Novel Marketing

Kindle Unlimited also called KU is the “Netflix of ebooks.” It costs readers $9.99 a month to get unlimited access to over one million ebooks. So, is it a good idea for your book to be in Kindle unlimited?  To help answer this question we are going to talk with a true professional author. Writing is her day job. She’s up before the sun, putting words on the page before her kids wake up. The early writer publishes the book and she has published fifty books first with a big five publisher and then as an indie author. I am excited to welcome to the Novel Marketing Podcast, USA Today bestselling author Lacy Williams.  Lacy has a free download of her ebook “the smart indie: basic publishing plan”. You can download it at www.lacywilliams.net/novelmarketing. We will also have a link in the show notes Sponsor: The Tax and Business Guide for Authors In this course you will learn how to qualify for tax deductions for your writing-related expenses (not all writers qualify) and about 19 tax deductions authors can take advantage of. You will also learn how to start making a writing income even before your first book comes out. You will also learn business fundamentals like when and how to form an LLC, how to create a business plan and how to reduce your chances of being audited by the IRS. The course is taught by Tom Umstattd a CPA with over 35 years of experience working with authors.  Learn more at AuthorTaxTips.com. Patrons save 50%! Featured Patron Patty Smith Hall author of Courting Doctor Clark Dr. Joshua McClain is heading west but first stops to break the marriage contract with Katie Clark. But when he comes face-to-face with the now Dr. Kathleen Clark, he realizes his childhood friend is now all grown up. You can become a Novel Marketing Patron here. If you can’t afford to become a patron, but still want to help the show, you can! * Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. * Share this episode with one person you think would find it helpful. * Share this episode on a Facebook group of authors who you think would benefit.  Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the show? Call our listener helpline! 512-827-8377‬. You can also send us a high-quality recording on AuthorMedia.com/contact.

When you were a kid at the amusement park, did you want to ride the roller coaster with no line or the one with the line zig-zagged five rows deep? As an adult, do you want to vote for the third-party candidate who lines up with your values, or the candidate who has the best chance to win? People want to do what they see other people doing. The technical term used in marketing psychology for this phenomenon is “Social Proof.” Since customers are unlikely to choose an empty restaurant they have never been to before, some restaurants hire temporary employees to eat there during the opening weeks to generate interest. “Wow! That place is crowded! It must be good.”  Which is not that different from: “Wow, that book has 10,000 reviews. It must be good!” Customers want social proof. We’ve explored the social triggers of Urgency (Episode 223) and Scarcity & Ubiquity (Episode 225). The better you understand what motivates readers, the better you can motivate them to read your book. This is the heart of marketing. Please use it for good.  Why do I need social proof? Social proof creates a cycle. To loosely paraphrase a parable of Jesus, “To him who has reviews, more will be given. But to him who does not have reviews, what few reviews he does have will be taken away by Amazon’s algorithm.” Social proof is why you see metallic stickers touting, “USA Today Bestselling Author.” People are more likely to buy a book if they know other people are buying it too.  But you don’t need to be a USA Today bestselling author to use social proof.  Before we talk about how to demonstrate social proof, let’s talk about how to gain a following in the first place.  The key to social proof is to have a social following worth following. How do I gain a following? Here are four general tips on how to generate a following and become more popular. Tip #1 Focus Pick one area to demonstrate lots of popularity rather than dabbling in lots of places. Dig one deep well rather than two shallow wells. If you have multiple genres, cut all but the most popular and focus on more books in that genre.  You also want to focus your writing and marketing on the individual. Find a real-life human in your target demographic and then focus on thrilling that specific person. Then grow the number of real humans in that representative sample. Ideally, you want to make these people your beta readers. On my Novel Marketing podcast, I focus on my patrons, and more specifically, the people in my mastermind groups. Most of the new episodes I’m creating come from questions asked by people from the Facebook group, Patreon page, or premium mastermind groups. The result of focusing on fewer people is that the content has improved, and the podcast has become more popular. Let me say that again. By focusing on fewer people, more people listen.

