Tired of shouting into the void and hoping readers find you? We unpack a clear, stress-free system any fiction author can use to build a professional presence, get approved on Goodreads, and grow a loyal email list that powers bigger launches. With Sam from CrewFiction, we map the path from scattered links to a polished hub that ranks on Google, showcases your books, and welcomes new readers with irresistible bonuses.
We start with the foundation: a clean, fast author website that imports your Amazon titles in minutes and centers the details readers actually search for—your genre and tropes. That simple shift supercharges discoverability and credibility, especially when paired with a custom domain. From there, we talk practical SEO, from search-friendly page structure and page speed to leveraging a content ecosystem that pushes your pen name and books higher in results. You’ll hear how curated reviews, link-in-bio consolidation, and clear calls to action turn casual browsers into subscribers.
Then we dive into list growth and retention. Reader magnets—prequels, deleted scenes, bonus epilogues—sit front and center and feed a welcome sequence that builds trust. Sam shares how CrewFiction’s fiction-first newsletter platform gives you story-driven templates and launch workflows so you’re never stuck wondering what to write. We also explore collaboration: finding authors with matching tropes for swaps and promos, using a searchable directory to align audiences, and tracking what works with built-in analytics, tagging, and segmentation for ARCs, superfans, and new readers.
If you want a simpler way to get discovered, collect emails, and sell more books without burning out, this conversation hands you the toolkit. Subscribe for more author growth tac
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Welcome to Tiny Marketing Podcast.
I'm Serena Out Block, and thisshow is made for solo
consultants who want to getbooked out without burning out.
If you've ever thought, I justwant this to feel easier, you're
not alone.
Around here we focus on simple,sustainable growth that actually
fits into your life so growthfeels doable instead of
overwhelming.
(00:56):
Hello.
Sam, can you introduce yourselfto the audience?
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Absolutely, Sarah.
My name is Sam.
I'm a Greek national, born andraised in Athens, Greece.
I'm super passionate aboutbuilding systems.
I have a background intechnology, computer science,
and software engineering.
And I spent a couple of yearsabroad.
Like I was living in Berlin,where I started my career.
And then after I moved toCanada, where I was in the
(01:21):
consulting sector.
But my true passion was findinga problem and solving it.
And hence we decided to createCo-Fiction in order to support
authors with their onlinepresence.
Aside from that, I'm a big fanof sports, used to play
basketball for many years, andnow I'm an often runner.
So that's a big part of my lifeas well.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
I've cued this up a little bit on Tiny Marketing Pod
before, but I'm working on aside project called Best Seller
Experiment, where I'm goingthrough all of the marketing
that I do for my own supersecret, not really secret, pen
name of my author brand.
(02:05):
So it's not a secret.
I've talked about it.
It's a big everyone's heardabout it.
So I met Sam through my writinglife, my Batman world.
And we talked about, I startedtesting out crew fiction after
he reached out to me.
And I found that it solves a lotof problems that authors are
(02:31):
have when they first startwriting and publishing and
building their careers becauseyou're awesome writers.
That's how you got started.
But maybe you don't haveexperience with marketing.
And I think that really I justgot lucky that I happen to be a
marketer who writes.
So that part came easy to me.
(02:53):
But I can see where other peoplewould fall off because you need
a website, you need SEO, youneed to start building an email
list.
And that's not something thatjust comes naturally to you if
it's not your world, ifmarketing isn't your world.
So the first thing that I wantto talk about before we get into
(03:17):
email list building and all ofthat is the author website.
So, Sam, why do authors need awebsite?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for the intro.
And I'm super excited that youenjoyed the platform and it
solved some of the mainproblems.
Why authors need their website?
I I think it's it's the first,let's say, handshake between an
author and a reader.
It's the first step of creatinga professional online space.
(03:47):
So for people to for first ofall, so for you to be
discoverable online, and thenfor people to be able to come in
and understand who you are, whattype of what type of stories do
you write, and for you to bediscoverable.
Your websites act in a way thatpeople can come in, they can
understand who you are, and thenon top of that, building your
(04:09):
marketing techniques on yourwebsite as well.
It is a unique combination thatwe are hoping to create as well.
SPEAKER_01 (04:15):
Yeah.
So usually the first thing thatan indie author does when
they're they've decided topublish is they make sure that
it's on Goodreads, they makesure that it's on KDP.
And the thing about Goodreads isyou need to have an author
website in order to get approvedas an author on Goodreads.
(04:38):
So you don't have access to yourauthor dashboard unless you have
a website.
And that means building, thatmeans possible code.
But with crew fiction, it makesit so much easier because they
literally have a template andyou're just like you can import
your books from Amazon into itand you have a website.
(05:00):
It takes maybe three minutes.
And that's that's the reason Ireally wanted Sam on the show is
because you cannot have anauthor dashboard on Goodreads,
and it's so valuable.
If you're not looking at yourstatistics on Goodreads, your
author dashboard, you're missingout because you're finding out
so much.
(05:21):
You can't do it without awebsite.
The thing is, so with crewfiction, you can build your
website in three minutes, but inorder to get approved on
Goodreads author dashboard, youneed to have a custom URL.
But you're able to do that inCrewFection.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Absolutely.
As you mentioned, the mainpriority is how can we create
something fast and havesomething simple?
Because at the end of the day,authors need to have a
professional online space withall of their boots.
So we have a particular templatethat every author has.
And whether you have publishedone or 150 titles, your author
(06:03):
site is created automatically ina matter of seconds.
In a matter of minutes,actually, two or three minutes
to be precise.
Yeah.
And all of your books.
And all of your books areautomatically ready.
Exactly.
So with the crew fiction side,an author is increasing their
chances to get approved byGoodreads, uh, since we meet all
the Google all the Googlestandards.
(06:24):
And we are creating a dedicatedsite with their books online.
As you also mentioned, they havethe ability also to have their
custom domain with their name onit, which is also an important
factor for Goodreads to approveyour author site.
Beyond just Goodreads approval,having that branded hub gives
authors the credibility and aplace to direct new readers from
(06:47):
anywhere, reader social media,newsletter, promotion, so on and
so forth.
So that also gives anotheradvantage for you to get
approved by Goodreads.
SPEAKER_01 (06:57):
Yeah, and so when I started testing out, the first
thing that I noticed is the SEOis immaculate because I have my
own standalone author website.
I'm a marketer.
That was easy for me.
I just created one, I had onealready.
I have articles written about mybooks, and I have all sorts of
SEO out there, and crew fictionbeat it all.
(07:21):
Like you.
Everything with my name attachedto it and crew fiction moved to
the top of Google.
It so explain your SEO to me.
Like, how what did you do inorder to make your like author
profiles so highly ranking?
SPEAKER_00 (07:43):
Yep.
