Novel Marketing

GoodReads giveaways, one of the most cost-effective book promotion tactics, are changing. Here’s everything you need to know about giving away books on GoodReads. Introduction TLDR: * Jim is out sick today. * We don’t talk about a lot of news on this show. * Try to focus on evergreen topics * GoodReads is making a major change you need to know about. * Specifically, GoodReads is changing how giveaways work. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., and James L. Rubart, who normally joins me on the show, is out sick today, so I am going solo. So we’re hoping that Jim feels better. But what we’re going to talk about today —or what I’m going to talk about– is Goodreads giveaways. There’s been a huge change in how Goodreads works. Now generally we try to focus on evergreen topics on the show. We don’t like to cover current news. There’s some really good podcasts that do that, like the Sell More Books Show is mostly covering brand new news. So we like to cover marketing principles that don’t change quickly. But with Goodreads, this change is so important I feel like we’ve got to cover it. Background TLDR: * Back in episodes 12 and 14 we talked about how to use GoodReads to market your book. * One of the most effective techniques back then was to give books away for free. * GoodReads makes is easy to host a giveaway and you get lots of benefits from the publicity. * Wasn’t free, you had to ship a physical book, which typically cost $5-$10 per book for printing and shipping. So if you give away 10 books it is $50 to $100 to host a giveaway. * We recommend giving away one book at a time which was a great deal in terms of cost per impression. The cost of the giveaway was no more than $10 and you got a lot of attention for that $10. So a little bit of background. Back in Episodes 12 and 14 we talk about how to use Goodreads to market your book. We had Randy Ingermanson on, and one of the techniques that we talked about was giving away your book for free. Randy did some experiments, and we found that giving away just one book over and over again was quite effective. So it wasn’t free to give away a book; you had to send a physical book to the winner of the contest that Goodreads hosted for you. But that would cost five to ten dollars per book depending on how much your printing and shipping was to that person. If you gave away 10 books, it was a bit pricey, it’s fifty to a hundred bucks, but if you gave away just one book, which we found was the best bang for the buck, it was only 10 bucks to host a giveaway. So it was a pretty good deal if you are marketing your book on a budget. The problem: The problem though was that it was such a good technique, everyone started doing it. So people didn’t just hear about it from the Novel Marketing podcast, they also heard about it other places. And it’s gotten so crowded. I checked yesterday: there are 3000 books being given away. 3000 different titles in the giveaway section, which is too many for readers to browse. So it’s a little bit overwhelming and the result is that it’s not as effective as it used to be. What is Changing: TLDR: * Indie Authors in KDP will be able to give away ebook copies for the first time. * Traditional publishers got this a while back and there was a lot of complaining that this was not fair.

Quick Notes: TLDR: Technical Mix Up on Episode numbers. You might have missed episode 112. I did not go out as an email.  Clarification on blogging. We agree with everything Joanna said…. If you have a novel on Amazon. If you don’t, focus on craft. We are Extending the Survey   James L. Rubart (Jim): And in this episode, we’re going to talk to you about why traditionally published authors should not spend any money marketing their books. But first, Thomas, we’re in the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. Does it seem different this year? Being a newlywed, I mean— it’s a different dynamic, right? Thomas Umstattd Jr.: It is. I will say, the romantic songs–Christmas songs–that I used to hate, now have new life. And I’m in a relationship and I’m enjoying them quite a bit more. And I will say, over the holidays it’s common for podcasts to take a break. A couple of weeks ago you may have noticed that we didn’t have an episode come out. That was on me. We actually did have an episode come out. We did all the work, we recorded it, everything… and with the holidays happening, I forgot to push “publish!” So you may notice an extra episode in your feed this week. The episode, in case you missed it, is Episode 112, “Where To Build Your Platform As An Unpublished Novelist.” Thomas: And I do want to say, because that episode makes it sound like we hate blogging… you’re thinking “you were talking with Joanna! You were like ‘oh I can use this great strategy’ and now you’re saying ‘we hate blogging’– what’s the deal?” Well, let me clarify. If you do not have a book on Amazon you should not be blogging. Jim: Well, they COULD be blogging. They could be, but the majority of their focus needs to be writing. Thomas: That’s right. You need to be focused on learning how to write a great book and focusing on your craft, if you’re not yet published. If you have a novel on Amazon that is purchasable, then the toolbox of content marketing that we’ve talked about with Joanna opens up to you. So we don’t actually disagree with ourselves as much as we made it sound. I apologize for making that unclear. Blogging can be a great tool if you’re a published novelist, if you use the techniques that we talked about in Episode 113 with Joanna Penn. But if you are unpublished, focus on writing a better book. We also recommend going through the Five-Year Plan Course that will help you get your craft up to speed that you can find out about at Novelmarketing.com. One other mixup over the holidays—I’m just full of apologies in the beginning of this episode! I’m sorry everybody. The survey that we mentioned…there were some bugs with it. Initially some people were unable to take it. All of those issues have been fixed. So we’re extending it a little bit longer. We really would appreciate if you would take the survey. Go to novelmarketing.com. Take the survey. It takes just a couple of minutes, it really does help us, moving into 2018, to make this show better. Intro This topic comes from a blog post Thomas recently wrote, and it’s getting a strong reaction. Some people saying, YES! Others not so much. And even if you’re not traditionally published,

