On Tuesday, I told you about a 2015 interview that I did with Steve Williams of the site Write a Revolution…which, I recently discovered, has disappeared from the ’Net—along with WaR’s website. So, for those of you who might have missed it the first time, I’m serializing that interview here at Zwieback Central for your reading pleasure. Part 1 was posted on Tuesday; Part 2 appeared yesterday. Now here’s Part 3…

WaR: Have you tried giving anything away for free or include special offers to try and entice readers? E.g. free chapters, promotional items, limited day price reductions.

SR: Absolutely. At the StarWarp Concepts website, we offer free sample chapters from the Pandora Zwieback novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign, and there’s The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, a free, downloadable 16-page comic book that acts as an introduction to Pan’s book series. That one originally started out as a print comic that I handed out as a promotional item at comic book conventions and book festivals. And depending on budgetary limitations, I’ll have either brochures or catalogs printed up to hand out at shows. It’s important that people know that StarWarp has a growing backlist of titles.

WaR: Are there any promotional ideas that really did not work out or “bombed”? Things that you definitely will not be trying again?!

SR: Ooh, where to begin…? (laughs) Well, I’ve stopped exhibiting at New York Comic Con, for one thing. The last one I attended was in 2013—I had the best location I’d ever had at that show, and wound up with a larger space than expected because the show runners had misjudged the borders of the booth layouts, but at the end of four days I’d spent $1,500 for the location and taken in…let’s just say nowhere close to that in sales.

For the 2011 New York Comic Con, I used the show’s database to contact people who’d listed the StarWarp booth as one of their planned visiting points, and e-mailed them certificates for exclusive Pandora Zwieback sketch cards that the novels’ cover painter, Bob Larkin (who used to work for publishers like Marvel and Bantam), had done for me. Only one guy showed up to claim a card—and even he didn’t really want it. He’d come to the booth to find out what was going on with Lorelei! (laughs)

In 2014, I tried a similar promotion at the first-ever BookCon, only this time I was offering prints of Bob’s cover painting for Blood Feud. Again, of all the people I contacted, only one person showed up to get their print.

There were others, but I’ve depressed myself already, remembering just these. (laughs)

WaR: Have you ever come across any book promotion ideas that were maybe a little unorthodox?

SR: I’ve considered other ideas—I wouldn’t really call them “unorthodox,” but stuff like hiring a Pan spokesmodel to try and attract more women and teenaged girls to the booth so they can learn about the book series. It’s a car show/comic con kind of approach—you don’t see it used all that often at book festivals, so I guess that might be considered unorthodox. We’ll see what happens if I ever get around to hiring one.

WaR: Do you mostly stick to online promotions or do you do much offline networking as well?

SR: I attend some conventions and book festivals during the year, which tends to work better for sales than the online promotions, because I’m able to tell attendees about the books, on a one-on-one basis. The big show for me is the Brooklyn Book Festival, which is held in September, because I’ve started building a fanbase there that will seek out the StarWarp Concepts booth so they can check out the latest releases.

WaR: What have you struggled with the most during your adventures in writing and publishing?

SR: Getting recognition for the company and our titles. It’s a cliché that the Internet is just a big void you’re shouting into, hoping to get attention, but it’s true.

WaR: Do you network with fellow writers or self-published authors?

SR: I have friends who are writers and self-publishers, and we’re all in the same boat, to varying degrees, all trying to get the word out on our projects. We compare notes on our approaches, and share convention war stories and stuff like that. A mutual commiseration society! (laughs)

Coming Monday: The conclusion of this four-part interview, focusing on the more technical aspects of getting StarWarp Concepts titles ready for the masses. See you then!