Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Ready to supercharge your author journey? Join bestselling author and book marketing maven Penny Sansevieri and savvy publishing insider Amy Cornell for lively, no-nonsense conversations filled with smart strategies, creative inspiration, and publishing know-how you can actually use.
Whether you’re self-published, traditionally published, or somewhere in between, this podcast delivers real-world advice to help you sell more books, build your platform, and thrive in the ever-evolving publishing landscape. From clever promo hacks to critical industry insights, each episode is designed to move the needle on your success.
Fresh ideas. Actionable tips. Unfiltered talk.
If you’re serious about your author career, hit subscribe and tune in—your next big breakthrough could be one episode away.
Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
What Most Authors Get Wrong About Debut Success
Unrealistic expectations can destroy an author's career before it truly begins. We've seen it countless times—talented writers who become discouraged, bitter, and ultimately abandon their writing dreams because their first book didn't land them on bestseller lists or bring financial freedom.
In this deeply practical conversation, Penny and Amy challenge authors to rethink what success looks like for a debut book. Rather than viewing your first publication as the finish line, consider it the foundation of your author career—a launch pad for building reader relationships, growing your email list, and establishing your author brand. These elements, while less glamorous than overnight fame, create sustainable momentum that carries forward to future books.
Success in publishing rarely follows the exceptional stories we've all heard about overnight sensations. For most authors, the path involves patient, deliberate growth and learning. As Penny shares from her own 25-book journey, each publication offers valuable lessons that inform and improve the next. If you can identify five things you'll do differently with your next book, you've gained priceless knowledge that no shortcut could provide.
The podcast explores the concept of "choosing your hard"—acknowledging that publishing is challenging regardless of your approach, but productive difficulty leads to growth while discouragement leads nowhere. By focusing on reader connection, professional presentation, and consistent improvement, authors position themselves for long-term success rather than fleeting luck.
Whether you're completing your first manuscript or reflecting on why your published book hasn't met expectations, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on measuring success through sustainable metrics rather than exceptional circumstances. Reframe your goals, focus on building relationships with readers, and approach each book as another opportunity to refine your craft and platform.
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Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast.
Speaker 2:This is Penny Sansevierie and Amy Cornell and super excited.
Speaker 1:So my book is the Amazon Author Formula Workbook is up on Amazon for pre-order Super excited. The launch date for that book will be June 20th and I'm thrilled that it's done. It always feels so good when the book I mean and we always talk about the fact that the work has just started when the book is up, you know, up on Amazon. But it just feels really good to have this book up on Amazon.
Speaker 2:It's like okay, next phase, moving on to the fun stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, moving on to the fun stuff, yes, exactly so. We'll have some information on how to find the book in the show notes. You can always just search me on Amazon. There's not a lot of authors out there with the last name of Sansevierie, so it shouldn't be that hard to find.
Speaker 1:So the inspiration for this show came from an article that I read that talked about rethinking your author career I guess, for lack of a better term and rethinking your first book. Right, your first book right, because in the majority of cases, your first book isn't an instant ticket, it's instant ticket to fame, netflix deal, bestseller status, and it's that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like, if you're listening to this, you're just like, oh my gosh, I'm already done with these two. This is going to be a total buzzkill. That's not what the show is about.
Speaker 1:This show is about rethinking the level of expectation that you put on your first book, and I cannot tell you and I'm going to turn this over to Amy in a second because she has a really great story I cannot tell you how many times I have talked to authors who, literally, are discouraged because their first book didn't do as well as they expected and maybe their expectations were misaligned. Maybe they weren't, but for whatever reason, it's not hitting the mark for them and they are discouraged and deflated and there's not a lot that I can do to correct that if they, if they already feel like my book is terrible and this whole process has been a shit show, and I don't really you know what I mean, right, and if they're already down on the whole concept of marketing you know, as if marketing doesn't work either.
Speaker 1:It's like oof you know, yeah, and, and, and, and so, and and. The problem with that is and we've seen this also is that a lot of really, really talented authors lose the thread with this kind of thinking Yep, right, so they, they lose the thread and they lose basically their entire career, and then they get bitter and then they wind up in Amy's inbox, really upset and mad. Sorry, I just totally opened. I totally opened that door for you. Amy, do you want to walk through and tell us your story?
