Novel Marketing

In this episode, we are going to talk about how to price your eBook.  Show Notes Introduction: One of those episodes we can’t believe we’ve never done, because it’s a question everyone seems to always be asking. What should you price your ebook? We have a short answer and a long answer. The Short Answer: All eBook pricing is an ongoing/never ending experiment The Long Answer: We’ll give you broad strokes, and then specific brush strokes that will help you make an informed decision. How pricing works in economics.  * In general, prices are driven by supply and demand. * Elastic Prices (Genre Fiction) * Non-Elastic Prices (Textbooks) * How do you become less elastic? Build a strong brand! * Example: Brandon Sanderson-Thomas will pay the going price!   The Pricing Graph * Higher Prices > Lower Unit Sales * Lower Prices < Higher Unit Sales * Sweet spot, where you have maximum profit. Also known as the point of equilibrium.   What is Your Objective? The goal for all authors is not necessarily to maximize profits. Sell Lots of Books? Or … Make Lots of Money?   Sell Lots of Books   * When you’re in the start to middle of your career- books in as many hands as possible. (Pirating again.) * More sales makes Amazon smarter- they know who will buy your book * You’ll rise higher on the charts. More reviews. More email subscribers. * Price? $0.99 On average, authors sell at least twice as many copies at $0.99 as they do at any other price point. * The downside of $0.99 is that Amazon penalizes you by reducing your profits. * Impulse buy. * Success drives success.   Make Lots of Money * The sweet spot has been $3.99 * This is a fluid number … * The royalty structure on most major retailers is dependent on price. * Amazon: 70% of every sale they make when their book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% of the sale when their book is priced below $2.99. *      However, this only works IF: * Great cover * Great (and lots of) reviews   * What if you don’t have those two things? * Run a $.99 promo and garner reviews, then come back.   Apparel Pricing as an Example $20 for a t-shirt … sits on the rack, now on sale for $5! Wow, great savings! Wrong. You have $5 less, but that anchoring works!   Establish a Brand * High prices can establish a luxury brand.   * The problem with a race to the bottom is that you just might win. * You never want to be the second cheapest option.   What if You Want High Sales and High Profit? * Consider KDP Select- exclusive to Amazon * Kindle Countdown Deals and … * KENP Payouts. Authors running a promotion at $0.99 earn a 70% royalty effectively doubling the royalty on each of their sales. * Pages read: authors enrolled in KDP Select see an increase in the number of pages read when they run a promotion. * On average, authors see a 1300 bump in KENP reads the day of the promotion, with reads increasing into the weeks after the promotion. With the current payout per page amount averaging $0.0045, that’s an additional $5.85 in earnings per day that an author earns off the promotion.   What Price Should You Choose?    * You can price a book based on a combination of any of these factors: * Length * Genre * Marketing reasons * What other similar authors charge