The Kindle ebook market is a fascinating topic for authors in every genre. Writers around the world are guessing about what’s hot and what’s not in 2020. If you want to write in a genre that sells, it’s a great question to ask. To find out, I interviewed Alex Newton. Alex is the CEO and founder of K-lytics.com, which is a leading Kindle market research resource for authors and publishers. He spent 20 years at a top management consulting company creating strategy guides and market analysis that cost millions of dollars for companies that would pay for it. Now he uses that same expertise to analyze the Amazon marketplace. He knows what’s going on in the Kindle market because he has analyzed the data. Thomas Umstattd Jr: Alex, what is K-lytics, and what does it do for authors? Alex Newton: We are a market research company, and we provide data on the book market to authors, agents, and publishers. Our purpose is to provide more transparency in a market that has lacked transparency. We want to help authors make better and faster publishing decisions so they can sell more books. Join us for our free K-lytics webinar. REGISTER NOW Total Kindle Unlimited Sales Up 14% in 2019 Thomas: In the big picture of the 2020 Kindle market, is the ebook market growing or shrinking? Alex: In order to tell, we must look at the facts and then extrapolate. The first thing to know is that it has always been a matter of perspective. Who do you ask about the data? From the traditional publisher’s view, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports the quarterly trade publishing numbers in the U.S. The mainstream media picks up on the AAP numbers and quotes them and says, “Hey, ebooks are shrinking again.” We took an extrapolation of their Q3 numbers in 2019, and their ebook sales are shrinking, another 3.8% per year, roughly. Once you dig into it, you find out their statistical sample—the companies they asked about ebook sales—was made up of 1,300 traditional publishers in the U.S. But the leading company in the ebook market, Amazon, was not included in their sample. How can you discuss these market numbers if you are using a sample that represents probably less than 20% of the overall ebook market? If you ask traditional publishers, ebooks are shrinking. But if you ask me, with a view toward Amazon, I’m going to paint a much different picture. Thomas: I talked with a representative from the NPD Group, which is a big publishing research firm. They collect their data by polling the top publishers, as you’ve said. Then they get retail data from the retailers. But they do not get data from Amazon, and so they have this big hole in their data. I’ve spent enough time with publishing executives to know that they don’t consider the indie market to be producing many sales at all. But I know from having looked at your data, and Amazon’s data in general, that in a lot of categories, the bestselling authors for Kindle are indie authors.

A patron of the Novel Marketing Show recently asked a great question we’re going to answer in this article. “How can I collaborate with other authors so we can help promote each other’s work?” But first, why is this something you should consider? Why work with other authors? Reason #1 Writing is the Opposite of a Zero-Sum Game Gambling is a zero-sum game. If I win chips, it means you lose chips.  In the real world, most things involving money are not zero-sum. In almost every area, value can be created. For example, if I build a mansion next to your house, it makes your house more valuable. The total pie is bigger.  Writing is the same.  “When people love a book, they want to read more books like it, even if those books are by other authors.” Click to Tweet When you help fellow authors succeed, you help yourself succeed as well. As the old saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  Remember: Faster alone, further together.  Your competition as an author is not other authors. Your competition is Netflix.  Reason #2 Writing is Hard Non-writers don’t understand that you suffer when you kill off one of your characters, or even worse when you have to edit them out of your novel altogether. “Authors who “go alone” almost always give up before they reach the finish line.” Click to Tweet Reason #3 Publishing is Hard Finding an agent, a publisher, and a good book deal is hard. Indie publishing is the same amount of work. It’s simply a different path. There is so much to learn and many potential mistakes to make. If you are going alone, you won’t have the advantage of learning from someone else’s mistakes. You’ll have to learn by making the mistakes yourself.  Reason #4 Marketing is Hard Promoting your book requires hard, ongoing work. Not only must you accomplish various marketing tasks, but you must also learn what works and what doesn’t for you and your book.  Collaborating with other authors makes the writing, publishing, and marketing processes. Each stage becomes easier when authors collaborate. I have been working with bestselling authors for over a decade, and I can’t think of a single writer who made it to bestseller status without a community of other authors helping out. Now that you know you need to work with other authors let’s talk about how to work with other authors.   There are three levels of author collaboration.   Level 1: How to Connect with Other Authors  At this first level of collaboration, the goal is to connect with other authors to learn from each other’s experiences and to encourage one another to go further. We recently released episode 217 about mentorship, and we explored several types of level-one collaboration. 