SEO is truly one of the mostmost important factors for
authors to be visible anddiscoverable online.
And to be honest with you, ourteam, my the other two
co-founders, have like vast vastexperience in SEO and marketing
since they have been in theindustry for a long time.
Yeah, exactly.
(08:03):
So we truly invest in in havinga healthy SEO.
So for to be as simple aspossible for fiction authors, it
really determines whether eitherwho is searching for your genre,
your themes, or even your tropescan actually find you.
So for us, healthy SEO meansthat your name is is easy to
find, that your books show upfor relevant searches, and also
(08:28):
on other platforms, including AItools, you can be identified.
So a good SEO today is aboutbeing discoverable everywhere.
And how we do that, how weachieve a strong SEO, is first
of all with an on-page and atechnical SEO.
I know that I'm using somejargon right now, but these are
two like very standard ways ofbuilding an SEO, a healthy SEO.
(08:50):
So authors they don't need to dothat complexities themselves.
As you clearly stated in your uhin your introduction, we try to
take some of the burden thatauthors have.
One of these, one of these,let's say, obstacles is that
they have to do complex stuffand technical stuff.
So we we achieve a healthy SEOwith an open on-page SEO, which
(09:12):
is a clean page structure, uhsearch-friendly titles and
headlines, and also a completelisting of your books on our
website.
So as long as someone is comingto our website and creates their
author's site, automatically wegenerate an additional profile
of there, of theirs, and islisted on our website.
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
And so you end up getting two uh essential
listings because you have yourwebsite which is what you own.
Yeah, and then you have yourauthor profile, which is visible
to like readers.
SPEAKER_00 (09:45):
Exactly.
And on top of that, I shouldmention that it is aligned with
GUB standards.
So also the technical SEO,there's no need to dive into
technical details, but we havepage speed optimization and we
secure and we have clean HTMLs.
But the most important thing isthat we also have high content,
(10:05):
we have a high contentecosystem.
What do I mean by that is thatwe generate high quality content
through our blog, and our blogruns for thousands of keywords,
and many on page one of Google.
So indirectly, that benefits allauthors who are part of the
ecosystem and using crew fictionas their tool.
SPEAKER_01 (10:24):
Yeah, it actually like truly stunned me how
quickly crew fiction, likeeverything about me in crew
fiction, moved straight to thetop and started beating
everything.
But you talked about the tropes,which I want to dig into a
little bit for any authors whoare listening to this right now.
Tropes are what readers arelooking for.
(10:47):
Whenever they're doing a search,it's usually like something
around a trope.
And that is front and centerwith the crew fiction websites,
which I really liked.
So there's what maybe there'sthree things that you really
need to do when you're buildingout your crew fiction website as
an author.
You're importing your books, youare deciding your tropes, you're
(11:10):
putting your tropes right onthere.
And then you're doing like yourdesign elements on there.
So like picking your backgroundcolor, adding your pen name and
your profile photo, and that'spretty much it.
That's all you really have todo.
And if you take it that stepfurther, add your custom domain.
(11:30):
But essentially it's those threethings.
Super easy.
But the tropes make it so easyfor readers to be able to find
you.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Correct.
And just before tropes, I shouldalso mention the genres, right?
Because that's exactly as yousaid, as you described it.
We're asking what's your penname, what is your genre, and
what is your trope.
Then the rest is handled by us.
So the moment you include thesedetails, automatically there is
a website about yourself withall of your books, and then you
(11:59):
have the ability to add yourreader magnets and customize it,
as you said.
Trobes, since you focused onthat, is uh the best way of you
be being discoverable as anauthor.
And on top of that, startparticipating on promotions and
author swaps andcross-promotions.
Because uh eventually crewfiction is an ecosystem of
(12:21):
fiction authors where they canjoin and start collaborating
with others who are writingsimilar tropes.
Finding people with similartropes is an easy way to
cross-promote your craft andstart generating more reviews,
which is the goal at the end ofthe day.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
That's a good kickoff for the email list.
So, first, before we get intoemail specifically, let's talk
about the reader magnets.
This is the actual reason that Iwas like, yeah, okay, I'll try
out crew fiction.
Was the reader magnet is frontand center.
It's super easy to send out andadd your reader magnet, which
(13:01):
like it's incredibly importantto me to build my email list as
an author.
That's where the money's made.
That's where you build like asustained fan base.
So you can trade out your readermagnet seasonally if you want.
Or you can have, or for each ofyour launches, just trade it
(13:23):
out.
It's super easy.
You can also do the option ofnot having the reader magnet and
putting your arcs there instead.
And so those are some ways tobuild your email list.
And then on top of that, youhave that entire ecosystem of
other authors.
I think you have over 600authors, at least last time we
talked, that are that are onthere.
(13:46):
So you can connect with them anddo swaps and collabs.
But let's talk a little bitabout your email platform
(14:54):
because that's brand new.
I haven't even gotten to playwith it yet.
First, is there anything, anyadvice that you'd want to give
to authors on other ways theycan grow their email list?
SPEAKER_00 (15:12):
Other ways apart from reader magnets, you mean?
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:15):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (15:17):
Yeah, so you talked about collabs, for example.
What are some types of collabsthat they can do?
SPEAKER_00 (15:23):
As mentioned earlier, the finding people who
are writing similar stories toyours is a great idea of
starting collaborating andreaching out and doing readers,
reader swaps, and alsoparticipating in participating
in promotions.
For example, there are many,there are many promotions that
we run as well.
So, for example, we ran one lastyear, which was called the Happy
(15:45):
Year collab, where people fromespecially like a particular
genre, historical romance, forexample, they all participated
in.
They offered a glimpse of theirstories and the and then they
started exchanging readers.
This is a great way.
Reader magnets is definitely thenumber one way of building a
(16:06):
true fan base.
It's not only because it's free,it's because you're giving a
glimpse of who you are and whatyou write.
And it's the easiest way ofdoing it by welcoming a reader,
sending because we are also likecreating automated emails that
you can customize, you'regreeting the reader, you're
saying who you are, you'reintroduced to yourself very
quickly, and you are just givinga deleted chart or something
(16:28):
that you wrote, and they canthey should know about you.
Apart from that, emailnewsletter is super important,
and many authors don't reallyunderstand that.
Definitely social media makingposts on Instagram or on TikTok
are super important.
However, the number one safetactic of very successful,
(16:50):
either self-published authorsbut also traditional published
authors is having an emailnewsletter and being able to
retain that email newsletter andengage your audience with
interesting stories or sharingwith your audience at which
stage you are right now of yourbook, what you're thinking, and
generally being expressive.
I truly believe that this is aunique way of building a true
(17:11):
fan base.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
If someone liked one of yourbooks, it's very likely they're
going to like the others.
