August 6, 2024 • 37 mins
You've gotten through writing, editing, design, production, distribution, and publication. Your book is now published and available and... now what? Written Word Media's Emma Boyer joins us in this episode of All Things Book Marketing to discuss timing, strategy, and recommendations for post-publication promotions.
Emma Boyer is the VP of Digital Operations at Written Word Media, a book promotion company that uses specialized and proprietary data-driven marketing techniques to empower authors and publishers to reach their audiences, and has been working in various capacities in the book publishing industry — from PR to marketing to consulting — for over 15 years. She holds an MA from Carnegie Mellon University and is very interested in the potential at the intersection of the tech and publishing worlds and is passionate about helping authors find audiences and audiences find books. Learn more at www.writtenwordmedia.com.
Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, & LinkedIn.
Emma Boyer is the VP of Digital Operations at Written Word Media, a book promotion company that uses specialized and proprietary data-driven marketing techniques to empower authors and publishers to reach their audiences, and has been working in various capacities in the book publishing industry — from PR to marketing to consulting — for over 15 years. She holds an MA from Carnegie Mellon University and is very interested in the potential at the intersection of the tech and publishing worlds and is passionate about helping authors find audiences and audiences find books. Learn more at www.writtenwordmedia.com.
Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, & LinkedIn.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Smith Publicity All Things Book Marketing podcast,
offering tips, insights, and advice from the best in the
publishing industry.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello and welcome to this episode of All Things Book Marketing.
I'm your host, Olivia McCoy and our returning special guest
today is Emma Boyer, the VP of Digital Operations at
Written Word Media.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Emma, thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hi, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So let's recap. I know you were on the podcast
a couple of years ago to talk about ebook promotions,
and so anyone that missed that go back check it
out because it was a really great episode. But we
will be recapping some of it and this one, I'm sure,
but let's go ahead and talk about what you do
and how you help authors.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Sure happy to do that. So Written Word Media.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We do a number of different things now, I think
we've expanded more in the past couple of years since
I was last here, but everything we do is really
centered on helping authors find grow connect with their audience,
and the primary way that we do that is through
ebook promotions. So people are usually most familiar with some
(01:15):
of our ebook newsletters like free Books or bargain books.
We also have dedicated audiobook newsletter as well as specific
romance newsletter. We have over the past couple of years
rolled out something called promo stacks, where authors can come
(01:35):
to our website and just like with one click book,
a bunch of ebook promotions on both our sites and
partner sites super easy and it's able to get them
like a lot of bang for their book, sort of
all dedicated in around one date, so three or five days.
The other sort of ways that we do this for authors,
(01:58):
the ways that we help authors connect with audience. We
run Facebook and Amazon ads for authors and same concept there.
It's kind of like a one click easy button. If
authors are daunted by figuring out meta ads or you know,
targeting anything like that, we have our own lookalike audiences
(02:19):
based on our email lists, so all authors need to
do is kind of just give us the link to
their book and we'll do the creative and the targeting
and all the rest. And then probably newest on the
docket is we have a giveaway product that helps authors
build their their email lists. So books that are included
(02:40):
in what we call a subscriber search giveaway with other
books of the same genre or subgenre, and readers can
opt in all at once to to email reader or
author read author email lists. I'm sorry, I said author
does all the words two author email lists and enter
(03:07):
for a chance to win a copy of their ebook
along with some other stuff. So this is a you know,
direct response to authors hearing from authors that they are
focused on building their own email lists. The other thing
I will want to just say about I've worked in
books for a long time and I think one of
(03:28):
the most valuable ways that we help authors at Written
Word Media is something that I'm the most proud of
and is like not a thing we do for sale,
but I run the operations team here and my team
is constantly in the inbox, on live chat, on phone calls,
and you know, I think one thing with authors, especially
(03:50):
if they're indie authors kind of going at it alone,
is there's so much information out there it's often hard
to know kind of what to do, what to do next.
You know, there's there are great resources about like which
ones do you believe? So one thing that I think
we do really really well is we have real people
willing to talk to real authors and answer questions whether
(04:12):
or not they're related to promotions with the written word
media is so our customer service is something that I'm
really proud of in a resource that I think, you know,
the authors who use it love it so so much.
But but you know, it's it's not a product we sell,
but it's just a thing we do because we feel
really strongly about supporting authors.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So author education is such a huge part of the
industry that is not given enough credit. But I know
that the authors out there that find resources like the
podcast like Britain Word Media exact blogs are so grateful
for it. So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yes, happy too. Really, it's the thing we like the best.
Well I like the best. I'll speak for myself on
that one.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I agree. I also, I can talk all day long.
I will often get on hour long calls with authors
and they're like, I don't know what I don't know,
tell me what you do, what to do, And I'm like, okay,
that's how much time.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Do you have? Yes, yes, I'm like, all right, give
me these information and we'll go. We'll go.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
But yeah, exactly, And you already mentioned the four big
things that I wanted to talk about today for ways
to promote your book post publication, which is what we're
diving into. But you mentioned ebook promos, you mentioned newsletter outreach,
you mentioned giveaways, and advertising, which we're going to be
my big four pockets. But before we dive into those
(05:33):
specific pieces, let's talk about why publication or why publication
day seems to be the target for most marketing for books,
promotion for books, and why we don't talk about as
much what authors can be doing post publication.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think that's such a good question and such a
like pertinent point, and I think you know something that
I was thinking about coming into this conversation, and is
when I used to be a publicist, when I worked
when I worked for Amazing Smith and previous publishers before that.
I used to say to authors all the time, like,
(06:11):
the only newsworthy thing about a book is that it's
published right like it If you a few months later,
it's like it's still the same book, right, There's not
there's not as much news to talk about. So that's
why you need an amazing creative publicist who's going to
do like tie ins and kind of manufacture the the
(06:32):
newsy connections. However, I've kind of changed my viewpoint on that,
so I think, I think, But but I think that's
the reason, right, I think that's the reason why everybody's
so focused on publication day. It's your book's birthday. It's
a really big deal. It's out there in the world
for the first time. Like it makes perfect sense why
(06:55):
why we focus so much on it. But I do
think it's it's a mistake and it's a little remiss
to just focus on book launch. And the the other
thing is like the that period of time of what
a book launch.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Is is a little dubious, right, like is it the day,
is it the week? Is it the month?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
And there's not one, you know, piece one right answer there.
But but I think for a lot of launch campaigns,
they could go for a year. They you know, sort
of depending on what kind of momentum you have, what
kind of plans you have. And so the way I
think about it now is it's kind of it's kind
(07:37):
of the beginning, right It's it's it's the end of
one part of the publishing process, which I'm certainly not discounting.
It's a ton of work like writing, editing, cover design,
and and the pre launch publicity marketing that you're doing.
But it's also kind of the beginning of your book
being out there in the world. And you know, although you,
(08:01):
as an author have lived with your book for a
really long time, audiences haven't. It's brand new to them.
