Is your website’s Contact page serving your readers and web visitors?In the past, authors simply shared their email addresses on their websites. But that opened the door to a flood of spam, which drowned out real messages from readers.Connecting with your readers is essential to building your readership, so you can’t simply remove your email address from your website. But how do you create an effective Contact page that helps readers connect but keeps spammers out?In this week’s episode, we’l...

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.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 worldbuild...

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 ...

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.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 de...

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.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'l...

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.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...

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.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 ...

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.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 aboutWhy your sales may be decliningWhich...

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.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 ...

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 Marketi...

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 conver...

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.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 onThe author's experience in each stage of book-baby developmentHow to cover the expenses related to hol...

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.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 nove...

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?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 a...

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.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 sho...

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.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 discoverWhat a web host does for your websiteWhich kind of web hosting is best for authors (and which to avoid!)How much you s...

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.”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 w...

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.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 ...

Can you make a living as an author without selling through Amazon? Many authors wonder.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...

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.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 wher...

I remember watching Steve Jobs's keynote presentation for the original iPhone. This magical new device, he said, would revolutionize our productivity.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 learnHow to boss your p...

Authors around the world are trying to reduce their reliance on Amazon. However, most of us still use and like Amazon. In fact, many authors earn most of their money from Amazon. But any company with a 90% market share can't be fully trusted.One way indie authors can reduce their reliance on Amazon is by selling directly from their own author websites. Selling directly provides protection from the changes at an international company. It allows you to retain more money, control, and flexibilit...

One key to becoming a bestselling author is the selling. And one element of sales is the sales pitch. Some authors think pitches are only to be used for pitching agents at writers conferences, but you can actually use a sales pitch whenever you talk about your book.Your sales pitch convinces readers to care about and read your book. The stronger your pitch, the better your sales.I’ve talked a lot about pitching novels in the past, but in this week’s episode, we’ll discuss a powerful recipe fo...

My first DOS computer had no mouse. Its screen had two colors: green and white. Today, computers have mice and complex graphics, and there is no need to be a computer programmer in order to use a computer.Technology gets easier to use each year. Even though it's easier than it used to be, sometimes you still need help. Many authors find that the biggest obstacle keeping them from writing, publishing, or marketing is technology.Authors lacking technical sophistication often get pulled into ove...