May 23, 2025 • 34 mins
Imagine reaching a million potential readers without spending a dime on advertising or having a massive social media following. This episode unveils one of publishing's best-kept secrets: Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything) as a powerful tool for authors at any career stage.
Penny and Amy explore how Reddit's unique culture offers authors something increasingly rare in today's marketing landscape—a platform where success depends on being genuinely interesting rather than famous or promotional. Unlike traditional social media where your reach is limited by follower count, Reddit allows anyone with compelling content to potentially reach millions of engaged users who actively seek out interesting conversations.
The hosts break down exactly how to approach Reddit moderators, craft attention-grabbing AMA titles, and execute an event that drives real interest in your book without overtly promoting it. They share real examples, including an author whose AMA about Edgar Allan Poe predicting the Titanic disaster generated massive engagement, demonstrating how the right framing can capture widespread attention.
Tune in for this not-to-be-missed episode!
Buy Penny's book The Amazon Author Formula
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips
and Author Success Podcast.
This is Penny Sansevierie andAmy Cornell and we are so, first
off, we're super excited.
We want to thank Joe for yourlatest review.
Joe, I just read your.
We were in the green room.
I just read your review to Amy.
We're very excited.
Thank you, we're so excited,amazing.
(00:21):
We're so glad that you, thatyou love the show, and to all of
our listeners if you're newhere, welcome, welcome, welcome.
We have a lot of shows.
Take a look at our backlist ofshows.
In whatever app that you'relistening to, we we rarely is
our content really out of date,but if anything ever gets out of
date, we uh, we definitelycreate you know, we definitely
(00:44):
do updates on shows and thingslike that.
So we want to welcome all ofour new listeners and welcome
back to everyone who has beenlistening with us for a while.
I talk to so many people whonow who come to us from the
podcast, so it's pretty amazing.
And the Amazon author blah,sorry, apparently I can't talk.
(01:08):
The Amazon author formulaworkbook is done.
I know I've said that, like thelast, I think, five shows, but
as an author, we all know thatthere's a, there's a, there's a
progress to books.
That's weird, like you tell me,but all my book is done, but
it's not really done.
Done right, they understandRight.
So it's going to get uploaded.
(01:29):
I actually started the pre-orderupload last week, so it's going
to get uploaded, probably thisweek and we'll put the pre-order
on.
So the next time that we recorda show or the next show that we
record, we'll have a pre-orderdate and all the good things and
all the bonuses and all of that.
So I'm very excited about that.
This show is really.
It's one of those things thatis something that we have not
(01:53):
covered before and I have totell you it's about a guilty
pleasure of mine and, I think,also Amy's.
So we're talking today aboutReddit in particular, doing
author events on Reddit, and Amy, you and I talk about Reddit a
lot just in terms of some of theresearch we do and stuff like
(02:14):
that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, it's amazing.
I you know and I it's.
I try not to get too far downthe rabbit hole because it's so
easy to do on Reddit, butthere's just something about the
authenticity.
There's a lot of no filterfeedback on Reddit and insight
and opinions and things likethat.
(02:35):
So I just really appreciate theplatform as a source for
information and finding outthings I don't know.
It just seems, I don't knowwhat the right word is for it,
but I do it for true crime, I doit for research, I do it for
personal things that I like.
I look up dog things, likegoing on with my dogs, you know
(02:57):
and it's just amazing how muchgreat information and insight
I've found on Reddit before.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, and I think that it is often an overlooked
research tool.
I mean I like it because I mean, even though, like with any
quote unquote social media site,you're always going to get
people who are you know whereit's a little you get weirdos
and things like that.
I mean that's kind ofeverywhere.
It's part of being on theinternet, but a lot of the
information that I find onReddit, just in terms of
(03:24):
research, has been really,really helpful when I'm deep
diving in particular topics,whether it's proportional or for
the authors that we're workingwith.
This particular strategy issomething that I've read about
and it's called doing a RedditAMA and AMA stands for Ask Me
Anything, for Ask Me Anything,and I was reading about this
author who did a, who had alittle known book, was just at a
(03:56):
book launch and did an Ask MeAnything, did an AMA and had
over a million views to thatReddit thread, and I really feel
like you know Reddit, you haveto be careful on Reddit so you
can't be self-promotional, butAsk Me Anythings are designed to
basically what the name says,so you ask the author anything,
(04:17):
and one of the reasons that Ilike this is because anybody can
really do this.
So this author wrote a fictionbook based on a nonfiction
premise and basically the Ask MeAnything was about that premise
(04:38):
and then obviously she talkedabout the book.
So it was promotional, but itwasn't really promotional, if
that makes sense, right.
And we are going to talk abouthow to get into, how to get a
Reddit AMA, because you, youcould, you could just tee up a
string in under a conversationtopic or a conversation topic
(05:05):
and start something.
But then there's also an AMAtrack within Reddit that you can
email and speak to.
And I have to say something andI haven't told Amy this, I told
her in the green room, like Ihave a surprise for you when we
talk about this Reddit show,because in prep for this show, I
(05:27):
wanted to do a little bit ofresearch and I actually found
the AMA track and I sent them anemail and they gave me my own
AMA that I can launch yeah, thatI can launch anytime, cool,
yeah.
So, oh, my gosh, right, anytime, cool, yeah, so, right.
(05:54):
So I am, and you know we'vedone ask me anything before,
just like we used to do ask meanything Fridays and ask me
anything on social media, andpart of the challenge with.
That is always going to be thefollower base, right?
So if you do an Ask Me Anything, let's say you do it on your
Facebook page or something.
If you have a huge and robustfollowing on Facebook, you'll
(06:15):
probably get a lot of questionsand that's great, but the
majority of us don't really have, and you also have to catch
people's attention, right,because Facebook everything kind
of scrolls past and then peoplemiss it, et cetera.
Part of the reason why I likeReddit and doing these Ask Me
Anythings on Reddit is you havea massively engaged platform
(06:37):
that really favors authenticityover polish, which is something
that I think is one of thereasons why we use it so much
for our deep dives in ourresearch.
I mean, don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, and I think the other piece of it is that it's
really not about followers,Whereas the examples that I gave
you previously.
So, if you're doing a Facebookask me anything or you're doing
any kind of an event on Facebookand you don't have a robust
following, you're going to feellike you and maybe two other
people are the only person atyour party, and that's normal,
(07:09):
Like I said, unless you were ahousehold name, Right?
Because I mean, that was sortof the challenge with that's a
challenge that a lot of ourauthors have faced who are doing
events on social media profilesthat are events on social media
profiles that pull from theirfollowers, right?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Right, it can seem like a lot of work for not a lot
.
It's hard to stay motivatedsometimes in situations like
that.
I mean you need to do it, butit's nice when you the reward of
getting traction for something,because we know this can feel
like a slog sometimes and wewant you to have wins too.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Right, right, right right.
So the beauty of going after aReddit AMA is that, again, it's
really more about beinginteresting and it's not about
followers.
And as you're thinking throughthis, you think I don't really
know if I could do this.
