Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Ready to supercharge your author journey? Join bestselling author and book marketing maven Penny Sansevieri and savvy publishing insider Amy Cornell for lively, no-nonsense conversations filled with smart strategies, creative inspiration, and publishing know-how you can actually use.
Whether you’re self-published, traditionally published, or somewhere in between, this podcast delivers real-world advice to help you sell more books, build your platform, and thrive in the ever-evolving publishing landscape. From clever promo hacks to critical industry insights, each episode is designed to move the needle on your success.
Fresh ideas. Actionable tips. Unfiltered talk.
If you’re serious about your author career, hit subscribe and tune in—your next big breakthrough could be one episode away.
Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Smart Pre-Order Strategies for Authors Who Have Little or No Following
In this episode we dig into a practical, 30-day pre-order plan built for writers with small followings (or no following), limited time, and a whole lot of heart. No fluff, no clickbait—just smart moves that create real curiosity and guide readers toward a confident yes on release day.
We start by reframing pre-orders for small platforms: you’re not shouting into the void, you’re leading with value. That means sharing content readers already search for—true-crime sparks for thrillers, trope takes for romance, world-building wins for fantasy, and concrete tips for nonfiction. Then we tap borrowed audiences and we unpack this idea in our show.
As launch nears, we move from concept to book. We replace bland countdowns with a “reader hook” and talk about “book fairy drops” and why we love them!
If you’ve ever thought, “I can’t do a pre-order; no one knows me,” this conversation flips that script. Pick two tactics you can sustain, focus for 30 days, and lead with generosity. Curiosity beats volume, every time.
If this was helpful, subscribe, share the episode with an author friend, and text the word podcast to 888-402-8940 to send us your questions or show ideas. Your next best pre-order move—what will it be?
📱Text Penny & Amy: send us your show feedback, burning marketing questions and new topic ideas!
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Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sansavery and Amy Cornell. And we are so excited. First off, I wanna um I wanna mention again that we have the um you can now text us with your uh show ideas, with your questions. Text the word podcast 888-402-8940. And I'll repeat that number at the end of the show again if you missed it. Um so I want to start, so I'm really excited about this episode. Amy actually, this was um one of Amy's gems, one of her ideas uh about pre-orders. But I want to start out, and I'm so excited, Amy. I have the best news ever. Are you ready? Hit on me. Everybody wrote Oprah has invited me to be part of her book club.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, finally. You know, we've we've been waiting for that email for years.
SPEAKER_00:No, because my books are so appropriate for her book club. So listen, here's the deal. Oprah, somebody wrote me the other day from quote unquote Oprah's book club. We had such a good laugh about this. Actually, the entire team, we had such a good laugh about this. And not only did they write from a Gmail address, because of course Oprah uses Gmail. Oprah's book club uses Gmail, but they also got the name of my book wrong. So they said, we want to invite your book marketing expert to be part of Oprah's book club. Do you feel so special? I felt so seen, right? And special. Yeah, it was it's pretty amazing. So here's the deal, people. It's out there. There's some guy writing, and I actually wrote him back because I'm like, oh, I'm gonna challenge this person. And I wrote him back and I'm like, and I wanted to get details and costs and everything like that. I should forward that over to you. Like, how much does it cost? Everything. So I asked him, I'm like, so is Oprah gonna read the book?
SPEAKER_01:Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Do I do I get her feedback personally? No, I get her personal feedback. Is she gonna show up at my house with like a basket of you know, muffins and we can talk about my book? Um, and I also said, are you gonna send decals that I can use on my book, the Oprah's book club pick, you know, right? Right. Uh, I got no response to that either either. Hmm. So you're basically just, and you know, I gotta tell you, I mean, really, we had an author one time use um as seen in O magazine on their website. And for whatever reason, and this actually was legitimately like this author was featured in O magazine, and but for whatever reason, I guess they had the verbiage was wrong or something. And uh Harpo Studios um was they came bearing down on this author. So let me just say this about that. They do not mess around. So the next the next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna forward this over to somebody at Harpo. I don't know, maybe their legal division or something. Like, here you go, have fun. I mean, I'm sure like they get nine billion of these, but it's you really have to do your due diligence, people. We've done a show on it, enough said. I'll leave it there, but I just thought that was really like I know.