In this episode we’re celebrating 200 episodes of Novel Marketing. We’re going to talk about what has changed over the last 6 years, what we’ve learned, answer your questions LIVE! Give away prizes and so much more. One of our listeners suggested we do a 200 minute mega episode, this won’t be that long, but it is jam-packed with cool stuff. But first, some housekeeping about the live stream. Show Notes Welcome to the live stream! * Live chat. Let’s test it! Post where you are from in the comments. * How to ask questions. * Some of the prizes we will be giving away will go to people who ask questions. * You can also vote on the questions other people ask.   First Giveaway: * Prize: Free half hour consultation with Jim * How to enter: Ask a question. * Audiofile 1 Chase Replogle from the PastorWriter podcast * Mercy! * Winner: https://www.crowdcast.io/chipsampson   Things that have changed in the last five years: * We don’t sound as terrible as we used to. * The rise of Amazon’s dominance. Six years ago Borders still existed! * The fall of social media. * The rise of advertising. Mark Dawson effect. * The rise of podcasting. * The rise of indies. When we started we were focused mostly on traditionally published authors. * More acceptance that if you write, you have to market   Second Giveaway:  * Prize: Free Consultation with Thomas Umstattd * How to enter: Ask a question. * Audiofile 2  Karen Ball & Erin Taylor Young from the Write from the Deep Podcast * Winner: https://www.crowdcast.io/maddiemozley   Big Dramas Over the Last Five Years * Thomas’ Courtship Blog Post * Thomas set the internet on fire and almost changed is brand in the process. * Triggered a 3 month long hiatus from the show. * 2016 Election * We learned you don’t want us to talk about politics even obliquely. * GDPR * We were one of the first to say Americans don’t need to stress about European laws. * MailChimp * We were one of the few to say not everyone needs to leave MailChimp, although, we left mailchimp ourselves * Amazon Counterfeiting * This is still a breaking story, but one we are covering.   Special Gifts for $5+ Patrons! * For for $5+ Patrons: Podcast Host Directory  * For Everyone: 20% off all our courses! Just use coupon code “200” at checkout. *   Thomas’ Favorite Episodes * Episode 199 How to Create a Design Brief for Your Book Cover * Why? Best resource we’ve made yet. The 7 page template is amazing. * Episodes 041-043 – How to Create A Breakthrough Author Brand Series * Why? Creating these episodes came from a breakthrough in thinking I had about branding. It is a step by step system for creating a brand. I should expand it into a course. * Episode

In this episode, we are going to talk about how to create your best book cover ever by using the power of a design brief. But first, episode 200 is coming up! * We’ll be recording live! * We’ll have prizes, lots of prizes, including one for every live attendee. You’re guaranteed to win! * There will be cake! Ok digital cake, but still… * Very fun elements involving you … * One of the most exciting episodes we have ever done, you won’t want to miss it. Event Details: * What: Live episode recording. * When: 7pm Central Time on Wednesday July 31st 2019 * Where: Register Here  * Why: Because 200 episodes is a big deal! Design Brief Template Show Notes Introduction: * Briefly, what is a design brief? * Info your designer needs to develop the best cover possible. * Like a wedding plan for your book cover. * Briefly, why do authors need one? * The curse of knowledge destroys many book covers. * What is the curse of knowledge? * It’s when you forget what it is like not to know what you know about your book. * The designer knows nothing about your book. The better informed she is about the project, the better of a design you will get. * This is where a design brief comes in. What is a Design Brief? * A document that describes the design you need. * Sets budget expectations. * Used to collect bids from designers. Help designers decide if they are a good fit for your project. * Describes your goals and timeline * It communicates “commanders intent” it described the “what” not the “how.” * Top designers often have their own brief templates, sometimes called an intake document. * Services like 99 designs walk you through the process of creating a design brief. Why are Design Brief Important? * Many design projects end up with unhappy people on both sides of the coin, and the cause of the frustration can be traced back to the very earliest contacts. * Projects without good briefs: * go over budget (briefs help you hit your budget) * run late (briefs help the project  faster) * miss the mark (briefs help you get the design you want) Design Brief Tips * Communicate the marketing goal of the design. Then trust the designer to accomplish that goal. * Answer the “why” of buying your book. Why would the target reader want to buy your book? This may be obvious to you but not to someone who hasn’t spent hundreds of hours inside your story. * Describe a single target reader rather than a demographic range. Design Brief Mistakes * Trying to do too many things with the design. * Rule of thumb: One symbol per cover, * Conflicting priorities: * Rule of thumb: When everything is a priority nothing is. * A lack of specifics Rule of thumb: Avoiding meaningless phrases like: “I want this design to pop”, “Just make my cover look good.” * Too much micromanaging. * You are not a design expert! Hire a designer you can trust to accomplish your goals. Design Brief Elements * Summary * Budget * Describe a range of what you are wanting to spend. * Timeline * Goal * What do you want the design to accomplish? * Audience * Who are you trying to influence with the design? * Describe a representative person. * What books do they like to read? What movies do they like to watch?

