Borrowed Buzz: The Smarter Way to Stay Visible Year-Round

Books aren’t “news” on their own anymore—and repeating “buy my book” is one of the fastest ways to burn out (and lose your audience’s attention).

In this episode, we break down a smarter, more sustainable approach: borrowed buzz—anchoring your marketing to moments people are already paying attention to. Think holidays, awareness months, seasonal shifts, and even quirky observances that give you a natural, timely reason to talk about your book again and again—without sounding repetitive or pushy.

We unpack why this works, including the psychology behind seasonal buying behavior and emotional relevance, and how aligning your message with what’s already on your audience’s radar can dramatically improve engagement and conversion.

Then we get tactical:

• How far in advance to plan for major holidays vs. quick-hit promotions
• When to pitch podcasts, media, and local outlets for maximum traction
• How to build simple, repeatable campaigns around awareness months and niche observances
• Real examples you can adapt immediately—from big cultural moments to offbeat hooks like Maple Syrup Saturday

We also focus on execution—where most authors fall short. You’ll learn how to align your social content, email marketing, and pitch angles around a single theme, where to incorporate seasonal messaging on your Amazon page (and where not to), and how to use AI to brainstorm ideas without losing strategy or control.

Finally, we cover the biggest mistakes—like forcing irrelevant tie-ins or starting too late—and how to avoid them.

If you want your marketing to feel more strategic, more consistent, and a lot less exhausting, this is the playbook.

If you want your marketing to feel more fun, more strategic, and a lot less exhausting, hit play. Subscribe, share this with an author friend, and leave a review wherever you listen to the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Idea

Why Books Are Not News

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, and welcome back to the book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sansvery and Amy Cornell. And I I love the idea for the show part of us, Amy. We talk about this a lot. In fact, when we were in the green room, I said, yeah, this is a show that I think. Other than our Amazon topic, this is a show that I think just internally we've had so many conversations about the benefits of inquiry. You're booked to awareness month, holidays, observances, all the things, right?

Awareness Months As Marketing Anchors

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, because you know, it's it sounds like a bummer, but books really aren't news anymore. You know what I mean? Just announcing is not news. So this is such a great way to stay relevant and stay in front of people in multiple different ways because I know a lot of authors just feel like they're constantly beating their heads heads against the wall saying, How many different ways can I say buy my book, please, or review my book, please? You know? Yeah. And this kind of gives you an easy in and a more natural in to talk about your book more often without being so pushy about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Well, and one of the things when we were, when we were kind of brainstorming at the beginning of the month, when we were brainstorming the shows, we were okay, so we're in women's history month. And do we do a show just on women's history month? And do we do a show just on Black History Month and on Pride Month? And, you know, and and it made more sense just to wrap this into one show because it is something in, you know, like if we're doing a wit a show about women's history on top of Women's History Month, it's too late for y'all to really do anything about that. You know what I mean? It's too, it's too late really to kind of anchor your book to that topic, which is why we kind of stepped back and we looked and said, you know, there's a lot of opportunity out there for authors to grab, you know, a lot of times when we talk about anchoring your book to a holiday, the first thing that comes up is Christmas, right? Or the first thing that comes up is, I don't know, maybe New Year's or Halloween or something like that. But there are so many opportunities. In fact, Amy, you mentioned in text to me, I think, as we were kind of also brainstorming this show. What did you say? Sleep awareness month is this month too? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Which I didn't even know that. I know. And I'm like, we don't talk about this enough. And so it's true. But it's as soon as I found out that it existed, I'm like, yes, I am all about sleep awareness month. We need to talk about how important sleep is. So believe it or not, a lot of these kind of off-the-wall observances and things like that may seem silly or insignificant, but you might be surprised how many people, once you bring it to their attention, go, yes, I'm into that. This is something, you know what I mean, I feel strongly about, or I can get behind that. Or even if it just makes them laugh, that's such an amazing emotional touch point that you've made with that potential reader or buyer, you know?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, exactly. And you're anchoring, so and you're also, there's nothing wrong with grabbing, you know, if your book dials into, you know, Pride Month or it dials into, you know, breast cancer awareness month or whatever. There's nothing wrong with anchoring your book to that. But the issue is also that everybody else is similar, you know, with similar messages, is doing the same thing. So the idea behind this show is yes, we're gonna obviously the major holidays are kind of the elephant in the room. So those have to be mentioned. But, you know, um, these quirky sometimes, you know, I mean, Sleep Awareness Month is not a quirky observance, but sometimes like peanut butter and jelly day, just as an example, right? Sometimes these fun little quirky observances, uh industry weeks, even, right? Things like that, those are anchors that you can potentially use to promote your book. As you said, Amy, there are only so many ways to say buy my book, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

But these gives you all sorts of excuses to talk to people.