SPEAKER_01:And it's perfect timing, Penny, because we had a client this week send something my way and said, Is this legitimate? Like, they're not asking for a ton of money and all this stuff. And I and I said the same thing. I said, you know, honestly, I would question any anything that comes to you from a free email service. Yes, you know, end of story. If that's the case, I would move on because you're potentially getting involved in something messy or very expensive.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right, exactly. And you know, it just it's it's a little, yeah. So that's my really good news for the week. So um probably gonna have to, you're probably gonna have to run with the podcast alone now because I'm gonna be super famous because I'm gonna be at Oprah's foot club. Yeah, yeah. That's gonna happen. Right, exactly. Just they'll be lining up. They'll be lining up after they review my book, Marketing Expert, which is not even a book. It's just so bizarre. Love the attention detail. Thanks. Um, so anyway, yeah, so just be just be on the lookout. All right, so let's get down to the show. Uh pre-order. Okay, so um a lot of times authors who like first, and this show is if you are a first-time author or if you have a really minimal following, maybe you're even have two books out, and you don't, you know, nobody seemed to be paying attention to your first one. You're like, oh my gosh, now I have a second one. We're gonna we're talking pre-order strategies. We're talking pre-order strategies for you if you feel like you don't have a base, not much of a base, or you're literally just starting out. And part of the reason why we wanted to do this is because I know, and I'll let Amy speak to this in a minute. We get a lot of authors who are like, I can't really do a pre-order because nobody knows who I am. Right, right, right. I mean, you we hear this a lot, don't we?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And but we so appreciate that there are a lot of you out there that know you need to be doing something for your book. Yeah. You know, that you can't just, it doesn't just show up on Amazon and become an instant success. And once you put in all that hard work, you know, Penny, you know, immediately like you're you're ready and amped up. Like the brainstorming we do for your book releases is so exciting and so fun. And it's so, you feel like you deserve that after you've put so much hard work into your book, but it does get very challenging because a lot of the advice and recommendations out there really only make sense when you do have a big following to tap into, right? And then it seems like, well, that's super easy. I'm, you know, yeah, of course I'd do a pre-order if I had 5,000 people on my newsletter list. Like, yeah, duh, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. I mean, and I think that's really where that's that's where the um that's where the challenge is, is that authors are they feel like that things like a pre-order strategy are exclusively for authors who have really big followings. Now, one thing that I want to mention, and this was a show that we did in June, um, and it was about brand marketing. So the the reason that I want to mention it here is because when authors, you know, sometimes we'll get authors like six months out and you know, before their book launches, like, what can I do now? And that's brand marketing, right? So go and look for that show because that's not what we're talking about here. This show goes under the is is under the assumption that you've done this brand marketing, that you've started to get your feet wet. So you're not doing it in the 30-day pre-order window. Like you're not like, okay, well, now I need to get serious because my book's coming out in 30 days. No, no, no. You've already done some of that work. You've you you've just you, you know, you have your social channels and maybe you don't have a a a big following yet. That's fine, like whatever, but you've already started kind of that work.
SPEAKER_01:Um so 30 days is important, right, Penny? Because what? And the 30 days is kind of that sweet spot, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long you want to spend promoting the release of your book. Because the reality is, again, unless, like Penny, you already said, unless you have a built-in return buyer network, you know, from previous releases, you can really only expect people to pay attention for so long without without the book being available. You know, you're not going to be able to drag people along for months and months and months if they don't already know you, if you're a brand new author, if your platform is relatively minimal right now. You really have to hit that sweet spot of getting them excited about it, but then making sure that within that 30-day mark or so, you can deliver a book to them or they can purchase that book and start reading and dive in.
