Novel Marketing

Hardcover books are back. Beautiful, premium, collector-quality editions are gaining momentum with readers who want books that look and feel special. But how do you know if you should create a premium hardcover edition of your book? In this week’s episode , you’ll hear from author Paul Millerd, who created a luxury edition of his bestselling book. We dig into the strategy, psychology, risks, and r...

Authors talk about “the algorithm” the way the little aliens in Toy Story talk about “the claw.” Does the algorithm randomly choose your book, or is someone else controlling the claw? In this week’s episode , you’ll discover what we know about how Amazon decides which books to show, and how to get your book in front of the readers most likely to love it. In this episode, you’ll learn: How Amazon “...

Lately, I’ve been getting swamped with emails from authors asking about Shopify. Many are losing money and wondering what went wrong and how to fix it. Here’s the truth most authors don’t want to hear: Shopify is usually a bad deal for most authors. In  this week’s episode , you’ll learn ✅ Why Shopify sounds so good but often backfires ✅ The math behind why most authors lose money by using it ✅...

Are you wasting money, time, and paper by using the wrong printer? Before you buy your next printer, make sure it has the features every author needs. The wrong setup can cost you hundreds of dollars a year or, worse, stop working altogether when your Wi-Fi service fails. In this week’s episode , you’ll learn: The critical printer features authors need How to cut your paper use (and clutter) in ha...

Audiobooks have been the fastest-growing segment in publishing for a decade, and for many readers, an audiobook signals a real, human-written book. In fact, audiobook sales have recently outpaced ebook sales! Now is the time to get your book on audio. But where do you even begin? In this week’s episode , audiobook consultant Bryan Canter gives us an overview of the entire process of how ACX (Audio...

Many authors make the mistake of writing a book first and then trying to find readers. This is backwards and rarely works. However, if you follow these three steps, your book will be set up for success. Step #1 : Identify your target reader. Step #2 : Start growing an audience of readers like that person. Step #3 : Launch your book. But how do you find your Timothy? How do you grow your audience?...

The faster you write, the more books you can publish and the more money you can make from your writing. We all type slower than we speak, and if you’re typing and creating a story at the same time, you type even slower. But what if you could regularly produce 50 words or more per minute? You’d be able to write a 120,000-word book in a 40-hour work week! Authors who can write that fast all use dict...

Giving away your hard work for free doesn’t seem to make good business sense. So why do authors give away ebooks for free? What if “free” didn’t kill your revenue, but primed it? In this week’s episode , we’ll dig into the permafree strategy with Dale Roberts, author of Secrets of the Permafree Book . You’ll learn: Where permafree works (and where it flops) How to make Amazon price-match a free bo...

So you wrote a good book, but you can’t seem to get reviews. Do you just throw up your hands? Why do reviews and ratings even matter? Well, the more reviews a book has, the better it will sell and the more reviews it will get. Without the social proof of reviews, readers scroll past your book listing, algorithms ignore you, and sales flatline. So, how do you get more book reviews? In this week’s e...

Most authors either avoid AI or use it badly. Let’s fix that. Authors who learn to use AI find that they have more time to write better books. In this week’s episode , Joanna Penn and I break down where to start, which tools are actually worth using, and how to get useful output instead of bland tasteless, voiceless, AI slop. You’ll learn How to prompt ChatGPT like a coworker The best tools for im...

Every author needs editorial feedback. But not all feedback is good. If you accept every edit, you risk losing your voice and writing something bland. If you ignore all edits, you risk writing something sloppy that readers won’t buy. So how do you know which edits to take and which to toss? In this week’s episode , you’ll learn: 7 “Bewares” to help you sort out good and bad editorial suggestions W...

Most writing conferences teach you how to write a better book or how to pursue a literary agent. But what if you have already written a great book and you need help selling it? Is there a conference for you? Yes! Announcing the 2026 Novel Marketing Conference , a live, in-person event focused on helping you market and sell more books. The 2026 conference is packed with innovations you won’t find a...