And like retaining thatrelationship is so important.
I think that one of the bestdecisions I made in my author
life is having reader magnetsavailable for each of my books
(17:35):
in the front and back matter ofmy book.
So anybody who read it, they geta reminder at the beginning and
at the end.
Here's a bonus for you.
Like for strings attached, I hada short story that took place
like six years later with thesame characters.
For full tier, I had a deletedscene where they're super
(17:55):
hungover in the book.
But you get to see what was theparty that happened when you
download that.
And then in February, Deep Cutscomes out, and I'm going to do
the lost voicemails thathappened during this year-long
separation.
But just like a creative way topull people into your story and
(18:17):
expand on it.
And then as a bonus, there youhave their email.
So for your next launch, it'llbe even bigger.
And that's what I've experiencedanyway.
My email list gets bigger andbigger, and each launch has been
bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_00 (18:33):
If I may mention something here, you just
revealed our next uh and mostfavorite feature, which is
called Which is calledbonusings.
And which is exactly what we do.
Like for people who enjoy aparticular book, we we we give
the opportunity to authors toinclude the bonus.
That this bonus is basicallylocked.
As a result, people need to comein and include their email
(18:56):
addresses in order to unlockthem and then be able to read it
directly on the platform andthen rate how they liked it.
And as long as this ishappening, this process is
happening, our system isconsuming the data and is
sending this information to theauthor in order also to help
with the insights.
Insights is super important forus.
We try, we we build a systemthat, as mentioned earlier,
(19:19):
consumes data and reports backto the author, guides the author
on how successful was yourprevious book and how many
people downloaded the bonemachine, how did they react.
And that way, your decisionmaking is also getting
facilitated.
SPEAKER_01 (19:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Use that data so you know whatreader magnets are attracting
readers, what do they like?
Absolutely every experiment thatyou do is going to yield you
more data to allow you to make aslight pivot so it works better
the next time.
Okay, so let's talk about youremail platform.
(19:57):
I haven't gotten to play withit, so cue it up for me.
Tell me how it works and howother authors can use it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, email newsletter is ourbiggest highlight of 2025.
Just a little story behind itthat we launched earlier this
year, February, to be precise.
Since then, we have 650 signups,author who are using our tools.
And we are super excited that amonth ago, actually, we launched
(20:27):
the first version of thenewsletter.
It is the first email newsletterthat is entirely focused on
fiction authors.
So it is built specifically forfiction authors and it is
designed around story-drivenworkflows and timelines and
processes and workflows.
So the the main competitiveadvantage of crew fiction, crew
(20:49):
fiction's email newsletter isthat we design work, we design
workflows and processes thatonly fiction authors need and
need to use.
So let's say that you want tosend a sequence of five emails
from the cover EV to the reviewrequest.
This is a chain of five, sixdifferent steps, for example.
We are creating these templatesautomatically, and then authors
(21:13):
can join in and use them veryfast without needing to
customize every single part.
Of course, there are fantasticemail newsletter tools out
there, but they are generic.
Ours is authors first and a bitspecifically for uh for fiction
authors.
SPEAKER_01 (21:30):
That you have templates set.
Up.
I think that so let's pauseright there for a second.
That's one of the hugeroadblocks, I'd say, for a lot
of fiction authors is what do Iwrite?
What do I email my audience?
So you have templates andsequences already queued up.
(21:51):
So if they don't know, like Icould come up with 1,000 ideas
because this is what I do on myday job.
But for a fiction writer, youhave those templates already set
up.
So they know exact they knowexactly what they need to write.
SPEAKER_00 (22:08):
Exactly.
Of course, it's purely optionalbecause many many people might
not want to might not want touse the other templates.
So they can be customized aswell.
But yeah, at the end of the day,the main problem that we're
trying to solve is the amount oftime that authors spend online
in order to create aprofessional online space.
(22:31):
So number one is that they arejuggling multiple platforms.
So we are creating an all in onespace, and with the email
newsletter, we managed, or atleast we are getting there to
achieve it, because we justcreated the most important
element of an offer.
But secondly, the amount of timethat they spend, of course, in
creating templates and yeah,emails.
SPEAKER_01 (22:54):
So earlier you were talking about collabing with
other authors that are on theplatform.
Do you have a directory that issearchable?
SPEAKER_00 (23:03):
Absolutely.
I think I already mentioned thelisting.
So listing is something that iscreated is created automatically
as long as someone is becomingpart of CrewFiction and creates
their author site.
It's let's say a thanks to theauthor who joined us, and we are
(23:24):
creating a page on the CrewFiction website that is, of
course, getting segmented andcategorized according to what
you write, genres and tropes,where we put all of your books
that are available on Amazon andthat they are already published.
And then, yeah, right now wereceive tens of thousands of
unique clicks on a monthlybasis, where the majority of
(23:46):
those is coming from readers andthey can come in and they can
search for your name or they cansearch for their book and pull
out the results.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
What about on the author side?
Where are authors able to searchfor the other authors using
certain keywords so they canfind good people to collab with?
SPEAKER_00 (24:09):
Absolutely.
So there is a searchable way offinding other authors with
keywords by by filtering by byfiltering by tropes or genres
where they can find.
Right now we don't have adedicated system of out-reaching
directly to these authors, butthis is one of the main ideas
that we are about to implement.
And now that I mentioned that,this is how we operate as well
(24:32):
in co-fiction.
I would like to highlight thatbased on what authors tell us,
this is how we prioritize ourwork.
And author swaps and authorcollabs are at the top of the
list.
SPEAKER_01 (24:43):
Yeah, once we had our call, I was like, how do we
do that?
I want more cuts.
SPEAKER_00 (24:48):
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that it's notyet ready, but it is the good
news is that it is uh onprogress, and we are building a
very unique way of authorcollaborations that will be
available in the first quarterof 2026.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, that so it's on theroadmap.
SPEAKER_00 (25:07):
Recital, exactly.
And at the top of everything.
SPEAKER_01 (25:10):
Yeah.
Perfect.
So I'm thinking we could stopthe audio piece right here.
And if you want, you could do awalkthrough and we could hit a
walkthrough part just on thevideo aspect of it.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
Absolutely.
Let's do that.
I would love to.
SPEAKER_01 (25:27):
Okay, so before I bring that onto the stage, why
don't you tell people how theycan get started?
And then we'll cut the audiothere and this part separately.
So can you tell people how theycan join Crew Fiction?
SPEAKER_00 (25:43):
Absolutely.
It's super easy.
The website is crewfiction.com.
However, for authors, just bygoogling crew fiction for
authors, you will see the authorplatform, and it requires only
your pen name.
As long as you put your pen namein, then our system will
identify you as an author andwe'll create your website in
less than three minutes.
That's all, actually.
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
And it's we try to make simple things.