So the expectation that they, you know, whatever, random Tuesday
your book comes out, that that audiences will.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Know what it is is just not really tenable. I
don't think, and.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think you really hit something that it really resonated
with me, was it's the end of one process. I
think that publication date publication and pre pub are both finite.
You know, pre pub it only lasts intel publication. Publication
is really only the month maybe a month before or
after as well, like a set timeline. But it's a
(08:42):
little daunting to think of post publication because there's no
end to it. It's just forever more. You're post publication,
and so to think about marketing your book forever is
is scary. It's a really scary concept because there's no
end in sight, which is why we say it's not
a race, it's not a marathon, is no finished line.
You are just running for the rest of your life.
(09:03):
But it's also fun and there are things you can
do and what I usually recommend is set a calendar
and just every three to six months do something. You
can rotate what you're doing. But I mean, unless your
book becomes irrelevant, requires you write an update or a
second book, or something happens that makes it less appealing
(09:24):
in the world that requires again an update or another book,
then you can be promoting it regularly for the rest
of time, for the rest of time.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That's really true.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And I think you know that's something I say to
authors all the time, is there's not I I'm glad
to hear you say that, you know, three months or
six months. I people ask all the time, like, well,
how often should I be running promos? How often should
I be? And I don't think there's a set answer.
I think you know, it kind of doesn't matter as
long as you have a plan and you figure out
(09:56):
a cadence that works for you. So I think about
post launch marketing as kind of a flywheel, and like,
once it's going, it's going, you have to it'll slow down.
You have to juice fit in some way with maybe
an ad, maybe an ebook promo, maybe an email to
(10:17):
your subscriber list, whatever that looks like. But if you
don't like and then it gets going again, and then
it's moving again, and then you have all that momentum.
You're finding new readers, you're getting reviews, you know, you know,
all that stuff that kind of takes some time. So
you know, I always say to authors who like really
don't know, I say to start with quarterly like try
(10:37):
that so three months, like exactly what you said, and
see how that feels.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
It might not feel like enough, It might feel like
too much, depending on what else you have in the world.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And I think you know, you you really.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Hit the nail on the head with with additional publication,
because you know that. I sometimes it can make your
depending on you know, like are you published in series?
Is it something totally different and related? But sometimes can
make the marketing for book one we'll call it here,
like less front of mind. But it can also sometimes
(11:12):
be a really huge asset and like way to leverage
the book that you've already published and really book your
author brand.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Using your backlist to promote your front.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
List exactly exactly and vice versa. Right, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Which is a whole episode in and of itself. We
could do a whole episode on how to use a
backlist to put your front list and maybe one we
explore in the future. But let's talk. Let's talk a
little bit more about the timing. Because we talked three months,
six months, a year, and both of us coming from
that publicity experience, I know that we're coming from the
mindset of awareness days and timeliness. So what I usually
(11:52):
tell authors is, yes, I love three months, I love
six months, I love a year. I love any kind
of anniversary. But also try to find something happening in
the media or the calendar that relates to your expertise,
and then that's a great time to promote your book.
Every year, Romance Valentine's Day, great every Valentine's Day, every February,
you have to have a promotion running for your romance book,
(12:14):
but also nonfiction business. There's always a new year, new
business in January. I actually found the other day I
was working on a finance book and I was going
through awareness dates. There is hug an Economist Day, which
is random and you don't have to do anything. But
if you need an excuse to promote your book, I
guess that's a good one. And I'm rolling my eyes
(12:36):
for those that can't see me. Obviously, take any advantage
you can to be promoting your book, but find kind
of those days throughout the year, those times throughout the
year that relate to your content, and then use that
to run some kind of promotion as well as doing
kind of a quarterly or bi yearly thing.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
And I think you know, the thing that I want
authors to a field permission to do is like, well,
you know a lot of I mean, Olivia, I love
those holidays, but they're made up right, like they're so
So here's what I feel like authors should do, Like
you have permission to also make up a reason to
(13:16):
talk about your book.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
There's it's true, Like no one's gonna back to check you.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And what I mean by that is not like make
up your own national holiday, but like you can, you
can find a red you can you can manufacture a
reason to talk about your book, like oh, this is
the anniversary of when I started writing it. I'm gonna
put it on ebook sale. Everybody like jump in and
grab it like that. Nobody knows if that's your anniversary
or not. You don't even really need a reason like
(13:43):
oh it's it's August. Books on sale August seventh. I
love August seventh right whatever, like my life.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You you should like feel permission to create a reason
to talk about your book.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Anyone nervous about self promoting, Emma just gave you permission
to go ahead and do it. So blanket permission forevermore
to be promoting your book whenever you feel like it.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And why is it important to be promoting your book
post bub? And I know some of the answer is sales.
I am a huge fan of retail algorithm as a reason.
You really want those reviews coming in so that the
algorithms know your book is still relatable, it's still relevant.
And when the algorithm thinks your book is relevant, it's
going to promote it to readers without you having to
(14:30):
do anything. So that's usually kind of my big reason
is we really want these computers, these machines to know
that your book still matters, and the only way to
do that is to teach it to tell it that
by doing all this promotion.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, and those are those are absolutely like the reasons
that I that I give people initially, but there are
a lot of good reasons to do it. Sales is one,
but I you know, depending on what your strategy is, Like,
it's not always the most important one if you plan
to write other books, if you plan to you know,
(15:05):
build kind of a longer author career, and I think
it's actually the least important in some ways. That's why
I think free promos can be so valuable because exactly
like you you said, it juices the algorithm. It tells
people that that this is relevant. It gets new readers,
(15:26):
it gets reviewers. Also, I think one thing, sort of
back to the flywheel metaphor, is that there are kind
of two kinds of audience. One is paid, and that's
what you're getting from ads. That's what you're getting when
you're running ebook promos. So that means like you're you're
(15:47):
essentially paying to borrow someone's audience. So when you run
a free book see when you run a book bub
you know, when you run any kind of email book promotion,
what you're doing is you're paying to get your book
in front of someone else's audience. That's the same thing
if you run a Facebook ad, Like you're paying to
get your book in front of Facebook's audience. You still
(16:09):
don't own those people. Those people still don't have a
direct line to you. Right, there's that there's a middle
middle person. However, the other thing that I think authors
are starting to be super savvy about is an owned audience.
And all of these same levers that we can pull
(16:29):
to to reduce the algorithm to get sales, to build awareness,
you know, to to get more reviews, can also help
you own your own audience or build your own owned audience.
So authors, some authors are doing direct sales on their websites,
so kind of cutting out the retailer entirely. But even
(16:50):
if you're not, you know, you could think about your
your own kind.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Of lead magnet.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
So if if somebody goes you run an ad and
a to your website and the first thing that reader
sees is a pop up that says, hey, join my
mailing list and you can have a free book, and
from forever more, that person is part of your owned audience.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And every time you.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Have made up a holiday on August seventh, or you know,
whatever that is, you have a direct line to that person.
