New Growth Show: Topics covered

• • 00:00 — Navigating the weird world of marketing in 2025

• • 02:59 — The Journey of EMW: From Marketing to Fantasy Writing

• • 06:03 — Building a Community: The Importance of Beta Readers

• • 09:03 — The Role of Subject Matter Experts in Storytelling

• • 11:50 — The Power of Feedback and Sensitivity Reading

• • 14:57 — Marketing Strategies for Indie Authors

• • 17:52 — The Impact of Online Communities on Writing

• • 21:01 — Fan Fiction and the Evolution of Writing Perspectives

• • 23:50 — The Role of AI in Creative Work

• • 26:56 — Future Projects and Marketing Innovations

• • 29:56 — Closing Thoughts and Community Engagement

• • LinkedIn: Jess Joyce, Tiffany Da Silva

• • Jess’ website, Tiffany’s website

• • Youtube: New Growth Show

• • Instagram: New Growth Show

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The holiday season is a busy one, and I have a couple upcoming November events to tell you about.

ESA 26th Annual Holiday Market, Craft Fair, and Silent Auction

First up, I will be at the Etobicoke School for the Arts’ Holiday Market this Saturday, November 12, from 10 am to 4 pm.

I’ve donated a signed copy of Chaos Calling to the silent auction. 

This high school is part of the Toronto District School Board and uses this event to fundraise to support their arts-based programming. According to their most recent updates, over 85 vendors are participating this year with unique, handmade crafts.

I’m told the bake sale is not to be missed.

Ontario Author Holiday Meet & Greet

Some lovely indie SF/F author friends in the Greater Toronto Area put together this Ontario Author Holiday Meet & Greet event in Hamilton, ON, at Crown and Press from 1 to 4 pm (it’s also on a Saturday).

Canadian Indie authors attending:

• Laura A. Barton (fantasy)
• Jendra Berri (fantasy & SciFi)
• Will Forest (romance with SF/F elements)
• Nathaniel Luscombe (speculative fiction)
• Megan McSpadden (romance)
• K. A. Riley (SciFi and fantasy)
• Justine Sobocan (non-fiction)
• Sandy R. Stuckless (fantasy)

The venue is associated with Hamilton artist Julia Veenstra, a talented Canadian painter whose work I love. When lockdowns hit in 2020, I bought several of her prints to brighten up our living space, including one for my office.

So, that’s a little piece of serendipity around this event that made me smile.

If you’re in either the area, I hope to see you there!

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It’s a huge milestone for me and the series!

You can read the full review on the Kirkus website.

What, what is a Kirkus Review?

The three trade publications that cover books are Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. 

If you take a look at the jackets of popular mainstream books, you’ll likely see one or all three shops mentioned in the blurbs trying to convince you to buy the book.

In marketing land, that kind of endorsement is called social proof. It helps you take a chance on something new because someone else has told you it’s good.

For example, here on the right is the front matter for Leigh Bardugo’s Crooked Kingdom. As you can see, her book designer has prominently referenced feedback from both Booklist and Kirkus Reviews: 

As an indie author, getting the attention of industry players is never a sure thing.

I don’t have a publisher or agent to vouch for me in those circles.  

How do you get a Kirkus Review?

I submitted Chaos Calling for a review back in October. Participation is pay-to-play (and in USD, too, owww), but that only opens the door.

There’s no guarantee the reviewer who receives the .pdf copy you send will like the book. And their submission process is very blunt about that to manage your expectations. You also aren’t told who the reviewer is and the post is anonymous.

I waited six weeks to hear back. I did my best not to think about it during that time. Having the insanity of the holidays to prepare for made that easy.

What did the Chaos Calling Kirkus Review say?

When I got the review back on December 27, I was thrilled. They didn’t give it a Kirkus star (the highest blessing), but they did say some damn nice things.

I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to see the reviewer comment on the character development and pacing.

I worked so hard with my beta readers and editorial team to get those aspects of the book right. It feels amazing to see them singled out here as strengths of the reading experience.

Read the whole review here.

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What’s Vocal? Here’s the backstory

Based in New Jersey, Vocal is a competitor to Wattpad in the digital publishing space. Both companies share a similar goal: to build a digital hub where writers attract an audience and get paid.

Ten days ago, I’d never heard of Vocal. You probably haven’t either. But they partnered with Ayman, a breakout BookTok star, to promote their newest contest.