Different kinds of authors need different things from their home pages. Here is how to make sure you have the right kind of homepage. Introduction TLDR: * Not all authors are the same, their homepages need to do different things. * Your homepage needs to: * Satisfy your visitor’s desires (why are they visiting your website in the first place) * Accomplish your goals. (what do you want them to do now that they are on your site) James L Rubart (Jim): And in this episode, we’re going to talk about the five different kinds of homepages that authors use and figure out which one is going to work best for you. So Thomas, we’re telling people that not all homepages work for all authors. One size does not fit all. Is that what you’re saying? Thomas Umstattd Jr.: That’s right. Different authors need different things from their home pages. And part of the reason this is the case is that your readers are different. So not all authors have the same kind of readers and not all authors are in the same place in their career. So they don’t have necessarily the same things to say. But ultimately your home page needs to satisfy your visitors’ desires. So what do they desire when they come to your website? What do they want? What are they looking for? And it needs to accomplish your goals as an author. So if you’re trying to sell your book, you’re going to have a different kind of homepage than if you’re trying to build anticipation for your first book that’s not out yet. Jim: OK, so let’s go to the first homepage Web site. What would you call that, Thomas? Homepage #1 Placeholder Website TLDR: * Perhaps the best kind of website for unpublished novelists. * Goal: start building domain authority and claim your place on the web. * Look professional enough to impress publishers, agents, potential readers * This is your business card * Link to your social media * Headshot * Bio * Mailchimp signup form for book updates. * MyBookProgress * What is the action you want them to take? Thomas: So the first kind of home page is what I’ll call a placeholder Web site. In fact, this home page isn’t just a home page. It is the entire Web site. So if you’re a novelist and you’re writing your first book, you need to have a home page.. You need to have yourname dot com or your name, your middle name, and your last name dot com–whatever it is you’re able to get reserved so you can start to build some authority, some reputation, some age on that domain. Google likes domains that have been around for a long time. You want to start that time as soon as possible. And also you want to something you’re able to put on your business card, something to be able to give agents— or, if you’re going indie, to cover designers— just so that you exist, so you’re real. You’re not real until you’re really on Google. So you need to have that web site, but it doesn’t need to be this big complicated web site with lots of pages. A single web page is fine. So for a placeholder Web site. Jim: Well, as you mentioned, this is your business card. This is where agents and editors and potential readers are going to go to find you. They want to see that you exist. Until you exist with a home page or just one page, people are not going to think you’re serious, so that’s why it’s critical. Thomas: That’s right. Your goal here with this kind of web page is to start building your authority for Google and to start building your newsletter so that as people are stumbling across– you know, they hear about you, or you’re at a Christmas party and you’re like “oh yeah. And you can find me at my name dot com.