If you write picture books, chapter books, or middle-grade fiction, you know the challenge: kids read your books, but adults buy them. So how can you let young readers know about your books? Where can you connect with your readers? By meeting them in person in school classrooms! In this week's episode, award-winning author Becca Wierwille shares how school visits became her best book marketin...

What’s up with ruthless heroes and romantasy? And what if the real reason your book isn’t selling has nothing to do with your writing and everything to do with the zeitgeist ? In this week’s Novel Marketing episode, we’re ​featuring an episode of Author Update​ . We unpack the massive cultural shift that's changing what readers crave. From romantasy's domination to the hunger for noble d...

Ever wonder how some authors consistently sell a thousand books a month? What marketing tactics are they using? How can I get those results too? In the latest episode of the Novel Marketing Podcast , I talk with Susan Neal, author of nine books and CEO of the Christian Indie Publishing Association. Susan shares how she layers her marketing efforts—from podcast interviews to press releases—to drive...

Publicity has always been important for authors. Mark Twain promoted his books by writing letters to the paper, and even Agatha Christie, who was known for being very private, still did interviews with prominent newspapers.   Yet some authors think this kind of publicity is old-fashioned. In a world dominated by social media, do we even need traditional PR anymore? If you've ever wondered how...

You’ve optimized your book for AI, updated your website, polished your metadata, maybe even watched our AI Optimization for Authors episode. But how do you know if any of it is working? In this week’s episode, you’ll discover how to measure your AI optimization success. Because the hard truth is that if ChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini doesn’t know your book exists, it won’t recommend it to readers. In th...

Well, this is embarrassing. After 12 years of teaching authors how to build better websites, I realized I’ve never covered the most important page on your site: your book page . Your book’s webpage isn’t just for selling your book anymore. It’s now key to showing up in Google search results and getting recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT. In this week’s episode , you’ll learn: The biggest mistake...

The publishing industry is facing significant challenges. We just went through a major zeitgeist shift, and reader preferences radically changed. AI also showed up in a big way, so it should be no surprise that several traditional publishers are struggling to adapt. What happens to you and your book if your publisher goes bankrupt? How will you know if your publisher is headed that way? In ​this w...

You work hard to create content for your audience. But how do you get more mileage and reach out of each piece you create? One way is to adapt your content for another platform. I recently started adapting my podcast into a YouTube channel. But how do you do that? I learned the hard way how not to do it. To gain traction on YouTube, you have to respect YouTube as a platform. You can't just sh...

Have you been dreaming about publishing a book that actually sells? The hard truth is that most authors fail because they jump straight into writing. They spend months writing a book only to find out later they made a key mistake, and nobody wants to buy the book. I've helped thousands of authors go from blank page to profitable launch, and in this week's episode , I'm giving you th...

Have you ever followed popular marketing advice that worked wonders for someone else but completely fell flat for you? Or have you watched another author succeed with a strategy you were told would never work? That’s because book marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all. In this week’s episode , I talk with USA Today bestselling author Russell Nohelty about Author Ecosystems—a framework that helps you un...

Most authors are thinking about AI the wrong way. AI isn’t really a tool for writing books, but it’s quickly becoming the most powerful tool for selling them. Even if you’re not using LLMs like ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, or Claude, your readers are. In fact, today, readers across the globe asked AI, “What book should I read next?” Did ChatGPT recommend your book? How can you make sure it does? If your...

What if you had a toolbox filled with over 30 expert-level resources to help you sell more books and spend less time marketing? In this week’s episode , I reveal the suite of powerful tools I’ve built to simplify writing and marketing for authors like you. From crafting irresistible blurbs to designing reader magnet covers, optimizing email campaigns, and even generating book launch plans, these t...

Are you leaving money on the table every time you share a link to your book? In this week’s episode , we talk with Jesse Lakes, co-founder of Geniuslink, to explore how universal book links and affiliate marketing can help you reach more readers and earn extra income. You’ll learn: Why Amazon .com links could be costing you sales The tools that make it easy to start earning today (and keep you com...