SPEAKER_00:Right, exactly. Yeah, long pre-orders. I mean, I think long pre-orders work if you have a name and you have a following and all the things, but the majority of readers are not going to wait for a book, especially from an author that they don't know. So 30-day window is a really, really good idea. Now, the first thing, okay, so let's talk about some ideas around some of the things that you can be doing during that 30 days, right? So going off the premise that you have a minimal or no following, lead with content that people are already searching for. So a lot of times authors want to kind of reinvent the wheel, right? They want to bring, they want to try to bring readers to a story, to their story. And the readers don't know your story and they don't know who you are. And so what we're suggesting here is that you want to go after a content space that already has interest, right? So, for example, and we'll take these kind of in order as a threat, and we have examples for everyone. So you all will feel included. There's no exception. Everybody can do this. Um, you know, like a thriller author, you might create a short video or or, you know, even if video is not really your thing, you can create some images. Three chilling true crimes you've never heard of that inspired my novel, for example. Right. Which I actually think I love that idea because Amy and I are both huge true crime fans. Like we're so interested in true crime. Like that would reel me in.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Yes, exactly. You're you're piggybacking on what's already popular, essentially, is the short version of this. Yeah. So, and I love the romance one. This was great. Why enemies to lovers is the best trope. So I love that you're already like presenting like this is an opinion because that people love to give their opinion. So you're already kind of like encouraging people to respond, right? It's kind of that psychological. And then this example says, and how my book adds a twist. So, how fun is that? You're already telling people this isn't enemies to lovers story. So people that already like that are instantly like, I like, I like that. I already read that. This is you know what I mean? And then you're saying how my book adds a twist. That what an awesome premise to say, like, I've got something new to add to this. And that is very intriguing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think that's very intriguing because again, enemies to lovers or secret baby or cowboy romance or whatever, those are really big, uh, really big genres, subgenres in romance, and readers really love those. So, a fantasy author, I actually I love this idea. The world building mistake I almost made writing my book. I think that's something that if you are a reader of fantasy, um, I think it's a very intrigued, like world building is a very intriguing concept because you're literally like building this world with all of its nuances and what you know, whatever. Um, and I think that gets to be that that could really be something that readers I think would be interested in, frankly.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And they have very strong opinions about it too. So I think when you present the idea that I almost made this mistake, somebody that's a true fan is going to want to know if they agree with you or not, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think you could do the same thing for like if you've written historical fiction, right? Right. You know, the historical, like, or like for historical fiction, and I know that's not on our on our on our uh show sheet, but for historical fiction, you could say something like, you know, this is a little piece of history that I actually never knew existed, right? Right. And I remember a book, and now I'm gonna cite this book, and I can't remember the and I and it was the the zookeeper's wife, actually, and I can't remember the author, but I loved the book. And this book was actually born out of a this was a World War II uh historical. This book was actually born out of a piece of history that the author stumbled on, right, accidentally, right? And decided to write this book and then it became a movie and all this other stuff. That and I got to tell you that when I'm not a huge historical reader, even though we've done a lot with World War II markets and stuff like that, which I love, that's the little factoid that actually pulled me into the book. I was like, That makes sense. Yeah, isn't that cool? Yeah, it's it is really, really, really cool. I love that so much. Um, and then our nonfiction one so um you know, the nonfiction can be the tip. So nonfiction is a little I want, I don't want to say easier, but it is kind of easier. I was going to say the same thing. It really, you know, you can speak to the pain points that your reader is, you know, that are gonna target your reader, whatever those are, right? Um just to make sure, you know, you're gonna obviously you're gonna mention your book, but it always comes at the end, right? Um giving your, you know, giving your followers something like uh, but give them actually, I mean, I really recommend for the nonfiction folks, I know this is gonna sound painful, give them helpful tips. Right. Don't just say, my book cracks the code on. Oh, I hate that. Sorry. No, I know, right? Like I really hate that. And I gotta tell you, Instagram has turned into such a clickbait. Yes. Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, so much of it is, and that's why the comment section is amazing because a lot of people be like, here's what it says, don't waste your time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I know. The comments are the comments are so so don't be this clickbaity person. Instead, you know, offering tips. Here's the here's the secret for y'all nonfiction authors, and as I am also a nonfiction author, when you give people tips, like and you give them ideas, you've like psychologically, it's not like they go, like, oh, I can't I have this tip and I don't have to buy your book now. No. They wonder, like, well, what else does this person know that I don't know? What else does this person know that I need to learn? So that's the that that's why I really I think I recommend, you know, give out tips, meet them where they hurt, so to speak. Right. Exactly. Um do you want to take the net you want to leak kick off the next one?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. This other one, and we've discussed this before. Um, we've talked about networking with other authors. It's such an untapped opportunity, I think. Still like I'm waiting for the author collab to be the new hot thing in publishing because it's so amazing and it's mutually beneficial. So I really am shocked that you don't see more of it. But this is, you know, this strategy is called borrowed audience. So essentially what you're doing is you're partnering with people who already have small but active audiences. And this is not going after the big fish. This is not your breakout moment. Let's just say that right now. You know what I mean? But this is a quality over quantity moment. Plus, a lot of these other authors and thought leaders are going to be in the same boat as you, where they are trying to build. You know what I mean? So they are hungry for unique, interesting, inspiring content that kind of takes some of the pressure off of them too. So that is where, you know what I mean? This is where this is mutually beneficial. Uh so our first example, I love this so much. A cozy mystery author writes a guest post for a baking blogger about 10 recipes that inspired my character's cafe. Like, how fun is that? And how creative, right? Yeah. I love that. That is such that is such a cute idea. It really I know. And it's one of those things that you would never normally think of because it's so easy to get those blinders on that everything is like has to be only books, books and only books, books and but it's like that's not the case. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you're the opportunities you can create don't have to be solely book centric. You know what I mean? Think outside of the box, right?
SPEAKER_00:Right, exactly. Kind of like um the next one. So uh, you know, a fantasy debut author um doing a quick Instagram live with a smaller Bookstagram influencer, right? So maybe 3,000 followers, to talk about their favorite magical system or magical whatever, right? Which I think could be really fun because again, your readers, that's something that your readers are really gonna love. So the takeaway from this is, and we're gonna talk about nonfiction in just a second, but the takeaway from this is is that small but active, so don't don't get discouraged by well, they don't have you know 50,000 followers, 3,000 followers, whatever, it's totally fine. Um so small but mighty, right? And if you've done your brand marketing, you already know these people. So now is a good time to reach out to them for nonfiction, um guest content, guest content on you know, for in in doing local um guest content on LinkedIn, um offering guest content is a really good, and again, you don't have to have huge numbers.
SPEAKER_01:No, and not like you know, what do they call them? Carousels on Instagram.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Carousels. I love that.
SPEAKER_01:A tips carousel on social. And you know, I think a lot of times local always leans into events or things like that, Penny, or like a news piece. But it's amazing how many opportunities there are potentially to collaborate with local businesses in other ways. You know what I mean? So if you're it writing a book for a specific industry, think about ways that you can benefit some local businesses that are in that same industry. You know what I mean? Maybe it's getting into their newsletter, or maybe it's getting like a mention on their social, you know, just to say, like, here's a local resource that's in the same industry as we are. They've released a book. Like, what a great target audience, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. And I think I think that definitely is a great target audience for sure. Yeah. Um, the next one, do you want to start kick off the next one too? The next one kind of feeds off of the borrowed audiences idea, which I really love.