You already know they're engaged enough to want to sign
up for your email list, they want to hear what
you have to say. Then, of course there's a whole
nother challenge mode, but of being able to keep those
(17:34):
people engaged and figure out what you want to say
to them. However, I think it's invaluable for authors, right,
So both are really important. You have to have you know,
nine times out of ten that paid audience is going
to be way bigger than your owned audience, so you
kind of have to do both. But that's another reason
I think that these post pub marketing tactics are so important,
(17:58):
because the more like the most valuable thing you can
have as an author is an audience that you own,
like you than any time anything happens with your book,
be it the one you've already written or one that's
in the future, you already have people who care about it,
who will spread the word, who will read early versions
of it, you know, who will buy it. So yeah,
(18:21):
I think that's that's the other really big reason to
make sure that you're keeping Matt flywell going.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And now that we fully
teased our audience really built up the anticipation in suspense,
why don't you tell us what authors can do to
promote their book post bub What should they be doing?
What are some actionable things for them to do to
promote their book after publication.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, there are lots of things, but I think the
the things that kind of the tenets of a post
publication marketing strategy are ebook promotions and you can do
the We at Written Word Media don't recommend running the
(19:09):
same book more than once every thirty days, just because
audiences get a little tired of it. It not only
left tired of seeing the same thing and the it
doesn't feel ass special as far as a price promotion.
So for for an ebook promotion, I always recommend running
your running the book at below four ninety nine if
(19:30):
it's a paid promotion or free. If if you're thinking
about kind of the long term and audience building strategies
so you can you can do that, highly recommend doing that.
As I mentioned, we promo stacking is something that that's huge.
It's a really easy way to just like hit one
button or you know, if you want to do it
(19:52):
yourself with all the other promo sites that are out
there in the world, choose a week or choose three
to five days once a quarter and run ebook promos.
You'll see your ranking go up, you'll see your reviews
go up. You know, all of those good things that
we just talked about. So ebook promos I think is
(20:13):
one of the big tenets that's kind of holding up
the tent. Then ads, so Facebook ads or Amazon ads,
and you don't have to do all of them. You
don't have to do you know, you don't have to
do all of them every time. You can kind of
figure out what works best for you. And newsletters obviously
(20:35):
if you if you have an email list and you're
emailing your readers, that's something that you should do at
least every quarter, probably more often. And giveaways that are
going to help you build that email list so or
list builders, so I think you know you can there
are of course I'm going to plug ours we have
(20:57):
we have subscriber search.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Giveaway, which is a great way to do it.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
But authors are also awesome and creative and collaborative and
doing this all day every day with newsletter swaps. So
if you're not a member of you know, genre specific
author groups, I would really suggest that you joined some,
whether that's on Facebook or Reddit or you know, whatever
that is. Find other like minded authors who have written
(21:23):
books in your genre, ask them if they'll do a
newsletter swap with you, so you know, What that means
is you'll you'll promote their book in your newsletter, they'll
promote yours and theirs, and then boom, suddenly you have
twice the subscribers, twice the followers. So the same thing
can happen with social media. You can you can do
kind of a social media swap where you plug someone
(21:45):
else's Instagram or TikTok video for the day. But yeah,
so I think those are really the those are really
the things that that I recommend people do. And I
think the ebook promos are great because they're relatively low cost,
they're really targeted to one small period of time, and
(22:08):
you can almost always see results immediately. Like there's not
a lot in book marketing and pr that you're like
immediately can see data end results. But ebook promos is
something that you can you will I guarantee that you'll
see a spike in your KDP account if you publish
on Amazon the day that you run an ebook promo.
(22:28):
So that's I think, if you do nothing else, promise
yourself that you'll do that for times a year once
your book has been published. But layering on those other pieces,
figuring out out what works for you, figuring out the
cadence on which you want to do those things. I
think all of those are what It kind of makes
(22:51):
things more powerful. And like I said, I think it
matters less like what the specific tactic is, and matters
more that you're doing something to keep the flywheel moving.
It's a lot harder to pull a back list title
that you haven't touched in you know, two or three years.
It's not possible, but it's a lot harder to pull
(23:14):
that back out and start marketing it again and like
find an audience for it again than it is to
just consistently keep some level of marketing going, whether that's low,
whether that's high, whether you're throwing all your dollars at it,
whether you're you know, throwing none of your dollars at it.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think I think as long.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
As you're doing something, you're going to be in a
much better place than if you if you just let
it sit for a while.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
And I also like how you were talking about you
could overlap them as well. Yeah, so something that can
go on forever. And definitely you don't have to stop
an ad and do a new campaign every few months.
You can have an ad campaign going on and then
maybe pause one, change up the wording, run one in
the interim, pause that one, go back to the old one,
go back to the new one. Using this same targeting,
(24:01):
that can be ongoing advertising, and then every few months
you alternate doing a giveaway or an ebook promo and
then use your newsletter to market that giveaway or even
promo to your audience, so they really do overlap and
you can kind of change it up so you're not
constantly being like, hey, give away, give away, giveaway or
ebook promo every single month for the rest of the life.
(24:23):
Like it really all training. It is going to give
your audience a little more option for how to be engaged.
And then I was explaining to an author the other
day why we call it seating books per review, because
we are like gardening, planting as many books as we
can out into the general public into readers' hands in
(24:45):
the hopes that some of them bloom into reviews and sales.
So you really want to get the book out there
as much as possible, which is why we are recommending
things like free books, bargain books, c. You're not going
to get as much money for that book when it's
sold or at all if you're giving it away for free.
But by giving it away you are hopefully getting more
(25:07):
reviews and word of mouth marketing, which is just the
best form of marketing.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Absolutely, that's absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
And I think you know this goes back to what
you said also about the algorithms, because like the it's
you'll see if you run a free promo. I love
free promos. I you know, I'll never stop talking about it.
I'm probably very annoying about it. But thee you'll see
a pop in downloads, right, and exactly what you said,
(25:36):
I think this goes really hand in hand. Somebody's going
to download it on their kindle, on their iPad, whatever
device they read on. They're probably not going to read
it immediately because they downloaded three other free books and
they do this every time they see something that catches
their eye. But it's very much like a seed. When
they get to it in three months, six months, if
they love it, they'll review it, they'll look for what
(25:58):
else you've written the they might seek you out, join
your email list, you know, like there are all these things.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And that said, if you have.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
The ability to put anything in your back matter of
your ebook about joining your email list, you should absolutely
do that for this exact reason, because if somebody reads
a book three months six months later they get to
the end of your ebook, then you know, in marketing,
we always want want somebody to have like a call
(26:27):
to action or the next thing to do. And if
you say like, hey, come check out my website or
come join my email list, then and they loved your book,
then they have something to do, right, so so and
it's a very structured, good thing to do, so so
that you know, that's kind of an aside, but but yeah,
I think the other really strong thing about free promos
(26:50):
is they tend to do really well, like perform really well,
because the book is free. So people are like, I'll
I'll give this a try. And if you're not an author,
who you know, if if you're not Michelle Obama, you
don't already have a huge audience, which I think a
lot of like a lot of authors when I talk
to them say the thing they're most daunted by is
(27:12):
how kind of saturated the market is and there's so
many books out there. The way to find your audience
is to let people like to believe in yourself, believe
in your book, and let people read your words, let
people love what you wrote, and the only way to
do that is to put the book in their hands.
