Becky Robinson's Blog, page 10

Episode 103: Fiction Book Marketing Strategies for Nonfiction Authors

Photo by Cesar Fernandez Dominguez / 123rf.com

Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is about the creative ways fiction authors are marketing their books and how nonfiction authors can utilize the same strategies. Becky is joined by Christina Kann—Co-Owner and Communications Director for Wildling Press—who discusses her work in the world, the mission of Wildling Press, the best marketing approaches that fiction authors are using, the challenges most authors face when it comes to marketing their books, and the importance of having an authentic social media presence. 

Key Points From This Episode

[02:20] Christina shares about herself and the work of Wildling Press.

[03:36] Learn about the types of books that are acquired and published at Wildling Press.

[04:55] Christina elaborates on the convergence between people with marginalized voices and the types of stories they can tell through Science Fiction and Fantasy novels. 

[05:50] What are some of the best book marketing approaches that authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy are using? Christina shares.

[08:22] Christina explains what authors can do to get more creative with video, even if they don’t like being on camera.

[10:19] Learn more about the challenges that fiction—and nonfiction—authors are facing as they think about marketing. 

[11:34] Christina shares her message for authors who refuse to market their work. 

[12:49] Christina talks about other best practices that authors can try out on social media.

[15:00] Curious about which authors do a good job of showing up authentically on social media? Christina gives an example.

[17:30] Let’s talk about Taylor Swift. How can an author who isn’t as famous still engage their followers in anticipation of their next novel?

[19:19] Authenticity is one of Christina’s passions, and she reveals how it has played a role in her own journey. 

[22:11] Christina explains how her posts “stay real.”

Action Steps:Make a genuine ask of your communities. Think about what you need in terms of getting your book to a broader audience and then go to your network with a genuine ask. If you’re having a hard time engaging authentically on social media, go to Instagram or Twitter and look up the hashtag of the last book you read. Hop into those conversations that people are already having in the social media book community.Resources:Listen to Becky’s appearance on the How Do I Book? podcast from Wildling Press. Learn more about Wildling Press.Follow Wildling Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Follow Christina on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @christinakann_ so they know you enjoyed this episode!

I think that people who are trying to explore really heavy themes can find a home doing that in Science Fiction and Fantasy.  —Christina Kann

It’s important to remember that your videos don’t have to be of you talking. —Christina Kann 

Authors just absolutely have to self-market these days. —Christina Kann

People value transparency so much on social media right now.  —Christina Kann

As you’re working on your book, you’ll always have something new to say. —Christina Kann

People who use social media respect transparency and authenticity—they respect your hustle. —Christina Kann

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 103: Fiction Book Marketing Strategies for Nonfiction Authors appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Use the Calendar to Inspire Creative Book Marketing Ideas

Earlier this week, my book, Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, passed its 6-month mark. I used this as a motivation to reach out to my list for additional support in reaching more readers. I got a fantastic response, including a bump in sales and at least one new Amazon review.

The calendar can provide ongoing inspiration as you seek to bring your book’s value to the world over time. 

Anniversaries of your book’s release (like my book’s half-birthday), and other holidays or special days, can provide a space for you to talk about your book. 

With the end-of-year gift-giving holidays coming more quickly than you think, NOW is the perfect time to plan some book promotion for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Hanukkah. 

Authors of business books may also want to be thinking about bulk sales to organizations for end-of-year gifts as some small business owners may be looking for expenses to offset tax liability.

Here is an example to give you an idea of how this works. 

Our client Karen Baum Gordon wrote a memoir called The Last Letter, which focuses on her father’s story and the traumatic effects of living through the Holocaust reverberating in his life and to other generations of her family. Eventually, this led to her father’s suicide attempt. 

Based on her book’s themes, Karen can share value from her book at nationally and internationally recognized holidays:

Mental Health Awareness Month (October)National Suicide Prevention Month (September)Holocaust Remembrance Day International Holocaust Remembrance Day Father’s DayRelevant Jewish holidays 

Karen can also use calendar events like her father’s birthday or the anniversary of his death to share her journey with potential readers of her book.

