Novel Marketing

The idea for this episode come from Mary Hamilton who told us about her marketing pet peeve. To quote Mary,  My biggest peeve is my website. I’m not techy enough to understand how to fix any issues with it, and I hate spending the time it takes to learn it. Except for my blog, I’d rather just set it and leave it. Love your podcasts! They’ve helped me a bunch!” Lifetime Divi Membership (Affiliate Link) $249 Why Divi? Drag and drop build your website. Ease of use of Wix or Squarespace with the power of WordPress. They have premade layouts for authors ready to go. Comes with lifetime access to Monarch and Bloom Comes with good support. How to use Divi After you purchase divi, you log into your wordpress website, go to appearance -> themes -> add theme and then upload the zip. Once Divi is installed and activated, you start building your pages. Load one of the author layout packs from the library and start customizing.   3 Years of Basic Bluhost Hosting (Affiliate Link) $106.20 Why Bluehost? Best cheap hosting out there. Cheap, not for bloggers WordPress Friendly Upgradable How to Use Bluehost Sign up, feel free to use our affiliate link Go through the steps to get a wordpress website (Jim) I have to stop you there Thomas … for you, “Go through the steps to get a WordPress website might be obvious, but what about people who are saying, “Huh”? Get a domain or point your domain at Bluehost   MyBookTable Pro (Novel Marketing Patrons Save 25%) $49 Why MyBookTable? Makes it easy to build book pages with lots of buy buttons to lots of stores. Most useful if you have more than one book. If you are using divi, you may not need MyBookTable for a single book. Makes it easy to clump your books together by series and genre. Builds you a search engine optimized book page * Buy MyBookTable Pro   MyBookProgress Pro (Novel Marketing Patrons Save 25%) $19 Gives you a progress bar that will help you stay on track with your writing, Keep your readers up to date it is what they are coming to your website to find Grow your email list Get nudges from your readers. * Buy MyBookProgress Pro   Featured Patron Lucia’s Renaissance (Affiliate Link) by Cl Peterso Heresy is fatal in late Renaissance Italy, so only a suicidal zealot would so much as whisper the name of Martin Luther. But after Luther’s ideas ignite a young girl’s faith, she must choose to abandon her beliefs or risk her life in the turbulent world of late sixteenth-century Italy. The Big Caveat to All of the Above Your content must be excellent * An ugly site with great content is far more powerful than a beautiful site with poor content * Restaurants- if they look great on the outside, and the inside, but the food is lousy, they won’t be in business long * The chef is the most important part of the restaurant * Branding, Identity, Call to Action, Copywriting * You’re going to have to learn a bit of tech The curse of knowledge Your options Learn branding, copywriting,

In this episode, we talk about four advertising fundamentals that apply when buying ads on Facebook, Amazon, GoodReads, and more! News Thomas on Write From the Deep Podcast About Haters by Karen Ball and Erin Taylor Young   Sponsor: MyBookTable is a way to quickly and easily build an online bookstore on your WordPress website. Use it to rank #1 on Google for your book and to boost your book sales on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Get it free at MyBookTable.com. Novel Marketing Patrons save 25% on MyBookTable Pro.   Talking Points: In this episode, we are going to talk about the fundamentals of advertising. 1) Have a “Good” Book Excellent Cover that makes the right kind of promise 106 & 107 Excellent Back Cover Copy 111. TLDR: Make people curious.   Lots of Reviews Budget in advertising into the book’s price. (Advertising often means you need to charge more)   2) Measure Measure Measure Find out Cost of Reader Acquisition | CRA $ Dollars Spent ÷ Books Sold = Cost of Reader Acquisition Track Sell Through Rate Book 2 Unit Sales ÷ Book 1 Unit Sales = Sell Through Rate Life Time Value of a Reader | CRA – Book 1 Profit + (Book 2 Profit x Sell Through Rate) = LVR Track ROI | Profit ÷ Investment = ROI   3) Experiment Test Ad Copy Test Back Cover Copy Test Book Covers A/B testing   4) Follow the Matthew Principle Take money from your in-effective ads and give them to your effective ads.   Featured Patron The Seven Deadly Friendships: How to Heal When Painful Relationships Eat Away at Your Joy (Affiliate Link) by Mary DeMuth There’s something wrong with your friendship, but you can’t figure out why. Is everything in your head? Unfortunately, toxic friendships happen to everyone, but we seldom identify the underlying issues while we battle confusion or the friendship breaks up. Maybe you’re left bewildered in the friendship’s wake, paralyzed to move forward. After wading through several difficult friendships, Mary DeMuth reveals the seven different types of toxic relationships and empowers you to identify the messiest relationships causing you the greatest anguish. Releases October 2nd 2018.