So I think, you know, for all of those good reasons,
(27:33):
but you'll also see I think every single day I
get emails, we get emails in our inbox from authors
who were like, I ran a free books yesterday and
my book is number one in that category.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
So because of that.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
You know, it has returns that go on long after
that day, because readers who know that they love paranormal
romance go click on the paranormal romance category and whatever
retailer of their choice, and your book is still up
at the top, so they're still going to see your book,
So the returns continue even even if your book isn't
(28:07):
free anymore. The algorithm has paid attention. It's right up
there at the top of the charts, and people will
will download it and give it a try, so you
ultimately make money. Running free promotions is the moral of
the story.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yep, exactly, Not that that's even most author's main goal.
I feel like nowadays I'm hearing way more. I just
want someone to read my writing and enjoy it. I
just want to be a part of the community I love.
I want to raise awareness for this or education and whatnot.
So that is that's a good point totally. Is there
ever a time that an author should stop marketing a
(28:43):
book post promotion?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
That's a good question.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
So I think, like everything, and you alluded to this
a little bit earlier, I think you should approach marketing
with kind of a curiosity, right Like, I think most
authors are not professional marketers. So most of this is
(29:11):
going to be an experiment, and hopefully you have some
good guidance.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Hopefully you know, you've you've.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Found some resources, you know, maybe listening to this podcast,
maybe you're reading good blogs, whatever that might be that
are that are giving you some good guidance. But I
think having kind of a spirit of curiosity about what
works for you and your book and what doesn't, And
that could be in you know, I mentioned like a
(29:38):
KDP dashboard, that could be an actual data right Like
it could be wow, I did this thing and it
continues to work, or it's working less well than it did,
or you know whatever whatever that might be. Or it
could be in how well it works for you as
(29:58):
a person, as an author and with your life. So
if something I feel like there's no hard and fast
rule about something you have to do as an author,
like there's not one magic pill that's gonna make your
book be marketed beautifully forever more. And if you hate
(30:20):
doing something or it really feels like an imposition on
your life, you should stop. So you know, that's that's
my you know, whenever authors, I hear this a lot
about social media, tell me if you get that same response.
But I hear this a lot like I hate it.
(30:41):
I don't know what to write. I don't know what
my voice, you know, but I know I have to Like, no,
you actually don't have to. So I think that data
is just as valuable as the numerical data. So definitely,
I think approaching things with a spirit of curiosity. It's
all an experiment. Take you know, see what kind of works,
(31:04):
what do you get good results from, what do you
like doing. You might find out that you love filming
TikTok videos, like even if you thought you never would write,
Or you might find out that you love connecting with
your authors through your newsletter or vice versa. But you're
never gonna know if you don't try those things. And
(31:25):
most of the like very sophisticated, savvy authors that I
work with, and talk to all the time. Have like
the reason that they're successful is because they found what
works for them. They love connecting with their fans in
one particular way, so that's what they lean into. Or
they know that like running an ebook promo with X
(31:47):
companies easier than another one, or this works for their budget,
or you know, well, for whatever reason. So I think
the authors who do it right are the ones who
have kind of experimented, had a spirit of curiosity about it,
and figured out what works. So I think if you
(32:08):
got to a point where nothing worked or nothing made
you happy or brought you joy, like, that's when I
would say stop marketing.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I you know, I think it's just not worth it
at that point.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
And you.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Do have a danger.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
I think a lot, like I said, a lot of
authors get into this because they love writing, and like
you just said, because they want people to read their work.
And I think you do have a danger of kind
of burning out or like forcing yourself to do things
that really don't feel natural to you, or like resenting
the marketing that you're having to do. So I think
if any of those things become true, that is when
(32:46):
I would advise someone.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
To stop or to take a break.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
But like just on the surface of like a book's life,
I don't think there's any time to stop. Right If
if all of us were super wealthy and had author
assistants who could do this for us, and we could
rest on our laurels, then I think do it forever.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You're right that authenticity and finding what works for you
is a conversation that I have with authors on a
near daily basis. It's you know, any episode you listen
to on this podcast, you'll never hear me say we
recommend you do everything all at once, all the time,
because that's not reasonable, it's not real life, it's not
gonna happen. So we always recommend to find your one
(33:32):
maybe two social media platforms that you don't absolutely hate,
and work on doing ten minutes a day, Like we're
not talking about posting every single day and being on
there for hours at a time. Like find a time
and a calendar and a consistency that works for you,
and also find a means for marketing that works for you.
Exactly what you were saying. Some authors have no problem
(33:54):
with self promotion, and it's easy for them to get
up and share their expertise on social media and share
their books and their passions. Some authors prefer to be
kind of behind the screen and don't like to be
in the spotlight, and so some of this email marketing,
some of this advertising, ebook promo giveaway is going to
be easier because it's less. Hey, here's why you should
buy my book and more, let me make it easier
(34:16):
to buy my book through these platforms that will market
it for me. And speaking of those platforms, you mentioned
finding whatever works best for you, So I always recommend
fit in Word Media for you book promos and for
all of their great partner influences. I mean, you have
three books, you have bargain books, Ce, you have Red
Feather Romance, you have all of this great email lists
(34:38):
and partnership and readership that I highly recommend not just
for your services, but also I love your educational pieces
and I'm always pointing to the blog for stuff that
you will do. But also check out good Reads giveaways,
check out StoryGraph good ways, check out Amazon, Facebook, Google ads,
boosted Instagram posts, book bub ads and ebook giveaways, all
(35:01):
sorts of things out there, resources out there. Explore what
works for you and then do that exactly what we
were just saying.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Yeah, that's completely right. I think, you know, we try
really hard written word media to make things like very
intuitive and as easy as possible, but certainly that's not
going to you know, that's not going to be everybody's favorite,
and that's totally okay. So so yeah, I think I
think you're you're absolutely right about that. It's it's you
(35:34):
kind of have to find the the I you know,
I almost just said like the path of least resistance,
but I don't think that's true because I think I'm
consistently impressed by how hard authors work and how much
they're willing to put into learning about this stuff, and
(35:54):
so I don't think it's really the path of least resistance.