Timely Messaging That Converts

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Well, but the other piece of it though, too, is is that it's much easier to get inter to get people interested in something that they're already interested in. Right. So if you, you know, people are thinking about you know, whatever is coming up, right? So, and we're recording this ahead of tax day, which of course everybody hates unless you're getting a refund. Right. Then you love it. And then you probably already filed and maybe even spent your refund. Good for you. But um it's also, you know, it's a great, and I I find that people don't actually use tax day enough for a whole bunch of different reasons. I mean, and just as an example, right? So that's not necessarily an observance, right? More like a dread for some for a lot of people, you know what I mean? Sure. One of the one of the things that I think is important um is that you do have to plan ahead for these. So that's something else that we're gonna talk about. And interestingly enough, of course, I've come prepared with my nerd statistics because I love these. According to a consumer trend research, 55 to 65% of shoppers say they are more likely to buy when the messaging feels timely or seasonal. So that's where, you know, anchoring yourself to something that is current, right? Um, and you know, an observance, whether it's, you know, fun or informative or quirky or whatever it is, can really create a better plat, you know, a better um place for you to promote your being another opportunity for you to promote your book and also potentially even create kind of a giftable moment other than the holiday season where we're all trying to get into that giftable moment. You know what I mean? Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yes. And just, yeah, the psychology behind, because we talk about it on so many other shows with other strategies, Penny, where we're talking about how you have to make that emotional connection with the reader, right? They need to be invested in you, your work, your brand. I mean, that's how you build readership that comes back. So, especially for anybody listening that plans to release multiple books, it's surprisingly effective when you start using these anchors in your content, in your pitching, in how you present yourself to the world because it makes you more human. There are those additional psychological points where people go, oh, that's you know what I mean? It's it's it really is more, it adds more depth to your brand in so many ways. And again, like we've talked about, like 1%, right? So all these little additional anchors that you make improve your brand impression in little ways, but they add up.

Lead Times And Planning Ahead

SPEAKER_01 6:46

They really do. That it's very, it's very cumulative. Um, so let's talk a little bit about the timeline, because I alluded to this earlier that you've got to start well ahead of time. So obviously for major holidays, Christmas, you know, Mother's Day, things like that. I mean, there's a reason that the term Christmas in July exists, because if you're planning to target the Christmas market, you'd better get skippy in July and start, you know, start planning that out. But I mean these are just, again, these are general rules of thumb, although the Christmas in July is pretty hard and fast, right? Meaning, so I'm not necessarily suggesting that you start your social media campaign about buying for Christmas in July, right? But you want to start planning, you want to start leaning into that holiday, right? Planning what you're gonna be doing, you know, things like that. And the other thing to think about too is that, and you know, Amy and I have this discussion every year right after Christmas. It bums me out when I walk into a store, right? Like it could be December 26th, right? And all the Valentine's Day stuff is gonna. I'm like, people, what is wrong? You know what I mean? And even sometimes it'll sneak in before Christmas is even hit, right? I'm just like, can you just let it like, can you just give it a minute? So, but the reason that I mentioned that is because we take note from retailers, right? So if you are waiting until the awareness day or the holiday or whatever it is hits, so if you're where if you're waiting until you know Mother's Day to start pitching your Mother's Day topic, even the day before, you are already too late. You know, so when you think about like when retail starts to push this stuff out to us, that's typically what your time that should typically align with with your timing. So, Amy, let's just kind of run through these these timing. So I mentioned, you know, major, obviously the big holidays, Christmas, six to nine months prior, um begin your outreach. I mean, I don't know, you're gonna have to sort of selectively figure out what you're gonna be doing, obviously, because if you're targeting big media, you're gonna have to go after that early, which is where the four to six month prior for targeting comes in. But if you're just planning a social media campaign, and there's nothing wrong with that, just like I'm just doing a social media campaign, then I would say, you know, eight to ten weeks prior. I mean, you could even start it right after Halloween, because apparently Thanksgiving doesn't exist anymore. You know what I mean? So as you start to think about those. But I mean, like awareness months, Amy, I mean, when do we start seeing stuff pop up? Usually what? It's two months prior, right? At least. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

