This first-time novelist forced her publisher (against their normal practice) to reprint her book twice within six weeks of the novel’s release. The novel became a New York Times bestseller, won the Doubleday New Voices in Fiction award, and also won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Her subsequent novels became #1 New York Times bestsellers, sold millions of copies, and were made into top-grossing movies.

Who was this author?

What was the title of her first novel?

And what was the one thing she did that any first-time book author can do?

Terry McMillan was the author.

Her first novel was Mama.

Terry played the numbers game. She wrote thousands of letters to all sorts of people to get readers and stores excited about her new novel. Any unknown author can follow Terry’s example by playing the same numbers game.

When Terry McMillan’s first novel Mama was published in 1987, her publisher only sent out press releases and review copies—their standard low-level effort for first-time authors. So Terry took the promotion into her own hands.

She wrote more than 3,000 letters to bookstores, colleges, chain stores, African-American groups, and other groups asking them to stock and/or promote her book. She offered to do readings wherever they would give her space.

The response was so great that she ended up doing her own book tour to 39 cities. Her efforts gained plenty of rave reviews for her book as well as two re-printings in six weeks.

The key point of this story is not who Terry sent the letters to, but how many she sent. It’s a numbers game, and few book authors or even Internet entrepreneurs make full use of the numbers game.

For an ebook (rather than a print book), you would send 3,000 emails or letters to online book sites, ebook reviewers, book bloggers, potential JV partners, and other authors who write books like yours.

If you send out 10 emails or letters per day, you’d reach more than 3,000 people in one year—and that’s with time off for good behavior!

First rule: The Numbers Game. Send out lots of letters and emails!

Second rule: Create relationships with those people, websites, and stores who respond.

Third rule: Build from there.

The above story has been excerpted from About the Author by Alfred and Emily Grossbrenner.

A friend on Facebook shared this information after seeing the above video: “My friend got books in nearly 100 libraries by sending approximately 400 emails.”

Website: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-mama-bestseller-video

Again, note that during the next week or ten days, I won’t be reachable via email, phone call, or social media. But I will be back! — John Kremer

This first-time novelist forced her publisher (against their normal practice) to reprint her book twice within six weeks of the novel’s release. The novel became a New York Times bestseller, won the Doubleday New Voices in Fiction award, and also won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Her subsequent novels became #1 New York Times bestsellers, sold millions of copies, and were made into top-grossing movies.

Who was this author?

What was the title of her first novel?

And what was the one thing she did that any first-time book author can do?

Listen in to tomorrow’s podcast for the answer to this puzzle. And a great tip on how you too can be successful selling books and building a bestselling reputation as a book author.

Please note that I will not be available via email, phone calls, or social media for the next week or so. But I will return!

A secretary at an insurance agency in a small Midwestern state self-published a book and then did one thing, over and over again, for more than a year—something that any book author can do as well.

She ended up selling over 30,000 copies of her book in that first year and then went on to become the bestselling book author on the QVC home shopping channel, selling well over a million books.

Who was this author?

What was the title of her book?

And what was the one thing she did over and over again for more than a year?

JoAnna Lund was the author

Her book was the Healthy Exchanges Cookbook.

JoAnna spent the first year after self-publishing her book promoting it via radio, TV, and newspaper interviews in her home state of Iowa and parts of western Illinois.

She did interviews at least several times every week. She became one of the most well-known people in Iowa during that year and sold over 30,000 copies in Iowa, out-selling every other book during that time (even the Bible!).

Authors: You, too, can become a star in your own state. Most media covering statewide or local news are hungry for unusual news or interesting people to interview. Find an angle and promote the heck out of yourself.

When life handed me a lemon, not only did I make lemonade, I also wrote the recipe and then sold that recipe! — JoAnna Lund, author, Healthy Exchanges Cookbook

In my new book (a work in progress), Book Marketing Success Stories: How to Become a Bestselling Author (As Revealed by the Stories of Bestselling Book Authors), I reveal even more book marketing secrets JoAnna shared with me during our many talks. She was a wonderful sharing woman, full of joy and inspiration.

Of course, in my new book I’m also be revealing all the stories and more even details that I’ve been sharing in this series of podcasts. Here’s a link to download the work in progress for only $30: https://buy.stripe.com/dR66s608f0dJavS8wz. Note: I’ll be updating the book as I continue to work on it. You’ll get all updates for free!

A secretary at an insurance agency in a small Midwestern state self-published a book and then did one thing, over and over again, for more than a year—something that any book author can do as well.

She ended up selling over 30,000 copies of her book in that first year and then went on to become the bestselling book author on the QVC home shopping channel, selling well over a million books.

Who was this author?

What was the title of her book?

And what was the one thing she did over and over again for more than a year?

Want to know more? Listen in to tomorrow’s podcast.

Follow me at . . . GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

If you have trouble asking people for money, don't ask for the green stuff. Ask for the beautiful purple Australian dollars—with flowers!

Always ask people to pay for your book or other content. Yes, you can give some content away for free, but the really good stuff you should charge for. People value the content they pay for. And, when people discover good things, they like to share those good things with other people. They are far more likely to share the things they've paid for.

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer.

Listen to my Book Marketing Success Podcast: https://bookmarketing.substack.com.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs.

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing. Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec.

Become my patron for all good things: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing.

Or choose to Venmo me at https://account.venmo.com/u/bookmarketingsuccess.

One year before their book became a New York Times #1 bestseller, two authors committed to doing one thing to promote their collection of short stories—something that any other book author can do.

Who were these authors?

What was the title of their book?

And what was the one thing they did faithfully every day for one year?

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen were the authors.

Chicken Soup for the Soul was the book, the beginning of an incredibly bestselling series.

Jack and Mark committed to doing one interview every day for a full year. At the end of that one year, their book was a #1 bestseller and launched the series that has sold over 800 million books thus far.

Note: Jack and Mark focused at that time on getting radio interviews and TV interviews. In today’s world, most authors would now focus on getting podcast interviews. There are hundreds of podcasts eager to interview book authors on almost any subject. Seek those podcasts out. Start looking for the podcasts you want to be on by joining https://www.matchmaker.fm and creating a guest profile there.

Video: The Chicken Soup for the Soul Book Marketing Campaign

Listen to Jack talk about how he and his co-author Mark Victor Hansen took hundreds of ideas from 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and placed them up on a wall as Post-It notes. And then took the notes down as they implemented the ideas. It took them two years to carry out all the ideas but by then their book was at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/jack-canfield-on-how-he-used-1001-ways-to-market-your-books.

Connect with John Kremer

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Follow me at . . . GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

One year before their book became a New York Times #1 bestseller, two authors committed to doing one thing to promote their collection of short stories—something that any other book author can do.

Who were these authors?

What was the title of their book?

And what was the one thing they did faithfully every day for one year?

Follow me at . . . GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Before publishing his book with an independent book publisher, this author took two key steps—two steps that any author can follow to create a better book.

Who was this author? And what were the two key steps he took to make his book a bestseller?

Dan Gookin was the author.

DOS for Dummies was the book.

What two steps did Dan take to make his book a bestseller?

First, Dan created a brandable and memorable title, DOS for Dummies.

Booksellers at first refused to feature the book because they claimed that no readers would ever intentionally call themselves dummies. Well, the booksellers were wrong. Hundreds, then thousands of readers marched into bookstores to find the book.

Second, Dan created a user-friendly design that caused his computer primer to stand head and shoulders over any other computer manual.

DOS for Dummies ended up selling millions of copies and established a brand that has sold over 700 million copies of additional titles.

When writing a nonfiction book, you can follow Dan’s example. Start by coming up with a memorable and brandable title. That’s actually easier than you might think.

Second, come up with a design for your book that is both approachable and effective in conveying information. Ask yourself: What design elements would make your book easier to read and to use? What graphical elements would you include?

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Follow me at . . . GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Before publishing his book with an independent book publisher, this author took two key steps—two steps that any author can follow to create a better book.

His book became a New York Times bestseller and formed the basis for a series that has sold over 700 million copies.

Who was this author? And what were the two key steps he took to make his book a bestseller?

Want to know more? Listen in to tomorrow’s podcast.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Follow me at . . . GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

For writers and authors looking for inspiration for your next book, your next story, your next podcast episode, your next blog post, your next social post, or your next talk, here are a few sources of inspiration . . .

34 places to look for inspiration . . .

In the music you hear and the songs you sing

Through the lens of a camera

In a great neighborhood bookstore

In a garden where you can dig for it

Through the eyes of a friend

In the laughter of little kids

On the shelves of your local library

In the conversations around you — Listen in!

Via movies, TV shows, and Rumble videos

In the sound of a burbling spring

On the beach, on the street, or on the subway

In the faces of lovers and strangers

Via Craigslist, Buzzfeed, Reddit, or Mix

In People, Vanity Fair, Wired, Woman’s Day

On Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on TikTok

In a great retail gift store

Via Tumblr, Medium, Flickr, Substack, etc.

In your notebooks, junk drawers, or diaries

On a random street or highway

In the wag of a dog’s tail

Via a podcast, a webinar, or a Facebook Live

On the pages of Amazon, Ebay, Wayfair, etc.

In one of your old blog posts

Up in your attics and down in your basements

On the pages of your favorite bloggers or podcasters

In WalMart, Target, Home Depot, Whole Foods, or Lowe’s

Through the hearts and minds of your friends

Via a Google or Bing or Duck Duck Go search

Amid the hustle and bustle of your office

On Pinterest, Instagram, or Snap

In a book, a poem, an essay, a manifesto

On the dark side of the moon

In the stillness of the night

Via the deepest inkling of your soul

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Follow me at . . .

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

Where Do Author Ideas Come From?

Here are a few of the activities that book shepherd Judith Briles identified recently as tools for coming up with great ideas for books, blog posts, podcast episodes, webinars, and more:

Goofing off.

Doodling.

Watching a movie or TV show.

Listening to a podcast or a radio show.

Reading an article.

Showering or hot tubbing.

Daydreaming.

Hiking or taking a walk.

Getting dressed or undressed.

Having lunch with a friend.

Shopping.

Reading. Reading books. Reading magazines. Reading blog posts. Reading people.

The list is endless ... what isn’t endless is you. Ideas are like tides that ebb and flow—moving in your direction and flowing away. What you do with ideas when they arrive is what makes you an author.

So, are you jucilating? Creating new ideas? Catching the eyes and ears of your potential audience?

Notice: Judith's copyright notice on the above image is an invalid copyright notice. Valid copyright notices require a date (year).

I’ll be sharing my own list of 24 sources of inspiration tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy and be inspired by Judith’s list!

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Follow me at . . .

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

When the Shelf Awareness Pro newsletter interviews book authors, they often ask them to complete the following instruction: Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

That’s how many words you generally have to tell someone about your book as you ride down a hotel elevator. Hence, the name, an elevator pitch.

Here’s how Amber Brown and Danielle Brown described their new thriller, Someone Had to Do It:

A fun, sexy, cat-and-mouse thriller set in the glamorous New York City fashion scene, dripping in social satire where privilege and prejudice intersect.

Now, I’d read that book! Sexy. Fun. Glamorous. Thrilling. Dripping in satire. Good enough for me!

How would you describe your book in 25 words or less and make someone want to buy and read it?

Please email me with your 25 words and, if I like it, I’ll pass it on to my readers and listeners here on this podcast as well as on my 5 Things I Love About Books podcast.

Email: johnkremer@bookmarket.com. Subject: 25 words for my book

You have a choice when writing the sales copy for your book. You can use something like the following generic points, or you can create sizzling sales copy. Your choice.

* A strong powerful message about mental health

* Inspiring

* Raw and Authentic

* Lets people know they’re not alone when having mental issues

* Gives people hope

* Lets public understand job as a Wildland Firefighter

* It is relevant, a true story and extremely motivating

Now, the above are certainly descriptive of the author’s book, Above the Ashes, but most of the points are too generic to create much impact and motivate people to buy the book, either for themselves or for people they love.

Here, on the other hand, are a few of the sales points I wrote for his book as part of a promotional letter to indie bookstores. Note: I got a lot of this content from his book, his Instagram feed, and his Amazon book page.

Here are just a few reasons readers will want to buy Above the Ashes and a great bookstore will want to stock the book:

If you loved You Can’t Hurt Me by David Groggins, or Wild by Cheryl Strayed, or Thirst by Heather Anderson, you’ll love this incredible memoir.

One of the best ways to help readers and booksellers to identify books they might be interested in is to associate your book with other well-known or bestselling books.

Mental illness is a serious condition. More than 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetimes. 1 in 25 Americans lives with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. You can help them by giving them this book!

Identify a key audience for your book by citing relevant statistics. Such statistics can also help other people to understand the importance and value of your book.

Kevin has been interviewed on local affiliates of CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC around the country as well as on podcasts such as Anchor Point and Chats with Fire.

Show readers and booksellers that you are media savvy and worthy of attention by demonstrating your media appeal or by pitching media-worthy story lines or interview possibilities.

In the first 30 days, Kevin sold more than 500 copies of Above the Ashes. He’ll work with you to sell many more copies. Just give him a chance!

Show that you as an author can sell your books and are willing to go out of the way to help others to sell your books as well. If you have an author street team, a social media tribe, or other partners, showcase them.

“This is the story of a man who saved his own life. Reading it could save yours or that of someone you love.”

Strike the heart strings of your potential readers by quoting a reader, telling a brief story, or excerpting a short statement from your book.

There is no quit in the soul of a wildland firefighter. There is no it’s too late, it’s too early, it’s too steep, it’s too hot, it’s too heavy. Above the Ashes contributes to the many, many firefighters who work to save your homes and your lives.

You can showcase another potential audience or topic. In this case, I did it with a very short excerpt from the book that the author also featured on his Instagram feed.

“Wow, this was a tough one to put down! Loved following Kevin on his journey across the United States. Also very insightful to hear more behind the scenes about what it's like being a wildland firefighter. True heroes. Couldn't recommend this book enough.” — Iron Tazz

If you have some specific and/or moving testimonials from Amazon or other readers, feature at least one quote in your sales letter.

Also in your sales letter feature your book cover, a photo of the author, and any other engaging photos (like the one above featuring the author on his ride across America).

You can find the complete sales letter I created for Above the Ashes on my other podcast site: Five Things I Love About Books at https://ilovebooks.substack.com.

Here are three questions that my friends have asked me via email in the past week:

What's your reason to get up in the morning? — a question from Guy Kawasaki, host of the Remarkable People podcast. Listen in to his podcast to find how some people have answered this question:

Here's the transcript of the above interview: https://remarkable-people.simplecast.com/episodes/hector-garcia-finding-your-reason-for-living/transcript

I figured that I should answer these questions as well. Here’s my answer to this question: “What’s your reason to get up in the morning?:

I get up in the morning to share all the things I’m learning and have learned with other people: advice about marketing books, my insights on how to pray, my love of words and travel trivia and TV trivia and wonderful quotations and more. I just love sharing what I discover. And I love inspiring other people. — John Kremer

If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, what's the one idea you'd want to leave behind? — Marie Forleo, bestselling author of Everything Is Figureoutable

No matter your dreams or obstacles, you have the powerto change your life and change the world. — Marie Forleo

Here’s my answer to this question: “If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, what's the one idea you'd want to leave behind?”:

Over the next few years (I know it all won’t happen tomorrow), I hope to leave behind this one message: The most important thing in your life is your relationship to God, the spiritual dimension of your life that way too many people ignore. Learn how to pray. Learn how to meditate. Learn how to connect to the real real. — John Kremer

Someone sent me an email with this question: What is your word for the new year? Sadly, I can’t find the email so I just have to ask that question and provide an answer for it. Your word for the year can be any word that encompasses one to three words (as a word or expression).

My word for the year is simple: Never Give Up!

What is your word for the year? Please share your answers to this question and the above two questions in the comments below. Thanks!

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or choose to support me with a Venmo tip at https://account.venmo.com/u/bookmarketingsuccess

Jim Meade, host of the End Anxiety Podcast and author of End Anxiety! Proven Benefits of the Transcendental Meditation Program, interviewed me, John Kremer, for his podcast. Check it out.

It’s amazing to have John Kremer with us today. He’s an author and a book marketing expert. He’s not just behind millions of books being sold. He’s behind billions, including many bestsellers including the Chicken Soup books,

Whether you’re a writer or not, if you've struggled with being discouraged, with lack of confidence, or with too many obstacles to your success, John Kremer is your guy. He’s been there and, boy, has he come through it.

John is also the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books in which he shares some of his remarkable marketing knowledge.

You can also visit his website for more information at http://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com.

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

John Kremer joins Dr. Judith Briles for a lively kick-off New Year session for Book Marketing Strategies for 2023.

Get ready for an hour with two masters of book marketing and what you should be doing for 2023: John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, and Judith Briles via the AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast.

Your takeaways include:

Hot tips for 2023 to do starting now.

3 things to do for your book marketing starting today.

Why being a podcast guest is so crucial and how to take advantage of it when you are the featured guest.

Learn an easy-peasy way to become a guest on a podcast.

Discover why TV coverage has less pop.

Note how libraries can be a sweet spot for your book.

Why the local weeklies should still get your attention.

Why newsjacking is an ideal publicity window.

Discover the MeetCopper app, a promising new platform for authors and readers to connect!

Are you ready to start? Join in ... you will learn a lot!

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service I offer via SnipFeed: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a personalized video.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee if you like what I offer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

If you want people to buy from you, don't just sell, sell, sell. Let people get to know you as a person as well. This story of my dog's death tells all of you of where my heart is.

Share your heart with your readers, your fans, your social media followers!

In the early morning of Tuesday, December 27th, my dog Becky, aka Lady Beck, died. She was a wonderful dog who I loved very much. Several hours before she died, she touched her nose to my nose and looked at me with luminous eyes full of love and trust.

Lady Beck has my vote for dog of the year, even dog of the decade!

Your attitude is the one thing in your life you have full control over.You can change it in an instant.Now.Not tomorrow.Not next year.This instant.Now.What are you waiting for?

— John Kremer

You’ll be more effective in promoting your books if you keep on marketing regardless of the ups and downs of responses. No matter what happens, only you have control of your actions in responding to the ups and downs.

Your job is simple: Keep doing the things you need to do to market your books.

Promote your books until you discover the actions that really produce results for you. For example, book sales that make a difference for you. Then keep doing those actions.

Stay positive. Keep promoting. And you’ll make more book sales than those authors who give up too quickly. Don’t give up!

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Thanks!

Here are a few of the things that are infectious, very infectious, during the winter holidays, especially because of Christmas.

optimism

joy

kindness

courtesy

charity

generosity

gratitude

selflessness

compassion

forgiveness

faith

Enjoy the holidays! Remember: “Faith is infectious. Life isn’t always perfect, you know, but sometimes things work out for the best if you just have faith.” — Abby Sciuto, NCIS character

You can use these holidays to renew your book writing, book publishing, and book marketing efforts. Go forth into the new year with a renewed mind and body. Be sure to enjoy what you are creating and producing!

Have a great new year!