Many authors believe search engine optimization (SEO) is a cryptic mystery average humans cannot solve. But SEO is simply crafting a page in such a way that it ranks high in search rankings. In this article, we’re going to explore Amazon SEO. We’ll explain why it is essential and how to apply it to your marketing plan. Dave Chesson is one of the top Amazon SEO experts. He’s the creator of Kindlepreneuer.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced e-book marketing, which even Amazon KDP acknowledges as one of the best resources on optimizing your book’s marketing. Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important for Authors? Thomas Umstattd Jr.: Why is Amazon SEO so important for authors? Dave Chesson: Amazon, SEO, is about getting your book in front of the right shoppers. A shopper goes to Amazon and types what they’re looking for into the search bar. When they hit the “search” button, Amazon decides whether to show books, which books to display and the order in which those books appear in the search results. We have found that 20% to 30% of the shoppers will click on the book that appears at the top of the search results. That percentage quickly drops to single digits the farther you get from the top. Appearing at the top of the list increases your ability to get seen and your ability to make sales. Thomas: A lot of people think Google is the dominant search engine, and it is for certain kinds of searches. For example, if I’m searching for a dentist, I’ll use google. But when people are searching for products, over half of the searches happen on Amazon. More people are searching for products on Amazon than on all the other search engines combined, including Google. No one is going to Google and typing “mystery suspense writer” or “Amish romance.” For authors, Amazon is where you want to rank at the top. Dave:  More than 197 million people have an Amazon account, which means it’s easy to make that purchase right then and there. If I find a book I want to buy on another website that sells books, the problem is that I’ve got to create an account, make a password, and enter my credit card information on a website I don’t fully trust. A lot of people will leave that website, search for it on Amazon.com and buy it there because they already have an Amazon account all set up. It’s a wonderful marketplace people trust. They know Amazon will always have what they want. Thomas: Amazon took over the market by simply caring about the customer—the book readers. The traditional publisher’s customers are Barnes and Noble and Amazon and other retail channels, but Amazon customers are the actual humans who are reading books. That has been their secret sauce. Why is SEO so hard or scary for so many authors? Three Keys to Amazon SEO Dave: SEO for Google seems to be a hard-core, billion-steps task. Amazon is more straightforward than Google. There are three keys to Amazon SEO: * Identify the target that you want your book to be shown to. When a customer types a phrase into that search bar, what are the phrases you want your book to show up for?* Identify where you want your book to be indexed.

Back in episode 223, we talked about how to create urgency. Today we are going to talk about the second social trigger: scarcity and its sister ubiquity.  These social triggers will give you a powerful edge when it comes to selling your book. But first, a paradox from Adam Smith.  Why are diamonds more valuable than water? You can live a happy life without ever even seeing a diamond. Without water, you will die in a week. So why are diamonds so much more expensive? Once you understand this paradox, you will understand a marketing principle that most authors, and even most publishing houses, don’t understand.  Scarcity creates value. The rarer something is, the more valuable it is, even if that thing is mostly useless. Other than a few industrial uses, diamonds are mostly useless. What makes them valuable is the fact that they are rare and beautiful. They are a way of displaying wealth.  But scarcity is not the only thing that drives value.  Desire drives value as well. The stronger the desire to obtain a thing, the more valuable it is. Emeralds are rarer than diamonds, and yet they cost less. Why? Because people want diamonds more than they want emeralds. This is due to the custom of giving diamond engagement rings. Most married women wear diamonds. This makes the desire for diamonds higher than the more scarce emeralds. This strong desire for diamonds over emeralds is the result of clever marketing by the diamond industry. Remember the slogans “Diamonds are forever” and “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? That’s marketing at work. The interplay between scarcity and desire is what economists call supply and demand.   A Second Paradox: “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.” Stewart Brand Knowledge is like a candle flame. One candle can light another without being diminished itself. Giving someone an idea is not like giving someone cake. You can give your idea and have it too.   When selling knowledge, the owner will make more money if the product is either ubiquitous or expensive. This is why I offer a free podcast and paid premium mastermind groups. But this principle applies for fiction as well. In fact, in some ways, it is easier for novelists. Of the social triggers, scarcity is the rarest for authors to leverage. In terms of pricing, indie authors are in a race to the bottom. Some indie authors sell their books for as little as possible to try and undercut their competition. But, as Seth Godin says, the problem with a race to the bottom is that you might win. That said, you can make a lot of money selling books for almost nothing if you sell a lot of them. You see, while diamonds are more valuable than water, we spend more money on water than we do on diamonds. In fact, most Americans spend more on bottled water alone than they do on diamonds.  You would likely make more money selling water than you would selling diamonds. Think about that. Today,