There are also lots of book-related times Karen (and any author!) could promote their book:

Independent Bookstore day (the last Saturday of April)D.E.A.R. Day – Drop Everything and Read DayNational Read a Book Day (next one is September 6, 2023)International Literacy DayNational Book Lovers Day National Library Day

Try these steps: 

Brainstorm a list of dates and ideas for marketing your book.Add those dates to your calendar as appointments. Week by week, as you are planning your content, look ahead for any dates so you can create relevant, valuable content to share related to those dates.Add these dates as recurring so that you can reuse and repurpose your ideas in different ways next year, too. 

Share a comment below or send me an email to let me know what ideas you plan to try! 

For additional learning: 

Listen: Holiday Book Promotions with Barb Roose

Listen:  Holiday Letters with David Greer

Watch: Holiday Book Ideas 

Read:  Five Ways to Promote Your Book During the Holidays and Boost Sales 

The post Use the Calendar to Inspire Creative Book Marketing Ideas appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 102: Sustaining the Energy to Write with Martha Anne Toll

Photo by nanastudio / 123rf.com

Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is about sustaining the energy to write and market your work, no matter how long it takes. Becky is joined by Martha Anne Toll—Novelist, Book Reviewer, Essayist, and Social Justice Advocate—who discusses her author journey, the challenges that come with trying to publish a novel, and how she has remained confident in herself and her work despite the setbacks. 

Key Points From This Episode

[01:44] Martha talks about her background and how she’s gotten to this point as an author. 

[06:15] Martha reveals how she sustained the energy and confidence in her book, Three Muses, across a 10-year period of revising, resubmitting, and waiting. 

[08:55] Discover what Martha has done to market her book since its launch.

[10:46] Martha shares difficult barriers that she had to overcome when it came time to grow her online presence. 

[14:24] When Martha talks about herself, she calls herself a writer more than she calls herself an author. Discover why. 

[16:11] Martha reflects on her book launch experience.

[18:51] Curious about what’s working well for Martha when it comes to getting the word out about her novel? She shares her strategies. 

[22:29] Martha discusses the feeling of not knowing what is working well—and what isn’t—once you have launched a book. 

[30:00] Martha talks about the importance of lifting up the work of other authors and not being afraid to ask people to read your book.

[34:12] Get some out-of-the-box book marketing ideas from Martha.

Action Steps:If you are a reader of the types of novels that Martha has written, log into your library’s website and request that they buy her book, Three Muses . Also, make sure to request Becky’s book, Reach . Build long-term relationships. You never know who is willing to help you share your work with the world.Put love out into the world. Be a good literary citizen and lift other people’s work up.Get out of your comfort zone. Do the things that you’re afraid of, like asking people to buy your book.Think outside of the box. Get creative with events, social media content, asking for reviews, and more. Check out these books recommended by Martha: They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey, O Beautiful by Jung Yun, What Disappears by Barbara Quick, Loving the Dead and Gone by Judith Turner-Yamamoto, and Circa by Devi Laskar. Resources:Buy Martha’s new book, Three Muses .Sign up for Martha’s newsletter.Register for one or more of Martha’s upcoming events. Explore Martha’s website to reach her directly, read her book reviews, listen to podcast appearances, and more.Follow Martha on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @marthaannetoll so they know you enjoyed this episode!

If we have any fiction writers listening, you will know that this is a field full of rejections.  —Martha Anne Toll

For my mental health, it was incredibly important to be getting published somewhere, even though I couldn’t get my fiction published. —Martha Anne Toll 

In today’s world, an author should present as an authentic person. We live in a time when we can talk about our whole selves, which is, of course, what we bring to our writing. —Martha Anne Toll

We all hear about the toxic parts of Twitter—and that is certainly true—but it’s kind of a writer’s paradise.  —Martha Anne Toll

Anything that you can continue to say yes to that allows you to show up with new audiences will help you sustain momentum. —Becky Robinson

I just want to encourage the folks who are listening to be creative. —Martha Anne Toll

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 102: Sustaining the Energy to Write with Martha Anne Toll appeared first on Weaving Influence.

If You Want to Play Amazon’s Games, You Need to Know the Rules

Tuesday is my favorite work day, especially when my team and I have a book to launch. But whether it’s Tuesday or any other day of the week, I love watching what authors are doing during the week their books debut. I also enjoy diving into book data, especially sales ranks and Amazon reviews.