John Kremer

In this Book Marketing Success Podcast episode, I interview Fitz Koehler, a cancer survivor and author of Your Healthy Cancer Comback: Sick to Strong and the accompanying Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. She is also author of My Noisy Cancer Comeback: Running at the Mouth, While Running for My Life.

In this podcast episode, we talk about the reasons she went from traditional publishing to begin self-publishing her books.

I've gone from learning the hard way to learning the smart way and am committed to self-publishing top-notch professional products that look the part, sound the part and create a solid profit. — Fitz Koehler

Listen in as we discuss her cancer comeback, her desire to teach other cancer patients the importance of fitness in helping people survive cancer, and her love of self-publishing as a way to reach the people she wants to reach.

It was a great interview. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Check out her website at https://www.fitzness.com/blog.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

The #1 bestselling book in all of Amazon a few years ago was a self-published blank book by Michael J. Knowles: Reasons to Vote for Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide. Author Knowles beat out George W. Bush, Tony Robbins, and J.K. Rowling.

Listen to this audio episode from Daniel Hall’s Real Fast Results podcast to discover how Michael made his book into a #1 bestseller.

The book is described as the “most exhaustively researched and coherently argued Democrat Party apologia to date” as well as “a political treatise sure to stand the test of time.”

It did have a Table of Contents and a Bibliography as well as a number of chapters. The chapters were blank, but the Table of Contents and Bibliography were full text.

Knowles told Fox and Friends that “what’s really great about this book, you can go cover-to-cover in about 15, 20 seconds. It took a very long time to research this book.”

You can order Michael J. Knowles's Reasons to Vote for Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide by clicking on the title. Yes, the book is five years old, but still as up-to-date as the lastest bestsellers.

And here is a summary of the podcast audio at the top of this page: http://realfastresults.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Episode-90-Michael-J.-Knowles.pdf.

If you like this podcast, consider buying me a cup of coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/bookmarketing

Book Cover or Book Title Critiques: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Connect with me here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Start writing today. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with Book Marketing Success

Anchor.fm — This free podcasting platform offers all the recording, editing, hosting, and distribution you need to start a successful podcast.

Free Hosting – Anchor offers unlimited free hosting with no trial period, no storage limits, no catch.

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Podcast with Friends – Record your podcast with friends or cohosts. Or take voice messages from your listeners to include in your episodes.

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world … but it requires people to make the dream a reality. — Walt Disney

This is great book marketing advice from Walt Disney. You can never self-publish or market a book alone (even though that’s what self-publishing means). You can’t sell your book on your own. You can’t market your book on your own.

You can always use help from fans, followers, tribes, partners, fellow authors, booksellers, and your family. When you self-publish or go about marketing your books, don’t ignore relationships. Book marketing is ultimately relationship marketing. Short and simple.

If you like this podcast, consider buying me a cup of coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/bookmarketing

Book Cover or Book Title Critiques: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Connect with me here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success. Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have. — Zig Ziglar

What does success mean to you? Especially when marketing your books? Let me know what book marketing success means to you by commenting below. Thanks!

If you like this podcast, offer me a coffee or pizza tip: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/tipping/TGlua0Jsb2NrOjYyMWVmYWRhMzJiNjdmMDAxNzUxMTIyMg==

Book Cover or Book Title Critiques: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Connect with me here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

In this Book Marketing Q&A session, John Kremer answers questions on book marketing, online marketing, and book publishing. John answered questions on exclusive book distribution, selling online (especially if you're not selling via online bookstores), and how to market to old fictional genres.

What are the pros and cons of an EXCLUSIVE book distribution deal with a company like Small Press United? — Judah

Judah emailed me the question in more detail after the Q&A session. Here is my answer to his more detailed questions:

My concerns include that I've heard horror stories of books getting poor performance under exclusive distribution deals giving the publisher no recourse. Also, I’m unsure if SPU reaches the MBS marketplace or if their library and academic distribution is any good. I further need to pin down whether an SPU contract would prohibit distribution deals for other countries and continents (latest book has a global market).

As for your questions and concerns voiced above, you have to do your due diligence. Ask SPU client publishers what their experience has been about poor performance, whether SPU reaches the MBS market, if their library/academic distribution is good or not, and whether you can do deals in other countries.

Now, the first three concerns should be answered by other client publishers. Reading your actual contract should answer the international distribution question. If the contract is unclear, negotiate the contract to make it clear.

Hi, John. I'm frustrated with policies and revenues at many online booksellers. So, without abandoning them, I'm investigating several ways to sell, directly and mostly directly, audiobooks, signed books, downloaded ebooks, short stories, etc. — Dan

In my answer I described how you could sell direct on your website using Paypal links and buttons. Paypal allows payments direct via Paypal or via credit cards. It’s relatively easy to set up payments via Paypal. Of course, you can also use ecommerce websites like Shopify to set up payments and fulfillment as well.

But I’d also favor selling via Amazon and other online booksellers because they offer additional discovery possibilities. If you have a store only on your website, you have to push awareness of your website via ads, publicity, and other promotion.

How do you market to an odd genre? I have a series of political novels that deal with public policies, government reforms, etc. with a little romance? It is a cross between the movie, The American President, and the hit TV series The West Wing. The first book in the series is now on pre-order on Amazon Kindle. — Richard

In my answer I described how to target readers and book buyers via Amazon ads as well as how to target exposure for your book via other places where your potential readers congregate.

I also answered a question about marketing online when you hate social media.

The key tip is not to spend time on social media if you feel it is toxic, but still post to key social media that your audience likes to use. You can post to Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest without spending any time on those social media. Or, in some cases, you might have to spend a minute or two to make your post but you can then jump off that site and go about your happy business.

In addition, I gave some tips on getting on major TV shows, major podcasts, and major magazine websites. I also explained how you can brand your keyword (mine is book marketing) via social media and websites like BuyMeACoffee.com or Patreon.

If you like this Q&A, consider buying me a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing.

Or become an on-going patron of my work by going to https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing.

Or choose to Venmo me at https://account.venmo.com/u/bookmarketingsuccess.

I also provided details on two key podcast and podcast guest listing services. I included a key tip on how to maximize your listings on those two websites. Check my podcast and me on Listen Notes and Matchmaker.fm:

Listen Notes: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/book-marketing-success-podcast-john-kremer-dCp2hqScloa - Note my 10 Elsewhere links on that profile.

Matchmaker.fm: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast/book-marketing-success-podcas-60d7a1 - Note my 10 Discover More links on that profile.

Don’t forget to send in your questions for today’s Book Marketing Q&A session. Even if you cannot attend live, you can listen in on the replay and get answers to your book publishing and book marketing questions. Email: johnkremer@bookmarket.com with the subject line: Book Marketing question for John

Join me for this session live on today, December 16th, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific at https://meetn.com/bookmarketingsuccess.

See you then!

In this episode, I talk about the difference between a great TV show and a very ordinary possibly insipid TV show, the difference between the incredible Game of Thrones and the very ordinary House of the Dragon.

As I recently streamed The Game of Thrones, a remarkable and popular HBO show from several years ago, I fell in love with at least a dozen characters. I speculated about which ones would survive the slaughter that accompanies any game of thrones. Most of my favorite characters did survive until the end of the current game. Only two of my favorites did not survive.

The show had detailed story lines, a cast of wonderful characters, and a satisfying ending.

On the other hand, the plot of House of the Dragon first season was intensely boring. The characters were boring and so similar that few stood out. The main character of the first season was the king, who was so insipid and low energy that I hoped he would die in the second episode. Alas, he didn’t. He held on until the tenth episode.

The only interesting character was the daughter of the king. As a young teen in the first few episodes, she was interesting. I wanted her to succeed. But then a different actress took over, and she was not a character I cared about.

The difference between the two shows (by the same writers and showrunners) shows how important it is to create great stories and interesting characters—not just for novels, but also for any stories you tell in your nonfiction books. Stories are important. They matter. Make sure you tell stories and create characters that people want to root for or, at least, care enough about to keep reading.

Don’t forget to send in your questions for Friday’s Book Marketing Q&A session. Even if you cannot attend live, you can listen in on the replay and get answers to your book publishing and book marketing questions. Email: johnkremer@bookmarket.com with the subject line: Book Marketing question for John

Join me for this session live on Friday, December 16th, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific at https://meetn.com/bookmarketingsuccess.

Here are a few free online tools you can use to create interesting graphics to promote your books, podcasts, websites, and social media.

Eclipse Crosswords: http://www.eclipsecrossword.com — A Windows downloadable program for creating crossword puzzles.

EZ GIF: http://www.ezgif.com — Allows you to make GIFs from images or videos as well as optimize GIFs, jpgs, and pngs.

Flixel: http://www.flixel.com — A downloadable app for iOS to create cinemagraphs (repeating videos that showcase movement in only part of the video, somewhat like a GIF).

Gfycat Free Motion Background GIFs: https://gfycat.com/gifs/search/free+motion+background — Moving background GIFs that you can use in your videos and in creating new GIFs with graphic overlays of the background GIFs.

Imgur: http://www.imgur.com — A directory of the most viral images on the Internet, sorted by popularity. Meme Generator: http://imgur.com/memegen. Video to GIF: http://imgur.com/vidgif.

Memegenerator: http://www.memegenerator.net — Allows you to create new memes based on popular meme characters and images. It's the easiest meme generator online.

Online Image Editor: http://www.online-image-editor.com — This online editor allows you to resize and crop animated GIF images, add text to animated GIFs, make a GIF with their GIF maker, add borders, add a mask or picture frame, and more. Also allows you to add speech bubbles, rain GIFs, glitter text, and more. An incredible graphic tool.

Water Effect: http://www.watereffect.net — Allows you to create a water ripple mirror image of any graphic image, from book covers to podcast images.

This week on Friday, December 16th, I will be hosting a free Book Marketing Q&A session. Join me for this session live at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific at https://meetn.com/bookmarketingsuccess. This session will be limited to one hour.

You can send questions ahead of time by email to johnkremer@bookmarket.com. Subject: Book Marketing question for John

Not everything that counts can be counted.

You can count sales. You can count fans and followers. You can count pins and tweets.

But you can’t count passion. You can’t count commitment. You can’t count engagement. You can’t count real relationships.

But you can be passionate. You can make commitments and ask others to commit as well. You can engage with other people: fans, readers, booksellers, wholesalers, bloggers, podcasters, bookstagramers, TikTokers, YouTubers, and many, many others. And you can begin to create real relationships that make a difference in your life or in the marketing of your book.

If you like this podcast, offer me a coffee or pizza tip: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/tipping/TGlua0Jsb2NrOjYyMWVmYWRhMzJiNjdmMDAxNzUxMTIyMg==

Book Cover or Book Title Critiques: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing - Check out this service: Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

When I was a little kid, I made a deal with the universe. If I was able to manifest my dreams, then I would try to do good in some way. — Jessica Alba, actress and entrepreneur

Have you made your deal with the universe yet? If you do decide to make a deal, what would it be?

If the universe is too big for you to deal with, make a deal with your spouse, your friend, your dog, your parents, a business associate, or the cashier at your local food market.

Note: The deal is for you, not for them, so don’t worry with whom or what you make your deal. Just make the deal!

And, here are a few other inspirational quotes from Jessica Alba:

Dream big. Be authentic. Trust your gut. Reach for the stars. Laugh out loud often. Live in the moment. Be open. Be creative. Stay inspired. Big Kiss! — Jessica Alba, CEO of The Honest Co. and actress

A lot of people give up at the first roadblock. But for entrepreneurs, if there isn’t another road, we create it. We break concrete; we throw dynamite; we figure it out. — Jessica Alba, CEO of The Honest Co. and actress

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5 - If this link doesn’t work (you get an error), then just cut and paste the link into your browser and hit return. The link definitely works, but Substack might not be processing it correctly.

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Next week on Friday, December 16th, I will be hosting a free Book Marketing Q&A session. Join me for this session live at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific at https://meetn.com/bookmarketingsuccess.

You can send questions ahead of time by email to johnkremer@bookmarket.com. Subject: Book Marketing question for John

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5 - If this link doesn’t work (you get an error), then just cut and paste the link into your browser and hit return. The link definitely works, but Substack might not be processing it correctly.

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

There are many ways to tell a story to make a book better, to enchant a live audience, to make a website better, to enliven a podcast episode. Or to explain what happened last week when I missed three planned episodes of this podcast.

Often when we are in the middle of writing a book or carrying out a marketing plan or producing podcast episodes, our personal lives interrupt. That’s what happened to me. My 13-year-old dog Becky would not eat anything on Tuesday.

When I took her into the vet on Wednesday, I found out she had a huge mass growing in her abdomen area. Apparently not cancerous, but still growing. X-rays and an ultrasound showed that an operation might not save her. We’ll talk to another vet to get a second opinion, but there’s a good chance that Becky won’t live long.

Fortunately she’s eating well now so she won’t waste away, getting weaker and weaker by the day. As with many pet lovers, I love my dog. She has been my companion for more than 13 years. I will miss her when she is gone.

Never sacrifice your real life for your writing or your work. If you are like me, you can’t not write, but make sure you fit in some real life as well. Spend time with those you love. Laugh hard. Walk in the woods. Play with your cats and dogs and children. Be kind to everyone.

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Garden & Gun Magazine, The Allėe Group, 700 East Bay Street #115, Charleston SC 29403; 843-795-1195. A bimonthly lifestyle magazine featuring gardening, cooking, home, decor, nature, and hunting/fishing. Their December issue featured reviews of Duck Walk: A Birder’s Improbable Path to Hunting as Conversation and How It Went: Thirteen Stories of the Port William Membership. They feature more book reviews and excerpts online.

Email: editorial@gardenandgun.com.

Web: https://www.gardenandgun.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gardenandgun.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardenandgun.

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/gardenandgun.

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/gardenandgun.

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/gardenandgun.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Gardenandgun.

David DiBenedetto, Editor in Chief. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davedibenedetto. Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/davedibenedetto.

C.J. Lotz, Senior Editor (and Book Editor). G&G Reads, their online book club: https://www.gardenandgun.com/ggreads.

Emily Daily, newsletter editor

Elizabeth Florio, digital editor

You can also submit books and other news items to the following G&G newsletters:

Talk of the South: Get the latest news from around the South.

The Skillet: Enjoy the best of Southern food and drink.

Good Hunting: See top-of-the-line products chosen by G&G editors and contributors.

Fieldshop: Shop products inspired by the pages of G&G.

G&G Events: Join us for unforgettable experiences at first-class destinations.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

The first step in book marketing has nothing to do with marketing; it has everything to do with creating a great product. Write a book that actually helps people, or entertains them, or inspires them. Write the truth. Write honestly. Write with passion.

If you want to see how to do this, check out the Real World Edition of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

Listen in to this review. You want reviews like the following:

I’ve been reading the ebook edition and enjoying the way you write…

…and eagerly awaiting the paperback so I can flip pages and pepper it with Post-Its and all the other things one does with such a useful, helpful book.

I especially like what you say at the end…

…about how you’ve learned that what you do doesn’t matter as much as how what you do makes people feel…

You make me feel very happy.

Very few authors do.

Especially on the subject of selling more books.

When I read their stuff, I get the oddest feeling that they’re not telling me the whole story.

You, on the other hand, recommend taking a 3-year approach to selling more books… and that’s just the minimum!

In all the books I’ve read on the subject of selling more books, not once have I come across that recommendation…

…but as soon as I saw it, I knew I could trust you.

warmest regards…

Elizabeth Adams, a true fan

Write the book you love, not the one you think you should write. If you’re creating something you aren’t head-over-heels in love with, you’ll peter out before page 50. Make something you’ll be proud of for a lifetime. — Nathan Bransford, author

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

All businesses should include love for their customers as part of their brand strategy. Also love for employees, partners, suppliers, etc. — John Kremer

If you love your readers, your readers will love you!

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmark

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. — Douglas Adams, novelist

Don’t you want great service from others? Then offer great service to others. No matter what you do, you can offer great service, real service.

You can write so well that you move people and create incredible change. You can market your books better than anyone else. You can do the things you need to do to bring more people into your target audience to be part of your fan club, your street teams, and your word-of-mouth army.

Offer great service to everyone that you meet. You’ll amaze most of them and create fans of them as well.

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmark

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather the wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

And, if you want to sell books, don’t drum up humdrum followers. Teach your fans to yearn for what your book offers. Teach them to yearn for your knowledge, your experience, your entertainment, your passion.

Teach them also to yearn for their own passion. Show them that your book fulfills that passion.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmark

Who does not thank you for the little things will not thank you for much. — Estonian proverb

In marketing your books, the little things matter as much as the big things. It’s the things you do day by day that make a difference.

Do you want to sell more books? Then spend more time every day creating new relationships or nurturing old relationships. It’s really that simple.

Pick up the phone and call someone.Return a phone call.Write a letter.Write an email.Make a comment on a friend’s blog post (or that of a fellow book author).Share a Facebook post.Recommend a fellow author on Twitter or Facebook.Retweet someone on Twitter.Pin someone’s blog post to Pinterest.Record a short podcast episode like this one.

Do something every day. Even a little thing.

And, always, give thanks.

By the way, thank you for listening to this podcast episode.

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

Life is too short not to be thankful for all that passes our way.

Keep it simple. Do what you do best. And be thankful for the rest.

Let others help you. Always.

I admit I’m not always good at doing this myself, but I do know that those who are really successful are really good at accepting the help of others.

Ask for help. Accept the help that is offered you. Go out of your way to help others.

And, of course, be sure to thank anyone who helps you.

In yesterday’s podcast, I advocated telling stories to help people connect with your book, your own story, and your cause. The best way to get readers to share your book with other people is tell them stories.

People don’t always remember the facts and stats and lists from your book, but they will always remember the stories you tell that make them laugh, or make them think, or make them cry. Those are the stories they will share when they tell people about your book.

Want to learn how to tell better stories, check out How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth. This New York Times bestseller is a detailed guide on how to tell an unforgettable story.

Here are just a few of the ways you can benefit by learning how to tell better stories:

Deliver the perfect wedding or event toast.

Share great stories during your speaking engagements.

Incorporate stories into your books for more impact.

Wow clients at a business dinner or Zoom conference.

Give a moving eulogy or an inspirational introduction.

Ace a job interview.

Connect more deeply with those around you or new people you meet.

Entertain and inform more effectively when being interviewed on podcasts.

Here are a few storytelling tips shared by the authors of How to Tell a Story:

Every story needs stakes (why people should care about your story).

Change is vital. Transformation is key to a great story that people will remember. Change can happen when you learn something new or when you break an old habit.

Think cinematically. Show people your story. Draw a picture so your story comes alive.

Don’t leave out the details. But don’t overload with dates, names, or other gratuitous facts.

Focus on the turning point in your story. Be honest and speak the truth. Let people know what you learned from the experience.

Leave on a high note. Don’t let your story fizzle out. Let it end with enthusiasm, rooted in the change you experienced.

Note: The best stories are based on your experience or on how you learn from your observations gained from other people’s stories.