In this episode, we talk about how to reduce book marketing liabilities and develop assets. The more assets you have, the easier books are to sell. Sponsor: The Rubart Writing Academy Oct 25-28th 2018 Book Marketing Liability Examples Other Priorities Family, Netflix, job, friendships, garden … time on your Smart Phone Fear Debt (The more debt you are in, the harder it is to spend money to build assets) Dave Ramsey Podcast Negative Self Talk (Technology (I’m not a techie person.), Worth, Etc.) Toxic Relationships (If I promote my memoir too much I will hurt my mom’s feelings.) Physical Impediments   Book Marketing Assets Examples: Position of Influence (Pastor, CEO, President) Positive Relationships With Influential People Website Blog Podcast Email List Social Media Following YouTube Following Previous Books Health, Energy Reliable Laptop Smart Phone Speaking Abilities & Opportunities Cash / Time   Featured Patron The TimeDrifter Series (Affiliate Link) by Lauren Lynch Explore ancient civilizations from a Christian worldview in the historical fantasy TimeDrifter Series. Appropriate for readers of all ages.  

In this episode, we talk about Amazon’s brick and mortar bookstores, the future of paper books, and how they affect you as an author. Sponsor: MyBookTable is a way to quickly and easily build an online bookstore on your WordPress website. Use it to rank #1 on Google for your book and to boost your book sales on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Get it free at MyBookTable.com. Novel Marketing Patrons save 25% on MyBookTable Pro.   Background: Apple Store vs Best Buy Best Buy Makes $804 per square foot Apple Store Makes $5,506 per square foot The average Apple Store makes 3x the average Best Buy despite being much smaller. The Amazon Book Store is to B&N what Apple Stores are to Best Buy. For some comparison B&N only makes $180 per square foot.   How Amazon bookstores are different: A bit bigger than an airport bookstore. Packed with people. Same number of people in a B&N but with a tiny fraction of the space. 100% focus on book discovery. Books face out. Reviews facing out If you like x you will love y Not a 3rd place. No coffee shop, no chairs. Lots of books based off of popular blogs. The store is primarily for Prime members. (Top 50% of households) Barcode scanners for prices Low Selection… but the right selection. Small enough where we walked through every section.   The whole store is built around machine learning The books on the shelves are selected by algorithm. No bargain bin out front. Each store has its own data for its own neighborhood. Amazon knows a lot about you: What books you read and which books you finish on your kindle What movies you watch. What products you buy Where you live. What products your neighbors buy (birds of a feather flock together) What websites you visit. Your GoodReads reviews and books on GoodReads shelves The Amazon store tracks all of your behavior in store. Every time you scan for a price you are giving data to Amazon. Wifi blocking paint? How Machines Learn What this means for authors: Amazon Stores are focused on the short head (for that area) Dungeons and Dragons guidebook facing the door on the way in. Bad news for indies Bad news for midlist authors. Less total selection means mid-list books will get squeezed. Harder to do book signings. How your book performs on Amazon will drive book sales. To get into a specific bookstore, focus on regions. B&N’s days are numbered. Good for indie bookstores. How do you compete with a computer? Be superhuman. Featured Patron Driver Confessional (Affiliate Link) by David L. Winters A Christian ride-share driver lands in hot water with the Russian mob. Antonio and his cop brother must solve a murder before it’s too late.   