I mean, if you can find atangible topic, I mean,
(08:06):
obviously, if you've writtennonfiction, that's pretty easy.
So my AMA is going to be abouteverything about Amazon, because
I'm getting ready to launch theAmazon author formula and so
once that book is up forpre-order, then I'm going to do
I'm going to schedule this AMAand we'll certainly let our
listeners know when it'sscheduled so y'all can hop on
there if you're on Reddit andask me anything.
Let our listeners know when it'sscheduled so y'all can hop on
there if you're on Reddit andask me anything.
(08:27):
But start to think about whatif you've written fiction, like
what is your what?
What's the core of the bookthat you could potentially get a
lot of questions about?
Like, maybe it's about thesupernatural, or you know what
I'm saying, or I mean, reallythere's an endless opportunity,
(08:48):
I think, for the majority ofauthors out there listening to
this.
I mean, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Oh yeah, I mean, this is one of those too where Penny
and I talk about this a lot.
When we do, you know, pitching,events, things like that,
events, things like that, wereally do a lot of pre-show
chatting and brainstorming tomake sure that we're always
framing what we're talking aboutso it makes sense and clicks
for both fiction and nonfictionauthors.
(09:14):
And this one was such, it wasso refreshing, I think, penny,
that when we, when you broughtthis to my attention, like,
should we cover this?
Like this sounds like, and Ithought, oh my gosh, yes,
because what a great opportunityfor both fiction and nonfiction
.
We're not sitting here tryingto, you know, reverse engineer.
So it makes sense for everybody, and you know, but this one
really does make sense foreverybody.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, it really does make sense for everybody
and, like I said, I mean whenyou think about it, you know if
you're listening to this andyou're like make sense for
everybody.
And, like I said, I mean whenyou think about it, you know if
you're listening to this andyou're like, you know I I just
don't know if I had anything totalk about.
83% of Americans want to writea book.
So if you have nothing else totalk about, talk about writing a
book.
Talk about what that experienceis, how you published.
(09:59):
Talk about how you you know howyou prepped If you've written
historical fiction, for example.
Talk about the history, part ofyour historical, some of the
deep dives that you did.
I mean I've talked to authorswho have done, or have read,
rather about authors who havedone AMAs, who have you know who
, deep to do, deep dives intoyou know, the lifestyle for the
(10:26):
time period, the clothing theywore.
I talked to an author one timeand she said that she did talks
in the times.
It wasn't necessarily relatedto Reddit, but she did talks
based on all of the historiclittle factoids that people
really love, like, for example,during Civil War times, a woman
(10:49):
could not sit on a chair that aman had just sat on.
I mean, I'm sorry, I don't knowwhy that sticks in my head, but
that's just like the craziestthing.
People who love history, theyjust they eat that up, right.
So there's really no excuse thatyou, you know, in order to do
this and you can certainly do soif you're not familiar with
Reddit there's something calledsubreddits, and subreddits are
(11:14):
these like Amy was talking about, like she looks up her dogs and
I've looked up Cosmo becauseCosmo's getting older.
So I've looked up, you know,dog aging and stuff like that.
And I own a Subaru.
So I know this sounds reallysuper nerdy, but there's a
Subaru Forester subreddit onReddit.
(11:36):
There's anything that you canthink of.
I guarantee you that there is asubreddit for it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Oh, absolutely, and that's why Reddit is so much, I
say, easier I'm doing this inair quotes sometimes, I think
than social media when it comesto authors getting creative,
because they're, quite literally, is something for everybody,
whereas on social media I canunderstand why some authors go.
I really don't have anything tosay.
That is, you know, interestingon a like, a more general,
(12:07):
broader level.
But that's the beauty of Redditis that you will, you can quite
literally nerd out with a groupof people about anything.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, and if you spend a little bit of time on
Reddit, so if we've peaked yourinterest, spend a little bit of
time on Reddit, because I'm Ipromise you right now, your
interest is going to get peakedand and I think the wheels are
going to start to turn in termsof what you can talk about.
So, if you're listening to thisand you're like I have no idea
what I would, you know what Iwould discuss um, spend a little
(12:37):
bit of time on Reddit and startlooking up you know different
subreddits and different topicsand things like that.
I think you will be really, youwill be amazed.
And there is, you know, and oneof the things that I find too
about Redditors is that they are, they're very generous with
information.
There are some people on there,you know.
You get it anywhere in socialmedia.
(12:58):
Again, technically Reddit's notreally social media but, as
with anything online, you alwaysget these haters on there, but
I find them very few and farbetween really on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Go ahead.
Sorry, no, I agree with you.
That's interesting and I'm gladyou brought it up because I
find the same thing that theremay be differing opinions but
for the most part thoseindividuals, even if they don't
agree, they're still reallyinvested in whatever that topic
is.
Yeah, and they have abackground in it.
They spend a lot of timeresearching, they spend a lot of
time talking to other peopleabout this topic.
(13:33):
So you really don't get a lotof the trolling for trolling's
sake, if that makes sense.
Yes, like Reddit is so detailedand there are so many different
spaces for whatever you'reinterested in, you really don't
see the level of trolling likeyou do on social media, where
people just say nasty things, tosay nasty things or to be.
(13:55):
You know what I mean.
It's like people don't reallygo to Reddit for that reason.
Like they may not disagree witheverybody on their subreddit,
but it doesn't mean.
But they're still reallyinvested in if that makes sense.
They're not just showing up tolike drop little bombs in the
conversation and then leave, youknow.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Right, right, exactly , no, that's, that's definitely.
That's very true.
Um, so talk about Amy.
Do you want to take the talkingabout pitching?
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So this is interesting, and you know, penny
, and I have done, we've done atleast one show on using AI for
things, and I think we've gotanother one cooking too, don't
we, penny?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yes, we do.
Yes, because I've found lots offun AI prompts for authors.
Again, I'm actually on okay,I'm just going to admit this now
I'm on a chat GPT subreddit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh, that makes sense, and it's so weird, it's so
weird, oh, but I bet it's superuseful and I wanted to mention
it here because it does havesome crossover here.
I wanted to mention it both for, you know, when we talk about
coming up with ideas, like ifyou're you know, like you're
sitting here thinking what wouldI even talk about, believe it
or not, chat could probably bereally helpful with that.
(15:10):
Like, if you give them thepremise of your book, like give
them some background information, and it's a great way to get
outside of your own brain andget a different perspective.
It's a great way to get outsideof your own brain and get a
different perspective.
So ask chat or another AIplatform what current popular
trending topics are around whatyou wrote, and even if it's
(15:35):
fiction, talk about the scene,talk about where it's located,
talk about you know what I mean.
Give a description of the maincharacter's characteristics,
things like that, and you'dprobably be surprised at the
suggestions you could get fromchat in terms of what other
people might want to discuss interms and how it relates to your
book.
But I just want to drop thatone in there because it could
also help with the pitch too.
But it's it's a great tool forgetting outside of like getting
out of your own way.
Is that a good way to put it,penny?
(15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, it really is.
It is a great tool for gettingout of your own way, really,
because that's something I thinkthat's a lot of what we use
chat for too is just yeah,because sometimes you just get
too close to something.