True to its title, How to Tell a Story is a wonderfully practical and thoughtful guide to turning your own experiences and epiphanies into engaging tales. The book is very Moth-centric—‘Moth stories are true and told out loud, in the first person’—but there’s also advice about telling stories during job interviews, business presentations and toasts. Everything here could be easily adapted by classroom teachers or (one can hope) by relatives you see once a year at Thanksgiving.” — Washington Post

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

On Sunday, I got a chance to visit with my oldest sister and her husband. They had been driving Route 66 from the middle of Illinois all the way to Albuquerque (they plan to make the rest of the Route 66 trip in January, all the way to the ocean). My sister realized how close they were to Taos, so she called me and invited my wife and me to have lunch with them at the Farmhouse Cafe in Taos.

We had a wonderful visit, but one of the key points I learned in our conversations was how important stories are to communicate ideas and concerns. My brother-in-law even said I should collect my stories into a book. Many of these stories, while entertaining in many cases, could apply to marketing books. I’ll share some of them during the next few weeks.

In one story I spoke about a college friend who had two girlfriends at once. Now that doesn’t always work out. In his case, he ended up marrying one of them—and 50 years later they are still married.

But trying to maintain two major relationships at the same time often doesn’t work out. And that is true in distributing and selling books as well as many other areas of life. If you divide your attention while marketing your books between two major audiences or markets, you could well miss out on both of them.

My advice is to focus on one market at a time. Do it well. Make it work for you. Once it’s going well, you can start marketing to a second audience.

Don’t divide your mind. Focus on the most important or viable way to market your book based on your experience, your knowledge, your relationships, your talents, your likes and dislikes, as well as how much money and time you have for marketing.

And, possibly most important, do the actions you like to do, those that you enjoy, those that make you happy. You are a far more effective advocate for your book when you enjoy what you are doing.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmark

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Start your own Substack newsletter and podcast. Learn more here: https://substack.com/refer/johnkremer

I have this philosophy that out of the problem comes the next opportunity.

Getting something wrong just means that something else is supposed to happen.

We accept our mistakes.

I just keep going.

I’m an optimist. — Eileen Fisher, fashion designer

Book Marketing Tip: Keep going

Out of every missed opportunity comes the next opportunity. This is especially true in marketing books, webinars, reports, and more. Never give up. Just accept any rejections and keep going.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmark

Carolyn Wilman, the Contest Queen, is the author of two award-winning books: You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter and How To Win Cash, Trips, & More!

Helene Hadsell asked Carolyn to carry on her legacy of teaching others her famous Select It - Project It - Expect It - Collect It manifestation system. After being out of print for over 30 years, Helene’s world-famous, bestselling book, The Name It & Claim It Game, was updated and republished by Carolyn for a new generation to enjoy and prosper from.

This podcast interview covers how to implement Helene’s Select It-Project It-Expect It-Collect It system for creating the things you want.

As a book author or publisher or internet marketer, you’ll learn a lot during this podcast interview. Listen in!

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Diane Pfeifer sold over a million copies of her Gone with the Grits cookbook and other books (GritsBits.com).

How did she do it? Her answer follows:

Just a combo of wholesale gift shop sales, gift catalogs, on-site retail including holiday shows, special sales (Quaker Grits), commodities catalogs, in-office/school lobby sales and, of course, Amazon and many bookstores via Ingram.

And a lot of hustle. She’s been doing this for years and been doing it well.

Why not follow her example?

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Venmo me if you like this podcast episode. Just click on the link below: https://account.venmo.com/u/bookmarketingsuccess

This podcast (and video below) demonstrates how to set up a Venmo account to accept donations and payments from your podcast listeners and book readers. Follow the steps outlined here to set up a Venmo account.

Then use Venmo in these ways:

Ask people to Venmo you because they like a podcast episode.

Ask people to Venmo you to support the publication of a new book.

Ask people to Venmo you to show appreciation for the content of your book.

Ask people to Venmo you to purchase your book.

Ask people to Venmo you to purchase supplementary lessons, PDFs, reports, or other items related to your book.

Ask people to Venmo you to support the on-going production of your podcast, video series, Facebook Lives, etc.

Ask people to Venmo you in appreciation to the answers you give to their questions.

If you like this podcast and want to support it, Venmo me here: https://account.venmo.com/u/bookmarketingsuccess. Your choice on how you want to support this podcast.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

You can sell a lot more books if you work with other authors than if you try to do everything all by yourself. — John Kremer

Here are a few tips on how to work with other authors:

Interview them for your podcast. Ask them to interview you for their podcast.

Blog about their books. Ask them to blog about your book.

Do joint promotions with a group of authors of similar books.

When you are interviewed by someone, invite them to interview your other author friends as well.

For more ideas, check out 51 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

As many of you know, I’m very big on authors doing podcasts (and being guests on other people’s podcasts!). It’s one of the best ways to reach your target audience and create an on-going mutually beneficial relationship with your readers.

While consulting with a client this past week, I realized that I need to demonstrate how to do a podcast. So I wrote a detailed article on how you can create a podcast you will actually produce and promote.

You can find that article here:

. Note: You have to be a paid subscriber to this newsletter to access the full article.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

But here is a free idea on how you can go about creating a podcast that draws more and more listeners, readers, and potential customers: Create a calendar that you stick to for producing your podcast episodes. Commit to one episode a week. Or three episodes a week. Or whatever works for you.

Here’s my commitment for the rest of the year for this Book Marketing Success podcast. I’ll create 5 episodes a week released at 9:00 a.m. every day. Each daily episode will have a theme:

Mondays — Motivational Mondays will feature short quotations and comments to motivate you for the coming week. Episode length: about 5 minutes.

Tuesdays — Quick Tip Tuesdays will feature a key book marketing tip with comments. Episode length: about 5 minutes.

Wednesdays — Wicked Resource Wednesdays will feature a book marketing, social media marketing, or internet marketing resource to help you sell more books, courses, webinars, etc. Episode length: about 5 to 10 minutes, possibly with videos to showcase the resources.

Thursdays — Story Time Thursdays will feature a success story from authors and publishers, stories that you can emulate to market your books. Episode length: 5 to 10 minutes, possibly with a video as well.

Fridays — Interview Fridays will feature an interview with an author, marketer, social media superstar, or publisher that will provide detailed information on how to master an action or create a key item in your marketing plan. If you can share some great book marketing ideas and stories, I’d love to interview you! Email: bookpromotionexpert@gmail.com to schedule an interview.

Q&A Fridays — Once a month or so, Friday will future a live Q&A session with me rather than an interview.

Make sure you don’t miss an episode!

In this episode of the Book Marketing Success podcast, I interview Michal Stawicki, a self-published author from Poland who write self-help books in English.

When I first connected with Michal, he wrote me that the one secret book marketing hack that he could share was actually very simple: Connect with other book authors and collaborators. That’s how Michal went from no sales to over 80,000 sales of his 19 books.

Michal is the author of Making Business Connections That Count: The Gimmick-free Guide to Authentic Online Relationships with Influencers and Followers as well as The Remarkable Power of Consistency: My Slight Edge Journey to Success.

As he noted after the interview, “The more you give, the better the connections you can make.”

Michal is also the founder of Resurrecting Books (https://resurrectingbooks.com) where he helps other authors to sell more books via Amazon by optimizing their book descriptions, keywords, and more. Check out his website for more details.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Michal shared one other key resource for helping you to connect with other authors and podcasters. I will be sharing that link in an exclusive post to those who subscribe to this newsletter as paid supporters. Watch for that link tomorrow.

Dave Rubin, with 1.72 million YouTube subscribers for The Rubin Report podcast, interviewed bestselling book author Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series as well as his new book, Capitalist Manifesto.

Appearing on top-rated popular podcasts can help any author sell a ton of books. My bet? As a result of this one podcast appearance on The Rubin Report, I bet Kiyosaki sells at least 10,000 copies of his new book, Capitalist Manifesto.

Now, smaller podcast appearances won’t produce the same big numbers, but every appearance on a podcast builds the recognition of you and your book. The more podcast interviews you do, the bigger your audience becomes for your current book and any new books you are writing.

If you want to get more interviews on podcasts, contact podcasters and invite them to be on your podcast. Offer to interview them and they will often reciprocate with an interview on their podcast. The best way to become a great guest is to start by being a great host.

How can we counter communism taught in our schools? By teaching capitalism in our homes. — Robert Kiyosaki, author, Capitalist Manifesto.

To learn more about creating an effective podcast and starting to create more attention for you and your book, check out my Substack Sensation and Podcasting to Millions course below:

The above podcast page features an index of the many many lessons featured in the Podcasting to Millions course. Let me know what you think.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Paid subscribers get complete access to the entire Podcasting to Millions course.

Check out The Rubin Report podcast featuring Robert Kiyosaki here:

I am still very fatigued from Covid exposure, but I am recovering and reopening for business and consultations.

If you would like to schedule an appointment during the next week for consultations, podcast interviews, etc., please note that I will be available after Noon, Mountain Time, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I’ll be available after 3 p.m. Mountain time (so I can fit in my wife’s medical appointments). Note: My wife Gail is doing much better, but she still needs to track her blood tests, etc. And she still needs some help with normal everyday life.

I am doing better after the Covid exposure in the hospital. But I am still fatigued in the mornings. I still need a lot of rest. But most days I will be available from Noon Mountain Time to 10 p.m. Mountain Time — by appointment!

Email me at johnkremer@bookmarket.com to arrange a time to speak.

Resources from John Kremer

Book Marketing Bestsellers website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book Title Critiques by John Kremer: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Become my patron to support all my book marketing work, especially the Billion Book Initiative: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Join my Book Marketing Success Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

Sara Cannon shares a quick little Southern phrase that will help you get off a phone call or Zoom session or even an awkward in-person meeting—especially when you don’t have a ready excuse to leave.

Here’s the powerful little phrase that polite Southerners use: “Well, let me let you go.”

Easy-peasy, yes?

Try it sometime when you need to extricate yourself from a boring meeting or a lengthy Zoom session or a phone call that simply won’t end.

You’ll be amazed by how more effective your book marketing will be when you move on from a boring meeting or an ineffective phone call. Move on with a simple little phrase, “Well, let me let you go.”

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Resources from John Kremer

Book Marketing Bestsellers website:

https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book Title Critiques by John Kremer: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Become my patron to support all my book marketing work, especially the Billion Book Initiative: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Join my Book Marketing Success Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

When former ad executive James Patterson submitted his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, it was rejected by 31 publishers. But it was eventually published! And it won the Edgar Award for best first novel! Persistence matters!

As James noted: “I could’ve given up, but I didn’t. You may not have a career as a ballet dancer, but it doesn’t mean you can’t love dancing, and keep dancing. You stick with it because you love it—that’s what makes you a dancer.”

My advice: Keep dancing! Keep writing! Keep doing the things you love!

At a certain point, you’re going to realize this whole thing is absurd, but look at the sunny days, the blue skies, and just go with it. Because a lot of life just doesn’t make sense, but nobody’s going to be able to solve that for you. You may find your solace in God, or the universe, or blue skies, but mostly, you just have to accept things and move forward. — James Patterson, bestselling novelist

Keep on trucking! Keep on moving forward! Never give up. An entire new world awaits you!

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

How to Sell More Books: An Audio Series

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Selling More Books Audio Series (includes more than 15 hours on book marketing). Only $67. Order here via Paypal or credit card: https://py.pl/IIHGm.

Or find out more about this audio collection here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/selling-more-books-audio-series.

In a world full of tens, be an eleven. — t-shirt saying

So many of us settle for a five or six when we shouldn’t be settling for anything less than an eleven—or even a twelve!

If a t-shirt can figure this out, so can you!

My wife says I only have two faults: I don't listen and something else. — t-shirt saying

Ha, my wife can list at least ten faults for me, and only one of them is that I don’t listen! But it is true that I often forget the other nine faults. Alas.

Touch my coffee and I’ll slap you so hard even Google won’t be able to find you. — t-shirt saying

For many people, Google not finding them would be a blessing. But, for those of us in the public sphere, especially those of us with something to sell, Google’s gotta find us or no one else will! At least 50% of the people who make it to your website and book sales page probably got there via one of the search engines.

Or via a ton of costly ads.

So, most of us spend time on search engine optimization (SEO) so Google, Bing, and Duck Duck Go can find us.

It’s worth spending that time. Do it today!

Be sure to check one of my previous podcast episodes on search results: Jason Barnard: The Brand SERP Guy: How to optimize your brand SERP and your brand knowledge panel.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Treasure House Books & Gifts, John Hoffsis, Owner, 2012 S Plaza Street NW, Albuquerque NM 87104; 505-242-7204.

Email: treasurehousebooks68@gmail.com

Web: https://treasurehousebooks.net

This local bookstore features gifts and books about New Mexico and the Southwest: cookbooks, children's books, history, travel, fiction, mysteries, gardening, nature, memoirs, and more.

They do a lot of book signings with both local authors and national authors (even featuring books from or about other states!).

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treasurehousebooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treasurehousebooks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/treashousebooks

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

How to Sell More Books: An Audio Series

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Selling More Books Audio Series (includes more than 15 hours on book marketing). Only $67. Order here via Paypal or credit card: https://py.pl/IIHGm.

Or find out more about this audio collection here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/selling-more-books-audio-series.

How do you sell a ton of books?

Here, according to Seth Godin, is step one of marketing a book:

Sell one.

Find one person who trusts you and sell him a copy. Does he love it? Is he excited about it? Excited enough to tell ten friends because it helps them, not because it helps you?

Tribes grow when people recruit other people. That’s how ideas spread as well. They don’t do it for you, of course. They do it for each other. Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. If Fred’s book spreads, then he’s off to a great start. If it doesn’t, he needs a new book. …

Step 1 says: If you don’t have a book that can galvanize a tribe, if you don’t have a product that will spread, if you don’t have a service that will generate passion among a group of people, you must stop what you’re doing and start over. …

What we see, over and over, is that the brave but cheap leadership that leads to passionate movements always (always!) defeats the top-down, mediocre, slow-moving and very expensive techniques we all grew up with.

For more inspiration and guidance, check out the rest of Seth Godin’s manifesto on How to Sell a Book (or Any New Idea): https://cdn.porchlightbooks.com/legacyassets/system/manifestos/pdfs/000/000/261/original/50.01.Tribes.pdf.

Book Marketing Note from John Kremer

The main job of a book author is to start creating word-of-mouth advocates. You do that one person at a time until you reach a tipping point where more and more readers self-select themselves as your book advocates.

You build a tribe one advocate at a time. You can start today. With the person right next to you.

How to Sell More Books: An Audio Series

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Selling More Books Audio Series (includes more than 15 hours on book marketing). Only $67. Order here via Paypal or credit card: https://py.pl/IIHGm.

Or find out more about this audio collection here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/selling-more-books-audio-series.

Connect with John Kremer here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user135683864

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnKremer

Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. — Steve Jobs

This is not only true about computers, software, iPhones, iPads, and other technology. It’s also true of novels, poetry, screenplays, books, ebooks, videos, audiobooks, podcasts, websites, blogs, and other information products.

You can build things that other people will use and value.

You can write books or create podcasts that entertain people.

You can write books or create podcasts that educate and inform people.

You can write books or create podcasts that inspire people.

You can write books or create podcasts that alert people to changes that need to be made in their lives or in the world at large.

You can write books or create podcasts that enlighten the world.

What do you want to do?

What will you do?

Listen to my Book Marketing Success Podcast: https://bookmarketing.substack.com

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

While walking with my wife during our vacation in Kingston, New Mexico, I discovered an amazing little fact: We are not designed to walk down rocky slopes or to run down steps, especially uneven or bouldery steps. Our bodies are not designed to handle downward movement as safely and securely as upward movement.

Our bodies are designed to move on up! We are destined to go onward and upward! It’s inherent in the design of our bodies.

Sure, moving upward can be more work because we have to carry our weight and any baggage up with us. But that’s surely easier than toppling down the mountain because our weight and additional baggage unbalance our movement and down we fall.

Our feet, our legs, our hips are all designed to allow us to walk upwards much more securely and safely than walking downwards, especially on steps or rocky slopes.

Now, think about that the next time you feel unworthy for any success you are aiming for. Remember this: We are designed to move on up! We are designed for success! And that means, ultimately, that we are destined for success!

How to Sell More Books: An Audio Series

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Selling More Books Audio Series (includes more than 15 hours on book marketing). Only $67. Order here via Paypal or credit card: https://py.pl/IIHGm.

Or find out more about this audio collection here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/selling-more-books-audio-series.

As I’ve said in previous episodes, one-sheets are an incredible way to introduce yourself and your work to media, key influencers, podcasters, bloggers, and more. Be sure to create at least one one-sheet that you can use to provide people with a clear idea of what you have to offer. You can, of course,

To Book Podcasts as a Guest, Create a Podcast One-Sheet: https://bookmarketing.substack.com/p/to-book-podcasts-as-a-guest-create

One-Sheets for Nonfiction Book Authors: https://bookmarketing.substack.com/p/one-sheets-for-nonfiction-book-authors

One-Sheet for a Children's Book: https://bookmarketing.substack.com/p/one-sheet-for-a-childrens-books

One-Sheets for Novelists: https://bookmarketing.substack.com/p/one-sheets-for-novelists

This 7-week program provides an insider’s look on how to market romance novels—and any other books. This a recording I created for the 2022 Luv-a-Palooza program. While this video was designed to educate romance novelists on how to market their novels, it really is useful to any book authors, no matter the genre, no matter the topic, no matter the audience.

Watch the above video or listen in to the podcast audio to learn more about this 7-week step-by-step program on marketing books (or other products and services!).

Here’s a link to the original article: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-i-dont-have-any-time-hour-a-day-book-marketing-plan.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Write Publish Profit 5.0 Infostack loaded with incredible ebooks, full-length courses, A-rated services, and more from bestselling authors, publishers, coaches, and editors.

Find out more here: https://bookmarketingbest--infostack.thrivecart.com/wpp5

Below are a few of the ebooks, courses, and services offered via the Write Publish Profit 5.0 Infostack:

Yolanda Allen's Author Essentials Planner — $39.00 value. Designed to help you get clear about your goals, (and focused on completing those goals), keep track of your promotions to help you get your book visible to the public, and help you manage your finances and budget when you get paid!

Ray Brehm's Anthologies for Authors — $297.00 value. Learn an easy and proven way to add authority to your author name, make connections, and add books to your author library.

Winter Brooks's Get Published! — $27.00 value. A guide for new writers to learn the basic principles of how to write, market, and publish your book.

Sue Campbell's The Pages and Platforms Book Marketing Workbook — $27.00 value. Learn how to grow your author platform and how to keep your audience engaged and eager to buy your books.

Dale Darley's Write Your Life Story or Memoir: An Online Course — $147.00 value. Learn how to bring your story to life with this guide that takes you through the process step-by-step.

Connie Dowell's Easy and Fun Newsletters for Authors: An eCourse — $60.00 value. Email marketing doesn’t have to be just a task on your to-do list. When done right, it can feel like an enjoyable chat you have with your readers.

Philip Duncan's A Roadmap to Your Best Novel — $297.00 value. Turn your novel into a bestseller with this proven step-by-step roadmap.

Emma Estacio's Bestseller Launch Made Simple — $48.00 value. Ever wondered how other authors hit bestseller status when they launch? With this simple, step-by-step process proven to optimize your book's Amazon listing, you too can widen your reach and launch with a bang!

