Why Readers Break Up With Books (and How to Make Yours a Long-Term Relationship)

Want more readers who buy, finish, and recommend your books? It starts with one thing most authors underestimate: keeping the promise your brand makes.

In this episode, we break down the real driver of sustainable author growth—reader trust—and why clear genre signals, accurate positioning, and consistent delivery outperform hype every time.

We begin with expectation alignment: how your cover, subtitle, and book description create an instant promise in a shopper’s mind. When the vibe is off—or the opening pages don’t match the pitch—clicks disappear and reviews quietly signal the disconnect with phrases like “not what I expected.” We show you how to read those reviews as marketing intelligence, spotting language patterns that reveal whether your tone, pacing, tropes, and emotional promise are landing as intended.

From there, we tackle consistency: unified series branding, predictable communication, and an author website that speaks clearly to your ideal reader, not just your aesthetic preferences. We also call out overhyped copy and vague clichés—why words like “unputdownable” often dilute your positioning, and how to replace them with specific, sensory hooks that only fit your book.

You’ll learn how to create a simple Reader Expectation Statement—an internal compass that guides your covers, copy, and content decisions. We also use Amazon ads as a practical gut check: when relevant targets don’t click, the issue is often misaligned packaging, not bad keywords. The fix is usually small and strategic—tightening your first three blurb lines, adjusting your cover to match top comps, or refining subtitle language—rather than a full rebrand.

Throughout, the focus stays on retention. Repeat readers are easier to reach, faster to convert, and the true engine behind word-of-mouth growth. When you treat readers like partners—showing up with clarity, respect, and consistency—you build a brand they trust and return to.

If you’re ready to trade noise for loyalty, and quick hacks for durable growth, this conversation gives you a clear path forward.

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Transcript

Why Reader Relationships Matter

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello and welcome back to the book marketing tips and author success podcast. This is Penny Sansaveri and Amy Cornell. And welcome. We, you know, we're the feedback that we're getting on the way that this that we're unpacking 2026 and the new shows, show ideas, and things like that has just been great. So we want to thank you all so much for that. And I also just want to give a shout out to um uh a new review that we got. This author said that she wrote a a true crime memoir, which I now I'm I'm gonna look it up by the way. So thank you for doing that because Amy and I both really love true crime. And she said she had just been getting scammed by so many so-called marketing companies and found the podcast. And she said she's trying to do her own marketing and handling it on a small budget. And you know, that's why we do the show. That's what we do. The show, obviously, you know, we want everybody to work with us, that would be awesome, but realistically, that's not really possible. So those of you who are bootstrapping it and doing your own thing and just trying to, and you know, trying to find the truth, the truth at the end of the day, um, is also why we're doing the show. So thank you so much for that review. We're doing a little something different today. So this is a Valentine's-centered show. Um, but we really wanted to focus on the relationship that you have with your reader. And maybe it sounds like we've done that before, and I think we this is a core focus of the majority of our episodes is you you gotta appeal to the reader. But the truth of the matter is, is we spend a lot of time as authors thinking about our readers transactionally, when in fact it is a relationship that is important. It's the thing that's gonna make readers are gonna make or break you. And so we thought that it would be a really good time to kind of revisit that and talk about some of the some of the potholes and some of the things that you could you could fix. Um, Amy, I know you're a big fan of this particular topic because this comes up a lot when we talk to authors.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, and I think a lot of it too is because it's so it takes so much work to get a book out, right? For sure. Yeah. It takes a ton of work, and we fully respect that. And so it is, it's like wearing an entirely different hat when you then have to shift to focusing on who your readers are, who are you trying to reach, how are they discovering books, what actually convinces them to click this book versus that book? You know what I mean? It's it's it's a lot going on, but it gets a lot easier to digest and manage when you approach it the right way. And that's kind of our goal is to make this a lot easier to process and comprehend. And so as you go forward with your marketing and your promotion, your positioning and your branding, it's a lot easier to take a step back and think about who is this for? And make really smart, thoughtful decisions based on who you're really trying to reach, because it's amazing how easy it is to start going off on the wrong path with that. And then all of a sudden, like we've talked about many times over, is that you know, once you kind of get off the path, everything you're doing and any money you're spending and any time you're spending doesn't land the way it's supposed to.

