Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Join Penny Sansevieri and Amy Cornell for fun and frank discussions packed with clever ideas, easy-to-implement book marketing strategies, and critical publishing industry knowledge and insight! Designed to help self-published authors and traditionally published authors at any level, the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast will definitely inspire you with new ideas for how to sell books, grow your platform, and make strategic business decisions as an author. Subscribe today and take that next step toward a more successful, long-term book marketing plan!
Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Building Your Author Brand for Media Recognition
The elusive goal of media coverage keeps many authors awake at night, dreaming of that big break on national television or in major publications. But what if everything you thought about securing media attention was based on misconceptions?
In this eye-opening episode, we pull back the curtain on what really matters to media gatekeepers and why so many authors sabotage their chances before they even make their first pitch. The hard truth? Media outlets don't exist to promote your book—they exist to serve their audience. Your success hinges on how well you position yourself as valuable to that audience.
We reveal why local media opportunities might be your most powerful pathway to national attention, and why turning down "small" media appearances could be the biggest mistake in your marketing strategy. You'll learn how national scouts constantly monitor local channels for fresh voices and compelling stories, often making local coverage your best audition for bigger opportunities.
The episode offers practical guidance on crafting a pitch that resonates with producers, staying current in your knowledge base, building a professional online presence, and leveraging every media win to create momentum. We share real examples of authors who climbed the media ladder strategically, turning modest beginnings into significant visibility.
Whether you're just starting your publicity journey or have been frustrated by lack of media interest, this episode provides the framework to transform your approach. The path to media coverage isn't about lucky breaks—it's about strategic positioning, consistent effort, and understanding the media landscape from the inside out.
Ready to position yourself as the expert that media outlets actually want to feature? Listen now and discover how to build the platform that makes media come to you.
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Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sansevierie and Amy Cornell, and today we are talking about the age-old question of how to get picked up by media, and we're going to be looking at national media, for sure, but we're also going to be talking a little bit about local media, which is something that I know authors a lot of times overlook. I want to thank you all for listening. If this is your first time you're just now tuning in we welcome welcome to the show. We had five years of the show, so feel free to go back and kind of get to know us and get to know the topics that we talk about. Kind of get to know us and get to know the topics that we talk about. If you are a multi-episode listener, we're so glad that you're here.
Speaker 1:Thank you also for some of the great reviews that we've been getting. We love reviews. We always check them. It's actually scary how many times we check for reviews. We appreciate it and I know that it's sometimes difficult to leave a review and, matter of fact, I just got an email from somebody who mentioned that Somebody in the book marketing arena and she's like, oh, it's really hard to leave reviews on um on on Apple podcasts. I don't know why they make it so difficult, but anyway, you're welcome to always email us the review and and um, we'll, we'll, you know, we'll post it for sure. So, um, oh, and the other thing that I wanted to mention, which I think is well, which I know is really amazing, is we just got voted the number one marketing blog, slash website in like the entire planet. It was a Feedspot article that we got just yesterday and if you follow me on social, you probably saw me cheering and super excited. So yeah, book marketing blogs, we are number one. I don't even know what to say. I was just so stoked about that.
Speaker 2:I know that was very cool and you're right. When Penny pointed it out to me, she texted me about it. She said on the planet. And I'm like that's a funny, you know, but I love it.
Speaker 1:We will absolutely take that. Yeah On the planet. I love that I will. I will definitely take it. So thank you for whoever voted us.
Speaker 1:Um, and if you're not familiar with our blog, aexpertcom, backslash, forward, slash I always get the slashes confused Blog I think you can find it that way. You can also go to our homepage and there's a link to the blog. So we have a lot of content, we put out a lot of content. In fact, it's funny because I was sharing that with somebody yesterday and they were like, wait, you put up, you have a blog and you have a podcast and you're doing the podcast weekly and you have the you know all this content on the blog. I said, yeah, they said you create a lot of you create a lot of content. And I said, yeah, we are. We do create a lot of content because I think and Amy and I feel both feel the same way Information is power and the educated author makes better choices.