I mean, and it also I think it's worth mentioning that it kind of depends on how you plan on using it, right? Like if you're pitching, yeah. If you're pitching yourself for content, you need to give people time because you know, you never know, the person that you're pitching may not be tracking this holiday or observance necessarily, but you give them a great reason to add content to what they're doing. So you're helping them out by bringing it to their attention and saying, hey, this is what I can do. Let's collaborate, let's make something of this. And that's fabulous. However, if you want to do, and I'm just doing this as an example, if you want to do a limited time discount on your book, for example, Maple Syrup Saturday is on March 21st. So if there's any romance authors out there with a sexy Canadian in their story, what a fun way.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Oh my gosh, that's brilliant. Are you in marketing or what? I love that. What did you say? Maple Syrup Saturday?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Maple Syrup Saturday. It's also Saturday of March. And I'm I'm telling you, anybody with a sexy Canadian, you know, this this is your chance. Like we're right on the cusp. So if you're listening to our show in real time, if not, wait for next year. But what a great time to plan a limited time discount and kind of splash that around on your social and your newsletter, things like that. And when you do limited time discounts, Penny, you don't want to tell people two months in advance because they will never remember, right? Oh, like 10,000%. Yes, that's absolutely. So it really depends on how. So everything that we're telling you, just kind of be strategic about what makes sense based on what you're asking of the recipient, whether that's your audience or the person receiving your pitch or a local news outlet. You know what I mean? And if you're unsure of some dates like that, you know, shameless plug here. You could always do some coaching with Penny. Like if you really want to get into this and plan out, especially if you're a nonfiction author, a lot of times you need longer lead times just based on what you're typically going after. You know, like set down, set out some times, plan it out, and get really smart about when you really need to start this work. Like Penny said, like if you're already waiting for all the holiday stuff to show up in the store and you're trying to get into a like a magazine, you're too late. But if you're doing fun observances like this in a limited time discount promotion, you can do those leading up to the h leading up to the holiday, you know, a few days in advance, a week in advance, remind people once or twice. Like, so just be smart about your timing.

Picking Anchors That Fit

SPEAKER_01 12:00

But like for podcasts, so podcasts, podcasts and local media, I would say eight to twelve weeks in advance. You know what I mean? And podcasts, since they usually, I mean some podcasts I realize more newsy, like the true crime market, those tend to record and release immediately, but a lot of the podcasts don't. So they'll plan ahead. But I would say eight to 12 weeks in advance for podcasts. And you know, it actually, I'll tell you, even if you're planning your social media content, eight to twelve weeks in advance to plan that out so that you're prepared. So you're not doing it the week before is uh is not a bad idea. Um, so I think, and then I I think that the other piece of it is like what makes a good anchor, right? So relevance. And Amy's like maple syrup Saturday, that's kind of a mouthful that I love, but I love it. Maple syrup Saturday. I mean, uh I would really I I think you have to just get really creative with these. You have to get really creative with these. I mean, you may hear Maple Syrup Saturday and think this has nothing to do with my book, but you have a sexy Canadian and you're listening to this podcast and you're like, Amy is brilliant. And first off, yes, you're right, but you have to, so when you think about relevance, you don't want to go too far off the mark, right? But at the same time, these cute little tie-ins are just I mean, they're they're they're they're brilliant and they're and the more unique that you can create, you know, your your tie-in, the more attention that you're gonna get. Because people will like the maple syrup Saturday, again, such a mouthful. That example is so cute and so unique that it would stop me in my traps on Instagram, for example. Right. Right. Because I would think, and honestly, that's actually, I mean, that's shareworthy. That's a shareworthy thing. So yes, relevance is important, but you also, you know, step outside your comfort zone a little bit too, right? Because I think that you want to get uh you want to just spend some time and get you know, get really creative. And and the end, you know, and I know that sometimes we get some feedback from mentioning AI, but this is a really good example of how you can use chat GPT to help you kind of brainstorm. Like pop in a bunch of, you know, pop in a bunch of observances or something and your brand and ask it for ideas and not everything, because sometimes Amy and I have had conversations about this. I'm just like, you know, chat just sounds like it's drunk, but sometimes I mean it might it it at the very least, it's a sounding board that can help you to kind of brainstorm. Don't take everything at face value that it sends, because as we said, not all of it is accurate, and sometimes it's drunk. But it's a great opportunity because getting sometimes getting creative with these observances and things like that gets to be a little bit iffy, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Absolutely. And for what it's worth, just to you know, for anybody that's like, oh, I don't want to use, you know, AI for anything related to my book, this is not that. You know what I mean? True. All of this information exists, it's just all over the internet. So using AI is a great way to say, like, if you give it a handful of themes, topics, you know, concepts in your book, and just say, give me a list of holidays, observances, things like that that align with these, you know, themes, it's just basically crowdsourcing information for you. You know what I mean? This is not one of those situations where AI's writing your book or AI is doing all your branding.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