In this episode, we share an episode of the Creative Funding Show where Thomas talks with Joanna Penn about the multiple ways you can make money from your writing career that you might have never considered.  But First: * Jim Anniversary * GDPR follow up * Creative Funding Show Featured Patron 95 Tweets: Celebrating Martin Luther in the 21st Century (Affiliate Link) by Peter DeHaan 95 Tweets explains each of Martin Luther’s ninety-five concerns and then updates them, reframed as ninety-five tweets, complete with hashtags. 95 Tweets concludes with a present-day list of ninety-five concerns for the modern church.” Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by listeners like you! Novel Marketing Patreon

In this episode, we are going to talk about ways you can be more effective in your marketing, in your approach to the business of publishing and how to stay motivated when you feel like giving up, with special guest, Chad Allen. About Chad James first met Chad at the OCW conference in 2014 and then connected again at the ReWrite/Ragged Edge conference in 2015. And since then I’ve watched Chad go from the Editorial Director at Baker Books to starting his own venture. What I’ve seen is a man who not only has a talent with books, but someone that has successfully launched his own business, which is –as we often say– whether you’re an indie author or traditionally published, whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction. So we’re going to pick Chad’s brain a bit today about what it takes to succeed in publishing today. Questions * You talk about your mission being to help creative people find their voice and do their art. Tell us a little about that. * One of your more popular blog posts is, “How to Do More of the Work You Love and Less of the Work You Hate I think a great majority of our listeners would love to do exactly that. So what’s the answer? * You wrote a manifesto titled Do Your Art: A Manifesto on Rejecting Apathy to Bring Your Best to the World and that’s one of the things I’ve seen shut down more writers than anything else … they don’t think they have anything strong to say, and they become apathetic. * The Accidental Creative Todd Henry  (Affiliate Link) * We have many listeners who are going the indie route but many who are hybrid, or traditionally focused as well … as an editor who has seen thousands of proposals, tell us the very first thing you look at in a proposal and why. * 079 – How to Write a Crazy Cool Bio * So not that long ago, you dove into being a writing coach full time. What’s good and what’s hard about that? And what has it taught you about thinking like a business person that our listeners need to think about? * You talk about a particular mindset writers must adopt. What is that and how can we keep from slipping away from that mind set? * You’ve been part of hundreds of books. In terms of marketing, what are the things you think most authors must focus on? * Any other thoughts on the writing life, Chad? * Where is the best place for folks to connect with you? Sponsor: * This episode is brought to you by listeners like you! * Patrons Get 50% off Tax & Business Course for Authors Featured Patron This week we get to highlight Eloise Whyte … and while she doesn’t have book to feature, she does have a website that would be well worth your time to check out called, Soul Inspirationz, that specializes in promoting Christian Fiction. New releases, a directory, a community aspect, reviews, and a division of the site which is called the WISP Directory showcases indie and small press titles. http://soulinspirationz.com/

Links: * Did Thanos Kill Me? * The Creative Funding Show * Iubenda (Affiliate link) Let’s talk about GDPR: First off, we are not lawyers. Questions: What is GDPR? General Data Protection Regulation Why do authors need to care about it? Isn’t it just European companies that need to worry about this? The law “applies” to Americans companies. Can they take care of this issue by themselves? If you are an indie author in the US, I can’t see the EU going after you, even if you are in clear violation. Does this law really apply to Americans? Sorta. Remember, we conquered Europe in the last war. We still have troops occupying countries like Germany and the UK. EU law doesn’t apply to American citizens unless the US government allows it to. Must enter the judgment in an American court No treaty to make this easy for the EU to do. No GDPR court precedent for the EU to fall back on. That said… most of the GDPR guidelines are good guidelines regardless. What American Authors Should Do Add a privacy policy to your website. https://www.iubenda.com/en/?code=tendiscref&aic=ZB2599D (Affiliate link) This will help your Google rankings Make sure that consent is very clear: Tell people they are getting your email newsletter in addition to the ebook Don’t have checkboxes pre-checked. Use double opt-in all the time. Be very clear to disclose affiliate links. * Update to the most recent version of WordPress and all your other plugins. If someone from the EU asks you to delete your records of them, you need to do that. What happens if they don’t take care of it by the May 25th deadline? Patreon Sponsor: The Busy Mom’s Guide to Writing Series (Affiliate Link) by Angela Castillo and Jamie Foley From the back cover copy: “Are you a busy mom who loves to write, but doesn’t know where to start? This guide by two bestselling, award-winning authors will help you make your writing dreams a reality. From finding time to write to getting your kids involved, Jamie Foley and Angela Castillo (who are busy moms themselves) give you resources–and the encouragement–to succeed.  Full disclosure: They pay us for this placement.