Speaker 1:Hence the podcast. And speaking of better choices, one of the top things that authors ask, both Amy and myself, is I want to get picked up by big national media, I want my book to be on the Today Show or I want it to be on you know whatever right on the Today Show. Or I want it to be on you know whatever Right. And I think that that's a great goal to have, obviously. But it's a lot of times authors will say you know, I want this, can't you just pitch them Right? And I mean, amy, do you want to? Do you want to speak to that a little bit, because you and I have had multiple conversations on this topic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean, I think the toughest part and we talk about this a lot because we completely understand where it comes from you have goals. You say I want this, I want that. That's amazing, but you really have to remember to put yourself on the other side of the equation and think about. What is the media looking for, what are thought leaders looking for? Because people, believe it or not, these outlets don't exist to do favors for anybody or to help them promote their work or their business, or you know what I mean. So featuring your work, interviewing you, all of that reflects directly on the outlets or the organization or the individual that you're trying to pitch to, and it's really important to keep that in mind. You know they have an image to maintain, they have followers that they want to be sure that they are putting out the right content, for that's how they make their money, that's how they build their brands.
Speaker 2:So these people are not you know I'm just going to be blunt about it they are not going to go out on a limb for you to just give you your shot at fame, right? You know so a lot about getting media coverage and securing yeses is putting in the work to make sure you're presenting yourself as a sure thing and that you're also doing your part to meet them. Honestly, penny, I would say it's more than halfway. You know what I mean. This is more of an 80-20 sort of situation. You really have to bring it and you have to show them that you have something to offer and you have to make it click for them that this is what I have to offer your followers. It makes sense for you, it makes sense for them. They're going to be happy, you're going to be happy, it's going to work out great for everybody.
Speaker 1:And that's really when people start getting yeses, because we've been doing this for a while, that we have all these contacts, and I always explain to authors I say, you know it doesn't. I mean, yes, the contacts absolutely matter, but at the end of the day, the contacts are looking for so those producers, whatever they're looking for, things, as Amy pointed out, that are going to matter to their followers. So my having a quote unquote in with a major morning show is still not going to guarantee you a spot on that show, because it has to be. I mean, there's so much money in any of these shows, in the advertisers and things like that, right, oh yeah, it's complex, it's very complex, in fact. You know, what's interesting is that so years ago we worked with a book and it was a whole book on Trader Joe's recipes. So it was all this stuff that you could make with things that were specifically to, you know, the Trader Joe's brand. And I actually got on the phone with a producer, the book producer at the Today Show, who said to me you know, we'd really love to have this author, these authors, on. It was two authors.
Speaker 1:But the problem is, is Vons, is our advertiser, right? And so they have to, they have to look at that. They say you know, this would be a really fun segment for the show Because I said you know they'll come to New York, they can do cooking and all this other stuff and she really loved it. But she said Vons is our advertiser. So the decisions to have somebody on the show versus not on the show a lot of times, unfortunately, come down to money Right. So that's the other thing to kind of think of.
Speaker 1:It's not just a matter but all of that said, there are ways that you can, if you really say you know, penny, look, I get it. I know the odds are challenging, but I really want to position myself correctly and that's what we're going to focus on in the show. There definitely is a way in. So it's not this, you know, it's not Amy and I saying don't dream the impossible dream. There's definitely a way in, but you have to be strategic about it and I think there are a lot of examples that we're going to get to that are, I mean, I would say that pretty much everything that we're talking about today is equally important. So this isn't like do this first and then do that.
Speaker 1:Honestly, if you can do all of this stuff simultaneously, which I hate, to say that I hate to sound like, oh my gosh, do this all at once as if you have nothing else going on in your life. Um, but they're, they all have equal importance, like there isn't anything on this list that we say well, you know, you can kind of wait on this until later, because the sooner that you start, the sooner that you're going to get yourself to a place where, um, you have a platform, you have something that the media is going to pay attention to, you know, and if you're listening to this and you're fiction and you're like, well, do I stand a chance? And yeah, absolutely you do. But you also have to realize that, in terms of like fiction authors, for example, the Today Show has, on average, four authors on a year.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I almost fell out of my chair. Every time we talk about that kind of stuff, I know right, and those are generally fiction authors, so nonfiction.