The million-dollar question is this: how do I get people to join my email list? I recently interviewed Saundra Dalton-Smith who shared one extremely effective strategy. Saundra is a physician and author of Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, and Restore Your Sanity (affiliate link). Saundra grew her email list from 2,000 to more than 25,000 subscribers. How? She created a quiz for people to take at RestQuiz.com. In our interview, Dr. Saunda Dalton-Smith shared how she did it and how you can too. The Story Behind RestQuiz.com Dr. Saunda Dalton-Smith: I wanted a way for people to be able to determine which of the seven types of rest they were deficient in. I wanted them to do the same self-analysis I walk my patients through in my office. A quiz seemed to be the quickest way to do that. Plus, it was automated. There are many different quiz platforms out there, but I happened upon a WordPress plugin called Quiz and Survey Master that worked with my blog. It was simple to use, so I jumped on it to figure it out and see what would happen. Thomas Umstattd Jr.: Did the questions for the quiz come from questions you ask in your practice? Or from somewhere else? Saundra: They came from actual questions I ask in my practice as an internal medicine physician. Typically, a patient comes in saying they’re tired. They suspect something’s wrong with their thyroid or adrenal glands, and they want me to help me figure out what’s wrong. I was spending a lot of time trying to determine why people are so tired all the time. Some of them were getting more than adequate sleep, so I knew it wasn’t the number of hours they were sleeping. In my research, I discovered there are seven types of rest. People might not be deficient in physical rest, but they may have a deficiency of rest in another area. After I explained this to my patients, the question became, “How do I know which one I’m deficient in?” The quiz questions came from thinking about each of the types of rest and how someone would feel if they were deficient in that area. The quiz allows people to grade themselves on where they’re at. I don’t ask “Are you deficient in physical rest?” I ask questions related to someone’s physical symptoms. I’ll ask if they have experienced increased neck and back pain or whether they’ve had more headaches or infections than their coworkers. Some patients will report a chronic sinus infection, but nobody else in the office or family seems to be getting it. I ask the questions and let people rate how well certain symptoms apply to them. The plugin scores their responses and reveals a deficiency in physical, mental, social, sensory, spiritual, emotional, or creative rest. At the end of the quiz, the person has a relatively accurate assessment of where they need more rest. Thomas: I can verify the results. I took the quiz right before this interview, and I scored the lowest in physical rest. Since we have a newborn at home, that makes perfect sense. Your quiz did a good job teasing that out. How To Create A Quiz Readers Want to Take Thomas: The principle here is that you focused on the felt symptoms of your reader when you compiled the questions.

