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Choosing the right setting can supercharge your book sales. Some people read a book just for its setting. A good setting can lead to spin-off products like board games, art books, coloring books, calendars, comic books, and even movies.
Three techniques for building a captivating worldHow to choose the right setting for your readersHow setting can impact sales and reader enjoyment
Setting not only turns people on to a story, but it also turns people off.
Every author must answer the question, “How can I place my story in a setting that readers want to spend time in?” And the answer to that question is an art and practice called worldbuilding.
In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from Seth Ring, an author and expert worldbuilder. He co-hosts the WorldCraft Club podcast and teaches people how to build the worlds for their stories.
You’ll learnListen in or check out the blog to discover the power of creating immersive settings that captivate readers, leave a lasting impact, and boost book sales.
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Sometimes in marketing, it pays to zig when everyone else is zagging. In this digital age, when authors race to do everything online, it's easy to forget the magic of face-to-face interactions. Personal connections can transform your relationship with your readers and fellow authors.
A book festival is a fantastic way to meet with readers and writers at the same time in real life. But what is a book festival, and how can you organize one?
In this week's episode, I asked Dave Cohen to talk with us about book festivals. He's a British writer with more than four decades of experience writing comedy for the BBC. He saw a void in his community and stepped up to the plate for readers and authors_._ You'll learn
· What a book festival is
· Three types of book festivals (and which might fit your book best)
· How the format could boost your book sales
If you've wished for an in-person venue to sell books and connect with readers and authors, listen in or read the blog version and see how you might be able to grant your own wish.Support the show
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As Yoda says, “Difficult to see the future is.” But difficult is not impossible. Causes have effects, and the more you have a sense of the rhythms of the past, the better you can sense the future.
Why certain themes and plots are failing miserably in our current momentWhere to find past ideas that are likely to resonate in the futureWhy certain themes resonate at different times in history
If it takes you two years to write a book, you owe it to yourself to ask, “What kinds of books will be popular in two years?” Reader preferences change over time, but sometimes they change rapidly. If you don’t keep up, you may get stuck writing a book people no longer want to read.
So, how can you determine what will be popular in a few years?
In this week’s episode, I speak with Alexander Macris about how history’s cyclical patterns can give us clues about what types of literature will resonate in the future. You’ll learnListen in or read the blog version of this episode to get a head start on writing a book with themes that will resonate with readers in the future.
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Has inflation eaten away at your book profits? Perhaps you want to start advertising and need some margin. Or maybe readers are not taking you seriously with your book's current low price.
Increase your price the right wayGain favor with readers by announcing a price increaseMake the current price seem like a bargain
You need to raise the price of your book, but how should you do it?
Most authors raise prices quietly. One day, the price just goes up, and they hope no one notices. But that approach is a massive mistake and a missed opportunity.
A future price increase is a rare opportunity, and in this week's episode, you'll learn how toListen in or read the blog version of this episode to discover how you can do a kindness for your readers, help them take action, and sell more books at a higher price with a reverse coupon.
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The last time I visited Barnes and Noble, I marveled at the comic book section. Western comic books only filled a couple of shelves, while around the corner, there was an entire aisle of manga comic books.
A story structure based on only two actsHow to create a two-act structure for a sentence or a seriesHow this structure might rescue a story you’ve been struggling to finish
I wondered, “Why is Eastern manga so much more popular than Western comic books from DC and Marvel?” As I investigated, I discovered an interesting and shockingly ancient answer.
Western storytelling is typically based on the three-act structure, which dates back to Aristotle. But one ancient story structure that dates back to the time of oral storytelling and is still popular in the East, yet it appeals to modern Western readers.
Many Western storytellers have rediscovered it and used it to write some of the most enduring bestsellers in the English language, including Pride and Prejudice, Goodnight Moon, and Dracula.
In this week’s episode, we’ll discussListen in or check out the blog post version of this episode to learn about this ancient story structure and how can you use it to make your book more appealing to readers.
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Reader magnets are like real magnets. Sometimes, they aren't very magnetic, and other times, they're so magnetic that we can rapidly grow an email list of tens of thousands of readers.
How to gather intelligence on your target readerWhat questions you should ask to gather useful dataHow to use that intel to create a reader magnet they'll love
A reader magnet is supposed to magnetically draw readers onto your list so that when you have a book to announce, lots of folks are ready and eager to learn more or buy.
But what if your reader magnet doesn't seem to be working?
In this week's episode, I interviewed Jonathan Shuerger to learn how his company, The Strategic Author, can help authors target their ideal market and create super magnetic reader magnets.
You'll learnListen in or check out the blog post version of this episode to discover why your reader magnet might not be having the impact you want and how you can make it more attractive.