David Farland's Kickstarting Your Career — $199.00 value. In this masterclass series of lectures, Dave shares some of the steps you need to take in order to build your successful career as a writer.

Karen Ferreira's Self-Publish Like a Pro: An eCourse — $99.00 value. Step-by-step walkthroughs to publish your books like a pro on KDP and IngramSpark.

Camille Flores's A Beginner's Guide to Book Marketing on a Budget: An Ecourse — $49.00 value. If you are an author who wants to sell more books but has a small marketing budget, this course will show you how to successfully market your books and keep the costs low.

Kimberley Grabas's Believe, Plan, Act: A Platform and Productivity Planner for Writers — $37.00 value. This complete author business planning system is designed to specifically address the needs of writers working to build their platforms and author businesses.

Steff Green's Rock Your Novel School — Value $393.00. Features 10 weeks of course content on every aspect of writing and editing a novel, including the hook, characters, plot, structure, scenes, voice, emotion, getting the words done, editing, proofreading, and preparing for publication.

Dianna Gunn's Author Planning Bundle: 4 Printable Workbooks — $15.96 value. Features an Author Career Planning Workbook, Branding for Fiction Authors, Twitter Planner, and Content Subscription Planner.

Rebecca Hamilton's The Six-Figure Author's Advanced Categories and Keywords Training: Put Your Book Sales on Autopilot — $499.00 value. Learn how to select categories that establish you as a leader in your genre as well as choose keywords that skyrocket your organic visibility and sales.

Donna Kozik's Create Your Sizzling Author Profile: A Masterclass — $399.00 value. Learn how to attract readers like bees to honey with a swoon worthy dating profile for your book!

John Kremer's Blogging 105: 105 Ways to Blog and Podcast as an Author, an Expert, and a Real Person — $12.99 value. Features real-world content proven to drive visitors, buyers, and browsers to social networks, websites, sales pages, and buy links.

Scott MacMillan's Entrepreneur to Author: An eBook — $9.99 value. Learn how to write and publish an expertise-based book that will build your authority and grow your business.

Kevin Mullani's Blue Ocean Positioning for Authors: Training Videos — $47.00 value. Turn your expertise into an outstanding book where your message serves your readers and supports your business.

JoEllen Nordstrom's Write, Edit, Publish, and Profit — $149.95 value. Learn the different levels of editing so you can achieve success via self-editing or professional services.

Gabriela Pereira's From Brain to Book: Package Your Expertise into Book Form — $49.00 value. Learn a step-by-step process so you can take the material you have already created on a blog, podcast, or other creative outlet and package it into a book.

Dale Roberts's The Amazon Self-Publisher: 3 eBooks — $9.99 value. Get concrete and proven strategies for publishing on Amazon via three ebooks: Amazon Keywords for Books, Promotional Strategies for Books, and Amazon Reviews for Books.

Kris Safarova's 43 Ways to Make Your Book Work for You — $297.00 value. Increase awareness of your brand, attract new readers and dream clients, connect with your audience, build your career, generate more revenue and build a thriving business simply by leveraging a book.

Isabel Sterling's Create Better Characters with Coaching: A Masterclass — $25.00 value. Learn how to create a character-driven plot and lay the foundation for brilliant midpoint and finale plot twists that will help you write stories that sell.

Plus dozens of more valuable and useful ebooks, courses, and webinars.

Click here to find out more: https://bookmarketingbest--infostack.thrivecart.com/wpp5

This coming week, Infostack will be launching a new writing and publishing infostack featuring tons on incredible content. Meanwhile …

Because Infostack partners with the top thought leaders and experts in the writing and self-publishing space, they have rare access to a high level of smart people: USA Today bestselling authors, New York Times bestselling authors, award-winning writers, and more. Incredible people.

And it occurred to them that they had access to a treasure trove of wisdom. So what they’ve done is curated some of the most inspiring self-publishing stories, courtesy of their amazing A-list lineup of contributors to this year's Write Publish Profit 5.0.

And they compiled it into a new FREE guide for indie authors.

Get the free ebook, Your Hero's Journey: Overcome the dragons of dread, doubt, and defeat, and release your creative power as a writer by clicking on this link: https://bookmarketingbest--infostack.thrivecart.com/wpp5/6273ce4c73b62.

Book Author Question: What key experience is required to become a bestselling author?

John Kremer’s Book Marketing Answer: The key experience required of anyone who wants to become a bestselling author is to read. Read other authors. Read the top books in your genre or field. Read and read some more. And, of course, buy books!

As Ernie Zelinski recently wrote in the Book Marketing Success Stories Facebook group:

I'm amazed by the number of people I have encountered who want to be bestselling authors and don't read other people's books.

When I discover a bestselling book in the areas that I write in, I promptly buy the book to see what makes the book so successful.

And no, I will not take it out of the library. That's for losers. If you won't buy other people's books, why would you expect other people to buy your book?

My advice: Read the best books. Buy the best books. Encourage other people to buy and read the best books. And make sure your book is one of those best books.

In Ernie’s post in the Book Marketing Success Stories Facebook group, he started by showcasing two books he bought in the early 1970s that got him on the right track in life: The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches by Joe Karbo and The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas.

As it turns out, those were two books I bought and read as well back in the 1970s.

And, as you can see, those two books inspired one of Ernie’s own books, The Lazy Person's Guide to Success : Financial Independence and Personal Freedom Too!

More Resources from John Kremer

Book Marketing Bestsellers website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book Title Critiques by John Kremer: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Become my patron to support all my book marketing work, especially the Billion Book Initiative: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Join my Book Marketing Success Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

Question: Can any book, no matter the content or quality of writing, be sold with your book marketing plans?

John’s Answer: A bad book can’t be sold no matter how good the plan of action. You can sell a few copies of a bad book, but once the word gets out — and it always does — then you will sell few additional copies.

Content is important in book marketing. The quality of writing is important in book marketing. The cover and design of the book are important in marketing a book.

The fundamental first step in marketing books is to create a good book in the first place. That involves the author in writing a good book — both in content and in the quality of writing.

Then the publisher takes over by editing and designing a great book — with a great cover.

Only then will marketing produce the results you hope it will.

Source: Book Marketing FAQs – Book Marketing Answers to Help You Sell More Books: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-marketing-faqs.

More Resources from John Kremer

Book Marketing Bestsellers website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

Book Title Critiques by John Kremer: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/book-title-critiques

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Become my patron to support all my book marketing work, especially the Billion Book Initiative: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Join my Book Marketing Success Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

In this episode of the Book Marketing Success Podcast, I got the chance to interview Jason Barnard, author of The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business: Google Is Your New Business Card and It Is Up to You to Optimize Yours.

Brand SERPs are search engine result pages generated by Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo when users type a set of words into a search engine to discover more details for information they seek.

Jason Barnard, The Brand SERP Guy, teaches people how to convince search engines to showcase the optimal details about themselves, their companies, or their brand names. As Jason notes,

Google is key to managing the online presence of your business. Think of the Google search results for your brand name as a digital business card—the single most important online representation of your brand message.

In The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business, Jason uses exclusive insight from his business, Kalicube, to explain why Brand SERPs are a vital part of any digital marketing strategy.

Google reflects the world’s opinion of your brand, so learning how to tailor your Brand SERP elevates brand credibility, audience engagement, and overall success. With other brands leaving their online reputation to chance, now’s the time to make your Brand SERP sexy so you can surpass your competition.

Among other occupations, Jason has been a musician, a screenwriter, a songwriter, a digital marketer, a software developer, and a blue cartoon dog.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

About John Kremer

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Listen. You have to do the thing that scares you the most. Whatever that thing is, go find it. Kick down the door. Look it right in the eye. — Will Packer, producer

Sometimes you've just got to do something that scares you. That's the only way you'll move forward and grow. Why not do it today? — John Kremer, author

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things - https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Connect with me here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Here are just a few of the quotes and resources featured in the article, “The Power of Podcasting,” in my alumni magazine, Macalester Today: https://www.macalester.edu/news/2022/04/the-power-of-podcasting.

Podcasting officially became a thing when Adam Curry began sharing audio recordings of his everyday life in 2004. Many people consider his podcast, Daily Source Code, as the first podcast.

But many listeners began seriously listening to podcasts ten years later when Serial, a true crime podcast, first became available in 2014.

51% of Americans over the age of 12 listened to a podcast in 2021 (Edison Research).

32% of Americans listen to at least one podcast every month.

There are about a million podcasts being created and distributed daily, weekly, monthly, or for a limited series (10 to 12 episodes).

Because podcasts are portable and many episodes are moving or informative, podcasts can create a real intimacy between the podcaster and the listeners.

Podcasting has the power to deliver exceptionally good stories. Many of the most listened-to podcasts feature stories. That’s why podcasts of novels and works-in-progress can generate such large audiences and dedicated fan groups. If you are a novelist, you should be podcasting your stories as you write them (or podcast previous novels, one page or one chapter at a time).

Audio communication fills a unique niche for people, with podcasting in particular lending itself to engaging and deeply investigative storytelling. — Curtis Gilbert, correspondent, American Public Media

Students find podcasting fun, flexible, and interactive. Plus, it’s relatively easy to do. … Podcasting helps students build digital literacy skills while learning to communicate information to a broader, more general audience, rather than a strictly academic one. — Tamatha Perlman

Podcasting, especially audio drama, gives storytelling a different dimension than TV or books. It’s an engaging, immersive experience that’s intimate, close, and allows you to be an active listener. If it’s done well, you don’t want to miss a minute. — Davy Gardner, curator of audio storytelling at Tribeca Enterprises

Podcasting is a step toward helping Global Teck Worldwide up our branding. My advice? If you own a business and you’re not podcasting, you should be. — Rolando Rosas, founder of Global Teck Worldwide

My advice? If you are a book author and you’re not podcasting, you should be.

Need help with recording and editing your podcast? Check out The Podcast Shop, founded by Katharine Heller, another Macalester alumnus.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber.

In this episode of the Book Marketing Success Podcast, John Kremer interviews Janine Bolon, author of Author Podcasting, on being a great podcast guest as well as creating your own podcast.

Janine Bolon is the author of Author Podcasting: Be a Stand-Out Guest While Taking Your Book on a Virtual Tour. Available at Amazon: https://amzn.to/393xUB6 or free with shipping at https://book.authorpodcasting.com/free-sh.

Author Podcasting is a guide to the author who wishes to promote their book without coming off as salesy. There is so much more to you, your book and your message that you can share with podcast hosts and their listeners.

Download the free media kit checklist here: https://authorpodcasting.com/checklist.

Connect with John Kremer here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/173511.John_Kremer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user135683864

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnKremer

Become my patron for all good things: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

Phil Singleton, host of the Local Business Leaders Podcast and co-author of SEO for Growth, interviews Jon Schram, chief marketing officer of the Purple Guys tech support company.

Why Write a Book?

The key points on becoming a bestselling author on Amazon start at 11:35. Why write a book: Up your E-A-T score for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

10 Steps to Create Authority

Here are the 10 steps to creating authority for you and your book using an SEO-driven authority campaign. Use blog posts to write your book, section by section. Or use podcast episodes to record and write your book, section by section.

11 Steps to Optimizing Your Book on Amazon

And here are eleven steps to optimizing and marketing your book via Amazon. They use the example of Jon’s book, I.T. Support Selection Made Simple: How to get friendly, reliable support for a more productive day.

Here, again, is Jon Schram’s book, I.T. Support Selection Made Simple: How to get friendly, reliable support for a more productive day:

Connect with John Kremer

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Or become my patron for all good things: https://www.patreon.com/bookmarketing

In this episode of the Book Marketing Success podcast, I interviewed Dr. Rachel Noorda, assistant professor at Portland State University, and Michele Cobb, executive director of PubWest on the new report about book distribution options, Publishing Distribution Practices: How the Future of Publishing Distribution Can Be Forward-Thinking, Sustainable, Eco-Friendly, and Profitable.

Here are a few of the questions answered during this podcast episode:

How can the book industry decrease the return rate for books?

What does efficient delivery of print books to readers look like going forward?

What needs to be done to make book printing truly carbon neutral by 2050?

What’s stopping the industry from embracing POD as the preferred means for printing?

What shortcomings in the book industry were most exposed due to the pandemic?

And here are a few of the insights gained from the report:

Local buying can restrict supply chain disruptions caused by outsourcing and can support cost-effective delivery

Trade organizations such as IBPA and PubWest are vital for creating systems and alliances for the best publishing distribution practices.

Reduced print runs and more effective book marketing and promotion are key to minimizing returns.

Pre-orders (especially direct-to-consumer) can be particularly effective for combating returns and accurately determining print runs.

Distribution Practices Report

To read the entire Publishing Distribution Practices: How the Future of Publishing Distribution Can Be Forward-Thinking, Sustainable, Eco-Friendly, and Profitable report, click here: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.ibpa-online.org/resource/resmgr/docs/DistributionPractices.pdf.

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)

Founded in 1983 to support independent publishers nationwide, IBPA leads and serves the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. With over 4,000 members, IBPA is the largest publishing association in the United States. Its vision is a world where every independent publisher has the access, knowledge, and tools needed to professionally engage in all aspects of an inclusive publishing industry. For more information, visit https://www.ibpa-online.org.

Attend the IBPA Publishing University live in Orlando, Florida on April 29 to 30. Check out the details here: https://www.publishinguniversity.org.

Portland State University (PSU)

PSU is more than Portland’s public research university. It’s a place to test ideas and projects that show the world how different is done. Their innovative approach combines education with creative problem-solving and collaboration across campus for maximum impact. Nestled in the literary hub of Portland in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, the Book Publishing Program at PSU equips students with skills in writing, editing, design, and marketing that prepare them for work inside and outside of the publishing industry. For more info, visit https://www.pdx.edu/english/mams-book-publishing.

Contact Dr. Rachel Noorda, assistant professor, via email at moorda@pdx.edu.

Publishers Association of the West (PubWest)

PubWest, a national trade organization of publishers and publishing-related members, is dedicated to offering professional education, publishing-related benefits, and opportunities for their members to do business as well as advocating for members, recognizing outstanding achievement in publishing, and providing a forum for networking to our members from across the United States and Canada. For more information, visit https://www.pubwest.org.

Contact Michele Cobb, executive director, via email at executivedirector@pubwest.org.

Sign up for the PubWest Webinar on the Publishing Distribution Practices Report to be held on June 22nd at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. Click here to sign up: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RrArIoI6Sj2WNnKzD97d7g.

Listen to my Book Marketing Success Podcast: https://bookmarketing.substack.com

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

I love this recent interview of Jackie Lapin, founder of SpeakerTunity, by J.V. Crum III of the Conscious Millionaire Podcast Network.

It’s a strong, detailed, useful interview on How to Get Booked as a Speaker (or Podcast Guest!).

Also, check out Jackie’s speaker packet which you can model to create your own speaker packet: http://www.jackielapin.com/wp-content/uploads/OfficialSpeakingPacketGeneral.pdf

Michelle Nedelec of Awareness Strategies and the Business Ownership Podcast interviews Jackie Lapin, founder of SpeakerTunity, on The Art of Getting Booked. Another great interview.

Connect with me here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnkremer

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/johnkremer

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@bookmarketing

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user135683864

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnKremer

Offer me a coffee or pizza tip: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/tipping/TGlua0Jsb2NrOjYyMWVmYWRhMzJiNjdmMDAxNzUxMTIyMg==

450 million people listen to podcasts every month. You can reach those millions of people via a daily, weekly, or limited podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, and many other Podcast apps, directories, and platforms. Plus, with a simple modification, you can syndicate your podcast as well through video and social media platforms.

30% more people listen to podcasts now than in 2020. That’s a big growing audience!

Podcasting is expected to reach a billion listeners by 2028. So the growth in the potential audience will more than double in the next six years!

People like listening to podcasts while they drive around town, while preparing and eating meals, while gardening or walking or doing other outdoor activities. Podcasts are easy to consume.

A number of podcasts reach several million people every day.

One of my friends, Judith Briles, has had 10 million podcast downloads in six years—and been exposed to ten times as many people via syndication and video.

The Bible in a Year podcast has had more than 238 million downloads, thus becoming the #1 podcast in the United States. It features two men from Minnesota reading the Bible for about 20 minutes a day.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Here is the audio and text content from one of Judith Briles’ new 3-minute videos featured in her Author & Publishing Tips in 3 Minutes or Less playlist on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhXzmXm7u15joaoEPy23ASD2mCXtW-c-f). That playlist currently features 37 videos. Here’s one that got my attention:

Use Amazon Search Inside to Add to Your Book

How many of you have used Amazon? I bet most of you do.

Have you ever looked inside the book when you're looking at the details? Most books have the look inside or search inside feature in the book listing.

Now, go to a comparable book like yours, a bestselling book on your topic? Take a peek at how the look inside feature is laid out. Usually it has a table of contents, or what we now call the contents page.

Take a look. Does any of that book’s content match what you're thinking about including in your book? We're not talking about doing a copy paste, copy paste of content. We're looking for noodling. Is there something maybe you hadn't thought about to include or something that sparks your thinking?

You know, that seems so old, everyone has it? Maybe I need something with a unique twist. The search inside feature is very, very helpful on Amazon to spur your own thinking and planning for a book

I would also read the back cover to look for bullet points that pop out at me. Does any of the back cover copy speak to me in what I'm writing about?

I can't tell you how many times I've watched movies or a TV show, and there's a line in it that pops out and reminds me that I need to include something like that in my book. And then I end up writing an entire chapter on eight words that I heard that became the golden egg.

And now that you’re read the edited text and listened to the podcast audio, watch Judith tell the same story in her YouTube video:

Judith is using the power of YouTube playlists to showcase a series of related videos and, in essence, creating a YouTube podcast via an integrated playlist of related videos. Cool!

I might steal this idea from her or, more likely, copy some of her idea to create a new playlist for myself. You could create a series of related short videos as a playlist for your nonfiction book, novel, memoir, children’s book, or podcast.

Here are my two main playlists about book marketing:

Book Marketing Success Podcast (a playlist that syndicates many episodes from my Book Marketing Success Podcast): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBmBDUpR8MYLB0AIBTk3Zau82aW0Y9cZ5.

Book Marketing Tips Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBmBDUpR8MYJccMHTCuq-loHZ5ORYPso3.

Listen to my Book Marketing Success Podcast: https://bookmarketing.substack.com

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Welcome to this episode of the Book Marketing Success Podcast.

Let’s talk about marketing as storytelling. All marketing, ultimately, is about telling stories. Become a storyteller if you want to sell more copies of your books.

For example, in my own experience, I often tell the story of why I wrote and published 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

The story is short and simple. I first created a Directory of Book Printers. People loved it. But then they would come to me for help on how to get the books they’d printed out of their closets, their spare rooms, or their garages.

Well, that was easy for me. I knew at least 101 Ways to Market Your Books, which was the title of the first edition of my book on selling books. Now the book is titled 1001 Ways to Market Your books, and it’s still a lie, because there are more than 1001 Ways.

Telling the story of how and why you came to write your book is a good way to market your book.