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's a I mean for what it's worth. It wasn't a great email exchange, necessarily. I know this isn't really I love, Sorry. No, it's okay because sometimes the timing is just really impeccable because you know things happen.
Speaker 2:Anybody that's listened for a while knows that pretty much 99% of our show ideas come from our experiences, penny's conversations you know what I mean Like they're real life concepts that we try to put together somewhat intelligently to share with y'all. So but yeah, this week showed up, someone showed up in my inbox and the short version is that things just weren't working for his book and so his email to us was essentially I need you to sell more copies of my book. And of course, my response was again anybody listening could probably actually craft a pretty good Amy response at this point. If you're a dedicated listener, you've probably got a pretty good answer for him already. But I say what I normally say, that we can't directly sell your book, but there are a lot of things we can do to improve your retail presence, your first impression, introducing you to the right people, things like that that really do matter because we talk about it. Everything you do is your resume, and if your resume is subpar, you're not going to see those conversions. That just doesn't work. So you know, I said that to him and he responded.
Speaker 2:His next email back was very short Well then, can you pitch me to agents or publishers? And I was like, listen, we've done a show. Hopefully most of you have caught it. If you haven't. Like we did a show on, there are no shortcuts to success.
Speaker 2:You know, this is a prime example of like you don't get around a book that is floundering for any reason by just then going like you know what the answer is Getting an agent.
Speaker 2:That's really not how that works and it was so hard for me not to respond. I mean, I just left it at that point because you know clearly this person is not in the right mindset, which is exactly how Penny led off this show. For a reason, this person is in the wrong mindset. Nothing's working. He's already angry and apparently, for whatever reason, it's our fault, and that's why he showed up at our front door to let us know that he's upset and that we have to fix this. But even though I'm making light of it, it really is a perfect example of things aren't working getting discouraged, emails start getting caustic, you start floundering for any scrap of potentially saving your book, and all of that is not going to lead you back on the right path to either fixing things or being better prepared for your next title, you know Right exactly, and I think that, and just so y'all know, when Amy leaves the chat, like Amy has left the chat, then you know that you're probably on the wrong.
Speaker 1:You're probably on the wrong track, but I think that, if so, to realign your expectations and which I think would have really helped if somebody had said that to this author is use book one as a launch pad. And again, it doesn't mean that you don't want to pitch influencers and maybe even pitch media and all this other stuff. It's not that you I'm not telling you not to do all the things. I am, in fact, telling you to do all the things. But as opposed to having every piece of you know, having a set of unrealistic goals tethered to all the things, I want you to pull back on your expectation level and just realize that you have to do it all because book one is a launch pad. It's a great opportunity to grow your email list. Oh my gosh. So many conversations with authors about you've got to grow your email list and I've talked to authors and this makes me really sad for them. I've talked to authors who come to us after they've written five or six books and they've never even started or thought about growing an email list, and every book that you publish not only adds to your brand, adds to your library, adds to your bookshelf, but also adds to the number of readers that you potentially connect with. Connecting with readers and influencers, right, and focusing exclusively on the reader experience.
Speaker 1:Yep, I cannot tell you, and I will freely admit, 25 years ago, when I wrote my first book, I was not. I was focused on the need, right? So, oh my gosh, there's such a need for this book. So my first book Get Published Today aside from the fiction book that I wrote, but my first book Get Published Today was really focused on this revolutionized print-on-demand industry and it had to be told and this book had to be written and everybody had to hear about it. The problem was was that it wasn't really speaking to the need of a reader, because I was too far in the weeds as I often am with some of these nerd, like I love to nerd out on stuff but it also wasn't. I was. It wasn't connecting with the reader, right? So writing a book that connects with the reader.