This week, I’m watching our client Gena Cox’s book, Leading Inclusion, and I’m watching six-time bestselling author Laura Vanderkam’s release of her latest time management book, Tranquility by Tuesday. I don’t know Laura personally, but I’ve subscribed to her newsletter for a number of years. What I’m seeing in comparing the results of these two books may be helpful to other authors who are planning for upcoming book releases.

Every author I’ve ever met wants the social proof and bragging rights of being a bestseller. We write books to make a difference and the way to make a difference is to share our content with the widest audiences possible. Launching and marketing a  book can be a challenging and time-consuming endeavor, so it’s important to celebrate the wins you have. There is a definite psychic boost when you see your book with a bestseller banner. 

During the launch of my book, Reach, one of my favorite moments was when my various editions were ranked #1, #2, and #3 in the category Public Relations. While it may be a momentary win, since ranks can change hourly, the category bestseller achievement can energize an author to showing up more effectively to continue to share their book’s value with the world.

While many authors aspire to become New York Times bestsellers, making this prestigious and curated list may require years of work (unless you’re already famous.) 

For most independent or first-time authors, the Amazon bestseller banner as a new release in the category is the most attainable. Depending on your category selection, getting the new release banner may only require selling 10-20 books in any hour, while landing on other more renowned lists requires thousands of sales in a week. 

Garnering the bestseller banner gives credibility to the title and increases the book’s discoverability.  Once you’ve gained the banner, you can claim bestseller status.

Here is a quick overview to increase your chances of reaching bestseller status in your category on Amazon:

Step 1 – Strategically select and apply 10 relevant categories for each edition of your book. My team uses Publisher Rocket to research and select these categories. 

Step 2 – Ignite strategies to drive pre-orders for your book.

Step 3 – Concentrate launch week sales by hosting a webinar or live event with strong calls to buy the book. 

Step 4 – Through your email list and social channels, ask as many people as you can to buy your book on launch day. 

Here are the details you need to know:
1. Gaining the Bestseller Banner During the New Release Period

From the time your book is available on Amazon for pre-order, through 30 days after your publication date, your book has the best opportunity to gain the bestseller banner as a new release in its categories. The strategic work to gain the social proof of a bestseller banner can begin far in advance of launch but it does require that you intermittently look at your product pages to see how your book is ranking. You can also view your book’s rank over time through your Amazon Author Central Account but there’s no way to know when your book has the banner except by looking at your individual product pages for the various editions of your book. 

2. Automated and Strategic Category Selection Process

Automated Process 

Whether you are self-published or traditionally published, Amazon relies on metadata to put your book into categories. The categories are designed to help people find the book and topics they’re interested in, so putting your book into appropriate categories is important. The category selection is partially fueled by metadata including keywords and BISAC codes. If you are traditionally published, your publishing team selects two BISAC codes that lead to Amazon’s automated selection and placement of your book into categories. Typically, this results in accurate categorization. You will see up to 3 categories for your book on your product page at any time, and your rank is determined, in your categories, by how many books you are selling compared to the other books in your categories. 

Strategic Process

What many authors don’t know is that you can also strategically select categories and manually add them to each of your book’s products (Kindle, print, and audiobook). You can do this through Amazon Author Central. Each product can have up to 10 categories selected and whatever categories you are performing best in will be the ones that show up on your book listing at any given time.

It can take some time for the categories to appear so the earlier you can research and apply strategic categories, the better. Be sure to drill down as far as possible into subcategories because the more niche the subcategory, the fewer books you are competing against. 

During Bill Treasurer’s recent launch of Leadership Two Words at a Time, we saw his book and the three editions rank into 5 different categories throughout the campaign. All of these new release bestseller banners, captured as screenshots, gave Bill the ability to talk about his book’s success in a tangible way. The excitement is contagious. Success fuels more success. 

3. BULK ORDERS WILL NOT HELP YOUR RANK ON AMAZON

Amazon ranking is driven by orders NOT sales, so actual sales of more than one or two books at a time influence the sales rank the SAME as larger bulk orders. For this reason, it’s not advantageous to ask people to buy multiple copies of your book from Amazon to drive more sales and increase your rank. Instead, ask people to buy in bulk through a bulk retailer like Porchlight, which could land you bestseller status there.