So I love that idea that yousuggested.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah.
So use it to get out of yourown way and kind of revive what
is so cool and interesting aboutyour process, your book, your
topic, your area of expertise.
Dig into that because you mightgo wow, I never thought about
it that way, but look at allthese great things that came up
with that people are actuallyinterested in.
That I forget about.
But in terms of the pitch andthe hook, this is so important.
(16:36):
A really good ask me anythingis not a sales pitch.
You are not showing up there tosell your book.
A really successful ask meanything will sell your book
because of the experience thatthey have with the ask me
anything without you even havingto say like, and here's where
you go to get it on Amazon.
(16:56):
You know what I mean.
If you've given theparticipants a good experience,
something interesting to sinktheir teeth into, something
dynamic, they are going to beinterested in checking out your
book.
That is just how this works.
So don't focus on what should Italk about to sell my book, or
how am I going to sell the book,or what do I need to say to
(17:18):
make sure people buy my book.
If you're focusing on that, theexperience is probably going to
be less than you know, so youreally want to focus on the
right things.
It's kind of like hosting aparty, right, penny?
Yeah, yeah, you know you wantto host an interesting party
where people don't just sit onyour couch and listen to you
talk about yourself.
Like come up with why.
(17:38):
Like come up with somethingthat's that has more depth.
And I loved this was from anexample, one from the article,
and I was just like I want to beon this, like how did I not
know this was happening?
And now I need to also followthe subreddit, because I'm like
an book about Edgar Allan Poe,about how Edgar Allan Poe
(18:03):
predicted the sinking of theTitanic.
Ask me anything.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Right what it's like.
I have so many questions.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I have so many questions, it's a lot of people
will show up just to kind of seehow it goes at first and then
they'll jump in.
So just the title alone.
I would show up for that, evenif I didn't have a question in
mind, because I'd want to seewhat other people are asking and
I want to learn from whatthey're asking and what you know
the host is responding with.
So like that is crazy.
(18:35):
So pique their curiosity, dosomething surprising, be a
little controversial, you knowlike go for something emotional.
Don't do something basicbecause nobody's going to show
up for basic.
So lean into the and this is ina very good way like the
clickbaity headline type titlesfor your Reddit, because that's
(18:57):
what's going to get people to go.
Wait what you know.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And you know you could alsotime your Reddit just in terms
of like if you want.
So we talk about this in mediaa lot where if you're pitching
your book either to local ornational media, you may want to
align it with a particularcalendar date, commemorative
date or observance, right.
(19:22):
So that's another thing thatyou potentially do as you're
pitching the AMA, becausebasically what you're going to
do is you're going to go to um,so it's Reddit slash AMA, and
then you can you know you canpitch them in there.
But um, take a look like again,if you're struggling for ideas,
(19:43):
take a look at the calendar andsee if there's something coming
up that you can anchor yourtopic to, to make it even more
relevant, so it dials into yourbook.
But then you know you're alsoanchoring to.
And it can be something even asobscure as peanut butter and
jelly day.
I mean, if you were to cookbookor something, I mean just
(20:03):
throwing that, I'm just kind ofthrowing that out there.
I too, though, want to attendthat at Edgar Allen Poe one, I
know but that's brilliant, Penny, because it's all I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The psychology behind the timing and the topic makes
so much sense.
So I love that you mentionedthat, because you know, and
again, if there isn't somethingtimely, then don't stress as if
it's not going to work.
But why not use that to youradvantage?
Because think about everybody'salgorithms on social media and
stuff like that.
So if there is something thatmakes sense and it's timely and
(20:33):
it's coming up for your topic,people are probably going to be
seeing that in other places too.
So what you're doing is you'rejumping on the bandwagon of this
, something that's topical andtimely that they're seeing on
you know, their social media.
They might see it in anewsletter that they get, or
emails that they get based oncertain shopping that they do
things like that, and if thenthey're on, you know, they get
(20:56):
the announcement that you havethis Reddit going on too, that
all works in your favor.
You know what I mean.
That you have this Reddit goingon, too, that all works in your
favor.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, those other things thatthey're seeing while they're
online are also, in a way,psychologically adding value to
what you're offering as well,because they can all play off of
each other.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right, exactly.
So what I did when I pitchedthe amas, I basically just said,
um, there's a book publishedevery eight seconds in this
country.
I can guarantee that a lot ofyour audience are going to be
authors.
And then I went into who I amand it was a very short spiel I
mean, I think it was maybe threesentences and I'd like like to
(21:42):
talk about.
I'd like to, you know, geek outon everything Amazon related,
and they wrote me back.
They asked a couple ofquestions and they wrote me back
and they said, okay, go aheadand do it so whenever you're
ready Now.
So again, you could do this ina subreddit, because I actually
also emailed a couple ofsubreddits which I have not
(22:02):
heard back from yet.
If you find a subreddit, youcan find the moderator for that
subreddit and you can certainlyemail them.
Definitely the AMA.
I like the Ask Me Anything,because that's literally why
people are there they'researching through those and they
do show up very well in searchanyway.
So again, you can pitch the AMAand you can search.
(22:27):
I think it's r?
Slash.
You know it's r?
Slash AMA.
So Reddit slash AMA.
One of the things that they didtell me when I got the
confirmation for Miami and Idon't have a date yet.
They just allowed me to do itis make sure that in your intro
(22:48):
post, you really talk about howyou're the expert, shortly and
succinctly right who you are,why you're doing this, what they
can ask and what your expertiseis.
Okay, so be really clear,because I mean, you don't want
to disappoint people by gettinga bunch of questions about
(23:10):
something that you don't reallyhave an expertise in and,
depending on how broad yourtopic is, you want to narrow it
down as much as you can you can.
The other thing that I think,and part of the reason why I
didn't just accept the date andget a date going, is first off,
I want to align it with the preorder, but you want to make sure
(23:31):
that you're really ready to beso clear.
The decks Make sure that youare ready to answer questions,
because runners loveresponsiveness to answer
questions, because runners loveresponsiveness, being lively and
engaged.
So this isn't a question ofsetting up your AMA, going off
to work and then coming back inthe evening and answering the
(23:51):
questions.
Right, don't ghost your own AMA.
So you want to make sure so, ifyou have to do it on a Saturday
or a Sunday, because you couldget three people or you could
get 300.
I'm betting that that wholeEdgar Allan Poe one is probably
getting 3000.
Like, oh yeah, so it willreally depend.
(24:14):
And, you know, you could alsojust join some AMAs and kind of
see how they go and get a sensefrom them what everybody else is
doing and, you know, glean someideas from that.
Now, the other thing that I wantyou to consider too is take
lots of screenshots.
So good questions make goodsocial media content after, and
they also maybe even might evenspark like if you're doing
(24:36):
author events or if you havespeaking Great questions
oftentimes and at least theyhave for me and other speakers
that I've worked with or if youhave speaking great questions
Oftentimes at least they havefor me and other speakers that
I've worked with they help tospark new speaker topics and
they may also give you new ideasfor social media posts or blog
(24:57):
posts or videos that you'redoing or whatever right.