Speaker 1:They have maybe a little bit more of an advantage if it ties into something that's going on nationally, right. So that's the that's the other piece of this I highly recommend. Do a lot of local media. Do a lot of local media. Authors oftentimes want to skip this line. They want to skip this and jump the line. Rather, is what I should have said Do lots of local media.
Speaker 1:Now, there's a couple reasons why you want to do it. First off, it's great to get your feet wet in local right, it's great to. If you're going to make I mean, I hate to say it like this like local media is very important and should be respected, but if you're going to make your mistakes, don't make them on national TV, right, right, you know what I mean. If you're going to say too much in an interview, you want to know that you're doing that so that you can work on that, and local media will kind of you know again, local media is very important, but if you're going to make your mistakes, make them locally. The other reason that you want to do local media is because if you aspire to be on I don't know, like any kind of a talk show or I mean really any national show. They have scouts everywhere and Oprah actually started this with her show. So Oprah had scouts all over the country and of course it's a lot easier now with social media than it was in the Oprah show. You know every single show that's on, every you know midday show, morning show. They're all competing to be the first one to the news trough, so to speak, which is why you know this is an unfortunate byproduct of that. But you'll see news outlets making retractions on stories that they jumped on that weren't quite accurate, which really, you know that's a whole separate sidebar conversation, but they really want to be the first one with that story. So a lot of these news places are looking for stories locally. Okay, and you know, as an example which is probably unfortunately still going on as we're recording this podcast, the Karen Reed trial right. So that has everybody's like obsessed with the Karen Reed trial. Amy and I both have conversations about it and part of the reason why that got so much attention was because, I mean, it got a lot of local fervor right. But then and I can't believe that I'm actually saying this on the podcast then some guy named Turtle Boy took off with this. The point being is that, unfortunately, there are murder trials going on every day in this country. Right, the majority of them don't make that kind of national news. Something about this really sparked, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1:Your national media is looking for stories at a local level that nobody else has touched yet, and so that's part of the reason why doing local media saturate yourself with local media. In fact, there's a story and I know I've shared it before on this show there were two authors and they lived in New Orleans and they wrote a cookbook on Cajun cooking which, honestly, if you go into any bookstore in that area, I mean you could literally throw a rock and hit 50 Cajun cookbooks Like it's not a novelty thing. But they did every single local media outlet, both in their area and all the surrounding areas, like they were relentless and they ended up getting a. They actually ended up getting a big publishing deal because they self-published the book originally. Chicken Soup for the Soul is kind of the same thing. They started out doing all local media and they did any media.
Speaker 1:By the way, this is another thing too, not just local media, but any. Do not say no to media right. Sometimes we have authors who are like, well, I just, you know, I turned that down because I didn't think that it was really right for me. I mean, there's a difference between it not being right for you or just turning it down because, I'm sorry to say, you're kind of being a snob. Right, right? Not being right for you is like I don't really feel comfortable being on the Howard Stern show because, whatever, that's a different scenario. What I'm talking about even though I have a story about that too, about an author who went on and did amazingly well on that show and sold like a ton of books. But don't turn down any media, right, because that's something. And, amy, we see this when authors start to get start to really pick and choose the media that they're going to be on, and it doesn't I mean, with the exception of, like the Howard Stern example that I gave it doesn't really serve them.
Speaker 2:No, exactly. It always blows me away when somebody says no to something. I understand if there's. There are plenty of people now that are able to demand some sort of pay to play, and I think podcasts are turning that more two-penny just because production costs and things like that. So you know they. There might be fees involved and you know I can respect if you have to be careful about your budget, but for anything that doesn't actually cost you additional in what you're already investing in your you know you've planned to invest in your marketing plan it really doesn't make sense to not get in front of those people.
Speaker 2:And the one that really bugs me and I think it's pretty common is when authors say like well, they don't look like they have a very big following, but that person even has 200 people that listen to their recommendations, that follow their advice, that respect their opinions. That's 200 people that you are potentially getting in front of that may end up buying your book. Yeah, and I don't know how anybody can turn that down, you know. So to say, oh, they don't have at least 10,000 followers or they don't work for you know this tier of media or something like that, just blows me away and I realized nobody's ever going to. You know, 100% of their followers aren't going to end up being your buyers, but you know, even if 10% of those people click through and check out your book on Amazon, that is incredible and you can't leave those kinds of opportunities on the table. So definitely, please, please, please, stop saying no or stop overanalyzing whether or not their following is big enough to determine whether or not it's worth your time.