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
It is super simple.
So you're gonna get an emailright away from Sam for
onboarding, and he does, infact, reply.
That's how we ended up talkingand wisely on the show.
SPEAKER_00 (26:18):
Actually, that's a great point.
And thank you for mentioningthat.
Uh, since we're at the earlystages, we are offering a
one-on-one calls because I trulybelieve that building a great
product is listening to yourcustomer first.
Definitely, we all have greatideas and we want to improve the
systems that we build, but if wedon't hear and listen to the
(26:41):
customer and what they need,we're not going to implement
that.
The most important part of theonboarding is the one-on-one
call that we still offer, andthat I'm participating with
every offer specifically, and welisten to what they want and
what they need in order for usto create it and get the
feedback actually.
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
Yes, can confirm.
I mentioned, can we have goodreads on our social links within
a half hour?
You're like, yeah, I did that.
Yeah, we'll bring it up.
It was so quick.
Okay, awesome.
I am going to add this to thestage, and then video in the
(27:19):
video only portion.
We'll do this walkthrough.
Sam, take it away.
Do a little walkthrough of crewfiction.
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah.
Appreciate it.
So, this is the main page of theauthor site that you see right
now on your screen.
It's super easy and simple.
As mentioned earlier, we try tosave time from authors, from
managing technical stuff andneeding to customize a lot of
things while they're creatingtheir other website.
And we truly believe that thereis no need for complexity in
(27:50):
terms of how many sections andhow many things you an author
needs to have.
What they need is their socialmedia, the reader magnet, all of
their books.
So, as you can see,automatically all of the books
are imported from thisparticular author, and then you
have the freedom to select theones that you want to show to
(28:11):
your audience.
You can easily add the book justby adding the async code, and
this will automatically importthe book.
Here we have the Zandres andTrobes, as we mentioned earlier.
We filter by Zandres and Trobesand make it discoverable easier.
You can either search it orscroll down to identify the one
(28:33):
that fits your books.
And the most important thing,the reviews.
These are all affectsautomatically here.
You can again include the onesthat are the top-rated and the
graded reviews.
SPEAKER_01 (28:45):
Well, the good one.
I forgot to mention that.
I really liked that feature.
SPEAKER_00 (28:50):
Yeah, exactly.
And by the way, this is how ouralgorithm works.
It brings mainly the top-ratedreviews, and automatically we
select three, the top-ratedones.
But again, you can scroll down,you can identify the ones that
you love and include them toyour site.
Here it shows a preview on theright-hand side where you know
(29:11):
you can check it out whileyou're customizing it before you
publish it.
But even if you publish it, youcan come back, make an edit, and
then save and publish your site.
The first step of the all-in-oneplace is the linking bio.
We all know tools like Linktreeand others.
We thought of like why not tocombine it into one place where
(29:34):
people can have their books andtheir links into one place, and
you can include unlimited links.
So for people to for the readersto find your own Minecraft.
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
Yeah, that has been really nice.
I added my like arc interestlist for my next release, and
people were real quick to signup for it.
And I use this.
SPEAKER_00 (29:54):
Exactly.
Because at the end of the day,Sarah, the most important thing
is how can you create the truefan base, right?
And engage new readers.
So one tip that I forgot tomention earlier is you get the
link here, the URL link, and youpost it on your social media.
You post it on your newsletter.
And this is the main source andyour main hub where you include
(30:17):
everything about yourself, yourlinks and your books.
Now, to the most exciting stuff,this is the home by the home
button.
We try to create a sophisticatedspace where it will be driven by
data.
And eventually we hope to createa book marketing assistant.
As I mentioned earlier, that wereport back to you on what's
(30:39):
happening on your online craft.
We started with some basicanalytics.
How many paid visits do youhave?
How many email subscribers, andhow many Amazon tricks?
But then we will uh dive deeperand offer more granular data.
And the newsletter part, whichis our biggest highlight, we
tried to make it as simple aspossible with a simple editor
(31:02):
where you can include yourbooks.
So with a simple click, you canload one book, write a
description, and include it inyour in include it in your uh in
your newsletter with the samerationale images.
So let's say that I want to addan image here, it's loading in a
(31:28):
couple of in a couple ofseconds, and then you can edit
it, play with the alignment,play with the size, include an
alt text or a link.
Recently we launched the button,so with the same rationale you
can edit your buttons andinclude links, which is very
popular for for authors.
But as I mentioned earlier, theconcept is that you will have
(31:52):
templates and according to whatyou want to do, whether you want
to welcome a reader or whetheryou want to launch a book, you
will select the templates thatyou want to use and then
automatically use them so foryou not to not to spend so much
time on building an email fromscratch.
There is an auto-save button sofor you not to miss your work or
lose anything.
(32:15):
You're setting the audience towhom you're sending it and to
where you will receive theresponses.
And last but not least, we havethe review process where you can
schedule your email or send itnow to your dear audience.
This is where all of yourcampaigns are.
(32:37):
We include both the draft andthe ones that are published, as
you can see.
On the published campaign, itchecks some basic stats, such as
how many emails were sent, howmany people opened it, how many
clicks did you receive, and youcan also duplicate an existing
campaign in order for you not tonot to repeat the same stuff
again and again.
So again, we try to makeauthor's life easier by
(32:59):
automating things and make itmake it clean, beautiful, and
all in one place.
SPEAKER_01 (33:04):
Brilliant.
Thank you.
Hold on, before I remove thisfrom the screen, is there
anything else that you want toshow us on here?
SPEAKER_00 (33:12):
I think the best thing to mention here is the
subscribers button.
Here is where you can be able tosegment your readers, something
very important.
And as I mentioned earlier,during the one-on-one calls, we
receive a lot of comments aboutsegmentation.
So right now, our developmentteam is building tagging and
segmentation, so you will beable to add them to an arc art
(33:34):
category, super fans, warreaders, so on and so forth.
It's coming out this week, andit's going to be it's actually a
very interesting feature.
And lastly, the listing that wetalked about earlier that will
direct you to your profile onthe crew fiction page.
And something that we reallywant authors to use the roadmap.
(33:56):
As mentioned earlier, it's anauthor's first platform.
By going to the roadmap here atthe bottom left, you can come
in, vote, vote for ideas, exexisting ideas, or suggest a new
idea.
And if your idea gets a lot ofvotes, then we will prioritize
it accordingly.
SPEAKER_01 (34:14):
Yeah, that was one of the first places I went was
roadmap.
Let's see what's happening.
I'm a chronic beta read, likebeta tester.
I love testing tech.
Okay, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Okay, so everybody knows howthey can get started with crew
(34:36):
fiction.
Where can they follow you onlineif they want to connect?
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
Absolutely.
So simple as that.
Sam at crewfiction.com is myemail.