4. Ranking Details 

Amazon ranks compare your book to all books on Amazon (overall rank) and to books in your categories. These are updated as often as hourly but are sometimes delayed. I’ve noticed that it can take several hours for Amazon’s ranks to catch up. 

Because the category rankings represent competition with other books in the category, it’s possible for a book to rank very strongly overall on Amazon, representing more robust sales, while NOT gaining the bestseller banner in a category. 

If you have multiple products in the same category, like I did with Reach and Laura Vanderkam does with Tranquility by Tuesday, your products may be in competition with each other. This won’t cause a problem unless for some reason, the other categories into which your book lands are extremely competitive. Increasing the number of categories to the limit of 10 will increase the likelihood that a high overall rank lands you the new release category banner. 

5. Balancing Pre-Orders with Launch Week Sales 

While pre-orders ultimately provide great value to authors and signal retailers to order the book, a robust pre-order campaign may limit the momentum of your launch week rank, as you may cut into the launch week sales because people pre-ordered the book. When I interviewed Laura Vanderkam, she mentioned she reached an overall rank of 700 on Amazon on the day she sent out her first pre-order email to her 50K person list. The people who bought the book that day are likely not also ordering the book during launch week. As you plan your book marketing strategy, you need to balance the need for pre-orders with a desire to also achieve strong launch week sales. 

6. Price Drops on Amazon are a Great Sign!

While your publisher sets a retail price for your book, Amazon ultimately controls any discounting of your print book. If you see your book discounted below the retail price in the days after your book launches, take it as another win! 

Amazon discounts bestselling books more steeply than other books to drive additional sales. The price drop is a gift you can use to fuel even more momentum. This is especially helpful for authors whose books are released in hardcover because the gap between the hardcover (nearly $30) and the other editions (often significantly lower) may nudge someone to buy the ebook or audiobook even if they’d prefer the hardcover. When Amazon drops the price of the hardcover, the price gap decreases, which may result in more sales to the hardcover.

A book marketing trick to try: post a screenshot of the price reduction and share it with your online communities. Frame it as good news: My book is doing so well that Amazon has just dropped the price. Order an extra copy at the lower price to share with a friend. Or if you haven’t ordered yet, now is the perfect time! 

Leading Inclusion vs Tranquility by Tuesday 

Here are some insights from a moment in time with both of these new releases. 

On Tuesday evening of launch day (10/11/2022), Gena’s book had bestseller banners on both her Kindle and her hardcover, with an overall rank of around 64,000. As a first-time author, Gena has frequently had the bestseller banner in a wide range of categories. This early momentum is helping to fuel the excitement of her launch. 

Laura had a bestseller banner with both her audiobook and her Kindle, with no bestseller banner on the hardcover. All three editions of her book, ranked #1, #2, and #3 in her most relevant category of Time Management as a hot new release. Incidentally, the time management category is highly competitive, with the top slot held by a NYT bestselling book from 2013. 

While marketing a book is a long-term endeavor, I’m curious about the category selection process that Laura’s publisher, Penguin Random House, applied. It’s possible her book has been manually added to only a handful of categories. Ultimately, this is a minor detail in what will likely be a very successful campaign. From what I can see, Laura is getting a lot of social media and traditional media attention from her book. She may go on to land a big list with this book and fuel ongoing attention and sales. 

BUT, as a book marketer, I want her to have the psychic boost of the banner on her audiobook, Kindle, and hardcover during launch week, along with the bragging rights that come with it. It’s possible that selecting and applying new categories could allow her to gain that banner within the 30-day new release period. Because most people will only look at the top of the Amazon page, they might never see Laura’s overall strong rank. 

Regarding pricing, just one day after the release of Tranquility by Tuesday, Amazon has dropped the price nearly 20%. Leading Inclusion’s price is also reduced, but by a smaller percentage. Both authors could draw attention to the lower hardcover price to drive additional sales as their launch weeks continue. 

Key takeaway: if your book is already selling well, as evidenced by your overall ranking on Amazon, a bit of strategic behind-the-scenes adjusting could be all you need for an extra win to celebrate. 

The post If You Want to Play Amazon’s Games, You Need to Know the Rules appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 100: Something Special

Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is special because we’re celebrating 100 podcast episodes and a decade in business! Across 10 years of marketing books, Becky and the Weaving Influence team have taken the lead on more than 160 launches. 