If you are traditionally published, chances are your publishing company is putting pressure on you to “build your platform” and spend time and money to marketing your book. Most authors never question this and just see spending money on marketing as part of the job. But is it? Let’s take a closer look and see if it makes sense to spend time and money on marketing. Reason #1: Traditionally published authors don’t have the sales information they need to succeed. “The only way to avoid wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work is experimentation and measurement.” Click to Tweet If you do a big promotion on December 15th, how much did it cost you and how many additional books did it sell? If you are traditionally published, there is no timely way to know how many books you sold on Dec 15th as compared to Dec 14th, and, depending on the nature of your royalty report, no way to find out. This leads to a lot of superstitions within the traditional publishing world as to what works in terms of marketing. Traditionally-published authors typically have no idea what is and is not working as far as marketing tactics go. The result is that the money they spend is usually wasted on things like blog tours and social media campaigns that result in few to no sales. As long as the author does not have timely access to sales data, it doesn’t make sense for the author to be spending time and money promoting the book But that is just the first problem. Reason #2 The math doesn’t work. 90% of books have not sold through their advance. This means these authors get $0 in additional royalties on sales. So, when a traditionally published author pays for marketing, they are effectively reducing their pay. If an author gets a $10,000 advance and then pays $4,000 for marketing, their effective advance is only $6,000. This is why publishers put so much pressure on authors to market their books. (Shout out to Randy Ingermanson for introducing me to the math on this.) Some publishers are able to convince authors to spend their entire advance on “platform building.” The result is that these authors are effectively writing a book for free. If you have sold through your advance, the math still does not work. Let’s say traditionally published Barbara has a 25% royalty on her ebook. If her ebook sells for $7.99 then her royalty would be $2.00 a copy. Let’s say 10% of people who click an ad for her book go on to buy the book. That means she has to get 10 clicks for every sale. 10 clicks at $0.25 a click is $2.50 to acquire a reader–a reader for which she gets paid a royalty of $2.00. This means if she is paying for ads she is losing $0.50 per reader. She could get a better return playing the slots in Vegas. Indie Authors Have Better Marketing Options Now let’s imagine Barbara is self-published. Through Create Space and KDP, she has real-time access to sales data. On December 16, she can know exactly how many books sold on December 15 as compared to December 14. This allows her to experiment and find out what works best specifically for her book and her target readers. “Indie authors don’t have to rely on marketing superstitions from other authors and can avoid repeatedly wasting money on tactics that don’t work.” Click to Tweet Barbara also gets a big enough percentage of the sales price where buying ads can make sense. If she has a 70% commission on a $4.99 ebook, that comes out to $3.49 per book. If it costs $2.50 to acquire a reader, that means she nets $0.99 per reader. “The difference between indie publishing and traditional publishing can be the difference between making $1 a...

Introduction James L Rubart: And in this episode, we’re going to talk about how to use content to promote your book. Thomas Umstattd Jr.: Joanna Penn is an award-nominated, New York Times bestselling author of thrillers under J.F.Penn. She has sold over half a million books all over the world. Her site, TheCreativePenn.com is regularly voted one of the top 10 sites for writers and self-publishers. Joanna and I got started blogging about marketing for authors at about the same time in 2007. Joanna smartly focused on independent authors while we at Author Tech Tips and Author Media focused too much on traditional authors. She got on the ship that was rising and I got on the ship that was sinking. So I have since drunk the indie author Kool-Aid, but Joanna, welcome to the show. Joanna Penn: Oh thanks for having me guys. And it’s so funny you say that, because someone was asking me the other day “why does your blog always come up when people Google stuff” and I’m like it’s because I started in 2008 blogging about self-publishing when seriously nobody wanted to know about self-publishing. So if you get early on something that’s not popular, then when it finally becomes popular, you know you’ll be out in front. But yeah it’s great. We’re talking about this today. James Rubart: Well and it’s not only the fact that you got in early, but you have excellent content. Thomas and I are both fans of your show. So congratulations on doing it for a long time, but also doing it so well. Joanna Penn: Thank you so much. I was also saying to someone “check out the Wayback Machine. You guys know the Wayback Machine, when you can look at websites what they looked like. My site in 2009 was a lot different. So again, we will get better over time, right? What is content? Thomas Umstattd:  I want to talk about content, and Joanna, it’s really easy for those of us in the industry to just assume we know what content means. I was working at a radio station, I had a radio show. And they were struggling, and I was like “you need to be focusing on creating content.” And one of the staff people at the radio station, looked at me and said “What do you mean by content?” And I was like…”what do you mean, ‘what do you mean by content?’?” So what is content? Joanna Penn: So, for me, content as it relates to marketing, so let’s call it Content Marketing, is basically creating and sharing online material, like articles, video, audio, images, that don’t explicitly market your products. Not “buy my book” type stuff, but instead, attract attention to your Web site or your profile with the aim that some of the people who check out your content is a bit of a full-on approach. So lots of people might look at a blog post and then some of them may end up joining your email list, following you on social media and may eventually buy your books. So I find it very attractive as an introvert, which is why I’ve always done it because it’s an attraction form of marketing. So in nonfiction it’s putting out useful stuff and fiction we’ll be talking about more in detail. But you know it’s attracting your ideal readers when it comes to being an author. How does content marketing work for introverted authors? James Rubart: Joanna, talk to us for a second, because you just said a keyword that I relate to and a lot of our listeners relate to, and that is introvert. A lot of people just do not want to do the marketing. But you’re saying this is a way for introverted authors to actually do marketing. Joanna Penn: This is something I care a lot about as well.