Speaker 1:So your first book can really tell you which my did whether or not you've connected with your reader, right, because you'll get feedback or you won't. You know it'll just be crickets out there and you won't get any feedback, and then you'll know. No feedback is also an answer, right. Connecting with readers, connecting with influencers Um, connecting with readers, connecting with influencers, and, and not only connecting with them, but building relationships, relationships with them, and then also, you know, letting their feedback inform your career theory. Every book that we write should be better than the previous book that we wrote, right, because we're getting better every time. I mean your thoughts on this, amy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think just setting the tone and instead of, like you said, instead of putting the pressure on this book to tell you that it's worth it to keep going like you said, penny putting the focus on doing all the things correctly and then we talk about this a lot but also in the right order. You know, do things correctly and do them in the right order and not only are you more likely to see more successes, incremental successes, with your first book. If you're focused on doing all the right things for your product, doing all the right things for your retail page, doing the right things for your brand, thinking about how you're going to connect with your readers, what this means for your reader, the reader experience. Going through things in that order is definitely setting you up for success. That is when things start clicking. But we see it all the time If you're constantly getting distracted by these larger, more sexy goals, you're kind of just going through the motions with the other stuff and you're missing things, you're skipping things.
Speaker 2:You're saying I'm not going to worry about my author central stuff right now because I'd really rather be pitching media. I need to find somebody to pitch me to media. I'll deal with that later. That is the wrong order to do things. It's amazing how a few tweaks to your timeline and what you're doing and your first book should also be a learning experience Make it part of the educational learning experience Because, again, like Penny said, every book you release should be getting better. But there's no reason not to set the bar super high the first time, right Like it doesn't mean just throw the first one out there and be like well, there's only room to grow from here.
Speaker 1:Right, right, exactly. And you know I meant to lead with this, but Amy shared this great video this morning and it was basically. I'm going to put it up on my Facebook page, probably tomorrow or something, if you follow me there, but it was a lecture, it was a graduation speech, rather, and the crux of the speech was choose your heart, Right. It's all hard Publishing. A great book is hard Publishing. A bad book is hard, right.
Speaker 1:Choose your heart with authors who'd show up, and it really bothers me when they're discouraged, because I really I mean as an author myself I don't want, I don't like hearing other authors who are just discouraged. You read the publishing industry. You think marketing sucks, you think we suck Like. You know what I mean Like that's a hard conversation to have, but it's also, you know, and I'm going to use this to them it's like well, choose your hard. So, having your expectations ridiculously high, not understanding the marketplace, not understanding that you have to pay your dues before you can get up to that next level, is also hard, but so is, you know, being so discouraged that you shoot off angry emails to PR companies looking for it and you walk around like this angry ball of everybody hates me in my book, which is probably not true unless you're a jerk, and then maybe it is true. But it you know, choose your heart, and I thought that was just so brilliant and it's so fitting, I know, for so many things in life.
Speaker 2:I know, I love that that was. I was like, oh my gosh, penny, we can have so many of these. You know, publishing a book or marketing is hard, but having a book out there that doesn't go anywhere, that's also hard. So which version sounds better? Yeah, you know, yeah, exactly At the end of the day, Like it's hard, like we talked about this person that emailed me. He's in a hard spot right now. He's not doing well, yeah, he's not doing well yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's also yeah, you could say it's hard to put in the effort and do things correctly and do them in the right order, but at least that's a productive version of hard you know.
Speaker 1:Exactly, Exactly, and I think that you know when you think about your first book, your first book can have success, right For sure. But we see it all the time. Oh, 10,000 percent, we see it all the time. Absolutely, there's always. And some books just surprise the heck out of me and and and, by the way, Amy, just we just surpassed Amy's 14 year anniversary, Amazing. So in the 14 years that you've been doing this, I mean you and I both know books surprise us all the time time Right, and we have wins that we celebrate all the time.
Speaker 2:But I think to the like everything that we're saying right now yes, we have big wins, we get to see, we get to celebrate really big wins, which is always amazing. But when people say like, well, how successful are your campaigns? Sorry, now I'm doing a voice that was rude, but truly we get these questions all the time and I let people know it's like we see successful books all the time and I let people know it's like we see successful books all the time. But the way we frame it is what's successful for this author at this point in their career, for the platform they've developed up to this point and for the fact that this is either their first, maybe second, whatever. You know what I mean. There's so many different factors, so it's like you know when your expectations are appropriate for where you're at in your career. There are tons of wins to be had.