Listen as Becky shares the top 10 lessons of book marketing, curated from the Weaving Influence team and a few friends who shared their ideas on social media. 

10 Lessons Over 10 Years:When it comes to sharing the message of your book, say yes to every single opportunity that comes your way.

“Say yes to everything. Do as much as you can, when you can, for as long as you can!”   — Nikki Groom

Start sooner than you think you need to.

“Successful marketing starts before you’ve written a single word: Who’s the book for, how will they be better off for having read it?”  — David Dye

Give away as many books as you can.

“Getting your book into people’s hands is a great way for them to get a sense of what you stand for, and can be an excellent way to open doors for any future engagements.” —Nikki Groom

“Mail one copy of your book every day to a client, prospect, referral source, or thought leader.” — Jon Lokhorst

Your network is your most important secret weapon.

“Tap into your natural networks! You meet lots of kindred spirits as you progress in your career journey. Keep doing right by others, and when it comes time to promote your book, ask friends and colleagues to do you a solid by helping promote your book in any way that feels right to them. For one, it might be writing a great endorsement. For another, it might be having you on their podcast or introducing you to a media source. Friends help friends who have helped friends!” — Bill Treasurer

“Help others first. Often.” — Phil Gerbyshak

Have a long-term plan.

“Book marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Love your book, so you access the energy you need to do everything you need to get it out in the world!” — Alain Hunkins

“Don’t feel like your book has a shelf life and you have to stop promoting it at a certain point.” —Nikki Groom

“Books have a LONG shelf life! So you need to take the long view… if your book is applicable across time, then ALL of your marketing should be designed to run over the long haul. Making an impact is a marathon, not a sprint.” — David Taylor-Klaus

“Your book is not egg salad. It does not go bad in the eyes of the Media because it’s been out a while!” — Mary O’Donohue  

Be willing to outsource some of the work of your book marketing journey. Hire someone who is a professional and trust their expertise.

“Plan your launch and launch your plan with a team.” — Jackie Stavros  

Selling books is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be a New York Times bestselling author.

“Authors do well when they have high hopes, but reasonable expectations.” — Kristen Frantz

Own your role in the process.

“Best tip is to understand that you as the author are responsible for SELLING YOUR BOOK.” — John Baldoni

“Set yourself up for success by scheduling marketing activities into your calendar.” —Nikki Groom

The more proactively you build relationships with your audiences, the more successful you will be. 

“Think through the less obvious places where your message can help others in meaningful ways. Remember it is always about your reader, not about the book–or at least it is about how your book can meet a need in the reader, not only about the book.” — Shannon Huffman Polson   

“Really think about who needs your book right now.” — Fauzia Burke

“Know who your book is for and how you can help them.” — Karin Hurt

“Do one thing a day to bring value to your readers.” —Jackie Stavros                       

Bringing people together on your launch day drives amazing momentum.Bonus Tips:Know when your book’s peak sales periods are or when people will be looking for your book. 

“I’m a nonfiction author and both my books make great graduation gifts. I always schedule a couple of signings at local shops around peak ‘need’ times (graduation, back-to-school, Christmas). It alerts local folks who might attend, but it also gives me a fresh opportunity to push it out on social media.” — Nora Bradbury-Haehl  

Write multiple books.

“This is one of the most underrated pieces of advice I heard from a publisher a long time ago. Often it takes until the 3rd, 4th, or 5th title to really get that traction you want.” — Sara Jensen

Appreciate the long-term value that you are creating.

“Keep working and growing your ideas. Invite people in and make your readers and audiences ‘insiders.’” — Mike Horne  

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here—and don’t forget to tell her which lesson is the most meaningful to you!

Click here for our free resources. 

Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 100: Something Special appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 99: Finding Balance Between Writing and Marketing with Megan Ericson

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Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is about how authors can find a balance between their writing and their marketing efforts. Becky is joined by Megan Ericson–Social Media Marketing Expert, Director of Growth at hope*writers, and Host of Megan’s Social Media Marketing Show–who reveals what authors can do to ease the anxiety that marketing brings, and ensure that their social media channels offer value, while still having time to focus on their writing. 