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Are your book sales starting to dip a bit? Perhaps your book sales were once great and are now starting to fall. You may see this drop in sales for several reasons, but you don’t have to stand by and watch them drop indefinitely.
Why your sales may be decliningWhich sales problems you can fix (or not)How to reinvigorate your sales (sometimes with very little extra investment!)
Most bestselling books see their highest sales during the pre-order period, followed by the launch month, and then experience a slow, steady decline. But you can extend a book sales lifecycle.
In this week’s episode, we’ll talk aboutListen in or check out the blog post to discover why your sales might drop and get a robust list of marketing strategies to boost them back up.
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The Holy Grail for many authors is to write a popular book series where readers of book one go on to read book two and so on. Writing a popular book series provides many marketing advantages, namely that your advertising is far more profitable.
Two types of seriesHow to know if your idea can sustain a seriesStrategies for release and promotion of books in a series
But writing a series is also risky. Generally, you can only sell subsequent books to folks who purchased, read, and enjoyed the first book in the series.
For some authors, writing books in a series has shackled their otherwise good books to a relatively unappealing freshman effort.
So, how do you know if your book is a good fit for a series?
In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from Kristina Stanley, best-selling, award-winning author and the founder of Fictionary.co. We discussListen in or check out the blog version of this episode to learn about the many marketing advantages a completed series provides and how you can write a successful series.
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I'm excited to announce that tickets are now for sale for the 2025 Novel Marketing Conference. The conference will be held in Austin, Texas, on January 17th and 18th. This event is not a typical writer's conference where you learn how to write and publish a book. Our conference is focused on book marketing, and our goal is to help you make 2025 the best year of your author career so far!
In this episode, you'll find out
· Three special ingredients that make the Novel Marketing Conference unique
· How this year's conference will differ from last year's
· Why we've made certain deliberate choices for this year's conference
Listen in or check out the blog version of this episode to get details about the 2025 Novel Marketing Conference.Support the show
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A few weeks ago, Dazed Digital published an article asking why men no longer read novels. The article itself had no satisfying answers, but the question triggered a big discussion online, particularly on X, where everyone had a hot take.
But men are buying and reading books. And authors who write what men want to read are making millions of dollars.
In this week’s episode, you’ll hear from Alexander Macris, who wrote a rebuttal of sorts to the assumption that men don’t read novels.
In our conversation, you’ll learn
· What men are (and are not) reading and why
· How to write for male readers
· Which storylines male and female readers want to read
· How to market books to men
Listen in or check out the blog version of this episode for some surprising insight into what male readers are (and aren’t) looking for in a novel.Support the show
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Authors often refer to their books as "babies." As I've worked in the publishing world with authors and now that we are awaiting the birth of our fourth child, I'm starting to see a lot of similarities between birthing a book baby and a human baby.
The author's experience in each stage of book-baby developmentHow to cover the expenses related to holding your book baby for the first timeHow to nourish your book baby and promote healthy growth
We can learn a lot about delivering a book baby by looking at the process of delivering a real baby. In this week's episode, you'll gain insight onListen in or check out the blog version of this episode to find out what to expect when publishing a book and what your "book baby" needs for a healthy gestation, birth, and life.
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Novelists often struggle with what to write or say in their email newsletters, blogs, and podcasts. Unpublished novelists often feel like they have nothing to talk about, and published authors know readers tire of constant book promotion emails.
How to share your research in a way that interests your readersLogistical tips for conducting research on-siteHow to engage readers in different stages of your book's development
So, what should novelists write about?
Writing a novel is a bit like woodworking. When you craft something from wood, you often have leftover pieces of lumber you can use elsewhere.
Savvy carpenters and writers know how to put the leftovers to use.
A novelist's leftover lumber is research!
In this week's episode, we'll visit with a historical novelist about how you can repurpose research.
You'll discoverListen in or check out the blog version of this episode. You might discover you have plenty of interesting bits about your novel to share with your readers.
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Have you ever wondered if a course would be a better way to present the material in your book? Have your readers asked you to develop your book into an online course?
Which types of online courses work in different situationsHow you can make sure your course will sellTips for creating your first course
You probably know that online courses tend to sell at higher price points than books, but you also know they are a lot of work.
Will it be worth it for you? For your readers?
I’ve been creating and teaching online courses for over a decade and had to learn many things the hard way.
In this week’s episode, you’ll learn the easy way about the lessons I learned the hard way.
We’ll discussListen in or check out the blog post version of this episode to discover whether the material in your book could be presented in a course and become a secondary source of revenue for you.
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You probably know that offering a reader magnet on your website is imperative to growing your email list, tantalizing readers with a sample of your writing, and eventually getting them to buy your book.