Speaker 1:Yes, I absolutely agree with that and I think that when, um, when an author asks what, what's a success? Look like for me, and let's say it's their first book, they don't, you know, they're still building their website. Whatever, um, their first, their success, their milestones, might be growing their newsletter list, right, maybe getting speaking gigs and podcast interviews and influencers talking about the book and really establishing themselves as a. Maybe it's a thought leader or maybe it's a, you know, maybe it's just like, oh, a top tier, you know, crime fiction writer or something like that. Reimagine what your success, you know what your mile markers are going to be for success.
Speaker 1:Because if your success is, I want to be on, I don't know Dr Phil, and somebody asked me about that just recently like, well, first off, dr Phil doesn't have a show anymore, but okay, but everything else is going to be a big disappointment to you. So I think it's not just about all right. So your book is, you know, don't build your house on sand. Make sure that your book is your platform and it helps, and all that stuff is great. But the other problem with misaligned expectations for first book with no background, no, this or that is that it just creates. Everything else is just gone to shit. It creates a litany of disappointment, right. So looking at what success really looks like for a book, I mean, look if your first book, if you can grow your newsletter with your first book and you can get influencers talking about your book, and maybe you do some local media, maybe you're doing book events right or speaking gigs if that's your thing, and podcast interviews that's amazing. Like I think that's amazing.
Speaker 2:It is amazing. Just don't put retiring on that short list for your first book, right, Right?
Speaker 1:right. Like I'm 50 years old, I wrote a book.
Speaker 2:I'd like to not work anymore. What can you do?
Speaker 1:I'd like to quit my job. I'd like to quit my job. I'm like, oh God, I talked to an author one time and I don't actually don't think we ever sent this person a proposal just because I was. So I was kind of bummed for them, like after the and this, this person said to me this wasn't recently, I think this is maybe last year or something. Um, I'm writing this book so I can quit my job. No, I know, and I'm literally like that is a no-win. First off, you poor thing. Secondly, that's a no-win situation for anybody, and we've actually had authors who have come to us and said I just quit my job because I want to focus on writing. And I want to say, well, I hope you have like a few years of savings, because otherwise you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Old, wealthy relatives.
Speaker 1:So I think that it's really about making sure that you are focused not just on having better expectations for your first book, but also using it and thinking about where you're going to be long term. Right, yeah, because this is going to be your.
Speaker 2:this is going to be your career Right, and I love the next. Oh, go ahead, penny. Sorry, no, no, no, go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say I love the next bullet that we put on there. Mission over hype. Like I want that on a t-shirt, I think.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know, I was like that's so perfect, so aligning your message and your brand building with a bigger purpose. Like you just said, penny, this is designed to be. I mean, if you're in this, hopefully you want to be in this for the long term. You know, like writing and publishing and marketing a book is not a six month hobby, right? I mean, if that's the kind of time you have, I'm jealous. Send me notes. I want to hear your ways, because that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2:But the mission over hype and it kind of goes back to focusing on the right things, your mission. And again back to what does success really look like for a first book? Honestly, to me, penny, if an author came to us and ended up in my inbox and sent me a link to their book like this is my first one, you know I'm I don't know what to do next. It's it doesn't happen often, but it does happen sometimes where I go to their book page and I'm like, oh my gosh, they're doing so many things, right, you know? Like the cover's good, the description's compelling, they're using Author Central, they've got a lot of great content on their page. They've got A-plus content. They've got a decent number of reviews.