You can also talk about other reasons why you wrote the book.

You want to help people.

You want to entertain people (if you've written a novel).

You wanted to change people's lives.

You want to let people know how to do something.

So tell stories when you're marketing your books.

I was recently listening to the Social Media Marketing podcast where they reported that long videos are no longer working on Facebook. Facebook is a highway of fast-moving cars, of users moving from one post to another with hardly a glance.

If you go over two minutes on a video, you’ve gone on way too long.

I’ve gone on over two minutes here, but I’ve still kept it short.

Tell stories. Keep them short. Have fun. And move on!

This is John Kremer, with your book marketing tip for the day!

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Rumble: https://rumble.com/register/BookMarket

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user135683864

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnKremer

Here is the edited transcript of most of this episode:

John Kremer: I want to welcome everybody to another episode of The Book Marketing Success Podcast. Today I'm featuring my great friend, Judith Briles. She's the author of many books, including How to Create a Million Dollar Speech.

She will talk about speaking both as a tool for promoting yourself has an author as well as using speaking as a great way to create content.

Judith Briles: It's a dual edged sword. There are so many things that you can do with speaking. And, the number one thing is you can sell a boatload of books.

That's what I call the cash cow two-step, combining your words and your speaking. Together, they're dynamite.

Ask yourself: Who are you writing for? Who are you reaching out to? Once you figure that out, that connection is already off and running. And when you can now bring the verbal side to it, and the how to, or the storytelling, or whatever it is that you as an author are writing about. It's the way to really connect—and where people want to take you home with them. And since they can't usually physically take you home with them, your book would be the next best thing in most cases.

John Kremer: Another way that it works is that they can also take you home, via the audio and videos that you create, from your speaking engagements and your podcast episodes. I mean, I take you home every week via your wonderful podcast.

Judith Briles:

I think that is an evolution. I actually started out as a speaker before I ever wrote anything. At the time, there was no such thing as blogging, there was no email. But I would write articles.

When my first book came out, which was going to be the one and only—no one told me that books bred by themselves. Then people said, well, we want you to come and talk on your book. And it was a while before I really got that this is the way to move.

I am a recovered New York publishing snob. I used to believe that “Oh, only legitimate authors are published in New York.” I did 18 books with the big boys before I finally crossed the bridge.

It all started because of speaking. I was speaking to a group in Seattle, and I got a call and they said, “Judith, could you reach out to your publisher and ask if we could get maybe a little discount if we bought a few of your books?”

Well, I had just taken back the rights to the book. I bought the remaining stock, which consisted of 60 copies. And I said, “I'm sure I can make an arrangement. How about if I could get you a third off?”

And they say, “Oh, that'd be so great. So tell them we'd like 1000 copies.”

Well, that was the giant goal. I actually needed to do a revamping of the book. And that's how I crossed the bridge. And once I did that, and figured out how much faster and timely and how much I could control it. And, oh, I can make more money. I never looked back. Never look back.

John Kremer: Right. It's really great, especially in your case where you ended up having to print more books, which a publisher would have taken weeks and weeks and possibly years to do?

Judith Briles: Yes, I had to do the rewrite. And then I had to find a cover designer, and I had to find a layout person. I had to do all that and I was totally ignorant.

The only mistake I made in that process was that I knew nothing about manufacturing and printing books. And I probably paid twice as much per book to do that. But I was able to negotiate enough books. I had a 2,000 copy first run for the book. They wanted 1,000 copies. Then they immediately came back and wanted 500 more copies. And, you know, I was in the green.

John Kremer: That's one of the really neat things about speaking: not only can you get paid to speak, but you can sell your book as well. And they will often buy copies for everybody in the audience, or all the members of their association.

Judith Briles: Well, I had the formula down. I was a traveling store by the time this thing really got rolling. And we knew, depending upon the time of day, how many books we would sell, for the audience, for the time of day, if I was opening in the middle, if I was the keynote, or I was a workshop person, or if I was the closing person. I mean, they could love you, you could rock the roof, but half of them are already gone, because they just want to go home. And, if you’re the evening speaker, rarely did you sell much in books, because they may love you  but they wanted to get home.

I have always been very transparent on what my book sales and speaking fees are. I sold over a million books this way. I grossed over $2 million dollars. At the same time, I made over $3 million more in speaking fees. So I think people are nuts not to be speaking on their expertise.

John Kremer: I agree with you on that. When I talk about ways to market your books, probably my number one way is speaking.

Judith Briles: Number one, number one.

John Kremer: Because you control it for the most part. You don't have to rely on the bookstores to sell your books or a catalog to pick up your book or TV appearances or anything. You just start booking yourself as a speaker.

Judith Briles: And when you sell your books, you get paid on the spot and nobody returns them. That's an author's dream.

John Kremer: Non-returnable is definitely an author's dream. I remember selling my book sometimes when people would come up with cash. My book was $19.95, but they would give me $20. I made five cents extra.

Judith Briles: No, we always rounded our numbers. But the other thing I told people at gigs, because you're there, you're there to sign your fabulous book. You're not discounting, sweetheart. Why should you discount? So my books were marked at $20 and $25. I actually raised prices on books. I did have one book that went for $35. I had one book for $29.

Once you start having multiple books, you could put bundles together. We offered a six pack. And then it was like they got a free book in the six pack via the price and we would bring that down. We were like a traveling store. It made a lot of difference. It really helped.

I started pre-selling a book six months before I ever had it in hand. Six months I was starting to collect money.

John Kremer: That's one of the things I really liked about self-publishing. When I first came out with 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, it was called 101 Ways to Market Your Books. I actually pre-sold three books in a deal. And so I had to write them (because I hadn't written any of them when I offered the deal). 1,000 people paid me up front for the book deal.

Judith Briles: And that pays for your whole print run. It pays for so much when you're ready to go. But you know, you do have to use the money for what you're going to deliver people. And the only deal I offered for the presale group is I covered shipping. I would eat the shipping cost.

John Kremer: Can you tell us some of your inside secrets of how to book a speaking engagement and to get the ones that buy 1000 copies?

Judith Briles: Well, at first, I didn't know that they were going to buy 1,000 copies. But it was the topic. I had three distinct areas that I spoke on. One was from a financial background, when I was with EF Hutton, long ago, the token woman stockbroker. That's how I started speaking. Someone asked, “Hey, can you come over and speak to a group of us in the East Bay?”

And I said, “Yeah, I could.” And, I did so many things wrong from a presentation side of it, but I realized I knew a lot of stuff. Once I figured out how to start doing this structure and get it sequential, it was hot. So I started in the financial area

I then went back to school and earned my doctorate. My thesis was on ethics. And the topic was: Do women undermine other women? I discover that was going to be the ultimate lemonade stand. It propelled me into major media, from the Wall Street Journal to the National Enquirer, an unbelievable media magnet

I thought I was writing for the corporate woman, but I was actually writing for the people who would buy my services. Corporations were scared to death of me. I said to them, “I don't get this. You do programs on sexual harassment. But it’s often women undermining women.” Men don't discriminate was one of my pitch lines.

Contrary to popular belief, men don't discriminate. They will equally shaft anybody. Women, though, are more inclined to undermine their own gender. But that idea was taboo.

But, then, my audience came and found me. It was called health care—a predominantly female dominated workplace that had toxicity woven through its blood veins. They always wanted zapping conflict in the workplace or sabotage: how to deal with the pitfalls skunks snakes scorpions insolence in the healthcare workplace. And anybody who worked in healthcare knew exactly who I was talking about. The book sold itself.

That was what carried me for a long time. And then other things, came along. I've transitioned because I've always helped people with books, introducing people to my agent, etc.

Then I got injured in a hotel accident, slipping on the marble floors, and ended up with a brain injury. I couldn’t do the work I used to do. For a while I was wheelchair bound. I couldn’t travel. I couldn’t do math.

How was I going to take care of my family? Well, when I was able to start speaking again, I began helping people with their books.

The gift that came to me is when I'm talking to someone about their book, I see it. I see how it's supposed to lay out. I see how it's supposed to structure. I see it. So that was the new gift that came to me.

Do I still speak when I'm asked to? Absolutely. I love to speak. I love to share. I love to talk about kick-butt book marketing. I love to try to inject the fun that marketing is instead of feeling like it’s overwhelming all the time.

John Kremer: I think people are often afraid to speak. And I think there are a lot who say, “Oh, I don't want to do that. I would shake in my boots.” But in my own experience, if you've done it a few times, you start to really enjoy it. And I think that most people that start to speak and get used to it, actually start to enjoy it. I started pushing people off the stage to get to speak. They took too long to introduce me!

Judith Briles: Some people would rather die than speak. But the public needs to hear that you wrote this book. Why should you speak? Because you're a problem solver. I've always said that it's not money that makes the world go around. It’s problems. We authors are problem solvers. We're problem solvers.

I had an epiphany. If you don't start taking some of your own ideas and write about them or speak them, other people will. …

Part of my speaking contract specified that I had an educational table—and not in the back of the room where I was speaking, but out in the exhibit area, near the bathroom or registration where the traffic was. My record in five hours: I sold 560 books, one book at a time. And that was a gross income of $16,000 and some change.

For the nonfiction writer, here is how you create a speech. You have chapters. Each chapter is a key point. Then ask what's your point? How are you going to reinforce it? Is it going to be with an alarming statistic? Is it going to be with an awesome story? How are you going to set it up? And then, are you going to have an activity or an exercise within it? …

It's always smart to have an opening story and a closing story. Tell stories that are yours, not anecdotes from other speakers. Tell signature stories that are your own.

When, for example, I'm talking about conflict, I often tell a story about how I ran into the back of an elephant because I wasn't paying attention. Then I would compare it by saying that some of the people you have to work with are equivalent to running into the rear end of an elephant. Hey, point made. Now move on. …

John Kremer: It’s easier to sell when you're in control of the pace of what you're telling. Q&A really interferes with that rhythm. That's why you always go back to make that one final point. So you're back in control.

Judith's website: https://thebookshepherd.com

AuthorU: https://authoru.org/april.html

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

One of my friends, Roberta Vigilence, author of How to Secure Sponsors Successfully, Third Edition Revised—Funding For Events, sent me a Facebook notice about a video released just a few days ago. Here’s her message:

Guess whose book got a shout out. Yours did. I told Loni Mendez about your book. She purchased it and here is what she said.

Listen in, especially, at the 8:38, for a wonderful and sweet message about 1001 Ways to Market Your Books:

In the above Grounded Jeremiah video, Loni tells her story as an author, going from one book to three books over a few years.

Special thanks to this amazing author Yolanda-Loni Mendez for sharing her inspiring journey with the women of Grounded.

Check out Loni’s store on BigCartel: https://lonismerch.bigcartel.com where she features her current three books.

You can also find her latest book on Amazon here: Nurture the Soul: Inspiring Words from My Heart to Yours.

Big Cartel Online Stores

If you don’t have a store online, check out BigCartel.com where you can sell your books as well as custom merchandise as screenprints, resoprints, clothing, wood, tote bags, or original art. For five products, it’s free to set up a store. Or, for up to 50 products, the cost is $9.99 for your online store. Big Cartel has an Alexa rank of 4,529 so it has a lot of traffic that might help people to discover your online store.

So, I took a half hour to set up a little store on Big Cartel. You can find it here: https://bookmarketing.bigcartel.com

Introducing the brand new book Marketing Counts by Shreya Banerjee and Paul Counts — an important new book that digs deep into all the information entrepreneurs and marketers really need to know.

Why everything you’ve learned about marketing is wrong

How to identify your perfect customer

Master messaging to your audience, and much more.

With tips on everything from effective landing pages, SEO, and email marketing hacks to a deep dive into every kind of advertising available on platforms today, Marketing Counts is an essential, must read for anyone in the field.

Marketing Questions and Answers

These questions were answered during the podcast episode.

What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to how marketing is taught and implemented?

Explain why the letters FTE will literally transform a business or organization?

Why do businesses market themselves like they are promoting a hobby instead of a real business?

How are businesses holding themselves back from true success?

How can your mindset influence your marketing for the better?

How can you position your business as the leader in a crowded marketplace?

Free Report on Emailing

For a free report on email, Boost Your Sales With These 26 Powerful Email Marketing Tips, click here: https://www.emailmarketingcounts.com.

About Paul and Shreya

Shreya Banerjee & Paul Counts are co-founders of Marketing Counts, serial entrepreneurs, tech startup founders, fractional CMOs, and advisors to the influencers.

They are teachers at heart who have a passion for helping entrepreneurs and students alike grasp proven marketing concepts.

They created a marketing curriculum that has been in over 140 high schools.

They have also taught marketing to numerous colleges throughout the country.

Their client list includes a who's who of the personal development and influencer world, and their marketing can be seen on display with Fortune 50 companies and Publicly-Traded organizations.

They bring a process-based approach to marketing stemming from Shreya Banerjee's Six Sigma Black Belt experience.

For more information, email paul@marketingcounts.com.

In this Book Marketing Success Podcast, John Kremer interviewed Elizabeth Backman of Wildflower Social Media. Elizabeth gave a ton of tips on how to create a great Instagram profile and post images and videos that get results. Listen in for all the details. Or watch in the video below.

Liz creates social media strategies tailored for book author and their books. For most authors, she focuses on using Instagram as the major social media tool for promoting books. She teaches authors how to leverage themselves to promote their books as well as Instagram best practices that are often missed or simply overlooked.

Look at all the wonderful graphical elements she has on her Wildflower Instagram profile at https://www.instagram.com/wildflowrsocial:

You can watch the interview as well:

And here is my new LinkTree profile which Liz recommended in the video: https://linktr.ee/bookmarketing. When you go to that link, you can also create your own Link Tree profile.

Website: https://www.bookmarketingbestsellers.com

Listen to my Book Marketing Success Podcast: https://bookmarketing.substack.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: https://amzn.to/3ICjpAs

SnipFeed: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing

Ask me a question and I'll answer back with a video: https://snipfeed.co/bookmarketing/shoutouts/U2hvdXRvdXQ6NjIxZjBmNDFkNTVjODUwMDIzZWQxMzk5

Book me as a podcast guest or be a guest for my podcast. Connect here: https://www.matchmaker.fm/podcast-guest/john-kremer-bd46ec

Or just buy me a cup of coffee! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BookMarketing

Connect with me here:

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookMarketingSuccessStories

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnfrederickkremer

Here's the video of the podcast on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/videos/189191-book-marketing-success-podcast-marketing-authors-and-books-on-instagram

Here's the video of the podcast on Vimeo:

Here's the video of the podcast on Rumble: https://rumble.com/vz0i8u-elizabeth-bachman-how-to-use-instagram-to-market-books.html

And here's the podcast on Twitter:

And here's the video on LinkedIn (first 15 minutes): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johnkremer_bookmarketing-instagrammarketing-activity-6914864001428455424-oWPI

For this episode of the Book Marketing Success Podcast, I interview Grant Ferry, the author of The Innovation Opportunity: Getting started with business innovation and moving beyond survival!

Here are a few of the questions we covered in this podcast. Note: Most book authors are owner-operators. That means that they need to innovate to create the best books, publish those books in a new way, and market those books with new passion and foresight.

In basic terms, what is innovation?

What is the innovation imperative?

Why do owner operated businesses innovate less than larger business?

What are the biggest mistakes made by owner operated businesses when it comes to innovation?

What are the biggest weaknesses smaller businesses have when it comes to innovation?

What strengths do smaller businesses have when it comes to innovation?

What are the key elements of engaging in effective and efficient ongoing innovation?

What is the innovation opportunity for owner operated businesses?

How should owner operated business get started with innovation?

What should book authors do to innovate?

Listen in to hear Grant’s answers to these questions!

How do you get your videos out to more and more people via YouTube? Here's what Shaun Letang of Music Industry How-To has to say about that:

Well today I’m going to share a big secret you can use to get your videos out there more: Optimize them for YouTube’s search and suggestion engines!

If you didn’t know, YouTube videos can be found in one of a few ways.

Send Viewers Directly

First, you can send people there directly. Unless you already have a big audience, you won’t get many views this way.

Keyword Optimize Your Videos

Next, you can optimize your videos so they get found when people search for specific things.

As a very basic example, if someone searches for the words California rapper (California rapper being the keyword), you want your video to show up for that YouTube search. In order to maximize the chance that happens, you’ll need to optimize your video for that term and other related terms (aka keywords).

To optimize your videos, put the words California rapper (your keyword) in your video description, the video title, in the actual video, and more. This will show YouTube you’re relevant for this search term and increases the likelihood they’ll show your video when people search for that keyword.

That’s an overly simplified description of how to optimize for a search term.

By learning and doing these optimizations, you can get many people consistently finding your videos when they search for specific terms. Imagine making a bunch of videos, optimizing them, and having them bring you new subscribers and fans every day. Well, this is exactly what can happen!

Video optimization is so underutilized in the music industry (and the book industry) it’s crazy. So, by default, optimization is still open for you to take advantage of. Every musician and book author who’s serious about doing music or writing full time should learn YouTube optimization.

Get YouTube to Suggest Your Videos

A final way you can get traffic from YouTube is by YouTube suggesting your videos to its users. This won’t normally happen until you get an existing subscriber base on the platform, and YouTube knows that people like what you’re doing.

From there, YouTube will test your videos by sending them out to new audiences, and if these viewers like what you’re doing (which YouTube will measure via watch time, engagement, and more data), YouTube will keep pushing your video out to more and more people over time.

Get a free ebook, 5 Steps to a Profitable YouTube Music Career, by going here: https://www.musicindustryhowto.com.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thank you!

Listen to this this story of how Shaahin Cheyene ended up getting massive national publicity for his business selling Herbal Ecstasy. You can find the complete story in the Dropping Bombs video below:

In Cheyene’s Amazon Mastery, Amazon FBA Seller Course, he helps individuals and business owners to create predictable recurring revenue with his bulletproof Amazon systems that never fail, putting you ahead of 80% of all Amazon sellers.

Find out more about his course here: https://fbasellercourse.com.

Find out more about Shaahin’s book Billion: How I Became the King of the Thrill Pill Cult by clicking here: https://amzn.to/3D88Iod.

I think there are things to learn from Shaahin about persistence, audacity, integrity, authenticity, and influence. That’s why I shared his interview and quotes.

Words of Wisdom from Shaahin Cheyene

Here are a few of Shaahin’s quotable words of wisdom featured in the above video showcasing Brad Lea of Dropping Bombs interviewing Shaahin Cheyene.

I was motivated to put my own dent in the universe. — Shaahin Cheyene

At the end of the day, it all comes down to two things: Authenticity and Influence. — Shaahin Cheyene

People can sense a natural hunger for success. — Shaahin Cheyene

Once I set my mind to something, nobody can tell me no. — Shaahin Cheyene

Riches are in the niches. — Shaahin Cheyene

The more you think about the negative stuff, the more it will be affirmed. — Shaahin Cheyene

If you’re not focused on making your money now, someone else is. — Shaahin Cheyene

I've never been one to chase money. You chase excellence, not money. — Shaahin Cheyene

If you can learn how to influence people, you will never go hungry. — Shaahin Cheyene

Check out Shaahin’s Hack and Grow Rich podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/hack-and-grow-rich-podcast-shaahin-cheyene-DenFP24ySfd.