Like many #BookTok people (the hashtag for book people on TikTok), I’ve watched a lot of Ayman’s content. She’s entertaining, well read, and extremely connected to other popular BookTokers.

For example, when the New York Times did a story about how #BookTok is changing the publishing industry in March 2021, she was one of the people they featured. She also happens to read fantasy.

You’ve got to hand it to the Vocal marketing team. Their ads were EVERYWHERE in my feed. I instantly recognized Ayman’s face and was happy to see her getting some sponsorship money. So, I watched her video explainer.

It’s a simple premise. Write the prologue or first chapter to a fantasy story and win anywhere from $10,000 (grand prize) to $50 (25 runners up) for your work. Stories were due by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 6.

And, the catch? The story has to start with the sentence, “There weren’t always dragons in the valley.”

Picking a premise for my $10k fantasy prologue

Sometimes when I see a contest premise, I draw an immediate blank. My experience was similar with the $10k fantasy prologue. After I’d read the rules and requirements, no inspiration jumped to mind. So, I had a look at many of the existing entrants.

Unsurprisingly, I saw lots of Dungeons & Dragon-style photos and premises. They looked cool, but didn’t spark an immediate idea for me. Annoyed with myself, I went for a walk with Jerry, my husband and long-suffering soundboard.

“I’m not feeling the D&D stuff,” I told him. “It’s not my bag. And I don’t think going there will help me standout. What else could I do?”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “You write action. How about a heist story? I don’t come across so many of those in fantasy.”

It’s true. Scott Lynch pioneered the sub-genre of fantasy heists when he published The Lies of Locke Lamora in 2006. There are other books, but that’s the big series.

And, like the Ocean’s 11 franchise was until Sandra, Cate and Rhianna got in on the action in Ocean’s 8, it’s very male.

We shot some ideas around. I kept coming back to the one D&D character I’d ever made, a dwarf named Kevl. Interesting name, I thought. I’ll start there.

All the fun and no novel-length plot headaches

Only, when I sat down to write, Kevl the dwarf showed up as Kivel. She had a welding torch in hand and a penchant for surfing with her best friend, Jayne.

Cool, I thought. Let’s roll with it.

I had a lot of fun building their friendship and giving you a glimpse of their world, while adding some fun-times complications. Writing something other than The Xenthian Cycle was also a nice break in my writing routine. Particularly when I didn’t actually have to diagram the actual heist plot (yet).

I solicited feedback from my regular beta reading pool and hit the deadline. Thanks to Diana, Jen, Mary, Tanya and Jerry for the quick turnaround.

You can read “The Adamantine Heist” here. Wish me luck!

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Pre-Launch Campaign: Week 1

Chaos Calling: Book 1 of the Xenthian Cycle has been live on Amazon for just over a week. Like any self-published author, I hoped you would be excited to see the book’s cover and title. I also hoped some of you would pre-order a copy. 

I had zero expectations for what actually happened. 

Last November, I picked May 31, 2022 as my launch date. Book people launch things on Tuesdays, I’m told. My plan was to announce the book’s existence and drop the cover six weeks ahead of time on April 19. 

Thanks to my background in marketing for the tech sector, I’ve run public and private launch campaigns before. Four weeks can be too short a window to establish a new idea and get traction. Nine is waaaaay too long. Six seemed like the ideal middle ground. 

I uploaded the files a few days early since Amazon’s site advises that you may need up to 72 hours for it to clear their backend. Everything loaded without issue. 

Find Chaos Calling by Amazon market: 
                                    
Please note all editions are currently in English and translations are out of scope.

Tuesday, April 19: Pre-Launch Campaign Day 1

I scheduled the cover drop/title reveal email to go to my subscriber list at lunchtime EST. Since I ran a split test for the subject line, it didn’t fully deploy until 2 pm. My supporters are a small but mighty group, and they responded. My open rate was 81 percent (thank you, awesome email subscribers—I adore each and every one of you).

I was busy with work until late Tuesday afternoon when I paused to tell my peeps in the GrowClass Slack channel about the soft launch. They’ve followed my writing journey for some time and, since they’re all growth marketers, love hearing about campaign work as it evolves. Earlier this year, I presented my book launch plan to the Mastermind Jam group and got some excellent feedback (so grateful!). They gave me confidence that I was in a good place because they’re amazing, but also seasoned pros. 