Speaker 2:They're putting in the work and typically there's always something else that we can help them with in terms of, like, getting more creative and broadening you know their exposure and their reach and things like that. But I love being able to go back to an author and they probably don't like it as much, but I love being able to go back to an author and say you're actually doing really well. You know what I mean. Like that may not, but it's like reminding them like you're doing a good job, you're doing all the right things. This is the kind of base that Penny and I talk about all the time, that you need to focus on creating and building off of, versus always thinking about that next thing. That's slightly out of reach.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, and I think to that end, though, amy, I would say that we've had authors where they're just like, oh my gosh, they're so polished and they're so ready to go, and they've done all the right things, and yet they still labor under misaligned expectations. Right, I'm not selling, I'm not selling enough, and and part of that is also we've said this before on the show so many times maybe they sit in writers groups or they're in a Facebook group and some guy just posted well, I sold 10,000 books, like last month, or whatever. And then you read that and you think what kind of a loser am I? I just sold 100, you know what I mean. Like or whatever the number is that a lot of times, and maybe you know, maybe you are selling, you know a significant number of books, but you don't understand why you're not selling more. A lot of times, like as Amy said, there's maybe one or two things that you're just missing that can really help, but it is a long term. It's you know, being a successful author is a long-term commitment. It feels like. It feels like it shouldn't be right. It feels like you know the whole story about. You know the, the famous singer who slept in her van, or, um, right, yes, right. Or the Harry Potter author I'm so sorry Now totally spacing on her who, like, wrote her book, who was on welfare and she wrote Harry Potter when she was sitting in a coffee shop, like, I get it. I understand that those stories are alluring and everybody thinks that they are the exception to the rule. Well, not everybody, but a lot of times authors think they are the exception to the rule.
Speaker 1:And what's interesting is Amy, just for the podcast, she went into chat and we were, we were, we were going through this and it was, it was, it was basically a list of media qualifications and we'll do a show on this later. Not that chat has all the answers, but I'm telling you right now, chat is my boyfriend, like, how weird is I'm just so I and we're're gonna actually do a show about some cool things that chat can do for you as an author. But, came, it came up with a list of, like, core media standards, um, for qualifying just to be in, you know, just to get on national television and things like that, and none of those included just having a book, like so, so, but at the same time, back to my point is that everyone, a lot of times authors and again, not everyone, I shouldn't overgeneralize like that but a lot of times authors really believe that they are the exception to the rule. It's like, well, I listen to Penny and Amy, I get it, but I don't really get it. I'm the exception. This is going to happen for me because everybody, everybody loves my book and this is going to be great. And sometimes that happens, but the majority of, in the majority of cases that you're just going to set yourself up for disappointment.
Speaker 1:So, using your book to like, like I just said, build your email list, focus on reader connection, build those relationships with your readers, because your readers are what is going to carry you over the finish line. So, when an author comes to me and says what's the ROI from this campaign, sometimes I'll say to them like, well, okay, I don't know how you measure the ROI in building readership, right, because that is really what that's really a big your readers. 95% of books are sold word of mouth and you know, amy and I have this string going in our personal emails about book recommendations, like I'm recommending books to her all the time for authors that she's, in many cases, maybe even never even heard of Nope. You want to build reader connections that you don't even know about, right, right, that's the whole. You know, that is where book one can really help to carry you into book two and three and four.
Speaker 1:Amy, do you want to talk about the author brand, which, again, like we get it, it sounds like a big snooze, fast, right, I've got my author brand. We've done whole shows on this. So if you just found this show and you're like, oh, penny and Amy are lecturing me, hopefully that's not, that's not your takeaway, but we've done individual shows on reader connections, build your email list and branding, which Amy's going to talk about. So definitely go back and listen to those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the branding part is huge. The reader connection, the reader experience, those are very much linked, you know, because and I don't know if we've said this in a while, we used to say it all the time, so clearly you know, but you remember to also don't just be the author trying to sell something. Remember to also operate as a reader, as a consumer as well, because and think about what you go through when you're looking for a book, when you're introduced to a new author, what are the things you look for? You know, what are the things you notice on retail pages, things like that Make sure the reader experience, because that is a huge part of your brand and it's a huge part of what brings people back and or keeps them interested enough the first time to actually recognize that book cover, because they may not buy the first time they're introduced to you, but that recognition, that name recognition, that cover recognition, that experience, the way they felt the first time they got on your retail page and what you had available to them or what you didn't, that's just as big, you know. So think about that is all part of your brand. Their experience with not only the first, you know, your initial introduction, your first impression, but then are you giving them a reason to come back, and that's a really huge part of this too, and it's, it's, you know.