Chances are, you have received dozens of emails about GDPR over the last couple of weeks. You may have heard some authors freaking out about it, afraid that if they don’t comply, they will be thrown into a European dungeon. In this post, I am going to explain what GDPR is, why you don’t need to worry about it, and why you may want to follow it anyway. Disclaimer: I am not an international law lawyer. I’m not even a regular lawyer. Reading this post is not a substitute for seeking specialized legal counsel. What is GDPR? GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation. It is an 88 page EU regulation passed by the European Parliament in 2016. It takes effect on May 25 of 2018. According to the EU, the law applies to the whole world (more on that in a bit). GDPR Requires European Authors to: * Collect explicit informed consent from email subscribers or any reader whose data is being captured. This means opt-in checkboxes cannot be pre-checked and readers need to know exactly the kind of emails they will be receiving ahead of time. * Provide a privacy policy on their website. * 88 other pages of requirements.   Why American Authors Don’t Need to Worry About GDPR TL;DR: The EU is not the United Nations. They are not the government of the world. They are the government of Europe. Their laws apply to European citizens and European companies. If you are not a European citizen or company, they can’t force you to follow EU regulations. Reason #1: The United States Won World War II Just because a foreign country passes a law, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it. As an American, you are protected by the American government from foreign laws. Another country cannot do anything to an American citizen in America without the US government’s consent. Remember, American troops occupy Europe. Not the other way around. American companies with a nexus in the EU absolutely need to comply with the GDPR, because the EU can go after their EU office directly. But if you don’t have employees or an office in the EU, how can the EU force you to comply with their law? The EU has to ask America nicely. If the US won’t work with the EU on an issue like climate change when a specific agreement was already in place, why would it work with the EU on an issue like the GDPR, that has no specific treaty? To my knowledge, There is no treaty between the EU and the US that specifically references the GDPR. The hope of the EU is that one of the existing treaties might work. But these hopes are neither proven nor tested in court. The GDPR has not even been tested in an EU court yet, much less in American court. Fortunately for the EU, most of the companies that matter (Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) have offices in the EU. So the EU doesn’t need a treaty to force them to abide by the GDPR. This is why you are getting so many emails about GDPR from big companies. These international companies are European as much as they are American. Reason #2: American Authors Are Too Small to Target There is a principle when it comes to regulation that “the tallest blade of grass gets cut first.” The GDPR is a law designed to go after international companies like Facebook and MailChimp.  If you are violating GDPR with your Facebook account, the EU is much more likely to go after Facebook than it is to go after you. These big companies have a nexus in the EU and money to pay the fines.

In this episode, we are going to talk about writing short stories that work, that people like, that readers have to get more of. On the show today is one of the best authors in the world to talk about the subject our friend, James Scott Bell. James is an International Thriller Writers Award winner, Christy Award winner, author of Plot and Structure, (affiliate link)  and How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career (affiliate link). Questions What advice would you give someone just starting to dip their toe in the waters of short stories? What are some of the fundamental differences between novels and short stories? What are the common mistakes you see in short stories? Do you think about word count when you’re writing short stories? If a writer really wants to master short stories … are there any particular authors you’d recommend? Depends on genre … but start with Hemingway. Maybe the greatest short story writer we’ve had. Jeffery Deaver- short stories with twists Crime- Lawrence Block- “Enough Rope” How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career (Affiliate Link) by James Scott Bell   Where is the best place for people to connect with you and find out more about your books on craft? http://jamesscottbell.com/ @JamesScottBell   Featured Patron You’re the Cream in My Coffee (Affiliate Link) by Jennifer Lamont Leo Jennifer Lamont Leo loves all things vintage, especially stories set in the early twentieth century. You’re the Cream in My Coffee and the sequel, Ain’t Misbehavin’, are set in 1920s Chicago. She is also a copywriter, editor, and journalist writing mainly on historical topics.   In 1928, Chicago small-town girl Marjorie Corrigan, visiting the city for the first time, has her life turned upside down when she spots her high school sweetheart–presumed killed in the Great War–alive and well in a train station. Suddenly everything is up for grabs. Although the stranger insists he’s not who she thinks he is, Marjorie becomes obsessed with finding out the truth. To the dismay of her fiancé and family, she moves to the city and takes a job at a department store so she can get to the bottom of the deepest mystery of her life … You can become a Patron at NovelMarketing.com     New Podcast! Thomas has launched a new podcast! The Creative Funding Show