Everyone can email me and theycan have a one-on-one call.
They can find us on TikTok.
Crew Fiction for Authors is ourusername, where we post also
some stuff about tips.
We we give tips to authors,especially self-published
authors.
And that's it mainly.
(35:02):
But we have all the informationon the author platform on our
site.
And yeah, we are like super,super excited about interacting
with authors who want to enhancetheir systems, develop them,
make them more efficient.
We are all about we are allabout efficiency.
We are super excited when we'reconnecting with authors who are
(35:23):
curious and intrigued by ourwork.
SPEAKER_01 (35:26):
Awesome.
Thank you.
You can book yours through thelink in the show notes.
You don't have to figure it outalone.
Welcome to Tiny Marketing Podcast.
I'm Serena Out Block, and thisshow is made for solo
consultants who want to getbooked out without burning out.
If you've ever thought, I justwant this to feel easier, you're
not alone.
Around here we focus on simple,sustainable growth that actually
fits into your life so growthfeels doable instead of
overwhelming.
(00:56):
Hello.
Sam, can you introduce yourselfto the audience?
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Absolutely, Sarah.
My name is Sam.
I'm a Greek national, born andraised in Athens, Greece.
I'm super passionate aboutbuilding systems.
I have a background intechnology, computer science,
and software engineering.
And I spent a couple of yearsabroad.
Like I was living in Berlin,where I started my career.
And then after I moved toCanada, where I was in the
(01:21):
consulting sector.
But my true passion was findinga problem and solving it.
And hence we decided to createCo-Fiction in order to support
authors with their onlinepresence.
Aside from that, I'm a big fanof sports, used to play
basketball for many years, andnow I'm an often runner.
So that's a big part of my lifeas well.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
I've cued this up a little bit on Tiny Marketing Pod
before, but I'm working on aside project called Best Seller
Experiment, where I'm goingthrough all of the marketing
that I do for my own supersecret, not really secret, pen
name of my author brand.
(02:05):
So it's not a secret.
I've talked about it.
It's a big everyone's heardabout it.
So I met Sam through my writinglife, my Batman world.
And we talked about, I startedtesting out crew fiction after
he reached out to me.
And I found that it solves a lotof problems that authors are
(02:31):
have when they first startwriting and publishing and
building their careers becauseyou're awesome writers.
That's how you got started.
But maybe you don't haveexperience with marketing.
And I think that really I justgot lucky that I happen to be a
marketer who writes.
So that part came easy to me.
(02:53):
But I can see where other peoplewould fall off because you need
a website, you need SEO, youneed to start building an email
list.
And that's not something thatjust comes naturally to you if
it's not your world, ifmarketing isn't your world.
So the first thing that I wantto talk about before we get into
(03:17):
email list building and all ofthat is the author website.
So, Sam, why do authors need awebsite?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for the intro.
And I'm super excited that youenjoyed the platform and it
solved some of the mainproblems.
Why authors need their website?
I I think it's it's the first,let's say, handshake between an
author and a reader.
It's the first step of creatinga professional online space.
(03:47):
So for people to for first ofall, so for you to be
discoverable online, and thenfor people to be able to come in
and understand who you are, whattype of what type of stories do
you write, and for you to bediscoverable.
Your websites act in a way thatpeople can come in, they can
understand who you are, and thenon top of that, building your
(04:09):
marketing techniques on yourwebsite as well.
It is a unique combination thatwe are hoping to create as well.
SPEAKER_01 (04:15):
Yeah.
So usually the first thing thatan indie author does when
they're they've decided topublish is they make sure that
it's on Goodreads, they makesure that it's on KDP.
And the thing about Goodreads isyou need to have an author
website in order to get approvedas an author on Goodreads.
(04:38):
So you don't have access to yourauthor dashboard unless you have
a website.
And that means building, thatmeans possible code.
But with crew fiction, it makesit so much easier because they
literally have a template andyou're just like you can import
your books from Amazon into itand you have a website.
(05:00):
It takes maybe three minutes.
And that's that's the reason Ireally wanted Sam on the show is
because you cannot have anauthor dashboard on Goodreads,
and it's so valuable.
If you're not looking at yourstatistics on Goodreads, your
author dashboard, you're missingout because you're finding out
so much.
(05:21):
You can't do it without awebsite.
The thing is, so with crewfiction, you can build your
website in three minutes, but inorder to get approved on
Goodreads author dashboard, youneed to have a custom URL.
But you're able to do that inCrewFection.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Absolutely.
As you mentioned, the mainpriority is how can we create
something fast and havesomething simple?
Because at the end of the day,authors need to have a
professional online space withall of their boots.
So we have a particular templatethat every author has.
And whether you have publishedone or 150 titles, your author
(06:03):
site is created automatically ina matter of seconds.
In a matter of minutes,actually, two or three minutes
to be precise.
Yeah.
And all of your books.
And all of your books areautomatically ready.
Exactly.
So with the crew fiction side,an author is increasing their
chances to get approved byGoodreads, uh, since we meet all
the Google all the Googlestandards.
(06:24):
And we are creating a dedicatedsite with their books online.
As you also mentioned, they havethe ability also to have their
custom domain with their name onit, which is also an important
factor for Goodreads to approveyour author site.
Beyond just Goodreads approval,having that branded hub gives
authors the credibility and aplace to direct new readers from
(06:47):
anywhere, reader social media,newsletter, promotion, so on and
so forth.
So that also gives anotheradvantage for you to get
approved by Goodreads.
SPEAKER_01 (06:57):
Yeah, and so when I started testing out, the first
thing that I noticed is the SEOis immaculate because I have my
own standalone author website.
I'm a marketer.
That was easy for me.
I just created one, I had onealready.
I have articles written about mybooks, and I have all sorts of
SEO out there, and crew fictionbeat it all.
(07:21):
Like you.
Everything with my name attachedto it and crew fiction moved to
the top of Google.
It so explain your SEO to me.
Like, how what did you do inorder to make your like author
profiles so highly ranking?
SPEAKER_00 (07:43):
Yep.
SEO is truly one of the mostmost important factors for
authors to be visible anddiscoverable online.
And to be honest with you, ourteam, my the other two
co-founders, have like vast vastexperience in SEO and marketing
since they have been in theindustry for a long time.
Yeah, exactly.
(08:03):
So we truly invest in in havinga healthy SEO.
So for to be as simple aspossible for fiction authors, it
really determines whether eitherwho is searching for your genre,
your themes, or even your tropescan actually find you.
So for us, healthy SEO meansthat your name is is easy to
find, that your books show upfor relevant searches, and also
(08:28):
on other platforms, including AItools, you can be identified.
So a good SEO today is aboutbeing discoverable everywhere.
And how we do that, how weachieve a strong SEO, is first
of all with an on-page and atechnical SEO.