What do these phrases have in common? * Limited-time offer! * Closeout sale. * Inventory liquidation. In two or three words we learn there is an impending date when something will no longer be available. * The store will close. * The inventory will disappear. * The offer will expire. Customers hurry to purchase so they don’t miss out. Marketing psychologists call this a “social trigger.” Social triggers are powerful techniques used to influence customers. In the examples above, marketers create a sense of urgency. Customers feel their time is running out. They worry about losing out, missing out, or spending more than necessary. Getting rid of that feeling becomes a high priority, and it moves them into action. Why Urgency Works Why is urgency so powerful? Because most people will only act with an urgent deadline.  In education, students are moved to study because of an impending date on the calendar labeled “Exam.” Students attend study groups and review sessions for two days prior to the test date, but rarely before then. In matters of personal health, people are more likely to modify diet and exercise when they have a reunion or wedding coming up. On the other hand, people are often unmotivated to improve their habits until their doctor lays out a few statistics regarding mortality. For most of us, there has to be “blood in the water” to move us from a state of apathy into action.  Urgency is why deadlines are so motivating for writers. We are so desperate for urgency that indie authors, who generally don’t have concrete due dates, create self-imposed deadlines to make themselves finish.  So, if a reader can put off buying your book until tomorrow, they will never buy your book. If a reader can put off reading your book until tomorrow, they will never read your book. Since “tomorrow” never comes, authors must create a sense of urgency for customers and readers to move them from thinking about your book to purchasing it. How to Create Urgency for a Book Here are seven ways to create urgency. Method #1 Launch Window Bonus  Create a bonus that is only available for a limited time.  When Michael Hyatt released his book Platform (affiliate link), he created a bonus bundle worth hundreds of dollars. He partnered with other authors and businesses who had products related to building a platform and digitally packaged them together. Anyone who purchased his book in the first two weeks of launch received that valuable bundle for free.   With your book launch date in view, you can create bonuses or prizes to giveaway to early buyers. Prizes can include: * Short stories* Guides* Tip Sheets* Courses* Discount Coupons* A piece of music that goes along with the book. You don’t have to create all the prizes yourself. Partner with other authors to create compelling bundles. But make sure your bonuses are actually valuable to your readers. Bonuses need not be expensive, but they must have a high perceived value for your reader. Printable bookmarks, screensavers, or lock screen images are easy to create and distribute, but they rarely provide a high enough value for readers to purchase today rather than

Questions: * What is an Amazon book page and is it really that important?* How did you get started with Amazon book page optimization? Talk me through it.* What are the most important elements of an Amazon page?* How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis* What challenges do authors face when trying to optimize their Amazon pages?* What mistakes do authors make with their pages?* Let’s talk about Amazon SEO. How do you optimize your page to rank for certain terms?* What is your biggest page optimization failure, and what did you learn from it?* What do you wish you had known when you started selling books as an indie author?* What final tips and encouragement do you have? Links * Amazon Ad School * 5 Day Amazon Ad Profit Challenge* Best Page Forward* Sell More Books Show * BryanCohen.com* @bryancohenbooks* Hidden Gems* Book Sprout* Story Origin* 151 – How to Write to Market With Chris Fox Sponsor: The Art of Persuasion Persuasion is one of the most important things we do as authors. Persuasion is not only part of the selling process for fiction it is also at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Yet, persuasion is hard to do well and easy to botch. In this video course, I break down the science of how to help your readers to truly change their minds for good. This is one of my most popular and enduring talks. This course is ideal for: * Bloggers wanting to make a difference in the world.* Non-Fiction Writers wanting to change minds.* Authors wanting help persuading people to buy their book. This course sells for $49 but through the end of February, patrons of the podcast get it for free.  Featured Patron Carrie Daws author of The Embers Series    A hurricane and a series of unexplained fires hits too close to home. What will it cost inspector Cassandra McCarthy to protect the citizens of Silver Heights?  You can become a Novel Marketing Patron here. If you can’t afford to become a patron, but still want to help the show, you can! Just leave a review on Apple Podcasts or on Podchaser.com.  Personal Update Baby #2 is here! Thomas Gregory Umstattd, III was born December 29 and weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces. Both he and mom are doing well and at home. I have a photo in the show notes if you want to see.  He was born on the 5th day of Christmas which is Five Golden Rings in the song. So, my nickname for him is Thomas Aurelius Gregarious the Third. Hopefully that is a long enough name to take him places, if this were ancient Rome that is.  He wakes up every two hours right now so bear with me. Right now I have zombie brain. 