Expectation Alignment And Genre Promises

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Right. Yeah, that's that's absolutely true. And I think that, you know, we get a little distracted with all the shiny objects, right? So all the things that we're doing, all of the things that are out there, and oh my gosh, I should do more video, and oh my gosh, do I need a trailer? And we really forget the core of what sells books, and that's the reader. And you know, readers don't fall in love with authors because of one grand gesture, right? They stay because the relationship feels familiar, dependable, and frankly respectful. And you know, here's the thing I there's an author that I read and I love. She writes the Will Trent series and highly recommend this series. It's really fabulous. But whenever I pick up one of her books, I know, and not just like she writes Will Trent, she writes a whole bunch of, I don't know where she finds the time to write all these books, but when I pick up one of her books, I know exactly what I'm gonna get. And when I finish that book, my expectations are met, and I'm gonna read the next book. Now, if she decided to veer off of that path and do something that in a genre that I don't particularly read, like I don't, I don't haven't read a political fiction book in years, right? For just as an example, I would probably be discouraged and I would be, even though I am somewhat of a super fan, I think I would be really hesitant to pick up any of her future books. And that's where you get, that's where you really want to stay faithful, you know, and it's not so much about staying faithful to your genre, although we are going to talk about genre jumping in a minute. But you really have to stay faithful to your readers. So yeah, you write a good book, you all the things, but at the end of the day, the thing that matters is your readers because they can they can make or break your book.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

You know. So um now, according to some publishing and consumer behavior studies, repeat customers uh are five to seven times more likely to purchase again rather than first-time buyers. So and then we talk about this like, you know, and look, we do marketing for a living. We talk about this in marketing all the time. It's much more, it's much it's a much better business model to retain your existing customers because it's also cheaper. And you know, you may say, you know, you're you may debate this and just say, well, you know, look, it if I am um, if I'm spending all this time retaining my existing, let's say five readers that I have, like I'm not building my empire. And we're not saying that necessarily, right? But when you lose a reader, you lose a lot because you could potentially because that reader has connections and they know other people. And like I'm always recommending books just as an example. I'm always recommending books to Amy, right? So I think, Amy, I think you've probably stumbled on books that I I just just the one from Audible, like a week or so ago that I recommended to you, right? Yeah. You may not have stumbled on that book if I hadn't recommended it. And that's the power of that's the power of that reader connection.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Absolutely. Or for what it's worth, even if I did see it, there's so much else out there competing for my attention, for my clicks, for my money. You know, no knock on that book at all, but it's distracting out there. So the difference in the fact that you had already recommended it, I mean, that just skyrockets the chances of me checking out, you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Right, right, exactly. So, so where so Amy, where's a good place to start? I know we've I was gonna say, where's a good place to start with this conversation? I know we've already started this conversation. But what what do you what do we want to tackle first in this? Just because I think that um, you know, thinking about your reader, sending some love to your reader, but more than that, viewing your reader more than just a transaction.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, let's talk about what reader trust is, because I realize that can be kind of an airy-fairy concept when we just throw it around. Like, like make sure they like you, you know what I mean? Like, let's actually talk about what reader trust really is. And this is where it becomes much more specific that you guys can actually latch on to. So basically, four main components I think that we can really kind of dial in on. So expectation alignment. And anybody that's been listening for a while has heard us talk about this before. You know, so genre promises are kept, which means you are where you're supposed to be. You're not selling a cat to a dog person. We've used that before because we heard it at a conference forever ago, and I love it so much. You know, tone matches packaging. This comes to your retail presentation, is what you're presenting what really makes sense for the genre in the readers you are looking to impress. You know what I mean? So we've done shows on your retail page, we've done shows on covers and all that stuff. So this is really a continuation of that, but this is quite literally a trust thing. It's not just a if you want to sell more books, this is if you want to be in this industry a long time, you have to get these things right. And then, you know, again, the book delivers on what the cover and the description suggest. Like this is so important because people want to make easy decisions when it comes to buying books. They want to buy and they will buy what matches what they're expecting to find. And if your book deviates from that in any way, shape, or form, you know, I hate to say it, but you're it's gonna be an uphill battle for you. Because you can't expect them to spend that extra time when they have 10, 15 other books quite literally on that shopping page that Amazon is trying to also get them to check out, that instantly click and go, oh, I I recognize, you know, the tone of this kind of cover. That's those are the kind of books I like to read. Shoppers do that just based on the general vibe of a cover. They will go, oh yes, those are the kind of books I like. I'm gonna click on that one instead. Because in the past, you know, when I've read books like that, and this is all happening in microseconds, right, Penny? This is not like some long drawn-out evaluation that they're doing either.

