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Comic-Con author profile: Felix Long

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Describe your latest book in under 50 words.

My latest book is To Conquer Heaven. It follows Jeremy Wang, who has found a clue to the location of the lost tomb of the first emperor of China, and a lost treasure more amazing than King Tutankhamun’s tomb. There’s just one problem: the emperor was a powerful Taoist sorcerer … and he is not quite dead.

Why self-publish?

I made a few mistakes in my pursuit of the traditional publishing model and I refused to take no for an answer. Having said that, I now know several traditionally published authors who are seriously considering the self-publishing model to pursue the combination of artistic freedom and financial control that it affords.

What year did you start and where are you based?

I started in 2017 and I am based in Brisbane.

What will you publish next?

Habnab will be out in October 2018.

Tell us more about the Digital Honesty Box and why you think it works. 

There are three main reasons why people don’t pay for ebooks:

  • They think authors are rich.
  • They think ebooks cost nothing to produce.
  • We don’t ask them to.

So I invented the Digital Honesty Box. It includes a PayPal widget on my website, a link in my book to the widget, and a request for payment using nudge psychology to get people to pay for it.

And it works! Using a Digital Honesty Box allows me to capture a secondary reading market and monetise referrals from fans.

Everyone should use a Digital Honesty Box and a direct request to their readership to pay for the ebook. In that request you must dismiss as false your readers’ reasons for not doing so. If everyone pointed out that authors make a third of minimum wage and paid several thousand dollars to produce each book, more people would be willing to pay for them. Drop me a line at http://www.emilyforemphasis.com to find out more.

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