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn. Joanna is an accomplished novelist and a publishing mentor for writers. She also happens to be the most frequent guest on the Novel Marketing Podcast. Her most recent book is Productivity for Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize Your Author Life and Decide What Really Matters (affiliate link), so we began by talking about priorities and productivity. Just yesterday I was working in the office, and my daughter was standing on the other side of the baby gate in my doorway. She shot her hands straight up in the air which is her clear signal that she wants me to pick her up. She was staring at me with big beautiful eyes and beckoning me to pick her up, and I thought, “This email can wait!” We all have many wonderful demands on our time, and Joanna gives us wisdom for managing our time in a productive way. Why Productivity is Important Thomas Umstattd Jr.: Joanna, why is productivity important for authors? Joanna Penn: I’ve really struggled with productivity for a long time. I have been writing since 2006, and I’ve been publishing for over a decade. I’ve achieved a lot of stuff, but I have always struggled with this idea of productivity. It finally clicked for me when I realized the question is “What do you want to achieve?” Productivity is actually achieving that thing. So I wrote this book about it. I always got confused thinking productivity was ticking off things from my to-do list. But so often my to-do list was around things I didn’t necessarily want to achieve. As writers, productivity is about writing, but more than that, it’s about finishing books. You can be as creative as you like and write lots of stuff, but productivity is what will help you get those words into the world. You only have this finite amount of time in your life. What do you want to achieve with that time, and what productive tasks are you going to do to achieve those goals rather than just running around like a headless chicken ticking things off your to-do list? Thomas: That’s right, you can’t do everything. In the States, we had a series of commercials from this beer brand called Dos Equis. They had a character they called “the most interesting man in the world” who’d give advice through these little pithy sayings. In one of them, he looks at the camera and gives this advice on careers: “Find the one thing in the world you do not do well, and then don’t do that thing.” It’s funny, but it’s really good advice because so often, we want to do everything and we end up spending the largest amount of time on the thing we don’t do well because we don’t do it well. Joanna: Yes. This is really important for indie and traditional authors in the present climate of publishing, because authors are expected to do marketing. There are literally thousands of things you can do for book marketing. You could spend all your time doing book marketing. And of course, marketing is super important, and it’s something we all have to do. Productivity is really considering what you want to achieve with your time and then doing that and ruthlessly cutting out those other things. You mentioned that email and your daughter. To be fair, the email can wait. But my daughter is right there now. Maybe she’ll be asleep in a couple hours,

These episodes originally aired in 2014 and 2016.

This episode originally aired in December 2013. One of the most well-known imitated fictional characters in the world has a gift, especially for authors this year. It turns out jolly old Saint Nicholas does a really good job at marketing, and he’s given us some principles from his centuries on the job. As a marketer, what does Santa do that you can you copy and apply to your marketing? Here are seven pro-tips, to authors, from Santa. 1. Santa persists. Giving presents to the whole world is a tough job. It’s a lot of work, and the weather isn’t always agreeable. As an author, one of the hardest things you’ll have to do is get up and write when you don’t feel like it. It’s very easy to fall prey to making excuses. And that’s one thing Santa doesn’t do. If he’s got a snowy day, he and Rudolph still get those presents delivered. Seinfeld had a great story about persistence in writing. He writes a lot of his comic material that he uses on stage. One cold and rainy day when he didn’t feel like writing, he looked out the window and saw construction workers walking to their job site. It occurred to him that those guys probably didn’t want to do their job either, but they went to work and got the job done anyway. Seinfeld thought, “Why should I be any different?” And then he got to work. One of the reasons Seinfeld is such an effective comic is because he writes a lot of material. When he’s trying to choose material for his next show, he has the liberty of choosing a few of the very best pieces from all he’s written. When we started thinking of writing as our job we learn to persist. 2. Santa is easy to contact. There are only two lines to Santa’s address, and everyone knows them. Santa Claus North Pole Your email and web address should be just as easy to remember and use. Obscure email and web addresses such as slingingoutthewords.com does not tell a reader who you are. Even though it might be a clever address, it’s hard to remember. In the prime real estate of your website, usually in the upper right-hand corner, provide a clear way for people to contact you. Make a list of all the platforms you use to communicate with your readers. Consider adding linked icons for the following: * Facebook* Instagram* LinkedIn* Twitter* Goodreads* Email Some readers will come to your site looking for the word, “contact.” You’ll want to provide a “contact” page where people can easily send you a message. And on every page of your website, provide a clear way for visitors to enter their email address to receive your newsletter or your featured reader magnet. Make yourself available to readers in as many places as possible. Many authors are hesitant to give out their contact information on the internet because they are afraid “the boogeyman” will get their information. But before you withhold contact information from your readers out of fear of the boogeyman, remember this: if somebody wants to find you, it’s not very hard. If you have a magazine subscription or a credit card, your information is publicly available for about two or three dollars to anyone who will buy it. That’s one of the ways magazines and credit card companies make money.

