In his native San Diego, California, Corey Lynn Fayman has made a career out of staying out of the sun. He has toiled away as a keyboardist for local bands, a sound designer for the renowned Old Globe Theatre, and an interactive designer for various businesses. He holds degrees in educational technology from SDSU and a BA in creative writing from UCLA. He has taught technology and design courses at a number of Southern California schools and institutions. Fayman developed the idea for Rolly Waters, the guitar-playing detective first seen in the mystery Black's Beach Shuffle, which was nominated for a San Diego Book Award. As a result of this early success, he was inspired to write a second Rolly Waters mystery, Border Field Blues, which went on to win the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival's Genre Award.
The third book in the series, Desert City Diva, took home the bronze medal at the 2015 Indiefab Novel of the Year Awards. The most recent book in the series until now, Ballast Point Breakdown, won the Geisel Award for best in show at the San Diego Book Awards in 2021. Fayman had adventures while working for the controversial Internet startup MP3.com which inspired the March 2023 release of the latest in the series, Gillespie Field Groove. Fayman took advantage of marketing programs through Authors Cross Promotion to get the word out. We asked Corey about his experience with Authors Cross Promotion and whether he’d recommend their programs to other authors.
SDWEG: How did you learn about Authors Cross Promotion or AXP?
CLF: I don’t remember, exactly, but I suspect it was because I received a promotional email or newsletter from a fellow author who had signed up for one of AXP’s list-building giveaways. I clicked on the ad, entered the giveaway and then decided to investigate the service to see what it could do for me as an author.
SDWEG: Which of their many programs have you used when promoting your novels?
CLF: I’ve used the Mailing List Builder, Spotlight, Daily Deal, and Read & Review services. The Mailing List Builder does exactly what it sounds like it does. You add one of your books (ebook or paperback) to the list of prizes being given away by AuthorsXP as part of themed giveaway (Mystery, Romance, Cozy). You post the giveaway ad they provide for you on your social media channels. When the contest ends, you send your book to the winner and receive a list of clean emails from AuthorsXP which you can add to your own mailing list for promotions, newsletter, etc. The Daily Deal program is for promoting discounted book sales you may be running on Amazon or other sites. Spotlight Is a way to highlight your books to the AuthorsXP mailing list. It costs a bit more than the other programs
SDWEG: Have you been able to evaluate the programs against sales of your books or do you have a different goal than increased sales?
CLF: I use the Daily Deal program when I want to boost an individual book’s sales. It’s very easy to evaluate its effect since the deal runs on a specific date. You can then check the numbers for that date in your sales reports in Amazon’s KDP center. It’s very much an eBook, Amazon-centric sales approach. I always get some kind of boost in sales, usually enough to at least pay for the service. I plan to experiment more with my book pricing to see if I can boost my margins a little more.
SDWEG: Would you recommend specific AXP programs over others?
CLF: The Mailing List Builder has been the most consistent and useful for me. In the last three years I’ve increased the contacts in my email database from 750 to over 4,000. AuthorsXP hasn’t been the only service I’ve used, but it’s been an effective one, bringing in 200 – 400 new names for my list each time I used it. A few of those will drop off but most of them stay subscribed, even after I’ve sent them a couple of newsletters.
SDWEG: Have you used other marketing promotion programs offered by other companies? If so, how would you rate AXP against them?
CLF: AuthorsXP is my first pick, but BookSweeps runs an email collection program that's been almost as effective. Bargain Booksy has also been useful to me for promoting discounted books. If you have the budget for it, running campaigns on more than one service at the same time can be even more effective. It takes a little practice.
Our thanks to Raquel Damus, a student volunteer, for providing this interview with Corey Lynn Fayman. Raquel is a student at Florida International University with a Public Relations major. Raquel is working with Guild Board members to enhance our communication efforts.