In this episode, we are going to talk about all the bad things people do on Amazon and how to protect yourself from Counterfeiting, Reviewbombing, and Copyright Hijacking. Episode 200 Live Online Event Event Details: What: Live episode recording. When: 7pm Central Time on Wednesday, July 31st 2019 (Convert time to your timezone) Where: Register Here  Why: Because 200 episodes is a big deal! Introduction Our timing on the piracy episode (196) could not have been worse. The same week that episode came out a big counterfeiting scandal broke out. We didn’t even mention counterfeiting but a lot of people got confused … and thought we were saying counterfeiting is a good thing. It’s not! The difference between piracy, counterfeiting and plagiarism. * Plagiarism: they steal the credit for your work. * Piracy: they share digital copies of your work for free without your permission * Counterfeiting: they sell physical counterfeits of your paper books. In this episode we are going to talk about how to fight counterfeiting and the other ways nefarious people can make trouble for you on Amazon. How Amazon Fights Fraud * Machine Learning * Outsourced Call Centers * They are trying to control costs as much as possible while fighting fraud because they make money when fraudulent products sell so fighting fraud is not a financially motivated fight. When Amazon is financially motivated to fight something, they have a U.S. based team working on it. According to the New York Times: “In February, Amazon included counterfeiting in its financial disclosures as a risk factor for the first time, saying it might not be able to prevent its merchants “from selling unlawful, counterfeit, pirated or stolen goods” or “selling goods in an unlawful or unethical manner.” Attack #1 Counterfeiting The story of the scandal. Liturgy of the Ordinary How it works: * Counterfeiter creates their own digital copy of your book. * Uploads it to a print on demand service and has books shipped to Amazon. * They undercut your price for a new book. * When a customer purchases a copy of your paper book, Amazon sends them to the lowest priced option which is the counterfeiter.   What to do about it: * Look for “Ships and Sold By Amazon” on the default buy button on your books on Amazon. * It is says Sold By Amazon and Ships from Scam Man Books … you could be being counterfeited. * Buy a copy from the sketchy sellers. * Check your Amazon page to make sure the buy button is owned by Amazon and not a 3rd party seller. * Periodically order books from 3rd party sellers and compare the quality, page layout, etc.   How to avoid it in the first place: * Write an unpopular book. * Lower the price of your paper book. The lower the price, the less appealing of a target you are.   Attack #2 Review Bombing How it works * A competitor hires trolls to buy your book and then leave bad reviews. * A bigger problem in other product categories. * Alternate attack: 5 Star Bomb. The competitor gets a bunch of 5 star reviews added and then gets your book penalized for having fraudulent reviews.   What to do about it:

In this episode we’re going to talk about how to become an excellent speaker. Thomas and I were talking the other day and realized we often mention that speaking is one of the best ways to sell more books (for example when I keynote at a conference I sell between 30 – 60 percent more books) but we haven’t really even told you how to become a great speaker. And as we were putting this episode together, we realized this is a subject can’t be captured in one episode. So this is the first in a series of episodes on speaking. And wait! Before you say, “I’m never going to speak, I’m outta here …” let us just say that if you’re painfully shy and introverted, you can still be a wonderful speaker. * My friends in radio * Actors * You’re not alone! * No one is born good at speaking. With that said, let’s jump in and talk about a number of bullet points to keep in mind as you become, or improve your speaking prowess. * Nervousness Is Normal. * And you want it! Every time. Even after hundreds of speeches. NCWA Renewal Conference. “Are you nervous, Jim?” A guitar. Pro-athletes say … * It’s not about you. It’s about them. * If you need note cards, you’re not ready to give the talk * Concepts, content, not memorization * Slide decks, yea or nay? * If you like them how to use them correctly * Speak for free- takes the pressure off * Your words are important, almost as important as your personality * Authenticity is key * People can smell B.S. a mile away * Authentic people are vulnerable people * Passion is key * Frank Peretti example * Worship team Advice * Tell stories * 10 stories and you have a speech * YOURS! * Why stories are the heart of any great talk * How to Look at People * You begin a talk the same way you start a book * What’s your hook? * Get to know TED * Study talks in your area * Study talks in other areas * What is good? Bad? Boring? * Attitudes are contagious, are yours worth catching? * Get three critique partners * Your friend * Your phone * The audience * Tape them! * Practice for free till you get busy and then raise your rates till your happy. Related Episodes: * 178 – How to Get Your First Speaking Gigs Featured Patron NOLA, by Molly Jo Realy This is Molly Jo’s debut novel, just released, so congratulations! I love her tagline for the novel, “the past never stays buried” … NOLA is set in New Orleans and is a murderous love story with twists and turns galore. You can check it out on Amazon and most other places books are sold. Thank you, Molly Jo for being a Patreon supporter of the Novel Marketing podcast. Sponsor: The Rubart Writing Academy October 10 – 13 in Seattle October 31 – Nov 3 in Colorado Springs Transcript Transcript generated algorithmically by Sonix(Affiliate Link).