Key Points From This Episode

[02:01] Megan and Becky discuss the latest social media craze: BeReal. 

[04:16] Learn more about Megan, where she lives, her work in the world, and her connection to authors and writing.

[06:46] Megan reveals what can work well for authors who are toggling back and forth between their writing deadlines and their marketing efforts.

[12:45] Discover Megan’s favorite content scheduling tools and the benefits of each one.

[15:47] Megan shares content ideas for both fiction and nonfiction authors who may be coming up short on creativity and knowing what to post.

[19:41] What would Megan say to an emerging author who doesn’t have a large following or fanbase yet, but wants to reach a larger audience online? She outlines some advice.

[21:41] Megan explains some of the mistakes she sees writers make when they try to get started creating content for social media. 

[26:05] Megan shares some final thoughts about social media marketing.

Action Steps:Investigate one of the scheduling tools– MeetEdgar , Iconosquare , and Later –that Megan mentions. Get started with using one or more of them so that your social media marketing content can be batched. Start keeping track of your social media metrics. Create a spreadsheet where you can log followers, engagement rates, and top-performing posts each month to continue improving your strategies and performance. Resources:Follow Megan on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Explore Megan’s website for opportunities to work with her. Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @MeganEricson so they know you enjoyed this episode!

I love writers, and I love their art and that heart to get their really important messages out into the world.  —Megan Ericson  

There are a lot of emotions and feelings all wrapped up in social media when you are a writer. —Megan Ericson 

I call it procrastinating from writing–when writers scroll on social media thinking they’re doing something productive to build their platform, when really the productive thing they could be doing is spending their time off the platform planning and creating the content. —Megan Ericson

All of these platforms are designed to suck you in and keep you on that platform. That’s the big struggle there.  —Megan Ericson

Don’t feel bad if people aren’t responding to your captions at first when you’re starting out, because it is a specialized skill that can be learned. —Megan Ericson

Studies have come back saying that if you include an emoji in your caption, it will perform better than if you don’t. —Megan Ericson

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 99: Finding Balance Between Writing and Marketing with Megan Ericson appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 98: The Power of Storytelling with Steven James

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Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is about the power of storytelling for marketing your books. Becky is joined by Steven James–Critically Acclaimed Novelist, Storyteller, and Fiction Instructor–who reflects on his author journey, his experience marketing books, what makes stories so powerful, and the transformational effect they can have on readers and listeners. He even shares some of his favorite stories. 

Key Points From This Episode

[02:59] Steven reveals how many stories he writes each year and how he spaces out his work.

[03:18] Discover the title of Steven’s next book, in addition to the other projects he is working on.

[03:57] What’s so powerful about telling stories? Steven shares. 

[05:49] Steven reveals what it takes to have a good story.

[10:00] Steven gives a brief, but impactful, example of a good story. 

[13:27] What is a signature story? Steven reflects on the concept and shares a story from his own life.

[20:59] Steven explains what his journey with marketing has been like over the years. 

[26:17] Discover some of the successes and struggles of Steven’s marketing journey.

[26:17] Steven reveals how many of his books are published by traditional publishers vs. self-published. 

Action Steps:Think about a story that you regularly tell in your writing or your speaking. Run it through the six elements of a story: character, setting, struggle, pursuit, pivot, and payoff. See if there’s a way that you can adapt your story to be more powerful for your listeners. Think about how you can use the same story over and over in different ways and for different audiences. Resources:Visit Steven’s website to learn more about him, discover his books, and sign up for his newsletter. Pick up a copy of Steven’s latest book, The Art of the Tale , co-authored with Tom Morrisey.Tune in to The Story Blender Podcast. Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @readstevenjames so they know you enjoyed this episode!

Stories need two additional factors to really be impactful: The Pivot and The Payoff. —Steven James  

We don’t identify with characters in stories who have the answers. We identify with characters in stories who have the struggles. —Steven James

My experience has been that sometimes the marketers I’ve worked with–the firms–try to put me into a box that’s easy to package and sell. But my stories don’t always fit that way. —Steven James

I would say to anyone who has a book to sell: Make sure that it’s really the best that you have. —Steven James

I want to be able to look someone in the eye and say, “Yes, my book is worth your time.” —Steven James

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

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Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.