The more you understand how readers find,  and how and why they buy books on Amazon, the more books you’re going to sell. And to help us dive deep into the subject is today’s guest, Alex Newton, the CEO and Founder of K-Lytics.com .a leading market research resource for authors and publishers. Or put in terms we care about his company and expertise helps authors sell more books, face less competition, and get a bigger return on the time and money that put into their careers. He’s based in Germany and if you get him talking about the World Soccer Championship, he might never stop. So fair warning .. he has 20 years of world wide consulting experience, has focused for the past four years on Amazon and ebooks, and has the unique ability to translate complex data into ways that the average writer can understand … and how to take action on that data. Webinar Replay Alex brings such a wealth of facts, figures and tools that we decided to organize a whole webinar with him When: Monday, May 14, 2018 3pm – 4:30pm Central Time * Where: Watch the Replay  (Affiliate Link) Questions: * Why quitting career to go into book marketing? “Alex, you quit a highly successful career and lucrative job as a managing partner in one of the world-leading consulting companies to go found K-lytics. Were you mad? Or how the heck did that happen?” * K-… what? For those who do not know, what does the word “K-lytics” actually stand for? * Let’s start out by talking a little bit about what K-Lytics does for authors. What’s the essence of what you guys provide? What mission to you pursue with it? * What do you think are the most important facts that every author should know about Amazon and the Kindle platform in particular? * So how many book genres or “categories” can one find on Kindle these days? * Which ones are the highest selling categories then these days? * As you said earlier, the e-book market has become very competitive, are some categories more competitive than others? * Is there such a thing as a “best category” – What criteria should an author or publisher use to establish that? * So, in terms of fiction, are there any particularly attractive markets? * Has there been any genre or category that has markedly increased or deteriorated in terms of sales success recently? * What is your best tip for someone looking to write a non-fiction book at the moment? * What are your predictions for the future of the Kindle store?   Featured Patron Benjamin Ellefson who lives in tropical Costa Rica. His award-winning, middle grade books celebrate the important values of self-reliance, preparedness, and diversity. The Land without Color (Affiliate Link) Floating into the air with an enormous gum bubble, Alvin lands in a strange world where everything is gray. The trees, the flowers, the dirt, the sky, the animals, and even the people are all missing their color. Confronted with the mystery of the missing color, Alvin teams up with a talking squirrel and Spanish speaking mouse to battle man-eating plants, outsmart the bumbling Crimson Guards, cross the Sugar Desert, overcome the two-headed dragon, and find the color-stealing goblins to restore color to the kingdom   Sponsor: Patreon $5 level will now have your book featured on NovelMarketing.com. Become a patron Power Close: You have been listening to James L Rubart, Thomas Umstattd Jr. and Alex Newton, on the Novel Marketing podcast, giving you novel ideas on how to promote yourself and your writing, offline, online, and everywhere in-between.

