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
The Author's Identity Crisis: Why Brand Marketing Matters More Than You Think
Ever felt like you're just shoving your book down people's throats? You're not alone. In this illuminating conversation, Penny and Amy tackle the critical difference between book marketing and brand marketing—revealing why the latter might be your secret weapon for long-term author success.
Brand marketing creates the foundation upon which all your book promotions will stand. But here's the surprising insight: the best time to network is when you don't have anything to sell. This counterintuitive approach allows you to build authentic relationships, observe what resonates with potential readers, and establish connections with influencers before you need their support. As Penny notes, "If you're going to make mistakes, make them before the book is out."
For authors anxiously waiting months before publication, this episode offers a roadmap of productive activities and unique ideas!
Whether you're preparing for your first launch or looking to revitalize your existing author platform, this episode transforms the overwhelming concept of marketing into an authentic, relationship-focused approach that feels less like selling and more like connecting. Ready to build your brand rather than just sell your book? Listen now, then share your biggest marketing challenge with us!
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Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sanseviery and Amy Cornell, and so, first off, we have so many questions. We just got another review. We love reviews, by the way. Thank you so so much. So Petective I wanted to say Pet Detective, but Petective, I think, is. So. Petective wrote a review and said that they really love the show Five stars Yay us. Sometimes they sound like a know-it-all older sister and her annoying best friend. We want to know who is who. Like, we don't mind that. You said that, because I find it hilarious. I do too. I'm pretty sure that I'm the annoying best friend. I think that I'm the annoying best friend. I think that I'm the annoying one. Not that Amy's a know-it-all, but I mean I just think no, but I would love to hear the.
Speaker 2:it was an awesome review. It made me laugh, which is a bonus you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it made me laugh too. So thank you so much for the review, but now you have to impart, but you have to email us info at amarketingexpertcom and let us know who is who. We just really want to know, because we've been going back and forth on this and I thought it was hilarious. Thank you so much for listening. We love that and we love reviews. We always ask for them, so leave us a review. We have so many questions about this one in particular. I hope whoever wrote that review will let us know, because that will help to solve that mystery.
Speaker 1:So in last week's show oh, and we just recorded a show that hit on launch day of my book, the Amazon Author Formula Workbook. So the workbook is now out, both paperback and e-book. Super excited about that. But we hinted at this show previously because we did a show on brand marketing versus book marketing. I think it was maybe two or three years ago, so after five years sometimes it's good to redo certain shows and in that, during that episode, we talked about the importance of brand marketing and in the context of the show, in the show today, what we're talking about around brand marketing came up during a conversation, during many conversations that we have had, Amy and I have had with authors about my book isn't out for a month or three months or six months or whatever.
Speaker 1:I want to be doing something. What can I be doing? And that's where the brand marketing conversation comes in. But brand marketing is something, as an author, you should be doing all the time. Now you're probably listening to this You're like, oh my gosh, and now I have to do book marketing and brand marketing and we're going to break it all down for you. But brand marketing is important. As you are moving through the process of either getting ready to get your book out into the world and or doing things to market your book, Brand marketing should always be a consideration. I mean, right, Amy?
Speaker 2:your book. Brand marketing should always be a consideration. I mean, right, amy? Yeah, I mean, the brand marketing is really what keeps the momentum going in between releases, because I'm sure anybody listening if you do already have a book out and you've done book marketing can like relate to the fact that it's like I feel like there's only so much time and so many ways I can talk about my book over and over and over again, right, and so I think that's also where the brand marketing is kind of a bonus in terms of other things you can focus on in different ways to literally promote your brand without just shoving your book down people's throats all the time, because we talk to our clients all the time that that's what they feel like they're doing, you know, especially on social media, in their newsletter. It's like I feel like I'm always just saying the same thing over and over again and it feels like insanity. And that's where brand marketing can kind of give you a break from just like literally shoving your book down their throats and focusing on some other really unique ways to connect with readers and to give them a better experience and all those good things.
Speaker 2:And, as Penny mentioned, this is something that came from authors that reach out to us well in advance of their books. That's what really started this. But for anybody listening who already has books out, please insert yourself wherever it makes sense in all of our recommendations. So, even if we may be mentioning timelines and things like that, just know you can do any of these things at any point and it will definitely help you. So this is not one of those things where, if you haven't done this already and you're past that, it's off the table for you. That's not it at all.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, Well, and so part of it is, too, that we oftentimes yes, I think a lot of times authors feel like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm just out there pandering my book all the time is really kind of test driving all of the things involved in who you are as an author. So that's your social media portals. That's getting on there and getting your feet wet in, you know, Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or wherever you feel like you're going to be. Maybe you're going to be in all three places. It is starting, you know, it's obviously it's taking your website out for a test drive. It's building your newsletter list.