How do readers decide to buy books? How can you influence them to choose yours? You may not realize it, but your communication with your reader begins long before they ever read your book’s stunning first line. Marketing is the method by which you can influence a potential reader to take the next step toward purchasing your book. If you understand marketing fundamentals, you will understand why certain tactics work, or why they may not work for you. Your marketing will be far more effective, and your readers will thank you for making their decisions easy. Now, some authors think the fundamentals of marketing don’t apply to their book or their situation. But the longer I work with authors, the more I observe how important these fundamentals are. As we examine the book-buyer’s journey, we will use the term “customer” because you, the author, haven’t yet earned them as a reader. If we influence the customer in the right ways, they’ll finally become a reader at the end of the journey. In this article, we’ll only examine the in-person customer journey that takes place in a physical bookstore, but the steps for the online journey are similar.   1. The customer decides to visit the bookstore. The harsh author reality is  half of Americans never visit brick-and-mortar bookstores. From the start, authors must realize we’re only talking to the kind of people who read books. But the folks who do read, visit two types of bookstores. Destination Bookstores. Barnes and Noble is a destination store because people drive there specifically to buy a book. Interruption Bookstores. These are bookstores at the airport, grocery store, or the spinner rack near the register at the pharmacy. These are book sales locations that “interrupt” normal activities. Knowing the distinctives of these  bookstore types gives us important clues about the customer, because different bookstores attract different readers. Three Types of Destination Bookstores and their Readers Big Box Bookstores Customers who shop big box bookstores are general readers. One customer might shop for their next great read not knowing exactly what it might be. Another customer may be on a mission to buy a specific book. A third type of customer might stop in for a five-dollar cup of coffee and browse the shelves as they sip. Amazon Bookstore. That’s right, Amazon’s brick-and-mortar bookstores utilize a fascinating approach to provide customers exactly what they want..   Used Book Bookstores These stores attract budget readers. Customers are conscious of the cost of books because they tend to buy so many.   Three Types of Interruption Bookstores Airport Bookstores Airport bookstores appeal mostly to wealthy readers. There’s a high correlation between a person’s wealth and how frequently they fly. People who earn a six-figure household income travel a lot and they fly a lot. They’re constantly in airports for work and for pleasure. If you’re writing a business book, an airport bookstore is key. Business leaders travel and generally have influence. If a traveling CEO buys your book in an airport bookstore and likes it, she’s likely to make it required reading for all her managers.

