Stop Guessing: How to Build Sales with Smarter Book Marketing - BM516

Are you making book marketing harder than it needs to be? 

Many authors follow the same advice, use the same platforms, and launch the same way… then wonder why sales stall. This week’s guest, Mamie Sanders, explains why that happens and what to do instead. 

Mamie is the founder of MVL Marketing and a veteran digital strategist who has worked with major publishing houses and countless authors. She brings a refreshing perspective to book promotion: marketing isn’t a formula. It’s a fit. 

In this powerful interview, Mamie shares how authors can cut through digital noise, build genuine connections with readers, and create marketing strategies that match their strengths and goals. If social media feels overwhelming or your launch came and went without much momentum, this episode will help you rethink your approach. 

You’ll also hear why long-term visibility matters more than launch-week buzz and how awareness and trust quietly drive consistent book sales over time. 

What You’ll Discover: 

• Why copying another author’s strategy often backfires
• The biggest mistake authors make after launch day
• How to choose marketing platforms that actually suit you
• Why connection and credibility matter more than constant selling
• The role of reviews, giveaways, and early buzz in long-term sales
• How to build steady visibility instead of short-lived spikes

Book marketing doesn’t have to feel forced or formulaic. When your strategy aligns with your strengths and audience, promotion becomes more natural and far more effective.
 
Tune in now to learn how to simplify your marketing, play to your strengths, and create momentum that lasts well beyond launch.

Here's how to connect with Mamie:

Want to discuss your digital marketing strategies,  book a 30-min. complimentary consultation call with Mamie

 Website

Linkedin

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Transcript

Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. 

Today my special guest is Mamie Sanders. She's the founder of MVL Marketing, where she helps authors market their books with smart, thoughtful digital strategies that connect their work with the right readers. With a background in leading digital marketing initiatives at major book publishing houses, she brings a strong understanding of how books are positioned, promoted, and discovered online. She's based in Northern New Jersey where she lives with her husband, their truck-loving toddler, and a good stack of books always close by. Mamie, what an absolute delight it is to have you on the show. Thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Mamie Sanders [00:01:01]:
Thank you for having me, Susan. This is so wonderful. I'm happy to be here.

Susan Friedmann [00:01:05]:
Yeah, and you and I have spent some time together and you were kind enough to come and give the presentation and work with my Author Influencer Circle. I feel that this is a great addition to what you do. You've got so much value. So let's talk about something that I know our listeners love knowing about. Indanis mistakes. I always like to add that in somewhere, but let's start with that. We can always go up from there. What do you think that many authors get wrong when it comes to book marketing?

Mamie Sanders [00:01:42]:
I think that a lot of authors come to me, or my clients will come to me, and say, I see these people doing this, and I really— I don't know how to do that, but I really think that I should be doing that. And I always say to them, just take a step back and let's talk about you and your book. Because I think what they often get wrong is what they have to be doing— or what other people are doing is what they have to be doing too. And I think that that is completely wrong. I think that marketing is not a one-size-fits-all. It all depends on what your book is, what the genre of your book is, what your platform is like, who your audience is. And that all is about how you would like to structure your marketing campaign. Another thing that I see a lot is people being really hung up on publication day.

Mamie Sanders [00:02:33]:
They say, my book comes out this day and oh no, this isn't going to come out until later, or this ad won't be able to launch until later, and this timing isn't working out. And people get really hung up on that publication date. And I think that what people don't necessarily realize is there's a long tail. That tail could be months, years, decades that you wanna be promoting your book. And pub day is just the date that people can start to have it and not the be-all end-all of when everything needs to be happening.

Susan Friedmann [00:03:06]:
It's so funny listening to you saying that. Great points. Yes. Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all. In fact, marketing is a very inexact science too, because— mm-hmm. Anybody who's analytical gets very frustrated with it because A B C one day, and it could be E, F, or G the next day. There isn't any rhyme or reason. It's not an exact science.