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The post Episode 98: The Power of Storytelling with Steven James appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 97: Finding Your Niche as a Fiction Author with Jody Sperling

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Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode focuses on how fiction authors can identify their niche and use it to expand their reach. Becky is joined by Jody Sperling–Author and Host of The Reluctant Book Marketer Podcast–who shares his best advice for identifying your target audience, engaging with other fiction authors in your genre, growing a following, and building collaborative relationships with those followers. 

Key Points From This Episode

[01:17] Jody shares about himself and his work in the world.

[03:18] Jody reveals what’s different for fiction writers when it comes to marketing their work.

[04:41] Are there similarities between fiction writing and real estate investing? Jody compares the two and elaborates on the idea of finding a niche.

[06:26] Jody explains how authors can apply lessons from real estate investing when trying to identify and solidify their niche.

[08:23] How can you find people who are writing in the same genre as you? Jody shares his strategy. 

[09:40] Questions can be a powerful way to build collaborative relationships with other authors and their audiences. Jody explains this concept in more detail.

[11:16] Jody reveals the questions that he asks authors that compel them to form a deeper relationship with him.  

[13:20] Jody discusses how much time he spends on Twitter trying to find authors to collaborate with and identify audiences for his work.

[14:37] Discover how a fiction author can identify and articulate who the people are who are in their niche.

[15:26] What if you don’t know what your genre is? Jody provides some guidance.

[16:01] Do hashtags matter? Jody explains why he doesn’t use them to find people in this niche.

[16:43] Jody shares his advice for utilizing TikTok to identify new audiences and authors.

[17:47] Learn how much time Jody invests in TikTok.

[18:42] Jody shares some final thoughts about the idea of collaborating with other authors to identify more readers in your niche.

[21:44] Jody reveals other ways he is targeting his efforts to attract the right authors and audiences. 

Action Steps:Create three powerful questions that you would ask an authority in your space. Use those questions to start connecting with people and defining your niche.Ask those same questions to the community you have built already. Make yourself available for the next 15 minutes to engage with anybody who answers your questions.Resources:Check out Jody’s podcast, The Reluctant Book Marketer, and listen to his recent episode with Becky! Follow Jody on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, and join his Facebook group.Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn and @jodyjsperling so they know you enjoyed this episode!

The novel speaks for itself. The novel is the object that you want people to buy. —Jody Sperling 

I go into Twitter and I look for people who have publishing deals that are still a year away and are announcing that they have a forthcoming novel. I build a relationship with those people that are writing in the same genre as I am. —Jody Sperling 

Almost everybody gravitates towards Twitter. It is just a really great social media platform for fiction. —Jody Sperling

Once you build relationships with authors, you need to be careful not to rely on authors as your customers. —Jody Sperling

Twitter is a powerful place where you can meet other authors in your similar genre, engage with them, and collaborate–not so that the other authors are your customer, but so that you can get to know other readers as a result of the engagement that’s happening. —Becky Robinson 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

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The post Episode 97: Finding Your Niche as a Fiction Author with Jody Sperling appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 96: Sponsorships for Authors with Stephanie Chandler

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Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode focuses on how authors can seek sponsorships from corporations. Becky is joined by Stephanie Chandler–Founder and CEO of the Nonfiction Authors Association and Writers Conference–who provides an in-depth explanation of what sponsorships are, how authors can find sponsors, the kind of services that sponsors will pay for, and how to decide if a sponsor is the right fit. 

Key Points From This Episode

[01:36] Stephanie shares about herself, her work, and her books.

[03:26] Why would organizations want to sponsor authors? Stephanie reveals the answer.

[04:35] Stephanie explains how big an author’s platform or audience needs to be in order to attract a sponsor. 

[05:33] There are several things that sponsors would pay for authors to do. Stephanie shares a few examples.

[07:14] Stephanie gives her advice on how authors should sift through companies that approach them for sponsorships. 

[08:23] Can an author successfully attract sponsorships by reaching out to organizations? Discover the answer. 

[10:03] Stephanie shares some real-world examples of sponsor agreements that she is familiar with.

[12:23] Discover the range of fees that a sponsor will pay for an author agreement.

[13:37] Stephanie gives advice for deciding whether or not a sponsor is the right fit.

[14:16] Stephanie reveals how PR firms can be helpful in attracting sponsors. 