And, finally, here is a link to many of the podcasts that have featured interviews with Shaahin Cheyene. If you have a business book or story, these podcasts might be interested in interviewing you as well.

https://www.shaahincheyenne.com/podcasts/collaborations

The above podcast is courtesy of Brendan from MasterTalk on YouTube.

Public speaking, much like leadership, is NOT something you're born with, but rather something you learn over time if you know exactly what to work on.

1. Master Silences

Silences are the biggest difference between great and exceptional public speakers. The top speakers in the world use this technique to make their presentations better instead of seeing them as a sign of weakness. That's why it's absolutely crucial that you learn to master the art of silences.

2. Master Filler Words e.g. ah, uh, eh

Saying filler words in a presentation detracts the quality of your entire pitch, so it's very important that you learn to remove them altogether before you think about giving an exceptional presentation. By replacing these filler words with silences, you'll be able to get one step closer to mastering this.

3. Master Your Audience

The quality of your presentation is solely determined by how much your audience LOVES you. Thus, it is important that you're always thinking about how to craft your presentation in a way that your audience will be able to fully understand what you're saying and get behind you.

What is the goal of your presentation? Teaching, motivation, entertainment?

Understand the needs and desires of your audience.

Communicate their needs back to your audience to get them excited.

Tell stories and analogies.

Stay energetic.

4. Master Eye Contact

Eye contact is a tricky subject because it varies based on the space you're in, the number of people in the audience and your ability as a speaker. But don’t look up to the ceiling. Look at the people in your audience (but don’t focus on just one person).

5. Master Posture

Most students assert they don't need coaching on posture, when in reality, most of them make two big mistakes when speaking: legs are too far apart and the famous leg tick, where they frantically move their feet for no reason. Brendan always recommends Sticking Together, where you essentially glue your feet together to avoid these problems until you're in a comfortable position to present.

Bonus Video: 5 Advanced Public Speaking Tips

We explore the powerful tools that the best communicators in the world utilize to make their presentations perfect in this week's episode of MasterTalk.

1. Master Impromptu Speeches

I do not know what I'm going to say next as much as you do. But, through my way of speaking, I'm going to CONVINCE you that I do so that with some practice, you will too.

Speakers who have mastered the art of presenting anything to anyone with no preparation have mastered the following three things.

They use silences to masterfully buy time. Instead of standing up and worrying about what to say next, they raise their glass, confidently look at the room, and say nothing to buy time.

They have strong facial non-verbal cues. Through their face, they convince you that they’ve practiced their speech 100's of times.

They keep eye contact with their audience at all time to never hint that they have no clue what’s coming next.

2. Master Vocal Tone Changes

Vocal tones have nothing to with singing or being a news reporter, but rather deciding in advance where you want to change your tone, in other words, artificially using them to grab the attention of your audience.

For speaking tones, have a few honest friends tell you if they enjoy hearing your voice to figure out how to adjust your voice for a mass audience.

High Tones project optimism, positivity, something amazing happening at the company, or an exciting future for the organization moving forward. I usually use high tones when I present a solution to a problem or when I’m presenting what MasterTalk is to prospective clients.

Low Tones are mostly used to emphasize the key message of your presentation, or the moments that really matter that can be somber, extremely vital, or emotional to hear.

3. Master Audience Obsessively

Take your level of obsessiveness with your audience to the next level. It is the only way to master any of these tips. Here’s a trick you can use to really bring it to the top 1% of speakers.

Practice talking to an audience that doesn’t exist. When I would participate in business competitions, most of them consisted of a judging panel that was NEVER from the actual company. In order to win, I needed to pretend as if they existed in the flesh which meant being inspired by what they are doing, raving over the mission and embodying that in full, Then, when the audience was real, it was easier for me to present.

Get a friend to act like your audience and point out every flaw that you don’t understand about them and their needs.

4. Master Your Pace

Mastering pace means understanding how you normally speak and aligning what you normally do with the way you present. This is known as aligning. Most people speak faster in presentation mode than if they are conversing at lunch. That because they have a different mindset in presentations (get over it as fast possible). The key in speaking is to speak at the same speed for both.

5. Master the Unknown

From my experience in theater, I’ve learned that some of the best performers were also the most fearless. The best presenters can give a keynote under any circumstances, no matter what challenge is thrown at them.

Fall in love with disaster. No matter what happens, whether it’s a broken mouse or projector, or forgetting to put your slides on a USB so you have to present without them, don’t let anything falter you.

For business or one-on-one public speaking coaching inquiries, you can reach Brendan at brendenkbusiness@gmail.com.

Listen in as Anthony M. Turner of Biz Success Radio interviews Grant Ferry, an innovation expert from Australia. They talk about innovation as a mindset and how even the smallest innovation steps can ensure the survival of your business.

Grant Ferry’s first book is The Innovation Opportunity: Getting Started with Business Innovation and Moving Beyond Survival!, available on Amazon. I love this cover (but, alas, survival is misspelled as survuval).

Fortunately, the actual book cover doesn’t have that problem:

Also, check out Grant’s video about innovation.

Note: The description of this video on YouTube should have featured Grant Ferry’s name in the title (The Innovation Opportunity by Grand Ferry) as well as in the description so people could find it via his name.

Plus the description shows where to buy his books, but do not provide links. Why not?

To purchase the books visits:

- www.fortitudebusinessconsulting.com.au

- Amazon:

- Audible:

- Kindle:

It looks like they intended to add links after the colons, but that didn’t happen.

And to make www.fortitudebusinessconsulting.com.au a clickable link on YouTube, you have to add the https:// like below:

https://www.fortitudebusinessconsulting.com.au

Also, of course, list the full titles of both books in the description, with links to both books on Amazon, Audible, and Kindle.

Michele Cobb, host of the Behind the Mic podcast published by Audiofile magazine, interviewed bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell to talk about audiobooks, podcasts, and the meeting of the two.

Gladwell is the host of the Revisionist History podcast. Check out his latest audiobook, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know. Gladwell is the president of Pushkin Industries, an audiobook and podcast production company.

Discover more audiobook recommendations at https://audiofilemagazine.com.

As Malcolm writes his books, he’s always think about the audio experience as well. What will the audiobook sound like? What extra content can he add to the audiobook?

His company creates what he calls 5-star audiobooks that offer an immersive and enhanced listening experience. As he notes,

“When … you start with the audio in mind and then move toward the print, I think the writing really does change. I think your writing is necessarily more conversational. You spend a lot more time on character and emotion and those kinds of things. But you tend to do a little bit less of the things that print is good at (print is good for complicated, analytical kinds of stuff). Hard to do that when you're talking. So I think it does change the shape of books.”

When he writes a book, he does a table read of the entire book, listening for how it sounds. And then he often rewrites the draft to make it more concise, more interesting, more attractive to the ear. He’s also done public performances of parts of a book to get audience feedback.

His company, Pushkin, originally focused on podcasts but quickly moved into producing audiobooks as well. As Gladwell notes, the difference a podcast and an audiobook is slight. You pay for one, the other is free (in most cases). The other differences are mainly technical, which most listeners would not notice.

John’s Comments

If you are doing hour-long podcast interviews, you are essentially creating short audiobooks and print books with each session. And you can create even longer books and audiobooks by interviewing the same person or other experts in a series of related podcasts.

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The following is another podcast episode from Book Marketing Mentors hosted by Susan Friedmann.

This episode features Tina Dietz sharing her treasure trove of tips and techniques to get your message heard by creating a great audiobook.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

The following is a podcast episode from Book Marketing Mentors hosted by Susan Friedmann. This episode features David H. Lawrence on how to record an audiobook.

Why you should turn your book into an audiobook …Where having an audiobook fits into marketing a system …Whether or not some books are better than others in the audiobook format …

If you should or shouldn't be the narrator of your audiobook …

The first step to take to get started converting your book into an audiobook …

Common audiobook mistakes to avoid …

This episode and the previous one are courtesy of my friend, Judith Briles and her Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast.

Audiobooks are leading the publishing industry in terms of growth. Smart authors and publishers are getting into the game as quickly as they can. This episode is all about taking your audiobook presence to a higher level with key marketing and distribution tips!

Becky Parker Geist and her company, Pro Audio Voices, work on projects ranging from single narrator to full cast with music and sound effects to author-narrated books in all genres from children's books to novels to textbooks to memoirs.

Your takeaways include:

Tips on how to leverage your audiobook production from the inside out.

Tips for driving traffic to your website so your audience can continue to engage with you.

Tips on what makes a great listening experience and some key things to watch out for.

Tips on how to use the existing audiobook files to help spread the word in new ways you can only do with audio.

Wowsa tip on how to open your audiobook to 50 distribution platforms at once.

Discover a way to earn higher royalties than you can get from any existing retail platform while retaining more control over pricing and customer information.

and, soooooo much more.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

This episode and the following one are courtesy of my friend, Judith Briles and her Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast.

Audiobooks are leading the publishing industry in terms of growth and smart authors and publishers are getting into the game as quickly as they can.

Most find there is a lot more to producing and marketing audio than they thought before getting into it. Much of it is different from publishing other formats, and the learning curve is steep.

Your takeaways include:

Tips to use your existing audiobook files to build your author platform

Tips on how to increase your royalty payments

Tips on how to increase the price of your audiobook

Tips on narrating—you or someone else

Tips to drive traffic to your website via your audiobooks

If you want to take you and your work to another level, then the AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast is for you. Judith Briles and her guest, Becky Parker Geist of Pro Audio Voices have lots to share in this episode.

Thank you for reading Book Marketing Success. This post is public so feel free to share it.

A little over a week ago, Joanna Penn interviewed John Kremer on book marketing for 2022 and beyond. Here are a few of the points I made during that interview:

Your goal is to stay out there long enough that the people that need you or want you or hope to find you actually do find you.

A lot of us end up writing a book because we actually need the information in the book. Or we're looking for a really interesting novel that will entertain us. So we write it.

The key thing in marketing books that you need to still do is connect with people that can help you. Connect with the distributors, the editors, the producers of TV shows, the bloggers, the podcasters, and so on.

I recommend that you connect with people through email. That's something that even us shy introverts can do. You start by checking out their social media. Start commenting on what they're writing about, what they're doing. You try to make some sort of connection.

The reality is that that magic process doesn't work unless you make it happen. So, you do have to persist. You have to connect. If you don't connect the first time, you try again. You really have to be a little bit obnoxious, and patient!

The minute you connect with one person, the magic can start to happen. There is actually some magic that, if you connect with one top influencer, and they write about your book, chances are that other influencers follow that influencer, and they go, ‘Okay. If he's going to interview him on his podcast, I want him on my podcast.' And that kind of thing happens, and they start to reach out to you.

You're not really passive marketing when you're advertising on Amazon, which I think almost every author should do, especially an unknown author, because it's one way to get people to notice you.

Hire professionals to help you if you can't or don't want to do it yourself?

The neat thing about advertising on something like Amazon, or Facebook, or Google or wherever you might want to advertise, is that most online marketing, you can set a budget, even a small budget, $10 a week or $25 a week, and at least test the market and see if by advertising you make book sales, or you make connections, or in some way, it helps you move along in your goal to become a bestselling author.

It's about also staying out there long enough that people notice what you do, or they eventually look for what you do.

it's about also staying out there long enough that people notice what you do, or they eventually look for what you do.

Once you create a podcast and you set up the syndication, all you have to do is create more episodes, because the syndication will take place automatically. And that's one of the really, really neat things about doing a podcast.

Audio is hot, and the neat thing is that with a podcast, you can also do a video version of your podcast, and put it up on YouTube and Vimeo, and a key source right now is Rumble.

How do we know when we need to give up one way of marketing and find another one? When it's not producing results is one of the best ways to know. If you're not selling books any longer through that particular platform or whatever you're doing, nobody's discovering you, nobody's emailing you, things like that, then you know that, ‘Okay. What I'm doing now isn't working.'

If you know how to pin, if you know what to pin, you can get a lot of traffic through Pinterest.

I think all authors should be connecting with other authors, and doing some sort of co-op marketing where you help each other.

I think a podcast tour could work. In other words, you connect with 5 or 10 key podcasts, people who are podcasting in your area, and I would probably approach those podcasters by first saying, ‘I'd like to interview you,' which is what I did with you, and then you said, ‘Well, I want to interview you.'

The neat thing is that Substack, besides that email capability, and the paid version, which is like a membership site, they also offer podcasting. So you can do your podcasting on Substack, for free. No charge, and it's up and running, and you can syndicate it.

Note: I said that Andy Weir podcasted his book, The Martian, but he actually blogged about it, one short episode at a time. You can read more about Weir here: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/how-to-create-a-bestselling-novel-and-movie.

The most successful authors don't make all their money just from book sales.

Part of my content that I do in some of my websites has nothing to do with marketing or books in general. It's just a way of attracting people to my website, so they can discover, because I believe almost everybody has a book inside them. So the world is my audience for how to market a book.

The key thing is, if you're going to do marketing, do at least one thing a day.

If you do one thing a day, whether it's send out an email, do a podcast episode, get interviewed by somebody else, over time, that's 365 action items a year.

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For the entire transcript of this podcast, see: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2022/02/07/book-marketing-tips-for-the-long-term

Joanna Penn is the author of Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting and Voice Technologies.

Joanna Penn is the author of Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting and Voice Technologies and a number of other writing and publishing books, including these:

How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge into Words

How to Make a Living with Your Writing: Turn Your Words into Multiple Streams of Income

Successful Self-Publishing: How to Self-Publish and Market Your Book

Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts

Here are some of the questions we covered in this podcast

What criteria should an author use to decide which books to publish as audiobooks as well?

Is it easy to create an audiobook on your own as an author? Or would you recommend working with a professional narrator?

Would you caution authors about producing their own audiobooks?

How should an author price an audiobook versus Kindle ebook, paperback, and hardcover?

How do authors position their books to take advantage of an increasingly audio world?

How easy is it for an author to start up their own podcast?

And why should an author start up a podcast, especially as a tool for marketing their books?

What is the best type of podcast for an author to start? What are some of the options?

How do authors find the best podcasts to pitch as guests?

What does an author do to be a great podcast guest?

Anything new on the voice technologies like AI, speech to text, and text to speech?

Audio for Authors

Do you want to create, publish and market your audiobooks?

Are you ready to use podcasting to grow your author brand and reach more readers with your books?

Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment in publishing with double-digit growth in markets across the world. Podcasting has gone mainstream with listeners consuming audio on mobile phones and in-car devices, as well as through smart speakers. Advancements in voice technology continue to expand possibilities for audio creation and marketing.

With such rapid growth in opportunity, how can you position your books in an increasingly voice-first world?

Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies by Joanna Penn: https://amzn.to/3z7IRe5

As Joanna has noted, I've been podcasting for over a decade as well as narrating and producing my own audiobooks since 2014. I'm an avid consumer of audio content and I'm also experimenting with AI voice technologies. In this book, I'll share everything I know so you can position your books and your author brand for the next shift in reader behavior.

Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Here are a few more facts that I hope will convince you to start your own podcast. As I said before, podcasts are hot, hot, hot. And big, big, big!

Spotify Podcasts

299 Million Listeners — Spotify has over 299 million listeners (172 million paid listeners) across 92 markets worldwide just waiting to discover podcasts like yours.

#2 Podcast Audience — Spotify is the second most popular place to listen to podcasts in the world—and it’s growing fast. iTunes from Apple is #1, but I believe Spotify will catch them soon!

Double the Audience — Spotify’s podcast audience has nearly doubled since the start of 2019.

Revenue Driven by Podcasts — Spotify’s advertising revenue jumped by 75% in just a year, much of that revenue driven by podcasts. And you can get in on that revenue.

299 Million Listeners — Spotify’s ad team is testing a new ad format, a clickable call to action visual ad, that plays after their audio ads on original podcasts.

The King of Audio — Spotify wants to be the king of audio, so it’s expanding its exclusive podcast and audiobook offerings. It has signed deals with Bad Robot, Higher Ground Productions, Joe Rogan, Dax Shepard, and others.

$100 Million Podcast — Joe Rogan was paid $100 million to keep his Joe Rogan Experience podcast only on Spotify. His podcast gets over 10 million listeners per episode.

Other Podcast Pluses

The New York Times recently paid $25 million for Serial Productions, a podcasting firm. The Times also bought the audio subscription service Audm for $8.6 million. They expect podcasting to grow much bigger in the next few years.

The iHeart Podcast Network reaches 32 million people every month with 392 million monthly downloads.

The Rubin Report with Dave Rubin has 1,660,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. He has had 423 million views of his podcast since 2012.

Newsmax, a major media company (with a magazine and a TV channel), launched its first podcast recently, The Newsmax Daily with Rob Carson.

Judith Briles, author of How to Write a Million Dollar Speech, has broadcast over 350 podcast shows on Your Guide to Book Publishing with more than 9 million downloads so far.

Listen in on one of her latest podcast shows featuring an interview with me: https://www.toginet.com/podcasts/authoruyourguidetobookpublishing/AuthorUYourGuidetoBookPublishingLIVE_2021-12-3.mp3

These are just a few of the reasons you should start your own podcast NOW!

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Thank you for reading Book Marketing Success. This post is public so feel free to share it.

I just finished a coaching call with an author. And at one point I asked her this question (actually, two questions): How can you fall in love with your readers? And how can your readers fall in love with you?

The thing is, these two questions are probably the two most important questions you can ask yourself as an author.

Perhaps you don't like the word "love" and, if that's the case, use a different word.

But, regardless, the most important thing you can do to market your books is to really care for those you write for. If you care, they will care.

As Rick Blaine said at the end of one of my favorite movies, Casablanca, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Join me if you can on my birthday book marketing Q&A via Zoom. It's tomorrow, January 16th, at 4:00 p.m. Mountain time, 6:00 p.m. Eastern time (U.S.).

Click on this link to join: https://zoom.us/j/93353375853?pwd=QkRaYVBGWXN4anhPcUZncTNWVVJHQT09

It could be the beginning (or continuation) of a beautiful friendship. I hope to see you there.

Thank you for reading Book Marketing Success. This post is public, so feel free to share it. Thanks!

Get ready for an hour with two masters of book marketing and what you should be doing during 2022: John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book and Dr. Judith Briles via the AuthorU - Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast.

Your takeaways include:

Hot tips for 2022 to do starting now.

Rediscover why superfans are your sweet marketing spot.

How to serialize your book via Amazon Vella.

New tips for creating the “CliffNotes” version of your book.

Discover Substack.com and how to use it to publish your email newsletters and more.

Why authors should be using Pinterest.

Are you ready to start?

Book Marketing Success Updates is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my on-going work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

You can also listen to this podcast via a few other podcasting services:

Amazon Music:  https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b06bb3b2-1ad2-40fc-adbc-d704c0a7cb4c/episodes/daa8b267-8bd0-46fc-94be-82e1a71809ef/author-u-your-guide-to-book-publishing-book-marketing-2022-with-john-kremer-12-30-2021

Thank you for reading Book Marketing Success. This post is public so feel free to share it.