Susan Friedmann [00:03:33]:
And also, as you say, it's not a one-size-fits-all because different authors need different strategies based on who their market is and what they want their book to do for them. I love that questioning for you to say, you know, stand back, let's look at the big picture. And also that, yeah, launch day, yes, it's very important. It's the giving birth to their baby. It's a big deal. And especially that first time. I mean, I remember when I had my first child that when I was pregnant, somebody said to me, there is nothing like the first one. Because, you know, you just don't quite know what it means.

Susan Friedmann [00:04:16]:
You know, once you've had one, it's like, okay, at least I sort of know what to expect. There's number 2, 3, 4, and 5, however many you want. I stuck with 2. That was enough. Thank you. Uh, but yes, and so many authors think that launching the book, publishing the book is the end of the line. And you and I know, as you say, it's just the beginning of the journey. And we don't know how long that journey will last.

Susan Friedmann [00:04:48]:
Exactly.

Mamie Sanders [00:04:48]:
Yeah.

Susan Friedmann [00:04:48]:
I mean, I had one author say to me, well, how long do I have to keep marketing my book? And how long do you want to keep selling?

Mamie Sanders [00:04:55]:
As long as— I was— exactly, as long as you want to keep selling, because you're the biggest advocate of your own book. No one's going to do it if you're not going to.

Susan Friedmann [00:05:04]:
Exactly. Now your specialty, Mamie, is digital marketing. Yeah. And talk to us more about that and why you feel that authors can benefit from it.

Mamie Sanders [00:05:17]:
So digital marketing is such a funny term because when I started in the industry years and years and years ago, digital marketing wasn't a thing. And now I think that digital marketing encapsulates most of what people think marketing is. And yes, that's true. But there's also many differences and many segments and specialties within marketing, within publishing. But a lot of what I focus on is strategy for digital marketing. So that involves what I like to say is everything online. That can be your social media, that can be your newsletter, that can be your website. It's your presence on retailers.

Mamie Sanders [00:06:00]:
It's your advertising presence. It's kind of, it's anywhere that you're appearing online. And now if someone were to say, can you help me make a postcard for this conference? That is like the polar opposite of what I do. Once upon a time I did that when digital marketing wasn't necessarily a thing, but it's kind of broaching more and leeching into other parts of the industry of an overlap of digital marketing and publicity and digital marketing and traditional marketing. But What I solidly do is a lot of strategy when it comes to digital marketing, advertising, and making sure that the book is positioned well when people are searching for it online and making sure that people get the word out when they're looking online for the book, or the book is finding the audience wherever they are, basically.

Susan Friedmann [00:06:50]:
Yeah. So I see that too as a positioning where the author can build authority and awareness. It isn't necessarily going to bring money directly, but indirectly you're building that awareness of not only obviously the book, which is important, but it's also the value of the book and then the author. I mean, you don't want to put the author in front of the book, not behind the book.

Mamie Sanders [00:07:16]:
Yes. And hearing you say that is such— you didn't ask the question, but I'll jump in and say it— is that book marketing is such a different beast than other marketing. And I found that when I was going to marketing conferences, right, when I still go to marketing conferences and not just a publishing-specific conference, I find that a lot of things don't necessarily apply to what I can do with my clients or for authors because books are an entirely different beast to market. They aren't impulse buys. People need to see a book. They need to read reviews. It's so rare that one— will just walk into a store and say, this looks great, I want to buy this immediately. Yes, they may judge a book by its cover, but chances are they've heard something about that book, or they've read other books by that author, or they've heard about that author in general.

Mamie Sanders [00:08:14]:
So there's a lot of trust that comes with buying books, but a lot of that trust is also reviews from other people, getting that clout, and especially when it comes to nonfiction, it's what are they writing about? And does this author have the expertise to be talking about this? And do I trust that expertise? Trust is underneath all of this. So you have to make sure that you are getting, like I said, especially with nonfiction authors, getting the personality of the author and their credibility out there as much as the book is getting out there. 'Cause you want people to be able to trust that.