Speaker 1:Right, right, exactly. Do you want to take the second? Do you want to take the second bullet, amy, on the?
Speaker 2:Yes, because this one is I mean, we do a lot of this. Yeah, I'll throw it right out there so I don't bury the lead but be able to concisely convey what makes you and your work unique, what makes it timely, what makes it important and, I would say, most critical of all, what makes it necessary. Yes, you know what, like, you have to be able to share these things in a really exciting, fun, interesting way. We help our clients with this kind of language too. So if this, if you're like I don't know how to write, you know super compelling stuff, I can, I can tell you about it. But so you can work with a team or work with a professional that can help you fine tune your message, but you have to be able to give them something to work with.
Speaker 2:You need to be the expert in your book, and I think we have that conversation with authors a lot, Penny, and it surprises them when they say, like, well, what do you think about my book and what are you? Know what I mean? They're asking us questions that we kind of have to push back on them and say you need to know the answers to that. Yeah, you know, you are the expert in your work. You are the expert. In your point of view. That is not something that we can create for you. You know that is something that should have been ingrained in your book from day one and in your message and in your content. You know, and I think, another one so do your competitive research. Make sure you know what makes you unique. This is something you really have to lean into. And then this is another big one the danger of getting wrapped up in assuming everyone will instantly understand why you're so great.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, yes yes, and we're not.
Speaker 2:we're not saying that to knock you or to make you feel bad, but it's so easy to think like you know. You know to my previous point. You know your book inside and out. You know why your content's wonderful. You know why your way of doing things or your approach to something is unique in the market and better than what's out there. That's fantastic. But you have to be able to connect that dot for the people on the receiving end, for your potential buyers and the consumers, and you can't just assume they will take the time or instantly be able to figure it out. So that's why your messaging is really important Taking what makes you special and making sure you're conveying that in really strategic, smart, intelligent ways that connect those dots and let people know that you have the answers that they're looking for. Yeah, exactly, just having your book sitting on the virtual shelf or even a local shelf is not enough. You really have to do that outreach, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, and I think that you have to, as you pointed out, you really have to connect the dots for them, because they are not going to connect those dots on your behalf I mean not because, and it's not at all because they're lazy, they just don't have the time. So you have to be able to present this to them in such a way that here are the reasons why this is going to matter to your listener, viewer, reader, whatever, right, and I think that one of the ways that you can do that is by being vocal. So have some kind of an outlet, whether it's on your blog or on if you have a podcast or if you're doing a lot of podcasts. That's another great benefit, too is make sure that you are out there and you're talking about all the things related to your topic.
Speaker 1:Because, as you're pitching yourself and I will tell you that, and again, when an author comes to us as the expert, as the book publicists, when I pitch an author to media, when I pitch an author to media and you don't have a website which I got to tell you I am not going to do first off, right, um, but but if you pitch yourself to media and they look and you don't have a website and you don't really have a social media presence, I mean, unless you, you know, or some famous person that came back from the dead or something like I. Just they're not. You know what I mean. They're not going to give you the time of day, unfortunately and I hate to sound so cut and dry, but it really is. I mean, it's a very, it's a, you know, it can be, it can feel like a very unfeeling kind of world when you're going out there.
Speaker 2:You're pitching yourself.
