B.V. Larson – Ebook Publishing Giant
B. V. Larson is a science fiction and fantasy author and one of the few writers to have sold over 100,000 eBooks. That’s quite an achievement and one many writers would envy.
But what’s the secret of his success? In this interview he shared his thoughts on writing and offers advice on how to break into the ebook market.
Darrell - What's a typical day of writing like for you?
BV - I write 7 days a week for about 2 to 3 hours a day when I’m writing… which is almost always these days. I usually work in the afternoons after morning classes and before night classes (I teach college as well as write).
Darrell - What made you want to become a writer and how did it happen?
BV - I started out writing when I was a teenager, simply because I was in love with books and wanted to create my own. Success took a long time, but it happened the only way I think it can happen: I wrote a lot of books. After long years spent learning my trade, people have come to like what I write, and I now sell more than a thousand books a day.
Darrell - How long does it normally take you to write a book and do you go through many rewrites?
BV - Books take me 2 months to a year to write, usually. I rewrite each day I sit down to write, starting by going over the last chapter or so and reworking it. That gets me thru the first draft. I do about four drafts before I release a book. The first and second drafts I do myself, the third and fourth draft are reworks after an editor has gone over the manuscript and given me fixes and comments, etc.
Darrell - Your books are for sale for only $2.99. How big an issue is pricing in relation to sales?
BV - Pricing is key for any new Indie author. I’ve seen people succeed with much higher or lower prices than I have. You can and should experiment. Sometimes a book will sell more at a higher price, sometimes much less.
Darrell - Do you have any advice about marketing and how you get yourself known out there?
BV - Frankly, I would suggest writing good books with good titles-covers-prices-descriptions. That’s the magic. I have no platform. My college students don’t even know I write fiction. (Hence, the penname). Put up good books that people want to read and you will succeed.
Darrell - What advice would you have for writers who are trying to get their first ebook published?
BV - To me, this question makes no sense. Anyone can publish an ebook. Getting people to read it is the hard part. I would say the best piece of advice would be to look at your category and study every book on the top 20 bestselling ebooks. Download and read every sample, if not the whole book. Do what they do. I don’t mean copy their book, I mean in terms of how they wrote the description, the way the cover looks, etc. Make sure your book resembles the winning titles in the top twenty in some way.
Darrell - And finally, what does B.V. stand for or is it a secret and those who find out the answer mysteriously disappear?
BV - B. V. Larson was originally a penname suggested by Wayne Wightman, an excellent author and writing teacher who helped me get started with writing (you can look him up on Amazon, too). I’ve written under that name for years. I stick to the name because I’m also a college professor, and I didn’t want to be seen as pressuring my students to buy my books. The penname helps me keep my two careers separate.
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