Speaker 1:But probably the most important part of brand marketing, to my mind, is networking. So the best time to network is when you don't have anything to sell, which I know sounds a little counterintuitive to networking. But when you don't have anything to sell, you will listen more than you speak typically, right? So you think about, like, when you go to a networking event or something, you're just out there to kind of meet people and you don't really have anything like, oh, my book is not out for six months and you're just trying to get to know people. The same thing is true. When you're networking online, your goal is to get to know voices in your industry, so influencers and people who are reviewers and people who are talking about, who have a voice in the industry, who are talking about your topic. And by getting to know them, what I mean is starting to follow them, commenting on their posts, sharing their posts whenever appropriate, and this is one of the reasons why the brand marketing piece is something that you can carry through even well after your book is out, because that networking piece of it will always benefit you, you know, as you move through the.
Speaker 1:You know the marketing process. The other reason why I like networking is because and yes, you can certainly hire a company like us to help you market your book, but I really like. So one of the things that we do with our authors is we encourage them. Whenever a reviewer asks for a print book, we encourage our authors to mail the print book directly to that influencer or that reviewer and put in a little note or something. Those are now relationships. That's a relationship that you have, that you can foster through other book titles. Networking is so important, an important part of your author career, that I think it's something that you should really always be doing. I mean Amy what do?
Speaker 1:you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. And another point that we had on here too, penny, was that Amazon is busy, it's noisy.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a lot going on. Most authors are going to be a little disappointed when the book finally shows up on Amazon and there isn't this big party, there's not this like just immediate onslaught of sales. It just doesn't happen that quickly anymore. But you can kind of speed up that process If you have something established when your book goes live, and this can still. This is one of those things. This can still. This still applies to somebody. If you already have books out, and we say this all the time.
Speaker 2:Each book release is a way to do things better, to do things more strategically. You get a nice do-over, you get to bring what you've learned in the meantime and apply it to this next book. But having somewhere for people to connect with you and to learn about you in addition to your book's retail page, where they are essentially their option there is to just buy it and to trust you makes such a big difference. So to Penny's point having your website up and running, getting that looking clean, having some sort of social media presence if you plan on being there, you know having a newsletter that they can sign up for, all those things that make you look like you showed up, prepared matter, and that is all part of your brand. You know what people are able to find and see that you've put out into the world above and beyond just your book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and I think the other reason why I I mean I like this for all the reasons that we talked about, but one of the other reasons that I like doing brand marketing and I particularly, I like doing starting to do it early. If you're going to make your mistakes and we're all going to make mistakes when we're get you, when we're getting out there, even if it's your second or third or fourth book, and I don't care, like everything is changing all the time, so we're all kind of relearning things If you're going to make your mistakes, make them before the book is out. You know what I mean. Make them before you're on stage with this book and you're like, you know, and it's your book launch day and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't know what to post on social media. Start to get your feet wet early. And that's really where brand marketing can help. And it also kind of helps to fine tune your message, what you'll get a sense of what people are resonating with, what they're not resonating with, because otherwise you're you know, your book hits launch day and now you're starting that process and sometimes it can take, you know, months before you really know what has some sort of stickiness to it and that's one of the reasons why sometimes you'll go to writers conferences or maybe even in your writers group and you'll talk to authors and they'll say, oh, you know what I wish I knew with my second book, I wish I knew with my first book, but I know with my second, and that a lot of that is just because you your first book. It tends to be like your training wheels, right. So I mean, if you have the time six months if you have a six-month window and there's a lot of debate, amy and you and I have this conversation a lot of times when we're building proposals there's a lot of debate in how early you should start marketing your book. And if you have a nonfiction book you have, your options are a little bit larger because you might want to start doing some early pitching to business magazines or women's magazines or something like that. But if you have a fiction book doing that kind of early pitching, I mean fine, if you have a publisher that's doing it. But if your book isn't coming out for six months and you know a lot of those outlets don't necessarily need that long of a window to read. You know, to read a book Like nobody's to-be-read pile is generally six months out.
Speaker 1:But some of the things that you can start doing six months out like, for example, I'll talk to authors who have had their book out for a year and they never even started a mailing list. Get a mailing list started, get it up on your website You're going to say to me, penny, if we were sitting in the same room you'd say, yeah, that's fine, but I don't have anybody to send it to. I don't care, get in the habit, start to get that. Get the experience of having a mailing list, sending out a newsletter and you know, your first newsletter may go out to three people and one of them is your mom. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:You really want to start to form those habits as early as you can in the process, because an email list and again, we did a whole show on newsletters and whatnot and we don't have to get into that right now but an email list will benefit you in tremendous ways. You just have to figure out what you're going to talk about and that's not as hard as you think it is. It just may take some trial and error. I mean, when we first had our newsletter, amy, and you remember this, we were sending it out. I think we were sending it out every week or so. I'm just so crazy. Yeah, I know that, like now, amy's all triggered and she.