Speaker 1:Well, but I have an important message and this is really going to help people, and people are. It matters to the readers because of all of these things. And you may have your pitch down, Pat, but if you're not vocal somewhere, like if you're not out there and you're not talking about this message, you can have the best pitch in the world and it's not going to matter.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's not just us being. I appreciate that you said that, penny, because that's just us being honest with you. You know we're not trying to get anybody down by. If you're going, oh well, that's working against me right now. Oh, I haven't done that yet. We're not trying to bum you out. We really want to set you up for success and we see a lot of authors spend a lot of money doing things out of order or before their brand. Your platform is really prepared to support your goals and yeah, and it's a great way to blow through a ton of marketing investment without very little return, no responses, and you're wondering. That's when we get authors coming to us and going. Should I give up? And it's like no, let's, let's talk about this and figure out what's been done and what hasn't and see where we can help you fill in some gaps here. You know we do a lot of that.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, and I think the other thing to remember part of the reason why we're being so I hope we're not sounding critical because it's not our intention. Sometimes you don't get a second run at media and I caution authors about this all the time Like if you get put in a bucket by a producer that you're always pitching and there's no angle, there's no platform, there's nothing that they can really sink their teeth into and there's no angle, there's no platform, there's nothing that they can really sink their teeth into. It's really going to get hard. It's really going to be hard. I mean, you essentially undermine yourself with that.
Speaker 1:So one of the things if an author comes to me and they say you know, I really want to do national media and Amy is actually probably way better off this than I am Because I really hate even though I know I sound like I'm just crushing dreams all over the place like I hate getting on the phone with an author and telling them no, that's not me. Yeah, I really Amy knows me so well Like I hate getting on the phone, like telling them no, and a lot of times Amy and I will have this conversation and I'll say well, you know, as we're putting together this proposal. Well, this author really wanted X, y, z, and she will very smartly come back to me and say, okay, well, we can give them X, but Y and Z are going to have to wait. And here are the five reasons why, and the majority of time that comes down to the things that we've talked about up to this point because we know that if they're not ready, the media is not going to want them and they're going to shoot their shot.
Speaker 1:You know, what I mean Absolutely.
Speaker 2:What? No, I agree with you 100%, yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you want to take the next one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely so, and we've talked about this on other shows too being current in your knowledge. Yes, this is a big one, and I like to use the term time capsule because and Penny's a perfect example because she writes about Amazon. She writes in. Amazon is constantly changing, so Penny really has. I mean, if you could pick a topic that would be one of the most challenging to stay on top of year after year, I think you would win, penny. Thank you, yes, yes, truly.
Speaker 2:You know the amount of revisions you have to do for your Amazon books is incredible, just because to keep up with that company and everything that it's constantly doing and changing. And you know it's challenging, but it really it matters to anybody. Definitely, writing nonfiction this one doesn't apply to fiction quite so much, but we've done episodes on. You know your backlist and improving. You know books that you've released previously, so check those out.
Speaker 2:But for nonfiction, you definitely want to be current in what's going on, and that's a huge part of the pitching too. A lot of this, you know, plays off of each other, but when you're pitching somebody, like we've said already, you don't want to just pitch. This is what my book is about. I know you're going to love it. You know you really need to make sure you're tying into what's going on in the world, what's going on in your industry, what consumers are concerned with, what problems they're having, and so it's really important to stay current in what's being talked about.
Speaker 2:It's easy to get wrapped up into what your book is solely about, but a lot of times you, as the person with the ideas, you are the one opening the doors to get coverage for your book. And a lot of times, penny, we see that that will happen kind of not really with the book in mind. Initially, we'll say our client can speak to X, y and Z, and this is how they're different, and things like that, and that's actually what gets them the coverage, which then gives them an opportunity to talk about their book, that they wrote a book. You can find more of this in my book, that kind of thing, but so often the book isn't actually what secures the interest in the first place, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right. The book generally is not the leader in the conversation. The book is the reason for the conversation, potentially, but you are the leader in the conversation, I think, staying current. I realize that everything that we're talking about is a full-time job, but staying current is really, really important, and it's going to be easier to stay current if you're doing lots of as I first talked about, lots of local media, because that's also, I mean, the same rules apply to local, like they. Really. They want somebody that's going to be right for their audience and you know, et cetera. They also want you to be current. They don't want a guest to be on their sighting statistics that are five years old, right, right, exactly that you know. When it comes to social media, you don't have to be everywhere, just everywhere. That matters, even if that means just being on one platform, right. And then sharing information, sharing knowledge and information on that platform is going to be really important and it's not something you don't have to do it every single day, but you definitely want to find a routine that is consistent and the information that you share on social media can be, I mean, you know, amy, and I, I mean we.