While I gathered up my materials to post the news, I checked the Amazon Canada listing. And then I did a double take.  

Seeing the book ranking in Amazon’s Contemporary Fantasy (ebook/books) and Urban Fantasy categories was deeply satisfying. A lot of self-publishing sites emphasize the importance of choosing your category wisely. I think of The Xenthian Cycle as Fantasy Action, but there’s no subcategory for that (hold my proverbial beer). So, I spent a long time researching novels by my intended peers and debating where to list the book. 

The payoff to that strategy felt AMAZING. 

By the end of the night, Chaos Calling was on Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” list. I was floored, especially since that books also listed are by authors I’ve admired for years. 

I went to bed with a smile on my face. 

Wednesday, April 20: Day 2

Wednesday morning, I woke up to this text from a friend:

And it kept going. 

By 5 pm on Wednesday, I’d cracked the Top 20 in my category for best sellers:

I mean, Margaret Atwood? N. K. Jeminsin? Diana Gabaldon? Naomi Novak? Harry freakin Potter? I’ve read all of these books, and enjoyed them. 

Also, mad respect to the self-published authors  whose work you also see in these lists—I look forward to discovering your stories for myself.

But there was Chaos Calling, sitting right beside The Atlas Six. 

And it kept climbing. 

And climbing.

Later, my soul left my body for a couple of minutes when this happened: 

At one point, I spotted Chaos Calling’s cover in the middle for the hot new releases widget (see below):

I won’t lie. On Wednesday night, I did a lot of shrieking. When you’re five days into living your dream with this kind of astounding feedback, there are no words, only sounds. 

Thursday, April 21: Day 3

If you’re curious (and I was), Amazon lists 60,000 books in contemporary fantasy.

On Thursday morning, this was still happening:

At its peak, Chaos Calling was:

• #657 in all of Kindle for Amazon Canada
• #7 Contemporary Fantasy Bestsellers (Kindle)
• #8 Contemporary Fantasy Bestsellers (All Books)
• #38 in Urban Fantasy Bestsellers
• #2 in Hot New Releases, right behind Margaret Atwood’s short story, “My Evil Mother”

So, how many copies did you buy? 

I have no idea. I can’t tell if this result came from 10 sales, 100, or 1,000.

Talking with peers, I’ve learned the backend of Amazon’s sales analytics is somewhat murky. They undoubtedly have the data to tell me exactly what I want to know (how many copies by city per hour, please and thank you), but that would mean making their data transparent to their competitors. 

The kicker? Canadian sales data is rolled INTO the American numbers. Which means I can’t access historical Canadian sales data at all, where my biggest spikes came. 

Like, I know we’re a small market, but seriously? SERIOUSLY?? 

The data-driven marketer in me is real salty about that.

My best bet is apparently to wait 90 days for the royalties report, which is where the deductive reasoning kicks in. 

Beyond My Wildest Dreams

As I write this post, however, I’m conscious that in the grand scheme of things, sales operations do not matter. After seven and a half years of talking the ears off of my family, close friends and co-workers every chance I got, Chaos Calling is out there. Even in countries I’ve never visited, like Japan, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, France, and India. 

And without a single public review to give you a sense of whether this thing I wrote is any good, you answered in spades. That trust is beautiful. 

I suspect that the gorgeous cover, designed by Wesley Lyn using conceptual illustrations by Helen He, is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Thank you, Wes and Helen, for your extraordinary work. I’m so grateful to collaborate with you. This is only the beginning!

To everyone who bought an ebook, told a friend, asked to get on the Chaos Calling paperback list, added Chaos Calling to an Amazon wish list or their GoodReads TBR, followed the completely unhinged rankings climb, sent me screenshots so I wouldn’t overlook things, or liked my social media posts — thank you, thank you, thank you! 

YOU ARE THE BEST. 

I also want to thank the grade school classmates, high school friends, current colleagues, and co-workers from jobs five or six boats back who reached out in support.  Your enthusiasm is both humbling and infectious. 

As a pair of my self-publishing peers and long-time mentors said over Slack Thursday morning:

It still takes my breath away.

Reluctant as I am to come back to Earth, I’m now working on the pre-order campaign’s second week, making ebook ARC copies, and getting that paperback edition ready to upload. 

Waving,

emw

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