  Listener Question I’m an emerging author. I have almost completed a novel and have written 20+ short stories, but I have not submitted them for publication. I understand it is important to have an author’s platform–a website/blog. My question, if you are as yet unpublished, what kinds of things should you upload to your website–a sample chapter from the book, sample short stories, all your short stories to show your range of style?  Transcript: Jim: I’m James L Rubart but everybody calls me Jim Thomas: I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr. Jim: And this is the show for novelists who want to become bestselling authors but aren’t necessarily fond of marketing. And in this episode, Thomas, we’re going to talk about how to start building your platform before your first book comes out. And I’m excited to get into this because I think you and I might disagree on a few points but I’ve got to ask you about your recent trip. You and Margaret went out of the country recently, didn’t you? Thomas: That’s right. So my book on dating and relationships has landed me on a documentary. So the documentary crew had me out to Canada to talk about my book and to talk about dating and relationships. We haven’t talked about documentary marketing and getting on those, so it will be interesting to see once the documentary comes out if it has an impact and what kind of impact it has on book sales. So stay tuned, we’ll let you know. Jim: Well that’s going to be good! So they were actually filming you, you were part of this documentary, they were interviewing you and talking to you? Thomas: That’s right. Somebody else who had written a very popular book on the topic is changing his views a little bit, and he’s making a documentary about that evolution. So I actually disagree with his original book, and so this was a discussion between us. It will be very interesting to see how it works into the documentary at the end. Hopefully I won’t come across as The Villain, so that’s always a risk when you’re in a documentary, in that it’s not a favorable documentary on a topic. Jim: That’s true, you don’t know how it’s going to be edited right? So I know that things change in documentary and filming schedules and all this, but is there a tentative release date for when this is going to come out? Thomas: Yeah, 2018. Sometime… Jim: Sometime in 2018, alright. Well, we’ll keep everyone posted. Thomas: So this topic about marketing for unpublished authors actually comes from a listener question. Carol Magai asks, Jim: “I’m an emerging author. I’ve almost completed a novel and I’ve written 20 or more short stories but I haven’t submitted them for publication at this point in time. I understand it’s important to have an author’s platform, a website, a blog, some kind of exposure. So my question is, if you aren’t yet published, what kinds of things should you upload to your website? Should you upload a sample chapter from the book, sample short stories, all your short stories to show your range? What should I put on that website while I’m submitting and hopefully getting a contract for that first novel?” Thomas: All right. So I will say , and Jim you may disagree with this, but I want to first talk about the things not to do, some very common mistakes that I see authors make. And one is spending lots of time on social media thinking that it is platform-building. And I just don’t see this work. I see a lot of authors spending a lot of time on social media that doesn’t end up helping them sell books once their book is ready to go. And that time is better spent doing something else, potentially just working on your craft and writing. Jim, what do you think? Jim: Well, I think yes and no. Let me give you a specific example of a friend of mine, and I haven’t asked her permission so I’m not going to say her name,