Speaker 1:I led this conversation by talking about how much content that we create and sometimes that gets to be a little bit overwhelming. So we recycle a lot of stuff that we do, recycle a lot of stuff that we do, and part of that is like taking you know podcast content and then excerpting for you know when we run the shows on Friday on the blog and then posting that to social. So there's no reason that you have to continually recreate the wheel, but figure out a track and you can use that content in all different places. You can use it in you know, in your socials and that kind of thing. So you're not having to create like if you're thinking and like, oh my gosh, but I need to have time to write the book, great, you don't necessarily have to create new content for all these different portals all the time. You can create one piece of content and reuse it all the time. The other thing that I think is worth noting here if you sometimes we get really we get too close to our own message Get a chat GPT account, get a paid account.
Speaker 1:I am not a spokesperson for chat GPT. I just want to mention that I am not a spokesperson for ChatGPT. I just want to mention that Make sure that you put yourself in a locked system, meaning that there's a toggle in chat in the settings, where you can choose to share everything with everybody and that's essentially how chat learns or you can lock it. Put yourself in a locked system and upload your book to ChatGPT your entire book and ask it for talking points, ask it for relevant topics. Really, ask this AI to dig into your book. Sometimes I've done it and even though I update, you know I talk about Amazon.
Speaker 2:I teach about Amazon, amy, and I do lots of Amazon work.
Speaker 1:I wish I had a dime, for every time I've said amazoncom. I would be richer than Bezos literally At the same time. Sometimes it's really hard to come up with your own content and chat, and the reason I mentioned is sitting in a locked system is that way. You don't feel like you're uploading your book and chat's just going to use it, for you know 50 other people who have access to the same system. Put it in a locked system and that way you can have access to a same system. Put it in a locked system and that way you can have access to a portal that will help you. It's like your second brain, and I cannot tell you how much this has really helped me tremendously to come up with new topics. And we do have the podcast too. We're just like you know how are we going to use this. So that's just an idea and that is going to be a way to help you get you know. Come up with blog content, social media content, if you feel like you're just, you don't know what else to talk about.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and I think that's one thing. As much as we and we've done shows on how to get around not using social media. But I would say this is one kind of. If you really want big media, it's really hard to do ways around it for a lot of other goals, but if one of your goals is big media, they don't just want to see that you signed up for an account. They want to see that you're using it. They want you know and again, this isn't don't go out and buy 10,000 followers with some bots and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:It's not about that. It's about what content you're putting out there. Like Penny was saying, Showcase your area of expertise, Showcase your unique point of view, the followers and the engagement and stuff like that. If you're putting out good content, that can grow organically. So don't stress about the follower numbers as much as just showing that you're putting in the effort and that you're putting out quality content that further highlights what you have to offer. That is really should be the focus, not on the big numbers and things like that. That's not really why we're encouraging authors to get involved on social.
Speaker 1:Right, right, exactly Right.
Speaker 2:Let's see what's the next one. Oh, yes, because this is another one where I know I upset people. Like Penny said, I am definitely the bad guy for a lot of this, but I do try to let authors know when they reach out to us that these are just. We want the best for you. It's tough love, but it really is. We want the best for you. The next one is having a solid website that's clean, it's modern, it's informative, doesn't have to be over the top complicated, it doesn't have to be a bunch of different pages Honestly, even a one-pager that has the basics and that just shows that you're putting in the effort to create a home base for your brand and your platform and for consumers to get a hold of you and learn more about you. That's what matters. It's just, it really is one of those things that shows that you're taking yourself seriously and, in turn, the people that you're pitching yourself to will take you more seriously as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree with that, and it doesn't have to be a complicated website, as Amy mentioned. Just something.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, sometimes, when they get too complicated, it's like I have the opposite reaction, you know, yeah yeah, yeah, Just give me the good stuff, Right, right, right, right, yeah, don't give me too many options. Yeah, and I think that you know, obviously it goes without saying. So your Amazon retail page or retail pages, depending on how many books that you have out you want to make sure that those are really tightened up, and I would say we've done enough shows on this. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it. If you want it, if you are new to the show and you want to dig into more Amazon stuff, we have a ton of content, so we won't spend a lot of time on this.