So grab as many screenshots,quotes, questions just bank them
for later, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's really smart.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, just to you know, repurpose them for you
know, just to repurpose them for, for you know, for other uses.
Okay, so I think we coveredeverything under the execution.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Can I add one more thing, Penny?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
No, go for it.
Yes I had.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I even had to look it up now because, as you were
saying, I, like you, know, whenwe start talking about this
stuff in the moment, our brainsstart going like, ooh, what
about this, what about this,what about this.
So I did a quick search andwhen you said, you know, plan
for when this is going to happen, you need to be ready.
(25:59):
You know.
It's also great.
I found out that, cause I wasjust curious when you mentioned
going with the AMA thread andthen also pitching some topical
you know subreddits and thingslike that.
Go for all of it, because itseems like the AMA thread,
reddit, actually promotes those,which is another thing.
So they actually that's anothermajor bonus If you actually get
the approval from for theofficial AMA thread is that they
will actually make sure thatpeople on the platform see those
, which is really great.
(26:21):
And then this is cool, like ifyou schedule it in advance, you
can actually promote the datethat it's happening.
Promote the date that it'shappening, yeah, and on Reddit
there's a remind me option too.
So people that use Reddit a lot, they, like you said, they will
go through and they'll kind ofscan the AMA string to see
what's coming up and if it's inthe future, they can set it up
(26:42):
so they get reminded ofsomething coming up.
You know what I mean.
So make the most of if youdecide you're going to do this,
make the most of it.
You know what I mean.
Take advantage of all of thoselittle extras.
You know, like the planning,sending people there, letting
people know in advance that it'shappening.
You know, like we always sayall the time if you're going to
do one thing, find three otherways that you can maximize on it
(27:06):
.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, no, that's a really, that's a great idea.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's a,really, that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, Make the most of every effort.
So if you're going to do thisand I hope a bunch of you do and
then write us and let us knowhow it goes, or let us know when
your AMA is planned, but makesure you're taking advantage of
all those other promotionalopportunities to send people
there and get the word out aboutit too.
You know, just like we do witheverything else we talk about in
(27:37):
terms of planning events.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
This is an online event.
There's so many things you cando in advance of in-person and
online events to kind of makethe most of the opportunity.
Well, and because, to Amy'spoint so Reddit does promote
their AMAs.
They can live on the Reddit'sfront page and potentially get
millions of views.
It's really a hidden gem of anidea that I don't know why we
(28:01):
don't hear more about this.
I think you know what I mean.
It's very flashy to be onTikTok or Instagram or whatever,
but I'm telling you right now,reddit is a fabulous structure
for this.
So a couple of other things.
Reddit does not likeself-promotion.
Okay, so things like you knowpushing I mean, obviously you're
(28:29):
there because of your book, butthere's a way to structure
answers where you're not sayingthings like well, but if you
read my book, if you read mybook, you know what I mean.
And then also not replying tosome like if somebody asks you
something that you don't know,just tell them that you don't
(28:49):
know, right?
So you're going to want to makesure to reply to all of them.
Don't sound like a marketer,and that's something that I know
is like you feel like okay,well, you know, a lot of times,
if you get an A, like an authorgets an AMA, they might feel
like I have so much pressure,like I really want to sell a lot
of books.
I really want to do all thethings.
You want to make sure thateverything is lined up so that
(29:12):
your book is live or it's up onpre-order, or whatever that your
.
You know that your website's inthe information so people can
find you, but you really need tonot sound like a marketing
person, so you are there to giveinformation.
Okay, all you really need,though, to do this is your
(29:35):
Reddit account and a link tolike.
Go to bitly and get a shortenedlink to your, to your website
or your book.
I mentioned your website before.
If the URL is really long, youcan create a shortened link for
it or something, and then Iwould just say two or three, two
to three hours of availability.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah, Absolutely, and you can.
You have control over as thehost of your AMA.
You have control over how longyou take questions for, not just
that day, but even leaving itopen for comments after the fact
you know, so that's anotherPenny I love that you mentioned.
like, if somebody asks aquestion, don't just pretend
it's not happening, you know,respond to it, and that even
(30:17):
gives you the chance to say youknow, I don't know, but that's a
fabulous question, I will getback to you, and you do have the
option to reply to that personat a later date.
You know, especially if it issomething that you're like you
know what?
That is a really great questionand I would have liked to
answer that.
You know what I mean.
So make it personal.
You know, also be sure to speakto these and because these are,
(30:39):
these are super fans of topics,these are diehards, hardcore
people.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So if you get them intrigued like this is gold, you
know, if you get them intriguedlike this is gold, you know,
yeah, yeah, it really is, itdefinitely is gold and it is
like I said, it's great andunique thing and I don't know
that that that the AMA track orthe subreddit rather is, you
(31:07):
know, won't let you do a couplelike if you do one really
successfully and you had lots ofresponses and lots of people
you know messaging you on theReddit, I don't know that they
would not let you do a second ora third one, but I think it's
definitely an overlookedopportunity to get potentially
millions and millions of viewsto your topic and I think that
(31:29):
you know.
Just to kind of leave you withthis.
I mean, reddit is the successon Reddit is less about being
famous and beingself-promotional and much more
about being interesting.
Yeah, so it is a, it's a.
It's a very under, you know, inthe in the world of social
(31:50):
media, which again Reddit reallyskirts kind of the edge, the
fringes of social media.
But in the world of social media, where everything is about
being famous and being this orbeing that, reddit's not about
that.
Reddit is really more aboutgood information and being
interesting and it's part of thereason why Amy and I like to
deep dive on there for varioustopics, both personal and
(32:12):
professional.
So and I would really love Imean, as Amy mentioned let us
know if you decide to do thisand you get an AMA.
We'd love to to maybe even justbe a lurker and kind of see how
you do, but also pitch us yourAMA, like if you think about oh
my gosh, I want to do this.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I know I'm so glad you said that.
I was like please send us yourideas.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I would love to see some of your ideas, yeah we
would love to and you know whatI will if you just if you send
it to us or you get onedefinitely send you, send us
your AMA ideas, but if you getone scheduled, we'll definitely
(32:55):
mention it on the show and andjust send even more eyes to your
AMA even after it's happened,because the other thing about
the AMA is that it still liveson Reddit, so it doesn't
evaporate which a lot of thingsthat you do online just
evaporate right.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
That's a very good point, penny.
Even if it's closed forcomments, I still have I've read
multiple threads that are nolonger accepting comments that
I've gotten great informationfrom.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Totally, yeah, absolutely.
But just remember, show up andbe interesting and helpful.
Leave your promotional head athome, because basically, that's
obviously Reddit, that's whatyou're doing anyway, but they're
too smart for that to Redditusers.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
They're not going to fall for that Really.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, reddit users are really very, very smart
about that, um.
So I love this idea.
I'm looking forward to my AMA.
We'll definitely let everybodyknow when it's going to be
scheduled as soon as the book umis up for pre-order.
We're going to do that.