But but find what works for you is really a
better way to say that.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And for the authors that find that Britain word media
services work best for them, how can they get in
touch to learn more?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Absolutely, So the easiest place to start is just our website,
which is writtenwordmedia dot com. If you have specific questions,
if you ever, you know, don't understand something, if you
want specific recommendations like here's my book, what do you suggest,
We're more than happy to answer that kind of question
(36:30):
and you can just write right into our inbox at
Hello at written wordmedia dot com and one of my
amazing team will we'll write back to you usually within
a day and and we're yeah, like I said, super
happy to answer that kind of question, even if it
doesn't ever result in you buying something from us. That's
(36:51):
that's totally okay, you know, if the we have that
happen sometimes, like people are just like not quite ready
or you know, like for example, if if you don't
have a book published yet, we can't help you that much,
but we can point you in the direction of places
that can. So yeah, definitely. Please please feel free to
(37:13):
jump on our website or shoot us an email.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Thank you so much for joining us. Again, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And listeners watchers, if you like this episode, don't forget
to rate, review, subscribe, and share it with anyone else
that might be interested. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Smith
Publicity All Things Book Marketing podcast. To reach us and
learn about our many services, visit Smith Publicity dot com
or send us an email to info at Smith Publicity
dot com
Welcome to the Smith Publicity All Things Book Marketing podcast,
offering tips, insights, and advice from the best in the
publishing industry.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello and welcome to this episode of All Things Book Marketing.
I'm your host, Olivia McCoy and our returning special guest
today is Emma Boyer, the VP of Digital Operations at
Written Word Media.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Emma, thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hi, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So let's recap. I know you were on the podcast
a couple of years ago to talk about ebook promotions,
and so anyone that missed that go back check it
out because it was a really great episode. But we
will be recapping some of it and this one, I'm sure,
but let's go ahead and talk about what you do
and how you help authors.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Sure happy to do that. So Written Word Media.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We do a number of different things now, I think
we've expanded more in the past couple of years since
I was last here, but everything we do is really
centered on helping authors find grow connect with their audience,
and the primary way that we do that is through
ebook promotions. So people are usually most familiar with some
(01:15):
of our ebook newsletters like free Books or bargain books.
We also have dedicated audiobook newsletter as well as specific
romance newsletter. We have over the past couple of years
rolled out something called promo stacks, where authors can come
(01:35):
to our website and just like with one click book,
a bunch of ebook promotions on both our sites and
partner sites super easy and it's able to get them
like a lot of bang for their book, sort of
all dedicated in around one date, so three or five days.
The other sort of ways that we do this for authors,
(01:58):
the ways that we help authors connect with audience. We
run Facebook and Amazon ads for authors and same concept there.
It's kind of like a one click easy button. If
authors are daunted by figuring out meta ads or you know,
targeting anything like that, we have our own lookalike audiences
(02:19):
based on our email lists, so all authors need to
do is kind of just give us the link to
their book and we'll do the creative and the targeting
and all the rest. And then probably newest on the
docket is we have a giveaway product that helps authors
build their their email lists. So books that are included
(02:40):
in what we call a subscriber search giveaway with other
books of the same genre or subgenre, and readers can
opt in all at once to to email reader or
author read author email lists. I'm sorry, I said author
does all the words two author email lists and enter
(03:07):
for a chance to win a copy of their ebook
along with some other stuff. So this is a you know,
direct response to authors hearing from authors that they are
focused on building their own email lists. The other thing
I will want to just say about I've worked in
books for a long time and I think one of
(03:28):
the most valuable ways that we help authors at Written
Word Media is something that I'm the most proud of
and is like not a thing we do for sale,
but I run the operations team here and my team
is constantly in the inbox, on live chat, on phone calls,
and you know, I think one thing with authors, especially
(03:50):
if they're indie authors kind of going at it alone,
is there's so much information out there it's often hard
to know kind of what to do, what to do next.
You know, there's there are great resources about like which
ones do you believe? So one thing that I think
we do really really well is we have real people
willing to talk to real authors and answer questions whether
(04:12):
or not they're related to promotions with the written word
media is so our customer service is something that I'm
really proud of in a resource that I think, you know,
the authors who use it love it so so much.
But but you know, it's it's not a product we sell,
but it's just a thing we do because we feel
really strongly about supporting authors.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So author education is such a huge part of the
industry that is not given enough credit. But I know
that the authors out there that find resources like the
podcast like Britain Word Media exact blogs are so grateful
for it. So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yes, happy too. Really, it's the thing we like the best.
Well I like the best. I'll speak for myself on
that one.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I agree. I also, I can talk all day long.
I will often get on hour long calls with authors
and they're like, I don't know what I don't know,
tell me what you do, what to do, And I'm like, okay,
that's how much time.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Do you have? Yes, yes, I'm like, all right, give
me these information and we'll go. We'll go.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
But yeah, exactly, And you already mentioned the four big
things that I wanted to talk about today for ways
to promote your book post publication, which is what we're
diving into. But you mentioned ebook promos, you mentioned newsletter outreach,
you mentioned giveaways, and advertising, which we're going to be
my big four pockets. But before we dive into those
(05:33):
specific pieces, let's talk about why publication or why publication
day seems to be the target for most marketing for books,
promotion for books, and why we don't talk about as
much what authors can be doing post publication.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think that's such a good question and such a
like pertinent point, and I think you know something that
I was thinking about coming into this conversation, and is
when I used to be a publicist, when I worked
when I worked for Amazing Smith and previous publishers before that.
I used to say to authors all the time, like,
(06:11):
the only newsworthy thing about a book is that it's
published right like it If you a few months later,
it's like it's still the same book, right, There's not
there's not as much news to talk about. So that's
why you need an amazing creative publicist who's going to
do like tie ins and kind of manufacture the the
(06:32):
newsy connections. However, I've kind of changed my viewpoint on that,
so I think, I think, But but I think that's
the reason, right, I think that's the reason why everybody's
so focused on publication day. It's your book's birthday. It's
a really big deal. It's out there in the world
for the first time. Like it makes perfect sense why
(06:55):
why we focus so much on it. But I do
think it's it's a mistake and it's a little remiss
to just focus on book launch. And the the other
thing is like the that period of time of what
a book launch.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Is is a little dubious, right, like is it the day,
is it the week? Is it the month?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
And there's not one, you know, piece one right answer there.
But but I think for a lot of launch campaigns,
they could go for a year. They you know, sort
of depending on what kind of momentum you have, what
kind of plans you have. And so the way I
think about it now is it's kind of it's kind
(07:37):
of the beginning, right It's it's it's the end of
one part of the publishing process, which I'm certainly not discounting.
It's a ton of work like writing, editing, cover design,
and and the pre launch publicity marketing that you're doing.
But it's also kind of the beginning of your book
being out there in the world. And you know, although you,
(08:01):
as an author have lived with your book for a
really long time, audiences haven't. It's brand new to them.
So the expectation that they, you know, whatever, random Tuesday
your book comes out, that that audiences will.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Know what it is is just not really tenable. I
don't think, and.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think you really hit something that it really resonated
with me, was it's the end of one process. I
think that publication date publication and pre pub are both finite.
You know, pre pub it only lasts intel publication. Publication
is really only the month maybe a month before or
after as well, like a set timeline. But it's a
(08:42):
little daunting to think of post publication because there's no
end to it. It's just forever more. You're post publication,
and so to think about marketing your book forever is
is scary. It's a really scary concept because there's no
end in sight, which is why we say it's not
a race, it's not a marathon, is no finished line.
You are just running for the rest of your life.