I know that I'm using somejargon right now, but these are
two like very standard ways ofbuilding an SEO, a healthy SEO.
(08:50):
So authors they don't need to dothat complexities themselves.
As you clearly stated in your uhin your introduction, we try to
take some of the burden thatauthors have.
One of these, one of these,let's say, obstacles is that
they have to do complex stuffand technical stuff.
So we we achieve a healthy SEOwith an open on-page SEO, which
(09:12):
is a clean page structure, uhsearch-friendly titles and
headlines, and also a completelisting of your books on our
website.
So as long as someone is comingto our website and creates their
author's site, automatically wegenerate an additional profile
of there, of theirs, and islisted on our website.
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
And so you end up getting two uh essential
listings because you have yourwebsite which is what you own.
Yeah, and then you have yourauthor profile, which is visible
to like readers.
SPEAKER_00 (09:45):
Exactly.
And on top of that, I shouldmention that it is aligned with
GUB standards.
So also the technical SEO,there's no need to dive into
technical details, but we havepage speed optimization and we
secure and we have clean HTMLs.
But the most important thing isthat we also have high content,
(10:05):
we have a high contentecosystem.
What do I mean by that is thatwe generate high quality content
through our blog, and our blogruns for thousands of keywords,
and many on page one of Google.
So indirectly, that benefits allauthors who are part of the
ecosystem and using crew fictionas their tool.
SPEAKER_01 (10:24):
Yeah, it actually like truly stunned me how
quickly crew fiction, likeeverything about me in crew
fiction, moved straight to thetop and started beating
everything.
But you talked about the tropes,which I want to dig into a
little bit for any authors whoare listening to this right now.
Tropes are what readers arelooking for.
(10:47):
Whenever they're doing a search,it's usually like something
around a trope.
And that is front and centerwith the crew fiction websites,
which I really liked.
So there's what maybe there'sthree things that you really
need to do when you're buildingout your crew fiction website as
an author.
You're importing your books, youare deciding your tropes, you're
(11:10):
putting your tropes right onthere.
And then you're doing like yourdesign elements on there.
So like picking your backgroundcolor, adding your pen name and
your profile photo, and that'spretty much it.
That's all you really have todo.
And if you take it that stepfurther, add your custom domain.
(11:30):
But essentially it's those threethings.
Super easy.
But the tropes make it so easyfor readers to be able to find
you.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Correct.
And just before tropes, I shouldalso mention the genres, right?
Because that's exactly as yousaid, as you described it.
We're asking what's your penname, what is your genre, and
what is your trope.
Then the rest is handled by us.
So the moment you include thesedetails, automatically there is
a website about yourself withall of your books, and then you
(11:59):
have the ability to add yourreader magnets and customize it,
as you said.
Trobes, since you focused onthat, is uh the best way of you
be being discoverable as anauthor.
And on top of that, startparticipating on promotions and
author swaps andcross-promotions.
Because uh eventually crewfiction is an ecosystem of
(12:21):
fiction authors where they canjoin and start collaborating
with others who are writingsimilar tropes.
Finding people with similartropes is an easy way to
cross-promote your craft andstart generating more reviews,
which is the goal at the end ofthe day.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
That's a good kickoff for the email list.
So, first, before we get intoemail specifically, let's talk
about the reader magnets.
This is the actual reason that Iwas like, yeah, okay, I'll try
out crew fiction.
Was the reader magnet is frontand center.
It's super easy to send out andadd your reader magnet, which
(13:01):
like it's incredibly importantto me to build my email list as
an author.
That's where the money's made.
That's where you build like asustained fan base.
So you can trade out your readermagnet seasonally if you want.
Or you can have, or for each ofyour launches, just trade it
(13:23):
out.
It's super easy.
You can also do the option ofnot having the reader magnet and
putting your arcs there instead.
And so those are some ways tobuild your email list.
And then on top of that, youhave that entire ecosystem of
other authors.
I think you have over 600authors, at least last time we
talked, that are that are onthere.
(13:46):
So you can connect with them anddo swaps and collabs.
But let's talk a little bitabout your email platform
(14:54):
because that's brand new.
I haven't even gotten to playwith it yet.
First, is there anything, anyadvice that you'd want to give
to authors on other ways theycan grow their email list?
SPEAKER_00 (15:12):
Other ways apart from reader magnets, you mean?
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:15):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (15:17):
Yeah, so you talked about collabs, for example.
What are some types of collabsthat they can do?
SPEAKER_00 (15:23):
As mentioned earlier, the finding people who
are writing similar stories toyours is a great idea of
starting collaborating andreaching out and doing readers,
reader swaps, and alsoparticipating in participating
in promotions.
For example, there are many,there are many promotions that
we run as well.
So, for example, we ran one lastyear, which was called the Happy
(15:45):
Year collab, where people fromespecially like a particular
genre, historical romance, forexample, they all participated
in.
They offered a glimpse of theirstories and the and then they
started exchanging readers.
This is a great way.
Reader magnets is definitely thenumber one way of building a
(16:06):
true fan base.
It's not only because it's free,it's because you're giving a
glimpse of who you are and whatyou write.
And it's the easiest way ofdoing it by welcoming a reader,
sending because we are also likecreating automated emails that
you can customize, you'regreeting the reader, you're
saying who you are, you'reintroduced to yourself very
quickly, and you are just givinga deleted chart or something
(16:28):
that you wrote, and they canthey should know about you.
Apart from that, emailnewsletter is super important,
and many authors don't reallyunderstand that.
Definitely social media makingposts on Instagram or on TikTok
are super important.
However, the number one safetactic of very successful,
(16:50):
either self-published authorsbut also traditional published
authors is having an emailnewsletter and being able to
retain that email newsletter andengage your audience with
interesting stories or sharingwith your audience at which
stage you are right now of yourbook, what you're thinking, and
generally being expressive.
I truly believe that this is aunique way of building a true
(17:11):
fan base.
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
If someone liked one of yourbooks, it's very likely they're
going to like the others.
And like retaining thatrelationship is so important.
I think that one of the bestdecisions I made in my author
life is having reader magnetsavailable for each of my books
(17:35):
in the front and back matter ofmy book.
So anybody who read it, they geta reminder at the beginning and
at the end.
Here's a bonus for you.
Like for strings attached, I hada short story that took place
like six years later with thesame characters.
For full tier, I had a deletedscene where they're super
(17:55):
hungover in the book.
But you get to see what was theparty that happened when you
download that.
And then in February, Deep Cutscomes out, and I'm going to do
the lost voicemails thathappened during this year-long
separation.
But just like a creative way topull people into your story and
(18:17):
expand on it.
And then as a bonus, there youhave their email.
So for your next launch, it'llbe even bigger.