But very excited about aboutthe show.
So cool we.
We love your show ideas.
(33:51):
If you have never, if this isyour first listen, be sure to
subscribe to the show so thatyou get notified.
We drop a show every Fridayinto your podcast feed.
There's a contact.
There are contact details inthe show notes.
Send us your show ideas, sendus your show feedback.
We love reviews, reviews, sowherever you listen to podcasts,
(34:12):
please leave us a review aswell.
Thank you so much and we'll seeyou next time.
Bye.
Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips
and Author Success Podcast.
This is Penny Sansevierie andAmy Cornell and we are so, first
off, we're super excited.
We want to thank Joe for yourlatest review.
Joe, I just read your.
We were in the green room.
I just read your review to Amy.
We're very excited.
Thank you, we're so excited,amazing.
(00:21):
We're so glad that you, thatyou love the show, and to all of
our listeners if you're newhere, welcome, welcome, welcome.
We have a lot of shows.
Take a look at our backlist ofshows.
In whatever app that you'relistening to, we we rarely is
our content really out of date,but if anything ever gets out of
date, we uh, we definitelycreate you know, we definitely
(00:44):
do updates on shows and thingslike that.
So we want to welcome all ofour new listeners and welcome
back to everyone who has beenlistening with us for a while.
I talk to so many people whonow who come to us from the
podcast, so it's pretty amazing.
And the Amazon author blah,sorry, apparently I can't talk.
(01:08):
The Amazon author formulaworkbook is done.
I know I've said that, like thelast, I think, five shows, but
as an author, we all know thatthere's a, there's a, there's a
progress to books.
That's weird, like you tell me,but all my book is done, but
it's not really done.
Done right, they understandRight.
So it's going to get uploaded.
(01:29):
I actually started the pre-orderupload last week, so it's going
to get uploaded, probably thisweek and we'll put the pre-order
on.
So the next time that we recorda show or the next show that we
record, we'll have a pre-orderdate and all the good things and
all the bonuses and all of that.
So I'm very excited about that.
This show is really.
It's one of those things thatis something that we have not
(01:53):
covered before and I have totell you it's about a guilty
pleasure of mine and, I think,also Amy's.
So we're talking today aboutReddit in particular, doing
author events on Reddit, and Amy, you and I talk about Reddit a
lot just in terms of some of theresearch we do and stuff like
(02:14):
that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, it's amazing.
I you know and I it's.
I try not to get too far downthe rabbit hole because it's so
easy to do on Reddit, butthere's just something about the
authenticity.
There's a lot of no filterfeedback on Reddit and insight
and opinions and things likethat.
(02:35):
So I just really appreciate theplatform as a source for
information and finding outthings I don't know.
It just seems, I don't knowwhat the right word is for it,
but I do it for true crime, I doit for research, I do it for
personal things that I like.
I look up dog things, likegoing on with my dogs, you know
(02:57):
and it's just amazing how muchgreat information and insight
I've found on Reddit before.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, and I think that it is often an overlooked
research tool.
I mean I like it because I mean, even though, like with any
quote unquote social media site,you're always going to get
people who are you know whereit's a little you get weirdos
and things like that.
I mean that's kind ofeverywhere.
It's part of being on theinternet, but a lot of the
information that I find onReddit, just in terms of
(03:24):
research, has been really,really helpful when I'm deep
diving in particular topics,whether it's proportional or for
the authors that we're workingwith.
This particular strategy issomething that I've read about
and it's called doing a RedditAMA and AMA stands for Ask Me
Anything, for Ask Me Anything,and I was reading about this
author who did a, who had alittle known book, was just at a
(03:56):
book launch and did an Ask MeAnything, did an AMA and had
over a million views to thatReddit thread, and I really feel
like you know Reddit, you haveto be careful on Reddit so you
can't be self-promotional, butAsk Me Anythings are designed to
basically what the name says,so you ask the author anything,
(04:17):
and one of the reasons that Ilike this is because anybody can
really do this.
So this author wrote a fictionbook based on a nonfiction
premise and basically the Ask MeAnything was about that premise
(04:38):
and then obviously she talkedabout the book.
So it was promotional, but itwasn't really promotional, if
that makes sense, right.
And we are going to talk abouthow to get into, how to get a
Reddit AMA, because you, youcould, you could just tee up a
string in under a conversationtopic or a conversation topic
(05:05):
and start something.
But then there's also an AMAtrack within Reddit that you can
email and speak to.
And I have to say something andI haven't told Amy this, I told
her in the green room, like Ihave a surprise for you when we
talk about this Reddit show,because in prep for this show, I
(05:27):
wanted to do a little bit ofresearch and I actually found
the AMA track and I sent them anemail and they gave me my own
AMA that I can launch yeah, thatI can launch anytime, cool,
yeah.
So, oh, my gosh, right, anytime, cool, yeah, so, right.
(05:54):
So I am, and you know we'vedone ask me anything before,
just like we used to do ask meanything Fridays and ask me
anything on social media, andpart of the challenge with.
That is always going to be thefollower base, right?
So if you do an Ask Me Anything, let's say you do it on your
Facebook page or something.
If you have a huge and robustfollowing on Facebook, you'll
(06:15):
probably get a lot of questionsand that's great, but the
majority of us don't really have, and you also have to catch
people's attention, right,because Facebook everything kind
of scrolls past and then peoplemiss it, et cetera.
Part of the reason why I likeReddit and doing these Ask Me
Anythings on Reddit is you havea massively engaged platform
(06:37):
that really favors authenticityover polish, which is something
that I think is one of thereasons why we use it so much
for our deep dives in ourresearch.
I mean, don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, and I think the other piece of it is that it's
really not about followers,Whereas the examples that I gave
you previously.
So, if you're doing a Facebookask me anything or you're doing
any kind of an event on Facebookand you don't have a robust
following, you're going to feellike you and maybe two other
people are the only person atyour party, and that's normal,
(07:09):
Like I said, unless you were ahousehold name, Right?
Because I mean, that was sortof the challenge with that's a
challenge that a lot of ourauthors have faced who are doing
events on social media profilesthat are events on social media
profiles that pull from theirfollowers, right?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Right, it can seem like a lot of work for not a lot
.
It's hard to stay motivatedsometimes in situations like
that.
I mean you need to do it, butit's nice when you the reward of
getting traction for something,because we know this can feel
like a slog sometimes and wewant you to have wins too.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Right, right, right right.
So the beauty of going after aReddit AMA is that, again, it's
really more about beinginteresting and it's not about
followers.
And as you're thinking throughthis, you think I don't really
know if I could do this.
I mean, if you can find atangible topic, I mean,
(08:06):
obviously, if you've writtennonfiction, that's pretty easy.
So my AMA is going to be abouteverything about Amazon, because
I'm getting ready to launch theAmazon author formula and so
once that book is up forpre-order, then I'm going to do
I'm going to schedule this AMAand we'll certainly let our
listeners know when it'sscheduled so y'all can hop on
there if you're on Reddit andask me anything.
Let our listeners know when it'sscheduled so y'all can hop on
there if you're on Reddit andask me anything.