Joining a writers group will take your writing to a new level faster. But what do you do if there are no groups near you? You start one! It is easier than you think and we are here to help you along the way. When we say local critique group, we’re talking about people you can sit down with face to face for support, encouragement, and critique. We talk about how important this is in our Five Year Plan to becoming an instant, overnight success as a novelist … but what if it’s not possible? I’ve started nearly half a dozen writer’s groups over the years and I have learned a thing or two in the process. I started and helped run around over a dozen small groups of one form or another. I started my first writer’s group with one other author I found at a conference who lived near my small town while I was still in college. Here is what I learned the hard way. Why Start a Group Many of the great writers were in writer’s groups. Inklings (J.R.R.Tolkien and C.S. Lewis) The Bloomsbury Group ( Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster and John Maynard Keynes) Stratford-on-Odeon (Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald) The challenge is that most authors are introverted. They want to join someone else’s writer’s group. There has to be a leader. Someone who starts, and keeps the pump primed. That might need to be you. The good news is that writer’s groups are very easy to start. Every town is packed with introverted writers waiting for someone else to join a writer’s group. EVERY town … Jim? Jim- Example of living in Manson. Start asking. The library is a great place to start. Local coffee shops, in a small town it’s even easier … You don’t need a huge group. Three or four faithful people can make for a great group. Who Look for Members who: read books on craft. attend writer’s conferences. are positive and encouraging. are at a similar place to you in their writing. Jim …. But … try to find one where there are a few people ahead of you, and a few people behind write for a similar audience you do (ideally). Avoid writers: Who think they know everything Are sarcastic or negative Who are crazy. Not all authors are crazy, but many crazy people write. What The primary purpose of every writer’s group is to be encouraging. Groups that fail to encourage wither and fade. In general, writer’s groups fall into three categories. Craft Groups Craft groups focus on the writing itself. Members typically bring writing samples and accountability to write is often a big component of the group. AA for procrastinators. Weekly Meetings Publishing Groups Focus on the process of becoming an author. Tend to have speakers Focus as much on marketing and publishing as they do on craft. Often meet less frequently Likely attached to a sponsor organization like ACFW or Romance Writers of America. Mastermind Groups The focus is obviously on encouragement. Members check in with each other, offer words of wisdom and inspiration Often it’s a huge boost to simply talk through your struggles as a writer and know that someone not only cares, but understands what you’re going through. Often this type of group is a component of the first two groups. Listen to episodes 29, and 101 for more about starting a mastermind group. You can find these links in the show notes by swiping down or to the side depending on the app you are listening to. Where in Real Life

In this episode, we’re going to talk about how to re-launch your old novels. Yes! There is still life, and money, potentially a LOT of money in that story you wrote long ago. Joining us is bestselling author Chris Fox, author of Relaunch Your Novel: Breathe Life Into Your Backlist. Episode Outline: Why should someone consider re-launching their book? It can be brand new in Amazon’s eyes. You talk in your book, Relaunch Your Novel: Breathe Life Into Your Backlist (Affiliate Link) about the different levels of re-launch, can you give us an overview of that? Should I relaunch? How much time and resources do I have? Back cover copy You have four words to hook them … Test through advertising Featured Patron The Embers Series (Affiliate Link) by Carrie Daws Inspector Cassandra McCarthy never thought she’d be raising her two daughters alone, but her husband’s unexpected death forced her to find a career. Now working beside a retired Special Operations soldier and veteran fireman, she serves her small North Carolina town, protecting them from hazards they don’t understand. She loves what she does and trusts God to provide—until a hurricane and a series of unexplained fires hits too close to home. What will it cost Cassandra to protect the citizens of Silver Heights? Become a Patron More Questions Tell us about some successful book launches you’ve seen. Bill the Vampire  (affiliate link) –  successful series, but poor covers. Made 130k, so the author was scared of touching it. Rebranded it … 3x the income. Light edit, then branded covers and FB ads. Jim: What kind of book is a good candidate for a book relaunch? And which kind of books aren’t? Look for themes, genres, did they sell well? If not series … samples in the first book of the second book, third … What mistakes do authors make relaunching their books? They don’t prepare … they do the work, but don’t research it ahead of time. Don’t change the cover. Don’t rewrite the bcc. ASK people for input. How do you test your cover on Facebook? Before getting that new cover, see what’s currently selling … what are the covers like in your genre? Shoot an email to your readers and ask them what a potential cover could be. Take those ideas, and send that out, or test it with your FB folks. THEN go to a website like DeviantArt.com and find an artist who can make you a cover. Then create FB ads, strong text and plug in different audiences and see who clicks on those ads. You’ll see higher or lower cost per clicks … which will tell you what cover is pulling. Where can our listeners find out more about you? Chrisfoxwrites.com   Sponsor: This is your last chance to get a free copy of Thomas’ video course 7 Secrets of Amazing Author Websites. Our arrangement with the CWI ends at the end of April. You can become a Patron at any level, including the $2 level to get this course.