I'm designing your cover or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Right, exactly. It's literally just saving you some time and giving you things to consider to then whittle that down into things that you actually resonate with and that work for you. Like Penny said, you want to always check their work. But again, it's a huge time saver versus spending a bunch of time searching the internet for all these random lists of different observances and things like that, and then trying to compile what you like, what you don't like. You know, AI is a great way to save yourself some time.

Using AI To Brainstorm Ideas

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, exactly. And speaking of which, Amy, do you want to? So I know we have some lesser-known observances, which are kind of fun since you already took the lead on maple syrup Saturday. Sorry, I need to keep saying that because it's just the coolest thing on the planet. Do you want to do you want to run through some of these? Because these are some of these are really, really, really cool for them for fiction, nonfiction, business leadership, all the things.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yes. So some of the fiction ones that are really, I mean, and these are great because they're pretty relevant, you know, like some of these are great for anybody. National Tell a Story Day. Yes. Like that's that is so you could do so many different things with that. Like, that's a great time to do a special release, you know, something like behind-the-scenes content. This is also, again, if you are a seasoned author, and especially if you already have your brand and platform set up to help other authors, that's a great opportunity to pit yourself to do some educational type content for other people. I mean, it again, like Penny already said, think outside the box a little bit. You know, just think about how different people think about this potential holiday and think about all right, what's my best option here?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

But and you have time for that because it's not until April 27th. So awesome.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yes, National Tele Story Day, April 27th. I know, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

And I mean, oh my God, there's just so many.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

We don't have to call all of them out. Certainly we can put them in the show notes, but pick and choose. Um, you know, I'm okay. I just have to go with I really love National Paranormal Day. I think that's sorry. So I love me some UFO stories. Thanks. I love that. I know.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Um, what? Yep. Oh, and I was gonna say National Sisters Day, I am actually an only child, but I have, yeah. I know, but my children are sisters. But I mean, again, just for more examples outside the box, you know, these are obviously great for family sagas, you know, anything with sisters in it. But then there's also this kind of additional tie-in with the gift element, right, Penny? So this isn't just, oh, this is a great book if you have a sister, you know, which there's nothing wrong with that. That's awesome. It still gives you a reason to talk about your book. But then another layer of that, what a great gift to send your sister, you know what I mean? Or what a great gift to give a friend who is close with her sisters. You know what I mean? Like, again, just think of these as multi-layered opportunities, potentially.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Right, exactly. And there's one, you know, so I mentioned tax time. April is stress aware, stress awareness month, which is actually a really, you know, you I mean, you could you could make that actually kind of a really fun tie-in, right? Right. Right. Obviously, you know, financial literacy month in April is kind of a gimme, like, okay, we get it. It ties into right. Um, National Clean Out Your Garage Day for home organization books. I didn't even know that that existed. I know, isn't that funny? Right. But I don't know, there's no particular date on this. So you may have to, if you if this, you know, kind of piques your interest, you may have to. But what do you think about National Creativity Day? I love that, especially because we're all creatives. I know, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And honestly, Penny, I think your national clean out your garage day. I think that could be really cool for anybody that's written a book about like mental clarity, getting your life in order, reducing. Oh, for sure. Like there's so many reasons why getting that, you know, that awful garage project done, that you could you could angle that in so many different ways, you know, for quite a few different topics, actually, and just use that as how great would that feel once that's done? You know what I mean? And I talk about these kind of things in my work, X, Y, and Z. And then you kind of lead into what you specialize. But it's amazing what you can do with these days that seem like super random, but when presented properly, you not only are being creative and being unique in the space, you are giving, especially if you're pitching yourself, you are giving the recipient something interesting and new and different that they probably weren't considering in the first place too. And that is gold.