In this episode we are going to talk about why you should be excited when your writing gets ripped off … What!? Why you should listen to this episode  Show Notes First let’s define some terms, what is the difference between piracy and plagiarism? Plagiarism is pretty much always bad. * Unless your goal is simply to change the world and you don’t care who gets the credit.   The negatives of being pirated * You’re being stolen from, it doesn’t feel good. * If they’re getting it for free, you’re not getting any money for often years of work * It’s wrong, and it goes against our sense of justice   What you can do * Send an email asking them to cease and desist * DMCA Takedown Notice * Digital Millennium * Why this doesn’t work- these sites are like dandelions   The positives of having your writing pirated * Piracy is Viral – According to a Columbia University Study Pirates Buy 30% more than non pirates. * Your book is a brochure for your next book, and these thieves are handing them out for you * Libraries are legal pirate sites * 50% of people who check a book out from the library and like it, will BUY another book by that author. * Pirates are the ultimate mavens.   How to encourage sharing with the Creative Commons: What is the creative commons? A some rights reserved “copywrite” Here are the modules of the Creative Commons (from CreativeCommons.org) * Attribution (by) All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first. * ShareAlike (sa) You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first. * NonCommercial (nc) You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first. * NoDerivatives (nd) You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first. You can setup your own Creative Commons protection at CreativeCommons.org. Featured Patron The Accidental Missionary: A Gringo’s Love Affair with Peru by David L. Winters    While sleeping during a missions service, David Bredeman awoke to the call to foreign missions. Weeks later, he found himself learning the ropes in Lima, Peru where David found the adventure of a lifetime. Sponsor: How to Start a Local Writers Group Most authors want to join someone else’s writers group. When everyone thinks someone else will do something, it doesn’t happen. The result? Most authors are not in writers groups, despite the fact that writers group membership is one of the things that separates bestselling authors from authors struggling to make it. Don’t let that be you! In this course, you’ll learn how to start a writers group of your very own. Thomas has started nearly half a dozen writer’s groups over the last 10 years and he has learned a thing or two in the process. Patrons save 50% and students of the 5 Year Plan get this course for free! And that’s a good price!