SPEAKER_01:I know. So the I think the first one you're talking about, you're still kind of so it's interesting, they kind of build. So the first one was definitely all about them, right? Like the, you know, the content people are already searching for, you're really, really focused on basically connecting yourself to something else that's already going on and it's not as heavy on your book. And then the borrowed audience is you're showing up in those spaces and kind of showing what you have to offer. And now the secret preview, I think, is where it starts leaning more into your book specifically, you know, because like before, Penny, when you mentioned, like, you know, yes, you mentioned your book, but really what you're leading with is that I have this to contribute that you're already interested in. So I think, you know, this kind of builds into now we're going into the stuff that is a little more book centric, which is what some of you might be thinking, like, when do I get to talk about my book? You know? Right, exactly. So, you know, an example would be sharing a first chapter or an excerpt with another, you know, another thought leader, another author. That again, we're we're looking at like audiences. These are mutually beneficial. And this is something that you should offer to do for their next release. Keep that in mind, or their next, if you're nonfiction, maybe their next event, something like that, something that's mutually beneficial. But this is where you start to share a chapter or an excerpt in their newsletter, things like that, where now you're really introducing your book to these people versus just introducing yourself and the concept of a book. Like this is really hitting it a little bit harder.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. I I like that so much. I also think that again, if you've done your brand marketing stuff, you already probably know who you want to cross cross-pollinate with, right? Um and for you know, for nonfiction, um you can swap newsletter features with another nonfiction author in, you know, in in your genre. But because again, because the other good piece of it though, too, is is that and this is very true for pretty much any genre. Um if somebody buys a book, you know, we know this is true for self-help, right? So if you buy one book on self-help, you're probably gonna buy 50, right? So I love it. You're not right. So you're not stealing this nonfiction author's audience by, you know, putting something in their newsletter and they're putting something in your newsletter. The readers are probably gonna buy both your books. I mean, that's just right.
SPEAKER_01:That's just right. This is definitely the collaborative element of our tips. You know what I mean? This is the most collaborative. The the one previously was more like, let me take some some of your, you know, some of the load off of all the content you're creating because I can add to that. That's great. But this is really where the mutual, the mutual benefits come in and it's really collaborative. And what I love about this one too is that you're really setting yourself up for potentially long-term collaborations.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, and if a newsletter feature feels daunting, like if you say, Well, you know what, Penny, I'd really like to feature them in my newsletter, but I only have five people and four of them are family, like who've signed up for my newsletter. It doesn't really feel uh authentic to tell them, oh yeah, I'm gonna run you in my newsletter, yay us, then maybe start with something smaller, right? Start with something that you feel is a little bit more in line with like what that you that you can really reciprocate on, right? So maybe say, look, I'd love to do a newsletter feature. I I still have to build my newsletter audience. And like maybe we'll do one, we'll do yours in six months, or even offer to do some kind of a swap when they have their next book coming out.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So those are the other the other things, because one of the things that this will do for you too is it helps you to create these relationships. So during the brand marketing time, during that time when you didn't have anything to promote, you're getting to know these people and now you're really networking with them, which is, you know, which is great. And the majority of times, I mean, look, if an author, if somebody offers to feature my newsletter, my book in their newsletter, even though it's been out for a little bit, I'll definitely jump on it. But I get more excited when I have a new book coming out. If somebody says, Oh, I want to feature in my newsletter, I'm like, oh yay, us, let's do it now. So that's another reason why, you know, you may want to say that I'll help you promote your next book or something. And that gives you a little bit more time to build your newsletter list. Um, okay, so uh 30-day reader hook challenge. Now, are you suggesting, are we suggesting here that we want them to post something every day for 30 days? What do you think?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I think that's probably a bit overkill. That's a lot, right? I think it really also depends on how creative you can be and how much, you know, useful, interesting, fun content you can come up with. Because I think if there's value in it, then it makes sense to post more frequently. Otherwise, like maybe if it's once a week leading up and that's all you can do, I think great, just make it stand out. And this is just the difference here, is what we're encouraging you to do. Instead of just a countdown where you say, Hey, remember my book, hey, remember my book, you know, over and over again. And you're just saying, like, hey, remember my books coming out, you're taking it a step above, and you're making you're tying the countdown into value-added content. So if you loved this title, again, like Penny keeps saying, you should know who your competing titles are, what authors your your readers are already reading and loving. So if you like this, then you'll love my my book. You know what I mean? Like this is more about this is quality over quantity. You know, the what mention a character, you know, this side