(08:27):
But start to think about whatif you've written fiction, like
what is your what?
What's the core of the bookthat you could potentially get a
lot of questions about?
Like, maybe it's about thesupernatural, or you know what
I'm saying, or I mean, reallythere's an endless opportunity,
(08:48):
I think, for the majority ofauthors out there listening to
this.
I mean, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Oh yeah, I mean, this is one of those too where Penny
and I talk about this a lot.
When we do, you know, pitching,events, things like that,
events, things like that, wereally do a lot of pre-show
chatting and brainstorming tomake sure that we're always
framing what we're talking aboutso it makes sense and clicks
for both fiction and nonfictionauthors.
(09:14):
And this one was such, it wasso refreshing, I think, penny,
that when we, when you broughtthis to my attention, like,
should we cover this?
Like this sounds like, and Ithought, oh my gosh, yes,
because what a great opportunityfor both fiction and nonfiction
.
We're not sitting here tryingto, you know, reverse engineer.
So it makes sense for everybody, and you know, but this one
really does make sense foreverybody.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, it really does make sense for everybody
and, like I said, I mean whenyou think about it, you know if
you're listening to this andyou're like make sense for
everybody.
And, like I said, I mean whenyou think about it, you know if
you're listening to this andyou're like, you know I I just
don't know if I had anything totalk about.
83% of Americans want to writea book.
So if you have nothing else totalk about, talk about writing a
book.
Talk about what that experienceis, how you published.
(09:59):
Talk about how you you know howyou prepped If you've written
historical fiction, for example.
Talk about the history, part ofyour historical, some of the
deep dives that you did.
I mean I've talked to authorswho have done, or have read,
rather about authors who havedone AMAs, who have you know who
, deep to do, deep dives intoyou know, the lifestyle for the
(10:26):
time period, the clothing theywore.
I talked to an author one timeand she said that she did talks
in the times.
It wasn't necessarily relatedto Reddit, but she did talks
based on all of the historiclittle factoids that people
really love, like, for example,during Civil War times, a woman
(10:49):
could not sit on a chair that aman had just sat on.
I mean, I'm sorry, I don't knowwhy that sticks in my head, but
that's just like the craziestthing.
People who love history, theyjust they eat that up, right.
So there's really no excuse thatyou, you know, in order to do
this and you can certainly do soif you're not familiar with
Reddit there's something calledsubreddits, and subreddits are
(11:14):
these like Amy was talking about, like she looks up her dogs and
I've looked up Cosmo becauseCosmo's getting older.
So I've looked up, you know,dog aging and stuff like that.
And I own a Subaru.
So I know this sounds reallysuper nerdy, but there's a
Subaru Forester subreddit onReddit.
(11:36):
There's anything that you canthink of.
I guarantee you that there is asubreddit for it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Oh, absolutely, and that's why Reddit is so much, I
say, easier I'm doing this inair quotes sometimes, I think
than social media when it comesto authors getting creative,
because they're, quite literally, is something for everybody,
whereas on social media I canunderstand why some authors go.
I really don't have anything tosay.
That is, you know, interestingon a like, a more general,
(12:07):
broader level.
But that's the beauty of Redditis that you will, you can quite
literally nerd out with a groupof people about anything.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, and if you spend a little bit of time on
Reddit, so if we've peaked yourinterest, spend a little bit of
time on Reddit, because I'm Ipromise you right now, your
interest is going to get peakedand and I think the wheels are
going to start to turn in termsof what you can talk about.
So, if you're listening to thisand you're like I have no idea
what I would, you know what Iwould discuss um, spend a little
(12:37):
bit of time on Reddit and startlooking up you know different
subreddits and different topicsand things like that.
I think you will be really, youwill be amazed.
And there is, you know, and oneof the things that I find too
about Redditors is that they are, they're very generous with
information.
There are some people on there,you know.
You get it anywhere in socialmedia.
(12:58):
Again, technically Reddit's notreally social media but, as
with anything online, you alwaysget these haters on there, but
I find them very few and farbetween really on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Go ahead.
Sorry, no, I agree with you.
That's interesting and I'm gladyou brought it up because I
find the same thing that theremay be differing opinions but
for the most part thoseindividuals, even if they don't
agree, they're still reallyinvested in whatever that topic
is.
Yeah, and they have abackground in it.
They spend a lot of timeresearching, they spend a lot of
time talking to other peopleabout this topic.
(13:33):
So you really don't get a lotof the trolling for trolling's
sake, if that makes sense.
Yes, like Reddit is so detailedand there are so many different
spaces for whatever you'reinterested in, you really don't
see the level of trolling likeyou do on social media, where
people just say nasty things, tosay nasty things or to be.
(13:55):
You know what I mean.
It's like people don't reallygo to Reddit for that reason.
Like they may not disagree witheverybody on their subreddit,
but it doesn't mean.
But they're still reallyinvested in if that makes sense.
They're not just showing up tolike drop little bombs in the
conversation and then leave, youknow.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Right, right, exactly , no, that's, that's definitely.
That's very true.
Um, so talk about Amy.
Do you want to take the talkingabout pitching?
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So this is interesting, and you know, penny
, and I have done, we've done atleast one show on using AI for
things, and I think we've gotanother one cooking too, don't
we, penny?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yes, we do.
Yes, because I've found lots offun AI prompts for authors.
Again, I'm actually on okay,I'm just going to admit this now
I'm on a chat GPT subreddit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh, that makes sense, and it's so weird, it's so
weird, oh, but I bet it's superuseful and I wanted to mention
it here because it does havesome crossover here.
I wanted to mention it both for, you know, when we talk about
coming up with ideas, like ifyou're you know, like you're
sitting here thinking what wouldI even talk about, believe it
or not, chat could probably bereally helpful with that.
(15:10):
Like, if you give them thepremise of your book, like give
them some background information, and it's a great way to get
outside of your own brain andget a different perspective.
It's a great way to get outsideof your own brain and get a
different perspective.
So ask chat or another AIplatform what current popular
trending topics are around whatyou wrote, and even if it's
(15:35):
fiction, talk about the scene,talk about where it's located,
talk about you know what I mean.
Give a description of the maincharacter's characteristics,
things like that, and you'dprobably be surprised at the
suggestions you could get fromchat in terms of what other
people might want to discuss interms and how it relates to your
book.
But I just want to drop thatone in there because it could
also help with the pitch too.
But it's it's a great tool forgetting outside of like getting
out of your own way.
Is that a good way to put it,penny?
(15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, it really is.
It is a great tool for gettingout of your own way, really,
because that's something I thinkthat's a lot of what we use
chat for too is just yeah,because sometimes you just get
too close to something.
So I love that idea that yousuggested.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah.
So use it to get out of yourown way and kind of revive what
is so cool and interesting aboutyour process, your book, your
topic, your area of expertise.
Dig into that because you mightgo wow, I never thought about
it that way, but look at allthese great things that came up
with that people are actuallyinterested in.
That I forget about.
But in terms of the pitch andthe hook, this is so important.
(16:36):
A really good ask me anythingis not a sales pitch.