Speaker 2:But, penny, I love what you said about you know, people coming like I don't have anybody to send it to, and you mentioned maybe there's just three people I, you know, I kind of had this moment when you were saying that going you know what. That's so true, because we talk about super fans, we talk about building relationships, we talk about the reader experience all the time and it so matters, and we don't talk enough about those OG followers, like those first 10 people that signed up for your newsletter. You should be treating them like gods.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, do not make them wait until you feel like there's enough people to listen to you to make it worth your time. Yeah, you know, those first 10, first 20, like those are your people, that you have the potential to turn into somebody that will buy every single book that you put out. Right, that's exactly so. I don't know why. It just hit me that we've never I don't think we've ever talked about it in those like direct terms before. You know, because we have, like you're right, we've done shows on newsletters, we've done shows on all these things that you can do early. But, you know, sometimes discussing them in different ways clicks for people, and I think that's one thing that we need to remember that when you have those small groups of people that you feel like, oh my gosh, that's a lot of work for a small group of people, but those small groups of people could be your best people. Yeah, yeah, you know so. Don't neglect those small groups of people, those few followers on Instagram, those few people that have signed up for your website.
Speaker 1:If anything, put a lot of TLC into those people marketing is, and those of you listening who have had a book out for a while, you know that being an author takes practice. I mean not necessarily writing the book, although there's that, but being an author out in the world takes practice, right, it's not easy to show up and just all of a sudden, this author persona and then if you layer onto that that maybe you're writing under a pen name, it's like oh, who am I? Everybody's like their book launches and everybody's having an identity crisis, right. But the brand marketing window, that time ahead of your book launch, is something that you may think. Well, I really want to reach out for endorsements and I want to, you know, reach out and do. I want to get early blurbs and all of those things are great and you could do those, whether you're fiction or nonfiction. But getting your, you know, using that time to get your training wheels off and making those kinds of connections, because the other reason why I like to talk a lot I do talk a lot about networking when it comes to brand marketing, because that's such a huge part of it.
Speaker 1:But I'm and it's really, you know, when you, if you're, doing the marketing on your own and everybody should be engaged in their own success. If you're doing some or all of the marketing on your own and you want to go out and you want to pitch people, it's much, much, much harder to pitch a cold contact rather than somebody who has seen you comment on their, their stuff and social Yep, you know, because you build sort of like that virtual relationship. So I think you know there's hopefully I mean maybe I want to turn it over to you, but I mean I think hopefully anybody in any stage of wherever you are, you can use this brand marketing guidance to help you kind of figure out, because it's not always easy to find your way as an author Like I get it but really focusing on brand marketing can help you find your sea legs, find your voice and really figure out how you're showing up as an author Right, and I think also to the brand marketing.
Speaker 2:So much of marketing happens behind the scenes. Yeah, you know, I think it often sounds like when you say marketing it always sounds like things that you're putting out into the world, and obviously we all know that's kind of a given. But so much of what we do for our clients happens behind the scenes. First, you know like there is so much that goes on before anything leaves the door, and so I think that's another thing to always remember, as you're listening to different shows and we talk about marketing in different ways that a lot of it is behind the scenes.
Speaker 2:And it's not always just the putting out of things, it's the work that you put in behind the scenes to build to getting to the point where it's time to put something out there. So you know, like Penny mentioned getting your newsletter started, just getting in the practice of doing that. But that also applies to influencers. Start following them, Start doing your market research. You know, engage with them. Like Penny said, it's a lot easier to pitch somebody that you've been engaging with when there's a chance that they might have seen one of your comments or the fact that you shared something. That's a huge deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's a huge deal. And then I would also say that you know part of your networking should also be getting to know other authors in your market and building those relationships, because, I'm telling you, the author community is extremely generous with their help and their information. So, getting to know other authors, especially if you're a newbie, getting to know other authors out there in your genre and just starting to network with them and follow them and support them we should all be supporting each other in our work. That is something that you could be doing all the time and it takes virtually no effort. So there's no.
Speaker 1:Even if the rest of the stuff, you're like oh, I don't want to do an email list, whatever, like I get it, follow your, follow authors in your community because that's something, because you also learn from them and they might help to inspire ideas and new ideas to help to refresh your marketing. You know, writing is such an isolating profession that even you know giving, giving authors advice and saying, oh, just, you know, network and get out on social media and whatever that. If you're not going to writers conferences, if you don't have a writers group, if you don't have a local writers community, that is something that can really help to expand your, expand your knowledge, expand your connections and expand your area of influence too, right.