(09:03):
But it's also fun and there are things you can
do and what I usually recommend is set a calendar
and just every three to six months do something. You
can rotate what you're doing. But I mean, unless your
book becomes irrelevant, requires you write an update or a
second book, or something happens that makes it less appealing
(09:24):
in the world that requires again an update or another book,
then you can be promoting it regularly for the rest
of time, for the rest of time.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That's really true.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And I think you know that's something I say to
authors all the time, is there's not I I'm glad
to hear you say that, you know, three months or
six months. I people ask all the time, like, well,
how often should I be running promos? How often should
I be? And I don't think there's a set answer.
I think you know, it kind of doesn't matter as
long as you have a plan and you figure out
(09:56):
a cadence that works for you. So I think about
post launch marketing as kind of a flywheel, and like,
once it's going, it's going, you have to it'll slow down.
You have to juice fit in some way with maybe
an ad, maybe an ebook promo, maybe an email to
(10:17):
your subscriber list, whatever that looks like. But if you
don't like and then it gets going again, and then
it's moving again, and then you have all that momentum.
You're finding new readers, you're getting reviews, you know, you know,
all that stuff that kind of takes some time. So
you know, I always say to authors who like really
don't know, I say to start with quarterly like try
(10:37):
that so three months, like exactly what you said, and
see how that feels.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
It might not feel like enough, It might feel like
too much, depending on what else you have in the world.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And I think you know, you you really.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Hit the nail on the head with with additional publication,
because you know that. I sometimes it can make your
depending on you know, like are you published in series?
Is it something totally different and related? But sometimes can
make the marketing for book one we'll call it here,
like less front of mind. But it can also sometimes
(11:12):
be a really huge asset and like way to leverage
the book that you've already published and really book your
author brand.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Using your backlist to promote your front.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
List exactly exactly and vice versa. Right, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Which is a whole episode in and of itself. We
could do a whole episode on how to use a
backlist to put your front list and maybe one we
explore in the future. But let's talk. Let's talk a
little bit more about the timing. Because we talked three months,
six months, a year, and both of us coming from
that publicity experience, I know that we're coming from the
mindset of awareness days and timeliness. So what I usually
(11:52):
tell authors is, yes, I love three months, I love
six months, I love a year. I love any kind
of anniversary. But also try to find something happening in
the media or the calendar that relates to your expertise,
and then that's a great time to promote your book.
Every year, Romance Valentine's Day, great every Valentine's Day, every February,
you have to have a promotion running for your romance book,
(12:14):
but also nonfiction business. There's always a new year, new
business in January. I actually found the other day I
was working on a finance book and I was going
through awareness dates. There is hug an Economist Day, which
is random and you don't have to do anything. But
if you need an excuse to promote your book, I
guess that's a good one. And I'm rolling my eyes
(12:36):
for those that can't see me. Obviously, take any advantage
you can to be promoting your book, but find kind
of those days throughout the year, those times throughout the
year that relate to your content, and then use that
to run some kind of promotion as well as doing
kind of a quarterly or bi yearly thing.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
And I think you know, the thing that I want
authors to a field permission to do is like, well,
you know a lot of I mean, Olivia, I love
those holidays, but they're made up right, like they're so
So here's what I feel like authors should do, Like
you have permission to also make up a reason to
(13:16):
talk about your book.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
There's it's true, Like no one's gonna back to check you.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And what I mean by that is not like make
up your own national holiday, but like you can, you
can find a red you can you can manufacture a
reason to talk about your book, like oh, this is
the anniversary of when I started writing it. I'm gonna
put it on ebook sale. Everybody like jump in and
grab it like that. Nobody knows if that's your anniversary
or not. You don't even really need a reason like
(13:43):
oh it's it's August. Books on sale August seventh. I
love August seventh right whatever, like my life.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You you should like feel permission to create a reason
to talk about your book.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Anyone nervous about self promoting, Emma just gave you permission
to go ahead and do it. So blanket permission forevermore
to be promoting your book whenever you feel like it.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And why is it important to be promoting your book
post bub? And I know some of the answer is sales.
I am a huge fan of retail algorithm as a reason.
You really want those reviews coming in so that the
algorithms know your book is still relatable, it's still relevant.
And when the algorithm thinks your book is relevant, it's
going to promote it to readers without you having to
(14:30):
do anything. So that's usually kind of my big reason
is we really want these computers, these machines to know
that your book still matters, and the only way to
do that is to teach it to tell it that
by doing all this promotion.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, and those are those are absolutely like the reasons
that I that I give people initially, but there are
a lot of good reasons to do it. Sales is one,
but I you know, depending on what your strategy is, Like,
it's not always the most important one if you plan
to write other books, if you plan to you know,
(15:05):
build kind of a longer author career, and I think
it's actually the least important in some ways. That's why
I think free promos can be so valuable because exactly
like you you said, it juices the algorithm. It tells
people that that this is relevant. It gets new readers,
(15:26):
it gets reviewers. Also, I think one thing, sort of
back to the flywheel metaphor, is that there are kind
of two kinds of audience. One is paid, and that's
what you're getting from ads. That's what you're getting when
you're running ebook promos. So that means like you're you're
(15:47):
essentially paying to borrow someone's audience. So when you run
a free book see when you run a book bub
you know, when you run any kind of email book promotion,
what you're doing is you're paying to get your book
in front of someone else's audience. That's the same thing
if you run a Facebook ad, Like you're paying to
get your book in front of Facebook's audience. You still
(16:09):
don't own those people. Those people still don't have a
direct line to you. Right, there's that there's a middle
middle person. However, the other thing that I think authors
are starting to be super savvy about is an owned audience.
And all of these same levers that we can pull
(16:29):
to to reduce the algorithm to get sales, to build awareness,
you know, to to get more reviews, can also help
you own your own audience or build your own owned audience.
So authors, some authors are doing direct sales on their websites,
so kind of cutting out the retailer entirely. But even
(16:50):
if you're not, you know, you could think about your
your own kind.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Of lead magnet.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
So if if somebody goes you run an ad and
a to your website and the first thing that reader
sees is a pop up that says, hey, join my
mailing list and you can have a free book, and
from forever more, that person is part of your owned audience.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And every time you.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Have made up a holiday on August seventh, or you know,
whatever that is, you have a direct line to that person.
You already know they're engaged enough to want to sign
up for your email list, they want to hear what
you have to say. Then, of course there's a whole
nother challenge mode, but of being able to keep those
(17:34):
people engaged and figure out what you want to say
to them. However, I think it's invaluable for authors, right,
So both are really important. You have to have you know,
nine times out of ten that paid audience is going
to be way bigger than your owned audience, so you
kind of have to do both. But that's another reason
I think that these post pub marketing tactics are so important,
(17:58):
because the more like the most valuable thing you can
have as an author is an audience that you own,
like you than any time anything happens with your book,
be it the one you've already written or one that's
in the future, you already have people who care about it,
who will spread the word, who will read early versions
of it, you know, who will buy it. So yeah,
(18:21):
I think that's that's the other really big reason to
make sure that you're keeping Matt flywell going.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And now that we fully
teased our audience really built up the anticipation in suspense,
why don't you tell us what authors can do to
promote their book post bub What should they be doing?