Your book’s front cover may get someone’s attention, but your book’s back cover copy gets their money. That copy can make or break your book promotion. Learn how to write amazing copy. Intro Transcript James: In this episode, we’re going to talk to you about back cover copy. So really the question we have to ask folks, is does a book cover sell a book? It does and it doesn’t. Not usually. Most of the times, a book cover sells you on the idea of reading the back cover copy, or if you’re on Amazon or online, that description that’s on the page. That’s where the real selling takes place. So how do you write compelling back cover copy? That’s what we’re going to explore today in today’s episode. So Thomas let me ask you, is that what sells you on a book? Is it the back cover copy? Is it the cover? Is it a combination? Thomas: Probably half the time, it’s the back cover and the other half of the time it’s the reviews, either from my friends or from people I trust. Or the aggregate of reviews online. James: Ok so you’ll read the reviews, so it’s a combination of those things. Thomas: Right. But if I typically won’t read the reviews if the back cover copy has not caught my attention. So if I’m bored by the back cover copy, you’ve lost me. You’ve lost the chance to sell me your book. James: Okay, so for you, it sounds like you’re a lot like me. I’ll look at the cover and if I see it looks “wow this looks like somebody did it who does not have graphic design experience” like we’ve talked about in the previous episode two episodes back, then if it looks good you’ll go to the back cover copy, you’ll read the back cover copy, then you’ll take a look at some reviews and that’s your process? Thomas: That’s right. And for me, I don’t read paper books. So it all happens online. So when we say “back cover copy” this is the text that goes next to your book photo on Audible or on Amazon.com. It’s the paragraph of text that describes why people should read your book. James: Okay. Well, you and I are the same. I look at that cover then I read the back cover copy or the description online, and then I’ll go and take a look at it. I never really actually read the 5 star and 4 star reviews, I go to the 1 star immediately because I want to see what the criticisms are and at that point, I make the decision. So I guess we’re both saying the same thing, that back cover copy or the description online is absolutely critical in selling your book. So our advice to you is, do not gloss over this. Spend the money to make this right because this is really the key component in getting somebody to buy your book. Thomas: That’s right. So Jim, what do we do, how does somebody write better back cover copy? What are the copywriting secrets of James L Rubart? Other than the cover, your back cover copy is the most crucial part of your novel marketing. TLDR: Do not gloss over this. Spend the money to get it done right. James: Well this is actually hard, Thomas, for me, as we were putting together this episode it was kind of like “this is something I’ve been doing for 25 years, so it’s one of those things that comes naturally, you don’t really think about it or you don’t think that much about your process. So I had to really think and drill down and go “okay what do I do when I’m writing back cover copy for other authors or writing my own back cover copy?” and so these are the things that I realize I do instinctually and it’s things that our listeners can do as well. So let’s go through those points. What is back cover copy? TLDR: It’s a sale pitch, it’s the ad for your book In movie terms, it’s a trailer, so it’s the trailer for your book First of all, what is back cover copy? We talked about it, but it is THE sales pitch, it is really the ad for your book. If we were talking in movie terms,

Many novelists don’t know what to put on their author websites. What are readers actually looking for? In this episode, we tell you what will thrill them and make them want to come back. The only reason why anyone would visit an author website is that it is the most interesting website in the entire world – for that person at that time. So, why would someone visit your fiction website? Here are ten answers that will not only draw readers to your author website, but will get them to bring their friends as well. The DVD Approach for Novel Websites Thomas: So in this episode we’re going to be talking about how to make a website that’s actually interesting for your readers to visit. And this is something a lot of authors really struggle with, because they’re like, “I write novels, what do I talk about on my website other than posting the book covers to my novels?” We’re going to tell you exactly how to do that, but first we want to talk a little bit about philosophically how to approach that. And the most important way I feel to think of your website is like the special features on a DVD. So think of your website as that companion to the story that helps accentuate it. Jim, what kind of special features do you like on a DVD when you’re watching one? Jim: Well, I immediately go to the Bloopers. The bloopers are fun, they make me laugh, you get a little bit of the behind-the-scenes look and feel for who the actors are. The other thing I love is the continuity things, right, where “why did this continuity break here, and why didn’t it break there” and the other thing I love hearing about is how did this story come together? In other words, it started off as a screenplay or possibly started off as a novel, and then a group of people came together to make this thing into a movie. So I really like the story behind the story. #1 Deleted Scenes & Alternate Endings Thomas:  Yeah. Exactly, which leads us straight into our first thing, which is Deleted Scenes and alternate endings. This is one of my favorite things to see on a DVD. It’s like, I want to know the other ways that it could have gone or the other scenes that could have been there. Because if you really fall in love with the story, you want more of it when you’re done, right? I remember being so sad when Lord of The Rings ended, like “I want to read more” and there was no more, and Tolkien was dead, and oh it was the worst. It started me on my track of reading other people’s fantasy books, because I was like “well I’m not going to find more from Tolkien so I have to start exploring other writers” and so this is something you can put on your website– deleted scenes and alternate endings from your book. Something that makes people curious and also interested. It’s the sort of thing, especially if you mention it, “Deleted Scenes available on book title.com”, now suddenly I’m curious to go visit your website and find out more about you. Jim: Yeah I love that idea, Thomas, because for example, [with] The Five Times I Met Myself, I’ve had a number of readers write to me and say, “Oh gosh, I was just hoping it could have ended this way, that could have been great”  and I’ve written back and say “well it did actually end that way, that’s the way it originally ended” and then we decided to change it up. So you’ve kind of inspired me right now to go back and put that on my website for people that want to see how the story originally ended. #2 Integrated Blog Thomas: Another thing that authors are looking for, the 2nd thing people are looking for on your website, is a blog. And they want the blog integrated into your website. And I will say, authors have gotten much better about this nowadays. Years ago people used to have their blog on one website and their website on a separate website. So they had a blogspot over here and their website, their name.com. You want that all together.