Speaker 2:This is another thing we say all the time the more seriously you take yourself, the more seriously potential readers will take you as well, you know Right. So, yeah, and again, like Penny said, we've done lots of shows on this, but it's, you know, nose to tail like that, having a clean website, you know, making an engaging book description, making sure your cover is exceptional. You know it. Every single person listening to us can make an exceptional cover. You know what I mean. Yeah, that's something that's available to everybody, and I don't think we talk about that enough Petty.
Speaker 2:This is not something that's out of reach for certain authors, but it's about knowing your market, working with the right designers, things like that, and it doesn't even mean spending, taking out a loan or anything just to get a book cover by any means, but it's about educating yourself and making the right decisions. But this is all part of everything's your brand, and so what can you think about what you can do and most of the things we've been talking about this whole time, other than you know the book cover. It's free. You know these are all like the crossing your T's and dotting your I's in terms of the first impression that people put out there. So much of what we talk about is free. It just takes time. It takes some self-education. It could be a little less free if you'd like our opinion, because we love helping for things with things like that.
Speaker 2:But it's the investment in, like Penny said, it's the investment in your long-term potential to convert shoppers to buyers, and it's so much easier to do that correctly at the beginning than it is to have to go back and fix things Now. If you're past that beginning point, you can still fix things, but we're just letting the. You know, since a lot of what we've been talking about about your first book, setting the stage, your expectations for your first book, having realistic goals, things like that those are the things you should be focused on with your first book developing your brand, giving potential readers and buyers something to connect with, because that's what lasts. That's what really lasts. It's not, you know, as nice as it could sound, nice and easy, but you really don't want to be the author that gets lucky for a little bit, because that fades.
Speaker 2:Having a couple good sale months because something just went right based on your release. That is not sustainable. That is not going to be something that develops a career. So don't hope you get lucky. Don't hope that you know you're an exception. Like Penny said, just do the right things and you'll be totally surprised at how the momentum will continue to build for you if you have a good foundation and a strong brand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and you know, the good foundation takes time. It's taken time, you know, and I I wrote my books in conjunction with starting my business. I mean, the, the, the platform stuff takes time, but I promise you it's worth. It's worth the price of admission. It absolutely is. Um, and I think the final point of what is important, and regardless of where you're at in your writing career understanding the basics of the publishing industry and also what book discovery looks like for your readers.
Speaker 1:And I know that when you think book discovery, well, I could just put it up on Amazon and I get it, but where do your readers find your books? Right? That's something that having a book out there will help you to figure out, and you know. The other thing, though, too, is I'll tell you if you come away from publishing your first book and promoting your first book and think here are five things that I could have that I wish I would have known that I could have done differently. I think that's awesome, because what that means is is you have learned from your mistakes, or you have learned in the process maybe not, maybe not even from mistakes. And now the next book that you do. Every single time you were leveling up.
Speaker 2:Yep, I love that perspective. That's a very good point. Yeah, if you're completely clueless as to why your book hasn't taken off, that's actually a much tougher position to be in.
Speaker 1:It's a tough, it's a tougher position to be in. I mean, it's one that Amy and I really love to kind of figure out, because we, we love to put on our little publishing detective hats and figure out what went wrong, and a lot of times that's fun too, but that's not very fun for you, right. It doesn't really empower the author to not know what's wrong. And I think you know, and even like with so I'm doing the Amazon author formula workbook, which is a partner book to the Amazon author formula.
Speaker 1:And even, you know, even like 24 books out now I guess this is my 25th. I guess I publish a book a year since I've been in business. That's like super weird. But um, I I've learned a lot, even from going from that book to this book, to this workbook, and part of it is just by nature of creating something that's so granular, with worksheets and all this other stuff. Every book. If you can come away with some takeaways like, oh my gosh, I wish I would have done, I wish I would have done, then that is a huge win. That is an awesome, huge win. So don't beat yourself up if you're one of those authors because I do talk to authors who say that to me and they are beating themselves up and you shouldn't. Because that learning experience, man, you cannot. You cannot buy that learning experience. That's phenomenal. I think. Did we cover everything?