Good marketing helps a bad book fail faster. To succeed, you need a great book and for that, you need a great editor. In this episode, learn how to find and work with an exceptional editor with special guest Karen Ball co-host of the Write from the Deep Podcast. Contest But first, we have a quick announcement about our current contest. If you missed it, we’re giving away something very cool. You know we think email is the most powerful way to sell books. But what should those emails say We’re going to show you how by working with one of you. Yes, one lucky listener will win a drip email campaign written for them by Thomas and myself.  Not only that, but  our listeners will get these emails promoting your book. You and your book will be the template we use in the future. Want to win? Easy. Just head to NovelMarketing.com and look for the third button over at the top that says, “Contest.” Enter to win About Karen James first met Karen back in 2007 and we connected over our mutual love of a TV show called Alias Smith and Jones … not that that’s dating us or anything. Since then Karen and I have become dear friends. And she was the executive editor on my first novel, Rooms. So I’ve seen first hand what a brilliant editor she is. Karen has run the editorial departments at some of the world’s leading publishers. She’s playful, smart, a straight shooter, has a massive amount of wisdom about publishing and editing and is the author of a brand-spanking new book called, Finding and Working with an Editor: Everything You Need to Know for a (Nearly) Pain-Free Edit Questions: Why is it important to have an editor? What mistakes do authors make looking for an editor? Where is the best place to find an editor Featured Patron Lucia’s Renaissance by CLR Peterson Heresy is fatal in late Renaissance Italy, so only a suicidal zealot would so much as whisper the name of Martin Luther. But after Luther’s ideas ignite a young girl’s faith, she must choose–abandon her beliefs or risk her life in the turbulent world of late sixteenth-century Italy. You can find a link to this book in the show notes and on NovelMarketing.com. More Questions: What advice do you have for authors working with an editor? What mistakes do authors make working with an editor? How do authors get the most bang for their buck when working with an editor? How can a writer become their editor’s favorite client? Should writers look for an editor that loves their particular genre? It’s doubtful the editor and writer are going to agree on every edit. So what are the best ways for a writer to have healthy discussion about differing opinions? Sponsor: $5 Patreon Level Exclusive Monthly Q&A Episode Special Monthly Episode Bundle where we package several popular episodes on a specific topic and give you private access. Ebook of your choice of one of James’ novels, Rooms, Book of Days, or The Chair 25% discount on the MyBookTable Pro WordPress Plugin 50% discount on The Five Year Plan to Becoming a Bestselling Author * Learn more Where to Find Karen Online

