week after that I do the same with one of my standalone books, Before Nightfall and it's given people a really good opportunity to see, try before you buy. Do you like my writing? I've got nothing to hid here, if you enjoy it, great there's seven books. There's one! If you don't, that's fine, I'd much rather, and I think that that's the thing. I'd much rather have people sign up, read the book in the extracts and decide no this isn't really for me and leave the mailing list then a) have them on there because they're costing me money or b) leaving a review, leaving a bad review on Amazon because they didn't enjoy it because it really wasn't up their street and they shouldn't have been reading it in the first place.  So I'm making so many friends through the mailing list as well. There are people that will email me after I send out one of monthly newsletters and we'll go on to have a completely separate chat over email about writing stuff and what they're doing in their life and comparisons to travel and what they enjoy and music we like. That's a hidden bonus I think of mailing lists. Melinda: Yeah and we were talking at the very beginning there before we decided to record and Rachel's a very good sport about that, I'm not having to start again. So mailing lists and advertising through your mailing list is far more successful than the traditional, when I say traditional we've only been doing Facebook advertising for a few years, but times are changing. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I think, I definitely need that Facebook advertising to get people on the mailing list, it's all very well say yes mailing list is key. But you have to use a mechanism to get people to discover that mailing list in the first place and without Facebook advertising that just wouldn't have worked for me. I had, before I started Mark Dawson's course I just did the initial three courses last year, and I think it's about July I did that and prior to that I think I had about 70 people on the list, in the months following that course, and I did the paid course as well I think I jumped about 2,500 genuine, quality subscribers on that list and it just keeps going up. Melinda: Yeah and that's the trick too isn't it, quality subscribers, getting people who actually love what you do as opposed to people coming on to get a freebie and disappearing again. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah you will always get those, like I said. But I sort of factor that in, I know perhaps for every ten people that two are be freebie chasers. But I'd rather they did that and then just left. But you just sort of factor that in. You know that you're going to get, out of those ones that leave, the ones that stay are probably going to stay with you and if they don't buy all the books at full price you know that when you send a newsletter out that to do a promotion. I mean I did a 99 cent promotion on Look Closer, one of my standalone books at the beginning of this month, in August. Before the book, I had, I actually scored a Bookbub, 99 cent promo and I keep my cost down by not advertising to the US, that's the key with Bookbub, if you want to do it cheaply just select the international option. Apologies to anyone in America but it's blooming expensive given our exchange rate there. So the newsletter went out with the link to the 99 cent promo, I can't remember if I've ever done a 99 promo on that book before, which may have helped. The two days before the Bookbub promo, because of my mailing list that book was a best seller and then the Bookbub promo kicked in and then a couple of other newsletter subscriber based promos kicked in and this month, even when the book went back to full price after a week as been phenomenal for sales and it's because the mailing list kicked it off. I don't think I'd have seen the same sort of success if I'd just relied on the Bookbub promo. Melinda: Yeah and I think as we're listening to Rachel we can gather that you work very hard at your marketing and your business. But you're always working very hard on your writing. These things don't come easy, it takes time and dedication over years. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I think also I'm very lucky in that my other half, Nick, supports we me as well. You've got to have to the support of the people around you because I work, I write on the train, I get up early in the morning, I spend an hour before I even get on the train replying to emails and doing what I need to do marketing wise, I come at six o'clock, half past six, I sit in front of the computer for another two hours and I do the same at weekend. This weekend I'm in the middle of the having the audiobook for White Gold recorded, I now have to sit through 7 1/2, 8 hours of audio checking everything and there goes the weekend! So it's, yeah you do need the support of people around you, it's not, it's like I said before I thought I become a bit of a project manager and I've got people around me that I can turn to just say can I do this or Nick, Nick here he makes sure I eat. I'll be in the office of an evening and Nick sticks his head around the corner and goes I'm cooking veg do you want some? Melinda: Yeah and that's the thing that Rachel started talking about and got us carried away is when do we call in people, how many people do we call in to help and I'm looking at this whole VA space and getting someone to do in to do all the stuff that I'm really bad at...

