21 - Against All (g)Odds

Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly

After 25 years, 47 books, and at least 4 different genres, Miles Cameron (aka Christian Cameron) has seen and survived a lot in publishing. In addition to being an author, he is also a US Navy officer, trained historian, and martial artist. But when the thriller market changed and sky-high advances evaporated, Miles moved on to historical, fantasy, and even science fiction. Today, we talk about surviving the end of your writing career, and starting from scratch (but this time, on midlist hard-mode)--including specific, pragmatic advice from Miles for building brand, timing your marketing, and a few other things that under-supported authors can attempt on their own steam. And above all, the importance of loving what you do, however you do it. SHOW NOTES

• Miles (Christian) Cameron, and his 25+ year journey through trad publishing
• Started off co-writing thrillers with his father for a lot of money, until that genre changed almost overnight
• Surviving the sudden death of a writing career, and starting over from scratch
• Monetary differences between genres (historical, fantasy, scifi, thriller, litfic)
• When to negotiate with publishers on ideas and when to pursue passion projects
• Balancing personal artistic integrity against publishing’s commercial expectations
• Surviving advance to advance, and slowly growing your readership as a midlist author
• Advice given to Sunyi: Write what’s in your heart but with your practical hat on
• Staying with your publishers for years, versus shopping around
• Books “unflopping” later in life
• Cameron’s specific social media strategy that does increase his sales, and which he uses consistently
• “wrong” ways to approach self promotion, and finding the balance
• Writing/Fighting and enjoying your “author persona”
• Publishers think your midlist book is important for about a week after launch, but Miles believes it is important (in a sales sense) for 90 days
• Thus: The 90/60/30 approach that Miles uses for self promotion, completely on his own and without publisher involvement—and how precisely to run it
• An exact presales figure that Miles looks for in his own books (relevant to his books and where he is with his backlog/career)
• Paid adverts and where/when Miles chooses to use them
• The difference between SIZE of following, and ENGAGEMENT of following. Influencers versus book clubs, as an example
• Authors are not competing with authors!
• What IS a publisher’s cut on your books?!
• Do publishers know exactly what they’re making? Miles suggests probably not
• The importance of versatility for authors
• Why you HAVE to love what you’re doing
• Miles’ military experience – how it impacted and influenced his fiction
• The most common combat writing tropes that drive Miles nuts
• Some thoughts on how Miles writes historical, versus fantasy (not that different!)