As noted a few days ago, Brian Feinblum wrote a blog post on 22 things book authors should do in 2022 (https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/22-things-authors-should-do-in-2022.html). I thought I'd post his recommendations along with my riff on his ideas. Here are two more of his ideas.

8. Join online groups. Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups connected to writing books, especially those targeted to your genre or topic. There are writing groups for romance, science fiction, self-help, memoirs, travel, food, business, and more. Plus, of course, there are groups targeted to any topic you write about, groups that might not be about writing, but might bring in fans, advocates, bloggers, podcasters, etc.

Online groups are one of the best ways to discover insider secrets for researching, writing about, and publishing on your topic as well as marketing and promoting to your target audience or audiences.

Here are just a few of the writer groups on Facebook that I discovered several years ago. I joined many of them. Check them out and see if they work for you:

Creative Designers and Writers – 322,267 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativedesignerswriters – No rules, promotions allowed.

Writers’ Group – 40,572 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/memberswritersgroup – Writers of all skill levels and experience are encouraged to help each other through problem spots in their writing, bounce ideas off other members, and talk about the latest news affecting the industry/craft; exchange leads to discovery.

Content Writing, Writers – 37,993 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/copy.content – This is an exclusive place on Facebook for writing professionals into advertising, brand management, promotion and digital marketing to share and contribute with their experience and exposure in writing.

Books, Books and More Books!!! – 35,192 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/320356974732142 – Where authors and readers can post to help promote their books and giveaways.

English Writers – 33,823 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/English.Writers – Any post containing a link (and nothing else) will not be approved (when you post a link try to specify it to open in a new window so that it does not take the user away from the Facebook page). So not send quotes. A member can advertise his own book.

Writers Unite! – 32,576 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/145324212487752 – IF YOU HAVE A BOOK FOR SALE OR SERVICES TO OFFER (book cover, editing, etc.): we put up a bookstore on the pinned post that stays up from Friday morning until Monday morning. . . . IF YOU WANT TO POST A LINK TO: your blog/vlog, author's page, personal YouTube video, Facebook/Twitter page or anything of that ilk, post it in the comments of the pinned post from Monday through Thursday. Please remember, only one post per day for each link. You may post more than one link per day as long as it is not the same link. DO NOT POST LINKS IN THE REPLIES TO OTHER LINKS.

Book Promotion – 31,839 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookPromotion – The purpose of this group is to enable authors to promote their books, to readers of all tastes. What it is NOT for is the promotion and sale of anything other than books. If you post ads for anything else, you and your post will be removed – permanently. Author pages and other posts related to publishing and book business are permitted. (Operated by BestSeller Publishing; email: rebecca@bestsellerpublishing.org, Rebecca Grosch)

Authors – 30,575 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/179494068820033 – Anything about writing. Stories, experiences, advice and tips. Any new books, promotions or book cover designs.

Books, Blogs, Readers & Writers – 29,409 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1738820499716120 – We are here to have crazy book lovers, amazing literary bloggers, avid readers and passionate writers, all at one place. Feel free to share your works (Literature), your reading experience... anything and everything related to LITERATURE!

Online Book Publicity Group – 28,556 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/online.book.publicity – Operated by Substance Books. But members can post about their books.

Amazon Kindle Goodreads – 25,125 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/kindle.goodreads – This group is for people who own Amazon Kindle and want to share their recommendations for books they recent read and liked, or chat about their favorite authors etc.

Promote KDBook! Free! – 24,128 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/promotekdbook – Promote Your Kindle Book. Glad to have you with us. Wishing you every continued success.

Indie Author Book Promotion Page – 23,797 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/571135069563269 – Welcome to the open group for Indie Author book promotions. Share the links for author pages and books on your wall as well!

Freelance Writers – 23,561 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2351373470 – This group is for all the freelance writers out there. Please share experiences, works or job postings.

Authors and Book Lovers Discussion Group – 23,293 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/authorspostyourbooks – This is a discussion group for authors and book lovers to chat about their favorite books. All Authors are welcome to promote here!

Kindle Publishers – 23,211 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/512098985483106 – Kindle ebooks only. New members please do make an introductory post so we can all know who you are, what you do, where you are from, etc. Feel free to include contact information like website or email or facebook page links. I do allow, indeed I encourage, self–promotion, advertising links, even affiliate links, in most of my groups. If not, it is clearly stated in the pinned post (No second chances for those groups!), but those promotional posts, comments, or links must be on topic for the group. If it's relevant, feel free to share it, whether commercial or otherwise. If you post about the same book, theme, plugin, etc. more than once, do so only with reasonable frequency. Some groups have more traffic than others. Your book should not show up more than about once in 6 to 10 screens.

Book Reviews & Promotion – 22,232 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/148313988694907 – Post books, including those for sale (Sale Posts).

Authors, Reviewers, & Book Lovers – 22,142 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BooksLuvers – Post only things that are book related, this includes book reviews, book promos as well as author sites, blogs, and Facebook pages, etc.

Book Promotions – 21,961 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/623206594363552 – This group is for promoting books of all kinds. Including poetry. Feel free to put up any book you have written or like.

Where Authors Begin – 21,273 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/516756898457588 – No promo posts – this is a group to support the writing process, not to promote your books. Posting covers of your books are also considered promo. If you want to share the art, share the art, but if you post the full cover, regardless of its context, it will be deleted. Blog post links about the writing craft allowed.

Ebooks N Books Promos Group – 20,359 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/eBooksBooksPromo – The purpose of this group is to enable authors to promote their books, to readers of all tastes. What it is NOT for is the promotion and sale of anything other than books. If you post ads for anything else, you and your post will be removed – permanently. Author pages and other posts related to publishing and book business are permitted. (Operated by BestSeller Publishing; email: rebecca@bestsellerpublishing.org, Rebecca Grosch).

Writers and Readers – 20,335 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/writersandreaders – Post questions about books and recommend books and where writers can interact with readers.

Novelspot Readers – 19,589 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/NovelspotRecommendsbooks – We're all about the books? Authors, your brags go here! Contests you're in! BUT If you're an author and want to TALK WRITING with authors, publishers and editors, join Novelspot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Novelspotters.

Author Promo and Book Sales Group – 19,453 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/147716185430164 – Post your book covers, links to where the book can be purchased, as well as a log line of what your book is about to try to get readers interested.

Creative Writing – 19,448 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/wherecreativitylives – No rules.

Promote Kindle Book++ – 18,740 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1084582441578359 – Promote your Kindle book free.

Writers Helping Writers – 18,565 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/mikegeffnerpresentswritershelpingwriter – New members are encouraged to introduce themselves, tell a little about yourself, how you got started writing, the type of genre you work in (sci–fi? romance? historical fiction? non–fiction?) and other interesting trivia, but no links to your books or "please buy my book" posts will be allowed.

Authors Promoting Authors – 18,498 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/apablog – Authors Promoting Authors community group. This group serves as a forum for discussion, promotion and sharing. Please be respectful.

Authors, Agents, and Aspiring Writers – 18,349 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/204725947524 – You are free to promo new releases, your books, your writing blogs, your thoughts on writing and asking for help from others to improve your craft. If you have information that you think will be beneficial to writers, please share. Please do not post the same link/cover/promo more than once a day. This includes promotional services. If you post six different authors in a day, you're flooding the wall and making your promo more like spam.

Books, Readers and Authors – 17,903 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BOOKS.READERS.and.AUTHORS – All of us are either readers, reviewers, or authors. Let’s celebrate our reading experiences and out books!

There’s an eBook in the Room – 17,659 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/126014020784739 – A room full of eBook enthusiasts and their eReaders. Featuring the very best in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, There's an eBook in the Room is your guide to great reading!

Cheekypee Promote Your Books – 17,519 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2friendspromatewithauthors – This is a UK based group. Feel free to advertise your book/books, but please DO NOT SPAM the group with post after post with your books. Respect others in the group. Everyone wants to advertise their books, so please do not bump posts or arrange your friends to do so. People are FREE TO COMMENT on your post but not by prior arrangement just to move your post up. We do not endorse or encourage REVIEW SWAPS within this group, what you do outside of this group is up to you.

Amazon Kindle/eBook Readers – 17,477 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/129536203777715 – The group promotes not only ebooks but also paperback copies...some recommended reads.

Celebrating Authors – 16,721 members – https://www.facebook.com/groups/157960580960255 – In this group, shameless SELF–PROMOTION is not only welcomed, it’s encouraged––and the point! Give a hook line and the link to your book.

There are, of course, more such groups, some of which have grown much larger in the past few years.

LinkedIn also offers many similar groups that you can join.

In any group you join, don’t be mercenary. Share first. Answer questions from others. Ask questions. Become a real member of the group. Talk about your book only within the legitimate answers you give to other people’s questions.

And, of course, where allowed, you can always include an author signature with every post. Something like: John Kremer, author, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

For more Facebook group links and other resources, download the following Facebook Links PDF: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/wp-content/uploads/Facebook-Links-1.pdf

9. Boost your social media posts. In other words, pay to get more people to see your social media posts and click through on them.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of this suggestion. But that’s just because I’m cheap. I hate paying for traffic when I can get the traffic for free.

On the other hand, I do understand that with many social media, the only way you’ll get much traffic is to pay for it. Facebook definitely works that way for most users. You have to pay for traffic. And it’s certainly still worth it to test Facebook ads to see if they will pay off for you in sending traffic to your sales pages.

You will also get more traffic on Instagram and LinkedIn if you pay for that traffic.

In my experience, you can get a ton of traffic from Pinterest without paying for it, but ads on Pinterest could be very effective in selling your books or other products. I would certainly test ads on all social media, including Pinterest.

Facebook Ad Options:

As noted yesterday, Brian Feinblum wrote a blog post on 22 things book authors should do in 2022 (https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/22-things-authors-should-do-in-2022.html). I thought I'd post his recommendations along with my riff on his ideas. Here are three more of his ideas.

4. Launch a video channel using YouTube, Vimeo, or Rumble. You can syndicate your podcasts as videos to these video channels, or you can create new videos for these channels. Generally, keep your videos short (under 5 minutes), but you can feature Zoom interviews, Skype interviews, Facebook Live interviews, etc., that go an hour or more.

Post your videos regularly, at least once a week. But you will build up a bigger audience if you post videos 5 times a week, Monday through Friday.

Also share your videos on all your social networks, but especially on the one or two social media you are focusing on to target your audience.

5. Guest post often on the blogs of others. Personally, I wouldn’t focus on this as much as I might have once done. But, if you can get invited to write articles for a top magazine website targeted to your audience, definitely do that. Write an article once a week if they allow you to.

Here are a few top magazine websites: Cosmopolitan.com, Elle.com, MarieClaire.com, NyMag.com, Oprah.com, RealSimple.com, Self.com, Vogue.com, WomensHealthMag.com, and WomensWorld.com.

Also write articles for top websites targeted to your audience, sites such as Bustle, Elephant Journal, GirlBoss, HelloGiggles, MamaMia, PopSugar, Romper, SafeMom, SheKnows, and WomenVoicesForChange.

If you want to write for blogs, pick some of the top blogs to solicit opportunities. For example, you can find some of the top food and cooking blogs and websites by following these listings:

25 Food Bloggers We Love (and Their 25 Best Recipes): https://www.themuse.com/advice/25-food-bloggers-we-love-and-their-25-best-recipes

30+ Best Food Blog Examples (2021): https://firstsiteguide.com/best-food-and-cooking-blogs

Top 30+ Food Blogs: https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/top-30-food-blogs

The 50 Best Food & Cooking Blogs: https://detailed.com/food-blogs

Top 100 Food Blogs: https://blog.feedspot.com/food_blogs

106 Best Food Blogs and Bloggers to Follow: https://masterblogging.com/best-food-blogs

108 DIY Bloggers, Food Bloggers, Beauty Bloggers, Garden Bloggers: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/diy-bloggers-food-bloggers-beauty-bloggers-garden-bloggers

6. Get interviewed by targeted bloggers and podcasters. Interviews are generally more effective at driving traffic to your website that guest posts or articles. The main reason for this is that in an interview you get to interact with a key influencer in a way that should attract the influencer’s followers to your content. If the followers like how you interact with the person they follow and if they like your presentation, content, and answers, they will seek you out.

If you don’t know who the top influencers are for your target audience, you can search for them via DuckDuckGo or Google. Search for “top travel bloggers” or “top travel websites” or “top business magazine websites” or something similar. That’s what I did for the list of food bloggers in point #5 above.

You can also check out social media sites to search for the top influencers on each social media for your target audience.

Also, of course, each time you are interviewed, ask that person if they could recommend other bloggers, podcasters, or influencers who would be open to interviewing you. When you ask, also share with that person other people you would recommend they interview and/or be interviewed by. Such recommendations are among the most powerful you will find.

7. Add guest posters to your blog. And interview others, especially influencers, for your blog, Zoom sessions, Facebook Lives, and new podcast.

Quite honestly, I have found hosting guest posters on my blog is more work for me than writing original content for my blog. But you might have a different experience.

Certainly, if I wrote cookbooks, I’d want to invite other cookbook authors to share their recipes on my blog, website, podcast, and/or Pinterest boards. And I would definitely want to develop and participate in a number of topic-specific group boards on Pinterest with other people writing about the same topic.

I am definitely happy to interview other authors and marketers who can share insider secrets on what worked for them in marketing their books, courses, products, and services. I love interviewing others (and being interviewed by them as well).

Interviews, as I’ve said before, are one of the most listened to podcast topics. People love listening to great interviews. To interview people, create a great pitch why they should agree to being interviewed and showcased by you.

Once you book them, create a Podcast Prep Sheet to send to people before you interview them so they are prepared to provide you with a great interview. For an example of a Podcast Prep Sheet you can send to the people you will be interviewing, see https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brilliance-Podcast-Prep-Sheet.pdf.

Here’s a new Heroes for Today podcast graphic. How do you like this one?

I would love your feedback on the above graphic. Do you think it works? Do you think it will bring people to my new Heroes for Today podcast?

Thanks for any feedback you want to share.

For those who haven’t subscribed to my Podcasting to Millions course via the paid version of this newsletter, think about getting involved now, especially if you want to build a successful podcast that helps you sell more books, products, and services.

Podcasting to Millions

If you want to be part of my new Podcasting to Millions course, subscribe to the paid version of this Book Marketing Update newsletter. Click on the button below:

My friend Brian Feinblum recently wrote a blog post on 22 things that book authors should do in 2022 (https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/22-things-authors-should-do-in-2022.html).

I thought I'd post some of his recommendations along with my riff on his ideas. Here are three of his ideas to start with.

1. Do more on social media. Either join a new social media, get more active on your existing social media accounts, or learn more about how to use social media effectively.

Brian suggested looking at Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. You could also look at new platforms (such as CloutHub, Gab, Gettr, Locals, Medium, Parler, Rumble, and Substack) that might fit your area of expertise or target the audience you want to reach.

Focus on one or two social media. No more. You can belong to more social media, but focus your efforts on the one or two social media that will make a big difference for you.

2. Launch a blog. Or become more active on posting to your current blog. Post regularly. And be sure to share your blog posts via your social media.

I recommend posting three times a week to your blog and then posting to your key social networks.

Include a graphic in every post. Your social media posts will automatically pull in the graphics to make your social media more impactful.

3. Launch a podcast. Post regular episodes, at least once a week for longer podcasts. Post more frequently if you doing 2 to 5-minute episodes.

Make sure you syndicate your podcast to as many outlets as you can. The power of podcasting is in the syndication by high-traffic websites.

Be sure to create an intriguing name for your podcast. And write a description that sells the podcast to potential listeners. And, finally, create a graphic that helps to attract your target audience to your podcast.

I would love your feedback on the above graphic. Do you think it works? Do you think it will bring people to my new Heroes for Today podcast?

Thanks for any feedback you want to share.

For those who haven’t subscribed to my Podcasting to Millions course via the paid version of this newsletter, think about getting involved now, especially if you want to build a successful podcast that helps you sell more books, products, and services.

Podcasting to Millions

If you want to be part of my new Podcasting to Millions course, subscribe to the paid version of this Book Marketing Update newsletter. Click on the button below:

Here are a few of the things you’ll learn in this course:

How to set your podcast up to reach thousands possibly millions of listeners.

What kind of podcast you should create for maximum reach for what you want to sell.

How to syndicate your podcast to the top podcast aggregators and video sites.

How to get started, step by step, in creating a podcast.

And much, much more.

A recent survey of podcasting done by Acast and Nielsen found the following:

* 45% of those surveyed started listening to podcasts during the past year.

* 52% of those who love podcasts are spending more time listening to their favorite podcasts.

* 41% of Americans plan to spend more time with podcasts in the coming six months, while they plan to increase music streaming by only 36% and listening to online radio by only 29%.

* Podcast listening increased by 52% during the past six months, while radio listening only increased by 36% and audio books consumption by only 33%.

* 57% of those surveyed listen to podcast episodes multiple times.

* 62% of listeners listen to more than half of longer podcast episodes (hour long or more).

* 65% of listeners are attentive when listening to podcasts. They focus on the content.

* 57% of listeners will listen to any ads because they believe it’s important to support their favorite podcast hosts.

What all these numbers mean is that podcasts are becoming a more important part of the lives of American consumers.

Nick Southwell-Keely of Acast notes, “We think of our favorite podcasters like our friends, and trust them to entertain and inform us.”

Podcast Content

What kind of podcast content do people enjoy?

* 70% enjoy listening to guest interviews.

* 64% listen to news shows, including news in a specific field.

* 58% enjoy panel discussions.

* 55% enjoy the banter of their favorite hosts.

* Other prime content favorites include music and comedy.

If you plan to host a longer podcast (half an hour or more), feature interviews, news, and banter. If you are hosting a shorter daily podcast (2 to 5 minutes), feature short excerpts from your book, blog posts, or seminars.

Key Tips on Hosting a Podcast

And here are a few tips from a podcast host with over a million daily listeners:

* Be a first mover. Find a unique topic and/or format, and build excitement for it.

* Syndicate your content everywhere you can.

* Note: Some podcasts have a collective audience larger than many cable news or opinion shows.

* Host a show every day (5 days a week) for the most impact.

Subscribe for one year to get the complete course on using Substack for your email newsletters, podcast syndication, content delivery system, and membership portal.

In the early 1980s, Texas spent $20 million a year cleaning up litter on their streets and highways.

Why? Because people ignored the Keep Texas Beautiful ad campaigns.

So Texas tried out something different. They hired a new ad agency to create a campaign that would speak to the guilty parties—mainly young men who like to break rules.

Rather than trying to convince them to care about the environment or how things look, the campaign featured a slogan that spoke to what those men already believed.

The slogan? Simple: Don't Mess With Texas.

No true Texan would ever litter their own state. It's the outsiders that do the littering.

This Don't Mess with Texas messaging reduced litter by 72%!

Think about that.

How will you change your message to appeal to different audiences? Try to adjust your marketing message to the people you really want to reach.

The following article is adapted from a wonderful newsletter shared recently by Steve O’Keefe, author of Set the Page on Fire: Secrets of Successful Writers. It outlines ten ways you can promote your books on Amazon—as well as ten ways you SHOULD promote your books on Amazon.