[15:16] Learn what should be included in a sponsor pitch and how long it should be.

[17:08] Stephanie provides her suggestions for the subject line of emails that contain an author’s sponsor pitch. 

[18:18] What kind of increased revenue could someone expect if they start to seek out sponsorships? Stephanie explains. 

[19:29] Stephanie shares her final thoughts about authors and sponsorships.

Action Steps:If you’re a nonfiction author, sign up to become a member of Stephanie’s Nonfiction Authors Association . Take a look and explore what Stephanie and her team are doing.Sit down and figure out who the companies are that you want to target for sponsorships. Start making your list of potential companies and organizations that would benefit from working with you, and then start doing the research to find their contact information.Resources:Explore the websites for the Nonfiction Authors Association and the Nonfiction Writers Conference. Get your copy of Stephanie’s book, The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan .Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @beckyrbnsn so she knows you enjoyed this episode!

For smaller audiences, maybe you can get away with 5,000 to 10,000 followers. But for a large type of audience, whether it’s health or wellness or small business, I would say 10,000 plus followers are needed to really get attention. —Stephanie Chandler 

There are lots and lots of ways that sponsors are willing to pay for access to your audience. —Stephanie Chandler 

Asking more questions can help you figure out if the sponsorship opportunity is worth pursuing. —Becky Robinson

You have to believe in any product or service that you’re going to promote. And if you don’t, then you decline that and you move on to someone who’s a better fit. —Stephanie Chandler

Any pitch that you ever send to anybody should be short and sweet and to the point. —Stephanie Chandler

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

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The post Episode 96: Sponsorships for Authors with Stephanie Chandler appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 95: The Book Launch Process Part II: Katherine Golub Interviews Becky Robinson

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Welcome to Season 3 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. 

This episode is the second part in a mini-series where Katherine Golub–Career, Leadership, and Executive Coach for Nonprofit Leaders and People Committed to Social Justice–interviews Becky about the book launch process. Katherine, who is working on her first book, continues asking Becky all of her most pressing questions about developing a book marketing plan, generating a launch team, starting a podcast, and more so that she can reach the biggest possible audience with her message.

Key Points From This Episode

[02:41] How many books should an author realistically expect to sell in the first year of launch? Becky answers this most often asked question.

[08:05] Becky explains why an author should focus more on showing up for people in any way they can, as opposed to only booking speaking events. 

[12:08] Becky reveals how many people an author should plan to have on their launch team and how personal outreach can increase reviews.

[16:13] If an author wants to start a podcast, what resources can they utilize to make the process easier? Becky shares advice and resources from her own experience. 

Action Steps:Think for a moment about the content that you’re using to add value to your audience. Consider whether there may be some new initiative that you could start and what new content you could bring to your audience as you continue to grow the reach of your work.Say yes to every opportunity that you have to share the message of your book with others. Jot down two or three groups that you may be able to reach out to who might be interested in–or see value in–your book’s content.If you have a group that could benefit from Becky’s ideas in Reach , send Becky an email and invite her to speak to your audience. She will say yes, if she can.Resources:Explore Katherine’s website and sign up for her email newsletter.Follow Katherine on Instagram. Discover the organizations Becky partnered with when she first started her podcast: Podfly and Podcast Fast Track. Tweetables and quotes:

If you choose to share on Twitter, don’t forget to tag @katherine_golub and @beckyrbnsn so they know you enjoyed this episode!

Any book that sells more than about 5,000 copies in a year, as it relates to a small independent publisher, is doing pretty well. —Becky Robinson

You really do have to have that long-term view that your book is a valuable tool in your work and business over time. And just keep looking for more ways to find new audiences. —Becky Robinson

It’s not necessarily speaking that’s critical so much as it is showing up for people. —Becky Robinson

You want to make your outreach to your launch team as personal as possible and as individualized as possible. —Becky Robinson

Books are seeds, and my book being in the world is better than my book not being in the world. —Becky Robinson

Take the number of reviews that you want in the first month and multiply that number by four to get the number of books that you need to send out to achieve your goal.  —Becky Robinson

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

Register for one of the “Reach More Readers” workshops.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 95: The Book Launch Process Part II: Katherine Golub Interviews Becky Robinson appeared first on Weaving Influence.