How To Use Anchors Everywhere

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, exactly. That is that is definitely, that is definitely gold. So in terms of how to get this, so how to work with a strategy like this, all right. So obviously, Amy mentioned, you know, the content alignment with your social media. So that's kind of a given, right? But you may also decide to do like a newsletter theme, which would be fun if you have an active new, you know, if you have a a newsletter. Um you're obviously your, you know, and it kind of also goes without saying that if you're doing any kind of pitching, whether it's influencer pitching or whatever podcast, whatever it is that you're doing, obviously the subject lines reference the observance in some creative, in some creative way. Which again, if if you haven't had any luck with pitching and this has spiked, you know, piqued your interest, that's another opportunity to get out there, you know, anchoring to some kind of an observance. Um Amy, I'm also a huge fan of really aligning your, and and I guess this kind of depends. I was sorry, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. So aligning your Amazon stuff, right? Under this umbrella stuff is, you know, like your ads, your keywords and things like that. I mean, I I think if you're if you're going after peanut butter and jelly day or you're going after maple syrup Saturday or whatever, it's it's kind of like it's a lot of work to do it just for one day.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Right. But I think I mean You're reading my mind. I had peanut butter and jelly day in my mind too, and I'm thinking, do not change your keywords to National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Well, that's right. I mean, that's the thing though, too, is that you do have to be careful with that because people aren't necessarily because it's people aren't necessarily searching on observances or you know what I mean, and they're not observant lookbooks. Searching for books on, you know, Women's History Month or something. Like there may be searching on women's history, but not necessarily Women's History Month. So you want to be, don't get too dicey with your keywords, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Retail Page Tie Ins That Work

SPEAKER_00 22:13

You're totally right. But that does make sense. I mean, I will say keywords are also something too that they don't instantly necessarily, you know what I mean? These are algorithm changes too. So that's another thing to keep in mind. Not everything is just instant on Amazon when she makes when you make updates. So again, like you said, Penny, for the bigger holidays that you are planning months in advance for, especially if they are tied directly into retail shopping behavior that's already established, that's when it makes a lot more sense. Author Central, though, all of that content is a lot easier to update and it pretty much starts taking hold. I mean, granted, you still trigger the algorithm, but you can get those updated pretty quickly too. So that's a fun way to kind of, if you're prepping for something maybe a month or a few weeks in advance, you can have a piece, you can update pieces of that content to align with what you are trying to connect to versus, you know, the from the author section would be a great place to put your message to potential buyers and connect to a specific holiday coming up and why it works. I mean, that's a really strategic, clever way to do that. In fact, we worked with an author. This is not the first time we've worked with her. I love her stuff. And she did a book. I'm just gonna say it, Lana Bailey. I don't know if she's a listener or not, but she did this, she does books about fabulous women. And she did a book about the wicked witch, but literally from, you know, cinema history and how her just the whole idea of the Wicked Witch and how it's been in society. It's it's fabulous. But she was also releasing her book ahead of when the second wicked movie was coming out. Oh, I loved that. I know. Yes. So when we helped her with her retail stuff, we actually gave her a version that she could use that was more evergreen that she could use long term, but we gave her all sorts of different content for her retail page that was specifically tied into that major release happening and that that huge cultural phenomenon that was the wicked movie. You know what I mean? To pull those buyers and those interests, because Amazon was selling all sorts of stuff around that. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. For sure. She had a huge opportunity to pull in additional people that may not be looking for her book, but because they love the movie, would go, oh my gosh, look at this fabulous book about, you know what I mean? Anyway. But so that's the kind of stuff that you really want to think long term about. Like you can have different versions of your retail page content that are appropriate and have them ready for these bigger observances or these bigger cultural movements that you actually have some lead up time into where it really makes sense to make those kind of changes.