You are not showing up there tosell your book.
A really successful ask meanything will sell your book
because of the experience thatthey have with the ask me
anything without you even havingto say like, and here's where
you go to get it on Amazon.
(16:56):
You know what I mean.
If you've given theparticipants a good experience,
something interesting to sinktheir teeth into, something
dynamic, they are going to beinterested in checking out your
book.
That is just how this works.
So don't focus on what should Italk about to sell my book, or
how am I going to sell the book,or what do I need to say to
(17:18):
make sure people buy my book.
If you're focusing on that, theexperience is probably going to
be less than you know, so youreally want to focus on the
right things.
It's kind of like hosting aparty, right, penny?
Yeah, yeah, you know you wantto host an interesting party
where people don't just sit onyour couch and listen to you
talk about yourself.
Like come up with why.
(17:38):
Like come up with somethingthat's that has more depth.
And I loved this was from anexample, one from the article,
and I was just like I want to beon this, like how did I not
know this was happening?
And now I need to also followthe subreddit, because I'm like
an book about Edgar Allan Poe,about how Edgar Allan Poe
(18:03):
predicted the sinking of theTitanic.
Ask me anything.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Right what it's like.
I have so many questions.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I have so many questions, it's a lot of people
will show up just to kind of seehow it goes at first and then
they'll jump in.
So just the title alone.
I would show up for that, evenif I didn't have a question in
mind, because I'd want to seewhat other people are asking and
I want to learn from whatthey're asking and what you know
the host is responding with.
So like that is crazy.
(18:35):
So pique their curiosity, dosomething surprising, be a
little controversial, you knowlike go for something emotional.
Don't do something basicbecause nobody's going to show
up for basic.
So lean into the and this is ina very good way like the
clickbaity headline type titlesfor your Reddit, because that's
(18:57):
what's going to get people to go.
Wait what you know.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And you know you could alsotime your Reddit just in terms
of like if you want.
So we talk about this in mediaa lot where if you're pitching
your book either to local ornational media, you may want to
align it with a particularcalendar date, commemorative
date or observance, right.
(19:22):
So that's another thing thatyou potentially do as you're
pitching the AMA, becausebasically what you're going to
do is you're going to go to um,so it's Reddit slash AMA, and
then you can you know you canpitch them in there.
But um, take a look like again,if you're struggling for ideas,
(19:43):
take a look at the calendar andsee if there's something coming
up that you can anchor yourtopic to, to make it even more
relevant, so it dials into yourbook.
But then you know you're alsoanchoring to.
And it can be something even asobscure as peanut butter and
jelly day.
I mean, if you were to cookbookor something, I mean just
(20:03):
throwing that, I'm just kind ofthrowing that out there.
I too, though, want to attendthat at Edgar Allen Poe one, I
know but that's brilliant, Penny, because it's all I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The psychology behind the timing and the topic makes
so much sense.
So I love that you mentionedthat, because you know, and
again, if there isn't somethingtimely, then don't stress as if
it's not going to work.
But why not use that to youradvantage?
Because think about everybody'salgorithms on social media and
stuff like that.
So if there is something thatmakes sense and it's timely and
(20:33):
it's coming up for your topic,people are probably going to be
seeing that in other places too.
So what you're doing is you'rejumping on the bandwagon of this
, something that's topical andtimely that they're seeing on
you know, their social media.
They might see it in anewsletter that they get, or
emails that they get based oncertain shopping that they do
things like that, and if thenthey're on, you know, they get
(20:56):
the announcement that you havethis Reddit going on too, that
all works in your favor.
You know what I mean.
That you have this Reddit goingon, too, that all works in your
favor.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, those other things thatthey're seeing while they're
online are also, in a way,psychologically adding value to
what you're offering as well,because they can all play off of
each other.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right, exactly.
So what I did when I pitchedthe amas, I basically just said,
um, there's a book publishedevery eight seconds in this
country.
I can guarantee that a lot ofyour audience are going to be
authors.
And then I went into who I amand it was a very short spiel I
mean, I think it was maybe threesentences and I'd like like to
(21:42):
talk about.
I'd like to, you know, geek outon everything Amazon related,
and they wrote me back.
They asked a couple ofquestions and they wrote me back
and they said, okay, go aheadand do it so whenever you're
ready Now.
So again, you could do this ina subreddit, because I actually
also emailed a couple ofsubreddits which I have not
(22:02):
heard back from yet.
If you find a subreddit, youcan find the moderator for that
subreddit and you can certainlyemail them.
Definitely the AMA.
I like the Ask Me Anything,because that's literally why
people are there they'researching through those and they
do show up very well in searchanyway.
So again, you can pitch the AMAand you can search.
(22:27):
I think it's r?
Slash.
You know it's r?
Slash AMA.
So Reddit slash AMA.
One of the things that they didtell me when I got the
confirmation for Miami and Idon't have a date yet.
They just allowed me to do itis make sure that in your intro
(22:48):
post, you really talk about howyou're the expert, shortly and
succinctly right who you are,why you're doing this, what they
can ask and what your expertiseis.
Okay, so be really clear,because I mean, you don't want
to disappoint people by gettinga bunch of questions about
(23:10):
something that you don't reallyhave an expertise in and,
depending on how broad yourtopic is, you want to narrow it
down as much as you can you can.
The other thing that I think,and part of the reason why I
didn't just accept the date andget a date going, is first off,
I want to align it with the preorder, but you want to make sure
(23:31):
that you're really ready to beso clear.
The decks Make sure that youare ready to answer questions,
because runners loveresponsiveness to answer
questions, because runners loveresponsiveness, being lively and
engaged.
So this isn't a question ofsetting up your AMA, going off
to work and then coming back inthe evening and answering the
(23:51):
questions.
Right, don't ghost your own AMA.
So you want to make sure so, ifyou have to do it on a Saturday
or a Sunday, because you couldget three people or you could
get 300.
I'm betting that that wholeEdgar Allan Poe one is probably
getting 3000.
Like, oh yeah, so it willreally depend.
(24:14):
And, you know, you could alsojust join some AMAs and kind of
see how they go and get a sensefrom them what everybody else is
doing and, you know, glean someideas from that.
Now, the other thing that I wantyou to consider too is take
lots of screenshots.
So good questions make goodsocial media content after, and
they also maybe even might evenspark like if you're doing
(24:36):
author events or if you havespeaking Great questions
oftentimes and at least theyhave for me and other speakers
that I've worked with or if youhave speaking great questions
Oftentimes at least they havefor me and other speakers that
I've worked with they help tospark new speaker topics and
they may also give you new ideasfor social media posts or blog
(24:57):
posts or videos that you'redoing or whatever right.
So grab as many screenshots,quotes, questions just bank them
for later, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's really smart.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, just to you know, repurpose them for you
know, just to repurpose them for, for you know, for other uses.
Okay, so I think we coveredeverything under the execution.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Can I add one more thing, Penny?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
No, go for it.
Yes I had.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
I even had to look it up now because, as you were
saying, I, like you, know, whenwe start talking about this
stuff in the moment, our brainsstart going like, ooh, what
about this, what about this,what about this.