Speaker 2:Did we? Yeah, I think we did. I think just. I love that we ended this with education, though, because, yes, we can sit here and remind you of all the things that you should be doing and all the things that you should avoid and in the mistakes and stuff like that, and hope you're finding, you know, valuable information here and you're taking notes and whatnot or re-listening to episodes, but you know, but it doesn't completely replace the self-education part, empowering yourself to understand what the and I think it also helps keep expectations in check, right, penny?
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're reading industry newsletters and actively looking for resources on what's going on in publishing, hopefully you're using some of that to also reframe, kind of what your plans are. You know and understanding, like, okay, my next book is coming out soon, x number of months out. What can I be doing this time around to be better? I love that you mentioned that, penny. Like I challenge everybody to make your list of five things that you can do better for your next book. Or, if you don't have a new book coming out super soon, what are five things you could do differently in the next three to four months or over the summer? You know, like, what are some positive changes you can make that reframe what you're focused on and can help contribute to these bigger goals. Like let's reframe what success is, so let's get those five things written down. Work to get those done in 100%. Call that a major win.
Speaker 1:And you know what I'm making. I'm actually writing down notes while we're doing this podcast. I'm actually going to put together some social media and maybe even a video or something on reframing success and looking at and like asking authors what are their five things, and I also think that, in part as part of education, I think it's also really good to follow other authors in your market, because you will learn so much just from like oh, that's a great idea, and I would say that I want to encourage you not that any of our listeners would do this, but, you know, don't copy, but let it spark ideas. It might spark ideas. Or, you know, in some authors, like there was an author, there's an author that I follow and I can't think of their name right now but they really went, like they really opened up the kimono and they were like, here's what I did leading up to and you know, leading up to my first book being published and here's what the sales were and it's interesting. I wish that now that I had saved that so we could share it as part of this podcast. This was this author's first book and they had this crazy launch schedule, like literally, like I'm reading this launch schedule. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so tired right now, and they sold something like a thousand books in the first month, and you may be listening to this thinking I'd kill for a thousand book sales, but when you looked at this list of everything that this author had done, I would have expected that to be a thousand in the first day. I mean, it was just so.
Speaker 1:The other piece of it, though, too, and I think the final piece I keep saying that we're at the end of the show and then I keep thinking of stuff, but I think the final piece is that it's great to have an aggressive launch plan. I love that, because you want to give your book it's the long runway of success, right? You want to make sure that you're getting out you know, promoting your book six or eight months after it's been out, because you wanted to just throw the book up on Amazon and see what it was doing like, do it on its own. Basically, it probably did nothing, but so having a launch plan is a really good idea. But also be mindful that, yes, you can create lots of videos. Yes, you can be sending out newsletters. Yes, you can do all those things, and if you have the time to do that, that's great. But initially you may be speaking to an empty room or maybe there's just like your mom and a few other people that are listening to you. So it's great to have that content and I don't want to discourage you from doing that.
Speaker 1:But don't think that just because you have a super aggressive launch plan that all of a sudden everything is going to go viral and you're going to be an overnight success and then you're going to write to Amy and go neener, neener, neener. Look at how successful like you guys are wrong on your podcast. Look at how. Look at now I'm doing the voice right, it's contagious. Sorry, it's so contagious, but I mean. You know it's great to do all this stuff. I love authors that do all the things. Just make sure that your expectations aren't for instant fame, because nobody is born famous and with that we're going to have a lot of during the rollout of the pre-order or the Amazon author formula workbook. We're going to have a lot of really fun stuff. So be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 1:If you follow us on social media, definitely be on the lookout for that. Thank you so much for listening. If this is your first listen and we didn't totally discourage you with our reality check podcast. Be sure to follow us. We drop a show every Friday. We would love to have you as an ongoing listener. To those of you who have followed us and listened, we get emails all the time from authors like I'm binging all the shows. I love all the shows, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. It means the world to us. We also love reviews. Wherever you listen to podcasts, yes, please, yeah, or email us the us um, email us the review, if it's sometimes. I know Apple doesn't always make it easy to leave reviews. So, thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time, bye-bye.