Susan Friedmann [00:08:51]:
Trust is one of those things. Yes, you have to build it, but you have to make sure that that stays, you know, that people feel that they can always trust you. And being authentic— I think the authenticity sort of works hand in glove with trust. I don't know which comes first, the chicken or the egg.

Mamie Sanders [00:09:12]:
Yeah, yeah, yes, you know, that emotional connection.

Susan Friedmann [00:09:16]:
Yes. That emotional connection, very much so. Talk to us more about how this digital marketing strategy works with an author. I mean, when you sit down with an author, how do you decide between you what would be the right platforms to use?

Mamie Sanders [00:09:37]:
Sure. I usually first and foremost will get them to basically give me a download on themselves. So I'll say, tell me your background, tell me the road to this book, tell me if you've written any other books, what your platform is like. And a platform is not just social media, but it does include social media. It's— do you have speaking engagements often? Is there a way for you to disseminate this book through your daily job? Like I said, what's your social media platform like? Do you post on that often? Do you like to post on social media? That is a huge thing for me. I always ask that at every intro call. It says, do you have social media and do you like to post on social media? Because it's a radical view that I take. I don't know if most people in my position would say this, but if someone doesn't have social media, thinks that they should have social media, but really hates it, I'm gonna tell them, don't do it and we can put your time and energy into something else, especially if the book is coming out in the next 6 months, which is often when I talk to a lot of authors.

Mamie Sanders [00:10:49]:
So I kind of get this idea of who they are, what their book is, and what resources they have on the ready at that point. I also make sure to ask them what their budget is first and foremost, cuz that will dictate a lot of what we'd be able to do. Will we be running an ad campaign? Will we be paying for a variety of things, whether that's giveaways, etc.? There's so many different ways that you can go at it, but I first have to have this foundation of like, who is this person? What is this book? And what are your goals? Do you want to build awareness? Do you want to sell right off the bat? Are you targeting a specific audience that I might not be aware of? But all of that kind of comes within an initial consultation call.

Susan Friedmann [00:11:38]:
No, that's beautiful. Yes, I love that question. Are you on social media? Yes. Do you like to post on it? That's two different things.

Mamie Sanders [00:11:46]:
Yeah, I guess. Well, because if they don't want to be doing it, people can tell when you're inauthentic. We're going back to the inauthentic thing. You want people to see that they're enjoying what they're doing on there, and if they're just phoning it in, it's going to be apparent and no one's going to want to follow what they're doing on there.

Susan Friedmann [00:12:07]:
Yeah, I mean, that's a big thing. Now you talk about the goal and you're talking about, let's say, one of the goals are— and, you know, it's a big one for most, uh, authors, and that is I want to sell books. How do you go about helping them do that?

Mamie Sanders [00:12:24]:
I like to temper expectations first and foremost. Not that I won't help sell books because of course that's a huge goal of mine always. But awareness comes before sales. A lot of the campaigns that I'm running has awareness at the forefront. When I was in— getting my marketing degree, I had a professor who taught me about the rule of 7, and the rule of 7 says you need to see something 7 times before it sticks in your head enough to buy it. I have lived by the rule of 7 for a lot of my career. And the whole point of the campaign is that you're kind of fitting puzzle pieces together to get to that number 7. So they may see your book in a giveaway, you may see your book on a display ad, you may see your book in a newsletter or on a website about books that you really like to read.

Mamie Sanders [00:13:21]:
All things like that, you're kind of piecing all of this together and that's— kind of where you want to start is to say like, yes, we want to get to sales. That is a huge thing, but we want to make sure that you're getting out there to show that this is a book worth paying attention to. And then the sales usually come after that. But when I start every campaign, I want to make sure that I'm helping to build buzz for the campaign. So that is usually, like I said, running giveaways, getting the book up on websites like NetGalley to get early readers. We want to get all those early reads in. So when the book is on sale and we are running ads or we're running social media campaigns or the author's posting consistently and getting word out about the book, all that good stuff after the book comes on sale, that when someone goes to the page, they see all these reviews, we're hoping it will lead to that sale. Or if not, it will lead to the awareness that hopefully down the line will lead to a sale after some thought.