Welcome to the world of International Thrill &amp; Suspense author, Rachel Amphlett, as we chat about all things Indie publishing, from mailing lists to Facebook advertisements and being your own motivator, inspirer and hard-nosed boss. Not only does Rachel work a 9 – 5 job, she writes full time and runs her her own publishing business. The word discipline comes to mind just thinking about it. Bum-on-seat, is Rachel’s secret, and in her case it’s a train seat as she commutes to and from work on a daily basis. Forty minutes there and forty minutes back has seen Rachel notch up more than a few thrillers, including eight Dan Taylor novels and several stand-alone novels. But there are more in the planning. And therein lies another secret, because, if there’s one thing I learnt whilst talking with Rachel, is that nothing is left to chance. Planning out her year is what Rachel does best, and with a schedule like the one she has set herself, it’s the only way to survive. But survive, and thrive, she does. You can find out more about Rachel and her novels at <a href="https://www.rachelamphlett.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.rachelamphlett.com</a> <a href="#" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Read Full Transcript</a> Rachel Amphlett Melinda: Welcome to another episode of Writer on the Road. I'm getting fairly excited here because we're getting fairly close to episode number twenty, so I thought that it'd be a good time just do a little recap of what we've achieved so far and where we're heading in the future. I'll be doing some blog posts on some of the things that we've learned, I've started that with the top twenty things I've learned so far from podcasting and I'll be looking further at our transcripts and making some notes so the rest of us can have a bit of read and take from it what we can. I've got a conference coming up in early October, I've booked my ticket and I'm pretty excited to get down there and see what everybody else is up to. It's on the Gold Coast and of course the ticket cost me so much I'll probably be staying in a tent. But I do believe that most of the attendees will be living it up in 5 start accommodation, but we'll get there, maybe next year we'll have that. I'm in the process of writing my first newsletter, we've got quite a few subscribers now only waiting patiently for their newsletter but I'm going to change from AWeber to Convert Kid, the main reason for that is I can't AWeber, it's awfully complicated for me. But the real reason is Convert Kid is built especially for authors like us. So once I work out how to get it going, I'll share that experience with you. I'll try and get some of the guys from Convert Kid to help us. It's certainly taken off in the writing world and gets mentioned on a lot of the writing podcasts that I listen to. So that'll be newsletters, that'll be one up to the conference. I'm almost ready to launch my teenage story writing course which is, well it's called Voices in Your Head and it's going under the title of Story Slingers, so we've recorded of the videos for that and they've all been really, really good fun and we're moving ahead with that. I'm working on a novella with a couple of ladies here in Australia from the romance writers group that I'm with and I'll be putting out, I guess a little mini videos on how to write a novella and the pitfalls that I found and the excitement and challenges and how to get to the end in 90 days or less. It's taken me probably 30 days, which is a little bit scary but I was under pressure but I made a promise and I had to keep it. I'm looking at starting a female entrepreneurs, what do you call it, membership group and I'm looking at the software that I need to do that, I've got quite a bit of interest in that, several ladies have put up their hand and we'd like to join together and to use our stories to grow our businesses. So that'll probably happen sometime between now and the end of the year and I'll probably get that up and running early in the New Year. But all our founding members for that one will come on board for free, after Christmas we'll probably charge a small monthly fee for that. Other than that I'm listening and learning every day, listening to lots and lots of podcasts out there, sometimes I think that there's way too much out there and I get a little bit overwhelmed, and if I'm getting overwhelmed I'm guessing you're getting overwhelmed as well. So maybe it's time as we approach episode 20 of our podcast to sit back and just listen to how others do it. Today's guest is Rachel Amphlett and she is an amazing lady and she's certainly making a success of her career. So sit back, and enjoy! If there was a changing even now as we speak like Facebook have changed their analytics and stuff-- Rachel Amphlett: And they've completely overhauled Power Editor and when we get to that I'll talk a bit more about it. But I'm finding that whereas you've got people like Adam Croft that are going great guns with sales adverts, sales adverts don't really work for me, it's mailing list adverts, that's where I'm seeing strength and I, to be honest, I spent a lot of money at the beginning of this year trying to make it work for me and get the same sort of results that Adam and others were getting and then just sort of gave it up and went no that's not working for me. But what is working is getting, people that are invested in me on my mailing list and my mailing list has just gone from strength to strength and the sort of emails, I sent out a survey to my mailing list, launch team, so I got about 75 people just sequestered to one side that also read all the ARCs and stuff like that and provide feedback and expert advice. I sent out a survey about a week ago to them because I've got some new things up my sleeves going forward and I wanted their input into my production schedule for the next 18 months. The feedback that I got from them was that they're not finding me necessarily through Facebook advertising, there are other, I'm happy to talk about this, when we start recording, there are other elements that I hadn't even thought of that it's only in the past three months that I'm learning more about that they are basically saying yeah, this is the bits that catch our attention. Melinda: I think we will, I'm almost tempted to record that last bit, but we'll start again because this is what happen, you know that day I met you at Mitchelton, I had two minutes, I bought your book and within two minutes we were talking all the nitty-gritty stuff. I thought yeah, okay. Rachel Amphlett: I'm thinking we need to do this over a coffee and not over Skype that way sounds nice. We've got each other's mobile numbers now so we should do this. Melinda: I've written that at the top. Rachel Amphlett: I did the same with another author friend of mine Belinda Pollard, who's Small Blue Dog Publishing. She's local and we've got a few canny things up our sleeve for the coming months, so I won't disclose at the moment because it's still in the early stages but yeah, we met up for coffee and it was just like an hour of just like blah! Melinda: We should make it civilized, we should go out for Friday afternoon. Rachel Amphlett: Well a drink, yeah. Melinda: Yeah. Rachel Amphlett: I was going to say Samford's always good. Went there yesterday, couldn't be bothered to cook lunch, other half looked at me and went pub? Melinda: Well I know you're linked up with Amy Andrews because Amy was telling me that you're in a bit of a group together. So I'm only just starting to make contacts because I've been so very, very busy. But it can become time consuming, you know that social media's a nightmare. I'm just sorry, it's a nightmare. