Action/adventure writer Leon Puissegur is the author of The Oil Man whose absence of an agent motivated him to try self-publishing instead.  Read about Leon’s experience with social media marketing and the drawbacks of self-publishing.

1. Pretend for a moment I’m a reader looking for my next book.  Pitch me your book in five to ten sentences.

Wow!  How about them oil prices!  Check this out, a new book about oil and greed!  This book explores some very possible ideas and it is now fiction, but so was Jules Vern’s trip to the moon and the United States did that!  This book explores possibilities with gun fights, chases, and all the action/adventure one would like!

2. What motivated you to become an indie writer?

I just love to write, it makes me feel good to know that maybe some of my fiction would one day be true and with my other book, it makes me glad to be able to place the truth out there for people to explore when they look back on history.

3. Have you been traditionally published?  Why or why not?

I have tried to get published by the big houses only to be turned down numerous times.  I never had an agent and most big houses want an agent to discuss the sales of any new book.

4. How have you liked self-publishing so far?

It is kind of troubling since it is hard to really “push” the sales of our books.  On the other hand, I know what is being sold and where they are being sold.

5. Tell me about the marketing techniques you’ve used to sell your books.  Which ones have been the most successful?

I have tried all sorts of the new “media”: I have used Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and just about any other media I can find.  It is hard to tell which one has really produced any sales since those whom have bought the book have done so from Amazon.com.

6. Are there any marketing techniques you intentionally avoided or discontinued, and if so, why?

I have backed off of Facebook since that is usually family and friends and many of them have complained about my use of Facebook to promote my book.  It seems that they are more interested in what they are doing during the day then about someone trying to sell their books.

7. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about self-publishing that you didn’t know when you started out?

Self-publishing is a lot of hard work and it is hard to keep writing and not promoting the new book!  I did not know that the amount of promoting my work would take up so much time on the social networks.

8. If you could do one thing differently in publishing your books, what would it be?

I think I would try to find an agent that would help me get the book into the right place to have it go to the top of the charts.  But in doing that, I would have to let go my control of what is going on, so I am not really sure if that would be a good move or not.

9. Independent authors face the obvious challenge of marketing their books without the resources of traditional publishers.  What advice do you have for an indie author just starting out?

If an indie author is just starting out, my advice to them would be to make sure you have money set on the side for self-promotion and to buy your own books for signing and passing out for sales.  Not having money up front is a big drawback to self-publishing.

10. What projects are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a sequel to The Oil Man although it will not be called The Oil Man or anything close to that.  It will bring in some new ideas about not just oil, but also it will open up some strange variances about gold, silver, gems, and other different precious stones and metals.

11. If you could market your brand – not just one particular book, but your overall brand of writing – in one sentence, what would it be?

It would be an action/adventure, twisted with science fiction and truth mixed in.

12. How can readers learn more about your books?

They can go to Leonsbooks.com where I have listed two of my books and some reviews along with the future posting of interviews.