The biggest mistake authors make when publishing short storiesHow short story techniques differ from those used in long-form piecesTwo exercises that will build your short-story-writing muscles
If you write novels, your reader magnet should be a short story, but if you don’t know how to write a great one, you’ll miss out on the many advantages short stories provide.
In this week’s episode, Steve Diamond, author and cohost of the Writer Dojo podcast, and I discuss the art of writing short stories.
You’ll learnListen in or read the blog version to discover all the ways writing short stories can benefit you, and learn to write a great one.
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Your website is one of your most critical book marketing assets. It’s where you manage your online reputation, grow your email list, and sell books. But before you build a website, you need web hosting.
What a web host does for your websiteWhich kind of web hosting is best for authors (and which to avoid!)How much you should (or shouldn’t) spend on web hosting
You have thousands of web hosting options, which can feel a bit overwhelming. How do you know what kind of host you need for your website?
In this week’s episode, you’ll discoverIf you’ve been wanting to build a website or have considered switching web hosts, listen in or check out the blog post version of this episode for some recommendations on finding the best service for your situation.
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Feeling overwhelmed by book marketing can lead authors to look for shortcuts. Shortcuts lead to expensive complications. Expensive complications lead to dead ends. Dead ends lead to suffering. Yoda would call this “The path to the dark side.”
Ten factors that may be causing your marketing stressHow free courses may be contributing to your overwhelmHow to improve your publishing vocabulary
Does this sound familiar? How do you escape this overwhelming cycle?
There are ten different stressors that can lead to book-marketing overwhelm. Most authors face at least one, and if you are completely overwhelmed, you may be facing all of them.
In this week’s episode, you’ll learn:Listen in or check out the blog version of this episode to discover which stressors are hounding you and how to implement simple solutions to mitigate your marketing stress.
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Being an author requires you to have hundreds of online accounts for different software and services. Websites such as Amazon, ConvertKit, Publisher Rocket, Patreon, K-lytics, Bookvault, AuthorMedia.social, AuthorsXP, BookBub, Kickstarter, Teachable, Bluehost, WordPress, Grammarly, and Plottr (to name a few) all require a username and password.
Four password mistakes to avoidWhich tools provide password securityMy recommendation (which has changed in recent years)
Some authors avoid using helpful tools simply because they don’t want to create and remember yet another username and password. It seems like too much hassle, and their writing and publishing efficiency and quality suffer as a result.
But what if there was a simple way to eliminate your password problems? There is!
In this week’s episode you’ll learnIf you’re ready to eliminate your password problems, listen in or check out the blog post version of this episode to find password peace of mind.
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Can you make a living as an author without selling through Amazon? Many authors wonder.
How to earn income from your books outside of Amazon’s ecosystemHow to increase your profit margins without increasing costsHow to attract and connect with the right kinds of readers
Amazon is the sole revenue source for many indie authors, but Amazon’s algorithms can disable your KDP accounts and cut off your income without any human reviewing the action.
Authors find themselves pleading with a computer to reactivate their accounts while their livelihoods hang in the balance. While this scenario is rare, it does occur.
That’s why some authors connect with their readers without relying on Amazon. How do you do that, and what type of author can pull it off?
In this week’s episode, Connor Boyack shares his strategy for success and sustainability as a career author.
You’ll learnListen in or check out the blog post version to find out how Connor’s reproducible strategy can also work for you.
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With the rise of AI authors, how do you prove you are a human author? Most authors prove their humanity with their names and photos. Your identity protects you from being called a bot writer.
When it makes sense to use a pen nameWhether a pen name can protect your true identityWhat a pen name does to your metadata
But what if you use a pen name? Will AI bring the age of pen names to an end?
While pen names are going out of style, there are some reasons you might still consider using one.
In this week’s episode, you’ll learn seven reasons authors use pen names and if those reasons still make sense in an era where your verifiable humanity has become a marketing asset.
You’ll learnThere are several great reasons (and a few bad ones) to use an author pen name. If you’re still trying to decide what your author name should be, or if you’ve used a pen name for years, this episode will give you some direction, so listen in or check out the blog version today.
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I remember watching Steve Jobs's keynote presentation for the original iPhone. This magical new device, he said, would revolutionize our productivity.
How to boss your phone instead of letting your phone boss you.A revolutionary setting change that may drastically reduce your desire to look at your phoneHow to use your phone to write more productively
And at first, it did.
But then, along came apps. Soon, user experiences were scientifically optimized to be as addictive as possible. An author's productive output is inversely correlated with time spent on the phone.
In this week's episode, we'll talk about how to spend less time on your phone and more time writing. You'll learnListen in or check out the blog post version of this episode to discover ten tips for leveraging your phone to increase your productivity and limiting its ability to keep you from writing your book.
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