Speaker 1:But I think that you want to make I mean, I don't think I know you want to make a good first impression. You don't want to send people to a sloppy Amazon page. The other reason is not just to impress the producer or the writer or whatever, or the host. You want to make sure that you're impressing the reader and anybody, like if you're lucky enough to land the gig, and sending people to your Amazon page that doesn't convert is really not going to do you any good. So that's really important, not just for your resume, but also, you know later when you're thinking positive when you get the interview.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, and a lot of this. Like we've said many times, it's the more seriously you take yourself, the more seriously they'll take you. So everything that we've mentioned so far is, like Penny said, it's a part of your resume and you wouldn't leave something big and impressive off of your resume if you were applying for a new job. Same thing Everything that you should have for your platform is a part of your author resume. So don't try to skirt around that and think that they won't notice or it's really not big of a deal, or I'll deal with that later, after I've made a bunch of money off my book. I think that would be. That's another one that you want to avoid that pitfall, to do it at the front end. And I know, Penny I almost think we don't talk about that enough how front loaded success as an author is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we really don't talk about it a lot and I have this conversation with authors on the phone a lot of the times is publishing is hugely front loaded and it doesn't necessarily mean that it gets. I mean it does get incrementally easier as you release books, but publishing a book is very much, is very much a front-loaded endeavor, not just monetarily but also in your sweat equity. Um, you really really have to be willing to put and you know it's interesting, I didn't tell you this on a Saturday. I got I love my little like it's confession time everyone. I I love my my Reddit app. I love my little like it's confession time everyone. I love my Reddit app. I love Reddit actually, and a lot of people kind of poo-poo Reddit. But I mean, amy and I have done it.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of deep dive research for things that we found on Reddit and I'm in a publishing. I don't know if I'm still in it Now. I may have gotten kicked out or something, I don't know but so this one publishing thread this author posted I've already spent I don't know whatever they said it was like 200 bucks or something on their book cover and now I'm finding that it's going to cost, you know upwards of $700 or so to get the book edited and is there any way that I can avoid getting my book edited? And I went to town on that post. It was nice, but I was like you are really in the wrong industry if you want to shortcut. There are shortcuts and we talk about we've actually talked. We actually I think we did a show on shortcuts. But there are shortcuts and we talk about we've actually talked. We'd actually, I think we did a show on shortcuts. But there are shortcuts that you can take that you know people aren't, you know the readers aren't necessarily going to notice right, or things that you can cut out or ways to do things easier, cause I think it's kind of human nature to want to kind of do everything the hard way.
Speaker 1:But your book presentation, your editing, and I mean I just went to town on this Reddit post and you know what's funny is that like I get notifications when somebody is like giving you the thumbs up on a post or something. I got nothing from that. Like I'm sorry to be killing this party. It was the self-publishing track on Reddit, I'm sure, a bit like I said, I'm sure somebody kicked me out of the group at this point. But I was like I come here speaking the truth, y'all have to do the work.
Speaker 1:And then some other guy was like why don't you just upload your manuscript to chat TPT and have chat TPT edited? And just out of curiosity I'm like I'm not going to cut out hiring a real editor ever, but I decided to upload the formula workbook to chat to BT and have it do at see what it come up with with editing. It was a frigging nightmare. He doesn't know editing from apples. I mean, I'm sorry, you know what I mean. So anyway, yeah, I don't know where, why I went off on that tangent, but I just felt like I had to say that apparently I'm getting kicked off of Reddit now for being honest. But I think that it you know, everything is your resume. We talk about this all the time. Absolutely Everything is your resume. If you wouldn't send it to a potential employer, don't present it to your reader or, and certainly don't present it to the media, right?
Speaker 2:Right, exactly. Highlight what you're proud of, don't highlight what what you're proud of, don't highlight what you're not proud of. Put it on your to-do list to work on. You know Exactly. And I think the next one too is one that and we get it. It's. It's sometimes challenging, you know marketing is, it's a skill and it's and it takes a schedule and we realize that's hard to add to everything else going on in your life 100%, but you want to make sure you're consistently promoting and sharing your wins and any coverage you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know this is really important because if anything good that happens, you know we encourage you to find how can you capitalize on that in like three different ways. You know how do you make the most out of every single win and you want to milk it for all it's worth. So this is why it's important to have social media, a website, because obviously those are two go-tos that you want to post coverage. We've talked about this before, but you know, having a media page on your website, definitely sharing that coverage on social, when you're doing it on social, be sure you're tagging the entities and individuals. If they're on social, you want to show them that and this matters to other places too they will see that you have shared coverage and you've tagged. I mean you're sending traffic their way.