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I've actually a bit counted because I've neglected my blog at the back end of last year because I was so busy and I needed to concentrate on getting those three books out to Doug at the Back Catalogue [00:07:03] (?) and I kind of let the blog rest and I was, I think there's a danger of, it's information overload isn't it and you're trying to do everything that everybody else, that's working for everybody else. This year I've kind of more taken it, well this time this year, this last few months I've just hit the breaks. I've just gone okay I know I need to write more, I know I need to have a presence on Facebook, I know I need to do my blog and my mailing list. So what I've done, I've kind of cheated with the blog. This year I decided that I wasn't going to write any more blog posts, well here and there, I write guest posts for other people's blogs and then link to them through my blog and I interview other client for the authors because I'm much more interested in what they've got to say than anything I've got to say on my blog and I just fire off questions to them and they do all the hard yards. I get the questions, sit there and go well it's great, I'll post it. I guess that's a great time saver. Melinda: Yeah well I just put, I put out feelers for a VA, because I'm not doing, I'm not doing my newsletter, I'm not doing my blog posts and I'm not getting my transcripts with my podcasts and I think they're all the bits that I hate, so I'm just going to get some else to do all that, just for the next few months. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, that's something that I will probably need to look at year, is letting go. I mean I look at like this writing malarkey, a bit of a project manager anyway aren't you, I mean you farm out your editing, your cover design, Brian Cohen I got him to overall the description for White Gold for me because I was getting people onto my landing page through the Facebook ads, but they just weren't, they weren't signing up. So and he has a nice little package, after reading his podcast with Mark Dawson and reading his eBook, I thought well okay let's just, let's pay some money let's get a head start. I'd rather pay Brian the money to do this than me spend the hours trying to work how to do it, which could be a bit hit and miss. He overhauled it and there were a couple of things that were just too Americanized for my liking, my biggest audience is the UK and I changed it all and it has picked up and so it's, I think I'm okay with the rest of them, it was just getting that initial product follow book perfect so those sign ups come through. Melinda: Yeah and I'm noticing, I'm getting lots of people visiting, I'm getting lots of people downloading but I'm not getting as many people signing up because I haven't streamlined that process either. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, well it's definitely worth reading Brian Cohen's, he's got an eBook, let me just see if I got my Kindle app here, and he's got a new one. I think it's called-- Melinda: What I'm going to do while you're-- Rachel Amphlett: Yup, go on. Melinda: No, what I'm going to do while you're bringing that up, I'm actually going to introduce Rachel. We've been talking now for 10 minutes and rather than go back and start again and make Rachel repeat everything I'm probably just going to put up what we've already talked about because what I'm talking to Rachel about everyone out there I'm sure you're going to be interested as well. So Rachel is obviously a fountain of knowledge, that's why I've brought her on to the podcast today, I met her down at Mitchelton at a book signing and within we were talking everything Joanna Penn, everything Mark Dawson and everything to do with indie publishing. So I'm actually thinking that what we've been talking about you might like to listen to as well, Rachel are you okay with that? Rachel Amphlett: Yeah that's fine, yeah you might have to edit out some ums. Melinda: I counted, how many did I count, nineteen ums in my last podcast and I thought oh I'm getting quite attached to my ums but I did make a rule that I'm not going to do it anymore. So Rachel is a thriller author and a very, very good one at that and she does have quite a backlist now which is pretty exciting and I'll get Rachel to tell us about that in a moment. But for now, let's continue that very interesting conversation on funnel books with Brian Cohen. Did you find the little eBook? Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I have, it's called Writing a Sizzling Synopsis or synopsis I should say. But yeah, overhauling the product description for that first funnel book which is also the first book in my Dan Taylor series. I have noticed, it just captures people's imagination a bit better. I think the problem is that five years ago I published that book and I hadn't really revisited the blurb since then and this is the beauty about being an indie you can go back and fix stuff. I was much happier with the blurbs that I'd written for my other books and they weren't funnel books. So once people are in the funnel they're going to go and read them anyway. So paying Brian to, he's got these awesome packages for indie authors. If you don't have time to read the book sit down and tweak your book blurbs, he can do it for you. It was a really good learning curve. Looking at what he'd written for that product funnel and seeing the actual effect of people not leaving the launch page or the landing page for that book and actually signing up, it's been incredible, it's