Build A Yearlong Anchor Plan

Common Mistakes To Avoid

SPEAKER_01 24:55

And, you know, I also like the idea of doing themed A plus content, you know, modules again, for a singular day, it doesn't really make so much, so much sense, unless obviously it's a big holiday like Christmas or New Year's or something like that. Like I get that alignment. But, you know, I love the idea, I love the tie-in with the wicked. The other piece of it though, too, is that when you are tying into something, pop culture, something, you know, like a big movie release or whatever that is, those tend to have longer tails, right? Those, because like the wicked buildup was for so long ahead of, you know what I mean? And obviously we just got done with the Olympics. So if your book had tied into the Olympics, you could have spent, you know, you could have used the ramp up of the Olympics and then, you know, the entire basically the entire event to, and that would, that's where a you know, change day plus content would totally make sense because you have a little bit more longevity to it. Exactly. You know. So I think that uh so I think, you know, so my recommendation if if you're if you if you this is just like sparked something in you and you think I really want to do this, try to identify three to five anchor moments in the in the year. And like I said, go you could do there used to be, used to be able to search Google for creative holidays. And now I think a lot of a lot of these places charge for that stuff, which I totally understand because it's a lot of work to put these, they're like literally books of all of this information together. But you can do some searches through, you know, Google and through maybe AI and stuff, and just kind of find some anchor moments that you can use throughout the year. Um, and try to get at least three of them. If you can get more, I think that's that's great. Um and you know, just plu you know, plug those into your planning schedule and then start to work backwards. So start to figure out, okay, so for example, if you're doing, we get this question a lot. If you think, you know what, I really want my book to be in a gift guide, for example. And when when when I say gift guide, everybody always thinks about gift guides for Christmas, right? And I get that, super popular, also highly competitive, right? If you're thinking about, okay, not only do I want to pitch my book around XYZ month, but I also want to be at a gift guide, you'd better start that six months or more ahead of time because I'm pretty sure, you know, unless unless that has changed that um, you know, gift guides for December, for example, at the latest they're finalized in August. And that's actually pretty late. So I would recommend if you're wanting to do gift guides for any, whatever it's Mother's Day or whatever it is, Easter. Um because magazines still do quite a bit, quite a few gift guides, both in print and online. So that's something to consider. But I think that you just have to kind of back into, you have to, you have to, you have to plan backwards, right? You have to figure out what you're gonna do and then how much time that you need to prepare for that, and how much, you know, what what does your window look like to get out ahead of it? Because the other piece of it too is that if you're gonna do social media, right, you're gonna have to create posts. Do that early. Don't wait for posts until you get because I don't know about you, but I just don't have that kind of time to and the more rushed I feel, frankly, the less creative I am. You know what I mean? So bank that content, get it done, and just start the planning. And I'm telling you, the great thing about this is that um you can just, I mean, if you're planning out far enough in advance, you don't feel like you're not looking at your marketing thinking, oh, what am I gonna do next? Because you have all these fun little anchor moments throughout the year, you know, to to market to. Um Amy, what what do you want to talk about some of the most common mistakes? I love these actually. Um I know. I I I especially love the second one, but go for it because I I have very strong feelings about all the things.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

So obviously waiting too long, or and I would say, as a general rule, not being strategic about the timing in general. So obviously waiting too long is a problem. But we already talked about the fact that, you know, based on what you're looking to accomplish, figure out your timing based on that. You know, people aren't going to remember a limited time discount for two months, but you're also not going to get, you know, a guest article in a magazine the month before you want it to run. Right. Right. So so be smart about timing and just, you know, use common sense. I think I think y'all have been listening long enough. You've got this, right? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. You want to do the second one? You said you felt strongly.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

I'm sorry. I just feel really strongly. So don't force uh irrelevant tie-ins, right? I mean to stop. I I'm sorry. I don't know how I mean, so I I've had authors over the years who want to anchor their book to something that is that and they'll ask me, they say, well, do you think that I should and it's basically wildly inappropriate. And it's it's not inappropriate like in a rude way, but it's inappropriate, like, I don't even get this. You're like so yeah, just because you liked the maple syrup Saturday doesn't mean that you should use it. I'm just saying, I've repeated maple syrup saturday now 45 times on this podcast. People are uh nobody's turning this off. But it's so true, Penny.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Like just because it occurs yeah, just because it occurs once or twice in your book does not mean that that is a strong enough, you know, through anchor in your book to turn it into an observance. Thank you. You know, exactly. Yes, and it's kind of like for nonfiction, like some of the ideas may sound great, but that if that's not really what your background is in, I'm I'm gonna be totally honest. Like if somebody goes and looks through your platform, looks through your website, looks through your book, and you have no background in what you're trying to pitch yourself for, but you like the idea because it's an upcoming observance that seems like it may reach your people, I appreciate that you want to make things work, but you could end up spending a lot of time and effort for very little response because they're not gonna get it. You know what I mean? And you typically don't have enough time to explain that. You know, if it's not an obvious match in the first couple of seconds that somebody registers what you're giving them, it's it's not working.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Well, but the other piece of it though, too, and and we've had this happen where an author will say, let's say they wrote a romance novel or something, and they say, Well, this is an obvious buy for Mother's Day. Well, but isn't you know what I mean? Because not all like Amy, if I bought you a romance novel, with all due respect to romance writers everywhere, if I bought you a romance novel for Mother's Day, I don't you know what I mean? Like that would that would be that's a that's a that's a that's not a brand match with what Amy reads. Right. So don't necessarily assume, and and I've had authors ask me this before because Mother's Day, you know, for many is kind of an obvious, like, oh my God, that's what I'm gonna anchor on book to. It's not an obvious tie-in. Don't make assumptions. Now, if your book has strong mother themes, right? Um great, but don't overreach these some of these observances. So just make sure that there's some kind of natural relevant, you know, tie-in that people can actually or be smarter about it and say, if your mom is, if your mom likes.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