Speaker 2:All of that matters. That networking is critical. So it's twofold. So not only are you making sure that everything that you've earned, everything good that happens for you, you're making sure as many people as possible know about it, but then, on top of it, you're using those opportunities to do some further networking with the kind of individuals that you could get coverage for later, or you can use that as part of your resume, you know when you go to pitch those next tier media showing look, I got coverage here, I got coverage there. Make it easy for people to see how well you're doing.
Speaker 1:Essentially, what I'm saying? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:So you definitely want to highlight all those things we love when authors send us. I love it when clients send us. I got this, I got that. My interview is going to go live on this podcast on this date and I sound like a broken record, but every single time and they may hear it from me five or six times, but I always remind them what they can do with it. Like we love that. Congratulations. That's amazing. Have you done X, y and Z with it yet? You know, yeah, because always like, make that your goal, anything good that happens. Find three, at least three other ways at minimum that you can get that win out there in front of more people and make a big deal about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, I think it's to some and I understand that for some authors that's a bit, you know, like, oh well, I don't want to boast, I don't want to brag, and we're both here to tell you. You just brag your little heart out Because you, whenever you get any kind of a hit and we tell so, we did a. We had one of our, we have an influencer on the team and we had asked her to do a tour for the podcast. We have asked her to do a tour for the podcast and every single person, every single influencer who reviewed and they didn't so much review the podcast as they shared it, Um, I mean, I think some of them posted a review, like we listened and we loved it, whatever, but um, they are uh, I went in and thanked every single one of them because I think it's really important, unless you're going to be a one-hit wonder, share your wins, post them in your media room on your website, make sure that you have one central place so that when you're pitching media, you can send them the link and you can see where else they have been featured.
Speaker 1:It's also very impressive, like when I'm talking to an author and I see all the places they've been featured. It's like, oh, this is really great. But the other thing is you want to make sure and thank everybody who you know. If you've been on a podcast, send them a thank you, note Influencers sharing and then also share and tag them, as Amy said, because that's a great, great, great way to build relationships. And, honestly, you know, yes, it's about writing a good book, it's about all the things that we talk about on the show, but it's also very, very much about relationships and you really you don't want to burn any bridges with people by not just reaching out to them or sharing, sharing their, sharing their posts to your group. It's just, it's a really, really nice thing to do, even if you say, yeah, but, penny, I don't have a lot of followers, it doesn't really matter. You know what I mean. It's the effort that matters.
Speaker 2:So yes, yes, please. It's showing that you're following through and taking yourself seriously, even if you're just shouting to a room of 10 people.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, Because the other thing to consider random right and ran it or bought the book, didn't even email the author to ask for a review copy, which she very easily could have, and raved about the book on her blog.
Speaker 1:And this right, I mean the connections, and Amy and I could do a whole entire show on this topic. Sometimes the connections make no sense and this author even told me she was like I would have never expected this. And those are the best kind of wins, right, but you only get there if you're doing all the right things. So hopefully this show has been helpful and not discouraging like I was on Reddit the other day oh my gosh, I get myself into so much trouble sometimes. But we appreciate you listening. Oh, and very excited. I meant to lead the show with this and I totally forgot.
Speaker 1:But the Amazon Author Formula Workbook is done. It's in final interior design, and by final I mean really final, final, and maybe even by the time this show hits, it'll be up for pre-order. If it is, we will definitely add that to the show notes so y'all can be first to grab your copy. I'm so excited to have another book coming out this year. I want to thank you all so much for listening. We love show ideas. We love your show feedback, so how to get in touch with us is in the show notes and, if you haven't, if this is your first listen, thank you, we hope you have. We hope we haven't completely discouraged you from all things book marketing. But be sure to subscribe to the show so that you get notified every time there's an episode which we drop every Friday. Thank you so much for listening. Bye-bye.