Speaker 2:And here's one for everybody that doesn't have a time constraint.
Speaker 2:We talk about this a lot.
Speaker 2:We've done shows on all the things you can be doing, but it's worth noting here that doing guest blogs, getting on podcasts, collaborations whether you're fiction or if it's an industry collaboration, getting involved in speaking events, things like that the things that you can do that support your message in your brand, in your book, that are above and beyond your book, that is all part of your brand building too.
Speaker 2:It's so important to do those extra things again because otherwise, like we talked about at the beginning, all you're really doing is shoving a book down somebody's throat and saying buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it. These other things that you can do to get yourself out there whether it's fiction and it's just a part of being a part of the communities and getting in front of the right people, or if it's nonfiction and you're a part of a specific industry that you can also get involved with more all of that is going to support both your book and your book sales in really big ways. I think a lot of authors would be surprised, penny, at how many sales can come in from those things that you do that aren't just your book marketing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And you know, I mean, let's face it, a lot of authors I mean for those of you listening again, as Amy said, who already have a book out figure out where you kind of fit into this and make pieces of this work for you. But I think a lot of authors really hate book marketing. I mean I hate marketing my book. I hate marketing my book, changing the mindset on that and turning this into kind of a different way of thinking. And I think a lot of times authors hate book marketing because they hate the rejection which, believe me, I get it.
Speaker 1:Because there's a lot of rejection in, like pitching, like you don't always hear from people and write you back, and you know what I mean. You feel like you're just throwing everything out down the black hole Like I get it, but brand marketing feels I don't know. I think for a lot of authors it also feels much more authentic too.
Speaker 2:Right, it's less about direct sales. It's more about building connections and less about selling. Even though the sales believe it or not, like I just said, those are actually. Those will come from brand marketing as well, and they're actually a huge part of your overall sales potential is your brand marketing.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think the other thing, and maybe the biggest piece of this that we sort of left for the last part, is that brand marketing whether you do it before the book comes out or you do it after the book comes out will really help you to define your reader. And it's amazing to me how many authors still launch a book without knowing who their reader is. Authors still launch a book without knowing who their reader is Like kind of blows my mind Right, but sometimes it's because they haven't done the work of really figuring out who their reader is before. Like a lot of times, I think books are written through a stream of creativity Like you have this great idea and you want to write this book, and I, as an author myself, through a stream of creativity. Like you have this great idea and you want to write this book, and I, as an author myself, I completely appreciate that.
Speaker 1:But you got to know who you're talking to. You have to know where they hang out, and doing some of this early work will really help you to figure that out and you may get to a point where you're just like, oh my gosh, I thought my reader was here and my reader really hangs out here. You know what I mean. But again, those are the kinds of, those are the kind of mistakes that can cost a lot of money if you're, if you're in the throes of marketing your book and you know, running ads or to the wrong group or something like that defining your reader. We've done whole shows on that. So if you're new to this podcast, definitely circle back through some of our, because we've been doing this for five years. We definitely have shows on defining your reader, but that's, I think, also extremely important.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. You know, that is some of my favorite part of I mean the psychology behind it. Hopefully that doesn't scare anybody off, but I find it fascinating and it's cool to make all those connections and start connecting those dots. I think it should also make you feel a lot more confident in when you actually are doing your marketing and brand marketing, knowing who you're speaking to, versus yelling into the void, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is, I think, where a lot of authors kind of feel like they just feel like they're sort of yelling into a void and again kind of feel like they just feel like they're sort of yelling into a void and again I get it. It's very noisy out there. I completely appreciate this, but this is something that I think anybody can do at any time. Ideally, you've done it before the book launches. Consider using this time constructively to get out there and start, you know, making your place in the world, as they say, and getting to know what it's like to, you know, to be an author. So I want to thank everybody who bought my book. Speaking of selling books, thank you all so much for buying my book and all the support. I've gotten so many emails from people saying I love your work. Really, really, really means so much to me, because that's why I do it, and we have a couple of really really cool summer-focused shows coming up. So we're actually going to rerun some summer-focused shows, I think, over the July 4th holiday. So be looking for those like how to turn your book into a summer read and and summer books for kids and things like that. So definitely be on the lookout for those.
Speaker 1:We love reviews wherever you listen to podcasts. We want to know whoever you reviewed, we want to know which is which. So please let us know. Um, who's the annoying? Um, little big sister, little sister, whatever that was, and we really we have.
Speaker 1:We have so many questions. Thank you so much for tuning in. We will see you next time. Bye-bye.