character is based on my college roommate who always, I love this, who always wore mismatch socks. Like, how freaking specific is that? But it also shows it's it it shows that you're genuine. You know what I mean? You are really trying to make this an experience for the reader. And it shows so much thought and effort. You know how they always say, Penny, I think this is something that's big and like stand-up, which I would never do, but I could see you doing it. They always say that um it's really important. The details are important because things are more believable when there's details, right? Yeah, that's very true. Yeah, yeah. You know, so I think this is when it's time to let people in a little bit and share, not you don't have to share personal details of your life, but where details matter. And it shows that you're really thinking about them and their experience and that you've put a lot of thought into the create content that you're creating. And it absolutely makes a difference. It totally hits different versus just a post saying, buy my book, because people see that all the time. And it just in one ear, out the other. Is there an eye version of that in one eye? And that sounds gross. But we all know what we're saying, right? You scroll past it, you don't notice. But something with a little more detail and a little more thought makes such a huge difference.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You know what's interesting is that as we were talking about this, I was thinking, so I just finished my next book. It's gone off of the editor, and it's a book about marketing your book locally. And when I started on this book, and this this would be like an interesting story that I would share on social, right? So when I started on this book, I'm like, well, this is gonna be a really short book because blah, blah, you know, whatever. Because, like, okay, oh, bookstores. This what I loved so, so my books are oftentimes, I don't want to say 30,000 foot view, but you know, like from book to bestseller covers a lot of the content. Yeah. Right. What was so fun about this book, about putting this book together, is every time I thought I was done, I wasn't, which I know sounds like an author's worst nightmare, but it really wasn't. Because every time I thought, like I would wake up in the morning and I'd have another idea about marketing locally. And what this really did is this book pushed me as a marketing person to get to go so deep into the topic of marketing locally. And to me, like if I'm talking about my book or if I'm putting my book out on social, it's in it's an interesting concept, right? When you have like talking about micro learning, and maybe this is only interesting to me, but the idea of going so deep into one singular topic really kind of blew my mind. I gotta tell you. So again, I don't know if that's necessarily interesting on social, but to me, like if I'm speaking to, you know, my audience, um, and I'm talking to them about this journey, because you know, the Amazon book journey is is the Amazon book journey. Like it's basically just I'm on this running treadmill going 50 miles an hour, trying to keep up with what Amazon's doing. Right. Right. Like that story is kind of on repeat all the time. But, you know, to do something like this, like, did did your book challenge you in a particular way? Right? How did it challenge you? Like, what was that like for because 83% of Americans want to write a book? So I think I guess in a very long-winded, weird, my typical like weird, disconnected way. What about this book really challenged you? What what do you feel? What do you what are you really proud of about this book, right? What was your inspiration? What was your, you know, you know what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Or am I just like, or do we need to tell the do we need to tell the guy who edits our podcast to like take this whole section out because it's kind of cross the rails?
SPEAKER_01:No, it absolutely makes sense because again, it's that personalization factor. And I, you know, I'll say it over and over again. Readers, audiences, potential buyers can tell when you're putting in the effort to do something unique, to bring them into your world, to answer their questions. You know what I mean? And so it is those kind of details that say, I'm here for you. I'm committed to this, like I'm committed to your experience, versus again, simply saying, buy my book, it's out in two weeks. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like you can do some of that, but if you just put that on repeat, you're white noise, you know? Right. Right. So and I'm I love the other example, and I thought, Penny, this would totally like this would be totally your jam. Um, working on a playlist. Oh, loving some playlists. Put it on Spotify. If you're I mean, Spotify is actually pretty straightforward to use. So for those of you who are like spot of what, it's actually pretty straightforward to use, and it's a really great place for people that actually go looking for very specific kinds of content. But I mean, again, here we are. Be specific, make it seem genuine. You know, this example said these songs carried me through chapter 10. Because I mean, think of what that says. Like, especially if you're already, you've made it very clear you're a thriller author. Like, does that not make you go, I want to know what these songs are and what the hell happens in chapter 10? Like, yeah. Like, why did you need a special playlist to get through it? Like, I want to know all the things.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. No, that's exact, that's exactly right. Yeah. I love uh Amy's absolutely right. I love playlists, are are my jam. I absolutely do. Um and and so uh I love the idea of releasing a cut scene. Like, I love that idea. I'm I'm a tiny little bit on the fence about this one though, because you know, something that didn't make the final cut. And if you're as your fiction author, when you're dealing with an editor who's like, you know, I'm cutting three chapters or whatever, that always feels painful, but it's also really good content for to share with your like your super fans and stuff. So I'm a little on the fence about that suggestion.