In this episode we are going to talk about how to work with brick and mortar bookstores. Barnes and Noble was recently purchased by a hedge fund. Show Notes Intro * Book stores are shrinking, but they’re never going to go away. * You’ve Got Mail and Fox Books * The Shop Around the Corner is going to stay * Book People in Austin * Listen to Episode 141 for a breakdown of Amazon’s brick and mortar strategy. * Where the majority of a book’s print sales come from. What Bookstores Want: * Foot traffic * Sales * Good community relations, a good reputation. How Bookstores Work * Catalogues, Distributors and Sales Teams. * B&N’s local first strategy Tip #1 Use a Personal Touch  There’s nothing like looking a store manager eye to eye. Once they get to know you (and hopefully like you) the rules change. They’ll do more for you and be happy to do it. ONCE THEY GET TO KNOW YOU. Tip #2 Realize You’re Just Another Author  Unless your initials start with J.K. or the like, they won’t be ready to kiss your pinky ring. I could have been put out that they didn’t have stock which made me take a trip for nothing and simply left without engaging the manager in conversation. That’s the point. It didn’t turn out to be nothing. It started a relationship that turned into more sales. Tip #3 Come loaded for bear even if you don’t think you’ll get the chance to shoot  I was only there to sign stock so I could have walked in the store with nothing but a Sharpie. Instead, I brought three posters bookmarks, and postcards. The manager was thankful and said she’d start using the pieces right away. I realize you can’t do this in every bookstore across the country. So do it in the ones you can. Whenever I’m driving around I’m figuring a way to drop in on a store and say a quick hello. And I’m ready whenever I travel. Keep bookmarks and collateral in the back of your car and in your carry on when you’re out of town. Once you start looking for chances to spread the word about your book(s) more opportunities will pop into your brain like, well, popcorn. #4 Start before you’re published Remember the idea of telling everyone about your story? James’ story from Seaside, OR. #5 Bring a party. Throw parties for your fans at bookstores. These have a bigger draw than signings and are more fun! Not a signing … your friends and family. The Kingsman … Drives stocking at other stores. #6 Fish Where the Fish Are Advanced Tip: Go to the conferences and events book store owners go to, to build relationships. Librarians too. #7 Look for Non Standard Bookstores Look for other kinds of stores that could stock your book as one of their products. Browse the mall looking for shops that might be a good fit for your book. Ask the question, where does my ideal customer shop? Examples: * Tourist Traps * Specialty Stores * Gift shops * Made in Washington? Featured Patron 95 Tweets: Celebrating Martin Luther in the 21st Century by Peter DeHaan    This book explains each of Luther’s ninety-five concerns and then updates them, reframed as ninety-five tweets, complete with hashtags. 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.

In this episode we are going to talk about what to do when your book is not selling. Show Notes Question from Gerhard: I write Christian nonfiction “self” help, and I’ve just completed a novel. * I’ve subscribed to a fancy author WordPress theme and worked for more than three months full time to make it pretty. * I write GoodReads reviews, * I’ve got Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest pages all pretty and set up. * I’ve even prettied up my Amazon book descriptions. * I’ve got reader funnels set up to grow my email lists. I really want to serve — my chronic pain book is free forever.   But nothing. Bopkis. The needle is not moving. Not one visitor. I’ve sold one measly book per month for years and years now and I’m sick of it. What can I do except hold up passersby at gunpoint and force them to visit my site? Answer How pretty things are has more or less no impact on sales. There are only two reasons books don’t sell * A broken marketing funnel (We have a Book Marketing 101 episode on marketing funnels. Episode 118) * Poor book/reader fit.   Potential #1: Poor Book/Reader Fit * In the business world, this is called product/market fit. * Wrong Cover: Good covers convince readers to buy and read the book. Designing a book cover is more like designing a cereal box than it is like painting a masterpiece. It doesn’t matter if you like you cover, your readers need to like your cover. * Get a new cover * Use ads to test new book covers to find one that resonates. * Listen to Episode 106 and Episode 107. * Wrong Back Cover Copy. * Hire a professional to craft new back cover copy. * Use ads to test its performance. Episode 172 * Listen to Episode 111 * Don’t Know Target Readers * Find out where you target readers hang out online and spend time with them there. * Interact with your target readers in real life. * Wrong Target Readers: * Find an audience that is a better fit for your book, * Adapt your writing to better thrill your target audience. * Fails to Deliver on the Book’s Promise * Change the promise to better fit the book * Rewrite the book to better deliver on its promise. * Write a better book   Potential #2: Broken Funnel Readers buy from authors they know, like, and trust. The sales funnel for books has three steps. * Attract – This is getting the attention of strangers. It is the art of getting people to know who you are. * Engage – This is getting people who know who you are to like you. * Convert – This is getting people who like you to trust you with their money.   All three steps of the funnel need to be working in order to sell books. So far, for Gerhard, almost all his work has been done in the middle of the funnel with engaging readers. This only works if people already know who you are. It doesn’t matter how good the second two steps of the funnel are if the 1st step is broken.   So what to do? * Come to the webinar with Chris Fox and Thomas Umstattd on Tuesday night (June 25th) about Ads for Authors Who Hate Math. * Start

