SFA 025 – Having a Series Take Off, Merchandising, and Co-Writing with Jason Anspach

This week, we interviewed successful science-fiction author Jason Anspach, who writes with Nick Cole in the popular Galaxy’s Edge universe that they created together.
They’ve had fantastic success with the ebooks and are also doing extremely well with the audiobooks. We asked Jason about how they got the first series off to such a great start and also about the merchandizing they do (Jason is one of the few authors doing quite well selling merchandise based on his own world).
Here are some of the specifics we asked in the interview:
Your first few books weren’t super successful — what did you do differently with the launch of the Galaxy’s Edge series?
You mentioned being a big Star Wars fan. How did that play into the creation of this series?
Do you have any advice for those who are thinking of co-writing? Any challenges that have come up as a result of having two creatives working together on one project?
What does the division of labor look like between you and Nick? Are you both involved in every stage?
The series had a great launch and took off right away with Book 1. Did you start building a fan base or do much preparation ahead of time?
Did you plan out the whole series and for spin-off series at the beginning, or have you been taking it one book at a time?
You’ve worked with both Podium Publishing and later Audible Studios for the audiobooks, and you’re doing audio-first books now. How has that changed things for you?
Your Book 1 cover (with a dark armored guy in a desert) stands out from the typical spaceships against starry backgrounds common in the military sci-fi and space opera categories. What made you go a different route, and do you think it’s played into your success?
How involved are you in the cover design process? Do you generally give your designers complete creative control, or have you found you like being involved in most aspects?
Something I’ve noticed about your ebook covers that runs counter to one of the common wisdoms of series branding is significant variation in style from book to book. What is  your approach to series branding with your covers?
You’ve put out a lot of books in your Galaxy’s Edge universe, but what else are you doing with marketing to keep the early books selling month in and month out?
If you had to launch the series again, is there anything you would do differently?
At one point, you brought in some new co-authors beyond your writing partner Nick. How was that experience, and did you learn anything from it?
What made you get into merchandising, and who handles the extra work of packing up and shipping orders?
One of your tips is not to put the brand or world in the merch but to do cool “in” things from the series. Can you explain why that works better?
What sorts of things make for worthwhile (and profitable) merchandise? And is there an ideal price range for the readers?
You’ve got a subscription program where readers pay $10 a month to belong and get stuff early. How does that work?
That’s it for this week. We hope you got a lot out of the interview with Jason. Make sure to check out his books and everything he’s doing with the Galaxy’s Edge universe.
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