Chrome is the most popular browser, but if you’re just using the basic version you are missing out. In this episode, we are going to talk about 11 extensions to help make you a more productive, better writer. Transcript  Jim: And in this episode, we’re going to talk to you guys about technology, specifically Chrome. Thomas: Awesome. Well, whether you’re using a Mac or a PC, hopefully you’re using Google Chrome. It’s the most popular web browser and if you’re using just the basic version of Chrome, you’re missing out. There’s 11 extensions… Jim: Yeah, you really are. 11 extensions that are going to change your writing life… and again to your credit, Thomas, you were the guy who said “Jim why are you not using Chrome? Get on this browser, there’s so many tools.” So I have to thank you for that too. So I guess we’re going to hopefully introduce some folks to some extensions that are available in Chrome that they might not be using. Thomas: That’s right, and if you’re still a Windows user who’s clicking on that little blue E, I just would like to tell you there’s a beautiful world out there that you have not yet experienced that is going to change your life. You’re going to enjoy being on the Internet so much more and with these extensions you’re going to be a much more productive and better writer. 1 Grammarly TLDR: * Fixes your grammar on the fly. * Checks for comma use, wrong words and 100s of other things. * Free version or $12/mo for the pro version (checks 300 more things) * Add to Chrome So some of these are productivity extensions and some will actually help you with your writing, and the first one is Grammarly. We’ve talked a lot on this show about how important it is to have an editor, but you can’t always afford an editor for all of your marketing. So let’s say you’re putting together an email. Ideally you’d have an editor look over that email. And I do. I have my wife, she’s my editor, and I’m an awful writer when it comes to grammar and typos and spelling and punctuation. And typically when I’d be crafting an email going out to thousands of people, she’d find a dozen, two dozen errors in it, UNTIL I started using Grammarly. Jim: Wow. Thomas: Grammarly is an extension for Chrome and it catches about 95 percent of the things my wife was catching. It’ll catch if you’re using the wrong YOU’RE, with or without the apostrophe, and when it corrects you it’s got a little blip that explains the grammatical rule. So it’s not just fixing your grammar, it’s actually educating you on grammar. I’ve never fully understood commas but now after using Grammarly for a year and a half I feel like I understand commas. I’m starting to actually introduce fewer typos with commas into my writing because I know that “oh, if I don’t add a comma after this introductory clause, Grammarly’s going to put a little green underline underneath it” and it checks for hundreds of things that Word doesn’t check for. Jim: Thomas the comma king! Thomas:  That’s right. It’ll even check for if you’re using the wrong word. Microsoft Word and other tools will spell check, but if you’re using a word that’s spelled correctly but it’s the wrong word, say it sounds similar or it’s missing a letter, often they don’t catch that. Whereas Grammarly would. Like “I think you’re using the wrong word” and it will suggest the correct word. It’s changed my life. Im very happy with it. There’s a free version that checks for a lot of stuff. I went ahead and paid for the pro version that checks for even more things, it’s like having a professional editor sitting next to me as I write. And it makes me much more confident as I’m writing blog posts, as I’m writing emails. It’s got a Mac app, it’s got a PC app,