And that's what I've experiencedanyway.
My email list gets bigger andbigger, and each launch has been
bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_00 (18:33):
If I may mention something here, you just
revealed our next uh and mostfavorite feature, which is
called Which is calledbonusings.
And which is exactly what we do.
Like for people who enjoy aparticular book, we we we give
the opportunity to authors toinclude the bonus.
That this bonus is basicallylocked.
As a result, people need to comein and include their email
(18:56):
addresses in order to unlockthem and then be able to read it
directly on the platform andthen rate how they liked it.
And as long as this ishappening, this process is
happening, our system isconsuming the data and is
sending this information to theauthor in order also to help
with the insights.
Insights is super important forus.
We try, we we build a systemthat, as mentioned earlier,
(19:19):
consumes data and reports backto the author, guides the author
on how successful was yourprevious book and how many
people downloaded the bonemachine, how did they react.
And that way, your decisionmaking is also getting
facilitated.
SPEAKER_01 (19:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Use that data so you know whatreader magnets are attracting
readers, what do they like?
Absolutely every experiment thatyou do is going to yield you
more data to allow you to make aslight pivot so it works better
the next time.
Okay, so let's talk about youremail platform.
(19:57):
I haven't gotten to play withit, so cue it up for me.
Tell me how it works and howother authors can use it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, email newsletter is ourbiggest highlight of 2025.
Just a little story behind itthat we launched earlier this
year, February, to be precise.
Since then, we have 650 signups,author who are using our tools.
And we are super excited that amonth ago, actually, we launched
(20:27):
the first version of thenewsletter.
It is the first email newsletterthat is entirely focused on
fiction authors.
So it is built specifically forfiction authors and it is
designed around story-drivenworkflows and timelines and
processes and workflows.
So the the main competitiveadvantage of crew fiction, crew
(20:49):
fiction's email newsletter isthat we design work, we design
workflows and processes thatonly fiction authors need and
need to use.
So let's say that you want tosend a sequence of five emails
from the cover EV to the reviewrequest.
This is a chain of five, sixdifferent steps, for example.
We are creating these templatesautomatically, and then authors
(21:13):
can join in and use them veryfast without needing to
customize every single part.
Of course, there are fantasticemail newsletter tools out
there, but they are generic.
Ours is authors first and a bitspecifically for uh for fiction
authors.
SPEAKER_01 (21:30):
That you have templates set.
Up.
I think that so let's pauseright there for a second.
That's one of the hugeroadblocks, I'd say, for a lot
of fiction authors is what do Iwrite?
What do I email my audience?
So you have templates andsequences already queued up.
(21:51):
So if they don't know, like Icould come up with 1,000 ideas
because this is what I do on myday job.
But for a fiction writer, youhave those templates already set
up.
So they know exact they knowexactly what they need to write.
SPEAKER_00 (22:08):
Exactly.
Of course, it's purely optionalbecause many many people might
not want to might not want touse the other templates.
So they can be customized aswell.
But yeah, at the end of the day,the main problem that we're
trying to solve is the amount oftime that authors spend online
in order to create aprofessional online space.
(22:31):
So number one is that they arejuggling multiple platforms.
So we are creating an all in onespace, and with the email
newsletter, we managed, or atleast we are getting there to
achieve it, because we justcreated the most important
element of an offer.
But secondly, the amount of timethat they spend, of course, in
creating templates and yeah,emails.
SPEAKER_01 (22:54):
So earlier you were talking about collabing with
other authors that are on theplatform.
Do you have a directory that issearchable?
SPEAKER_00 (23:03):
Absolutely.
I think I already mentioned thelisting.
So listing is something that iscreated is created automatically
as long as someone is becomingpart of CrewFiction and creates
their author site.
It's let's say a thanks to theauthor who joined us, and we are
(23:24):
creating a page on the CrewFiction website that is, of
course, getting segmented andcategorized according to what
you write, genres and tropes,where we put all of your books
that are available on Amazon andthat they are already published.
And then, yeah, right now wereceive tens of thousands of
unique clicks on a monthlybasis, where the majority of
(23:46):
those is coming from readers andthey can come in and they can
search for your name or they cansearch for their book and pull
out the results.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
What about on the author side?
Where are authors able to searchfor the other authors using
certain keywords so they canfind good people to collab with?
SPEAKER_00 (24:09):
Absolutely.
So there is a searchable way offinding other authors with
keywords by by filtering by byfiltering by tropes or genres
where they can find.
Right now we don't have adedicated system of out-reaching
directly to these authors, butthis is one of the main ideas
that we are about to implement.
And now that I mentioned that,this is how we operate as well
(24:32):
in co-fiction.
I would like to highlight thatbased on what authors tell us,
this is how we prioritize ourwork.
And author swaps and authorcollabs are at the top of the
list.
SPEAKER_01 (24:43):
Yeah, once we had our call, I was like, how do we
do that?
I want more cuts.
SPEAKER_00 (24:48):
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that it's notyet ready, but it is the good
news is that it is uh onprogress, and we are building a
very unique way of authorcollaborations that will be
available in the first quarterof 2026.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, that so it's on theroadmap.
SPEAKER_00 (25:07):
Recital, exactly.
And at the top of everything.
SPEAKER_01 (25:10):
Yeah.
Perfect.
So I'm thinking we could stopthe audio piece right here.
And if you want, you could do awalkthrough and we could hit a
walkthrough part just on thevideo aspect of it.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
Absolutely.
Let's do that.
I would love to.
SPEAKER_01 (25:27):
Okay, so before I bring that onto the stage, why
don't you tell people how theycan get started?
And then we'll cut the audiothere and this part separately.
So can you tell people how theycan join Crew Fiction?
SPEAKER_00 (25:43):
Absolutely.
It's super easy.
The website is crewfiction.com.
However, for authors, just bygoogling crew fiction for
authors, you will see the authorplatform, and it requires only
your pen name.
As long as you put your pen namein, then our system will
identify you as an author andwe'll create your website in
less than three minutes.
That's all, actually.
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
And it's we try to make simple things.
SPEAKER_01 (26:06):
It is super simple.
So you're gonna get an emailright away from Sam for
onboarding, and he does, infact, reply.
That's how we ended up talkingand wisely on the show.
SPEAKER_00 (26:18):
Actually, that's a great point.
And thank you for mentioningthat.
Uh, since we're at the earlystages, we are offering a
one-on-one calls because I trulybelieve that building a great
product is listening to yourcustomer first.
Definitely, we all have greatideas and we want to improve the
systems that we build, but if wedon't hear and listen to the
(26:41):
customer and what they need,we're not going to implement
that.
The most important part of theonboarding is the one-on-one
call that we still offer, andthat I'm participating with
every offer specifically, and welisten to what they want and
what they need in order for usto create it and get the
feedback actually.