Amazon Ads As A Reality Check

Consistency, Branding, And Backlist Cohesion

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Right. Yeah, it happens in microseconds. And you know what's really so one of the when you run Amazon ads, Amazon ads is the great equalizer. Amazon ads is a great way to show if your book has a problem or if your book is meeting expectations, because the way that that algorithm is set up with these ads, and you know, people like, oh, Amazon ads is so hard, Amazon ads is so hard, I'm not getting clicks, I'm not getting clicks. And okay, so maybe you picked the wrong keywords. Like, there's a whole lot that goes into that. And I get that. Amazon ads is the great equalizer. I'm telling you right now, if your book is misaligned with the market in any way, your ads are going to tank. And I'm not suggesting that all of y'all go out there and write Amazon ads just to, you know, let Amazon do your homework for you. But what I'm because that is a whole other can of worms. But it's interesting how if if you have a hard time stepping away from your book and like, I love everything that I'm doing, I love my cover. And look, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with loving your because the first person who has to love your book obviously is you. And at the end of the day, I won't publish anything that I don't love, but I never want to fall in love with something so much that I'm blind that I'm blinded to the reality of whether or not this is this is actually gonna work, right? If you can't step away from that, then you want to hire somebody or bring somebody in who can really take a look and evaluate. In fact, we did, oh my gosh, I had so much fun, and I think I'm gonna chat with her in coaching. Amy and I worked on an evaluation for a coaching client, and she is just darling, and I'm not gonna mention her name on the air just because privacy and all that, but one of the things that I really love to deep dive with her was, you know, she was worried about, you know, misalignment with readers and all the things, and and it was really, really, really fun. If you cannot step step away from that, because I get it, right, as an author myself, bring somebody in who can give you a reality check on if they're, you know, if your cover is misaligned, if your book description is misaligned. And here's the thing. And we did a show, I think, a couple weeks ago where we said this isn't about burning everything to the ground. This is about realigning expectations. It may require a new cover. It very likely will require an updated book description, but we're not telling you that burn your entire book to the ground and rewrite it. That's not what this conversation is. This conversation is making smart um shifts, right? And adapting, making smart, you know, adapting your book to the where the market actually is as opposed to where you think it is. I just talked to an author this morning and she has a book, and she said, Yeah, I didn't find out until uh after the book was published that it was actually romantic suspense. Oh and I'm like, and I and I and I and I and and I, you know, and I said and she's and she very, you know, reasonably said, no, I understand that that's a problem. Like I get it. Oh, good. You know what I mean? Like, she wasn't like, I'm just so surprised, and you know, I'm so amazed that everybody said this, and oh my gosh, and yay me, now I have a new genre. She was like, Yeah, I fully I fully understand that that's a problem. Well, that's good. I love that. But your reader should not be the one saying that the book, and you know, a lot of times, I know we're gonna get to that too, but a lot of times when you look at reviews, and this is really hard. I understand sometimes it's not easy to read the reviews of your own book, but your reviews do tell a story. You know?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, absolutely. And I think another one, Penny, since you brought up coaching, another that I love that we've seen an uptick in this recently. We've had a lot more authors contacting us about helping them develop a plan where they can be consistent and get to that next level. Yeah. Because consistency is also really important in terms of building reader trust. Right. You know what I mean? And this is also, and this is a huge one. We've had again, some people come for coaching and say, listen, I've done a few books, or this is where my brand is going, or I'm seeing problems with this. I really would like you to evaluate what I've got going on and how I can be more narrowly focused and consistent to get where I want to get. And I love that so much. And that also goes to when we get cli authors that come to us that have published in the past that have a backlist and none of their books look alike. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's a big problem. None of their retail pages look alike. Everything is just kind of all over the place because while we respect trying different things to try, I mean, we get it, that you're trying to find your path. But once you start figuring things out, you need to keep everything clean too. You know, you don't want to be zigzagging around trying all these different things and then end up with a patchwork brand that doesn't look like it actually belongs to anybody. Because when readers see that, that immediately signals to them that you're disorganized and you don't have your stuff together. And they are not going to be spending money on your book. And we've said this before, but I feel like it's always worth repeating. We say money a lot, but really it's time. You know, books are not super expensive in the big scheme of things for most people, but the amount of time that they are going to be dedicating to your book after they buy it, you know, that's the intention, that is huge. I don't have a ton of free time. I'm very particular about the books I get specifically for that. You know what I mean? So that's something to always keep in the back of your mind. Yes, books are inexpensive. So sometimes when you get frustrated, like, why am I not selling more books? Remember, it's bigger than that. It's about time commitment too. And that's why it's so important to keep this very human element of making sure that you are building a consistent relationship with your readers and your projected readers, because that is more important than you know, the few bucks they're going to spend on your ebook, honestly.