This episode is based on this blog post on Author Media. [00:00:01] This is novel marketing, the show for novelists who aren’t necessarily fond of marketing but still want to become best selling authors. Episode 132. I’m James L. Rubart, but you can call me Jim. [00:00:14] I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr. And in this episode we’re going to talk to you guys about how to blog your book and if you should blog your book. But first, there is some news on the personal front we need to talk about. I’m talking this is big multiple drumroll announcement, so Thomas, do you wanna take it away? [00:00:34] Yes, you know that old child sings song first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby and the baby carriage. Well, I have now completed the entire sing-song. [00:00:44] So the trifecta is done. That’s right. [00:00:47] My wife and I are expecting a new little one to join our family here in October and we’re very excited about that. [00:00:54] Ok. Let’s get details. What is the due date? [00:00:57] It’s October 7th so we may have some missed episodes about that time and finding a quiet place to record is going to become a little bit more of a challenge. I’m looking forward to it. [00:01:10] Well congratulations that is just so awesome. You guys are going to be phenomenal parents. No doubt about that. So congrats. That’s cool. [00:01:18] Thank you. Thank you. And to commemorate the new baby we’re going to do something we have never done in five years of the novel Marketing Podcast. So until today we’ve been focused primarily on fiction authors and for those of you who are novelists don’t worry our focus is still going to be for you. But we thought once every 132 episodes would probably be a good idea to give an episode specifically for nonfiction writers. What? What? [00:01:46] So we were surprised how many nonfiction writers listen to this show and they kind of have to eat the crumbs from the table sometimes when we focus on novelists so now we’re going to make you your very own meal. And specifically we’re going to talk about how to blog your book ahead of time. [00:02:03] Right. So we’re talking about while we’re talking about in the intro you heard us say that we are going to talk to you guys about how to blog your book. We are talking about nonfiction books we’re not talking about fiction. We’ll touch on that just real quickly later on. But we’re talking specifically if you’re a nonfiction writer. [00:02:20] That’s right. If you’re writing fiction blogging your book ahead of time is hard and not recommended. And the reason why it’s hard is that fiction has to be read linearly. So for Chapter 2 to make sense, people have to have already read chapter one. And when you first start blogging, no one’s reading your blog. And so it makes it really hard to enter your story. It can work. I know authors who’ve pulled it off but it’s very tricky and very challenging. And that’s not what we’re gonna talk about in this episode. If you have successfully blogged your novel or you used a service like wattpad and you want to tell us about it, shoot us an e-mail. Maybe we’ll have you on the show. We’ll talk about blogging your novel, but specifically I want to talk about blogging your nonfiction book since nonfiction books aren’t necessarily linear. Right. The order of the chapters often — you know when I was writing my nonfiction book the order of the chapters changed every month while I was working on it and for the people who backed the kickstarter, what they got in the final book ended up being very different because as I worked on I realized the order needed to change.

In this episode, we are going to talk about one of our favorite topics, favorite because it is currently–and likely will be for a long time–the most powerful form of marketing that you can control. We’re talking about email … and specifically how you can increase the delivery of your emails. In other words, how to make sure they GET to your list’s in boxes. Email is the most powerful tool for selling books. But it only works if your emails arrive in reader’s inboxes successfully. Quick News: First Patreon Q&A is coming up. Time get in your questions in.  Stick around till the end, we have a really cool contest … Why This is Important As we just said, email is the most effective tool for driving online sales. But … email only works if people get the emails you send. If you show up in spam or in “promotions” your emails are far less likely to work. If you have gmail, do you ever say, “Oh, wow, that’s right … I have two other tabs to look at!” Because you haven’t looked for days or weeks. How ISP Decide What to Deliver 95% of email gets deleted without ever making it to the spam box. ISPs look at how people interact with your emails to decide whether or not they should be delivered. Okay, we could get into a lot of technical stuff here, but the goal is to make sure you’re doing the things that raise the odds of your emails not getting zapped, or ending up in your reader’s spam box. Featured Patron: Eloise Whyte Her website is SoulInspirationz.com. The website has a growing community of readers who visit to find out about newest releases and learn about the latest additions to the Christian Fiction Directory, which has a division called the WISP Directory especially for showcasing indie and small press fiction titles. How to Improve Deliverability Double Opt In A “Please confirm …” email is sent to your potential subscriber. They have to click this. Create the kind of emails people want to open. ISPs look at the open rate for emails when determining spam status. This brings us back to content being king. Not only in your stories, but every single thing you write. For many of the people on your list, they’ll read more of your newsletters than your novels, and it might be a long time before they try one of your short stories or novels. So the impression, style, voice, and content you give in your emails is critical to them trying your stories or not. Survey your readers! Create an onboarding campaign. These get great open rates. Avoid a fancy template. This guarantee you will always go into the “promotions” tab. Use a trusted sender like MailChimp or ConvertKit. Send Frequently People will forget you Spotlight Effect How Spam Traps Work You can poison your list! At least quarterly to avoid spam traps. Don’t Sent Too Frequently For most novelists, the ideal frequency is monthly.   If have have riveting content, sure, send more often. But back to the idea of Content Being King, far better to send an excellent email once a month than two okay emails every two or three weeks. Recommend books by similar novelists. No, you’re NOT sending them to your competition. You become a resource, a trusted voice, and your core readers are LOOKING for other stories like yours Eliminate Bounces Hard bounce. The address does not exist. Soft bounce. Might be “box size exceeded” or they’ve stopped checkin...