What are some actionable things for them to do to
promote their book after publication.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, there are lots of things, but I think the
the things that kind of the tenets of a post
publication marketing strategy are ebook promotions and you can do
the We at Written Word Media don't recommend running the
(19:09):
same book more than once every thirty days, just because
audiences get a little tired of it. It not only
left tired of seeing the same thing and the it
doesn't feel ass special as far as a price promotion.
So for for an ebook promotion, I always recommend running
your running the book at below four ninety nine if
(19:30):
it's a paid promotion or free. If if you're thinking
about kind of the long term and audience building strategies
so you can you can do that, highly recommend doing that.
As I mentioned, we promo stacking is something that that's huge.
It's a really easy way to just like hit one
button or you know, if you want to do it
(19:52):
yourself with all the other promo sites that are out
there in the world, choose a week or choose three
to five days once a quarter and run ebook promos.
You'll see your ranking go up, you'll see your reviews
go up. You know, all of those good things that
we just talked about. So ebook promos I think is
(20:13):
one of the big tenets that's kind of holding up
the tent. Then ads, so Facebook ads or Amazon ads,
and you don't have to do all of them. You
don't have to do you know, you don't have to
do all of them every time. You can kind of
figure out what works best for you. And newsletters obviously
(20:35):
if you if you have an email list and you're
emailing your readers, that's something that you should do at
least every quarter, probably more often. And giveaways that are
going to help you build that email list so or
list builders, so I think you know you can there
are of course I'm going to plug ours we have
(20:57):
we have subscriber search.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Giveaway, which is a great way to do it.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
But authors are also awesome and creative and collaborative and
doing this all day every day with newsletter swaps. So
if you're not a member of you know, genre specific
author groups, I would really suggest that you joined some,
whether that's on Facebook or Reddit or you know, whatever
that is. Find other like minded authors who have written
(21:23):
books in your genre, ask them if they'll do a
newsletter swap with you, so you know, What that means
is you'll you'll promote their book in your newsletter, they'll
promote yours and theirs, and then boom, suddenly you have
twice the subscribers, twice the followers. So the same thing
can happen with social media. You can you can do
kind of a social media swap where you plug someone
(21:45):
else's Instagram or TikTok video for the day. But yeah,
so I think those are really the those are really
the things that that I recommend people do. And I
think the ebook promos are great because they're relatively low cost,
they're really targeted to one small period of time, and
(22:08):
you can almost always see results immediately. Like there's not
a lot in book marketing and pr that you're like
immediately can see data end results. But ebook promos is
something that you can you will I guarantee that you'll
see a spike in your KDP account if you publish
on Amazon the day that you run an ebook promo.
(22:28):
So that's I think, if you do nothing else, promise
yourself that you'll do that for times a year once
your book has been published. But layering on those other pieces,
figuring out out what works for you, figuring out the
cadence on which you want to do those things. I
think all of those are what It kind of makes
(22:51):
things more powerful. And like I said, I think it
matters less like what the specific tactic is, and matters
more that you're doing something to keep the flywheel moving.
It's a lot harder to pull a back list title
that you haven't touched in you know, two or three years.
It's not possible, but it's a lot harder to pull
(23:14):
that back out and start marketing it again and like
find an audience for it again than it is to
just consistently keep some level of marketing going, whether that's low,
whether that's high, whether you're throwing all your dollars at it,
whether you're you know, throwing none of your dollars at it.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think I think as long.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
As you're doing something, you're going to be in a
much better place than if you if you just let
it sit for a while.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
And I also like how you were talking about you
could overlap them as well. Yeah, so something that can
go on forever. And definitely you don't have to stop
an ad and do a new campaign every few months.
You can have an ad campaign going on and then
maybe pause one, change up the wording, run one in
the interim, pause that one, go back to the old one,
go back to the new one. Using this same targeting,
(24:01):
that can be ongoing advertising, and then every few months
you alternate doing a giveaway or an ebook promo and
then use your newsletter to market that giveaway or even
promo to your audience, so they really do overlap and
you can kind of change it up so you're not
constantly being like, hey, give away, give away, giveaway or
ebook promo every single month for the rest of the life.
(24:23):
Like it really all training. It is going to give
your audience a little more option for how to be engaged.
And then I was explaining to an author the other
day why we call it seating books per review, because
we are like gardening, planting as many books as we
can out into the general public into readers' hands in
(24:45):
the hopes that some of them bloom into reviews and sales.
So you really want to get the book out there
as much as possible, which is why we are recommending
things like free books, bargain books, c. You're not going
to get as much money for that book when it's
sold or at all if you're giving it away for free.
But by giving it away you are hopefully getting more
(25:07):
reviews and word of mouth marketing, which is just the
best form of marketing.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Absolutely, that's absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
And I think you know this goes back to what
you said also about the algorithms, because like the it's
you'll see if you run a free promo. I love
free promos. I you know, I'll never stop talking about it.
I'm probably very annoying about it. But thee you'll see
a pop in downloads, right, and exactly what you said,
(25:36):
I think this goes really hand in hand. Somebody's going
to download it on their kindle, on their iPad, whatever
device they read on. They're probably not going to read
it immediately because they downloaded three other free books and
they do this every time they see something that catches
their eye. But it's very much like a seed. When
they get to it in three months, six months, if
they love it, they'll review it, they'll look for what
(25:58):
else you've written the they might seek you out, join
your email list, you know, like there are all these things.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And that said, if you have.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
The ability to put anything in your back matter of
your ebook about joining your email list, you should absolutely
do that for this exact reason, because if somebody reads
a book three months six months later they get to
the end of your ebook, then you know, in marketing,
we always want want somebody to have like a call
(26:27):
to action or the next thing to do. And if
you say like, hey, come check out my website or
come join my email list, then and they loved your book,
then they have something to do, right, so so and
it's a very structured, good thing to do, so so
that you know, that's kind of an aside, but but yeah,
I think the other really strong thing about free promos
(26:50):
is they tend to do really well, like perform really well,
because the book is free. So people are like, I'll
I'll give this a try. And if you're not an author,
who you know, if if you're not Michelle Obama, you
don't already have a huge audience, which I think a
lot of like a lot of authors when I talk
to them say the thing they're most daunted by is
(27:12):
how kind of saturated the market is and there's so
many books out there. The way to find your audience
is to let people like to believe in yourself, believe
in your book, and let people read your words, let
people love what you wrote, and the only way to
do that is to put the book in their hands.
So I think, you know, for all of those good reasons,
(27:33):
but you'll also see I think every single day I
get emails, we get emails in our inbox from authors
who were like, I ran a free books yesterday and
my book is number one in that category.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
So because of that.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
You know, it has returns that go on long after
that day, because readers who know that they love paranormal
romance go click on the paranormal romance category and whatever
retailer of their choice, and your book is still up
at the top, so they're still going to see your book,
So the returns continue even even if your book isn't
(28:07):
free anymore. The algorithm has paid attention. It's right up
there at the top of the charts, and people will
will download it and give it a try, so you
ultimately make money. Running free promotions is the moral of
the story.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yep, exactly, Not that that's even most author's main goal.