In this episode we are going to talk about ads for authors who hate math! And to help us with that is our friend and previous guest host, Chris Fox. For those who haven’t listened to our previous episodes with Chris, he’s an incredibly successful author of both fiction and nonfiction. A part of that success is how he uses advertising to boost his book sales. Show Notes Talking Points: * Why is advertising so hard for authors? * Walk us through your advertising spending. * What have you learned the hard way? * Do your experimental findings influence your writing? * When is advertising a good idea and when is it a bad idea? * Let’s talk about the book itself, how can we make our books better fits for effective advertising? * Let’s talk about Facebook Ads How do they work and how do you make them work well? * Google Ads * How do you setup a Facebook Pixel. * Amazon Ads Chris Links * ChrisFoxWrites.com Featured Patron Pathway of Peace: Living in a Growing Relationship with Christ by Cheryl Elton    Will help you calm the noises in your mind and experience more of God’s peace. Sponsor: Ads for Authors Who Hate Math Webinar with Chris Fox & Thomas Umstattd * June 25th 7pm Central * Register for Free * More Info

In this episode we’re going to talk about ten advertising terms you need to know. Intro We started this series with episode 179. Essentially, Thomas and I realized we get caught in a mistake many people do who have been in an industry for a long time. We start talking in a language only we understand. Problem! When it comes to marketing, we throw around a lot of terms that might not make sense to everyone. To rectify that distressing situation, this is our second in a series of episodes on Marketing Terms You Need to Know. If you missed the first one, again,  it’s episode 179. In this episode we’re going to talk about 10 ADVERTISING terms you need to know. Then we’ll do one on websites, on newsletters, on branding, graphic design, etc. … so that you’ll be able to understand all facets of marketing when you’re talking to agents, editors and subcontractors. So you’ll be able to walk the walk and talk the talk. Last last time, we’ll tell you the term, then briefly describe it, and if it needs more explanation, email us or post on the Novel Marketing Facebook Group and we’ll fill in any gaps. Ready Thomas? What is advertising? Bonus term. Everything! The Terms * Traditional Media * Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, billboard ads, direct mail * Digital Media * Internet, Smart Phones, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, F.B., Amazon ads, etc. * Reach * The total number of eyeballs your content or ad reaches * Radio and TV use the word “Cume” to describe this as well, total cumulative audience. How many individual people are reached on a weekly basis on a radio station, or how many people are reached with one TV show. * What is your reach as an author on a weekly or monthly basis? Is this number going up or down? It’s a broad brush analytic on how effective your efforts are. * This term is sometimes referred to as Impressions. * Paid Reach * Paid reach: you are paying to reach these people. F.B. boosted post, AMS ads, etc. * Organic Reach * Other people are reacting to your ad and/or content and promoting it for you, without any cost ($) from you, but it might cost you time. * Example: Retweets, F.B. post shares, forwarding an email, etc. * CPM / CPC / CPP * Cost Per Thousand, it is how most advertising is priced. * Cost Per Click * Cost Per Point   Sponsor 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.   * Frequency * Reach or Impressions is how many people you’ve reached once. Frequency is how many times you’ve reached the same person. * This is critical. The first time a reader hears about you, there’s awareness. The second time there’s conviction. The third time people take action. However, most studies show a person needs seven contact before they buy. * Think of how this applies to your newsletters for example. Or other ads. * The Spotlight effect   * Retargeting or Remarketing * Showing a follow up ad to someone who has expressed interest in a product * If you’re published, have you ever had this happen with one of your novels? * Highly effective and highly annoying and is a grea...