SPEAKER_01:Um, maybe it could be a really, really short excerpt and saying, like, this scene kept me up at night, or this scene, you know, I couldn't go to sleep after writing this scene, or something like that. Maybe where you're kind of teasing a piece of content, but again, getting personal, getting specific about how it affected you, how it came about, things like that, where again, it's just intriguing to the reader like, why? Why was this challenging for you? Or why were you so excited you couldn't sleep after writing this scene or this chapter, you know, that kind of stuff. But it also gives, you know, make it a good one, but it's also such a great way to tease your writing style, you know, which which goes a long way, especially for genre fans. And the same thing for, you know, when we're talking about nonfiction, I do think a lot of this is more straightforward for nonfiction. But same thing, like, you know, that could be a a teaser for a tip. Like give them something to latch on to, like you said earlier, Penny, that shows, don't do this whole like, I've got all the answers, but buy my book before you, you know what I mean? Prove to them that you have the answers. Like stand behind what you've put in your book by putting some of it out there for people to get early. You know what I mean? To actually judge your expertise on things like that. Like, because if you've written a great book and if you've got a strong point of view, you know, you shouldn't shy away from that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I agree with that. Um, I agree with that totally. All right, so the next one, I I really want to take the next one because this uh this again, this is so my jam. Book Fairy Drops. I love that title for this segment. Um, and this is based on local. And again, because I just finished my book on local, this is so near and dear to my heart. Postcards. I so everybody loves postcards and I mean, everybody loves bookmarks, which it sounds really weird in such a digital age, but I I still read print books. I mean, I read a combination of print and digital. Postcards, bookmarks, don't forget your QR code leading to um to Amazon. Leave them around your town, leave them in in indie cafes, you can even leave them in Starbucks, bulletin boards, libraries, leave them everywhere. So I have an I knew I met an author years ago, and she was now this was when her book was out, right? So, but she was selling 5,000 copies of her book, or she had sold 5,000 copies, I'm sorry, since the launch, which was, I guess, 90 days ago. 5,000 copies of her first independently published romance novel, right? She did it by blanketing her town with postcards and bookmarks. How crazy is that? I know, I love it. Right? So um and then, you know, you could also have some fun with it, right? So you could uh take a picture of you could take a picture of it, um spot it in the wild, you know, for social media, things like that. Um also utilizing little free libraries, right? So you can pop the cards into little free libraries. I really recommend leave them everywhere. Make sure that you have some sort of digital connection. So the QR code should go to Amazon for your pre-order, right? And then you can use some of the ideas that we've talked about in this show to kind of whet their appetite for this book, right? So your postcard doesn't have to be just your book cover. Hey, my book's come out, blah, blah. You can make it, you know, we talked about, we did just did a show on elevator pitches, which I think hit last week. If you missed that show, go back to it. Use your elevator pitch on the postcard, make it super interesting and intriguing. It really helps you to start to dig into your local market because it's very easy to get caught up and I'm just gonna do everything on social and my website, and all of that is great. But don't overlook your local market. I love Book Fairy Drops. Love, love, love, love, love it.