Mining Reviews For Marketing Intelligence

The Problem With Hype And Clichés

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Right, exactly. And I think that it's important to, you know, your reviews are your trust signals, right? So I mentioned that just a minute ago. Um auditing your reviews for to see where, you know, where you're like if you're seeing things like not what I expected, I thought this would be dot dot dot, too slow, too dark, too light, whatever. Trust is built in small, boring moments, right? And lost in one confusing one. So a lot of when it comes to marketing, a lot of it feels like flash and all this. And I'm not to discounting that, but what I'm saying is is that you really have to like the boring stuff, what feels like the boring stuff compared to like I'm just gonna do a TikTok video or I'm gonna do, you know, a book trailer or whatever, right? Or screenplay, like what you know, those, these are the things that matter. And if your goal is to get from A to Z, right, and to do big things and write more books and maybe get that screenplay, you gotta pay attention to this stuff, right? So focus on language. So when you're looking at your reviews, ignore the star ratings, focus on the language patterns, focus on the things that you see over and over again, right? Reviews aren't validation or rejection, but they're marketing intelligence. And I'll tell you right now, it is the greatest use of your time. Again, I understand it's hard to look at your own reviews. Like, why did this person think Baba? Like I had somebody buy my Amazon marketing book because the book they thought the book was gonna be about how to upload, how to load your book onto Amazon or how to find something like that. So you're gonna remember that? You're gonna be people who who don't necessarily pay attention to the book description and buy the book, assuming it's something else, and that's not on you, right? So that's not something that you can control. But if my if I went so and Amy and I both went back to my book description, I said, is there anything in here that feels a little bit misleading? No, okay, well, then apparently this person just thought they were getting something else, right? Market intelligence, your reviews are you were your reviews are gold. You know, absolutely. Um okay, and what where are we where are we at? Where are we at next? We want to talk do we want to talk about overhype and the problem with overhyping and the problem of people overhyping their books? Because I think that to me, I don't know. Does the overhype feel a little disingenuous to you sometimes?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yes, especially when they're 100%.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I mean, you know what I mean? Like when somebody says unput downable, first off, you know, there are very few things that are unput downable. Right. Sorry, you know what I mean? But as much as I love, like I use the Will Trent series in the beginning, like as much as I love the Will Trent series, I can put that, I'm not skipping work to finish reading this book. Like to me, that's that's unbut so I think that we we insert these phrases like best book yet. And I I've evaluated Amazon ads where some of the keywords are where I've gone into dashboards and they're like best book ever. Like, really? Like, are you sure? Like I have a best book ever.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah, and I see this in in descriptions too, where sometimes you know, I just sit there and I think, please get a thesaurus. And now do I sound old? But truly, you know what I mean? It makes such a big difference because if you were discussing your book with somebody, uh, your language would be so different, you know. But I think it gets it's it's too easy to just slap something on a page that you think makes it sound like something that everybody's looking for. But it again, that is where not staying uh tuned into the fact that you are you know connecting with real people gets problematic because that kind of overused, overhyped language, everybody sees through that now, you know?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, you know, if you're if you're so, and this is an honest conversation that you're gonna have to have with yourself. If you're if your book description could apply to a hundred other books, that's a problem. You know what I mean? Like if it if it just sounds so similar to a hundred other other books that you've that that you've got. Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Exactly. And I think the really cliche, you know, this is a friends to lovers, blah, blah, blah. But it's like, okay, can we be more creative with that, please? Because people that are actually looking for books like that are not looking for basic indicators like that anymore. You know what I mean? If that's really the genre they like to read in, or those are the really the kind of storylines that they're drawn to, friends to lovers tropes, like that's awesome. But please don't say that. Like, don't treat people like they're idiots.

unknown 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah, exactly. You know, let's get a little more creative with that, because at this point, again, whatever genre you write in, your readers are more sophisticated than that. And again, there is a lot of competition out there that where authors are really putting a lot of time and attention into making their book stand out. That is the bar, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Defining Your Reader Expectation Statement