In this episode we are going to talk about how to measure your marketing. If you don’t currently measure your marketing, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that you’re probably wasting a lot of time, energy, and money on things that are not working. The good news is that if you prune away those things that don’t work and focus on what does work you will sell more books without spending any additional time and money. This episode is for both indie and traditional authors. While indies have a few more tools at their disposal, you would be surprised how much of this episode is for everyone.   Why Measurement is Important * Fahrenheit Story About 1-800 Numbers * Only way to know what works for you. * Protects you from marketing superstitions * Pruning your marketing activities will help you sell more books without spending more time and money. In fact, you might actually save time and money with good measurement. * Measuring your marketing turns you into an expert.   What to Measure * What separates a metric from a vanity metric? If you use it for decision making. * Vanity Metrics * Twitter Followers * Facebook Likes * Amazon Author Rank (Unless you are tracking it over time and connecting it with specific marketing efforts) * Amazon Book Sales Rank (Unless you are tracking it over time and connecting it with specific marketing efforts) * Email List Size (Unless you are also looking at Email Open Rate and Click Through Rate) * Pageviews (on irrelevant pages) * True Metrics * Pageviews (on landing pages) * Email Open Rate * Email Click Through Rate * ROI (Return on Investment) * Sales * Click Through Rate   Tracking URLs: The Best Way to Measure * Tracking URLs can work both offline and offline. * Amazon Affiliate Tracking IDs * Bit.ly+ (add a + to the end of any bit.ly to see its stats). * WordPress Redirection Plugin “Go to myauthorname.com/readermagnent to get the thing I am talking about.”   Dashboards To Help You Measure Your Marketing * Bit.ly Dashboard * KDP Dashboard (Indie Authors only) * Book Report (Indie authors only) * Google Analytics (great for both indie and trad) * MailChimp (Affiliate Link) and ConvertKit both give you great analytics on email campaign performance. * Facebook Insights * Publisher Author Portal (Trad authors only) Featured Patron Healing Every Day: A 90-Day Devotional Journey (Affiliate Link) by Mary DeMuth From beloved author, storyteller, and prayer warrior Mary DeMuth, comes a heartfelt devotional combining stories, Scripture, and prayers to reveal God’s heart for broken and healing people. And as of this recording it’s a number one new release in Devotionals. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.

In this episode, we talk about the recent changes Mailchimp has made and how it affects you as an author. TL;DR * MailChimp (Affiliate Link) is still the best for free email. * MailerLite is the cheapest option if you want automations * ConvertKit (Affiliate Link) is the best for quality. The reason we’re calling this episode ninety point five is it’s kind of a bonus episode, ‘cause it’s quite timely. If you haven’t heard, Mailchimp has made changes in their business model that is sending–in some people’s opinions– shock waves through the author community. Now if you’re not a Mailchimp user, this episode might not be applicable to you, but we think it still could be, because the principles we’re going to chat about will apply to whatever email marketing service providers you use. With that in mind, we’re going to do this episode a little different. I’m going to interview Thomas as if I’m you … so I’m hoping to ask the questions you might have about this huge shift Mailchimp has just introduced.     Links: * Time To Ditch Mailchimp? By David Gaughran   Questions * Can you give us an overview, for those of us who haven’t heard about what changed, what is going on with Mailchimp? * Do you see this happening with other newsletter marketing providers? * Grandfathered in … * New users … * Other providers … * CRM platform — short for Customer Relationship Management. Essentially, Mailchimp wants to be your go-to platform for managing the entirety of your relationship with a customer, not just for email marketing.

I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr. Today we are going to talk about BookBub, chances are you have heard of authors using this service to sell tens of thousands of books. Today we are going to learn how and why this platform is so powerful, and to help us with that we will be talking with David Gaughran “Gochrun”. David has helped thousands of authors self-publish through his workshops, blog, and writers’ books Let’s Get Digital, Strangers to Superfans, and Amazon Decoded . He is also the author of the historical adventures Liberty Boy (affiliate links). David, welcome to the Novel Marketing Questions: * What is BookBub? * How do authors use BookBub to sell more books? * How do you get your book accepted? * What mistakes do authors use when trying to use BookBub? * When should authors use BookBub and when should they avoid it? * What is a BookBub Ad? * How do we get those cheaper clicks? * How do we make BookBub ads more effective? * Tell us about your book BookBub Ads Expert (affiliate link) Links: * DavidGaughran.com * Twitter: @DavidGaughran * Canva * Book Brush   Featured Patron You’re the Cream in My Coffee by Jennifer Lamont Leo In 1928, small-town woman Marjorie Corrigan travels to Chicago and thinks she sees her first love–believed killed in the Great War–alive and well in a Chicago train station. Suddenly everything in her life is up for grabs. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.