SPEAKER_01:I know. I go into so many local businesses that just literally to support each other, have things set up for other small businesses, whether it's on the counter or up on a bulletin board or something like that. So you'd be surprised at how supportive your local community probably is. And I loved your idea of cross-promoting between this and online, Penny, and I the photo idea, because if you take photos, you also get to share the love with the um wherever you dropped your stuff off at, right? So you mentioned a coffee shop. If you take a photo, book spotted in the wild, I love that you get a tag the coffee shop if they have, you know, an online presence, which probably a lot of them do by now. And you're also giving back to your community in that way, and there's more of that collaborative support, you know. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. I love it. Okay. Uh you were the Goodreads queen. You want to take the next one?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yes, Goodreads. So here we go. This one, believe it or not, I don't know if anybody listening knows this, but you can actually set up a Goodreads giveaway before your book officially releases. This even applies if your book is not on Amazon yet, you know. So that is something to consider. So whether your book is officially on Amazon yet or not, uh, Goodreads does let you do giveaways. I'm not going to go into all of that right now. Maybe we need to do a Goodreads show coming up again to revisit, you know, some of the details of that. But what's so great, and we did do a show on this recently, is this, you know, Goodreads giveaways, the new integration. Every time you do a giveaway, anybody who enters gets the book added on their want-to-read shelf. So not only does Goodreads email them when the book releases. So that's a great reminder, you know, like, hey, this book is out now. But now Amazon also reminds shoppers that they have a book on their Goodreads want to read shelf. So while they are shopping on Amazon, they are going to get a reminder that at one point you were interested in their book, in your book on Goodreads. I mean, and that is insanely powerful because that's like at a reminder at point of purchase. Like that is wild to me. Yeah. So Goodreads giveaways, the value of those really skyrocketed with that integration. And it's really just a great way to also, you know, we keep I keep saying quality over quantity. People are on Goodreads because they are readers, because they are trying to find books, because they want to be in a space with other super fans, with other readers, you know, be able to interact with authors directly. So when we talk about social, I know not everybody's into social, but Goodreads is different in the sense that you know what the audience is. You're not filtering through people that are there for workout tips or for a recipe or you know what I mean? Everybody on Goodreads is there for book-centric reasons. So you know that your audience is already living there and hanging out there. So that's why I'm such a big fan of utilizing the Goodreads giveaway feature for sure. It's not something to be overlooked.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I agree with that. I think the Goodreads piece of it is super, super helpful. Um and again, obviously during the brand marketing phase, I know I keep saying that, but you've already gotten on there. So you're, you know, so you kind of got the lay of the land. Don't try to use Goodreads and do pre-promotion at the same time, because that'll kind of crazy. Exactly. You know. Um, so I I I guess the whole point of the whole point of doing this show is to make all of you all feel seen, right? With your what you when you're saying, oh, I can't do a pre-order, you know, because I don't have um I I I don't have a base, I don't have any followers, nobody knows who I am. Pre-orders, and I'm gonna steal this line, Amy, put it in the show notes because it's fabulous. They aren't about who yells the loudest, but the one who creates most the most curiosity and and pet points. And and I think that's really we see there's so much content right now in social in particular, that's just yelling at us, right? You know, and I think that the content that we resonate with, and not just not just with us here on the show, but I think just as consumers is the stuff where we feel like A, we're not being sold, right? So it's not like a direct, like, hey, I'm just so fabulous, buy all the things, sign up for all the things. But also the content that really feels like it gets me.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I mean? 100%.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I I really recommend, you know, don't feel like you have to do everything, right? Pick two things, um, and uh uh, you know, and and get started on those and and and give it a try. I mean, if you heard something during the show that you feel really kind of like, oh my gosh, I can totally do that. Even if it's just, you know, and not just, but even if it's just putting out some postcards and doing some, you know, doing some local promotion, great, do that. Like if social media isn't your jam and you're like, oh, that just makes, you know, the whole like doing something on video even just makes me want to pass out, fine. You have a lot of you we gave we gave you a lot of options, you have a lot of options. So I I'm so glad that we did the show. I think it it was really, it was an important statement to make. And hopefully, you know, if you have a bunch of books out and you're super famous and you're listening to the show, we're so we're so flattered. But um I think that this is really a great, uh, it's a great opportunity for um everybody to maybe add some, you know, add some more tools to their toolbox when it comes to the pre-order stuff. So uh I want to just remind you all, you can talk to us. We're really excited about this. And we've already gotten some and it's really, really fun. So get on the podcast uh train with us. Text support podcast to 888-402-8940. And I want to just remind you, we are really wanting to get to 100 uh reviews. So uh this year, we have a little bit of time left. We're at 99. Very excited about that. I'm really hoping to get to get to 130 because our listeners are famous. So, thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.