really good. Melinda: Yeah and I think that's the trick, to get people to sign up before they leave the launch page, give them lots of free content now which is becoming very, very popular. The more we give them for nothing the more people are interested and the more they trust us and it actually works the opposite to what some people are thinking, don't give anything away, why should we? But it's actually the opposite, the more you give the more you get. Rachel Amphlett: It's such a mindset change isn't it, from going but I wrote this I don't want to give it away for free. What I'm doing now is giving away White Gold, the first in the series and then a week later I'll send people an extended extract from Under Fire which is something like the first 20 chapters. It's more than you'll get on the preview for Amazon and the week after that I do the same with one of my standalone books, Before Nightfall and it's given people a really good opportunity to see, try before you buy. Do you like my writing? I've got nothing to hid here, if you enjoy it, great there's seven books. There's one! If you don't, that's fine, I'd much rather, and I think that that's the thing. I'd much rather have people sign up, read the book in the extracts and decide no this isn't really for me and leave the mailing list then a) have them on there because they're costing me money or b) leaving a review, leaving a bad review on Amazon because they didn't enjoy it because it really wasn't up their street and they shouldn't have been reading it in the first place. So I'm making so many friends through the mailing list as well. There are people that will email me after I send out one of monthly newsletters and we'll go on to have a completely separate chat over email about writing stuff and what they're doing in their life and comparisons to travel and what they enjoy and music we like. That's a hidden bonus I think of mailing lists. Melinda: Yeah and we were talking at the very beginning there before we decided to record and Rachel's a very good sport about that, I'm not having to start again. So mailing lists and advertising through your mailing list is far more successful than the traditional, when I say traditional we've only been doing Facebook advertising for a few years, but times are changing. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I think, I definitely need that Facebook advertising to get people on the mailing list, it's all very well say yes mailing list is key. But you have to use a mechanism to get people to discover that mailing list in the first place and without Facebook advertising that just wouldn't have worked for me. I had, before I started Mark Dawson's course I just did the initial three courses last year, and I think it's about July I did that and prior to that I think I had about 70 people on the list, in the months following that course, and I did the paid course as well I think I jumped about 2,500 genuine, quality subscribers on that list and it just keeps going up. Melinda: Yeah and that's the trick too isn't it, quality subscribers, getting people who actually love what you do as opposed to people coming on to get a freebie and disappearing again. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah you will always get those, like I said. But I sort of factor that in, I know perhaps for every ten people that two are be freebie chasers. But I'd rather they did that and then just left. But you just sort of factor that in. You know that you're going to get, out of those ones that leave, the ones that stay are probably going to stay with you and if they don't buy all the books at full price you know that when you send a newsletter out that to do a promotion. I mean I did a 99 cent promotion on Look Closer, one of my standalone books at the beginning of this month, in August. Before the book, I had, I actually scored a Bookbub, 99 cent promo and I keep my cost down by not advertising to the US, that's the key with Bookbub, if you want to do it cheaply just select the international option. Apologies to anyone in America but it's blooming expensive given our exchange rate there. So the newsletter went out with the link to the 99 cent promo, I can't remember if I've ever done a 99 promo on that book before, which may have helped. The two days before the Bookbub promo, because of my mailing list that book was a best seller and then the Bookbub promo kicked in and then a couple of other newsletter subscriber based promos kicked in and this month, even when the book went back to full price after a week as been phenomenal for sales and it's because the mailing list kicked it off. I don't think I'd have seen the same sort of success if I'd just relied on the Bookbub promo. Melinda: Yeah and I think as we're listening to Rachel we can gather that you work very hard at your marketing and your business. But you're always working very hard on your writing. These things don't come easy, it takes time and dedication over years. Rachel Amphlett: Yeah, I think also I'm very lucky in that my other half, Nick, supports we me as well. You've got to have to the support of the people around you because I work, I write on the train, I get up early in the morning, I spend an hour before I even get on the train replying to emails and doing what I need to do marketing wise, I come at six o'clock, half past six, I sit in front of the computer for another two hours and I do the same at weekend. This weekend I'm in the middle of the having the audiobook for White Gold recorded, I now have to sit through 7 1/2, 8 hours of audio checking everything and there goes the weekend! So it's, yeah you do need the support of people around you, it's not, it's like I said before I thought I become a bit of a project manager and I've got people around me that I can turn to just say can I do this or Nick, Nick here he makes sure I eat. I'll be in the office of an evening and Nick sticks his head around the corner and goes I'm cooking veg do you want some? Melinda: Yeah and that's the thing that Rachel started talking about and got us carried away is when do we call in people, how many people do we call in to help and I'm looking at this whole VA space and getting someone to do in to do all the stuff that I'm really bad at...