In this episode we are going to talk about elevator pitches. This is not just for traditional authors, it’s for any writer who wants to talk about their book in a way that makes people want to pull out their phones and buy it right there on the spot. Why you should listen to this episode Show Notes Talking Points: What is an elevator pitch? * Sentence – High concept, the hook, 26 words max … * Paragraph – Radio Pitch / Back cover copy … * Page – Short Synopsis * Emphasis on short * The Ultra short elevator pitch. What if you don’t have three floors to give your pitch? * The theme pitch * “It’s about a woman who stands up for herself for the first time in her life.” (The Pages of Her Life)   Why do you need one prepared ahead of time? * Talking about your book briefly does not come naturally. * You use it to pitch potential purchasers * Pitching to influencers (taste makers, editors, agents) * You’ll use your elevator pitch forever * When you prep it you can test it on others BECAUSE you want to make sure nothing is lost in translation. Is it easy to understand? And most important, will the person you tell it to be able to repeat it somewhat accurately?   Some Questions to Ask Yourself While Crafting Your Pitch * What makes my book different from other similar books? * What makes my book special? * What makes me weird? Unique? Appealing? * Stock photo pretty vs unusually pretty. * What makes my book weird? * Who is my book for? * Can change based on the audience * Example: Twilight * What is the number one most interesting thing about my book? * And let us repeat ourselves and remind you to ask if your pitch is EASY to understand and easily repeatable   The Subway pitch * An example, James’ first novel, Rooms: * “It’s about a young Seattle software tycoon who inherits a home on the Oregon coast that turns out to be a physical manifestation of his soul.” * “It’s about a man who inherits a home that turns out to be a physical manifestation of his soul.” * “It’s about a man who walks into the rooms of his own soul.”   Pitch Points * Don’t put every worm on the hook * Use different bait for different fish. It is ok to have multiple pitches. Adapt your pitch for your listener. (How to sell a refrigerator to someone living in an igloo) * This is SHOW BUSINESS! Leave the audience wanting more! * Practice. Then practice more. Then practice more.   The #1 Mistake to Avoid: * Being boring   The #2 Mistake to Avoid: * Being boring   Pitch Templates * Auto Publicist * Using the “What if?” motif works well for many writers: * What if you were given a chair and told it was made by Jesus Christ and had supernatural healing powers? (The Chair) * What if you could have a conversation with your 23 year old self? (The Five Times I Met Myself) * What if you found a legendary lost corridor at the end of a lake, that if you got through, would give you what you want most in the world? (The Long Journey to Jake Palmer) * What if you could find God’s Book of Days on earth, that tells the past, present and future of every soul? (Book of Days) * What if you woke up one morning and the darkest parts of you had vanished?

In this episode we are going to talk about how one author applied a lot of the things we talk about on Novel Marketing and used them to launch her career. That author is Melissa Ferguson. Melissa writes heartwarming romantic comedy for Thomas Nelson publishers and is an adjunct professor of the New Testament so she’s smart … her debut novel, The Dating Charade, releases on December 3rd 2019. Questions * Tell us your story … a quick intro of why and when you started writing, and how you got to where you are now. * Tell us about taking that discarded manuscript and using it to get a three book deal. * Of all the things you did to market yourself and make yourself stand out, what are the two or three you think made the most difference? * Talk to us about rejection. How did you handle it? How did you keep promoting yourself and your work in the face of that? * Talk to us about confidence * You went the traditional path. What do you see as the pros and cons of that path? * Give us the elevator pitch for your upcoming novel … * Any final thoughts for writers early on in their journey? * Where can people pre-order your novel? * Where can people find out more about you? * https://www.mlferguson.com/ * How to Create an eBook   Featured Patron 188    The Embers Series    A hurricane and a series of unexplained fires hits too close to home. What will it cost inspector Cassandra McCarthy do to protect the citizens of Silver Heights? ” Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.