Free pulsing is a special way to make your book free for one day that can dramatically boost book sales. But only if you do it correctly. Guest: Jamie Foley writes books and design websites. She loves strategy games, home-grown berries, and Texas winters. She is terrified of plot holes and red wasps. * What is free pulsing? * Why free pulse your book? * Who gets the best benefit of free pulsing? * How do you do a free pulsing? * What sorts of results have you seen? Downloads: * Jamie’s Tracking Spreadsheet

The following mistakes could ruin your book sales. They are easy to avoid, once you know what to look for. Make sure your book cover is not killing your marketing. Reminder from the last episode, or if you haven’t caught it yet … Your book cover is the most important element of your book marketing. A bad book cover can ruin all your other marketing efforts. This is not where you want to be on a budget or make mistakes. Mistake #1 Designing It Yourself Design is something people study in college. It is not something you can learn in a weekend or a week Jim’s story of “becoming a graphic designer” The more control you have over the design, the worse the design will likely be. Most of us would not, or should not tell an electrician how to wire our home. Same thing here. Mistake #2 Including the word “by” Not done on book covers. Use typography to designate the author. Mistake #3 Saying both award-winning AND bestselling. Pick one. Bestselling is usually better depending on level of best seller status. If an award is not WIDELY known, it won’t have much impact on the reader Exceptions: Nobel Prize Pulitzer Prize Mistake #4 Forgetting to add shelving instructions above the ISBN bar code. We mentioned this last time, but worth mentioning again … Self Published Author Often Forget this This is the category of your book. Mistake #5 Imagery is too “on the nose” The cover should not tell the story of your book. It should tease it. Hansel and Gretel didn’t leave all the breadcrumbs in a pile, they dolled them out slowly Use the word “apple” or show an apple. Don’t do both. Mistake #6 Too many design elements. Too Complex. Marketing 101 says the Indian Mystic Men should lay on one nail. Rule of thumb: The simpler the cover design, the more confident the publisher is about the writing.   Mistake #7 Too Clever If I can’t figure your book cover out immediately, you’ve lost my attention. Remember the one-inch rule Mistake #8 Poor typography Script Fonts Poor font choice Too many fonts No visual hierarchy Low contrast Darci last night … she knew immediately … Mistake #9 Overuse of stock photos Traditionally published books are moving away from stock photos. The trend is toward typographical covers, especially innon-fictionn. What happens when all the designers are going to the same stock photo house Do reverse image search on Google to see if your image has been used Mistake #10 Design by Committee. A good cover needs some people to hate it to work. We did an entire episode on this. You can listen to it at NovelMarketing.com/19 One dollar coin- disaster, designed by committee Mistake #11 Using Your Own Artwork You don’t have good perspective on your own art. You are not as good as you think you are. This applies to photos you have taken as well. Weathertop Statues Jim’s story of his photo ending up on the cover of his novel ROOMS Sponsor: MyBookTable

Your book cover is your biggest marketing asset. It can make or break your book. In this episode, we are going to talk about what your book cover must have to be a success. Intro Your book cover is the most important element of your book marketing. A bad book cover can ruin all your other marketing efforts. This is not where you want to be on a budget or make mistakes. This your first What is the Purpose of a Book Cover? Communicate the genre of the book Incite curiosity Sell the book. Cover Design is a combination of graphic design, art, and package design. Components Every Book Cover Needs to Look Legit (Front and Back) Title & Subtitle Author Back Cover Copy (Blurb) Author Headshot Author Bio ISBN Number & Barcode Publishing House Price US & Canada Trust Badge (Award, Best Seller Status, # of Copies in Print) Shelving Instructions Endorsements (?)   Pro Tips Keep the potential for a series in mind. Ideally, the design can span across multiple books and look good on a shelf. Keep the thumbnail in mind. If you are self-published, 95% of your sales will be online. Good design is not adding until you can add no more. It is subtracting until you can subtract no more. Keep the focus of the design process on your reader. It doesn’t matter if you like your cover, it only matters if your target reader likes the cover.