Susan Friedmann [00:14:26]:
Yes. Thank you for saying that it builds awareness, that you're looking to build awareness necessary before the sale, because that is so key in this, is letting people know that it's there. Just because you've written a book— and unfortunately too many authors think that, oh, I've written a book, therefore I build it and they will come, and it's not the case. Yeah, most of the time. I mean, if you're a celebrity, it's a whole different ball game there. But that building awareness, that building buzz is critical. And I love that rule of seven, you know. I remember in my marketing class many moons ago that it was still the same, is that you have to— I call it the dripping faucet.

Susan Friedmann [00:15:12]:
You've got to see those drips in lots of different places in order for the bathtub to fill up.

Mamie Sanders [00:15:19]:
Oh, I love that.

Susan Friedmann [00:15:21]:
We do that in PR, you know. My background is PR and marketing, and then we talk about that many times, and I tell my authors the same thing. And just like you, it's like, there's not one thing. Do podcasting, do writing, do, you know, social media, go to conferences, network. I mean, these are all ways of building that awareness and also part of it, that the authority, that thought leadership, and that in turn should lead to sales and speaking engagements and the opportunity to do coaching, training, consulting, building products, etc. Yes, yes. That's my model.

Mamie Sanders [00:16:03]:
You know that too from— I know it. And I'm right there with you because when I worked in-house, I had such amazing relationships with the publicists that I worked with. And I always tell authors who have the budget to do so that in addition to hiring me, they should also be hiring a publicist. Because you kind of need to come at it from two different angles for people to, like we said, gain the awareness. And it's a package. You come in as a package with all these people on your team.

Susan Friedmann [00:16:35]:
Yes, it is. This is why the journey just begins once you have the book in hand. Now, one thing you talked about, the timeframe. When ideally should somebody come to you to start this strategy building?

Mamie Sanders [00:16:52]:
Well, it depends on what your goals are. Once again, if you want help building your social media platform before your book comes out, I would say up to a year, like a year in advance would be good because it takes time to build a following and to get that rhythm and get a feel for your social media before the book comes out. But if you have social media, if you're using it, if you have no interest in social media, a really good lead time for me to reasonably have a lead up to a book is about 6 months, I'd say. That's not to say that I haven't done it on 3 months, 2 months, 1 month, 2 weeks before the book comes out. But that 6 months makes it so we have a really nice long stretch to plan things. Allows us to try things and we can run a giveaway, wait a few weeks and see what reviews come in, then run another one. It just gives you some really nice cushion time to build buzz, get reviews coming in, start planning and doing research on outreach. If you're gonna do influencer outreach or community outreach, it gives you that time without having to feel like you're rushing into it.

Mamie Sanders [00:18:08]:
And then by the time publication comes around, you feel like you've already run an entire campaign when it was really all a lot of foundation building.

Susan Friedmann [00:18:17]:
Wow. Yes. And I know you and I talked about this, that people wait until, as you say, publication before they start realizing that now's the time to start doing something. And that's already— they've lost so much time where they could have done that build. One of the things you've mentioned a few times is, uh, testimonials. Talk to us about that because that's a challenge for many authors to get those testimonials. What's your plan for getting those?

Mamie Sanders [00:18:48]:
The ways that I like to do it best are to reach out to normal readers, if you will. I really love running giveaways for the book, and usually websites that I like to use for that are Goodreads. There's a website that's a competitor to Goodreads called The Storygraph. They're kind of like a, an up-and-coming Goodreads. And also a website called NetGalley, which is an industry, kind of an inside baseball type industry site that all the users on it are people who somehow work in publishing. So they can be booksellers, librarians, they write a book blog. It's all people who are very close to books. And are focused on them, that you can post an EPUB or a PDF of your book on there for readers to take a look at, and you can approve or decline their requests based on their credentials.