I mean, you can get a little more wiggle room out of that as long as you're very clear about who your market is, you know, then you can kind of inch into that. But you have to be smart about it. But I agree with you. Like, don't just say just because people buy gifts for Mother's Day and you happen to have a book, like it's a perfect Mother's Day gift. It's like that's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Right, right, exactly. So, um okay, do you want to take the next one? Because now I've just gone on and on and on about forcing irrelevant tie-ins to the point that people have prepared. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

I want to I mean, you already covered this one, not preparing things in advance, but I can't emphasize that enough because we hear from clients and authors all the time how much work marketing can be. And truly, this kind of creative stuff, you're going to be better at it, and it's going to be a lot more enjoyable if you do things in advance. Because then once, like Penny said, once the time comes, you're just posting or you're double checking and everything's already taken care of. And I thought it was very honest. Like to your point, like it's really hard to be creative under duress, you know. So really start thinking about these things in advance because you might think about it first and have an idea. And a couple of days later, you might go, I got it. I know what I'm gonna do. And that's what setting this stuff up in advance really helps you achieve, you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

And I think that, you know, and again, it it to me, this really makes your marketing fun, right? Yes. Because you're not just like, oh, here's my book, and here's my book, and here's my book. You are you're you're anchoring to something, and even things that people like we talked about sleep awareness month or week or whatever that was, I didn't even know that existed. But I it just it's a really great opportunity. There's so much opportunity out there to really grab on to some of these observances and holidays and things like that. So um, and and again, just in closing, I love it when you put yourself in a position where you're not competing, where you're aligning with attention rather than competing for attention. Right. Because we always feel, you know, as authors, we always feel like we are just competing for attention and trying to like, you know, get attention on the shelf space and all this other stuff. Align yourself with something that's already going on. Um and it's it's gonna be, it's gonna feel, it's gonna feel so much easier. And I cannot tell you over the years, how many authors that we have seen get successfully placed or featured or interviewed or whatever using these kinds of alignments. So this is an insider uh trick that I don't know that a lot of people are necessarily talking about, but it's definitely worked for us and it's definitely worked for our authors. And it's worked for authors that I've talked to in met at events and things like that, where they think, you know, anchoring is just amazing. So I agree. Amy, did I miss anything? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

No, I think this was a really exciting episode because we all it's easy to get kind of run down with what do I do next? And this this is a great way to distract yourself in a productive way, right? Give yourself something else to focus on versus spinning your wheels with all the usual things you've been doing. You know, you owe yourself a break, a creative break. Have fun with this. And if you come up with a with a fun idea, please let us know. Yeah. Yeah, I I agree with that.

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SPEAKER_01 36:28

As authors, like we oftentimes get, we, as you said, we get we get kind of a little bit road weary because it's like, oh, we've tried all the things. The more, the more that you can give yourself to focus on, the more new creative that you can give yourself to focus on, the more energy that you continue to infuse in your own marketing as you're as you're going out there and you're knocking on doors and trying to get people's attention. So I hope that this show has been helpful. I want to remind everybody, I usually do this at the start of the show, but I didn't. Um text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. And we get lots of questions. We didn't have time for a question today because I think we traveled a little bit long, but we love questions, show ideas, all the things with a bunch of people that send us messages and things like that all the time. And we love hearing from you. So once again, that's podcast, the word podcast to 888-402-8940. And please leave us a review wherever you listen to the show. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next week. Bye bye.