SPEAKER_01 21:53

And I think that, you know, I mean, you know, we have so I know we talked about this in the green room about like a reader expectation statement. I think that you need to know what your what your readers are gonna get at the end of the day, right? And and I want to say we talked about this maybe two or three shows ago. And I said, you know, when when somebody picks up one of my books, they're gonna get something that's easy to digest, easy to implement. I'm not, I don't write books where I talk down to people. It's like, okay, we're sitting across the table from each other having coffee, and I'm gonna teach you how to do the things. And that's the kind of vibe that I want all my books to have. So you have to figure out what what are your readers trusting you to deliver, right? And and you know, I mean, and and and um that is that's gonna be different for every one of you listening.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and that's that's where doing your that's where your branding comes in too. You know what I mean? These are the this is what makes you unique. You shouldn't shy away from this, you know. This is something you really want to lean into because it's gonna serve you across the board, you know, just well beyond what we're talking about today in terms of you know, staying tuned into your readers, but it'll direct your marketing decisions, your marketing strategy, you know what I mean, your branding, all of that.

Small Strategic Tweaks Over Reinvention

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, we did this, so you know, putting out when we just first just did this podcast, six, this is their sixth year, which is amazing. When we first did this podcast in 2020, we were just like, you know what, let's get on the air and let's just talk about all the things and everything. And uh, you know, was our first season spot on? I don't think our first season was as good as season three, four, and five and six certainly is gonna be, right? But we really crystallized over time our our what our audience needs through feedback that y'all gave us, frankly. So and we listen to that feedback, right? So my point being is you're not gonna hit it out of the, we are not sitting here telling you you have to hit it out of the park every time because goodness knows I haven't done it with my books. We haven't always done it with the podcast, but we listen to that feedback. We want to see more of this, we want to see less of this. Like y'all have said, you like shows that are 30 minutes. Okay, Amy and I are really focused on that 30-minute window, right? Just to get you in and out information that you need. So I think that's really where you want to listen to your readers. And one of the things, you know, when authors say to me, I want to build super fans, I want to build my fan base, I want to build my newsletter base, but nobody ever contacts me. Well, first off, and we've done shows on this again, have a letter in the back of your book, all the things go back to those shows. We're not gonna go too far down the rabbit hole on this. But if your readers are not reaching out to you, there's probably not a compelling reason for them to do so. Yeah, meaning, right? I mean, you haven't written a book that they necessarily felt really strongly about.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

You know, exactly. I think that's a really important one.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah. Um, what have we missed on this? Because I know I've sort of I know that we have a whole bunch of notes on this because we both have really strong feelings about all the things. And I know I kind of jumped around. What if what have I what do we miss talking about in this show?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Yeah, I mean, I think let's run real quick through the most common ways authors lose reader trust. I know we've kind of peppered those in here. You know, if y'all have been listening, obviously we've brought up like these are problematic, these are problematic, but I think it's a good rundown, you know, because we respect that plenty of you are probably multitasking while listening to this, right, Penny? I mean, I know exactly. We are not, but we expect our our listeners yes. Every time I listen to a podcast, I am multitasking. Oh, for sure. Yeah. A real quick rundown mismatches between promise and experience. And we've done shows on this before, but you really want to make sure, and this is a pretty easy audit to do again if you're being honest with yourself, you know, and this is across the board for your entire brand, but just make sure who you're writing for is represented from start to finish, you know, website, retail pages, covers, descriptions, all those kinds of things. And as Penny mentioned, you, you know, you can't do anything about the reviews that are being left, but are those also giving you the, you know, positive feedback that you're on the right track? You know, I mean, that's a huge one. So that mismatch between promise and experience, do a full check of your brand, just scan everything, like, okay, yes, everything that I'm doing right now speaks to these kinds of readers, and those are who I'm trying to reach. And if you're finding spots where you're questioning whether it works, then work on that. Figure out what you can do to kind of pivot that a little bit, you know? Yeah.

unknown 26:49

Yeah.

Closing, Winter Wishes, And How To Text Us

SPEAKER_00 26:49

The inconsistent branding and messaging. I think that's that's that kind of goes with it. Like I mentioned, your description, your website. This is how you present to the world. Are you using the right color palettes? I mean, you know, if you're doing cozy, but your website's really dark. Like I appreciate if you love those color, like, you know what I mean? But you have to think about your reader too. We've said this on a couple shows even this year. It's not about you, it's about who you're trying to connect with, right? Yeah, exactly. We had one that was a great note where it's like, your brand is not your mood board. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