I feel like nowadays I'm hearing way more. I just
want someone to read my writing and enjoy it. I
just want to be a part of the community I love.
I want to raise awareness for this or education and whatnot.
So that is that's a good point totally. Is there
ever a time that an author should stop marketing a
(28:43):
book post promotion?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
That's a good question.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
So I think, like everything, and you alluded to this
a little bit earlier, I think you should approach marketing
with kind of a curiosity, right Like, I think most
authors are not professional marketers. So most of this is
(29:11):
going to be an experiment, and hopefully you have some
good guidance.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Hopefully you know, you've you've.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Found some resources, you know, maybe listening to this podcast,
maybe you're reading good blogs, whatever that might be that
are that are giving you some good guidance. But I
think having kind of a spirit of curiosity about what
works for you and your book and what doesn't, And
that could be in you know, I mentioned like a
(29:38):
KDP dashboard, that could be an actual data right Like
it could be wow, I did this thing and it
continues to work, or it's working less well than it did,
or you know whatever whatever that might be. Or it
could be in how well it works for you as
(29:58):
a person, as an author and with your life. So
if something I feel like there's no hard and fast
rule about something you have to do as an author,
like there's not one magic pill that's gonna make your
book be marketed beautifully forever more. And if you hate
(30:20):
doing something or it really feels like an imposition on
your life, you should stop. So you know, that's that's
my you know, whenever authors, I hear this a lot
about social media, tell me if you get that same response.
But I hear this a lot like I hate it.
(30:41):
I don't know what to write. I don't know what
my voice, you know, but I know I have to Like, no,
you actually don't have to. So I think that data
is just as valuable as the numerical data. So definitely,
I think approaching things with a spirit of curiosity. It's
all an experiment. Take you know, see what kind of works,
(31:04):
what do you get good results from, what do you
like doing. You might find out that you love filming
TikTok videos, like even if you thought you never would write,
Or you might find out that you love connecting with
your authors through your newsletter or vice versa. But you're
never gonna know if you don't try those things. And
(31:25):
most of the like very sophisticated, savvy authors that I
work with, and talk to all the time. Have like
the reason that they're successful is because they found what
works for them. They love connecting with their fans in
one particular way, so that's what they lean into. Or
they know that like running an ebook promo with X
(31:47):
companies easier than another one, or this works for their budget,
or you know, well, for whatever reason. So I think
the authors who do it right are the ones who
have kind of experimented, had a spirit of curiosity about it,
and figured out what works. So I think if you
(32:08):
got to a point where nothing worked or nothing made
you happy or brought you joy, like, that's when I
would say stop marketing.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I you know, I think it's just not worth it
at that point.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
And you.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Do have a danger.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
I think a lot, like I said, a lot of
authors get into this because they love writing, and like
you just said, because they want people to read their work.
And I think you do have a danger of kind
of burning out or like forcing yourself to do things
that really don't feel natural to you, or like resenting
the marketing that you're having to do. So I think
if any of those things become true, that is when
(32:46):
I would advise someone.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
To stop or to take a break.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
But like just on the surface of like a book's life,
I don't think there's any time to stop. Right If
if all of us were super wealthy and had author
assistants who could do this for us, and we could
rest on our laurels, then I think do it forever.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You're right that authenticity and finding what works for you
is a conversation that I have with authors on a
near daily basis. It's you know, any episode you listen
to on this podcast, you'll never hear me say we
recommend you do everything all at once, all the time,
because that's not reasonable, it's not real life, it's not
gonna happen. So we always recommend to find your one
(33:32):
maybe two social media platforms that you don't absolutely hate,
and work on doing ten minutes a day, Like we're
not talking about posting every single day and being on
there for hours at a time. Like find a time
and a calendar and a consistency that works for you,
and also find a means for marketing that works for you.
Exactly what you were saying. Some authors have no problem
(33:54):
with self promotion, and it's easy for them to get
up and share their expertise on social media and share
their books and their passions. Some authors prefer to be
kind of behind the screen and don't like to be
in the spotlight, and so some of this email marketing,
some of this advertising, ebook promo giveaway is going to
be easier because it's less. Hey, here's why you should
buy my book and more, let me make it easier
(34:16):
to buy my book through these platforms that will market
it for me. And speaking of those platforms, you mentioned
finding whatever works best for you, So I always recommend
fit in Word Media for you book promos and for
all of their great partner influences. I mean, you have
three books, you have bargain books, Ce, you have Red
Feather Romance, you have all of this great email lists
(34:38):
and partnership and readership that I highly recommend not just
for your services, but also I love your educational pieces
and I'm always pointing to the blog for stuff that
you will do. But also check out good Reads giveaways,
check out StoryGraph good ways, check out Amazon, Facebook, Google ads,
boosted Instagram posts, book bub ads and ebook giveaways, all
(35:01):
sorts of things out there, resources out there. Explore what
works for you and then do that exactly what we
were just saying.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Yeah, that's completely right. I think, you know, we try
really hard written word media to make things like very
intuitive and as easy as possible, but certainly that's not
going to you know, that's not going to be everybody's favorite,
and that's totally okay. So so yeah, I think I
think you're you're absolutely right about that. It's it's you
(35:34):
kind of have to find the the I you know,
I almost just said like the path of least resistance,
but I don't think that's true because I think I'm
consistently impressed by how hard authors work and how much
they're willing to put into learning about this stuff, and
(35:54):
so I don't think it's really the path of least resistance.
But but find what works for you is really a
better way to say that.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And for the authors that find that Britain word media
services work best for them, how can they get in
touch to learn more?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Absolutely, So the easiest place to start is just our website,
which is writtenwordmedia dot com. If you have specific questions,
if you ever, you know, don't understand something, if you
want specific recommendations like here's my book, what do you suggest,
We're more than happy to answer that kind of question
(36:30):
and you can just write right into our inbox at
Hello at written wordmedia dot com and one of my
amazing team will we'll write back to you usually within
a day and and we're yeah, like I said, super
happy to answer that kind of question, even if it
doesn't ever result in you buying something from us. That's
(36:51):
that's totally okay, you know, if the we have that
happen sometimes, like people are just like not quite ready
or you know, like for example, if if you don't
have a book published yet, we can't help you that much,
but we can point you in the direction of places
that can. So yeah, definitely. Please please feel free to
(37:13):
jump on our website or shoot us an email.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Thank you so much for joining us. Again, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And listeners watchers, if you like this episode, don't forget
to rate, review, subscribe, and share it with anyone else
that might be interested. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Smith
Publicity All Things Book Marketing podcast. To reach us and
learn about our many services, visit Smith Publicity dot com
or send us an email to info at Smith Publicity
dot com
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!