So I did a quick search andwhen you said, you know, plan
for when this is going to happen, you need to be ready.
(25:59):
You know.
It's also great.
I found out that, cause I wasjust curious when you mentioned
going with the AMA thread andthen also pitching some topical
you know subreddits and thingslike that.
Go for all of it, because itseems like the AMA thread,
reddit, actually promotes those,which is another thing.
So they actually that's anothermajor bonus If you actually get
the approval from for theofficial AMA thread is that they
will actually make sure thatpeople on the platform see those
, which is really great.
(26:21):
And then this is cool, like ifyou schedule it in advance, you
can actually promote the datethat it's happening.
Promote the date that it'shappening, yeah, and on Reddit
there's a remind me option too.
So people that use Reddit a lot, they, like you said, they will
go through and they'll kind ofscan the AMA string to see
what's coming up and if it's inthe future, they can set it up
(26:42):
so they get reminded ofsomething coming up.
You know what I mean.
So make the most of if youdecide you're going to do this,
make the most of it.
You know what I mean.
Take advantage of all of thoselittle extras.
You know, like the planning,sending people there, letting
people know in advance that it'shappening.
You know, like we always sayall the time if you're going to
do one thing, find three otherways that you can maximize on it
(27:06):
.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, no, that's a really, that's a great idea.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's a,really, that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, Make the most of every effort.
So if you're going to do thisand I hope a bunch of you do and
then write us and let us knowhow it goes, or let us know when
your AMA is planned, but makesure you're taking advantage of
all those other promotionalopportunities to send people
there and get the word out aboutit too.
You know, just like we do witheverything else we talk about in
(27:37):
terms of planning events.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
This is an online event.
There's so many things you cando in advance of in-person and
online events to kind of makethe most of the opportunity.
Well, and because, to Amy'spoint so Reddit does promote
their AMAs.
They can live on the Reddit'sfront page and potentially get
millions of views.
It's really a hidden gem of anidea that I don't know why we
(28:01):
don't hear more about this.
I think you know what I mean.
It's very flashy to be onTikTok or Instagram or whatever,
but I'm telling you right now,reddit is a fabulous structure
for this.
So a couple of other things.
Reddit does not likeself-promotion.
Okay, so things like you knowpushing I mean, obviously you're
(28:29):
there because of your book, butthere's a way to structure
answers where you're not sayingthings like well, but if you
read my book, if you read mybook, you know what I mean.
And then also not replying tosome like if somebody asks you
something that you don't know,just tell them that you don't
(28:49):
know, right?
So you're going to want to makesure to reply to all of them.
Don't sound like a marketer,and that's something that I know
is like you feel like okay,well, you know, a lot of times,
if you get an A, like an authorgets an AMA, they might feel
like I have so much pressure,like I really want to sell a lot
of books.
I really want to do all thethings.
You want to make sure thateverything is lined up so that
(29:12):
your book is live or it's up onpre-order, or whatever that your
.
You know that your website's inthe information so people can
find you, but you really need tonot sound like a marketing
person, so you are there to giveinformation.
Okay, all you really need,though, to do this is your
(29:35):
Reddit account and a link tolike.
Go to bitly and get a shortenedlink to your, to your website
or your book.
I mentioned your website before.
If the URL is really long, youcan create a shortened link for
it or something, and then Iwould just say two or three, two
to three hours of availability.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah, Absolutely, and you can.
You have control over as thehost of your AMA.
You have control over how longyou take questions for, not just
that day, but even leaving itopen for comments after the fact
you know, so that's anotherPenny I love that you mentioned.
like, if somebody asks aquestion, don't just pretend
it's not happening, you know,respond to it, and that even
(30:17):
gives you the chance to say youknow, I don't know, but that's a
fabulous question, I will getback to you, and you do have the
option to reply to that personat a later date.
You know, especially if it issomething that you're like you
know what?
That is a really great questionand I would have liked to
answer that.
You know what I mean.
So make it personal.
You know, also be sure to speakto these and because these are,
(30:39):
these are super fans of topics,these are diehards, hardcore
people.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So if you get them intrigued like this is gold, you
know, if you get them intriguedlike this is gold, you know,
yeah, yeah, it really is, itdefinitely is gold and it is
like I said, it's great andunique thing and I don't know
that that that the AMA track orthe subreddit rather is, you
(31:07):
know, won't let you do a couplelike if you do one really
successfully and you had lots ofresponses and lots of people
you know messaging you on theReddit, I don't know that they
would not let you do a second ora third one, but I think it's
definitely an overlookedopportunity to get potentially
millions and millions of viewsto your topic and I think that
(31:29):
you know.
Just to kind of leave you withthis.
I mean, reddit is the successon Reddit is less about being
famous and beingself-promotional and much more
about being interesting.
Yeah, so it is a, it's a.
It's a very under, you know, inthe in the world of social
(31:50):
media, which again Reddit reallyskirts kind of the edge, the
fringes of social media.
But in the world of social media, where everything is about
being famous and being this orbeing that, reddit's not about
that.
Reddit is really more aboutgood information and being
interesting and it's part of thereason why Amy and I like to
deep dive on there for varioustopics, both personal and
(32:12):
professional.
So and I would really love Imean, as Amy mentioned let us
know if you decide to do thisand you get an AMA.
We'd love to to maybe even justbe a lurker and kind of see how
you do, but also pitch us yourAMA, like if you think about oh
my gosh, I want to do this.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I know I'm so glad you said that.
I was like please send us yourideas.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I would love to see some of your ideas, yeah we
would love to and you know whatI will if you just if you send
it to us or you get onedefinitely send you, send us
your AMA ideas, but if you getone scheduled, we'll definitely
(32:55):
mention it on the show and andjust send even more eyes to your
AMA even after it's happened,because the other thing about
the AMA is that it still liveson Reddit, so it doesn't
evaporate which a lot of thingsthat you do online just
evaporate right.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
That's a very good point, penny.
Even if it's closed forcomments, I still have I've read
multiple threads that are nolonger accepting comments that
I've gotten great informationfrom.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Totally, yeah, absolutely.
But just remember, show up andbe interesting and helpful.
Leave your promotional head athome, because basically, that's
obviously Reddit, that's whatyou're doing anyway, but they're
too smart for that to Redditusers.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
They're not going to fall for that Really.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, reddit users are really very, very smart
about that, um.
So I love this idea.
I'm looking forward to my AMA.
We'll definitely let everybodyknow when it's going to be
scheduled as soon as the book umis up for pre-order.
We're going to do that.
But very excited about aboutthe show.
So cool we.
We love your show ideas.
(33:51):
If you have never, if this isyour first listen, be sure to
subscribe to the show so thatyou get notified.
We drop a show every Fridayinto your podcast feed.
There's a contact.
There are contact details inthe show notes.
Send us your show ideas, sendus your show feedback.
We love reviews, reviews, sowherever you listen to podcasts,
(34:12):
please leave us a review aswell.
Thank you so much and we'll seeyou next time.
Bye.
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