Mamie Sanders [00:19:45]:
I really love that website. And then, like I said, running giveaways on Goodreads and Storygraph. And there are many other places that run these types of giveaways. Those are just the big ones that I focus on a lot. And on these sites, you can give away up to 200 copies of the book on each site. And I've had clients say to me, oh my gosh, why would I give away that many copies of a book when these people could be buying my book? I say to them, it's because these people may not ever buy your book if you weren't giving them away, but you're giving them the chance to read and then talk about it. And if you're giving away something like 200 copies of a book, a small fraction of them are actually going to read. So you could give away 200, hope that a percentage of them read and review, and that's still 25 reviews, maybe even 10 reviews, even 5 reviews.

Mamie Sanders [00:20:39]:
It's something to start building that basis on your product pages to say, these people have read it and reviewed it, and now you have proof that it's a book worth reading kind of thing. So that's a lot of what I think about when I talk about building these reviews and these testimonials ahead of time is you want to make sure that there's— going back to it— that trust in these credentials on the page to show this book is a book that has been vetted. There's nothing worse than a book coming out on publication day and they're having zero reviews on the page. If someone were to click through an ad I love to run Amazon ads and someone would click through to an Amazon ad and there were zero reviews on the page. There's almost no chance that people will buy it.

Susan Friedmann [00:21:28]:
Mm. Yeah, that's good to know. That really is. And I know that the emphasis on testimonials, because that's what people read. I mean, I know if I go and buy a product on Amazon that I'm going to read the testimonials. You're right. I often look for the highest number If I'm, you know, comparing products, yeah, one's got 1,000 versus one's got 10, I'm going to go with the one that's got 1,000, even if I don't necessarily read them, especially if it's like a 4.4 or 4.5 review. That— yes, absolutely.

Susan Friedmann [00:22:03]:
I think this is a great segue, maybe, for you to share with our listeners how they can find out more about you and your services, because You offer something so valuable for authors and you do it for them, which is not what I do. I do it with them as opposed to doing it for them. Yeah, yeah. So many want it for them. So tell them how they can have this done for them.

Mamie Sanders [00:22:30]:
Sure. They can reach out to me at my website. My website is mvlmarketinggroup.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn. I believe Susan has links to both in the info for the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me, tell me a little bit about your project, and I offer free 30-minute consultation calls so we can chat about it and see if we're a good fit to work together.

Susan Friedmann [00:22:55]:
Beautiful. Yes, and I will— I have all those links in the show notes, listeners. And as you know, maybe I always ask my guests to leave our listeners with a golden nugget.

Mamie Sanders [00:23:07]:
What's yours? Sure. I think that my golden nugget is keep in mind that sales isn't everything. Awareness is something to be really proud of and to know that it's the basis for building sales. And there's also no perfect way to market a book. Don't compare yourself to everybody around you. There is a way to market your book that will be perfect for you and your publication.

Susan Friedmann [00:23:36]:
That is so valuable. Thank you. Thank you for saying that because there's so much following the crowd. Oh, so-and-so sold so many books or was a bestseller and they think, oh, that's what I have to do. And that's not necessarily the case. As you know, I mean, I'm very focused on vertical, on niche markets where I think there's so much opportunity, low-hanging fruit. Where you are not up against all the other millions of authors out there. And you can look at where you can be more of a category of one.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:12]:
So yes, absolutely. So valuable.

Mamie Sanders [00:24:15]:
Thank you.

Susan Friedmann [00:24:15]:
This has been amazing. You sharing your wisdom. And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together. To brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. Go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Here's how to connect with Mamie:

Want to discuss your digital marketing strategies,  book a 30-min. complimentary consultation call with Mamie

 Website

Linkedin