The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers

The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers


How To Give Away Free Books And Why You Should With Damon Courtney From BookFunnel

July 18, 2016

Indie authors are a lot like tech start-ups, bootstrapping and pivoting and trying new things. In today’s show, I go full-on geek with Damon Courtney as we discuss how mobile reading impacts publishing, piracy, direct sales and much more.
In the intro I mention the rise of augmented reality with Pokemon Go, Daemon by Daniel Suarez if you like technothrillers, and Scrivener is being released for the iPad and iPhone on 20 July.
I also mention 3 events you might find useful (a) free webinar with Bryan Cohen on 5 ways to hook your readers through through your book sales description. Fri 22 July. Click here for more info or to grab your free place (b) I’m speaking in Denver, Colorado in Oct, 2016 at the Digital Commerce Summit. Click here for details (c) I’m doing a full day workshop on How to Make a Living (and a Life) with your Writing alongside Orna Ross in London, 19 Nov, 2016. Click here for details.
The corporate sponsorship for this show pays for hosting and transcription. This podcast episode is sponsored by 99 Designs, where you can get all kinds of designs for your author business including book covers, merchandising, branding and business cards, illustrations and artwork and much more. You can get a Powerpack upgrade which gives your project more chance of getting noticed by going to: 99Designs.com/joanna
Damon Courtney is a fantasy author, programmer, entrepreneur and the founder of the fantastic (and really useful) BookFunnel.com.
You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

* On Damon’s background as a programmer.

* The link between the software development world and the indie author space, and why indie authors are like tech start-ups.

* Why Damon created BookFunnel and how it works for readers and for authors.

* Should authors be concerned about the piracy of their books or is obscurity a bigger concern?

* How BookFunnel is helping authors share Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) while avoiding piracy.

* How the BookFunnel dashboard tracks the stats for an author about the types of files being downloaded.

* The global reach of ebooks and how mobile phones are changing the world of reading.

* The possible future of direct sales and audio downloads with BookFunnel.

* Damon’s predictions for the indie author world, and tech world.

You can find Damon at www.BookFunnel.com and also at