1. Register, Claim, and Fix Your Amazon Author Page

Amazon Author Central (https://author.amazon.com/claim/welcome) enables you to register as a book author and claim your books. You can add a blog feed (from your main author blog), videos, photos, a bio, and more. Steve wrote a detailed article for IBPA on how to claim and complete your author page here: https://www.ibpa-online.org/blogpost/1734581/309773/The-Amazon-Makeover-by-Steve-O-Keefe.

An Amazon author page can act as your home page on the internet (if you like to use it for that purpose). From there you can promote yourself as an author, talk show guest, consultant, expert, speaker, and more.

Steve O’Keefe’s Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-OKeefe/e/B001HD0BJ4

John Kremer’s author page: https://www.amazon.com/John-Kremer/e/B001H6L2T4

2. Fix Your Amazon Book Pages

You can control the content on the pages for your books. Amazon provides six bins you can fill with content, including Editorial Reviews, Inside Flap Copy, Back Cover Copy, and About the Author. You can put anything you want into those bins, within reason, such as excerpts, reviews, special offers, rights information, tour schedule, etc.

But don’t be annoying or too aggressive. And don’t link to any site outside of Amazon (Amazon does not like to send people outside of itself when people are reading about books to buy).

3. Add a Media Kit to Your Website

A good media kit, the key to promoting your book to a variety of audiences, is foundational content for a book website. Your kit should contain a single-page printable summary with Contact Info, Book Summary, Author Summary, Book Cover, Author Photo, and META data such as dimensions, pages, ISBN, etc.

Steve recommends an index to Best Lines, Power Paragraphs, and Best Excerpts, along with Keynames, Keyplaces, and Keywords. You should also include and update Author Endorsements and Book Endorsements. And, of course, you can add all that onto your Amazon Book and Author pages.

Check out this wonderfully complete media kit for Words Whispered in Water: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fgJI0dZvI09JBmJGMsEuSPT2Y8SRVILhHM0OQVeHNR4.

4. Review Books on Amazon

Review books in your field, books you like, books you’ve just read, books Amazon associates with your book (both in the Amazon ads as well as on your book pages), and books by authors Amazon associates with you. When you do a review, always link your name to your Amazon Author Page and your book title to your Amazon Book Page.

You don’t have to write long reviews, but you should show that you read the book (or at least scanned it). A one-sentence review can often get more attention and be more effective. Most important, make sure your review enhances your credibility as well as the credibility for your book.

Besides reviewing books on Amazon, you can also post your book reviews to GoodReads, Facebook, Twitter, your website, and more. Again, with links to your Amazon Author Page and Amazon Book Page.

Note: If you start doing effective book reviews that help sell books, you can ask for free review copies from the publicity department of book publishers.

Here is Steve’s book review page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFAEINMZMSHSFDABB5CJDQ5NR3OQ.

5. Link to Your Reviews

Link to your book reviews on Amazon. Link from Twitter, from Facebook, from Pinterest, from your website, from LinkedIn, etc. Note: Your book reviews on Amazon have a unique URL which you can post to social media or include in your email newsletter, such as Steve’s review of New Orleans: A Literary History: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R24YF8OE73FXZ9.

When your review gets traffic, Amazon notices and elevates the visibility of your review. This creates a positive feedback loop between your reviews and your social media that brings you to the attention of the media, talkshow producers, literary agents, publishers, and rights buyers. — Steve O’Keefe

6. Create and Maintain a Blog

You can add an RSS feed from your blog to your Amazon Author Page. You can get a free blog from WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Medium.com, or Substack.com.

A blog allows you to push your content to your Amazon Author Page. And with the bonus of featuring links to outside sites on your blog posts within Amazon. You can also get videos onto your Amazon Author Page using this blog backdoor. You don’t have to keep blogging if you don’t want to. However, it’s a great place to post all the book reviews you write and receive.

You can follow John’s BookMarketingBestsellers blog on his Amazon Author Page at: https://www.amazon.com/John-Kremer/e/B001H6L2T4.

7. Comment on Amazon Book Reviews

Your comments on Amazon book reviews can contain a link to your Amazon Author Page as well as links to one of your Book Pages (or the books of other authors).

As you review books on Amazon, you’ll come across other people’s reviews that might be worth commenting on (because their reviews are insightful, because of the traffic they get, or because of the topic itself). All you have to do is write a few words of encouragement and link to your Amazon Author Page.

Note: Your comments on reviews are excellent ways to introduce yourself to other authors, editors, and agents.

8. Comment on News Stories

As you peruse news stories on various websites, blogs, or podcasts, you should comment on relevant news stories. As a book author, you are an authority on the subjects you write about. So use your expertise to comment on the news stories where you can add unique perspective, added ideas, or useful tips. Most sites will welcome your authority.

Note: When you comment, use a signature that includes the title of your book and a link to your media kit.

Steve offers a campaign that turns the drudgery of commenting into something more entertaining and productive (sort of like a treasure hunt). Contact him if you want help with your commenting campaign. Email: steve.okeefe@orobora.com. Phone: 540-324-7023.

9. Connect with One Reporter Every Week

Reach out at least once a week to a reporter, journalist, editor, producer, or host. Connect with them via a short email offering a free review copy of your book or a reason to interview you. Also connect with them via comments on their social media posts, etc.

Keep an email message under 100 words. Don’t include any links or attachments—or your email could end up in their spam folder never to be seen again.

If you need help pitching, see Chapter 7 of Steve’s book, Set the Page on Fire: Secrets of Successful Writers, which contains detailed instructions for creating effective short pitches for books and authors. You can also hire Steve to pitch for you; he does that for a few authors every week. See his contact info in Point 8 above.

Plus Tip: Check out Help A Reporter Out (HARO) for reporters and others looking for experts: https://www.helpareporter.com.

10. Create a Database of Connections

Most authors fail to record all the connections they make every week. You should build a database of your own contacts (either as an Access or Excel data file or simply as a Word document. Use what works best for you.

Personally, I use Microsoft Access for most of the data files I create, but I’ve also used Excel on occasion to develop media lists and key contact data files.

Every week, you should transfer the names of any new contacts from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Email, etc. to your own database. Then you can look them up, fill out their profiles, send a thank you note, invite them to subscribe, share a special offer, etc. Keeping your own list protects you from being cut off from your contacts or charged to communicate with your own fans by these social networks. A well-maintained mailing list can be a valuable asset worth up to $25 per contact when a business is sold!

One final note: A great book cover is the most effective piece of content on Amazon for selling your book.

Ernie Zelinski shared his success story on the Book Marketing Success Stories group on Facebook. Here’s his story:

Just to show that an innovative author can still get results during the pandemic, check out the front cover of the Vietnamese edition of The Joy of Not Working that was just published in Vietnam and is being released this week along with two of my other titles.

It will be a few weeks before I get my complimentary copies of the three titles but I know that Ken, the Vietnamese gentleman who works at my favorite coffee bar in Vancouver, will be pleased to get copies of the three new translations.

He was super excited when I gave him the Vietnamese edition of 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting, and he keeps treating me to free coffee.

Again, a bit of history about The Joy of Not Working. Over 30 years ago I told anyone who would listen to me (including an order taker at McDonald’s, two derelicts on a Vancouver park bench, and a Nigerian scam artist) about my idea for a book on how to escape from the regular work-until-you-drop mentality.

The book's title eventually became The Joy of Not Working. I figured that this book would launch a career for me as a successful author. Many people laughed at the idea; others seriously thought that I was crazy. By the way, many people still think that I am crazy—but I have the results and they don't!

Incidentally, I self-published The Joy of Not Working in 1991 because no mainstream publisher was willing to take it on. The Joy of Not Working became my signature book. Today it still sells in print and ebook form.

Not many books have this sort of staying power 30 years after publication. It has been published in 17 foreign languages and has sold over 315,000 copies worldwide.

Now, I have a question for you:

Do you have as much faith in your book? Here’s how you can tell if you have faith in your book: Tell everyone you meet in the next three days that you are writing and publishing a book. Tell them what your book is about. Get excited. Tell them you will be famous soon. Tell them you are a real book author.

Start talking today. Don’t wait. I expect to hear from you on Monday that 20 people are ready and willing to buy your new book BECAUSE you told them about your book!

One thing you should never forget as a writer or a publisher is this: The truth sells. Tell the truth, and you could become a bestselling author.

Lie, and if you are a politician, your book might still sell—only, of course, to your side of the argument. The other side only likes to hear their own lies, not yours.

You might be surprised to know that, even in fiction, you have to tell the truth. If you tell a story that doesn’t ring true, readers will know—and they will not pass on your book to their friends. In fact, they will tell their friends this: Don’t buy that novelist’s books. They don’t tell the truth.

In marketing your book as well as in writing it, you have to tell the truth. Tell the truth of the book in its description. Tell the truth in your news releases and interviews. Tell the truth when people ask about your book. Tell the truth on your website, in your blog posts, in your social media tweets and pins, and in your podcasts and videos.

The truth will take you a long way in selling your book and getting on to writing your second and third books.

A writer should never forget: Your first obligation is to the truth. It might hurt, but without it, everything else is worthless. — Park MacDougald, Life & Arts Editor, Washington Examiner

Never tire of telling the truth. It is the best this world has to offer. Spread the truth thickly on everything you do.

If you liked this podcast and would like to get 2 - 4 such podcasts every week, please sign up for the PAID edition of this newsletter. Click on subscribe below:

Thank you for your interest and support. — John Kremer

I’m excited to bring today’s presentation to you because this is a business model that is different from everything else that you may have tried. And it’s something that generates income month after month, year after year.

With this model, you’ll be able to tap into Amazon’s nearly 500 million customers.

Note: I didn’t say subscribers. Amazon has half a billion customers, all with credit card numbers on file with Amazon—all of them ready to buy what you have to sell.

One of the easiest and most profitable things to sell on Amazon is ebooks. With us in this webinar is someone who is known as the Amazon Kindle King. He’s been doing this for a long, long time—and he’s going to show you a simple 3-step process that he uses to make a killing publishing Kindle ebooks. He makes a consistent monthly passive income through Kindle.

He’s a family guy, someone who cares for and adores his wife and children. If you follow him on Facebook, you’ll see that he and his family are world travelers. From London to Thailand, from Canada to France, and all over the Caribbean, they travel while his Amazon income continues to come in.

So, with that said, I want to bring on Mr. Ty Cohen.

When it comes to creating passive income streams, this guy is a master.

===

He Turned Kindle Into a Passive Income Stream in Just 3 Steps!

We’re always looking for new passive income streams and although it doesn't happen too often, once in a while I meet someone who blows me away.

Ty Cohen used to be a stock clerk at a Walgreens pharmacy making minimum wage. And he literally "unlocked the secret" to publishing 20-40 page reports and eBooks to Amazon's Kindle—and his first couple of books still bring in over $3,000 per month in recurring revenue on autopilot month after month after month.

Oh yeah—and get this—he doesn't write one word of any of the material that he publishes because he's also found a clever way to get others to write each report or ebook for him for as little as $100 and he sells them over and over making thousands of dollars!

How many times would you invest $100 to make a few thousand? 5 times? 10 times? As many times as  possible?

Well, he has it so dialed-in, he has duplicated the process dozens of times. This is what you call a real business, with real recurring revenue. Best of all, you're tied into and get paid by Amazon.com, a multi-billion dollar company who sends you a check the beginning of every month.

No, this guy is not a guru. In fact, he failed English 101 in high school not once, but twice!! So between you and me, he's also not the sharpest tool in the shed (he admits!).

He's just a regular person who figured it out after lots of trial and error.

We spent over 2 hours on the phone recently—and I’m impressed with the simple 3-step system that he uses to make all of this money, as well as his willingness to share.

But here's why I’m really excited ... because whether you already have an existing online business (or not), here are a few things that really amazes me about his system.

In order to make this work for YOU…

You DON'T need a list.

You DON'T need a web site.

You DON'T need to host any webinars.

You DON'T need affiliates.

You DON'T need JV partners.

You DON'T need to run a launch.

You DON'T need traffic. 

If you already have a business generating revenue, this will ramp it up (and help you double your list size). If you don't have a business generating revenue—well, you really can't afford to miss this.

Mark your calendar—because in just a few short days I've asked him to train you on his entire 3-step system for free. Trust me, this will forever change the way you think about building a true lifestyle business.

Register for the free training session right now:

https://musicbizcenter.isrefer.com/go/jokrwebreg/jokrkcf

See you on Thursday, July 23rd, at 7:00 p.m Eastern / 4:00 p.m. Pacific.

P.S.—We’re using GoToWebinar where there’s a 1,000 seat maximum. So, to ensure your spot on this webinar, register now:

https://musicbizcenter.isrefer.com/go/jokrwebreg/jokrkcf

When writing Substack posts, podcasts, newsletter articles, blog posts, social media posts, reports, books, etc., don’t be afraid to write. Don’t let writer’s block or writer’s fear get in your way of being creative and sharing great content.

Don’t be afraid to start something even though you might not succeed and will abandon your plan.

Don’t be afraid to fail. In fact, you can think you might fail or even will fail but be ready to try a new idea anyway. You might learn something new and might even succeed.

Don’t be afraid of the opinions or discouragement of others. You don’t even need to tell anyone your plans because others might disapprove and you might never even start.

Don’t be afraid to succeed. Success is strangely enough one thing that many are afraid of.

Don’t be afraid to imagine. That’s probably one of the best ways new ideas start.

Don’t be afraid others are better than you. It doesn’t matter. Don’t compare yourself to others.

Don’t be afraid others might judge you, laugh at you, be jealous, ridicule, whatever. It really doesn’t matter.

Don’t be afraid of a failure. Nobody needs to know. You can even laugh at your funny experience to yourself or even to others.

Don’t be afraid you won’t be a huge success. You don’t owe others anything.

Don’t be afraid to be afraid. Stage fright makes a better performance. Embrace your secret stage fright as a source of power.

Don’t be afraid of fear. It’s one of the underused tools that might block your great ideas. Welcome the fear as a necessary step to succeed.

Don’t be afraid to write down all the reasons you are afraid. They are just thoughts and might never materialize. Or you’ll find ways to overcome each reason and feel empowered by each victory.

If success is sure, everyone would do whatever others might fear.

Make fear your friend to use and succeed. It might lead you to other unknown roads.

Fear is just your thoughts of the unknown and your active imagination. It might at times warn you of dangers by intuition, but it might be an exciting, imaginary obstacle to overcome and prove to be just a thought.

Don’t adopt fears of others. Let them keep theirs and work at your fears.

Your success after fear is that much sweeter. You own your success and owe it to your fear and courage to grow and try.

Don’t be afraid of fear. It shows how strong and logical you are to find solutions.

Even if you fail, there are other fears to welcome and tackle to make them worthy of your efforts to succeed.

Seek fears and eliminate each one to find the core truth and power to get started.

This post is courtesy of my friend Leila Peltosaari, author of Sell Your Words. Find out more about her book here: https://www.sellyourwords.com. It’s a wonderful book on how to write, self-publish, and market nonfiction books.

John Kremer’s main website is BookMarketingBestsellers.com.

Connect with him via these social networks:Facebook — Flipboard — LinkedIn — Pinterest — Twitter — YouTube

Pinterest is a very powerful social media platform that can help you get more visits to your website as well as more sign-ups for your newsletter. So learn how to get more people to visit your website by offering freebies!

Kay Moody, author of young adult fantasy books, gets 2.6 million views every month on Pinterest. In her Pinterest profile description, she offers the following: Visit my website to get my FREE short stories.

You can do the same. If you have something free to offer, add your free offer to your Pinterest profile description just like Kay did! You can add your free offer on your Pinterest board descriptions as well.

If you offer a free report, for example, featuring keto recipes, send people to your website via your Pinterest profile and some of your Pinterest board descriptions. You can write something like this: Get 100 free Keto recipes by visiting DailyKetoSuccess.com.

Using freebies on Pinterest is a very powerful way to get more people to visit your website and sign up for your email newsletter. And those newsletter signups are the first step in creating relationships with potential customers.

Check out her Pinterest profile here: https://www.pinterest.com/kaylmoodybooks.

By the way, her website is https://www.kaylmoody.com. Below is one of her ebooks she offers for free via her website.

She can crack and shatter glass with her mind, but the only people who call it a gift are the ones who don't have it.

If you want to sell more books, let your potential readers know more about the true value of reading books—beyond the entertainment, information, or inspiration that a book might provide. For example …

Readers of short stories need far less cognitive closure than those who read nonfiction essays (University of Toronto study).

The conclusion? Fiction readers, both those who read novels and those who read short stories, are more open-minded and creative.

This is part two on the new Happy Hour. See part one here: https://bookmarketing.substack.com/p/one-minute-book-marketing-the-best.

Remember: If you want to sell more books, you need to start a new Happy Hour—an hour in the morning or early afternoon where you pick up the phone and call people who could make a difference in marketing your books: media people, editors, bloggers, podcasters, website owners, social media influencers, etc.

Note: Most people don't answer their phones these days. They let it go to voice mail. Or, they let their mail box fill up and only take the calls they want to take. Many people in Hollywood now use this strategy to keep their return calls down to a minimum.

Here are some things you should know about this new Happy Hour:

It's a numbers game. All of marketing is a numbers game. It may take 10 or 20 or 50 or even 130 calls before you get one YES.

Results will come. You will get a YES if you call enough people. It's your job to make the phone calls, not their job to say YES.

Stay positive. Keep plugging away. The YESes will come.

Make this a habit. Call every day. Or, at the very least, do your Happy Hour at least three times a week.

Make time for it. If you work full-time, do your Happy Hour during your lunch break or after work. But do it.

Stick to it. Try doing Happy Hour for at least one month. That's the amount of time you need to take to give the new Happy Hour a chance to work its magic.

If you want to sell more books, be sure to let your potential readers know more about the true value of reading books—beyond the entertainment, inspiration, or information that a book might provide. For example …

A recent study found that adults who read three and a half hours a week are more likely (by 20 to 25%!) to outlive those who don’t read books (Social Science & Medicine study).

That means you could add two to three years to your life by reading books!

Now that’s incredible!

It’s time to give up your old happy hour of drinking and snacking after work. If you want to sell more books, you need to start a new Happy Hour—an hour in the morning or early afternoon where you pick up the phone and call people who could make a difference in marketing your books: media people, editors, bloggers, podcasters, website owners, social media influencers, etc.

In an hour, you can call four or five top influencers and have meaningful discussions with them. Ask them what you can do for them? Focus on that in the beginning. After you’ve created a helpful relationship, you can ask them if they can help you as well.

The best help you can offer each other is simple: Interview each other on your podcasts, or Facebook Lives, or Google Meetings, or Skype calls, Zoom calls, Whereby calls, etc. Or on your new podcast on Substack.com!

Join me sometime soon on my Whereby.com/bookmarketingupdates video space.

Once you interview your new friend, social share that sucker everywhere and everywhen you can. Once your new friend interviews you, again, social share that sucker everywhere and everywhen you can. And ask your friend to do the same.