Do you ever feel alone in the writing journey? Or perhaps you are not sure what to do next. One thing every hero needs on the hero’s journey is a mentor. The journey of writing is no different. In this episode I am going to talk about 10 different places to find mentorship. Why Mentorship is Important * Most authors feel like they are the exception, the chosen one, the one for whom writing will be easy and successful. * A mentor is the person who sets you straight and teaches you that you still have a lot to learn.* It’s hard to read the label when you are standing inside the bottle.* Easy to make the same mistakes over and over.* Helps with blind spots.* There is a lot to learn to succeed.  How to Tell If You’re Ready for Mentorship * Are you willing to suffer criticism to get better?* Ready to commit to implement the advice you get?* Every hero in every story thinks he is farther along than he really is. The mentor shows him that he still has a lot to learn.   There is No Right or Wrong Answer Most successful authors avail themselves of most of these mentorship avenues at one point or another. Depending on where you are in your journey, one of these avenues may be more helpful to you than others.  Stop thinking about strategies in terms of right and wrong. It is better to think about it in terms of pros and cons. Advantages and disadvantages.  #1: Books Pros: * Cheap* Can learn just about anything* Expert advice* Can learn from dead mentors (Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper) Cons: * Dated* Impersonal* No Accountability* No Encouragement  Bottom Line: Access the minds of experts for only $10 per expert. Impersonal and requires a lot of self discipline.  #2: Podcasts & Blogs Pros: * Free* Can learn just about anything* Expert advice* Cutting edge Cons: * Interaction Limited* Unfocused* No Accountability* No Encouragement  Bottom Line:  * A free, timely and impersonal way up the learning curve. #3: Writers Conferences  Pros:  * In Person* Expert* Focused* Excellent Networking* One of the best ways to find an agent Cons: * Limited in time and scope* Drinking from a Firehose * No Accountability* Expensive, Especially if you go to a lot. Bottom Line:  * The default for most authors. An easy way to spend a lot of money without much to show for it education wise. But for networking, nothing beats a conference.  #4 Online Courses Online courses blend of pros and cons of podcasts, conferences, and books.  Pros:  * Expert* Focused* The more you pay the more personal they tend to be* Learn at your own pace* Great value compared to conference. Cons: * Static* Impersonal (you are one of many)* Limited Accountability* Limited Encouragement * Limited Focus Bottom Line:  * One of the best ways to fill in knowledge gaps.

Today’s episode comes from a listener question. This question came from one of our patrons for the patrons only Q&A episode. In case you didn’t know, there is a bonus episode each month for patrons of the podcast.  This month we talked about:  * pre-order pricing strategy* How to find the right category for your book* How best to get traffic to your blog* How to get more Amazon reviews. And finally this question that was so good I wanted to devote a full episode to it.  Listener Question from Garrett Hutson Any special tips for marketing a companion novel to an existing series? Not a sequel, not a prequel, just shares a significant character with the books of an existing series (and same genre). The connection’s not enough to make it a volume in the existing series on Amazon or D2D, though.  Great question! What is a Literary Universe? * A literary universe is a way of connecting books without them being sequels or in the same series. * It is what Marvel and Star Wars do with their cinematic universes. * Extending the universe is a popular strategy right now and can be an effective one. * It’s also time tested. Asimov and Heinlein (The grandfathers of SciFi) both did this back in the day.* Not just for Scifi and Fantasy. Authors are creating literary universes in in all kinds of genres.  Pros of a Literary Universe  * Makes selling subsequent books easier.* Creates binge buyers. * Allows you to explore side characters.  * Only have to worldbuild once. Cons of a Literary Universe * Puts a lot of pressure on book #1. Most author’s first book is thier worst book. With a series or literary universe, that first book becomes your most important book from a marketing perspective. * Can be creatively restricting. * How does this book effect the other books?* Stuck in the same micro genre* A dud is riskier. * More potential retcon issues. You have a lot to keep straight. Literary Universe Writing Tips * Recruit continuity beta readers.* Create a way to stay organized to keep all the characters, locations, and plot lines straight. * Experiment with different kinds of plots stories. Captain America Winter Soldier is a Spy Thriller. Guardians of the Galaxy is a space opera. End Game Is a heist. * Avoid time travel. It makes storytelling exponentially more complicated. * Make the connection between the books meaningful. Connect them by more than just easter eggs. * Write lots of short stories as connective tissue. This is helpful for world building. This is also helpful with marketing.  Literary Universe Marketing Tips * Create a name for the literary universe that connects the names of the individual series and the individual novels. * Create a landing page on your website for the literary universe that explain how the books connect and the recommended order to read them. You can do this with MyBookTable. * Create a design hierarchy for the book covers. Each series needs to be connected, but there should be some design elements that connect the universe together. This could be as simple as a logo. It could also be a pen name.  * Let anticipation build, don’t rapid release. Be Disney Plus not Netflix. * Price pulse book 1 ahead of each new launch. Episode 108.* Advanced: Create a wiki for your universe that your fans can edit.