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
Yes, can confirm.
I mentioned, can we have goodreads on our social links within
a half hour?
You're like, yeah, I did that.
Yeah, we'll bring it up.
It was so quick.
Okay, awesome.
I am going to add this to thestage, and then video in the
(27:19):
video only portion.
We'll do this walkthrough.
Sam, take it away.
Do a little walkthrough of crewfiction.
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah.
Appreciate it.
So, this is the main page of theauthor site that you see right
now on your screen.
It's super easy and simple.
As mentioned earlier, we try tosave time from authors, from
managing technical stuff andneeding to customize a lot of
things while they're creatingtheir other website.
And we truly believe that thereis no need for complexity in
(27:50):
terms of how many sections andhow many things you an author
needs to have.
What they need is their socialmedia, the reader magnet, all of
their books.
So, as you can see,automatically all of the books
are imported from thisparticular author, and then you
have the freedom to select theones that you want to show to
(28:11):
your audience.
You can easily add the book justby adding the async code, and
this will automatically importthe book.
Here we have the Zandres andTrobes, as we mentioned earlier.
We filter by Zandres and Trobesand make it discoverable easier.
You can either search it orscroll down to identify the one
(28:33):
that fits your books.
And the most important thing,the reviews.
These are all affectsautomatically here.
You can again include the onesthat are the top-rated and the
graded reviews.
SPEAKER_01 (28:45):
Well, the good one.
I forgot to mention that.
I really liked that feature.
SPEAKER_00 (28:50):
Yeah, exactly.
And by the way, this is how ouralgorithm works.
It brings mainly the top-ratedreviews, and automatically we
select three, the top-ratedones.
But again, you can scroll down,you can identify the ones that
you love and include them toyour site.
Here it shows a preview on theright-hand side where you know
(29:11):
you can check it out whileyou're customizing it before you
publish it.
But even if you publish it, youcan come back, make an edit, and
then save and publish your site.
The first step of the all-in-oneplace is the linking bio.
We all know tools like Linktreeand others.
We thought of like why not tocombine it into one place where
(29:34):
people can have their books andtheir links into one place, and
you can include unlimited links.
So for people to for the readersto find your own Minecraft.
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
Yeah, that has been really nice.
I added my like arc interestlist for my next release, and
people were real quick to signup for it.
And I use this.
SPEAKER_00 (29:54):
Exactly.
Because at the end of the day,Sarah, the most important thing
is how can you create the truefan base, right?
And engage new readers.
So one tip that I forgot tomention earlier is you get the
link here, the URL link, and youpost it on your social media.
You post it on your newsletter.
And this is the main source andyour main hub where you include
(30:17):
everything about yourself, yourlinks and your books.
Now, to the most exciting stuff,this is the home by the home
button.
We try to create a sophisticatedspace where it will be driven by
data.
And eventually we hope to createa book marketing assistant.
As I mentioned earlier, that wereport back to you on what's
(30:39):
happening on your online craft.
We started with some basicanalytics.
How many paid visits do youhave?
How many email subscribers, andhow many Amazon tricks?
But then we will uh dive deeperand offer more granular data.
And the newsletter part, whichis our biggest highlight, we
tried to make it as simple aspossible with a simple editor
(31:02):
where you can include yourbooks.
So with a simple click, you canload one book, write a
description, and include it inyour in include it in your uh in
your newsletter with the samerationale images.
So let's say that I want to addan image here, it's loading in a
(31:28):
couple of in a couple ofseconds, and then you can edit
it, play with the alignment,play with the size, include an
alt text or a link.
Recently we launched the button,so with the same rationale you
can edit your buttons andinclude links, which is very
popular for for authors.
But as I mentioned earlier, theconcept is that you will have
(31:52):
templates and according to whatyou want to do, whether you want
to welcome a reader or whetheryou want to launch a book, you
will select the templates thatyou want to use and then
automatically use them so foryou not to not to spend so much
time on building an email fromscratch.
There is an auto-save button sofor you not to miss your work or
lose anything.
(32:15):
You're setting the audience towhom you're sending it and to
where you will receive theresponses.
And last but not least, we havethe review process where you can
schedule your email or send itnow to your dear audience.
This is where all of yourcampaigns are.
(32:37):
We include both the draft andthe ones that are published, as
you can see.
On the published campaign, itchecks some basic stats, such as
how many emails were sent, howmany people opened it, how many
clicks did you receive, and youcan also duplicate an existing
campaign in order for you not tonot to repeat the same stuff
again and again.
So again, we try to makeauthor's life easier by
(32:59):
automating things and make itmake it clean, beautiful, and
all in one place.
SPEAKER_01 (33:04):
Brilliant.
Thank you.
Hold on, before I remove thisfrom the screen, is there
anything else that you want toshow us on here?
SPEAKER_00 (33:12):
I think the best thing to mention here is the
subscribers button.
Here is where you can be able tosegment your readers, something
very important.
And as I mentioned earlier,during the one-on-one calls, we
receive a lot of comments aboutsegmentation.
So right now, our developmentteam is building tagging and
segmentation, so you will beable to add them to an arc art
(33:34):
category, super fans, warreaders, so on and so forth.
It's coming out this week, andit's going to be it's actually a
very interesting feature.
And lastly, the listing that wetalked about earlier that will
direct you to your profile onthe crew fiction page.
And something that we reallywant authors to use the roadmap.
(33:56):
As mentioned earlier, it's anauthor's first platform.
By going to the roadmap here atthe bottom left, you can come
in, vote, vote for ideas, exexisting ideas, or suggest a new
idea.
And if your idea gets a lot ofvotes, then we will prioritize
it accordingly.
SPEAKER_01 (34:14):
Yeah, that was one of the first places I went was
roadmap.
Let's see what's happening.
I'm a chronic beta read, likebeta tester.
I love testing tech.
Okay, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Okay, so everybody knows howthey can get started with crew
(34:36):
fiction.
Where can they follow you onlineif they want to connect?
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
Absolutely.
So simple as that.
Sam at crewfiction.com is myemail.
Everyone can email me and theycan have a one-on-one call.
They can find us on TikTok.
Crew Fiction for Authors is ourusername, where we post also
some stuff about tips.
We we give tips to authors,especially self-published
authors.
And that's it mainly.
(35:02):
But we have all the informationon the author platform on our
site.
And yeah, we are like super,super excited about interacting
with authors who want to enhancetheir systems, develop them,
make them more efficient.
We are all about we are allabout efficiency.
We are super excited when we'reconnecting with authors who are
(35:23):
curious and intrigued by ourwork.
SPEAKER_01 (35:26):
Awesome.
Thank you.
You can book yours through thelink in the show notes.
You don't have to figure it outalone.
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