You Oh my gosh, I love that quote. I would yeah, and I totally grabbed it from you because I wanted to say that on the air. I thought that was so fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yes, and it's true. Your brand is not your mood board, your brand needs to represent who you're trying to reach and connect with. That is really a better way to focus on what you're putting out there. You know, and as Penny said, transactional reader relationships. You want to avoid that at all costs. You don't want to only send out a newsletter when you want them to buy stuff. Don't just post on social media to say, remember, I have a book on Amazon. You know what I mean? Right. Like you don't want to treat readers like numbers. You have to treat them like human beings that are busy, that have a lot of a lot of other options to choose from. Why are they going to choose you? You know what I mean? And this this is our kind of cheeky connection to the whole Valentine's Day thing, right? Like, why should this person keep choosing you?

unknown 28:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

You know, you're not gonna get that by treating them as a sale. You're gonna get that by treating them as a human being that has a lot going on and by presenting your books and your brand to them in a way that feels thoughtful and intentional.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, yeah. That no, that's absolutely true. And I think that we don't spend enough time talking about that, that author-reader relationship as as maybe we should, because we're we spend a lot of time on the flash.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yep, absolutely. And I think go for it. No, no, no, no. I just I just ran my mouth for a while. No.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

No, I think no, you're absolutely right. I think that um if if if there's anything that you can walk away from with this show, is that it's again, it's not about burning everything to the ground. We never want to do shows that where we say, you know what, listen, you just and sometimes uh I mean look, we've been in this industry long enough, we know sometimes sadly it is called for, but you want to avoid doing things like shifting gears all the time, rebranding weekly, like that's not working. And we see this sometimes where authors are kind of scrambling to try and figure out why they're not selling books, and they haven't really gone down the reader rabbit hole to see what their readers actually want, or done some industry research, even just on Amazon, just going through your genre to make sure that your genre matches. Instead, what they do is they opt to like, I'm just gonna change my website, I'm gonna burn everything to the ground, I'm gonna this, I'm gonna do that. More often than not, it's the small, thoughtful, strategic changes that can really change your life. And that's the thing that we really love. And tying in with Valentine's Day, of course, which is I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Your readers are really the root system, right? And so to your point, Penny, a lot of times we see shifting above ground. Like, let's try this now. Let's try this now. When if you don't have the root system really strong and you don't know exactly what's coming from that, then it's really hard to get any of your other marketing branding. Like you can spend money on the wrong ads, like Penny said earlier. You know what I mean? There's so much that suddenly becomes very unruly and unpredictable and probably isn't serving you. So, you know, I love that you mentioned that because truly, like it's not about burning everything to the ground. If anything, just look a little bit deeper and make sure that you're starting from a point that's worth building from, you know? Right. You might you might realize there are some tweaks at that kind of ground level that are actually not really big, but can make big, a big difference in terms of how you then build from that.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Exactly. Exactly. And I think that we we underestimate how much predictable product. How many businesses have been built on predictable product? Yes, Starbucks, McDonald's, like you know, you can say what you will about a lot of these quote unquote institutions, but they've built their entire empire on a root system that was, yes, they can change up their menu. They have different offerings at different times of the year, but their core offerings are always staying the same because they know that if you walk into a Starbucks tomorrow and all they're selling is yogurt, frozen yogurt, you're probably never, you're probably gonna go to a Pete's next time. You're never gonna come back. Exactly. So this isn't just something, this isn't something exclusive for authors. This is a this is just a really, really good um, it's a it's a good business strategy, right? And and that's the other piece of it though, too, is that long-term readers stay long-term because they feel safe investing in your books because they know what they're gonna get. Absolutely. And you know, it's not boring, it's just it's you know, it's the thing that sells books. So we I know that we threw a lot out at you. We wanted to make sure that you had some tangible takeaways from this episode, and we also did a little bit cheeky Valentine's Day theme. So we all hope that you all have a great uh February. I can't believe it's February. January always feels like it lasts 500 weeks. You know what's really funny? I just want to say, y'all, Amy cursed January because in December, Amy said we were talking about I we were doing the holiday season show, I think, and she was like, Yeah, January's just like cold and dark and not festive. And now it's got really cold because we're as we're recording this, like half the country's in the middle of an ice storm. So it's my fault. So yeah, so I so we blame you. Sorry. It's my fault. Not Mother Nature. Well, listen, we hope that y'all are staying warm and safe and all the things. And thank you so much for listening for your show feedback. We always, always, always love your show feedback. Um and just want to remind you that you can text us to get become part of the conversation. So text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. We love reviews. So we just got we mentioned the review at the onset of the show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we want to hear, we we want to know what you think. So thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.