Welcome to episode 10 of the Beyond the Book Podcast. Thanks to
, I was able to bring on Kevin J Anderson for an incredible conversation.For those that don’t know Kevin J Anderson, he’s a science fiction author of 190+ books 50 of which are best-sellers. He’s written books based on the Star Wars movies, X-Files, and more.
He’s published books by numerous of the most incredible science fiction authors of our time and even finished the Dune series after Frank Herbert’s passing.
And believe it or not, this is just the beginning of the adventures of Kevin J Anderson.
His latest project is one of his most innovative yet, and in this conversation, we dive deep into how he made it possible.
It’s Terra Incognita, a seafaring fantasy series with 3 accompanying rock albums. Right now, he’s offering the rock albums made in collaboration with some of the best rock musicians in the world and special editions of his book on Kickstarter. You can check out the campaign here.
Kevin J Anderson’s dozens of collaborations and endless innovation in going beyond the book to create incredible experiences for readers have paid off. He has 23 million+ copies of his books in print 🤯.
You can listen to the episode with Kevin J Anderson on Spotify here, Apple podcasts here, and YouTube here.
3 Lessons from 3+ Decades as A Full-Time Author with Kevin J Anderson
For each podcast, I like to add my own personal summary and takeaways. This time, I wanted to center my takeaways around a central theme that Kevin highlighted in the podcast – how to survive and even thrive as an author in drastically changing times.
#1: Collaborations are Rocket Fuel
Kevin J Anderson may just be the king of collaborations in the publishing world (he’s certainly on the Mt. Rushmore).
Between collaborating with studios to developing novelizations of films, publishing with legendary speculative fiction authors such as Frank Herbert, Ray Kurzweil, and dozens more, and writing the book Clockwork Angels based on Rush’s album (Canadian rock band with 40 million records sold), Kevin J Anderson is a master at working with others.
His biggest advice is to trust great people to do great things and to have respect for what collaborators are especially talented at.
I think this is crucial and KJA is such a kind and good-natured person. It’s hard to not want to work with him. And it shows… cause so many incredible people have worked with him. Together, their work, intellectual property, and careers went much further than they would have alone.
#2: If everything feels like it’s falling apart, it’s normal
Publishing changes immensely over years, never mind decades.
Kevin’s career arc looks a bit like this. Traditionally published author —> novelizations of films —> indie author —> indie publisher of other authors’ books —> selling at in-person conventions and cons —> Kickstarter and other ways to go beyond the book and sell directly to fans.
Nearly every few years, something changes in the industry, a new opportunity arises, or a problem comes about that completely shifts Kevin’s business model.
This wasn’t a grand masterplan.
Kevin is both humble and smart enough to recognize he doesn’t know what’s coming next.
He remains adaptable. Always learning. Always evolving. And when something that was working really well for a while starts to falter, instead of giving up, he relentlessly searches for the next opportunity (after all no graph goes up and to the right forever).
#3: Double down on what’s working
As Kevin says, he has practically 5 full-time jobs between teaching, helping run Superstars writing conference, his publishing company, and his own books.
With that said, when something is working, he’s not afraid to go all-in on it.
When he was selling at events, he traveled to dozens a year personally. Now he does two Kickstarters a year with one blowout campaign each year (this time it’s Terra Incognita) that breaks boundaries of what we thought was possible for authors on Kickstarter.
Before that was Star Wars, X-Files, and more movies to books – with deadlines to complete the entire book lasting just weeks.
In the end, Kevin has done it all, but it doesn’t mean he’s done it all at once. When something is working, don’t be afraid to devote a ton of energy to it. There are plenty of ways to make a living in writing. You just need one way at a time to make it.
And that’s it for this edition of the Beyond the Book Podcast.
I’ll be back later today for Day 1 of 5 of the Author Marketing Superpowers Bootcamp. The goal is to help you go from story idea to $1,000 in book sales without wasting time or spending money out of pocket.
I’m super excited for it!
In the meantime, don’t forget…
Together we are boundless,
Michael Evans
The Author Sidekick
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