In this episode, we a talk with best-selling author Lacy William about how she uses Amazon Advertising to sell more books. This is not going to be just theory, this is going to be specific Amazon Ads tactics that work! And will work for you. And the best place in the world to sell books is of course … Amazon … three out of four ebooks are sold on Amazon … yes, 75%. So getting to hear from an expert on using Amazon is an essential part of your marketing program. In our opinion that person is Lacy Williams. USA Today bestselling author Lacy Williams works in a hostile environment of four young children underfoot. In spite of this, she has managed to be a hybrid author since 2011, publishing forty books & novellas. You can find information about her fiction at LacyWilliams.net and her non-fiction books on indie publishing at TheSmartIndie.site. Questions: * What are Amazon ads? (AMS) * Why buy Amazon ads? * How do Amazon ads work? KindlePreneur * When should authors start buying ads? * What kind of money do people need to budget? * Use the google keyword tool. Identify long tail keywords. * Where should people go to learn more about Amazon advertising?

Step 0 Fund the Book * Get a Good Job or a rich Spouse * Tempting to skimp * Save Money ($1,500 – $10,000) * Crowdfunding (049 – How to Use Crowdfunding to Fund Your Next Book Advance) Step 1 Write The Book * First Draft (004 – How to Write Your Novel in a Month) * Rewrite * Beta Readers * Substantive Edit (071 – How To Find a Good Editor) * Line edit * Copy Edit Step 2 Make Book * Type Setting (We will have a whole episode on this coming up soon) * Book Cover (We will have a whole episode on book covers coming up soon) * Back Cover Copy (We will have a whole episode on this coming up soon) * eBook Formatting (We will have a whole episode on this coming up soon) Step 3 Print The Book * How Book Printing Works * Printing * Distribution * Fulfilment * Offset or Print On Demand * Offset much cheaper, but … higher risk. Garage full of novels? * Use the offset money to make the audiobook. Episode 95 and 96 * Thomas’ Recommendation: CreateSpace Step 4 Market The Book * Start With Branding (Episode 41) Sponsor: * MyBookProgress

Why You Should Care Homepage is still important First impression for people Googling you. Why You Should Listen to Us Thomas’s company Author Media has built over 100 author websites. Common Mistakes Authors Make With Their Homepage Mistake #1 Welcome letter No one reads these. It makes your website look dated. Tend to be a symptom of not knowing what to do with your homepage. Shocking Broca, first line of your novel, first line of your website, same thing …   Mistake #2 Cramming content above the fold. There is no fold. In professional web design, this is how we can tell if someone has not been keeping up to date.   Mistake #3 Desktop First Design Websites are built with computers. The temptation is to design the homepage for computers. Most visitors will be on a mobile device.   Mobile can’t be an afterthought. It must be your first thought.   Mistake #4 Focusing on the author. No one wants to read your bio on the homepage. That is what about pages are for. And even then … boredom is not your friend. This is your second chapter … The purpose of your headshot on the homepage is to help people know they are at the right place. And give them a connection. We connect with people. It’s the way we’re wired.   Mistake #5 No clear next step 90% of the time the next step should be to either: join your email list or buy your book. In one sentence  answer the question: “What do I want people to do on my website?” Don’t use the word “browse” in your answer. The purpose of my website is to __________________________________   Mistake #6 Sliders The purpose of sliders is to let your boss put his pet project “above the fold” without having to worry about anyone ever seeing it. Sliders only work if everyone reads at the same pace. Sliders break the mobile experience Good place to hide a dead body.   Mistake #7 Paragraph Text Homepages are for headlines and images You have seven seconds … Gross Anatomy once again Exception: If your homepage is a blog, you can have one paragraph of text per post.   Mistake #8 No Clickable Book Cover People want to be able to buy your book right away, it might be the only reason they came to your site.   Mistake #9 No Sign-Up Form Email is one of the most effective ways to sell books. One of? Always be growing your list. Scavenger hunts   Mistake #10 Ugly Design You are not a designer. An ugly website reduces your credibility. Either stay close to the theme or hire a professional. Don’t do it yourself unless you can explain the difference between hexadecimal, RGB and cmyk and when and where to use which one in design.   No one has the guts to tell you your website is ugly. The easiest way to have a passable design is to stick with white and black. Let the color come from your photos. Good design will not make your site. But bad design can break it.   The key to a good homepage: Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Answer these two questions: Where am I? Where do I go from here?   Apology We had a snafu with our RSS feed that caused some people to download old episodes. We apologize for the inconvenience.   Sponsor: MyBookTable